==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==--~~==-- TALES OF SYMPHONIA For the Nintendo GameCube An FAQ/Walkthrough Copyright 2004 Richard Beast ==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==~~==--==--~~==-- ******************** 1. Table of Contents ******************** CHAPTER ONE: Typical Guide Stuff 1. Table of Contents 2. Introduction 3. Legal Disclaimer 4. Contact Rules CHAPTER TWO: Characters 1. Lloyd Irving 2. Colette Brunel 3. Genis Sage 4. Kratos Aurion 5. Raine Sage 6. Sheena Fujibayashi 7. Presea Combatir 8. Zelos Wilder 9. Regal Bryant CHAPTER THREE: Basics: Read Before Playing 1. Battle System 2. Status Effects 3. Cooking CHAPTER FOUR: Walkthrough (Sylvarant) 1. Iselia 2. Martel Temple 3. Iselia 4. Iselia Forest 5. Dirk's House 6. Iselia 7. Triet 8. Sylvarant Base 9. Triet Ruins 10. Triet 11. Ossa Trail 12. Izoold 13. Palmacosta 14. Hakonesia Peak 15. Palmacosta 16. House of Salvation 17. Palmacosta Ranch 18. Palmacosta 19. House of Salvation 20. Thoda Island 21. Hakonesia Peak 22. Luin 23. Ossa Trail 24. Asgard 25. Balacruf Mausoleum 26. Luin 27. Asgard Ranch 28. Hima 29. Asgard Ranch 30. Hima 31. Tower of Mana 32. Lake Umacy 33. Thoda Island 34. Hima 35. Tower of Salvation 36. Sylvarant Base CHAPTER FIVE: Walkthrough (Tethe'alla) 1. Fooji Mountains 2. Meltokio 3. Tethe'alla Bridge 4. Sybak 5. Tethe'alla Bridge 6. Fooji Mountains 7. Meltokio Sewers 8. Meltokio 9. Gaoracchia Forest 10. Mizuho 11. Ozette 12. Altessa's House 13. Toize Valley Mine 14. Ozette 15. Mizuho 16. Temple of Lightning 17. Tethe'alla Base CHAPTER SIX: Walkthrough (Both Worlds) 1. Dragon Nest 2. Temple of Earth 3. Toize Valley Mine 4. Temple of Earth 5. Altessa's Hut 6. Temple of Earth 7. Temple of Ice 8. Flanoir 9. Temple of Ice 10. Ozette 11. Altessa's House 12. Altamira 13. Otherworldly Gate 14. Palmacosta 15. Remote Island Human Ranch 16. Altamira 17. Triet Ruins 18. Balacruf Mausoleum 19. Triet 20. Temple of Earth 21. Meltokio 22. Temple of Darkness 23. Gaoracchia Forest 24. Altamira 25. Tower of Mana 26. Iselia Ranch CHAPTER SEVEN: Walkthrough (Disc 2) 1. Iselia 2. Altessa's House 3. Sybak 4. Meltokio 5. Altamira 6. Luin 7. Ymir Forest 8. Heimdall 9. Latheon Gorge 10. Meltokio 11. Exire 12. SE Abbey 13. Welgaia 14. Altessa's House 15. Flanoir 16. Hot Springs 17. Tower of Salvation 18. Torent Forest 19. Dirk's House 20. Derris-Kharlan 21. Heimdall 22. Meltokio 23. Exire 24. Mizuho 25. Martel Temple 26. Iselia Forest 27. Sybak 28. Heimdall 29. Niflheim 30. Temple of Darkness 31. Final Touches 32. Vinheim CHAPTER EIGHT: Equipment List 1. Weapons 2. Armor 3. Headgear 4. Armgear 5. Accessories CHAPTER NINE: Tech List 1. Lloyd 2. Genis 3. Colette 4. Kratos/Zelos 5. Raine 6. Sheena 7. Presea 8. Regal CHAPTER TEN: Bestiary/Bosses 1. Enemies 2. Bosses CHAPTER ELEVEN: Goodbyes 1. Version History 2. Credits +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- ``` 1. TYPICAL GUIDE STUFF ``` +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- *************** 2. Introduction *************** It holds to my firm belief that gaming was at a much better state five or ten years ago than it is now, but occasionally there are a few releases that come out and destroy that rule entirely, although most of them coming from certain companies or series's. While Tales of Symphonia does ultimately fall under the rule of coming from certain companies and series' (Namco is one of my all-time favorite gaming companies and the Tales series is plain awesome), it is definitely one of the games that breaks past the rule of gaming being superior in pre-2000 than it is now. The game really presents all the things I like in RPGs: it's one of the funniest games I've ever played, the characters are all deep, unique, and lovable, the battle system is awesome, you can enjoy even the villains, the storyline is dark and full of twists, in battle all characters have unique abilities, there are tons of skills for use... I could go on for a while. And with the release of a sequel sometime in 2005, the Tales series is coming close to topping the Final Fantasy series, as unbelievably as that is (although Final Fantasy X-2 was a disappointment and Final Fantasy XI abandoned those without online capability). My guide for one of my quick all-time favorite games (and my best GameCube game, without any doubt) will be the most detailed bible I can possibly make it. I will not hold anything back in the storyline, but every nook and cranny of the game will be covered immensely. However, it's not recommended to read beyond where you are in the game, or large parts of the game will be spoiled. Having said that, how's about we get it ONNNN?! ~ Richard Beast ******************* 3. Legal Disclaimer ******************* You are NOT permitted to put this FAQ on your site without my permission first. All you have to do is email me or IM me saying you want this FAQ on your site, then you can tell me your site and the chance is high that I'll let you. But if you put this FAQ on your site without my permission I swear you will regret it. If I let you, not ONE word should be changed from this FAQ! NOT ONE! Got it? Good. Also, make sure that no money is involved. If you want this FAQ to be sold on eBay, then just forget about it, man. And don't sell this guide either, or pay people to use it, or you'll be in such big trouble you don't want to think. Another little note is that I will not have this guide hosted on many other web sites besides GameNotOver, GameFAQs, IGN, and Neoseeker. You need full-on permission if it's not one of the four above sites. I am sick of people ripping me off (I have been ripped off three times in the past), so if I don't like your site, I won't let my guide be posted on it. I am sorry, but this is how it has to be. If you ask politely and I like your site, you will definitely have the luck of getting it up there. Thank you very much. **************** 4. Contact Rules **************** First of all, feel free to check out the stuff I've written on GameFAQs. Those include a guide for Mega Man 5, a few other Mega Man games, and tons of random PSX games. Honor to the PSX, yanno? Hopefully, that'll be added with awesome Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Baten Kaitos guides. As you might be able to guess, I'm a large RPG fan and writer. Alright, enough shameless advertisement about me. You can e-mail me if there is a question you wish to ask that hasn't been answered in the guide, but I REALLY don't want to bother answering questions that have already been done, answered, and done again in the guide, if it isn't too much trouble. Feel free to tell me if there's something I've forgotten, however. My e-mail address is richard_power1000 [at] yahoo [dot] com. Except, replace the [at] and spaces with a "@" symbol and the [dot] and spaces with a period; I have to write like that so I don't get a dozen spam bots e-mailing me and getting me viruses. Just be polite in the e-mail, don't talk like "omg wtf rich ur gides r t3h su><0rz & how du i beat vidarr", and don't ask something that's already been answered in the guide, and I'll respond. And don't bother sending things like: "You friggin' idiot. Your guides suck, you suck, and everything about you sucks. DIE DIE DIE!" "BURN IN THE FLAMES OF HELL, YOU STUPID RETARD!!!" "What the hell did you think you were doing writing all that garbage, you piece of crap? "I hope you fall down the stairs and break every bone in your body!" "u su><0rz, eVrYtInG BoUt u sUx, dIe ass!!!!!!1" I will laugh at such e-mails and delete them. So... if you're not just playing a friendly joke on me or something, don't bother with that crap cos I've been through with it too much. Okay, that's enough for that. My AIM name is rbeast288; sorry, I don't have MSN or YIM. The list is closed, but I'll add you if you ask politely via e-mail. I like chatting with people, but try not to overdo it on AIM if I add you to my list. Since I am busy a majority of the time and all. +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- ``` 2. CHARACTERS ``` +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- You do want to know who will be completing the epic journey to save the world, don't you? If you do, read on. If you don't, too bad. ;) *************** 1. Lloyd Irving *************** Age: 17 Gender: Male Height: 5'8" Weapon: Twin Swords HP: High TP: Medium Strength: High Defense: High Magic: Low Speed: High Lloyd is the main character in the game, and I have to say he is one hell of a good hero, to say the least. He's a very determined young man, although he can be somewhat stubborn, wanting to save everything that he possibly can. He lives in a house near Iselia Forest with his stepfather Dirk and a dog named Noishe, traveling to the village of Iselia with Noishe to see his friends Genis, Colette, and Raine, as well as to "study". Lloyd hates studying and never pays attention in Raine's class, and therefore, isn't the brightest. All the same, he's one of the strongest and most dedicated. In battle, Lloyd is probably the best character to control. He doesn't have the highest HP of all the characters, but I'll be darned if he ain't a strong, well-defended, and quick young man. Add to that, his HP is pretty good. While he isn't really that much of a magic user, I guess that that can be understood, being that he isn't an elf. He has some of the most powerful skills in the game, as well as quite the versatile set... starting from his first techs, one is a more normal slash, one is a powerful sword thrust better for ground enemies, one slashes the enemy repetitively with the two blades, one that shoots energy in front of you, and one that hurls through the air slashing. Overall, very good! ***************** 2. Colette Brunel ***************** Age: 16 Gender: Female Height: 5'2" Weapon: Bladed Discs HP: Medium TP: High Strength: Medium Defense: Low Magic: High Speed: Low This girl is the not-so-worthy Chosen of Sylvarant, the one destined to save the world. Nothing against her or anything, because she can be so laughable at times that it's funny, but Colette really doesn't deserve this title. She's a huge klutz, tripping on her own feet about a dozen times during the game, always doing the right thing when even Raine can't get it. While she tends to be very nice, she's also extremely apologetic. Colette is NOT your typical female lead, who are usually healers with very low attacking power but strong magic power. Colette is not that. Instead, she's a powerful character (not so much as Lloyd, Presea, Regal, etc.), who has decent HP, powerful attacking magic of the holy element, and a little curing magic to boot! Colette's abilities such as Angel Feathers and Judgement, of the holy element, are all extremely powerful, since they all hit more than once. However, you should never control Colette in battle unless all you wish to do is use magic. Colette is quite slow to attack, so be quite aware of that while fighting with her. ************* 3. Genis Sage ************* Age: 12 Gender: Male Height: 4'8" Weapon: Kendama HP: Very Low TP: High Strength: Low Defense: Low Magic: High Speed: Medium Genis seems to be an elf, although the party seems to have its doubts about that for reasons I won't reveal here. There's really little to say about Genis, when you put aside his annoying use of the sentence, "But what can we do?". Although you might dislike him (or think he's female, LOL) when you first see him, you will quickly come to love the little guy. He's a black mage, and when he cooks, he heats his stuff with fire to make it hot. Seriously, yeah. As well as that, he's the brother of a teacher and professor, so he's obviously quite intelligent. In battle, I'd have to say Genis is a slow one, but that time is worth it. Many of Genis's spells will hit multiple targets... several times. The amazing Air Thrust, for one example, hits eight-ten times slashing with the power of the wind. Genis's stats aren't, however, that great. He can not do much damage at all when he hits with that puny little thing he calls a weapon, he falls in battle easily, and out of everyone he has the lowest HP. However, he more than makes up for that by running out of combat where he can't be hit, and unleashing very powerful magic, making it look effortless. An excellent battle asset. **************** 4. Kratos Aurion **************** Age: 28 Gender: Male Height: 6'1" Weapon: Sword/Daggers HP: High TP: High Strength: High Defense: High Magic: High Speed: Low Kratos is a mercenary, who is said to fight for money. He is a very mysterious man, always seeming like he knows everything about swordsmanship, which, admittedly, he does. He's extremely powerful, but you can't help but feel something strange about Kratos. He does not speak often, he's not exactly the nicest man in town, and he seems to have a mysterious past behind him. Does he have some secret? Reach around the middle of Disc 1 and then you can find that out... even more revealed in early Disc 2. ;) In the beginning, Kratos will look like a low-level god. All of his stats are high; he has much higher HP than Lloyd, great TP, his attacks are very powerful, he hardly takes any damage, his magic is powerful, and he can use many of Lloyd's, Genis's, and Raine's abilities. As you get a little further, Kratos will seem a bit more normal, being about equal to Lloyd in strength, having less HP, and while having Genis's and Raine's abilities and high TP, Genis and Raine use their abilities a little more. All the same, Kratos is an excellent, all-in-one package until he leaves you... for a reason I can't spoil here, can I? The only problem is that while controlling him, players will be devastated by how slow to attack he is. He doesn't have that problem while auto-controlled though. ************* 5. Raine Sage ************* Age: 23 Gender: Female Height: 5'5" Weapon: Staff HP: Low TP: Very High Strength: Low Defense: Low Magic: High Speed: Medium This platinum-haired female happens to be Genis's older sister, but there's more to talk about in Raine than there is Genis. She has this incredible love for ruins, magitechnology, and anything you don't see every day. She tends to stand there for long periods of time, looking at things and going, "AMAZING!" when she examines a ruin, an artifact, or something. She seems to be abandoned by her mother, though. I don't know how Raine made it through life before Genis was old enough to cook, though, because Raine likes to make spicy cakes. 