Mirrage Artes (魔鏡技 Makyougi?, "Magic Mirror Artes") are an arte type in Tales of the Rays. They are similar to mystic artes seen in other Tales games.
Description[]
Mirrage artes are powerful abilities granted by mirrages, used at the expense of the Mirrage Gauge (MG). Using a mirrage arte increases the Mirrage Ratio (ミラージュレシオ Miraajureshio?) for the remainder of a quest, which in turn increases the strength of subsequent mirrage artes. Like mystic artes from previous titles, mirrage artes are primarily used as powerful attacks, but they can also be supportive. Every damage-focused mirrage arte can be enhanced to recover a portion of user's maximum HP, adding to the overall usefulness. Mirrage artes can also be chained to each other; attempting to activate one will put it in a queue to be used immediately after the current mirrage arte finishes. Chained mirrage artes are capable of continuing a combo. Enemies are also capable of performing mirrage artes, but they are unable to KO the player party with them, leaving their targets with a minimum of 1 HP.
If the same mirrage is summoned more than once, it gains an "Auto" (オート Ooto?) feature. If certain conditions are met, the equipped mirrage arte will automatically activate. However, the attack power is downgraded by half. To compensate, the upgrades for some mirrage artes are amplified with the total max amplification up to four.
Once a character is awakened (generally when they acquire a non-Reward-type mirrage) they can equip one more mirrage on them, and if at least one of their mirrages attains at least 1 limit break, they can equip it on the Auto slot. This system allows a character to stack up to three MG levels, similarly to how it is with Blast Gauges. As opposed to BG, the power of an activated mirrage depends on the current full stack, e.g. if a character has a 100 MG mirrage set as main and an 80 MG mirrage set as sub, activating the 80 MG mirrage will result in performing a stronger in power mirrage arte. By analogy, if a 100 MG sub mirrage is activated when an 80 MG mirrage is set as the main, the activated sub mirrage will be more potent.
The types of mirrage artes are as follows:
- Reward Mirrage Artes (報酬魔鏡技 Houshuu Makyougi?, "Reward Magic Mirror Artes"): These mirrage artes are obtained by completing scenarios and thus essentially free. As such, they have a low amount of power and come with all upgrades already unlocked.
- Normal Mirrage Artes (通常魔鏡技 Tsujou Makyougi?, "Normal Magic Mirror Artes"): They are the standard mirrage artes.
- Overray Mirrage Artes (オーバーレイ魔鏡技 Oobaarei Makyougi?, "Overray Magic Mirror Artes"): Even more powerful than the standard mirrage arte, they allow the user to gain additional effects after a use, which differ depending on the anima, but require a large of expense of Mirrage Gauge. They feature a power from the game of origin that the character does not normally have access to in Tales of the Rays, such as Sorey's armatus in Suijinshourai or Yuri Lowell's Over Limit and Fatal Strike in Tenroumetsuga Souen.
- Battle Mirrage Artes (決戦魔鏡技 Kessen Makyougi?, "Decisive Battle Magic Mirror Artes"): More powerful than the standard mirrage artes, they have their maximum potential unlocked when they are maxed. Most of these mirrage artes contain references to late-game or otherwise important events from the mirrage's game of origin.
- Ending Mirrage Artes (終決魔鏡技 Shuuketsu Makyougi?, "Final Decision Magic Mirror Artes"): Usually the most powerful mirrage arte a character can use, rivaling the power of even battle mirrage artes. These serve as a reference to associated character's final scene in the game, that is the game's ending.
- Origin Mirrage Artes (オリジン魔鏡技 Origin Makyougi?, "Origin Magic Mirror Artes"): Introduced with Tales of the Rays Recollection with a focus of "a character looking cool in battle" due to the main story being completed. They feature an area as seen in the Original Mirrage Arte's art and upgrade a character's arte or combine a character's artes from their game of origin into a mirrage arte-class ability.
- Seasonal Mirrage Artes (季節魔鏡技 Kisetsu Makyougi?, "Seasonal Magic Mirror Artes"): Similar to the normal mirrage artes but carrying a seasonal motif, they often come with a myriad of effects and varying Mirrage Gauge costs.
- Collab Mirrage Artes (コラボ魔鏡技 Korabo Makyougi?, "Collab Magic Mirror Artes"): Similar to seasonal mirrage artes, they are associated with collaboration events wherein a member of the Tales franchise takes on the power of another franchise to either influence the resulting attack or outright borrow a technique.
- Spirit Gear Mirrage Artes (霊装魔鏡技 Reisou Makyougi?): Separate from the standard mirrage arte, these can be performed by expending Fairy Gauge (FG), although filling the gauge requires to perform more specific actions during battle then charging the Mirrage Gauge. They are said to be powers borrowed from spirits, like Aska providing the Light-element to Ix Nieves and Shadow enhancing Mileena Weiss's Darkness element.
- Crossover Mirrage Artes (クロスオーバー魔鏡技 Kurosuoobaa Makyougi?): A type of mirrage arte that consumes MG from one (total cost) or two (cost taken evenly from both) characters and allows them to perform an arte together. If the crossover mirrage arte is used by both characters, it restores some HP to its users; this does not apply in a single character use. These references combination artes that are seen in previous games or a common theme that certain characters share.
- Great Mirrlink Artes (大鏡鳴術 Daikyoumeijutsu?): Special mirrage artes used in Unison Attack, combining the powers of the entire party.
Trivia[]
- In Tales of Asteria, when the main characters from Tales of the Rays were introduced, their mirrages artes were retooled into mystic artes.