Tales of Phantasia: The Lower Moria Gallery

Well, I wanted to make it through Tales of Phantasia while keeping the FAQ reading and savestate reloading to a minimum. But alas, now that I am in the lower levels of the Moria gallery (right at the end of the game) I fear that I am defeated. (And I’ve nearly maxed out everyone’s level, too.)

A few simple questions for those who have bothered:
Are there no save points anywhere in the lower levels of the Moria gallery?
Has anyone here ever finished the lower levels without using savestates? How many hours did it take?
And finally, what’s the best way to deal with the Beastmaster and his three TuskBoars? Between the Berserk attacks of the TuskBoars and the Beastmater’s constant Lich Summoning, they’ve always been the ones to get me.

My first advice would be being way over the minimum required for entering this hellhole as well as having collected all of the pirate treasures (Particularly the whole Ishtar set for Cless). Another thing you must do is sticking your pride up your butt, because you are going to run from any fight you can.

Needless to say, but Mint must be in the party AT ALL TIMES.

The BeastMan is only dangerous if you let him be, as soon as the battle starts, have Cless hit him with a multi-hit tech (Mecha Blade is my favorite) and keep using Tiger Teeth until he’s gone. When they pair up with the TuskBoars, the best strategy would be having Klarth and Arche casting stuff incessantly (Especially Indignation) and let Cless take care of the TuskBoars.

There IS a save point, right at the end before you fight the boss (Which is a joke compared to the dungeon). After that, all that is left is going back up. Don’t worry, you’ll find some goodies down there that’ll make your life a little bit easier.

Hmm. Is that because you need every little last scrap of TP in order to make it through, or just because it’ll take too freaking long if you try to fight everything? Or is it impossible to run from most fights anyway?

(Most of the enemies aren’t too hard to deal with, except for those damn TuskBoars. And maybe that weird fairy thing with the shield.)

Because all of those reasons. You need to save every last healing/restoring item you can (Especially healing items for the areas with poisoned air) and it wouldn’t only make it a longer trip, the ammount of fights might even cause YOU fatigue.

My advice: Run like hell and wait until you get the Excalibur Sword and the Scout Orb (The treasures at the end) before you try to get search for Klarth’s and Arche’s spells (Which aren’t even worth the trouble, except maybe Gremlin).

Thanks muchly for your responses.

The one problem is that I still can’t run from those damn TuskBoars! Even with a Mist Rune equipped, it just takes too long and the Beastmaster can cast Summon Lich before the escape is complete.

While I can defeat them occasionally, I still haven’t come up with an effective strategy. Using Teleport or Tiger Teeth runs the risk of jumping over a TuskBoar, which proceeds to promptly kill everyone else in the party, but using Soul Wave over and over again is just wasteful. What do you suggest?

As I said, magic is the only way to go with those things. Imput actions manually for Arche and Klarth AS SOON AS THE BATTLE STARTS so that they cast multi-hit and powerful spells like Maxwell or Indignation, and keep doing it as soon as you can cast again. I suggest you time it so while one of them rests, the other casts something. The point is not to give the BeastMan enough time to summon Lich and buy Cless enough time to Tiger Teeth the shit out of the TuskBoar, then focus on the other sucker.

Hooray, I finally made it to the save point! And it only took me about two and a half hours! :hyperven: (I almost gave up from boredom, but then there’s nothing pressing I had to get done tonight…)

A factor that no doubt contributed greatly to my success was, oddly enough, that I only encountered TuskBoars twice. I never saw them again after the first dark non-flashing room (right after the “buttons”), despite the vast number of battles fought. There was a pretty good mix of everything else, although I suppose the Manticore was a little uncommon.

Oh well, I made it fair and square. On to Dhaos! (…after I finish off the boss… and get all the treasure in those flashing rooms… and get back out again… and maybe collect some Ivory… Ah, what a game.)

And thanks again for your help! :moogle:

Further experimentation has revealed that Mint’s Silence spell is remarkably effective against the BeastMaster, and she can cast it pretty quickly, too.

So has anyone encountered the “chicken transformation” bug before, as described in JPuga’s FAQ? My Blue Candle changed into a Chicken once, and the only other save I had was from forty minutes before. I think it has something to do with the trigger that breaks the Holy Bottles.

In the lowest levels there’s this tiny thing that looks like some spiky urchin or something, that is too short to really hit with your sword, and looks weak. Swallow your pride on this thing. You can’t beat it with spells, summons, techniques, or mana. In fact, you probably can’t beat it period. If it touches you, it deals 9999 damage to you instantly. So run already.