'Nuff said. Raine is definitely the healer of Tales of Symphonia. While in the beginning, you may not really need her that much, quickly that will change. Raine is a very useful healer, having a very well rounded set of curing spells, and also being able to cast some Light magic. Those include Photon, Ray, and some others you can get if you aren't like me and didn't take her down the T-side. Being able to regularly heal you, use her TP to heal yours, restore your status, improve your stats during battle, AND do some decent damage with her light spells, she can be essential in some battles. ********************* 6. Sheena Fujibayashi ********************* Age: 19 Gender: Female Height: 5'5" Weapon: Cards (LOL) HP: Medium TP: Medium Strength: Medium Defense: Medium Magic: Medium Speed: Very High When we first meet Sheena, we see her as an angry ninja with a bad temper, but also who is really clumsy. She's the first one you'll meet in Tales of Symphonia who does not come from Sylvarant. That's right, she comes from the world of Tethe'alla. And she's on a mission to kill the Chosen of Sylvarant, for reasons in which she just won't reveal. She stays your enemy for several hours into the game, until she finally realizes there are other ways to get around her problems without so much gore, blood, etc. She's also a summoner, but that has haunted her past, somehow... Sheena is definitely one of the best characters to use, excelling in just about every area, although not being extremely good in any... except speed. Sheena punches faster than an angry customer who paid $50.00 at McDonald's. Sheena has decent HP, not as high as Lloyd's or Presea's, but high enough. She isn't as strong as Lloyd, Presea, or Kratos, but she's stronger than Genis or Raine. She's not as powerful magically as Genis or Raine, but she's stronger magically than Lloyd or Regal. ;) She can do jobs faster than any of them, that's for sure. She has pretty good abilities, and also happens to be the only character who can summon... ****************** 7. Presea Combatir ****************** Age: 18 or so but looks 12 Gender: Female Height: 4'6" Weapon: Ax HP: Very High TP: Low Strength: High Defense: High Magic: Low Speed: Medium Haha... I wonder what Namco was thinking, ripping from Klonoa like this. =P Anyway, you may be wondering what's with Presea. She's actually 18 years old, but look at her, standing fifty-four inches tall. Anyway, as for personality, all she does is strive for her own personal comfort and obey orders. She speaks a few words, and much gossip goes on in her town of Ozette about her. I won't spoil it HERE why she's like this, though. You'll just have to play through the game and see. =P You thought Lloyd and Kratos were powerhouses, tanks, or whatever word you wish to use for it? You ain't seen nothing yet... Presea is THE most powerful character in the game, hands-down. Her attacking power very easily enters the 1000s, and can even go past Kratos's, now that's something. In my game, she had the second most defense, only a little bit behind Lloyd. What's more, her HP is VERY high. At times, she can have 500 more HP than Lloyd! And believe it or not, I increased Lloyd's HP with a medical herb to give him about 350 more HP, and he was one level above Presea, and his HP was only _slightly_ above Presea's. Add to that, Presea's techs are nothing short of devastating. *************** 8. Zelos Wilder *************** Age: 22 Gender: Male Height: 5'10" Weapon: Sword/Daggers HP: Medium TP: High Strength: High Defense: High Magic: High Speed: Medium When Kratos leaves, you get Zelos almost directly afterwards, after just escaping a base and climbing down a mountain. Zelos is a complete and totally obsessive girl-loving pervert, the one you just have to see in almost every RPG. Zelos does come to have some depth and emotion beyond his dreams of women (he hits on Raine quite a bit during the course of the game), but that takes a while to show. He happens to be Tethe'alla's Chosen, although he's not nearly as highly regarded as Colette is in Sylvarant. Zelos is ALMOST a clone of Kratos, except he starts with different equipment, looks different, has some small stat differences, and his and Kratos' personalities are antonymous. Apart from that, Zelos has all the abilities Kratos does when he leaves you about a third through the game. He fights a bit quicker than Kratos does, but what's the catch? A much lower HP level; his HP is definitely the lowest out of the physical fighters (Lloyd, Kratos, Presea, Regal, and himself). Zelos is still a great character, but personally I'd prefer to use Kratos. *************** 9. Regal Bryant *************** Age: 33 Gender: Male Height: 6'2" Weapon: Greaves HP: Medium TP: Medium Strength: High Defense: High Magic: Low Speed: Medium This big man is one of many secrets and much depth into his past, and thus he is one of the three more silent characters in the game. He is a wise person, however, and is a very good cook, but he has what he considers a haunted past, as he has committed a murder and shackles his hands as his punishment, as well as going to jail on his own will. He hides a bit of his identity as well, being that he's part of a large company. He also seems to have a strange connection with Presea as well, why is this? Regal, having a connection with Presea, also fights very much like Presea, although I very, very slightly prefer Presea. Whereas Presea has VERY high HP, Regal's falls somewhat short. It's lower than Lloyd; unacceptable for a physical fighter, that is. His attacks are very powerful, but they just aren't Presea quality. His techs, however, are all pretty good, and he has a fairly well rounded bunch. Regal is also slightly faster than Presea, although that doesn't make up for the few shortcomings. He does, however, have a good amount of defense on him, but it doesn't rival Presea's, sadly. He can be great if you build him up a lot, since his techs are awesome. +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- ``` 3. BASICS: READ BEFORE PLAYING ``` +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- **************** 1. Battle System **************** If you've never played an action RPG before (I had played many before this game, so that wasn't really an issue to me), Tales of Symphonia will be a complex game in some ways. If you're an action RPG gamer, there are still some complicated things to explain. You might be a Final Fantasy gamer and thus be used to their turn-based battle systems, but Tales of Symphonia does its battles in an entirely different way. All the battles are fast-paced, real-time fighting action, all reduced to using A to attack, B and the two sticks to use techs, and X to guard against attacks. That's pretty much the simple meat and bones of the battle system, but there is more. Much more. Attacks can be built upon each other, that is, several attacks by one character while the others attack really fast and numerously after that, and then the first attacker does a multi-hit attack and the cycle continues. By executing these kinds of combos, you will gain extra EXP and Grade points. You can't even see how many Grade points you have, but they can be used to purchase privileges at the end of the game, to purchase synthesis materials, and to purchase items called EX Gems (more on those in a moment). All of the characters will have "titles" they gain (three upon level gains from 20 to 40 to 100) and many for taking down optional things. The benefit of them is that they will increase the stat gains for the character upon leveling up. Doing this, in the end you can customize the character's stats in just about any way you think suits them best. More on the stats in the next section of the battle system, about status effects. There are two different "paths" you can build up your characters on: T-Type and S-Type. These types will affect which kinds of techs that the characters use, and overall how they fight in battle. T-Type characters will attack more times for less damage, while S-Type characters will attack less times for more damage. It all comes down to a matter of personal preference and what type suits the character better. I personally had the mages (Genis and Raine) as T-Type, along with Sheena and Zelos, while all the other physical attackers were S-Type. The way to build your characters up along these paths are by use of certain items called "EX Gems". They're found all over the world, so there's no use to buy them with Grade points, as you want to save every single Grade point you collect. Anyway, EX Gems can be equipped on characters for certain extra bonuses or abilities, such as higher HP/TP/Strength or even being able to link certain attacks up. The higher the level of the EX Gem, the better the four abilities you can equip. Does that sound good? Alas, all good things come at a price. The EX Gems all have a certain "type" to them, be they S-Type or T-Type. All the characters will start out as their default type, but let's say you have Lloyd as an S-Type. If you equip three T-Type gems on him, Lloyd will leave the path of the S-Type and start learning T-Type techs. That can be something that you want, or it can be something that makes you throw your GameCube controller down and smash it into pieces. Another problem this can create is that you can only have S-Type techs or T-Type techs on one character, although you can change them. Many techs start out with one kind (for example: one in which Lloyd thrusts his sword into an enemy) and the next techs after those build on them (the S-Type being Lloyd thrusting the sword deep into the enemy and thrusting them forward across the field, and the T-Type being Lloyd following a regular thrust with a wind attack), so if you wanted to switch from one kind to the other, you can forget all your techs of the first type any time you wish. It doesn't take long to learn them back. Yet another flipflopping factor to EX Gems are Compound EX Skills. If you have between two and four EX skills allocated at the same time, you can discover some combinations which result in even stronger effects. The thing is, sometimes the skills themselves won't exactly be too great, so you may have to do some sacrifice to get the best skills. The final thing I need to talk about are Unison Attacks. Around a certain point of the game, Kratos will teach Lloyd how to use 'em, but anyway: a gauge will fill above the character portraits which indicates how close you are to the action. A Unison Attack will start off with an attack by the main character, which is an important note I need to bring up: THE FIRST ATTACK MUST HIT OR THE ATTACK WILL FAIL. That's very important. Anyway, using the A, B, X, and Y buttons, you can unleash a series of character techs, actually the first ones on their manual tech list. You CAN use others by tilting the control stick at the same time, but that's just... confusing. But the main thing is, with certain combinations, you'll get an all-new attack. Most of these are extremely nice, although the best one is by far Prism Stars, which hits about 30 times for 250-300 damage. Here are a few combinations: Lloyd + Genis (Beast + Eruption) = Fiery Beast Lloyd + Colette (Tiger Blade + Pow Hammer) = Pow Blade Lloyd + Raine (Tempest + Photon) = Photon Tempest Lloyd + Kratos (Sonic Thrust + Sonic Thrust) = Cross Thrust Genis + Raine (Ray + any max leveled spell) = Prism Stars And there you have it. ***************** 2. Status Effects ***************** This is not only for discussing those evil things that affect us, but for talking about different character statistics. We aren't all RPG fans, are we? So, here's a hell load of description. HP: Ah, yes. The main meat and bones of it all. This is what will decrease when an enemy attacks you, although you can restore it with Apple Gels. Keep this high, but don't neglect anything else... TP: Another extremely important stat. Techs (strongest attacks in the game) will cost this amount you've got, so you'll have to spare this for when you need it. However, there are Orange Gels to restore this. STRENGTH: This is the amount of damage the character will do upon attacking the enemy. The higher it is, the more damage you will do. DEFENSE: This is the amount of damage the character will take upon being attacked. The higher it is, the less damage you take. INTELLIGENCE: It makes sense in Tales of Symphonia, unlike the original Final Fantasy! Anyway, it indicates how much damage magic spells and Sheena's summons will do. ACCURACY: Probably something that will confuse many people. If this is high, it does NOT mean that you have a higher probability of hitting, but that if the enemy's evasion is low, your attacks will do more damage. Really a pointless stat, though. EVASION: Another thing which will confuse people; evasion does not mean how easily you will avoid enemy attacks, but rather, the higher this is, the less damage an opponent with low accuracy will do to you. Once again, this stat really has no relative use. LUCK: The game's manual says that luck affects many things, but it's something I completely ignore when I play the game. Rest assured, I have not found out just what on earth luck does, so if you know, tell me. Thanks. And of course, there are the usual status effects. However, they're not nearly as bad in Tales of Symphonia as they are in most other games. I got affected with all of them except Poison and Deadly Poison about once or twice in the whole game, so no need to abuse Raine's TP any more than it usually needs to! ;) Oh, and there are minor things such as increase or decrease of attack, defense, and whatnot, but I'm not going to list those. POISON: HP will begin to drop rapidly during the battle. As we all know, poison has always been a nasty thing in RPGs, but this can be easily resolved with a Panacea Bottle or Raine's magic. DEADLY POISON: This is just a stronger (much stronger) version of Poison which begins to make its appearance around the first time you go to Tethe'alla. It's recommended you remove this as quickly as possible if caught in a boss fight, however. PARALYSIS: Being under paralysis, you will not be able to do a thing unless you cure it. Yep, it's just as it says, complete paralysis. Really not that much different from petrify, except petrify is permanent. CURSE: Here's another one you won't see too much, if not getting licked by a Sasquatch, but anyway, some actions will be completely sealed, which is VERY annoying when it's all said and done. Whether it's attacking or techs, it's evil. PETRIFY: If you're under petrification, you can't move a thing, you're just completely paralyzed, except of course, paralysis isn't permanent. Petrification will last until you're healed, imma'fraid. HEAVY: Something you'll probably never see, and I've only seen by equipping a pair of Heavy Boots on Regal... anyway, it's nasty, because you start moving very, veeery slooowly. Almost like hypnotism. Remove the Heavy Boots, and don't even think of putting these on Presea. WEAK: This will heal after battle, and is one of only two that does so... this is a curse which, after you fall below half of your maximum HP, you can't heal yourself above that point. It can get really annoying sometimes, I tell you. ********** 3. Cooking ********** Cooking is an important, but simple precept in which you shouldn't really have any difficulty grasping. Across the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, you'll meet a man in green with a large fork, disguised as items, all over the worlds. That's right, disguised as items. That's why you need to examine everything that you see. Anyway, once you do seem him, the famous Wonder Chef, he'll teach you one of several recipes you can learn, in which have many different effects. First of all, to cook one of your recipes, you'll have to have all the proper ingredients. You can collect them after battle, or you can buy them from various stores in just about every village. Anyway, another point to note is that all the characters have different cooking skill for different recipes. For most of the recipes, Genis, Sheena, and Regal are the good cooks, while Raine and Zelos are bad cooks, altogether. The better you are of a cook, the more effect on you the recipe will have. In addition to that, you can sometimes add extra ingredients if you're a good cook; and with the extra ingredients, you can add extra effects. Such include higher stat increases when you eat, cure of status effects, and/or having higher power when you enter the next battle. Once