TALES OF DESTINY REMAKE FAQ/WALKTHROUGH by yangxu (jyanglaststar@gmail.com) ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1. Introduction 2. Version History 3. Gameplay & Control 4. Walkthrough 5. Optional Quests 6. FAQ 7. Legal Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tales of Destiny Remake, as its name indicates, is a remake of a game called Tales of Destiny (......) released on the PSX back in the mid 90s. The remake was released just recently (November 30, 2006) for the PS2, which featured completely redesigned character sprites, maps, battle system and fully voiced scenarios and skits, making it one of the last highly anticipated games for the PS2. If you are a veteran of the Tales series who desparately needs a new Tales game to play, or if you are just starting on the road to become a Tales fan, this is definitely the game for you (provided that you have some basic knowledge of Japanese or Chinese). This walkthrough is written to help those who've played the original Tales of Destiny and needed just one or two hints to get going with the game. It is not a walkthrough that gives you every tiny detail about where each item is located in the dungeon, or how to look for extra items in town. I might write one like that in the future, but for now, this is what I plan to do. I try to keep things as simple as possible, so that I don't spoil your fun. However, I cannot guarantee that the walkthrough is 100% spoiler free, so use this at your own discretion. Let me know if you discovered errors in this walkthrough by sending email to jyanglaststar@gmail.com. Please title it "ToDR" so I can separate it from spams. Your contributions will be recognized in the acknowledgement section. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. VERSION HISTORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ December 2, 2006 -Completed the first third of the walkthrough, and part of the gameplay & control section December 17, 2006 -Finished the first half of the game's walkthrough, added more info for the gameplay & control section, more FAQs added. January 6, 2006 -Location names changed to match the Japanese version's spellings, walkthrough completed up to Rodeon, minor adjustments to Gameplay & Control section, Optional Quests section added. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. GAMEPLAY & CONTROL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The remake version has a ton of new stuff for Tales fans to explore. I'll try crunching down each new addition/modification to this game so you can get the hang of these improvements while experimenting with them yourselves. =========== FOOD SYSTEM =========== This is an improved and simplified version of the cooking system found in various Tales games. You'll be given a foodsack automatically before rescuing Rutee near the beginning of the game. The foodsack serves as an auto healing device that replenishes your HP when it falls below a certain threshold after a battle. It can also revive dead allies or boost your immunity against certain elemental attacks or status alignments. There is usually a food shop in each town where you can refill your bag, and each shop has various recipes for sale. You can add two or more of them to your foodsack depending on the number of slots it has. The slot number increases as your foodsack expands in size, which is controlled by how often it heals you. The more it's used, the more foods it holds. Recipes and foods can also be found in some dungeons' treasure chests. Each recipe consumes a certain amount of food, and has various effects on your status like mentioned before. Basically those that carry added bonus or have greater healing power use up more foods. You can check these effects in the food option under the menu screen or under the shop's purchase screen by pressing the square button on various recipes. ============= Battle System ============= When the promo vid was shown at Namco's press conference a while ago, the part which probably catches everyone's attention immediately was the new battle system. You can see characters going straight into the air and doing some crazy tech combos one after another, owning the enemies like no other Tales games before. This improved version of the old Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS) is known as the Aerial Linear Motion Battle System (AR-LMBS). ------ Basics ------ As the name emphasizes, a majority part of the battle will involve aerial combat (I don't mean Ace Combat 5). And to execute attacks like what you saw on the promo video, you need something called Chain Capacity or CC. It is the fundamental element that governs everything in a battle: from normal attacks to backdashes, skills, item usages, charges, and hi-ougis. Each action listed above consumes a different amount of CC, you can see its depletion by looking at the CC counter around the character's mini-status bar at the bottom of the screen in battle mode. The large number in the middle tells you exactly how many CC points you currently have, and as you execute various commands, the number goes up and down. You can boost CC gauge by equipping Swordian Devices, another new system which I'll explain later. Basically, the higher the CC, the more attacks and skills you can use, and the more combos you can perform in ground or in air. Now, to trigger aerial attacks, all you have to do is jump. This is done automatically in semi-auto mode when you target an enemy high up in the air. If you are playing on manual mode, you'll need to press up twice to perform a jump. The next thing you wanna do is swing your weapon for some nice combos. To do so, you must make sure you have enough CC left. For example, if you jump up, hoping that you can do a "Kurenken" (consumes 3 CC) while you only have 2 CC, you will fall right back down (unless you have skills equipped that use 2 CC, or you just want to hack'n'slash your enemy for fun). With enough CC to spare, you can connect skills one after another on land or in air. Furthermore, for skills which make you fly higher and higher (eg. Stahn and Woodrow's "Zenkkuuken", Lion's "Kuushuuken"), you can actually rise all the way to the top of the screen by chaining 3 or 4 of them together. Another interesting aspect of this new AR-LMBS is that certain skills for certain characters change their forms when being used in air. For example, Stahn's "Fireball" spell could transform into "Flame Shot" when executed in air. This new spell requires no chanting time and is carried out immediately. Similarly, Stahn's Level 1 hi-ougi, when executed in air, will trigger a different hi-ougi, try it out yourself to see which one it is ^___^ ------- Hi-ougi ------- Now that I mentioned hi-ougis, it would be a good time to go into a bit more detail about them. Each character learns his or her hi-ougi at a specific level. But you can also master it through event battles (eg. Stahn's 5th hi-ougi in the final battle). Hi-ougis cannot be equipped on your normal skill screen, rather, they can only be executed when you're in Blast Calibur (BC) mode and have used a skill/technique successfully against an enemy while holding the L1 button. Different levels of hi-ougis require different levels of BC gauge (located below each person's HP bar on the battle screen). And their damages correlate to which particular skill you've used before your hi-ougi execution. You'll know when a character is in BC mode when you see the screen flashes for a second or the person's weapon's flashing with specific elemental particles around it (eg. Stahn's sword flashes with fire particles). Each playable character's number of hi-ougis varies, depending on the person you are controlling, you can have 2 to 5 different ones. --------------- SWORDIAN DEVICE --------------- Swordian Device is a series of status boosts that can be equipped by pressing the circle button on the weapon slot of your equipment screen. As the name suggests, this system only applies to Swordian Masters. People like Mary, Chelsea, Kongman, etc. cannot access this special feature. There are 6 levels for each Swordian Device, each level contains numerous status boosts for your character to equip. Your Swordian Masters gain access to bonus boosts through level ups and can master them through battles. When you put on a status boost, a star appears to the left of the name, indicateing that the current device has been equipped. When you move your cursor to each equipped device, there is often a percentage in the explanation box indicating the percent completion till fully mastering this boost. So what's the point of this you ask? Each Swordian Master has a limited amount of Swordian Device Points, since each status boost requires a certain amount of SDP, and the required SDP increases with increasing level, you can only equip a few boosts of your preference while dropping the rest. Mastering each boost will reduce the consumption of SDP by half, meaning that you can equip more status boosts with less SDP; and because you will be facing tons of encounters throughout the game, you shouldn't be having trouble mastering all the bonus boosts before you challenge the final boss. At this point, some of you might be thinking of another way to gain SDP besides leveling up your characters; and the answer is YES. You get bonus SDP if you can defeat bosses in hard or mania difficulty. "Are you kidding me? I got owned by enemies from random encounters under hard difficulty, how am I supposed to win a boss fight if I can't even beat his underlings?" Well the truth is, you don't have to fight normal enemies in hard mode if you don't feel like it. All you have to do is change your difficulty setting under the customize option at a save point before a boss fight. If you lose the fight, you will automatically be prompted to try again, thus as long as you have patience and determination, you can eventually take down the bosses in hard difficulty setting and get your bonus SDPs. ============= RERISE SYSTEM ============= Rerise is a brand new system added to the remake version, it shares some similarities with Tales of Rebirth's Enhance System. Throughout the game, you'll be getting various types of lens from battles or chests. These lenses vary by type and can be used for cash exchange or material enhancements. There are five types of lens in total, you can distinguish them by their representative colors under either the enhancement screen or the gald exchange screen. The cheapest and most commonly found ones are the "black" damaged lenses, you get these right after your first battle. As you progress through the game, more types of lenses are obtainable through normal battles, these include Clear Lens (white), Blue Lens (purple), Tough Lens (green) and Sapphire Lens (yellow). All of the lenses listed above are necessary for weapon, armor and accessory enhancement, I do not recommand selling them unless you really need money or you simply have too many on your hands (max number for each type of lens is 990). To enhance an item, go to the main menu and choose Rerise (second one from the left on the second row). The current screen will be your character equipment tab. Here, names that are white indicate possible upgrade for that item; names that are gray means enhancements are unavailable (eg. subweapons and such). When you choose a specific item for enhancement, usually there are more than one option for upgrades. For example, Mary's stone axe can be enhanced to iron axe, bronze axe or steel axe, each with its own status increments. But when you look at how many lenses of each type are required, you may find that steel axe involves more types of lenses than the other two (look at the lens requirement at the bottom of your screen); you may also find that a red number appearing above the lens requirement section and preventing you from upgrading your weapon. The reason for this is your average party level isn't high enough, getting everyone to the required cutoff would solve this issue. Some options you get for upgrading an item may surprise you, as certain upgrades receive the least status boosts yet require rarer lenses for their enhancements. In this case, it is often a good idea to press your square button on the upgrade preview flowchart to check other possible effects. People who think ahead at this point might be wondering which choice on the flow diagram they should follow in order to create the best weapon or armor after its final upgrade. Based on my experience, those that require higher party level and rarer lenses will eventually emerge to be the best ones. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. WALKTHROUGH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------ THE DRACONIS ------------ Start a new game and watch the scenes unfold. When you gain control of Stahn, move right and push some boxes out of the way and you should come across a save point. You can explore some rooms for item if you want (if you look at the right hand corner as you move along shelves or chests that don't stand out as treasure chests, sometime you may see a hint popping up telling you to examine that area, if you press the circle button on your gamepad, you usually get "hidden" items that are otherwise missed out if you aren't paying attention). Eventually you should come to an area where Stahn's forced into a room. Following those scenes is your first fight. Familiarize with this new twist on the old LMBS and head out for more scenes (the scenes that occur here are not available in the original ToD). Do more explorations on the ship if you must, and you should eventually come to a corridor with a door on either side. Take the right door to move on with the story. Watch the impressive anime CG cutscene and the remastered opening movie. ----- CABIN ----- More events take place. When you regain control of Stahn, head out to the living room for some chitchat; then head out and move north through the snow forest. Meet up with Chelsea and backtrack to the cabin. Woodrow will accompany you to Janos; so head out and go south this time. Move through the winding path and keep going south, you should get to Janos in a few screens. ----- JANOS ----- Woodrow will take his leave after you get here, head north to the gate and watch a scene, Mary will join your party. Try exiting from the south gate to activate a tutorial on Food, which basically acts as an automatic recovery system that heals you when an individual or your entire party's average HP falls below a certain level. The effect is dependent on which recipe you have in your foodsack. For now, just go with the default "onigiri". Also, starting from now on, you can take requests from the guy with a backpack on him. Depending on the mission's complexity, your wage varies as well. Usually when you accept a mission, you'll need to go to an indicated town to look for two or three special townfolks that you can interact with to get the job done. There's no time limit to this, so do it whenever you feel like it. ------------- CAVE ~ TEMPLE ------------- Once you leave Janos, go north a few screens and watch the scene, then head into the hidden cave. The path is very straight forward, just keep heading left till you enter the temple. There are several chests to grab, they can be hard to spot, just pay attention to the top left and right corners of the ground floor. You can walk up certain broken beams to reach higher platforms. The large central door is where you wanna go to move on with the story, if you had enough fun looting chests, proceed on to watch some funny scenes. Rutee will join your party. Exit the temple from the bottom entrance on the ground floor and you'll be thrown into a fight against some soldiers. Kick their butts hard, and return to Janos by exiting south. ----- JANOS ----- After some yapping from Rutee, you are to depart for Straylize. Head to the north gate for a scene involving the Dark Wings, and you'll be in the forest again. Go northwest and you should be on the world map. Look at the minimap on the bottom right corner and you should see a vibrating flashing circle, that's your next destination. -------- HARMENTZ -------- Watch a scene when you enter the village, then head north and enter the large mansion for more scenes... those who played Tales of the Abyss should recognize a cameo here XD You'll eventually end up in the inn, remember to save here as three consecutive battles are to follow when you leave. When you are ready, head outside for 2 normal battles with some soldiers and 1 battle which you can't win, so don't bother using items in the last fight. More scenes take place and you'll wind up in Seinegeld. Lion will also join your party. ---------- DARILSHEID ---------- You can explore the town a little, but your next destination is Hugo's mansion located in the eastern part of the city. Watch the gossips, then head onto the worldmap. ------- ARMEIDA ------- This part is optional, if you don't need to restock your supplies, you can head straight to Straylize Temple. But if you would like to see a scene with the infamous Dark Wings again, you can visit Armeida, a tiny village north of Darilsheid. ------------------------- FOREST ~ STRAYLIZE TEMPLE ------------------------- If you are going from Armeida, you need to head south, then northwest up a hill to enter the forest. Once you are in the forest, the left path leading up to a hill is the direction of the temple. You can, however, explore the forest and grab all the treasures. There will be some short scenes taking place when you enter the front yard and the actual temple. And you'll now need to run around breaking seals around that skull head. There are doors to the left and right of the staircase leading down, and more doors to follow when you enter them. If you see a large purple crystal "standing" in the middle of the room, check it and you'll be thrown into a battle. When you emerge victorious, you'll break a seal around the skull head. Each crystal is located in separate rooms, so find and break five of them will enable you to unlock the central door. Have fun exploring! Oh, and don't forget to check boxes or shelves for hidden items. When you've successfully broken all the seals, enter the central door for more scenes. You'll be asked to visit the main hall, but you can go up the winding staircase for some items if you want. From where the skull head was, go down the staircase and enter the door to the left; in the next room head straight left, keep moving through the hallway and you'll end up in the main hall. A scene will ensure, keep moving deeper and you should be in a room with dark and light circle pads. Your goal here is to activate just one type of the round switches by stepping on them. You know you've turned it on when a white shading appears around the switch. So activate all the white OR gray switches (not both) and the corresponding door to the northeast should automatically open. It doesn't matter which one you open, they all lead into the same destination. More scenes will take place, when you enter the unlocked door and Philia will join in the end. To continue the story, head back to Darilsheid port. ---------- DARILSHEID ---------- The port is two screens down from Hugo's mansion. Some scenes will occur when you enter the port, and you'll be well on your way. --------------- UNDERWATER CITY --------------- HINT: You don't really have to go look for any of the items here right now, if you are patient enough, you can gain access to all of them when you are onto the second half of the game. A lot of scenes take place, when they are all done, you'll be in the underwater city. Some doors in this place are jammed to begin with, and you can't open them until you find a pickaxe. The doors around the save point are where you should begin your journey. Certain doors are underwater in certain areas, and you won't be able to access them until much later. You'll know you've come near the central room when you see another save point in front of a staircase. The left