「Last Stand」 Tales of Xillia 2 Solo Compilation

Woaoah big upload, probably (hopefully) unexpected as well.. What's that? I always come back? Well that might have some truth to it but come on, I didn't play for almost a whole year...
First of all, happy midsummer everyone!
I took a very long hiatus from this game starting around the end of November last year, however some recent activity sparked some motivation and suddenly I found myself working on a small project again..
Surprisingly, this wasn't AS painful to do as I expected (besides like one fight, I'll get to that later..), and honestly this is a much better presentation of my current skill level in this game compared to the previous compilation which was very uninspired with a couple of characters...
In any case, once again with this video I strive to show that every character in this game has "sauce", even the bad ones if you just look hard enough.
However this time around I also decided to up the game and do very different fights, as well as some arbitrary hidden restrictions that prevent me from using specific artes (such as Byakkijin and Negative Holder).
As a side note, I'm using a patch that allows me to use solo mystic artes without OVL, I was feeling a bit extra ✨
Of course, I am not simply breaking the game with the outrageous damage MAs can deal, and I very strictly only use them as fight enders once I've dealt majority of the damage legitimately.
Details regarding each fight can be read from the pinned comment below, though good luck making sense of my non-existent formatting and grammar.
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▶ Leia vs. Julius - 0:00
▶ Jude vs. Chronos - 0:54
▶ Rowen vs. Aska - 2:08
▶ Elize vs. Sonny - 2:53
▶ Alvin vs. Waterfall Phantom - 4:10
▶ Gaius vs. Mega Tusk - 5:11
▶ Muzét vs. Celsius - 6:21
▶ Milla vs. Maxwell - 8:00
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🕛 Everyone Solo
🕐 Unknown Mode
🕑 No Damage
🕒 No Menu
🕓 No Might Charge
🕔 No Full Weakness
🕕 No Ludger
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🎵 Dekamori Senran Kagura - I Have Only One Wish
🎵 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R - Heritage for the Future
🎵 Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy - Ripper Roo (Crash 1)
🎵 Pokémon Masters EX - Battle! Kalos Friends
🎵 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Prince Mush Battle
🎵 Super Robot Wars Z2 - Colors
🎵 Super Heroine Chronicle - Zero no Tsukaima Battle
🎵 Sonic Adventure 2 - Chao Race Jewel
──────────

[@JustSamu]

