If you've played "Tales Of Xillia", I only hope that you've played enough to run into this guy. If you're actually one of the few that made it to the Golden Mage Knight, then you've seen true terror. "Tales Of Xillia" lacked a whole lot of optional content, but if you really needed a tough fight, Magus Zero's Golden Mage Knight has you covered. Being probably the only legit optional boss fight in the game, he can kick you a new one if you don't know how to deal with him. To actually get to him, you'll need to defeat all the Devil's Beast, and then get past Magus Zero. There's really not much beyond that, he greets you with a smile and wants to beat your ass in.
No matter what party you use, this guy is an absolute beast, though I recommend the likes of Jude, Elize and Leaia in there no matter what, because they can all help pitch in with the MUCH needed healing, because Golden Mage Knight is going to dish out a whole ton of damage. You'll be spamming items to heal and revive most of the time even with 3 healers out on the field.
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| Brave all odds and get to the Mage Knight! |
There are 3 phases to the battle. While all 3 phases are relatively hard, everything escalates upwards, meaning that the 3rd phase of the battle is going to be the hardest. The Golden Mage Knight copies every one of your characters in terms of their fighting styles, so you're going to see some very familiar moves when he comes against you. He starts off alone as the Golden Mage Knight Mercenary, which is a copy to Alvin's fighting style. In this form he hits really, REALLY hard. If you're not in the later levels a single combo can one shot someone like Elize or Rowen, who are on the squishier side of things. Really though, all you need to do here is gang up on him, link up on him, and take him down with everything you've got. He's alone, so if you just keep going at him and reviving those who go down, you'll finish this 1st phase relatively quickly.
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| Look at dat damage! |
The 2nd phase is where things get pretty tricky. He splits himself into 2 now, and of course, both clones have boss like stats. Needless to say, fighting against 2 is tougher than 1. For now, he's copying the fight styles of Rowen and Leaia, the Golden Mage Knight Conductor and the Golden Mage Knight Duelist. This is going to be pretty annoying, since the Duelist is going to keep hammering onto you, while the Conductor will rain hell down upon you with powerful artes. To make things worse, the Duelist can cast heal, so he's a top priority....though everything is up to you, since the Conductor is just so damn powerful with his spells. I took down the Duelist first, then the Conductor. By the way, they link with one another, so you may find them to be a lot more obnoxious than the Mercenary. As usual, you'll probably be needing to spam revives and such, so protect Elize.
If you even manage to take down these 2, its not quite over yet. We'll move into phase 3, which is probably the main reason why this battle is so hated among the community. Now, he splits himself into 3, and in this final phase, all 3 clones are stronger than the ones in phase 2. Of course...having to fight 3 of these guys is freaking suicide, and it doesn't make it any better that they're mimicking the fighting styles of Jude, Milla and Elize, probably the 3 best characters in the game IMO.
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| Fight...FIGHT ALL THE CLONES! |
This last phase is going to be very hard, so you'll need to fight wisely. Handling 3 Golden Mage Knight clones is just downright insane in most situations, so you'll need to decide on an order to defeat the Creator, Scholar, and the Puppeteer. The Creator and Scholar, being the clones of Milla and Jude, will link with one another during this 3rd phase, and it goes without saying that they will be wreaking all sorts of havoc on you and your team. The Puppeteer is the clone of Elize, and you all know all Elize is. She casts spells and heals, which is basically what the freaking Puppeteer does as well. If you don't want the 3 bosses' health bars to keep going up...then you gotta take down the Puppeteer first. The Puppeteer and Creator both cast a lot of high tier AOE spells, which can spell doom for your team if you stick, because you'll all get massively hurt.
As for the Scholar? He just bashes your face in over and over. He'll refuse to get off your face...and continue to bash on you. Needless to say, he hurts, but you're going to have to ignore him over the other 2 since they'll be inflicting massive AOE destruction on your team. Prepare lots of revives and hourglasses, you'll need it. To me, you'll have to go for Puppeteer first, then Creator, followed by Scholar last. Of course, I'd say keep Elize and Leaia alive for healing and revives, but they'll die many times over anyway, so just deal with it. I hope you still have a lot of life bottles ready to be thrown.
And that's the Golden Mage Knight. He's madly difficult during his final form, and he still puts up a massive challenge for the two phases before that. You'll need to be in the high 70s or low 80s for this one, or you can be like me challenging him at the 60s and dieing miserably. Defeating him unlocks the devil arms' true powers, and you can continue to come and fight him, he gets stronger every time (f**k no, why would anyone want to fight this guy again?). Its the attack of the clones people!
Difficulty Rating: 7.5/10
