Tales of Symphonia- Beating Living Armor

really really sorry for the crazy emulation issues in the beginning!!! it gets better as the video goes on!!! i spent about four attempts trying to get to living armor because i wasn't aware you could examine the blue flames to collect soulfire, and that the areas are color coded so that you know when you're on a rout or bridge or normal map, which gives you the necessary context with how to handle the floor. had i known that it would've saved me hours of failed attempts to get to living armor (no game overs, just, i didn't have enough soulfire to warp to him, so i had to start niflheim over), since with that knowledge i did the challenge easily on the first try (barring accidentally warping out of the dungeon with the green fire when not paying attention). on the other hand though, it may have worked well for me since this boss is extremely strong, so i probably ended up needing the extra leveling up from the failures. one sword swing does thousands of damage, he can combo and, most markedly, hold his hand up after a combo to cost powerful magic like Absolute and Earth Bite, and he ties with Abyssion for the highest HP of any boss in the game. That said though, at this stage he was easy. The Kusanagi Blade is strong against the undead, he's a huge and mostly stationary target so my combo is really good against him. this was my first attempt against him and not one life bottle was used. i have a feeling mithos will be extremely easy after all this extra stuff..... i'll use the grade i earned on this run to try and purchase a lot of goodies for a Mania run. and you know, costumes, which are just as important.