you do have all the necessary ingredients, hit X on the Cooking menu or after a battle, and there you'll have your recipe eaten and your HP/TP for the characters restored. This is more useful than it sounds, so find the Wonder Chef wherever you can. +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- ``` 4. WALKTHROUGH (SYLVARANT) ``` +++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++---===---+++--- Be prepared to start a revolutionary RPG, one of the best in a long while, and also one that holds its stacks up with the Final Fantasy titles. When ready, open the GameCube cartridge and pop Tales of Symphonia Game Disc 1 in... I will, however, warn you that the game is very deep and this walkthrough contains many, many spoilers. If you don't want to take ANY risks of spoilers whatsoever, check Relle's awesome guide. If you're willing to take chances, then I guarantee you will enjoy my guide... well, yeah, I do. ;) Another note is that I will assume players take my choice and make Lloyd an S-Type character, Genis a T-Type character, Raine a T-Type character, Colette an S-Type character, Kratos an S-Type character (maybe Zelos a T-Type character) Sheena a T-Type character, Presea an S-Type character, and Regal an S-Type character. If you didn't take them down these paths, though, it won't make that much of a difference (except with Genis). ********* 1. Iselia ********* Enemies: --------- Zombie Ghost Lloyd Irving! Wake up! Lloyd! Professor Raine, that is... callin' out to our main hero, who has fallen asleep, standing up, while listening to Professor Raine giving lectures about history. Okay, now how on earth does someone do that? Anyway... Lloyd wakes up, and now you have to listen to some things you probably won't really understand. A hero named Mithos formed a pact with Martel and regenerated the world; the Chosen goes on a journey to regenerate the world and to seal away the Desians who cause people to suffer... okay, the first makes sense, the second one doesn't. ;) After Genis and Colette answer Raine's questions with ease, a light will flash up as Lloyd tries to sleep some more (...). Raine believes that's an oracle, calling the Chosen (that is, Colette). Raine goes outside and tells you to study by yourself, but as someone in the room says, "Telling us to study by ourselves is like telling us to go play." Now, do I really need to tell you where to go next? Follow Raine! Of course, you'll be stopped by Genis, but give him the choice of "It's research". That makes your compatibility with him go up. Hearing that you're going to the temple, Colette offers to go along too. After the three are gathered, examine the hole at the top of the room on the right. Colette was apparently mopping and then fell down and broke the wall at the same time. Tell me, how on earth is that possible? See that small scene, and you'll get a title for her called "Klutz". Change it for the time being, as it gives better stat gains at level ups than Fledgling Chosen. After that, get near the exit and hit Z for a skit between the three, talking about what the temple will be like. Eh well, leave the classroom. Guess what? The Desians (the big, bad, evil guys!) supposedly broke a treaty with the Iselian people, saying that there would be no aggression between them. Of course, this thing goes very deep, but will I spoil information about this now? No sir, I won't. Talk to Colette's father (Frank) and then take the path up to be stopped by a monster. Alright, a chance to get used to the battle system. Lloyd has 320 HP or so, Genis has about 160, Colette has about 180. It should be a nearly effortless fight, with Lloyd smashing forward with the A button while Colette may try to get off an attack and Genis a Fireball. After that, another Zombie will attack you, this time accompanied by a Ghost. Let Genis and Colette handle the Ghost, you hit the R button and go for the Zombie. After that little fight is over and Colette and Genis praise/make jokes about Lloyd's sword skill, head north to leave Iselia and start for the temple. I recommend leveling Colette to 2-3, so you can get used to the battle system and she'll be a little better in battle. You may want to head south in Iselia to buy Apple Gels and Life Bottles, since if you're a battle novice you'll be using them like crazy. Once you're ready, leave Iselia and follow the path to find a temple to your left. **************** 2. Martel Temple **************** Enemies: --------- Zombie Ghost Slime Spider Golem Vidarr (Boss) I recommend Lloyd being Lv. 4 and having saved before entering. Lloyd talks with Colette, telling her about how she should be more like the hero Mithos. After that, a priest will leave the church, telling them some more about the Desians breaking the rules. Unfortunately though, he passes away. Choose to accompany Colette inside, or you're affection with Genis and Colette will go down. At the top, a man who seems to be in charge (Botta) is ordering a woman to give them the Chosen, although the woman refuses. How coincidental, Botta has the same name as my friend's dog. Colette then appears, and Lloyd threatens to fight them. Obviously, he does. If you didn't fight too many battles, this will be the toughest fight yet, but if you did, it should be simple. Having done that, a really, really big man steps in and tries to stop you from getting in the way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: VIDARR || HP: 4000 || Drop: Life Bottle || EXP: 115 || GALD: 25 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 4), Genis (Lv. 3), Colette (Lv. 3), Kratos (Lv. 4) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Again, if you're a newbie this fight will seem tough, but if you've fought|| || some battles to build Colette up, this will be simple practice. Vidarr's || || attacks are pretty standard, including swinging his mace around and also || || smashing his hammer down at you. No matter how the fight goes, your party || || will soon put down their weapons and comment on how strong he is, until a || || mercenary steps into the action. He's EXTREMELY strong for the time being,|| || doing about 20 more damage a hit than Lloyd and packing at least 450 HP. || || With him, it should be simple. Continue hitting Vidarr with a series of || || Demon Fangs, Fireballs, and attacks from Colette and Kratos, and it's || || over. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apparently, Botta knows the mercenary, but we'll find out about that later. As he and his men run away, the old woman (Colette's grandmother) thanks him, and here you get the idea he's a lot like Auron from FFX. He looks down at everyone else and is always giving advice and acting like he knows everything, and has a dark past behind him. He introduces himself as Kratos, after telling Lloyd off and asking him not to come with him and Colette during the Martel Temple trial. I recommend the "Gotcha" response, as it'll make your affection go up with Raine and Kratos himself. Either way, you'll enter, so let's go! Inside, you can head forward, but notice that it is guarded by a barrier of light, although it can be brought down with the Sorcerer's Ring, which is hidden somewhere in this temple. The left path leads to nothing but an enemy and a pile of rubble, and the center path is obviously blocked, so take a right. Fight the enemies on the way; you shouldn't have any problem with them, Lloyd and Kratos slashing them to pieces. Enter the next room, and here we are at the real puzzle. There is a wooden creature to the left that looks small here, but in reality it is big... big... big. However, big doesn't necessarily mean strong. Try not to get hit too much, as it'll do 50-60 damage a hit with those huge arms. Stay near it and use Sonic Thrust, and quickly it'll be reduced to nothing. After it turns into a box, Colette trips over it (how the hell is that possible?) and pushes it into a hole below. Remember: Colette's tripping is blessed with some form of luck. Whenever she trips, she accidentally does the right thing. Same thing here. Stairs lead to the room below, where the boxes fall. To get the Sorcerer's Ring, you have to create a bridge of boxes. Easy enough. Fight the next Golem and turn it into a block, and then push it into the top-center hole. If you want a Panacea Bottle, drop one into the upper-right hole, or if you want a Life Bottle, drop one into the upper-left hole. I personally think both are a waste, however. After you drop the second-block into the upper-center hole, go downstairs and push it one bit further, and BOOM it goes down, and we have a complete bridge! Now head forward and take your Sorcerer's Ring. There are now far more enemies in the Martel Temple now, however. Make sure that you are prepared. The Sorcerer's Ring blasts fire forward now, but it has a dozen upgrades you can get later to make it fire electricity, wind, water, darkness, light, stronger fire, noise, bombs, it can even make you lighter at one point in early Disc 2. However, the Sorcerer's Ring, at least, with the fire, will stun enemies if you don't want to fight battles. After picking it up, take either of the two staircases up to the floor with the nine holes, and then take the left staircase up. Upstairs, head down and you'll find three chests, containing an Apple Gel, a Life Bottle, and 250 Gald. Not bad, is it? Go back downstairs, then head right and take that staircase up. This path is now full of enemies, so be aware and use the Sorcerer's Ring if you have to, although Lloyd and Kratos can easily take on a few measly monsters (whoops, I stole Lloyd's earlier line). Anyway, return to the center of this room, where you originally saw the trap, and fire a bullet of the Sorcerer's Ring at it with the X button, and there we go; we have a path to the altar! Inside, Colette will start praying, and then an angel by the name of Lord Remiel comes down, who is supposedly Colette's real father. An extremely long tower, reaching up WAY into the clouds (you'll see an FMV of this), then appears. After that, Remiel gives Colette directions to the Seal of Fire, where she'll go next, and then he disappears before really giving a clear answer to a question Colette asks. Well, Colette and Genis think that Remiel is her father, though. Anyway, after that scene's over, speak to Kratos and then he and Colette will leave. Alright, we won't get them in our party until a little later, unfortunately. Take the same teleport. Kratos and Colette are gone... but Raine had permission to see the temple! Unfortunately, Lloyd and Genis broke the rules, so punishment must be made, eh? Raine grabs Genis, and Lloyd can't watch -- he closes his eyes -- BANG, BANG, Genis gets spanked in the ass, like a mom spanks their child! Hahaha! A very classic scene, continuing as Lloyd tries to avoid his punishment, but can't as he gets kicked. Raine scolds them some more, and then leaves. Heh heh... you just have to love Raine. However, it's time to leave the temple. Just exit normally and go downstairs, and take the path back to Iselia. ********* 3. Iselia ********* Enemies: --------- N/A Not much to do here. Head to Colette's house, at the very northeast of the village. Inside, Kratos will refuse to take Lloyd and Genis on the trip, and then they get thrown out by the mayor. Colette, however, sympathizes with them and we find out that Lloyd forgot to make Colette's birthday present. =P Head north after a talk with Colette and enter the school, and speak with Raine. She's doing something that's somewhat silly; "saying goodbye" to her classroom. You'll now get a new title for Genis, which I recommend you put on. After that, head west and into the shop. Buy some Apple Gels, Life Bottles, Magic Lens, and Orange Gels. Don't bother with any of the equipment at the store, since you already have it. Head a bit south and up the stairs on the left, and Genis will give you an explanation on cooking, as well as get some ingredients. Genis will want to go with you to a Desian ranch to see a friend of his, and Lloyd needs to pass the Iselia Forest to go home to his father's house. Head down to be interrupted by a short scene; Lloyd's dog Noishe is lonely and misses Lloyd, so he wandered into the village. The guards will warn Lloyd NOT to go to the ranch, so you know Lloyd's gonna break the rules. Leave the village now. **************** 4. Iselia Forest **************** Enemies: --------- Spider Slime Minicoid Rabbit Giant Bee Whip Master The Iselia Forest is just northwest of where you start. Use the compass at the top-left of the screen to find it. When you're inside, Noishe refuses to go forward, being scared of the monsters. Awww... bad dog. =P Eh well, you can't ride him inside the forest anyway. Follow the path forward, fighting all the enemies in your path. All of them are easy, taking only a few slashes and maybe a bit of help from Genis to defeat. When you reach the intersection, take a left and follow the path forward to find a chest with an Apple Gel, then turn around and take a right. Cross the bridge and head up the path until you reach another intersection. Genis says that his friend is in the left path. Also, a funny note is that if you run around enough, a skit comes up where Lloyd thinks that Genis's friend is a dog... haha. When you're ready, save and take a left to find a large ranch, with Desians whipping people, ordering to push a bunch of blocks forward. Take a left and get near the window there, and Genis will speak a bit with his friend Marble, who happens to be an old woman. He'll talk a bit about the Tower of Salvation, but Lloyd notices that Marble is wearing an Exsphere without a Key Crest. If you attach an Exsphere without a Key Crest to it, you get sick, says Lloyd, although he's... somewhat wrong, to say the least. The only one who can make a Key Crest is his father Dirk, so agree to Genis and Marble to ask Dirk. Now a truly horrible thing happens. The Desians yell at Marble to get away and start working, and then they prepare to beat her with their whips. Evil good for nothing bastards, just HOW can you force yourself to do that to a poor old lady? Agree to run away, and then take a right and jump up the cliff. Take a right to get an Orange Gel, then jump down and climb up via the path on the left. Lloyd and Genis then agree to let Genis shoot fireballs at the Desians, then Lloyd act as a decoy while Genis runs away quietly. Genis fires, and then Lloyd jumps across the ranch, but Genis trips, so to save him, Lloyd has to fight a couple of Desian Whip Masters. They're absolutely pathetic, just do them in normally and block their attacks if you need to, and the two of them will escape. Forcystus, a man who seems to be in charge of the Iselia human ranch, will wonder how Lloyd could make such jumps as he did... before Lloyd and Genis meet up with each other, worried. After Genis's apologies, the cutscene ends and you can take the path you took earlier to reach the area where the human ranch was. If you want, you can save, but otherwise take the upper path this time to end up on the world map. Now just follow the path forward until you find a small village-looking landmark. That's Dirk's house. *************** 5. Dirk's House *************** Enemies: --------- N/A Cross the tree in front of you and enter the building a little to the right, and Lloyd will talk to Dirk, trying to get out of telling Dirk that he went to the ranch, although Dirk sniffs out that he's lying. After the two of them yell at each other for a while (after Lloyd finds out his mom was killed by Desians) and Dirk is very objective to making Marble's Key Crest, Lloyd runs out angrily to find Colette, Genis, Raine, and Kratos there... what a coincidence. =P There's nothing really to do besides talking to Kratos, who is near Lloyd's mom's burial spot (you'll learn why he's concerned about this death later), and talking to Raine, who makes a joke about how untalented Lloyd is. Pick the top option when Colette asks to talk at the terrace. Colette will talk to Lloyd about her regenerating the world, although it's very clear she's hiding something. She says that she's leaving for the regeneration tomorrow at noon. After the talk, Lloyd will automatically go to bed. When you wake up, head right and down the stairs, and out the door. Go to Lloyd's mom burial spot (the left of the area) and Dirk will talk to Lloyd, AND give him Marble's Key Crest by surprise. I know my dad wouldn't let me, but Dirk allows Lloyd to go with Colette in the world regeneration journey. Genis then runs in, furious. Colette's already gone! She lied to Lloyd! You'll then be brought back to Iselia. ********* 6. Iselia ********* Enemies: --------- Whip Master Exbelua (Boss) Colette is indeed gone... head to the usual spot, to the path on the right and up to the house at the northeast. Talk to Frank and Phaidra while inside, and Lloyd will pick up a letter that Colette wrote, hoping that he lives a good life in the regenerated world and that it'll be too dangerous for him. As Lloyd even mentions, it sounds exactly like a will. Frank is then about to explain something, when GEEZ? What the hell is happening? You'll shortly see, two Desians are burning the wood right off of a house! Run outside, and heal yourself if you want by talking to Frank. Afterwards, get out and run down to hear the Desians laughing, "Hahaha. Burn, burn, burn". They're the same Whip Masters you fought in the ranch; take them out quickly and if you want, head to Raine's school to fight two more Whip Masters to receive an Apple Gel and an Orange Gel. When ready, take the path down to meet Lord Forcystus, a very evil bastard with aqua-colored hair. Lloyd and Genis tell him and the Desians that they attacked the village earlier, but they pay no attention. Getting the feeling they didn't attack it, yet? As Lloyd is getting yelled at, the Desians then make a big green monster do you in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: EXBELUA || HP: 5000 || Drop: Panacea Bottle || EXP: 280 || GALD: 320|| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 6), Genis (Lv. 5) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Going in for a few swipes at Exbelua and then running away is a very bad || || decision, as it will almost always swipe you from right behind you and || || knock you out of the way. Instead, run up to it and press X to block the || || attack. Exbelua will do about 10 damage to you, and then you can swipe it || || three times (150 damage in all), get off a Demon Fang (55 damage), and a || || Sonic Thrust (60 damage). Genis's spells will do about 100 damage apiece, || || so 5000 HP will be almost nothing. Exbelua as an attack where it will grab|| || its head and release dark gas around it, and it can use Impact Hammer to || || smash you for around 60 damage if you aren't guarding, so watch out. My || || advice would just be the guard, get hit, do 280 damage a turn method. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forcystus realizes that Lloyd has an Exsphere, or he'd never defeat this disgusting green thing. As he's about to do something more, Exbelua grabs him from behind and starts speaking to Lloyd and Genis. This green monster was Marble! Yes, that's what an Exsphere does to you... even after Forcystus retreats, the mayor and some other citizens shout at Lloyd to leave. Genis steps in and refuses to stay if Lloyd has to be banished. There's not much to do in Iselia anymore, since it's all burned down. Genis, however, wears the Exsphere that Marble dropped as a memento. Just leave the village to look for Colette. ******** 7. Triet ******** Enemies: --------- Whip Master Triet is south of Iselia; hard to miss since it is completely surrounded by a desert. Head south and eventually, Noishe will come along and stick his tongue out, revealing a note to Lloyd, written by Dirk. You'll now get an explanation about EX Skills, one of the most important features of the game. After that, head south and stop at the House of Salvation on the way. Talk to the traveller on the left. He doesn't know where Colette is, but he'll tell you how to enable Long-Range Mode, that is, riding on Noishe. It's very useful early on in the game, if you find the guideposts. Use the compass to enter the desert, and then Lloyd very shortly starts complaining... it's hot because of Efreet, the Summon Spirit of Fire. Much, much later in the game, you'll fight him, but that's beside the point. Enter the village in the middle, and what? Desians! They're hanging wanted posters all over Triet! Way too serious, if you ask me... Noishe will move over to a pen on the right, being absolutely worn out in the heat. You probably don't have enough Gald, but you can head west and talk to the people, who sell items, weapons, and armor. Also, if you walk through, a guy will stop you and ask for a Beast Hide. If you have one, he'll make you a Hard Leather from a Soft Leather, with the Beast Hide. It's a small improvement, but nothing you should go out of your head over. After you buy some things, you can head north and check out the Katz Exploration Team, but I never relied on them, and the one time I tried and spent 5000 Gald, it was a complete waste of money. Another shop sells you EX Gems for your Grade (which you win or lose after battle, depending on how well you fought), but the price is way too expensive. Head to the next screen and buy some food from the store on the right if you want, but otherwise enter the tent at the end. Speak to the fortune teller, but have 100 Gald handy. He'll then tell you where Colette, Raine, and Kratos are; now head around to the beginning of the town and check out the wanted poster on the right. Genis and Lloyd are convinced that no one will find him with the ugly looking thing it is, and get all cocky... but they're caught off guard by Desians as you try to leave! Bummer... You'll have to fight two more Whip Masters. They should be even easier than they were in Iselia, since you're even stronger than before. Once they're gone, it looks like you're out of the woods, but... WHAT THE HELL?! Lloyd gets hit in the back by lightning and passes out! You'll know who did that later. Two funny looking Desians grab the unconscious boy and prepare to take him away. Genis then begins a trick, begging the Desians to let him go and making a mock scene. The Desians do, however, let him go. Genis then goes forward on Noishe, and we fade to Lloyd... ***************** 8. Sylvarant Base ***************** Enemies: --------- Foot Soldier Raybit Botta (Boss) Lloyd will wake up in a prison cell, overhearing the Desians talking about how he is to be executed. In some unearthly way I will never understand, Lloyd can open the cell door, but can't until the guard is gone. The only way to get the guard out of the way is to hit him with the Sorcerer's Ring, so what else should you do? Wait until he gets near the cell and then fire, and then he'll run away for help. =P Lloyd will now get out of the cell. Take a left and open the cell for a Beast Hide, then open the one on the left for a save point. I was Lv. 7 with 3-4 Apple Gels at the point, but it's not too important. Take a right and then head up, and you'll find a treasure chest containing your equipment! Take another right and you'll have to fight two Desian Foot Soldiers, but let them taste the edge of the Knight's Saber. After they're gone, head to the room at the top and then Lloyd will overhear some more Desians speaking. They will then walk around the room looking for Lloyd, but they can't find him. After that, they'll complain about a door with a special mechanism so that two machines must be on electric panels to open, so they'll automatically fix it and disappear. Although the machines are supposedly dangerous, I can beat the machines (Raybits) without getting hit once. All you have to do is jump over their first bullet and then walk over to them and slash them until they are destroyed, but there's no use fighting them. Examine the device in the middle of the room, and hey, the Sorcerer's Ring changes from light fire to electricity! Nice... head to the left and if you can, shoot the machine with the energy while it's on the panel. If you fail, just stand near it and wait for it to head forward and turn around, so you can shock it. Once that one's done, immediately head right to find the next machine close to the panel. Don't let me down... when both panels turn light-blue, the door opens. Head in there, and you'll find a Raybit ahead of you... if you wish to fight, do that. Past that, there's a Desian Foot Soldier above you and another Raybit ahead of you, but although the Raybits charge at you when you get near them, you can shock them with the Sorcerer's Ring. Do so, and head into the room on the left, which is run by electricity. The doors here only lead to their proper locations when the color on the machine in the center of the room is lined up with the same colored dot. On a side note, take a look at the machine. Know what it is? Why, you're playing it right now; it's a GameCube! Rather interesting. To turn it so it lines up with the dots, shock the pillars on the left with electricity. The top one makes it turn at 180 degrees (that is, turn from up to down or left to right), the middle one makes it turn at 90 degrees (that is, turn from up to right, right to down, down to left), or 45 degrees (turning from right to lower-left, lower-left to down, etc.). To do this whole thing in only two pillar shocks, hit the bottom one and the top one, and the control room at the top is open. That's where we need to go. Enter, and as you might have guessed, it's guarded by Desians. Lloyd will run into the room on the left, thinking he's alone, and then to be cornerned by a mysterious man with blue hair. He's an extremely important storyline character, take that in note. He's also the guy who hit Lloyd with lightning earlier. He and Lloyd have the typical conversation of, "I have no need to introduce myself to someone like you," and "I don't see a need to introduce myself to a moron who doesn't realize how pathetic he is,". He then finds out it's Lloyd after NOT introducing himself, then he leaves and lets Botta finish you off (also, cool, he's of higher rank than Botta). However, Genis, Colette, and Kratos come in to help. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: BOTTA || HP: 4200 || Drop: Poison Charm || EXP: 475 || GALD: 1500 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 7), Genis (Lv. 6), Colette (Lv. 6), Kratos (Lv. 7) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Botta is accompanied by two Desian Foot Soldiers. This is without a doubt || || where a newbie would screw up. AIM FOR THE FOOT SOLDIERS BEFORE YOU AIM AT|| || BOTTA! Seriously, if you go for Botta he'll just be defending against your|| || attacks while the Desians slash you down and you don't have time to heal. || || Use R and lock on to them, taking them out quickly, and then perhaps make || || Colette heal everyone with Apple Gels, as your HP may be faltering a bit. || || Now watch out for Botta's combo attack, and run away if he blocks your || || attacks, or he may prepare a nasty attack. Botta will also go into Over || || Limit mode around the end, so just run away and heal during that period. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a short apology from Raine, and after she takes an Exsphere that Botta dropped, you'll be taken out of this base for good. Alright, now it's time to continue on Colette's journey. Simply head back to Triet, which is located around the middle of the desert. After a small scene, you're taken into the inn. Lloyd will decide to make a Key Crest for Raine's Exsphere, after her very, well... comical episode with wanting to study the Exsphere. Lloyd will go back to his room and make it automatically. When he's done, ignore Kratos who is standing in the middle of the room watching out, and head up the stairs. There are two doors; enter the one on the right. Talk to Colette inside, it's your standard mushy conversation. After she's done talking, leave the room and enter the one on the left, and Lloyd will give Raine the Key Crest. If you want a humorous scene, walk over to Genis and talk to him. If you leave him alone (which raises his compatibility), he calls out to Lloyd in his sleep. Okay, that's just wrong. Choosing to pinch his nose makes the affection go down, but it's also funny. Leave their room and then you'll see Kratos going outside to see Noishe. Follow him and see what he's up to, and watch as he suddenly turns around and nearly stabs Lloyd. While Noishe usually doesn't like strangers, he really seems to like Kratos. After he goes a bit into his past, when he had a pet, Lloyd will go back to bed. Head outside, and talk a bit about the journey, and then buy something if you want. I particularly recommend Ribbons for Raine and Colette. When you're ready, leave Triet. ************** 9. Triet Ruins ************** Enemies: --------- Brown Pot Fire Element Fire Bird Fire Warrior Fake Ktugach (Boss) Ktugachling (Boss) The Triet Ruins are just south and a bit west of Triet. I recommend leveling up a bit, at least until you reach Lv. 9. I'd personally recommend Lv. 10 for the boss, since it can be a very powerful one. The enemies out here are pretty easy, but watch out for the snakes. They can poison you if you let your guard down. Hopefully you have a Panacea Bottle or two handy, since it's quite possibly they can poison you. When you're done building up, head south to Triet Ruins. Inside, Noishe will whine, being scared of the monsters. Attack of a Fire Element! ...Too bad it's a complete joke. If Genis knows Aqua Edge (which he should), the fire will be put out in no time. After it's gone, Kratos will teach Lloyd, Genis, Raine, and Colette a new technique, a defensive one. While it cost 7 TP for my Lloyd at the moment, it's been up to 35 TP before for me, much later. After that, head up and Raine starts going berserk, examining everything she can get her eyes on. After some suspicion from Genis and Kratos, she finds out how to open it AND gets a new title, Archeaological Mania. Colette will place her hand on the stone near the ruins, opening them. Once inside, start by following the path and taking a left. Fight the enemies on the way, since you need the EXP. After they swallow Kratos's sword a bit, continue to the left and when you reach a door on the right, don't take it yet. Blast down the rocks in front of you, and you can take a chest with a Lemon Gel inside. This is a VERY valuable Gel that restores 60% of your HP and can't be purchased for quite some time (until you're on another planet, actually). Conserve it. Enter the room on the right and head over to the left side of the room, fighting the Fire Bird flying around if you want. Light the torch over there and OMG THE FLOOR IS MOVING! Nothing dangerous or exciting, but light every torch you see. Light the torch on the right and get out of this room. Head down and take a right, all