Star Ocean: The Last Hope

(Provided is a video made by skuldnoshinpu, playing the Jap version - he is level 255 with all his characters, and breezes through the boss)

This is the first of two post-game bosses, and they've purposely been made as badass as possible. Compared to EQ, Gabriel isn't all that bad though.

Gabriel Celeste is found at the end of the Seven Star dungeon (which is below the Arena in Tatroi). To get to him, you have to go through each level (of seven), collecting the pieces to make the elevator work. On most levels is a mini-boss you have to beat, none of which are that tasking.
Once you've done that, you collect an item that allows you to pick up the Pink Exclamation marks on each floor (these are all variations of stars) and once you have all of them, you can enter the spinning circle on B7. Here you are transported to B8 and you walk into the pink room to battle him.

From talking to people, I've learned that this can be done at a minimum of level 100 (entire party), and various people have various opinions on how to best deal with it. For THIS particular solution, I'm going to give you MY advice;

- Grind to 150 or higher, especially if you're playing on Galaxy. He hits hard, and you don't want to be constantly ressing.
- Using Resurrection Units (resurrects the whole party). These can be made using Reimi, Myuria and one other character, and are very cheap to create.
- Use anti-paralysis charms or synth anti-paralysis onto your equipment
- Learn to synth your equipment with whatever you feel best. I used defense multipliers for the most part, and it made the damage I took drop to minimal amounts.

The tactics I deployed were this;
Arumat and Edge were set to fight freestyle. They deal out a lot of damage, and I left them as they were. Sarah was set to "Stay out of trouble" and did a fine job healing - I never had to control her. I used Reimi, with focus and beserk, and spammed rush combos on Gabriel, hitting for over 700k each time (secondary attack was usually Arumat with Dragon Roar). It only took a few of these, along with Arumat and Edge rinsing him, to take him down in five minutes (Galaxy difficulty).

Another tactic that I enjoy using is abusing rush combos. Using a tri-emblem (rush gauge rate +3) you can be constantly in a rush combo, which negates his attacks, doesn't increase his rush gauge, and with good equips you can be dealing out over a mil each time.

He is NOT that strong - he simply hits hard every now and then. Don't be put off if you have to res a few times.



You only need beat his first form for the achievement, but he has a second and third form to fight also, where he becomes more powerful.
If you need any further information, or think what I've posted isn't enough to get you through, feel free to send me a message and I'll try to help.