door on the platform leads to a treatment device which heals your party, the door on the right leads to an item, the central door will move the story forward. Thus, enter the the middle door and watch the scenes unfold. Philia will get Clemente and will become the main spellcaster in your party. You can activate the warp device near the save point to teleport to the entrance. When you leave the underwater city, you'll be in Cherik. ------ CHERIK ------ The folks here aren't very friendly to foreigners, but who cares... Move to the northern part of the town and enter the building there for some scenes, you can leave Cherik when they are over. Your next destination is north of Cherik, the capital city. -------- KALVIOLA -------- Explore the city a little, and visit the temple here. Philia will temporarily leave the party to unlock the backdoor for you at night. You'll end up in the inn, head out and look for the back corridor, it should be to the left of the temple. Watch the scene and navigate your way through the temple. You'll automatically discover a hidden path when you are close to a den in the main hall. There'll be a boss fight waiting for you when you move in, so be prepared. After some dialogues with the criminal, you'll be forced into a fight with 5 monsters. Spam "Hienrenkyaku" and you should win in no time. A "touching" scene ensures and you're to depart for Neuestadt. ------ CHERIK ------ You need to board the ship at Cherik port to go to your next city, so head south from Kalviola on the worldmap to Cherik. Head into the port here (you can get a scene with the Dark Wings again if you visit the northern part of the town), more scenes and you'll be departing for Neuestadt. --------- NOISCHTAT --------- Watch the scenes when you enter the city. Your goal here is to see the mayor. Her mansion is one screen north from where you enter. A maid in her house tells you that she went out for some business and should be back shortly, to kill time, the party planned to buy some ice candy. Lion, being the mature lad and all, decides to stay behind. Head out the mansion for a scene with the flower girl, then go up two screens to the central park (with sakura trees). More events take place, and now you have to visit the colloseum to fight Kongman. The stadium is located north to the city's ground level (where the bridge is). Enter the colloseum, take the left door, watch some scenes and you'll be in for a fight with Kongman. Use "Rekkuuzan" a few times and he should be down. "Fire Ball" works pretty well, too. After the battle, Lion rushes in to inform you of some urgent situation outside, so head out to the city streets for more scenes. Your party then decides to board the ship at Noischtat port to fend off incoming attacks. To make your life easier in the next 20 battles or so, materialize your raw stones that prevent petrification or reduce water elemental damage and equip them on your frontline fighters (eg. Stahn, Lion, Mary, etc.). Also, Kongman will join your party temporarily, his raw power attacks are very effective against enemies you'll be facing shortly. Watch the scenes at the harbor and you'll be charging straight in for the flagship. -------------- COMMANDER SHIP -------------- When you step onto the enemy ship, head for the first door and you'll meet a cook-in-disguise... he can replenish your foodsack. Some rooms here have pirates walking around, run into them and a battle ensures. As usual, check for shelves, tables, barrels, etc. for hidden items. The boss here is located in the very right room, you might have to go back and forth in between rooms to get around some obstacles in your way. When you enter the boss room, some scenes occur followed by a boss fight. Bastista is probably the first "real" boss you encounter, he has high HP, and he runs around messing up your spellcasters' chants. When you've broken his guard, go nuts on him. Use up the hi-ougi you saved and he should go down eventually. Some more dialogues ensure after the fight and your party returns to Noischtat. --------- NOISCHTAT --------- Kongman takes his leave and more scenes take place. Head to the port the next day and watch more events unfold. Get on the ship and we are off to Sheeden. ------- Sheeden ------- Not much to do here, stock up your items and head for the cave that leads you to Moreau. ----------- MOREAU CAVE ----------- Very straightfoward dungeon, you can spend some time here to level up and collect treasures from chests. Half way through the cave, you'll get a scene between Stahn and Rutee, something new in the PS2 version. Anyway, keep going and you'll eventually come across a save point. If you feel you are ready, head south from the save point for a scene and a boss fight. The boss itself is pretty disgusting looking, and its numerous mouths can cause more status alignments than you can prevent. Your strategy here is to crush it with skills like "Hienrenkyaku" and "Kurenken", in conjunction with Philia's spells. You should be able to use at least one hi-ougi even if your BC gauge is empty at the start of the fight. In anycase, finish the monster off, get out from the cave and head to Moreau. ------ MOREAU ------ Some short conversations among your party when you enter the city, head south and you should get a scene involving Johnny. Head south from where you are, more scenes will take place. You'll end up in Johnny's hidden room eventually. A spy comes in and informs Johnny that his friend Fayte's about to be executed, Johnny acted like he doesn't care but runs off to save him alone. Stahn, being the hothead and all, obviously can't leave a stranger who just saved your butt to do something reckless... what does he do? He decides to do get the party involved in the reckless rescue, of course. Head out from Johnny's house and talk to the boatman below, choose to go to the castle and watch the scene that follows; Johnny will join in the end. Head right and down to see Fayte's fiance (there is only one way, as all other entrances are unavailable to you until you see her). Her cell door will unlock and you can come back to her to heal your party. WARNING Starting now on, you'll need to pay attention to what you do, there seems to be a major bug in this area involved with pushing boxes where pushing them to a certain position irreversibly prevents you from moving the story any further. I have yet to encounter this bug, but several other people have, so make one or two extra saves right now just in case. Head left after you leave the prison. In the next few areas, you'll have to think a little and rearrange the boxes such that when you turn the red handles and get the water levels to go