the way across the room. There is a treasure chest there, but do NOT OPEN IT. It is NOT a treasure chest, it's a REALLY DIFFICULT enemy. Only magic can harm it, and magic does perhaps 60 damage a hit out of 600 HP. Its attacks are devastating and may add up to 500 damage a turn. That's too much for you. You will return to Sylvarant much later, so that's when you can get your revenge. Head into the room there, and follow the path, fighting the enemy or two in the way. When you find a block, grab it and push it into the hole, and while you're on the block, shoot the torch. OMG A LARGE PIECE OF FLOOR JUST FLEW UP! Walk to the right and onto that piece of floor, and take a left and light the torch there. Now that we've done that, head back to the main path and take a right to get out. In the first room, head through the central passage and take the upper-left path down. Fight the Fire Bird along the way and open the two chests, then push one of the two blocks in this room into the gap on the middle-left. Now, take all three of these awesome chests! A Savory (raises MP by 5%, but don't use it now), a Mumei (new weapon for Lloyd, equip it), and some gald. Take it all! After that, head to the teleport and unlock the sealed save point with a Memory Gem. If you don't have one... well, good luck in the boss fight. Take the teleport, and mana starts gathering. You have to have Colette, so take her in place of Raine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: KTUGACH || HP: 5000 || Drop: Red Quartz || EXP: 628 || GALD: 85 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: KTUGACHLING X2 || HP: 1500 || Drop: N/A || EXP: 60 || GALD: 15 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 10), Genis (Lv. 10), Colette (Lv. 10), Kratos (Lv. 10) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Now this is one of the few bosses in Tales of Symphonia that really offers|| || true challenge. Ktugach is a large lizard-like creature of the fire || || element so you might expect it to be weak against ice/water, which it is. || || If Genis knows Icicle somehow, that's really great, but Aqua Edge will get|| || it done. Disable all of his techs except that, and make sure Kratos is || || there to cure you if needed (as unbelievable as that sounds). For those || || who are opposed to such a strong character healing the party, Colette can || || be a healer instead. Lloyd should be a full-time attacker. || || || || Anyway, aim for the Ktugachlings first. They EXIST to annoy you, and they || || can be quite powerful, but they only have 1500 HP. Make Lloyd and possibly|| || Kratos continuously mash away at one of the unlucky things, while Genis || || Aqua Edges the other to death. After the first is gone, make Lloyd wipe || || the second one out, which should be no hard task. All this time, let your || || HP stay above 500 if you can, and when it goes below 300, make Colette || || throw an Apple Gel immediately. Don't bother with a block/attack method || || with the real boss; pummel him with techs and combos like mad. Put in || || everything you have, including what I've mentioned earlier, and you'll || || likely win. Do please watch out for Ktugach's Eruption spell, however. If || || he uses it, run away as fast as you can. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colette then prays at the altar, and Remiel will appear and grant her some power. She now gets wings and the excellent Angel Feathers ability (perhaps her best skill) but Remiel also notes that it will be difficult from hereon, and she'll have to face pain during the night. Genis doesn't help to that matter, jumping and making Colette flap her wings. The scene is pretty humorous, when Lloyd tells them to stop and the two of them simultaneously coo "Okay". Your HP is now completely restored, fortunately. Teleport back to the previous room and head downstairs, then outside of the room. Take the path on the right to get out of here, and what do you know? Colette gets down on her knees, her face turns white, her lips turn purple, she's in pain. She can't even walk, so they can't get a doctor. Only thing to do is to rest. She recovers very quickly though, although for some reason she won't eat. Talk to Genis and select the bottom option, and then Raine tries to get you to eat her cooking, but just look at her cooking ability from the menu if you don't know what I mean. Two stars out of eight. Speak to Kratos, Raine, and then Colette, and speak to Colette again. She wants to go for a walk, but doesn't want Lloyd to come. Genis laughs at him, with a funny "Haha, you got re-ject-ed" taunt to annoy Lloyd. Colette isn't feeling too good, once again. But before we get details, it skips right to the world map! Heh, one of the game's ingenious ways. Just head north to Triet so we can get a title and buy some stuff. ********* 10. Triet ********* Enemies: --------- N/A Genis gets all excited upon arrival, and then falls down and gets a scratch. Raine runs over and scolds him, and gets the title of "Sisterly Love". Now, you should be able to buy some good items. Sell the Knight's Saber and if you have one, a Poison Charm (I NEVER used one, and they sell for a whooping 2,000 Gald). Buy the Duel Star for Genis, particularly, and rest at the inn to restore your HP and TP. There's nothing left to do here now. Just leave the town and let's get going to the Ossa Trail. ************** 11. Ossa Trail ************** Enemies: --------- Thief Archer Witch Axe Beak Mandragora Bear Clumsy Assassin (Boss) Guardian - Wind (Boss) Sword Dancer 1 (Boss) From Triet, head to the very far east. You may see a light-blue colored building on the way, but ignore that. That was the Sylvarant Base you were imprisoned in earlier, remember? Head further east from there, and you'll see what looks like a path right inside a mountain. That's the Ossa Trail. Enter, and head a little bit north to hear a feminine voice yell "Stop!" all of a sudden. On top of a mountain, you can see a girl with large boobs and a nice-looking outfit, but she demands to know if you're the Chosen of Mana. When Colette admits it, the girl charges forward to kill Colette, to which Colette trips over and pulls a switch, which activates a trapdoor in front of the assassin girl! Being that she's in a bit of a flurry, she doesn't notice it and falls right into the trap. BOOM, followed by three or four characters saying "Uh-oh". This scene is much funnier than I've made it sound, especially being that it's followed by Colette running around apologizing, staring into the hole and hoping that the assassin is alright. Choose the "Leave her alone, she's the enemy" option to raise your affection with Raine and the other one to go up with Colette. After that hilarious scene, head east and up the mountain. The Mandragoras along the way are annoying as hell, but they're not hard, except they send vines across the ground to hit you, so keep an eye out. The other plants aren't dangerous, but bears are. They also come in packs in two, and they pack a bit punch. Watch out and make sure you have Raine and/or Apple Gels handy. Head on up the hill at the right, and continue following the path across. Halfway across, head down. There's a save point there, along with two chests you should pick up. BOO-YAH! Head to the path again and take a right, and now start heading down the path. There are lots of Desians to fight along the path, but they're easy work. Get the chest along the way, and make sure you fight any battle in the way, so you can get to about Lv. 13 for the boss battle and the second continent, when the bosses takes a jump up in strength and HP. Eventually, you'll run into the ninja girl again, as she knocks down a wall. And now, you have to battle her. Just our bad luck... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: CLUMSY ASSASSIN || HP: 1800 || Drop: Holy Bottle || EXP: 200 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: GUARDIAN - WIND || HP: 2000 || Drop: Magic Lens || EXP: 250 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 13), Genis (Lv. 13), Colette (Lv. 13), Kratos (Lv. 13) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || This is a pretty easy fight, being how low the HP of the assassin and her || || guardian are. The assassin is very fast and has the lower HP, so go for || || her first. The block/combo method works very well, especially now that you|| || have (or damn well should have) Tiger Blade and Tempest. Both should do a || || lot of damage. Make sure Colette uses Angel Feathers (300-400 damage), || || Genis uses Aqua Edge, Lloyd uses Sword Rain, Tiger Blade, or Tempest, and || || Kratos does... well, whatever you want. Attacking, casting magic, healing,|| || anything is fine. Guardian - Wind has no weakness, despite its name. Any || || spell, including Wind Blade, works fine on it. Handle it like you did the || || assassin, and you should have no real problems. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a small talk, questioning why that assassin (who's still alive and wanting to eliminate Colette) wanted to kill you, enter the hole that she came out of. Go down the stairs and when you get to an intersection, take a left and open the chest there, then take a right to the next screen. There's a large black skull there, but ignore it for now. It has 8888 HP, very powerful attacks (which may do nearly 1000 damage in all), and we can handle it later. Take the chests in there, and leave the hole and the Ossa Trail. As you leave, Kratos will teach you how to do Unison Attacks. ********** 12. Izoold ********** Enemies: --------- N/A For some nice non-linearity, the game allows you to go north from here to the Asgard region, taking on some really tough enemies and opening the Wind Shrine, with a confusing layout, or heading east and taking on moderate enemies, opening the Water Shrine and being with an easy layout. I would definitely and completely recommend the east path, to Izoold. The battles up north, especially with Cockatrices, can be a pain in the neck. Plus, the Water Shrine is a lot more fun, anyway. In plain view is Izoold, south of the Ossa Trail exit. Head there, and talk to the guy outside the northwestern house. He'll talk about a man named Aifread who's left town to go to his hometown of Luin. Now enter the house and speak with the young girl. If she isn't immature, bossy, and pushy (and as is revealed a lot later in the game, cheap), I don't know who is. YOU DO THIS FOR ME, YOU DO THAT, and very rude... anyway, enough ranting. She's busy thinking about Aifread, who is apparently her boyfriend. Lloyd and Genis tell Lyla that Aifread has left Izoold, to which she gets all excited. Alright, head east across the bridge, and then north. Head south across the bridge to find Lyla yelling at a pilot named Max. He cares about Lyla and doesn't want her to be attacked by monsters, so Lyla yells at Lloyd and his group to take a letter to Aifread. Accept her request, and then Max has no choice but to take you. After Raine and Lloyd settle Genis down, you're in the beautiful Palmacosta, the biggest city in Sylvarant. ************** 13. Palmacosta ************** Enemies: --------- N/A We are now in the second of Sylvarant's four continents, in the not-so-little town of Palmacosta. After a little talk with Max, get off the boat and head west to find several stores. But particularly, I like the customization and weapon shops. From the weapon shop, buy a Rapier. Then in the customization shop, you should be able to purchase a White Silver and a Black Silver for 10 Grade apiece, if you don't have any. After that, customize the three to make a Masamune, one hell of a powerful weapon for Lloyd... for the time being, anyway. Once you're done shopping, head south to find four characters walking forward, Colette colliding with one of them and spilling a potion all over the street. The two guys are idiots, and they're much like your party (the swordsman is like Lloyd, the mage is like Raine, the lead girl is like Colette, and the big guy is like Genis). Since you broke the potion, you have to buy a replacement for it. Oh, phooey... eh, that's life. It's not too expensive; it's only 1000 Gald. But there's a way to get it without buying it. Head east and enter the second building on the right to hear some Desians berating a girl and her mom, who are running a shop and refuse to sell stuff to them for incredibly cheap prices. And thus the two Desians leave, threatening to burn the village. What idiots... after a talk, don't bother buying stuff. Leave the house and take a right, and you'll see a kid talking to a young man and his daughter. That young man is Governor-General Dorr, the leader of Palmacosta. He will then walk into the government building. Talk to one of the guards near the government building, and Kratos will offer to train Lloyd. Accept this, it'll make his opinion on Lloyd go up a lot, although it won't seem that way during the scene, which results in Lloyd's criticism. After that, take a further right and enter the second building there, which happens to be a school Genis could have attended a while ago. Two students will mock Genis, and one threatens to challenge Genis in knowledge. Okay, accept that challenge! But before we do that, enter the second room on the right and talk to the chef. You get an offer to serve everyone in the room, so do that. You'll have to memorize what they need, and perhaps write it down (with abbreviations that you can understand if you write slow like me), and watch where they walk to. When they sit down, ask for food at the table and give it the right amount of food to the right people. Repeat this twice to get 100-500 Gald, a Palma Potion, and the "Turbo Waitress" title for Colette. Niiiiice! Let's continue with the title business. Exit this room and head to the main room. Below the staircase is the Wonder Chef, who will teach you the recipe for an Omelet. Head upstairs, then enter the classroom on the right. Raine will then quiz Genis. What you answer doesn't matter, so don't get pressured about it. After that, head to the next room and then everyone will automatically take the quiz. Lloyd gets an all-new record, 25/400 (LOL), Colette gets 210/400, Kratos gets 380/400, Raine gets a perfect 400/400 (obviously), the challenger gets 398, and Genis will get 396-400. Alright, after some shameless sucking up from almost everyone in the room, Genis gets the title of "Honor Roll". After this fun stuff, exit the room, go downstairs, leave the school, and give the jackasses the Palma Potion, who are going to sell it to "the old geezer from Hakonesia Peak who collects things". Well, the man is a geezer, but that's beside the point. Take a right and go to the first building to the right of the government building, which is actually a church. After the priest and Colette talk, you'll need to find the Book of Regeneration, which Dorr apparently has. Now go over to the government building. Enter to have a humorous cutscene with Dorr, his daughter Kilia, and his servant Neil, when guards are about to attack and Colette's group is thought to be imposters, while the imposters are really those guys we met. Unfortunately though, the imposters already have the book and are going to sell it to the geezer from Hakonesia Peak, so that's where we need to go. Alright, that's all. Head back to those jackasses we met earlier, and take a left to leave Palmacosta. ****************** 14. Hakonesia Peak ****************** Enemies: --------- N/A We now have a full new