Game:

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (2008)

Duration: 24:45

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1

Genis' coliseum run continues to be a challenge in Intermediate, despite the enemies now having exploitable weaknesses.

Normal Mode Fights start at 1:34.
Mania Mode Prep starts at 8:19.
Failed Mania Attempts start at 9:56.
Mania Mode Fights start at 14:13.

Here are some tips to help you get through each fight.

Round 1: The "jump over the enemy and stun lock them with the down attack spell cancel combo" strategy doesn't work here, largely because Genis can't jump over the Boxer iris' head unless Genis has a running start and the Boxer Iris is in the middle of a lunge. And the Boxer Iris is too fast to get more than one spell off before you get put in the corner. There are two ways out of the corner, though. One is to cast Eruption and run underneath the Boxer Iris while he's getting juggled by the spell. The other is to use Genis' up combo. Whether you land a successful hit or it gets blocked, Genis' jump and landing will move both him and his target in the horizontal direction of the jump. But you have to spell cancel upon landing to get back into guard before the opponent punishes you. Since the Boxer Iris is weak to Fire, I went with Eruption even on Mania where I don't have Concentrate and the Mystic Symbol is removed in favour of the Force Ring. I can afford to do this because Spell Save will make sure the spell comes out quickly even if I'm interrupted, and getting interrupted and knocked down is actually better than Concentrate, since you're taking less damage over time and regen equips have more time to kick in.

Round 2: On Normal, it's easy enough: the Coffinmaster is weak to Light, and Prism Sword is a two-shot that comes out fast enough with the Mystic Symbol. On Mania, though, it's not as reliable. The one time I tried Prism Sword on Mania, it took too long to cast and I suffered my first death when I was pigeon-holed into exploiting the Light weakness. If you're on higher difficulties, or your Genis doesn't know Prism Sword, level 2 spells are good enough. Eruption didn't do nearly as much damage as Prism Sword, but the faster casting time means you can get several out fairly safely. Also make sure to equip Drain Charm to make Genis resist Dark on higher difficulties.

Round 3: Exploiting the Feather Magic's Earth weakness with spells might be tempting, and I barely managed it on Normal, but I couldn't afford it on Mania and went with melee. The Feather Magic is fairly easy to get in a stun loop with the up combo. It will bring her to the ground, and Genis can use the up combo again to bring her back to the ground before she can get back into the air and move away. You don't even need spell canceling for this. If you're feeling particularly brave, you could forego the Force Ring's damage reduction (because you're probably not going to get hit) and/or Turquoise (because you're not going to use TP) in favour of the Ruby and/or Extreme Symbol for more damage.

Round 4: Requiring an accessory slot for the Yasakani Jewel means that on higher difficulties, you have to sacrifice either regen or a resistance to non-elemental. Since this is the last round and Genis has so much TP, I decided to give up on the Turquoise, so I only have small HP regen from the Cleric's Hat and no TP regen at all. Between that and the Sasquatch's size and weight making running under him during Eruption a lot harder, you're better off using the up combo to get yourself out of the corner. Better yet, take him all the way to the other end of the stage and then backstep repeatedly to create space for yourself. This gives you the opportunity to cast multiple Eruptions, and possibly an Explosion (I don't know for sure; mine was triggered instantly via Randomizer). Just be mindful that Explosion can knock the Sasquatch closer to you and eliminate any space advantage you had. This happened to me, but thankfully the Sasquatch's health was low enough that I could end the fight before it could backfire and cause a loss at the very end.

Watch the entire series in this playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwzhCuq-6Ca_75wXlU0I8zD5aw6Xr-EZj

Watch Coliseum Challenges in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwzhCuq-6Ca9SNDAwLlDoGBkOAr6I0bHs

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