up, you can still travel by stepping on those crates and platforms into the next room. Boxes with an orange/skin color should be pushed from a ledge so it falls and breaks to release the handles inside them that can be put on those pump stands to allow you to control water levels freely. But for your first handle, you actually need to play a taiko drum minigame and score a number above 15 to unlock the door behind. The rule is simple, as soon as the two statues start moving, Stahn and Johnny must start imitating the timing and beats such that they hit the drums at practically the same time as the statues do. The higher you precision, the better the score. A lot of people seem to have problems solving the crates puzzle in a room with three water wheels. All you need to do here is push all the boxes on the ground onto the shaft, turn on the water pump in the other room, return here and line up the boxes in a column such that you can push that extra box on top of the other three to fill in the gap to your right. Eventually, you should make it to the top floor of the castle, and you know what awaits you, a boss battle! Equip your swordsmen rings that prevent poison and start wasting him. His defense is tough to break and he has high HP, but nothing you can't handle, it might just be a longer battle for those who use holy bottles a lot. Watch the long scene, then board Fayte's ship at the harbour to Toukei. ------ TOUKEI ------ Watch some scenes on the ship and you'll need to deal with some giant octopus. The boss has quite the HP for an octopus, but nothing else that you can use as excuses for getting owned. Watch the events after the battle and you'll be in Toukei. You get the option of sneaking into the castle again when you talk to the boatman here; but what you need to do first is open the gate blocking your water route by examining a statue to the northeast of the second screen. When you think you are ready, head for the castle. Puzzles here aren't as hard as the ones in Moreau. When you are in a garden with trenches, make your way to the central structure and check the switch to drain the waters in the room you came from. Head back to the main hall, go down the drained waterway and push the box in place, then go up and hit a switch and move through the unlocked door to the northwest. The next room is made up of stairs in which you have to run around and push a box down the edge a few times to get it on the floor with a switch. Push the box onto the switch and go through the unlocked door. The original horoscope puzzle in this room is replaced with zodiac signs from the Chinese mythology. Look at the picture besides each door carefully, and enter the doors in this sequence: mouse -> ox -> tiger -> rabbit -> dragon -> snake -> horse -> goat -> monkey -> rooster -> dog -> pig Save your game, go up for some scene and prepare for a boss battle. Stahn and Lion are weak against his attacks. Put Johnny in your party can reduce your struggle a lot. As usual, use hi-ougi as soon as his guard's broken and combo like mad. The boss uses a throwing technique when you get too close to him, stay at a reasonable distance and use "Majinken" if you must. Watch the long scene after the fight, then head to the port and head for your next destination. --------- SNOWFREER --------- Some scenes when you enter the city, go to the inn and save your game. Exit through the southwest opening for a quick fight and the events that follow. Woodrow and Chelsea will join your party in the end. You can get another scene with the Dark Wings if you head to the right den in the inn here. Leave through the southwest exit again and you'll be on the worldmap. ------------ TILSO FOREST ------------ On the worldmap, head northwest a little and you should see a large group of trees, that's the Tilso Forest, be sure to equip your fighters with rings that prevent sleep before you enter. You'll see a tutorial on Sorcerer's Ring in the first screen, press the square button to shoot out sparks, it can be used to melt things. Here, it is used to melt those ice bulks in your way. You'll be forced into battles when enemies appear inside the bulks. Keep heading west or southwest a few screens and you should find the other exit. ----- CYRIL ----- On the worldmap, head north a little and you should find Cyril. Not much to do here except watching a few scenes when you enter, and visiting the green walled house in the northwest area. Once you are done here, keep going north and you should find yourself in Heidelberg. ---------- HEIDELBERG ---------- There are some nice items in those houses you can enter. When you are ready, head to a house in the northeast area to trigger a scene. Go pass a few screens till you reach a room with icy floors. You should notice that if you run here, you'll slide. This is OK on the ground floor, since you won't fall; when you are having fun on the second floor, however, running like this could make you fall off, so restrain your actions a bit. Search for a switch near the staircase and use the Sorcerer's Ring to activate it. Go up the stairs and WALK on these ledges, you'll want to go to the southwestern one eventually and use the ring to activate another switch to the right. This can be somewhat tricky, stay at the tip of the ledge and shoot your sparks. If it misses, you'll have to realign yourself relative to the switch's position and try again. A door to the northwest should be unlocked when you activate the second switch, get into the new room, keep moving and you should find yourself in the castle's prison. You'll be thrown into a boss fight as you move on, use Stahn's "Shishisenkou" and you should be able to finish this under two minutes. More scenes and Mary will leave your party for now. Explore the castle a bit for some items. Loactions worth mentioning here are: 1. The stage room with red curtains. Melt the frozen machineries on the ground floor with your Sorcerer's Ring, then turn on the two switches to reveal a hidden path. 2. A hallway (not the main hall) with candle stands where a specific set of candles are lit. Remember this pattern, go north and light up another set of candle stands by mimicking the previous layout. (Use the Sorcerer's Ring for ignition, examine the stand to put out the flame). 