▶ Leia vs. Julius - 0:00 ∟ Double Damage, 2 Resets This was the spark of it all, I had no plans whatsoever to return to this game, but I was in a call with a certain someone who was getting into running this game, which lead to some co-op labbing sessions.. And I eventually got enough ideas to just do a one-off myself. Leia's weapon pool in the early game is extremely lacking (though this can be circumvented with Fancy Elements), which lead me to picking Julius as her opponent. While not the hardest boss out there, the wind weakness certainly compliments Leia's kit. She also suffers from poorly short timers with most of her artes, even with the additional effects there's only a couple of good timers at her disposal. This combined with her bad line-up with hitting different elements can get very costly when it comes to dps. However, with Julius' wind weakness it's possible to craft some quite nifty weakness resets! While Julius does have both ground- and air enabled counters in both pools, he seems to prioritize the sidestep and Air OVL in this encounter specifically, how convenient! Shunjinsou, which I think is a pretty bad arte with it's end lag and height loss in the air, works quite well in my favor for a reset here. Ensenda timed right towards the end of a gauge lines up perfectly for a low mid-air Shunjinsou to hit a new weakness as well as trigger an air counter which in best case scenario leads into Julius attempting to use Air OVL which fails as he lands, letting the combo continue normally. Shoubu Koubappa is one of my favorite artes for Leia (I swear it's not X1 bias), but it can be quite tricky to land mid-combo against a human boss due to it's long start-up and heavy knockback. However if timed well and spaced properly it can flow well and look quite nice on the eyes! Senpuukon is overall a pretty awful arte, but it has some slight juggling properties and if timed in a manner in which the last hit lands outside of a weakness combo, it will trigger a low aerial counter and can act as a reset on it's own, wow it almost feels like I'm playing Alvin! In any case, once the 2nd reset is conquered, I proceed into stacking all my available elements with an aerial chain and finish it off with a Yousou Rakubakushuu into MA. ▶ Jude vs. Chronos - 0:54 ∟ Double Damage, No Weakness This was actually tedious lol. The start into OVL bait is actually quite consistent as Chronos likes to guard multi-hits, especially straight from idle. I'm not too satisfied with the neutral play that follows after, as I miss a Snap Pivot off of a Chronos Collider, however I do make up for it by back-manipping and successfully dodging a second one with Hitenshouku. Chronos only has a single air counter, this being the Air OVL. So once his Overlimit runs out he'll enter a cooldown (which is like 1min or so, I never bothered to time this lol) in which he can't trigger Overlimit again. During this window, Chronos is completely free to combo in the air as he's been stripped of his only counter. Do note that dealing a clean hit while grounded will trigger another counter chance, this hit always needs to launch him and be followed up immediately mid-air. I make use of another Snap Pivot to hit a Garouhouko at his back, guaranteeing a stagger with the cost of my first free knockdown. I follow with an instant Rengadan (AC can get very tight here so I make use of any chance to preseve it) and OTG with Eishourai. This ensures that the next hit I deal will trigger a counter, which is exactly what I want. For whatever reason, the L1 Launcher into Rondosenpuu + Air Normal combo is inconsistent against Chronos and will only work consistently if the 2nd hit of the Launcher deals an unclean hit. This is when the "hard part" starts. While Jude has the tools to juggle in the air, he is far from an air-focused fighter which can lead to a combo that looks awfully repetitive.. To counter this, I brought in Milla with me so I have access to Wind Cutter when linked to her, which unironically helps quite a bit for being a single additional arte! As another way of combatting the repetitiviness, I threw in as many Air Normal as I could.. This was a decision that nearly drove me crazy as they liked to whiff every so often and it was not too uncommon to find myself run out of AC... Not to mention Hienrenkyaku being an absolute bottom tier arte to use in the air, the last hit makes the enemy drop like a rock.. While under normal circumstances this is hardly an issue as you can just follow up with Saihyoujin or such, I can't stress enough how I literally can not let Chronos land (without knockdown). So ideally, you have the 3rd hit skill equipped and position yourself in a way that the last hit whiffs completely. Once successfully going through with the first chain of attacks, I quickly return to the ground and side-swap with Mueishou and AC Reset. Chronos' long knockdown timer is practically begging for it, so I make use of another Milla link extension. Sazanka -> Grave actually changes the hit properties and the last hits do indeed OTG, though the latter will trigger another ground counter which I have to address by immediately following up with Garyoukuuha. If the RNGods allow it and I can get through the 2nd chain without running out of AC, I can peacefully return to the ground. Despite hitting the OTG limit, I can still extend my arcane with unclean hits. And yeah, I had to go for the secret MA. Meteor Swarm is actually weaker than Satsugeki Bukouken, at least without weakness stacked lol. ▶ Rowen vs. Aska - 2:08 ∟ No Multipliers, 2 Timestops This is very, very much a gimmick combo, however it is one that I wanted to do a long time ago. This is only possible to do against Aska as he's the only enemy in the game with hazards that appear even while he's being combo'd. Starting the battle off by approaching the boss and casting a Tetra Spell to wear off the penetrate and throwing out a Severed Fate just before the first light pillar indicator spawns. This actually works surprisingly well, as long as I don't get more than one crit during the spells, Severed Fate will always stagger and begin a weakness combo. I immediately follow up by walking towards the middle of the pillar spawn and backstep to trigger Splendor Time. The duration of the time stop was nerfed from X1, so it can be quite tricky to follow up without an existing arte chain, but thankfully there is a very foolproof setup with Bright Bell and Freeze Lancer. As I prepare for the next pillar I end the chain with Splash into Crag Waltz. The latter is very important as it's by far the longest lasting active hitbox Rowen has access to, while it's betting on the roll RNG it allows me to end with a different chain instead of repeating the first time stop. As long as I roll one more petrify after Air Pressure I'm good to go with Divine Streak and Tidal Wave. It's worth to mention as well, Aska sports among the fastest knockdown recovery times in the game so Crag Waltz wouldn't even work without the time stop, as it takes a minimum of 3 hits to have a chance to petrify with these early game stats. Even though this is a quick one I'm quite happy with the outcome. My goal was to do no repeated action after staggering which I did in fact get. As a side note, if I used a normal attack at any point I could have hit full weakness, which in case it's not obvious would have been straight up overkill lol.

