[Excorsism]

I found some information about how the whole battle system is going to be like though I just grabbed it from the official Tales forum. Kudos to the guy who posted it. I think it's based on the demo from TGS but I don't know the specifics.

Spoiler for Battle System:

To make things simple I will post the information we have so far of the battle system that was revealed with the demo on nore's blog

First and foremost, there's no normal attack, unless I tranlated a certain part of nore's explanation right.
The A button Style works completely different than anything ever found in any Tales game and the B button works like the traditional artes button.
Quote:
Looks like the Artes for the A button are a graduated or tiered system of Artes that can be strung together to access more or different Artes.

Let's go ahead and take an example using English named Artes.

So on Neutral A we'll have: Demon Fang -> Azure Edge -> Azure Storm -> Dragon Swarm.

So we press A once and we get Demon Fang. We press A again and we'll now get Azure Edge. Press A a third time and we link to Azure Storm and on the fourth press of A we get Dragon Swarm.

So our combo will start with Demon Fang then Azure Edge then Azure Storm and finish off with Dragon Swarm. Make sense?

So let's say we start off with Demon Fang, but don't want to combo to Azure Edge, we can then press Up A and link to Sonic Thrust, then press Neutral A and get Azure Storm and press Neutral A once more and get Dragon Swarm.

So our new combo looks like Demon Fang -> Sonic Thrust -> Azure Storm -> Dragon Swarm.

For each Arte we link, we increase the CC cost by 1. So the first combo is 1+2+3+4 = 10 CC. The second combo also equals 10 CC.

So what if we want to link 2 Artes from the same tier? That's a little trickier, but it looks like by the time you get to the third tier you can swing back and forth between tier 2 (CC 2) and tier 3 (CC 3) Artes just by using any of the directional Artes except neutral.

In otherwords, Tier 3 Up A, Left A, Down A, Right A will send you back to Tier 2. Tier 2 Neutral A, Up A, Left A, Down A, Right A will send you back to Tier 3. You can do this infinite number of times with two stipulations:

1) You don't run out of CC.
2) You don't combo to Tier 3 Neutral A.

Take this information Asche translated and burn it on your minds, remembering that the arte that cost 1 CC looks and acts exactly like the first strike of a normal attack. Nore mentioned about being able to use something like a normal attack by flicking the analog right or left, but I can't tranlate neither prove it, so unless you can use a normal attack by tilting left ot right, you can't use normal attacks.

Asbel
　　　　CC1　　 　　CC2　　　　 　 　CC3　　 　CC4
N　Shunka┳ Setsuga ┳ Soushou ┳Souha
↑↓ 　　　　　 ┣ Senshinkyaku╋ Retsushinkohou ┫
← 　　　　　 ┣ Houyokushou ╋ Senrouga ┫
→ 　　　　　 ┗ Suieijin ┻ Saijinreiga ┛

This is Asbel a Arte list found in the demo, romanizations may be incorrect.(The difference in font size bear no meaning, besides trying to make it more organized) Also pay attention that some other characters like Cheria have up and down gouped as one button, meaning smaller tiers in the a attacks.

You move using Up and Down, not Left and Right, and the button list that posted, while not official, simply adapts the confirmed buttons from the Classic Controller. The official CC buttton config is:
a: a artes button
b: b artes button
y: Guard
x: Battle Menu
D Pad: Character Change
L: Blast Caliber
R: Target
-: Change Character Control Scheme
To execute a Arround Step, flick the analog quickly to any side, or hold it to the desired side while guarding. Tilting the analog to any direction while Guading will make the character step to that direction, Aiming Step tilting up, Back Step tilting down, and Arround Step Tilting either left or right.
Characters can gain bonus CC in middle combo by reaching certain conditions, with certain titles equipped or skills unlocked(Things like CC+6 are these).
There is a gauge under the characters that fills by attacking and drops by being attacked. No official confimation, but itseems to affect the damage outpout, both given and recived. It will lock in one place once Arles Break is unleashed.
The side bar fill in two directions at the same time in two colors. Once the pink side fills completely you enter in Arles Break. Once the blue side fills you enterin Arles Rise.
During Arles Rise you have unlimited CC and can unleash HiOugi's by holding the Blast Caliber button while an attack connects.

Source: http://tales.namco.com/forums/viewto...890293#2890293

On the subject of elemental spirits, I honestly hope they don't make it into this game. I think it's a cool concept and all but, if they plan to make it where you must go to x dungeon in order to unlock y spirit, they should just scrap it altogether. Should they be more creative in approaching the elemental spirits, I won't complain.