3. Two clock tower puzzles where you need to hit switches, push box to help you go up, melt frozen chains and so on. You are required to time your jump in one specific area here, too. Eventually you should arrive at the top of the clock tower, SAVE YOUR GAME! This will be your final boss fight for part one of the game. Go up and you'll confront a familiar face. The fight is much easier than the boss fight in Toukei. The only thing you should watch out for is the dragon in the background, it'll deal some decent damage to you if you aren't defending. You can't kill the dragon obviously, so focus only on your enemy within you reach. A crapload of scenes take place when you come out victorious. During the part where you have to find Rutee, head north (there is really only one way that's accessible) and you should be done. More events unfold after this, enjoy your little break. Time for part two! ----- LEANE ----- Part two starts off with some scenes between Lilith and Stahn. Get out from the house and head southwest two screens and talk to the raw food vendor and the bread maker (Mimi!!), you'll get a scene with Stahn's pal. Afterwards, head back home for more scenes. Philia will join your party the next day and you'll need to head for Heidelberg. --------- NOISCHTAT --------- Press R3 to look for Noischtat on the worldmap, this will be your first stop. When you get there, head to the port for a scene, and Kongman will you. Board the ship here to go to Snowfreer. --------- SNOWFREER --------- Some scenes when you arrive here and more scenes when you try to leave. Watch them patiently and you'll get Mary back. Leave the city and head for Tilso Forest. ------------ TILSO FOREST ------------ Nothing much to do except grabbing any chests you might have missed the last time you came here. Keep going southwest to get out. ---------- HEIDELBERG ---------- Keep going north into the castle, and head for the audience chambre. A scene with Woodrow and Chelsea, and they'll join, too. Next destination: Darilsheid. You can either walk from Heidelberg to Janos and then to Darilsheid or board the ship from Snowfreer by back tracking through Tilso forest, I'll leave this one for you to decide. But wait, we are missing an important member. That's right, Rutee's still missing. Head for Cresta (it's near Darilsheid) to track her down. ------ CRESTA ------ After your party splits to look for Rutee, head north a few screens for an event and she should be back in your team. Now we can go to Darilsheid. ---------- DARILSHEID ---------- Head into the castle's audience chambre for some surprises. Then head to the port to board a ship that takes you to Oberon's hidden research facility. --------------------------------- OBERON's HIDDEN RESEARCH FACILITY --------------------------------- Very challenging puzzles compare to the dungeons you've visited so far. The entrance area is full of large electronic gates, switches and moving platforms. You can jump on those platforms if they are close to you. This will usually bring you to a switch which you should examine to open the gates. Sometimes you are required to shoot sparks out of your ring onto those cubical devices to move the platform you are standing on further. Your goal is to get to the northwestern door (the eastern one is locked, unless you want the not so useful item in the chest near it, don't bother going). When you are in a room full of conveyor belts, your goal is to enter the doors at the top right corner. The belts that scroll extremely fast will prevent you from running back, the ones traveling at lower speeds can allow you to backtrack your way. You'll come across two red belts right next to each other, when you see that, move from the one you are standing on, onto the adjacent one, then onto a platform to get yourself near the next set of belts that will take your to your targeted destination. The rest of the belt puzzle should be straight forward. Enter the door near the top right corner, and you'll be in a lab with several doors to its sides. The bottom left one will lead you to an elevator which will take you to a ship dock. You can get some items here. The rest of the doors just get you to rooms with either items or devices that give you hints about a password protected door. WHAT? PASSWORDS!? It's not that big of a deal really. If you go up the staircase and check the door inside, a bunch of colored kanjis appear and you are requested to input passwords. Unless you really wanna know the mechanism behind it, you can read the FAQ section. Otherwise, input 12345 and the door should unlock. Save your game, get on the elevator, and you'll be taken to a cave. Explore the cave as you like, and you'll run into a save point sooner or later. As usual, this foresees that a boss battle is up ahead. Make a separate save here if you are a big fan of Lion. Move on, watch the event and enjoy the crazy boss fight. Normal attacks actually work okay here; put Kongman in your party to make your life easier. Watch out for the insane amount of hi-ougis he pulls off, your entire party maybe killed if you let them get too close to him. (especially if you are playing on hard mode). There will be extended anime/CG cutscenes and dialogues after this, so grab a drink and relax for a while. When you regain control, head into the palace for a word with the king and you should be taken to Radislowe for your next mission. --------- RADISLOWE --------- If you haven't explored every area here, now is your chance. There won't be random encounters (yay!) so feel free to run around. Your goal is the control centre (where Philia obtained Clemente earlier). Watch the events as you enter the control room and you should be given a horn to summon the Sea Dragon near any seashore on the worldmap. Your next goal is to retrieve a very important item from a hidden temple at the northwest region on the worldmap. ------------- HIDDEN TEMPLE ------------- Exit from Radislowe and you should automatically board the Sea Dragon. Press R3 to check the temple's location and set sail. The temple has a very simple structure, be sure to grab the treasures to either side of the rooms you are going in. You'll have to leave one of the four Swordians behind before you enter each door here, I suggest the following order: Woodrow, Rutee, Philia. In the final room, examine the altar in the centre for a scene followed by a boss fight. It's not a hard battle, just keep pounding and it'll die. You'll obtain the R Key afterwards, leave the temple and sail back to Radislowe. --------- RADISLOWE --------- Head into the control room for a series of events, when they are over, be sure to replenish your foodsack, recovery items and holy bottles, and we are on to conquer the cities in the sky! ------- IGNASEA ------- Ignasea is west of Radislowe. There will be a save point and an inactivated warp device near the entrance, save your game here and we'll worry about the warp system later. Are you a fan of 4D gaming? Ignasea and some of the later cities will make serious 4D gamers puke their guts out. A dungeon full of warps