[@JustSamu]

▶ Elize vs. Sonny - 2:53 ∟ Double Weakness, 2 Resets While the gameplay is overall much improved over the previous video, this is the one with the least "new" stuff. As usual I begin with fight with a low-use Tipo Vacuum, which instead of sucking the enemy in has a constant stun chance while completely ignoring the enemy penetrate/iron stance. With a stun successfully fished, I have a guaranteed 0-hit combo starter which I just follow up with a Million Vite to instantly lock Sonny in a weakness combo. With a small chain, it's possible to connect Serpents Vite before the enemy can recover from Tramtipoline. The stagger time Tipo Glider grants is absolutely insane and even though landing earlier broke my arte chain I have no issue connecting a Negative Gate thanks to the Spell Impact skill (releases a shockwave every time you cast for .9 seconds). Landing from this will break my chain again, but I can use Tipo Rising's outrageous timer to build a longer chain which barely lets me fit in Flutters Dim in Twinkle's timer to set up for a weakness reset. For variety's sake I went for the L1 Forward to begin a weakness gauge as it's a multi-hit which immediately locks Sonny back into the combo. However, unlike Elize's other normal attack which hit gun, the strong ones hit hammer.. This would be an issue later, so I had to come up with a quick solution. I pull Sonny back to me with an instant Negative Gate and launch him with Tramtipoline just as the gauge is about to run out and trigger an air counter and another reset with an Air Normal, which I can follow up with a Tipo Glider into an actual instant Black Guide as I preserved my chain all the way from Tipo Rising. Here on out it's just more or less going through all the elements all over again but I made sure to save hammer for last as I absolutely needed that timer for Revere Ignition. Important to note that I needed at least a 4 arte chain before casting that, otherwise Spell Impact would have gone off and gotten rid of the stun. ▶ Alvin vs. Waterfall Phantom - 4:10 ∟ No Multipliers, 2 Resets I actively avoided recycling any match-ups from the previous video, however I really wanted to show off Alvin's guard breaking tech by forcing the enemy to guard with reduce hits. By far the best boss for this is Waterfall Phantom, not only because it's a massive penetrate fiend, but also due to the water resistance which makes Rain Bullet truly shine! This with the overall improved and extended combo I feel makes up for this. So as stated, I begin by shooting a Rain Bullet, which will nearly always force the boss to guard as long as it's in idle (so basically approaching with either the stomp attack or Curse). Alvin's Charge Breaker skill ensures that a guard break will always happen from any attack whilst having at least one stacked (fun fact, it even applies to the 2nd hit of Charged Blow from get-go). At the start of the combo, I make use of Charged Blows as pseudo sidesteps to line up with the right tentacle, as Majuu Senkoudan would not naturally connect from Chase Cannon without an early hit. Once landed, I simply hit shot and approach for a weakness reset with Majin Bakuenzan. Afterwards I side-swap with Smash Baker and do some rare aerial Alvin, until setting up for the next reset with Houryuu Rengazan. If timed right, the grab will start a new gauge and despite triggering a counter the combo will continue as if nothing happened. The rest is pretty straightforward but I had to introduce an RNG element for the sake of arte variety. I needed a stun off of Shugo Houtsuijin so Wide Shot can connect and I can stack a charge for Death by Trigger. ▶ Gaius vs. Mega Tusk - 5:11 ∟ Double Damage, 3 Resets This combo was way, way harder than it needed to be lmao. I start of by waiting for the boar to use Varied Charge which I will flash guard. Shortly after the last hit of the charge attack, the enemy is still considered to be in an "attacking state" so Dankashouwai will successfully go off, taking care of most of the boss' penetrate. The rest is left to Haou Tenshouken. Now that the combo has started, I immediately have an RNG element, as the knockdown from the arcane is still recent, there's a decent chance that Haja Juujisei will not knockdown again. I need said knockdown as the positioning for the backwards Hien Shunrenzan is extremely precise, it barely hits the tail. Shortly after, the Kogahazan uses my last free knockdown, so I'm out of those so early on.. Aerial Shunjinken launches a grounded enemies high with ease, and thanks to Gaius' Heavy Edge skill this also applies to gigantos. With said launch, ground counters can be completely disregarded. After the reset, I push the boss towards a counter and end with a Tenshinkyaku stun setup into Seika Messaijin, which requires a setup with free run as the upwards shooting hits have poor hitstun and you need to outright make them miss in order to preserve the combo. Afterwards I go for a Majinken Shouga for a coordinated short hop and a somewhat precise Kogahazan. I need to be a very specific distance away accompanied with the right height for the first hit to connect but to avoid the downwards hit from landing entirely as it would knock down and trigger the OTG limit. Once past that, pretty much anything will apply a 2nd element and allow the combo to continue normally. I proceed into 2-3 Hien Shunrenzans depending on the position I end up in after the 2nd. I need to end up on the "left side" so Seiryu will position me perfectly for a Koujinreppa to pull Mega Tusk out of the corner which I can then steal with a Shunjinken. After getting out of the corner, I set up for another reset. Thanks to Heavy Edge once again, Haja Juujisei can launch even gigantos high enough to avoid another knockdown. However, Haja Juujisei does always leave me facing away from the enemy so I need to correct my position with a sidestep and quickly catch with Majinken before the boss touches the ground. At this point I'm on the home stretch, and I simply just rack up all my elements one last time and go for a stun with Koujinreppa and end with Haou Tenshouken. I do feel like I should note that I did buff Gaius' stun rate to make make this more pure execution based, but I didn't want to make it "too unfair" so I only upped myself to Elise's stun rate (from 30% to 60%), however my consideration did not seem to matter at all whatsoever as I got every single stun in this take... This does not change the combo in any way as I only ever go for and make use of those 2 stun setups I previously mentioned, but I do admit it does make this slightly less impressive even though this is all possible with no modifications whatsoever.