continent to explore! We've got to do the "Desian business" before we do the "regeneration business", however. First of all, head east, behind the mountains. Around there, you will find an EX Gem Lv. 2. Very nice! Continue on the main path, and head north. Fight any enemies in the way, as you'll get great EXP. None of them are very tough, so long as you have Raine with enough TP to cast Recover if a Grasshopper poisons you. Giant Beetles, however, are pushovers. Once you reach a path in a mountain, very similar looking to the Ossa Trail, enter and head to the hut on the right. This old geezer here, Koton, charges 100,000,000 Gald for a Road Pass... per person! Alright, we can't go paying 500,000,000 Gald to go to Asgard, can we? He does, however, like Raine quite a bit, and makes her a deal. If Raine can get the Spiritua Statue from the House of Salvation, he'll let her look at the Book of Regeneration. As Lloyd later calls him, Koton is an "avaricious old geezer". Just leave the hut. A crowd is gathered outside, talking about a disaster that's happened in Palmacosta. Because Chocolat refused to sell to the Desians, Magnius and his Desian troops are attacking the village. Although you're told not to get into it, Lloyd doesn't listen and decides to go. Alright, it's time to head back to Palmacosta. Don't bother with the House of Salvation along the way, though. That can wait for later. ************** 15. Palmacosta ************** Enemies: --------- Bowman Evil Sorcerer Rest in the inn if you need to, although you shouldn't need to. When ready, head to the far east, near the government building. Chocolat's mother is being hung by Desians! After Lloyd and Colette talk a bit, a really big man with red hair steps in. Alright, this scene is really stupid, but I really like it. Here are the lines. Man: "That's Magnius from the eastern ranch!" (Magnius breaks the man's neck and throws him down). Magnius: "That's LORD Magnius, vermin!" Idiotic, idiotic, idiotic, that's why I like it... as Magnius is about to stab Chocolat's mother, a kid throws rocks at him. He gets mad again and then storms at him, only to be stopped by Lloyd's group. After some more cussing, Colette throws a disc at the rope holding Chocolat's mother, and frees her. Magnius orders the Desians to wipe Lloyd's group out, but it's too bad Lloyd runs forward and shoots off a Demon Fang at Magnius. Although Raine tells him off, Lloyd plans to take all the Desians in Palmacosta out, here and now. Magnius also again acts stupid and orders a Desian sorcerer to use magic at Lloyd, but Genis steps in and uses Guardian to block it and runs away, calling them amateurs. Magnius gets very angry and yells at his own people, and teleports away, leaving Lloyd's group to his pals. Alright, if you ask me this was the stupidest scene we have seen yet. The Desians, however, are complete pushovers. Just let Lloyd, Kratos, Colette, or whomever is in your party to slash them to pieces. You'll then be taken to Chocolat and Cacao's shop, where they'll give you some thanks for the elimination of the Desians and the rescue of Cacao, and Chocolat gets a lecture about her religious beliefs from Colette and Cacao. Alright, that's just about all there is to do in Palmacosta. Now we're going to go to the House of Salvation. However, on the way, stop by Nova's Caravan to the northwest and talk about stuff you probably won't understand, although it is a memoir of the Summon Spirit of Light, Aska, whom we will meet far, far later. Time for the House of Salvation. ********************** 16. House of Salvation ********************** Enemies: --------- N/A Start to get near the House of Salvation, but you're stopped right there by some people from Palmacosta, who will tell you that Dorr wants you to postpone the world regeneration act and go to the human ranch to rescue a certain captive of the Desians: Chocolat! Alright, bastards... although, before we go for the ranch, enter the house itself and you'll see the assassin from earlier! She's praying that she can kill you, though. She introduces herself as Sheena, and Colette will give her a lecture on why praying is good, it's pretty funny. However, she's still the enemy. When she leaves, let's go to the human ranch. ******************** 17. Palmacosta Ranch ******************** Enemies: --------- Bowman Evil Sorcerer Magnius (Boss) When you enter, the very predictable happens: Assistant Governor-General Neil is there, and he'll tell you that Dorr is actually working with the Desians! Alright, seriously, I pity anyone who didn't see this twist coming. You have a choice of going for Magnius at the ranch now, or going for Dorr in Palmacosta. You'll have to do both either way, but I picked Magnius's path first, since I'd been wanting to step on Magnius's face for quite a long time. When you gain control, take a left. Enter the door and head to the upper-left, taking out the attacking Desians on the way. Head up until you see one of those machines that changes your Sorcerer's Ring. Behold, it's now a radar! It makes some treasures visible, but makes enemies invisible, so don't start e-mailing me, telling me that Tales of Symphonia really has random encounters. ;) Take the teleport above the machine, and head up to find a slot to insert three card keys. Better start searching, eh? Head a bit down and take a left. Inside are the ranch's prisoners, oh boy... obviously they're guarded by Desians. They're all easy Bowmen and Spearmen, so eliminate them to free the prisoners, one of which hands you a Blue Key. Niiiice! Now, we start the puzzle. Leave the room and head to the room on the right, to enter a rather large room... take out the Desian here and find the orb on the right. This is not something that we can use or anything, but use the radar and then examine it. Voila, bridge formed! Cross the bridge and head right to find a machine called the Refresher which instantly restores all your HP, TP, and status for no cost whatsoever. COCK-A-DOODLE-DO! You can also buy Apple Gels, Orange Gels, Life Bottles, and Panacea Bottles from it, as an added touch. Take a right to find a square-shaped room with a guard pacing around. Wipe him out, and whaddaya know, he drops the Purple Card! Not too bad, two out of three down, one that's twice as hard as either to go. Head up and use the radar to find a star in midair. Examine all of these that you can possibly find until the end of the ranch; until then they're items. Collect a Life Bottle, and turn off the bridge. Go back to the area where you entered this room, and turn on the radar. Shut down the bridge on the right, believe me. Also, see the stars in the air? Make sure you get all of them! When done, turn the radar on again and drag two assorted crates around the room down to the bottom of the room and push down into the gaps to form a bridge. Once that's done, cross. Examine the next orb to create another bridge, and then head forward and you'll see something a long, long way up. Colette, however, can fly, if you remember correctly. She will grab it, and reveal it to be none other than the Red Card. Now, that wraps it up! Well, almost. We aren't out of the ranch quite yet, unfortunately enough. Return to the room with the door at the top that made you use card keys, and use your radar to go through. We are now in none other than a teleport maze! Now, follow my lead. Be sure to turn your radar on every time you take a path! Left Up Up If you deactivated the bridges, there will be a path leading to a Panacea Bottle. Collect it, and take the teleport in the middle back to the main room. Now, take the teleport that required the three Card Keys, and follow my lead here: Left Left Down Up Up Left Up Left Chocolat is imprisoned here! Let Lloyd, Genis, Colette, Raine, and Kratos kick the Desians out in battle, and then Chocolat offers to lead you to the Desians' control room. Leave the room and then head to the upper path, and if you want, you can take a right to unlock a save point with a Memory Gem, if you have one. We wouldn't want to lose to Magnius now, would we? Save if you wish, and then turn the radar on and take the left teleport to arrive in Magnius's control room. Almost as soon as you arrive, you're surrounded by Desians. Magnius then appears and threatens to turn all the captives into monsters, just like Marble was. Speaking of Marble, he also mentions her to Lloyd, horrifying Chocolat. It turns out that Marble was Chocolat's grandma, killed at the Iselia Ranch! Despite Genis's explanations, Chocolat is captured by Desians and refuses to be rescued by the one who murdered Marble. And thus, she's taken away and we won't see her again for a long, long time. Until the end of Chapter 3 of the walkthrough. You'll have to fight some Desians after that scene. Take them out, but once a single one remains, heal your party with Apple Gels so Magnius doesn't wipe you out immediately afterwards. Then finish that one off and get the typical line from Magnius, "Dammit! How could you idiots allow these inferior beings to defeat you?!" Man, this guy is so stupid... fortunately, though, we get to fight him now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: MAGNIUS || HP: 8500 || Drop: EX Gem Lv. 1 || EXP: 675 || GALD: 1700 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 17), Genis (Lv. 17), Colette (Lv. 16), Kratos (Lv. 17) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Being the idiot he is, Magnius isn't too tough, but remember that he does || || have an axe that he's trying to swing at you with full force. He can do || || perhaps 200 damage with a combo, and his Desian buddies don't exactly help|| || matters. Make sure that Lloyd and Kratos wipe them out quickly, while you || || make Colette use Ray Satellite on the opposite soldier. Genis, on the || || other hand, should stay in the back and use Stalagmite on the soldiers. || || When they are gone, make sure Kratos restores your HP with First Aid and || || Colette tosses out some Apple Gels. || || || || Now for Magnius! He is a complete fire elemental, so seal Genis's || || fireballs as they'll do very little damage. He doesn't have a weakness to || || ice or water, so unless Genis is level 18, just cast Stalagmite. Lloyd's || || Masamune will do at least 100 damage a hit, or around there. If it does 30|| || damage or so, get out of the way and watch out for Magnius's axe swing, or|| || even worse, his Flame Lance or Eruption. Both can take about 350 HP off, || || so make sure you're ready to heal when he does that. Protect Colette and || || Genis so that Angel Feathers (500 damage) and Stalagmite (500 damage) get || || in, and the rest of the battle is child's play. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Magnius whines about how he was defeated and how he was "deceived" by someone, and then he falls to the floor, nearly but not quite dead. Raine then decides to blow up the ranch, despite being told otherwise from Genis. Everyone then evacuates, and we see an interesting scene. Magnius wants to contact Forcystus while he's still alive, and some evil bastard named Rodyle shows up and tells Magnius that he won't allow that. Rodyle is deceived all of the Desians, and he doesn't want Forcystus to realize that. He leaves Magnius to die as a tool. After that's over, you have to go to Palmacosta to settle things with Dorr. Let's do that. ************** 18. Palmacosta ************** Enemies: --------- Kilia (Boss) Now it is time to deal with Dorr... go back to Palmacosta. But before you get there, help yourself for the boss fight and put Raine in your party. Build up until you're Lv. 18, and Colette will get Angel Feathers, and Raine will get Photon! Very useful spells. Now, when you're in the large city near the water, in the south... head east to the usual government building and enter, to find it deserted. Fortunately, though, that includes guards, so the stairs can be taken down. Creep down and listen from behind the boxes. Dorr is speaking to a Desian, negotiating so that if he pays them gald, they give him something to bring his wife back to her original form! When the Desian leaves, Lloyd storms in, and after a small confrontation with Genis, he explains that the ranch is destroyed. Dorr gets very angry about that, now believing that there is no cure. He pulls down a large cloth and reveals his wife: an Exsphere creature, just like Marble was in Iselia. Lloyd very uselessly tries to convince Dorr that she was not the only victim. Dorr hates Lloyd's idea of justice, but Lloyd tries to defend by explaining that Dorr is a jerk who couldn't give up his social status for his wife. After Colette starts to convince Dorr, Kilia thinks otherwise. Here's where something I doubt you expected happens. Kilia creeps behind Dorr and sticks a dagger right through him, and then transforms into a beast! The real Kilia died a long time ago; this is just a Desian replacement, serving the leader of the Five Grand Cardinals, Pronyma! Okay, I think that we all hate this bad, bad girl now, so I think we wanna give her a good ass whoopin'? That's what we gotta do... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: KILIA || HP: 10000 || Drop: Heal Bracelet || EXP: 500 || GALD: 500 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 18), Raine (Lv. 18), Colette (Lv. 18), Kratos (Lv. 18) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || She'll immediately start by using Acid Rain, which decreases your stats. || || Eh well, you won't notice. She has a very high HP count, but she is weak || || to light, so get Raine in here with Photon (1000 damage) and Colette with || || her Angel Feathers (800 damage), and it'll seem like maybe a couple || || thousand HP. Lloyd and Kratos should attack some, but not like you have || || with most previous bosses, since Kilia has powerful tendrils and a || || lightning attack that does around 350 damage. If you get a U. Attack, || || however, Kilia will feel a lot of pain from Sonic Thrust, Photon, Angel || || Feathers, and another Sonic Thrust, making a Cross Thrust... (about 2500 || || damage in total). ;) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As she dies, Kilia unlocks Clara, with her finger. Clara gets free and is about to kill then, but Colette yells at her to stop, and somehow she disappears. Weird. Anyway, a dying Dorr then tells you to save Chocolat and Clara, in any way you can. When you get an option, I think it's much nicer to pick the top one, but that's just me. Lloyd will then take a Pass from him, so you can cross Hakonesia Peak now, but I'd much rather take the path of looking at the Book of Regeneration. ********************** 19. House of Salvation ********************** Enemies: --------- N/A To get to the house of Salvation with a shortcut, talk to the priest in the weapon shop, who wants to be escorted. If you choose yes, you're automatically at the House of Salvation! Inside the house, talk to the priest near the statue in the middle, but they say that it's really a fake made by none another than Dirk, and that the real one was dropped into a geyser on a pilgrimage at Thoda Island. When you get a choice here, "I'll go get it" gets you negative responses from Genis, Raine, and Kratos, so I'd choose "The problem is the geyser". Genis will go all hectic about Lloyd knowing that geysers erupt boiling water, as a bonus. **************** 20. Thoda Island **************** Enemies: --------- Octoslime Starfish Float Dragon Green Roper Water Element Amphrita (Boss) Adulocia (Boss) To get to Thoda Island, first head to the Palmacosta Ranch, but do not enter. Get near the ranch and turn the camera around. See a small little village there? Well, it isn't a village, it's a port. Head there and enter the church (this also serves a House of Salvation), and talk to the girl on the right. You have to pay 200 Gald for a trip to Thoda Island. Aight, you have 200 Gald, right? Now we are to get on the marvelous, large boat that will take us to Thoda Island... oh, it's not a boat, it's a bunch of washtubs (LOL). Raine refuses to get on the washtubs and seems to hate water, but Genis persuades her otherwise. Bad boy, Genis. When you arrive at the island, you'll notice a strange looking stone to the right, and the statue. Let's deal with the statue first. Head up the hill and to the right to find it across the geyser, and here's where Genis casts Icicle on the geyser to freeze it. There is still some boiling water from the ice, so when you skate over, you have to avoid it. Three hits and you're a goner. It's not hard at all to skate over to the statue, and even if you fail (although if you fail your affection with Kratos/Genis/Colette probably goes down), Kratos will go over and get it. Once you have the statue, do not yet leave. Examine the stone tablet on the left, and what do you know, it's an oracle stone! A path now appears that leads right into the Water Shrine. Now that was a lucky stroke of coincidence. As Lloyd and the group are busy gawking about it, none another than Sheena turns up! Sheena silently steps up to them, but Noishe is blocking the way, guarding them so that Sheena cannot get through. She counters by summoning a small puppy-like creature to aggravate Noishe, but by the time that's done, Lloyd and his party are already inside the ruin. That's too bad for Sheena... after another one of her stupid, "You're dead next time we meet!" lines, she disappears. Inside, Lloyd notes that he didn't see Sheena, but damned if Kratos saw her, which he did. He is about to tell us one of his secrets, but he stops mid-sentence. Insert three dots here. The enemies here aren't too hard, especially the Starfish and Float Dragons. You should, however, watch out for the Water Elements. Their Aqua Laser attack is extremely annoying and very frequently knocks you down. But anyway, head up and then take a right down and fight the enemy if you wish. Once you reach the turn, take a right and collect the treasure, then take a left downstairs. There are two paths here, but we want the right one here. Ignore the ring-changing orb to the right, we'll get to that later. Head downstairs and take a right, fighting the enemy and collecting the treasure chests as you go. Speaking of enemies, I like to have Lv. 19 before the boss battle, but that's just me. Head once again downstairs and to the right, beating off the enemy on the way, and once you reach this room here, push the block in the middle of the room to the far right. This will prevent that door from closing down and blocking the way in here. =P Now fight off the next enemy and head up and burn the pot on the right with your Sorcerer's Ring. Okay, leave. Go back to the room with the ring-changing orb, and examine it to turn your ring into a water-squirting device. Very useful. Now head all the way back to that room, and fill the pot you burned a bit back with water. Now that that's done, head all the way back to the room where you got your ring changed YET AGAIN, and change your ring back to fire. Head through the passage on the left this time, and see the torches? Light both of them, and you'll hear a door open. Go out through the passage on the far right of this room (very hard to see, but it's there) and we get a bonus two treasure chests. Whoop-de-doo! Return to the last room and burn the pot on the right (adjacent to the torch on the right) and go back to the ring-changing room, and once again turn your ring into water. Now go back to the room with the pot you just burned, and fill it with water to raise a pedestral with the teleport to the altar itself! Alright, that was an annoying puzzle. Before going to the boss fight, though, I recommend that you save your game on the locked memory seal to the right. And like I mentioned earlier, I like to be Lv. 19. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: ADULOCIA || HP: 10000 || Drop: Mermaid Tear || EXP: 628 || GALD: 765|| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: AMPHRITA X2 || HP: 2300 || Drop: N/A || EXP: 150 || GALD: 200 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 19), Genis (Lv. 19), Colette (Lv. 19), Kratos (Lv. 19) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || It may be because I was slightly higher-leveled than the average person in|| || here (level 19, I got the Lv. 20 titles after this battle) but I didn't || || really think this fight was too tough. As usual, the guardian is "guarded"|| || (how sad) by two smaller creatures. Eliminate them first, making Kratos, || || Genis, and Colette launch an all-out attack on the other one (Lightning, || || Lightning, Angel Feathers). I'd refrain from using Lightning once you have|| || to deal with Adulocia, since it's not really that powerful. || || || || Once Adulocia alone tries to take you on, make Colette and Genis stay out || || of the fight and cast magic. Kratos and Lloyd should pursue as much as || || they can, but watch out when Adulocia prepares a spell, being hit by a || || water laser that does about 250 damage to all in its path is never fun, || || and her Spread attack can easily take off 300 damage to those caught || || inside. Also, her physical attacks are powerful, so every time you finish || || a combo, block her attack, and you'll hardly be taking damage. Honestly, I|| || had much more trouble with Ktugach than I ever had with Adulocia... || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're as high-leveled as I was, enjoy Lloyd's Master Swordsman, Genis's Sorcerer, Colette's Chosen, and Kratos's Magic Swordsman titles. The cutscene up ahead is a bit disappointing, as it's muted. Genis and Lloyd are starting to get suspicious about Remiel, but that's where Raine gets in and goes BOOM on some heads. Alright, I think we know the way out of the dungeon. Back, right, upstairs, left, simple path outside. Outside, examine the stone to create the bridge leading back to dry land, and then as you're walking down, Colette collapses. A lot to deal with, huh... anyway, you have to camp out here. Speak to Colette a little bit (and realize that she's not eating or sleeping), and you'll regain control shortly. Head downstairs and back to the save point and the washtubs, and after Raine complains again, you'll be back at the Thoda dock. Time to go to that old geezer in Hakonesia Peak! ****************** 21. Hakonesia Peak ****************** Enemies: --------- N/A I believe we all know that Hakonesia Peak is northwest of the Palmacosta Ranch, but in case you didn't, that's the location. Enter and talk to Koton in the house on the right, and you'll see where the remaining seals are. If you got the statue but didn't find the water shrine, you'll learn where the water shrine is, and you'll learn that there is the wind seal in Asgard, north of here, and that there is a mana seal, but even Raine can't make out where it is. There's also the final seal in the Tower of Salvation... Alright. Leave Hakonesia Peak now, this time through the northern passage. You have a Pass, you can pass! ******** 22. Luin ******** Enemies: --------- N/A Where to go from here? Well, there's a little thing we should do now. You can directly head to Asgard, which is slightly southeast of the north exit of Hakonesia Peak, but I'd prefer to go to Luin, which is FAR to the west first. You can see it in the world map, surrounded by water. Level your characters a bit with the experience that the enemies give on the way, and then enter beautiful Luin and take a left over to the next screen. There's a little to do here... Guess who's here? Sheena is, playing with some of the kids. It doesn't matter what choice you give to her between "you're actually pretty nice" or "you're pretty cute", they're both funny and will result in Sheena getting angry and vanishing into midair, cursing that she'll kill you next time you meet, for the fourth or fifth time straight. Anyway, that's all... or is it? There's a little side quest we can do now that leads us to three tough bosses (one we can fight now, two we can fight later) but gets us Lloyd's strongest weapon, the Kusanagi Blade. ************** 23. Ossa Trail ************** Enemies: --------- Thief Mandragora Bear Sword Dancer 1 (Boss) Yep, back to the good ol' first continent of Sylvarant! Anyway, we are NOT getting back here from Palmacosta. We are getting back here through the western path of the third continent. Head to the very southwest tip of the continent and cross the bridge to find we are very near the Ossa Trail, very nice... enter, but save before doing so. Remember the black skull I mentioned the first time we came here? That's what we're going to face. Head into that hole Sheena emerged from last time we were here, and head into the back room and speak to it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: ???? #1 || HP: 8888 || Drop: EX Gem Lv. 2 || EXP: 150 || GALD: 2000 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 21), Colette (Lv. 20), Raine (Lv. 20), Kratos (Lv. 20) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Enter Sword Dancer 1! Well, it's referred to as ????, anyway. It does have|| || 8888 HP, not as much as Kilia or Adulocia or any boss we will ever fight || || (not including mini-bosses like Botta's Foot Soldiers, or one exception in|| || the Wind Shrine), but it's freaking strong. Those swords there can spin || || for about 150 damage a hit, depending on your defense, and the Sword || || Dancer has quite a defense to physical attacks, blocking Lloyd's sword || || slashes so that they do about 30 damage a hit. However, there's a secret. || || USE ANGEL FEATHERS AND PHOTON. Do it. Be impressed with the damage. Keep || || up with the defense and when he casts magic, attack with Lloyd. He'll fall|| || in time. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alright, good. Now we have to head all the way over to Asgard, halfway across the world. If you have Long-Range Mode enabled through a lot of the world, you really need to use it. Trust me, Noishe is a lot faster than Lloyd. When you do arrive at Asgard, save the game, as you wouldn't want to lose to the boss or get a random episode two of the blackout of 2003, would you? Once again, Asgard is southeast of the north entrance of Hakonesia Peak. ********** 24. Asgard ********** Enemies: --------- Windmaster (Boss) For those who feel like they're ready for a challenge, guess something I left out in my walkthrough for Luin. Guess... guess... alright, if you said buying weapons and armor, you were right. Asgard sells and synthesizes great pieces of equipment here. Head to the equipment shop and talk to the old geezer at the counter, and you'll see "Sinclaire", an AWESOME sword for Lloyd. Just remove his Masamune and buy a White Silver and Black Silver with your grade if you don't already have the material, and forge the Sinclaire. Make sure you take a look at the other weapons and armor for sale here too, as they're all good. When you're fully equipped, head north to the ruin there, and of course, Raine wants to look at it. Don't bother listening to her incredibly boring lecture and instead head behind the ruin to find two guys plotting to destroy the ruin. After Lloyd gets angry at them, Raine comes from behind the ruin and jumps down, kicking both of them to their feet and lecturing them on how important the ruin is, while at the same time activating the trigger switch for the bomb. Uh-oh. After Raine kicks one of the half-elves again, Lloyd manages to fix the bomb so it won't go off. Raine will kick that half-elf yet AGAIN, and then the mayor steps in and forbids anyone to go near the ruin, making the two idiots there run off and make Raine take the blame. Anyway, you now have to leave. Head back downstairs and take a right, then head up the stairs and enter the house on the right. That's the house of one of the half-elves (Linar) and his sister, Aisha. Fact is, the guys wanted to destroy the ruin so that they could save Aisha's life. The Summon Spirit of Wind, apparently, is demanding sacrifices and wants Aisha's life. Alright, now something's seriously screwed up there. Head outside and take a left, and go upstairs and talk to the mayor. Raine volunteers to dance and call forth the Summon Spirit of Wind, so now we get to see her in a rather snazzy outfit. And sure enough, a large creature does appear, but this isn't the Summon Spirit of Wind! This is an evil creature, of course. And here it comes to attack... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: WINDMASTER || HP: 10000 || Drop: Talisman || EXP: 1325 || GALD: 800 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 21), Genis (Lv. 21), Raine (Lv. 21), Kratos (Lv. 21) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || This thing looks tough, but it's really a pansy. Make sure Genis's and || || Kratos's Wind Blade/Air Thrust abilities are turned off, and instead use || || Stone Blast or Stalagmite/Grave to handle this. The Windmaster can turn || || itself around and slash through you for about 300 damage, but that's || || naught to worry of. Raine's great for healing as usual, and Lloyd will cut|| || through a majority of the Windmaster's HP in no time with Sonic Sword Rain|| || (or if you don't have it, Super Sonic Thrust or Beast), and Kratos is || || strong as always. Guard if you need to, and win the easiest boss fight in || || awhile. