[Tales of Arise] Iron Mask Solo: Mantis

[@Muggshotter]

Nice job with the mantis, Iron Mask kinda lit with the NG+ fire under his shoes! Taking advantage of an air jump at 1:01 to smoothly maneuver around a creature as tall as mantis looks good in motion, it's probably my favorite moment of this run. Anime opening material right there haha!

[@ZekeBelforma]

Iron Mask do be zooming around the battlefield 😂 While I do like the "impact" hitstop provides, I didn't know Auto works like this and it indeed does feel smoother, that's an interesting finding. Great work on defeating the Mantis!

[@UnlimitedMrX]

This really do be a wall breaking, bucket-headed hobo moment 😳 Swift Ring is an experience, lmao At the end of the day, I think Auto vs Manual will probably come down to preference. I do like that both have their advantages and disadvantages, even though Auto clearly wasn't intended to work this way, lmao. Thanks!

[@miraclechao]

Iron Mask should give those glasses to Mantis. Not hitting the speedy badass is one thing, but missing strikes on his unmoving bitchy commentator is a cry for help. Anyways, nice moves! Things definitely look smoother without the forced Boost Strikes at half health (nothing against those).

[@UnlimitedMrX]

Tfw a hobo slave with a bucket on his head has better vision than a bioengineered insect monstrosity literally created to kill people as efficiently as possible. You hate to see it lmao. Yeah, I have mixed feeling on the forced boost strikes. On one hand, they're a nice finisher, but they're also kind of a pacebreaker (especially the one at half HP), and they feel out of place in a solo run. Thankfully, Mantis is available to fight right before you get access to Boosts, or even the Blazing Sword for that matter.

[@Muggshotter]

@@UnlimitedMrX Forced Boost Strikes don't serve much purpose other than manufacturing cool looking finishes, and even then the transition (or lack thereof) to a dying enemy cutscene is very poorly slapped together. Can't even call it satisfactory when the one decent thing about boost strike finishes is taken away (that is, the slow-mo fade-out in mob fights) lmao

[@UnlimitedMrX]

@@Muggshotter Thankfully the bad transition into the boss KO animation only applies to monster bosses, and human bosses get the clean fade-out. Too bad 95% of the bosses in this game are monsters lol. I like the idea of the boss KO animation, but even without the forced Boost strike, it still has no transition whatsoever and comes off as jarring. I think it would've worked a lot better if they kept that animation if you kill it with a normal attack (but have it as a proper in-battle animation instead of a scripted scene), but skip it if you kill with a Boost or MA. Of course this all goes without saying that forced boosts should be gone.