[@JustSamu]

▶ Muzét vs. Celsius - 6:21 ∟ Double Damage, Double Weakness, 2 Resets This one felt right at home, exactly brought back memories of why I burnt out to begin with. After the hiatus, especially after playing as the other characters first it really occurred to me how much tomfoolery it takes and the amount of bullshit you need to circumvent to make this character work even in the slightest, is absolutely outrageous compared to everyone else... Worst spell recovery, worst iron stance breaking capabilities, short timers, straight up useless artes.. She has them all. And what I thought would be a fun match-up ended up just being me shooting myself to the leg, which I'll get more into detail soon. Celsius has iron stance, although a very minimal amount. Her attacks are well indicated so it's possible to get through this with ease even as Muzét, however the tricky part is that I needed to begin the combo with only a single clean hit off of Avoidance. As this arte has a terrible timer I needed to use All Out to hit hammer instead as this grants a long enough timer for Air Pressure to connect. Muzét absolutely needs to cast all of her spells in the air, as her post-casting recovery time is the worst out of the whole cast and only Black Guide has long enough hitstun to connect into anything naturally. Air Pressure lasts long enough for a quick aerial Burn Spread to connect, and thanks to the great earth timer, I can play around for a bit before hitting the next element. This is also where picking Celsius kinda backfired. Her bad posture makes her have a very gimmicky and low hurtbox, which makes aerial Etherly Whip setups very precise.. However once past that hell, then comes my pride and joy, the ✨Cyclone catch✨, honestly this was the one new thing I really wanted to introduce here and I'm so happy about figuring it out! And yeah I guess Force Mine is there too lol. This is ANOTHER part where picking Celsius backfired.. as Cyclone is used immediately upon a reset, I basically waste the wind element as the grab will hit hammer and grant a very very poor timer.. And due to Celsius' fire weakness, I have the fire pin equipped to perform weakness resets, I can't use my old reliable Burn Spread for a quick timer refresh either.. Thankfully I have time to start a quick grounded chain with Brandish into Etherly Whip and then use the launcher to set up for Black Guide, which I can then easily use to reset again. Of course I had to include the traditional Arrivederci catch and another nightmare Etherly Whip setup. The distance for petrified Etherly Roots is also important or the Stun Blitz wouldn't reach. ▶ Milla vs. Maxwell - 8:00 ∟ Double Damage, 2 Resets I had kind of a struggle figuring out who to pick for Milla, as I wanted to go with a more legal restriction this time around, so I had to play till end game to get Maxwell Milla for the Four and MA.. I tried to go out of my way to not just pick easy fights, however Maxwell is kind of a punching bag and goes against that.. But I did want to make sure I can use my beloved glitched aerial spells in the combo and this boss truly lets me lab these in without a worry for the most part. Basically, you can cast spells in the air as Milla even without equipping the skill by queueing the input and switching to Auto just as the game is about to execute it. I start 3 spaces away to help avoid the corner later, instantly hitting Maxwell's weak spot with a Higher Than Sky followed with Overdrive so I can use it again later to close the distance without applying a new gauge so Elemental Shot's lines up for the reset. I'm using magic stance as I like the projectile you can send in the air, it's not good at all but with a big enough chain you can connect an air spell glitch with something quick. Efreet can be cancelled with a frontstep, which I make use of multiple times throughout the fight, it's just a neat little filler arte that looks cool and doesn't require commitment. I also had a hidden restriction; I wanted to make Cataract Ray work. Its end lag is terrible and it doesn't have much hitstun and I only found Wind Cutter to really connect after. Speaking of Wind Cutter I chose to follow up with the Cyclone variant of it as it lines up it's knockdown perfectly as the timer is about to run out. Maxwell's down time is also quite long so I can with ease begin a new gauge by hitting his weak spot with Lunatic Sting and pick him up with Overdrive and Wind Cutter. I use this part of the combo to build up a big chain, after the side swap I needed to do an air step before the Lightning otherwise Maxwell would get pushed too far back after Round Edge. Air Steps much like pretty much any other movement option in the game, does break your chain, however if you cancel the animation with another attack your chain is preserved. All the height I get here is needed for the next set up. I bring Maxwell up to the skies with me and glitch a Prison Saver. Because I'm this high and the recovery time on the arcane spell happens to be less than the other high tier ones, I can quickly snipe with Elemental Shot before I hit the ground, still preserving my chain. After I queue another glitch Thunder Blade and afterwards finally land, follow with an Efreet cancel for some extra damage and close in for another reset with Overdrive. Overdrive by itself performs pretty much infinite weakness resets, as long as the timer expires and new one with 2 elements is hit within one use. I wanted to go for a bit longer of a combo, but with no multipliers the fight was going to take forever so I decided to wrap it up here with a quick chain into one more glitch Burn Spread. Here I had to be more careful as Higher Than Sky can easily rack up unwanted damage by critting against the weak spot, so I chose to extend from Forcefield, and hey, more arte variety never hurts, right? ────────── Phew, anyway, I'm glad to get this out so I can stop thinking about it and this game as a whole again. Blame Horangi for getting me hooked back into this bs and Jak for giving me the idea to do Jude with no weakness. Special thanks to Zeke for polishing the thumbnail as usual as well.