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After some flattery by even the mayor and the two half-elves we met earlier, we see that Raine disappeared. She's back in Linar's house, studying things. The Windmaster dropped a stone tablet called the Balacruf Map, which is what Raine's study is based on. After some more shameless flattery, there's one thing we can do. Go to the large inn at the northwest part of the first screen of Asgard, and stay for 400 Gald. Lloyd will then train with Kratos again. Okay, now it's time to go to the Balacruf Mausoleum, which is where the wind seal is! Leave Asgard, and start by heading northeast. ********************** 25. Balacruf Mausoleum ********************** Enemies: --------- Harpy Iapyx (Boss) Resolute Assassin (Boss) Guardian - Lightning (Boss) Head forward to find no stone tablet here... oh wait, Raine has it in her hands, it's the Balacruf Map itself. I guess the Windmaster was part of the Chosen's trial here. Colette puts it down and touches it, and thus it opens. And here we are inside, in a much darker ruin than the last two. I should tell you, though. This is a FAR shorter ruin than the previous two. It involves lots of complicated study, pressing switches to stop wind and igniting fires and stuff like that, to solve the puzzle at the end... but hey, you have this guide. ;) There are two paths here, an upper one on the right, an upper one on the left, and one path going left. Take the upper one on the left, but beware of the spike traps! Every time you walk into one of them while they close, you take about 250 damage. Ouch. We need to conserve that HP for the battles here, which all give great EXP. I was at Lv. 23 at this point, but you can be at what ever level you wish, since the following (two) boss fights aren't particularly difficult. But just... enjoy the battles here. Follow that path, and take a left. Head up, fight the enemy (and try to get a Memory Gem), and you'll find two spike traps on the wall. One is very slow, one is very fast. Watch out for the second one, and you'll find a door with two torches near it. Light both torches near the door, and it'll open. Do not enter, though. Instead, take a right down the stairs, and head up and down to collect the two treasures there. After that, take a left (not upstairs) and you can change your ring from fire to wind. Now enter the room we opened earlier, and what do you know, a scene. Sheena, again, is creeping up to the ruin. She's prepared to see Noishe here, however. She summons the little puppy-like creature, Corrine, to keep Noishe busy, and then she just storms past. Alright, back to Lloyd's group. Fight all the enemies in this room, and look around the room. There is a red pinwheel, a yellow one, a green one, a white one, and a big blue one. To open the door and/or collect treasures, you have to spin them in a certain order. Here's the order. Red -> Green -> Yellow -> White -> Blue -> EX Gem Lv. 2 Blue -> Red -> Yellow -> White -> Green -> Blue Ribbon Red - Yellow -> Green -> White -> Blue -> Iapyx Except... Iapyx is not a treasure, but the boss. ;) If you got a Memory Gem (or even if you have one), do not go in and fight Iapyx yet, though. Return all the way to the beginning of the ruin if you're worried about losing, since you have to fight two boss fights and you will not get to save between them. If you're not worried about dying, do not bother going all the way back and just enter to fight the guardian of wind, and this time it's the real guardian of wind (and the easiest guardian of all of them). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: IAPYX || HP: 14000 || Drop: Spirit Bangle || EXP: 1324 || GALD: 2000|| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 23), Raine (Lv. 23), Colette (Lv. 22), Kratos (Lv. 23) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || My party for this boss fight really varies depending on whether or not I || || have Genis's Eruption spell. If I do, I have him instead of Raine. If I do|| || not have Eruption (which may do up to 1000 damage), I use Raine instead. || || Anyway, Iapyx isn't that strong. He can kick your characters for about 200|| || damage, and can attack by throwing its feathers at you (about 200 damage || || also), and it uses some wind-based spells, but those aren't too damaging. || || Keep Colette busy using Angel Feathers or healing with Apple Gels if you || || get low on HP, and keep Raine using Photon (or Genis using Eruption), || || Kratos attacking (but not using wind or lightning spells), and Lloyd || || trying to beat Iapyx into a corner and guarding when necessary, and it's || || easy. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colette will have one of her usual talks with Remiel, collecting more angelic powers and learning the ability Holy Song. Anyway, your HP and TP were restored from that battle, and you should really be happy about that. Return to the beginning of the ruin, and what do you know? Sheena turns up! Yes, you have to fight her again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: RESOLUTE ASSASSIN || HP: 4500 || Drop: Dark Bottle || EXP: 300 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: GUARDIAN - LIGHTNING || HP: 5500 || Drop: Magic Lens || EXP: 250 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Party: Lloyd (Lv. 24), Genis (Lv. 24), Raine (Lv. 24), Kratos (Lv. 24) || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Argh! I bet you're thinking, "Only 4500 HP? That's 500 more than the first|| || boss in the game! I'll beat her ass all the way across the ruin and then || || some!" Don't be fooled. First of all, there are two of them, so it really || || accounts for 10000 HP. Second of all, Sheena is very powerful and || || extremely fast. She will run around almost all the time, beating and || || punching away at any character in sight, then finishing with a Pyre Seal, || || which will bring them to a lot lower HP than they used to be at. Even || || worse, she has an Overlimit she reaches very early in, so you do about || || 40-50 damage a hit while she knocks you down and reduces you to nothing. || || || || I'd recommend spanking Sheena before the Guardian - Lightning, since she's|| || far deadlier and has lower HP, to boot. However, once you knock about 1000|| || HP off, she goes into Overlimit. From there, concentrate on the Guardian -|| || Lightning until she goes back into regular mode. The Guardian isn't nearly|| || as tough as Sheena, although it can knock you into the air with a tail || || swipe, but Sheena can knock you down, which is even more annoying. In case|| || either hits you like that, block the attack with X and you'll get back on || || your feet in a lot less time. Make sure Raine's busy casting First Aid (or|| || Photon), Kratos is using attacks like Light Spear (and occasionally curing|| || the party), Genis is using Eruption or Stalagmite, and Lloyd is beating || || away at Sheena, and the fight will be easy from there. || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sheena gets angry and runs away, letting you go. Alright, save if you unlocked the memory seal, but otherwise don't bother. Outside, Colette once again passes out, making you camp out here. The cutscene that follows is very humorous. Lloyd brings Colette coffee and says it's hot. Colette agrees. Lloyd then says it's actually iced coffee, and Colette says, "Yeah! Of course it's cold." To which Lloyd says it's actually hot. Haha, he proved it. Colette cannot feel anything anymore. She cannot taste anymore, sleep anymore, or feel anything anymore. Just how terrible is that? Anyway, after that emotional scene, there's something to do. ******** 26. Luin ******** Enemies: --------- N/A From here, I really hope you've been following the guide up to here, since it really affects the game. Head to Luin (northwest, surrounded by water), and... what the hell? The village is a complete mess. The bridges are ruined, the shops are in pieces, half of the place is gone, one place is so ruined you can't even cross it, the fountain is ruined, the village is deserted, I could go on... anyway, head up and left to get to the next screen, where Sheena is half-dead. She was one of those beaten up by Desians, who attacked the village and captured everyone. Even before Raine gets to cure Sheena (whom Colette pities, believably enough), Sheena has to fight off none another than Clara, the woman who turned into an Exsphere monster. Clara disappears and the priest she was attacking was saved, so after that, Raine cures Sheena. After that, Sheena asks for permission to come along. Alright, be nice and tell her yes. No matter what Raine says, Sheena is allowed to come here. She's an awesome character you should really try out in battle. Gain a level or so, and head north to the Asgard human ranch. You can't miss it, although it's not the huge tower that ascends to the sky (that's the Tower of Mana). **************** 27. Asgard Ranch **************** Enemies: --------- Bowman Spearman As you storm in, you'll notice that it's more heavily guarded than the Iselia or Palmacosta human ranches, so Raine comes up with an idea of barging in while disguised as a Desian. Fight the battle, and let Lloyd, Genis, Sheena, and Kratos (well, that was my party here) kick ass, and you'll get two outfits. You'll then camp out here, and guess the two who get to wear the uniforms? Raine and Sheena. *resists the urge to make a sexual joke* Anyway, you can then get into the ranch since they fall for Raine's idea, that everyone else has been captured. Once inside the ranch, head to the right to open a chest, and then head up the stairs to the north, and then go northwest to find yourself in a small room... but eh, you've got company. Desians, and the boss of this ranch. As Forcystus was to Iselia and Magnius was to Palmacosta, Kvar is to Asgard. This guy is pure evil, much more so than Forcystus or Magnius, and only beaten by Rodyle... anyway, remember Botta? We haven't seen him in a while, have we? He storms in for some reason, denying that he and his men are Desians. Anyway, after a cross between Kvar and Kratos, you will escape from this guarded room. Collect the chest nearby for a good robe for Raine, and then go down and take a left to find a save point. Take a left further, beating the Desians in your way, and at the fork, take a left and collect the treasure chest down there. Now head back and up, and what do you know, Desians come in. But far more horribly than that, you now realize how Exspheres are made: from processing human bodies and turning them into Exspheres. Kvar and his men step in and surround Lloyd and his group. And from here it gets worse. We find out Lloyd's was made from his mom, who was turned into a monster by Kvar and killed by Lloyd's dad. After a rather emotional scene, Sheena summons the last Guardian, and then she and Lloyd's group disappear from the ranch. You'll then camp out yet again, after Kratos and Colette have to tell Lloyd off from throwing his Exsphere away. Now you'll have to go to Hima, to get a clue on how to escape from the Asgard human ranch. Or, if you do not have Sheena, go to Luin and speak to her there, and she'll join you. Let's hope you don't have to do that, though. Anyway, we need to go to Hima to find someone who did escape from the Asgard ranch. ******** 28. Hima ******** Enemies: --------- N/A Hima is on the southwest corner of the third continent of Sylvarant. That's a long way from the Asgard ranch, but fortunately, there is a shortcut and something to do in the area of the shortcut. Head to Luin and talk to the man in front of the ruined weapon shop, and then Lloyd and Kratos will train yet again. After that, head to the left and talk to the man in green near the fountain. Tell him you'll go with him to Hima, and boom! There you are at Hima. Now wasn't that convenient? Enter the inn, and first of all take a right and head into the room there to find the Wonder Chef, who teaches you another wonderful recipe. Now head to the main room and speak with the woman blocking the way upstairs about Pietro. My, that was sudden, Pietro passed away. After everyone (even Kratos) gets surprised, she tells you to go to his grave site, from the path behind the inn, and what do you know, Pietro is alive, but in a considerably bad state. He's under a terrible curse and only speaks nonsense now. Apparently, though, the way out of the Asgard ranch is by pushing a boulder. Remember the boulder near the entrance? That's the one. Of course, after the Asgard ranch you need to find a cure for Pietro to lift his illness, but that's for later. Leave Hima and then re-enter, and the man in green will be there again, wanting to go back to Luin. Take him there, but fight every battle on the way between Luin and the Asgard ranch, alright? ********************** 29. Asgard Human Ranch ********************** Enemies: --------- Whip Master Bowman Evil Sorcerer Kvar (Boss) Energy Stone (Boss) As soon as you enter, Lloyd and Kratos spot the boulder. They try to push it out of the way, but they can't... before Colette saves the day, heh. Anyway, that sewer passage leads into the main room of the ranch. There are two paths, one leading to Kvar's room (which is guarded by a system which can be opened from the other end of the ranch, which happens to be a complicated system, while the system that's opened from the other end of the ranch is guarded by a conveyor belt system). Not exactly easy. Therefore, you have to split in two groups. You can choose in whatever way you wish to split your party up, except Lloyd will be in the infiltration group that faces Kvar. Put Kratos in that party. I repeat: PUT KRATOS IN THAT PARTY. You will not regret it, especially you who are Kratos fans. The other character is your choice, although I always take Genis or Sheena, preferably the latter. When I'm controlling the second party, I use Colette as the controlled character so that I can use some of her skills and get stronger ones. We start as Lloyd's group. Enter the upper-right door and head up to collect a Cleric's Hat (equip it on Lloyd or Kratos... immediately), and two other treasure chests on the left (and you can stop the Exspheres using the panel on the right). After doing that, exit through the right, and enter the door on the lower-left. Using the machine on the left, change your ring. WHOOP-DE-DOO, WE GOT STRONGER FIRE FOR THE SORCERER'S RING! I THINK I'LL JUST DANCE OMG! The next part, it may be recommended to have Lloyd's Lv. 2 EX Skill Personal, as that'll make it a lot faster. Use the Sorcerer's Ring to hit the three machines on the left, and then fight the Desian and head down, left (after saving and beating the asses off another Desian guard), and up to get on the next conveyor belt, and be able to shoot another three machines. And boom. The conveyor belt becomes a floor. We need it like that to get to Kvar's room, you know that from Raine's research. Defeat the rest of the Desians in here, and head upstairs. After beating yet another two Desians, you'll see the teleport going to Kvar's room. Except it doesn't work. Lloyd and Kratos's party then has to wait for Raine's group... alright, over to Raine's group. Head through the door at the lower-right, and what do you know, you're caught by a Desian. Eh well, who doesn't like kicking Desian ass? The door he was guarding, however, does not open, so head down instead of right. Beat the Desian in here and take a right and push the block out of the way. Push all the blocks to decent areas so that you can push the following ones out, and you'll see a door. Enter, and head downstairs and beat the Desian on the way. Now take a left, and you'll find a switch. The way behind you gets closed off while an already closed off area back there is open. Eh well, that's what we want. Grab the treasure and take a right, leading us to the room the captives are guarded. Easy Desians to beat, as usual! One of the captives here from Palmacosta will tell you that Chocolat was taken to the Iselia ranch. We'll rescue her at the end of Disc 1. Anyway, go out through the southern exit and go all the way around to the side on the left and we'll find out why we pressed that switch earlier. There's one of the two switches here that we needed to press to take down the guard system for Kvar's room. Beat the robots guarding it, and that's one out of two. Now, head back and take a right to find the next guard system. You know what to do. And now, as Lloyd's group, we can take the teleport to Kvar's room! There's a memory seal on the right, but don't unlock it. Head back to the previous room, where there's a save point. Use it, and heal up, since the fight isn't too easy. Once in Kvar's room, you'll find him talking to the leader of the Five Grand Cardinals, some evil chick named Pronyma. After that, he'll attack you so that he can get Lloyd's Exsphere. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: KVAR || HP: 10000 || Drop: Holy Ring || EXP: 1680 || GALD: 1500 || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Boss: ENERGY STONE X3 || HP: 5500 || Drop: N/A || EXP: 300 || GALD: 765 || ----------------------------------------------------------------------