and teleporters could potentially make the most patient gamers throw their controllers on the ground. Fortunately, the teleporter puzzles here aren't that impressive. If you want all the items in Ignasea, you'll need to try every warp to get your greedy hands on them. Your goal is to teleport all the way to the top, so if you find yourself going down a level, you should try a different warp. Eventually you'll come into a room with four gates and a similar warp device like the one at the entrance, examine it to activate both, this will permit you to teleport right back to the entrance, you willl be using this a lot, trust me. Within this room, enter from the upper left gate such that all four gates shine with a red color. Next, stand in the centre and press O, you'll be teleported to Anszoon, your next destination, automatically. ------- ANSZOON ------- This is probably the easiest dungeon among the six you'll be visiting. The rooms are pitch black when you enter, that's because the energy units are scattered all of the place, as explained in the subsequent event. What you need to obviously is gather every energy unit you can possibly find to not just turn on the lights here, but also open up the main gate so you can get out! The energy units locations are as follows: 1. At the opposite side of your save point (to the left of the stairs) 2. In the bottom left room, two screens from the main hall 3. In the room to the right of main hall (need to go up the stairs and make your way around the circular path) 4. In the top left and top right rooms connecting the main hall Once you've collected all five of your crystals, enter the central gate to the north. Keep going up and you should see a machine with slots for you to insert your energy units. Do so and a mouse will come by only to steal your valuable energy crystals away. If you were wondering the functions of those electronic slabs that can be activated when you step on the switches in the main hall's central platform, this is when the light bulbs go off in your head. Back to the main hall, you should see the mouse in the circular path below the central platform. Examine this area carefully and you'll notice two mouse holes to either side of the platform's base. You DO NOT want to chase or trap the mouse near its hole, having said that, you Do want to utilize those electronic slabs to block its path so you can go around and pincer it. There are various methods for catching the mouse, I'll just give you my way here, feel free to use whatever strategy you have to get back your crystal. My Method: 1. Chase the mouse around so that it's to the left of the staircase. 2. Head for the staircase without making the mouse move from where it is. 3. Step on the top left switch (closest to the stairs) to raise the top left slab, blocking the mouse's escape route. 4. Go down the stairs and head left, pincer the mouse and get your stuff back. Go to the energy control device again, insert your final energy unit on there, the main gate should now be opened. Head out from there onto the worldmap. -------- CLOUDIUS -------- Cloudis is northeast of Anszoon. This is one of the most confusing dungeons in the game, but is also one of the best places to level up your current party (if you are using Stahn, that is), as most of the enemies here are weak against fire. Be sure to equip your frontline fighters with rings that prevent poison, or seal. I encourage you to explore this dungeon yourself, don't bother using holy bottles, because you should fight them to prepare yourself for the upcoming boss fight. But if you don't feel like doing so, follow these steps. Be warned, they do not get you to every item here, that would be something you'd have to look for yourself ;) 1. Save your game, and warp. 2. Warp again. 3. Go up, all the way to the left, then up again, step on the warp. 4. Examine the stone tablet here, and step on the other warp. 5. Go right, down (watch the spikes here! Walk, don't run) and left to reach another warp. 6. Go left, up, right, down, right and step on the warp here. 7. Examine the stone tablet here and grab any treasures you see, warp back. 8. Go left, up, left, down (pass the first intersection), right (at the second intersection), down, right all the way, up, right (watch the spikes), up, left, up left to reach the next warp. 9. Go right, up, right, down, left and step on the warp you see. 10. Head right, and all the way up till you see another warp. 11. Follow the only path here and step on the next warp you see. 12. Examine the tablet, grab the treasure and warp back. 13. Backtrack to the previous warp and teleport. 14. From where you are, go down till you reach an open space (with spikes to your left), squeeze your way near the spikes and move up till you reach another warp. 15. Move through the one way path and teleport. 16. Head left, all the way down, right, keep yourself to the left side and head down the stairs, turn left to reach another warp. 17. Go up (watch for spikes), left, then down to warp. 18. Examine the table here. 19. Backtrack to where you last warped in step 17. 20. Stick to the right as you go up the stairs and you should get to one more warp. 21. Move along the one way path till you come to an intersection, go up and warp to the puzzle room. 22. Hit the compass-like device at the top right corner device with your Sorceror's Ring such that the direction is facing north, push the One Star Dragon Ball (...) into the upper most hole. 23. Go downstairs and push the ball with a crescent moon into the left hole, the ball with a heart into the south hole, and the ball with a sun into the right hole, if you did everything right, you should hear a sound followed by a scene. 24. Warp out from this room and head straight down the path, teleport at the end there. 