Asch Solo - Asch ~ Final Boss (Unknown) | Tales of the Abyss

Abyss HD Info (Some graphics shown are my own mods): https://www.lifebottle.org/#/
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The final part already, wow that flew by. This series was so much fun, even though 3 fights 3 times a week was a ton of work to keep up with. I'll be glad to slow things down again and start working on some other characters.
Asch is an extremely fun character to play, and I think he brought out my main strength as a player. His ability to play extremely aggressively and use a lot of creative options meshes very well with my playstyle.
There were a lot of crazy ideas I had for combos, but a lot of them had to be scrapped for the sake of consistency. Still, I'm more than happy with everything I did get to show off during the run.
I did my best to make the ending more unique to Asch with some editing. It was tough since he has no dialogue for it like the rest of the characters, but I'm happy with how things turned out.
Goodbye for now, Asch. You will be missed.

Modifications:
Removed/Changed The Party
Unlocked FSC and All Accessories Early
Manually Adjusted Attack/F.Atk Stats
Increased Rending Stun Hitstun from 50 to 60 (combos work without, but can be inconsistent)

Asch:
Attack: 3500
Asch is mostly the same as the first time you fight him, but for some reason it feels easier to open combos this time.
He gets pretty aggressive at low health, and can combo multiple artes the same way you can. So be more careful when going in when he's low.

Raging Blast can combo into Demon Fang as a re-catch from far away. You need Blue FSC on Raging Blast, and to Free Run Spell Cancel the Demon Fang. Also, do not use any Arte before the Raging Blast. You need to link Raging Blast to Demon Fang and be able to spell cancel after.
The wall combos also require Blue FSC on Raging Blast. Havoc Strike is by far the easiest to catch from, because it links naturally. Other Artes after the Blast will take proper timing.


Sync 2:
Attack: 5500
Sync is actually much harder than the first time around, unlike most of these re-fights. He has a lot more iron stance, making him hard to open up out of his melee attacks.
Your best chance is to wait for a spellcast, and use his recovery time to go in. Just be ready to jump out quickly if the combo doesn't open up.
There are a few things you need to be very careful of. If you see Sync consume an Earth FoF while casting, get ready to dodge a much larger attack: Gravity Well.
If Sync is casting Thunder Blade (listen for "oh storm cloud loose thy blade"), get away from any Earth FoF's on the field. This will also cast Gravity Well.
If you see sync using an arte with blue sparkles, than Figid Coffin is coming. This spell starts hitting FAST, and can catch you off guard.
It's best to be moving before the spell goes off, and continue moving afterwards. Jumping is a good way to do this, so you don't accidentally collide with Sync.

Van:
Attack: 5500
For the Van fights, I'll be swapping my moveset with each phase and throwing in another surprise at the end.

Phase 1:
Pretty much the same fight as Van 1. Use his spellcasting recovery as opportunities to go in, and you shouldn't have any problems at all.
If you stay far away from him, he's very likely to use spells.

Phase 2:
Same strategy, but now you need to play extremely carefully. Van now has a new Mystic Arte, Celestial Elegy.
Unlike most MA's, this one prevents you from moving during it. It also has the range to catch you even if you backstep before it.
If your attacks don't create an opening after his spells, get out immediately before he can MA. Be careful how you end combos as well.
Knocking him down or spell canceling out of your final hit are safe ways to make sure you get away before he can MA.

Phase 3:
It's the same thing... again...
Shining Dragon gets upgraded, but you dodge it the exact same way as before.
The main problem with this fight is Judgement. I don't think there's any clear way to dodge it, but getting enough distance from him seems to help. This is of course dependent on where he casts it from. I got lucky on this attempt, and he didn't even use Judgement.
To help deal with his Overlimit Spam and Mystic Artes, you can knock him down at the end of combos or spell cancel and back away after your final hit. I got pretty lucky here too, as he chose to use Arcane Artes the few times I messed up backing away.
Just like the first Van fight, he gets Shining Blade when at low health. This can catch you off-guard if you play too close to him, dodge too slowly, or while trying to low jump over him.
It shouldn't be much of an issue if you just keep playing at range and waiting for his spellcasts.