[@ZekeBelforma]

Samu may not be a mailman but he always delivers 🗣🗣

[@HorangiTiger]

Why is he so cool? Samu must be the GOAT 😊 I still can't believe my eyes when I watch the Leia, Gaius, and Musee solos! The effort you put in and accumulated experience/game knowledge really shows in every solo and each one is beautiful to watch ❤

[@TailsGt1]

Good to see ya back! Could be bias, love what you did with the casters! Some of the spell timings with Elize and Muzét looked super tight! Glad you found some enjoyment in X2 again! 💖

[@JustSamu]

Good to be back! (although probably for just this video as I have no plans for the recent future 💀) Thanks! If only spells didn't completely blow in this game there'd be so much more than could be done. Nevertheless I'm happy with the end result, especially the chain management with Elize and Milla 👁

[@frubam]

The master of weakness resets! Some really amazing work done here. Extra credit for doing Chronos without Power Charge; that one looked REALLY nice. Muzet as well. Those two stand out, but all the others have also been done very well. Was never really great at the weakness reset myself, but its nice to see how all the characters can utilize the mechanic =03.

[@JustSamu]

Thanks! The weakness resets truly are the saving grace that still manage to make me come back to this game, it's always fun to think outside the box and figure out new ways to implement them >:3

[@judgementcl]

Im in the process of trying to learn Xillia 2 competently, and man, this is just crazy inspiration. That jude solo with no PC and intentional hienrenyaku whiffs is so technical. Good stuff!

[@JustSamu]

Thanks! I'm glad you (and others) have thought the Jude fight is enjoyable as I was afraid the limitations might've made it a tad too repetitive. Hope you have a good time labbing and learning the game, don't let the rng consume you 💀

[@AbstractReplayer]

Lesgoooo My brain will always short-circuit into hype whenever i see combo resets. Even if it's on Julius. I suck at them they are like magic to me. And of course everyone is here. Nobody is missing.

[@JustSamu]

Weakness reset = neuron activation 🤯 By far the one thing that manages to bring me back to this game every so often lol, there's always new setups to discover with everyone against different bosses! ✨

[@Kevassa]

I feel weird commenting here since we talked about it BUT hey still impressive stuff specially I like Judo and Muzet. More Elize content increasing Samu Elize run chances every second now

[@JustSamu]

The Elize run getting too close to becoming a real thing 😱