25. Save your game and go up for a boss fight. The boss shouldn't be too hard for you. Just do whatever you normally do in a regular battle and he should be down fast. Watch the scenes afterwards and activate the warp in this room to teleport back to the entrance. Exit Cloudius and head back to Anszoon. ------- ANSZOON ------- Warp to the room with the four gates again, if you need to resupply your items, choose to go to Ignasea and head back to Raidslowe. Else, teleport straight for Rodeon from here. ------ RODEON ------ This is a fairly simple dungeon, just warp around till you reach the exit. On some levels, there are bombs which you can move or kick (press O) around to destroy barriers that are in your way. Kicking the bomb will ignite it much faster than pushing it, however, if you position yourself right, you can usually kick it near the obsticle before it explodes. You'll take some minor damage if you are near the explosion. Remember to grab the worldmap at the exit before you leave. -------- HELRAIOS -------- Helraios is west of Rodeon. You can press R3 to confirm its location now that you have the worldmap. Save your game when you enter, head up the stairs to the right and enter the room to the right there. Grab the red card key by destroying it with your Sorcerer's Ring. Go back to the entrance room and insert your card key into the device here. The red barrier should be removed now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. OPTIONAL QUESTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------ TITLES ------ Each character has a list of titles in this game just like any other recent Tales games. Equipping the correct ones enable that character to initiate special conversations with townfolks enabling you to get extra items, titles, etc. It's not something mandatory, you can beat the game easily without going through any of this, unless you are a profectionist, spending time collecting titles is what I'd do for a second playthrough. To equip a title, choose Party from the main menu, press R1 or L1 to flip through each character's profile and press the triangle button to view the list of titles available. The following is a list of titles for each character with specific instructions on how to obtain them underneath, it's not complete, but I'll be adding more later on. +++++ STAHN +++++ Draconis Infiltrator -Default Honest Villager -Talk to the man near the accessory shop in Darilsheid and pick the first choice Unique Sword User -Talk to the little boy in Noischtat and pick the second choice Youth of Leane -Talk to the village chief's daughter in Leane and pick the second choice after Philia's visit Kind Liar -Talk to a resident in Darilsheid after the Lens Cannon has fired Colloseum Champion -Beat Lilith at the colloseum True Master -Equip the Unique Sword User title and talk to Ailts at Straylize Temple Child of Destiny -DUring the second part of the game, equip Kongman with the Man Who was Born to Love title and talk to Baks in Leane Lilith's Brother -Equip Chelsea with the Adult Yearning Girl title and talk to Alba at Chelsea's house Young Detective -Equip Stahn with the Youth of Leane title and talk to his grandpa during the second part of the game Famous Detective -Solve the Moreau criminal event Star Don -Get the highest rank in the Taiko Drum mini-game at the colloseum Dashing Youth -Beat the kid in a race at Noischtat Natural Ranger -Discover all the tourist sites on the worldmap, trigger any hidden dialogue in any town to get the title Quiz Researcher -Answer all the quiz questions correctly Representative of Leane -Talk to the man in Darilsheid's castle prison, must be done after you meet up with Rutee during the second part of the game Heir to the Courage of the Sun -Defeat Barbatos on the last floor of the hidden dungeon +++++ RUTEE +++++ Lens Hunter -Default Greedy Witch -Talk to a guard near the gate of Seingald Castle and pick the first choice Former Lens Hunter -During the second part of the game, go to Cresta and talk to a sister inside the orphanage, pick the second choice ++++ LION ++++ Royal Swordsman -Default Sweet Boy -Talk to a guy at the central park of Noischtat Dash Knight -Win the running race in Noischtat Rose of Seingald -After Woodrow and Chelsea join your party in the first part of the game, talk to a woman near the entrance of Snowfreer ++++++ PHILIA ++++++ Priestess of Straylize -Default Look of Realization -Talk to an old woman on the street of Noischtat and pick the second choice Maiden's Look -Talk to an old lady at the slum region of Noischtat Bomb Alchemist -Talk to a female dog owner at Cresta's central plaza A Class Agent -Talk to the person at Straylize Temple with the Look of Realization title equipped on her Gossip Master - Dash Priestess -Win the race against the kid in Noischtat +++++++ WOODROW +++++++ coming soon... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Is this game coming to North America? A: Not that we heard of, Sony America isn't a big fan of 2D games, so chance of seeing this game being localized is slim. 2. Is this any different from the original Tales of Destiny on PS? A: Yes, and tons of differences. Refer to GAMEPLAY & CONTROLS section for more details. 3. Where can I get the game? A: Any online import shops: Play-Asia, YesAsia, Himeya, etc. 4. Where is that raw material which doubles your experience points in battle? A: Northwest corner of the worldmap, you should see a group of small islands clustered together, the raw material is located on one of the islands. (Note you can only go there when you can travel freely during the second part of the game). 5. How do I recruit Lilith? A: You must be on the second part of the game and have control over the Sea Dragon. Sail to Linea and go to Stahn's hosue for a scene with Lilith. Then head to the colloseum in Noischtat and use Stahn to finish all 4 ranks. At the end of your Rank 4 fight, Kongman will challenge you, but will be instantly KOed by Lilith. You'll then have to fight her, which shouldn't be a problem if you are level 40 or above. If you got owned instead, simply talk to the reception desk and choose to fight her again. When you beat Lilith, she'll squeeze into your party and become a permanent member! 6. I can't defeat Ilene, WTF is going on!!?? A: You must take care of the floating robots right after she send them out, if you don't destroy them, Ilene's HP will remain as ???? and she will remain invincible. Philia's holy/light spells are very effective here, abuse them if you must. 7. I don't know the password to the locked door in Oberon factory, I can't read kanjis! How do you open it? A: It's 12345. If you read the hint carefully, you should get a clue just from the colored kanjis. The device with a large screen and three switches downstairs outputs a number with a background color behind it when you turn on one or combine two or more switches. Match the output background colors to the kanjis' colors in the hint and input the corresponding numbers as your password and the door should unlock. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7. LEGAL STUFF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unpublished work Copyright 2006 by yangxu (jyanglaststar@gmail.com) This FAQ is meant only for private use, and is protected by US Copyright Law. This FAQ may not be changed or referenced without permission from myself. Any change made to this FAQ by unauthorized personnel will be punished under the International Copyright Law All names and references used here are copyrighted by BANDAI NAMCO.