Tales Of Zestiria Review
Intro: Tales of Zestiria the X:2 continues telling the story of a young man and his group of friends that are doing their best to save and clean the human world of evil. This anime reminds me of the trilogy 'Lord of the Rings'. Plot: 5/10 The plot is not one of this series's strong points.
Oct 20, 2015 Review: Tales of Zestiria My history with the Tales series is sort of akin to an on again, off again relationship. I was introduced to Phantasia by way of a friend's import copy, and immediately.
Tales of Zestiria the X presents the story of a young man named Sorey, and his group of friends who are doing their best to save the world. At first the plot is slow paced but as the story progresses it picks up the pace. I see no point for ep 5-6, since it adds nothing to the plot. Characters: 6/10 The characters are fairly generic, they do not get much character development but they are likable. Animation: 10/10 The animation and art are splendid, truly mesmerizing. One of the best animations I have ever seen. Just by looking at a few scenes you can imagine all the work that was put into the creation of this anime.
Tales of Zestiria the X is produced by the studio Ufotable, a studio known for its high quality production. Sound: 9/10 The OST is great as well, it deepens the emotions and perfectly blends with the animation. The opening theme is highly enjoyable, the ending theme is decent. Enjoyment: 7/10 The fight scenes and the backgrounds are stunning but the story itself is nothing memorable.
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Overall: 7/10 Even if the plot and characters are nothing special, the show is worth the time just for the animation and sound. I recommend this anime to anyone who is looking for eye candy and wants to find out what high quality animation looks like. Just a quick note to say that I am reviewing this anime after watching only 13 episodes. But usually I can tell if a show is going to capture my attention from at least episode 6. But sad to say this one hasn't really done that. Saying that I still have faith in it and will continue to watch it until at least the end of the first season. I don't know if anyone else felt the same but I found the story a bit hard to follow at times.
I thought the action was really good but the main thing this show has going for it is the visuals. The beautiful scenery, the uniforms and the buildings had a deep attention to detail. Even though I still think the pace of the show didn't capture me I still appreciated it's beauty. Now Tales of anime do not have a good track record if you're not talking about Tales of the Abyss.
However this is among the stinkers of Tales anime. Now the main sin of most of these anime is being so short that an adaptation is made pointless, but this, this betrays a lot of the character archetypes and lore of not only Zestiria but Berseria as well all for giving Alisha more screen time after the flack Namco got for the marketing controversy around her, which in all honesty should've never happened.
To elaborate on the betrayal with no spoilers there are far too many examples to list but an example is the alleged main character Sorey acting too much like Kirito instead of a cheerful nerd, and as for lore Berseria establishes that things that shouldn't or can't happen in Zestiria due to Berseria's epilogue or various sidequests happen anyway here. For instance the anime says that so and so will die if such happened while such happens in Berseria and no one dies. Also there is way too much Alisha that she comes to the detriment of several other characters including Sorey the main friggin character. As every episode gives her five minutes which should be devoted to developing other characters that ultimately contribute nothing to the story just to say 'oh look how cool Alisha is'. So I would recommend anything else and avoiding this anime.
Among the countless varieties of computer games, jRPGs have always been somewhat special; most of them have quite a plot to boast about. Tales of Zestiria the Cross is a Japanese anime television series based on both Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios that was made to promote both games. It is produced by Ufotable, directed by Haruo Sotozaki and written by Hikaru Kondo, featuring character designs by Akira Matsushima and music by Motoi Sakuraba and Go Shiina. But did it help to appreciate Berseria and Zesteria? This is the question I will try to answer. Tales of Zesteria as mentioned before is based on the game and, of course, the game has many details that have not been mentioned in the anime adaptation.
Story wise, from way back, people worshiped Seraphs as Gods. Seraphs are beings that are able to use magic, however, they have always been among people.
Yet, only a few are able to see them, those who can, leave their names and legacies in the history of the mankind. Sorey, the main protagonist of the series, is a human raised by the Seraphs. Long-long time ago, Shepherds, humans contracted to a powerful Seraph, were that only power keeping peace and all terrors of wars away from the humanity. They are no more, so the world sinks in malevolence. Sorey having saved the princess, finds out that the humanity is in grave danger yet again. He together with his friend Mikleo and the princess Alisha embarks on a quest to save the mankind.
The fact that the series is based on the game is pretty obvious; there are so many interesting characters, with a well thought out storyline. And, of course, it is nothing special for a game, where you can devote character and story as much time as you want, however, it is all different for an anime. So, long story short, Tales of Zesteria, does not have enough episodes to work with, in result, characters do not receive enough development.
Indeed, the heroes cannot be called bad, because they still get some development to work with. And this is the main problem, because not only does the series lack enough time to provide the viewer with a good story and well-developed characters, but it also tries to show the events of Tales of Berseria, which is kinda a prequel to Zesteria. And that is why it fails. Tales of Berseria alone has so many things that are needed to be explained to the viewers for them to have some kind of an understanding of what is happening, but the series also tries to focus on the events of Tales of Zesteria, so what I am trying to say is that with no time to waste, the creators should have made an anime adaptation of either Tales of Berseria, or Tales of Zesteria only. That way, it would have done the work the way it should be. But as something that should promote the game, it did its job pretty well.
Even with some great misses in story and character development, Tales of Zesteria the anime is still an amazing journey, with quite a stunning animation and amazing OST. Indeed, it has problems I have already mentioned, but you might check the game and enjoy the amazing world of the both Tales games, too. Even if you do not want to check the game, do check the anime series; quite an enjoyable series to watch. Dear God.where do I even begin here? First off, as anyone who's played the game (which was a work of true art) can tell you, this show was NOTHING at all like it, which could've been a good thing, if the show didn't suck so much. I've got so many questions: Why was Alisha such a main focus in the show?
Why was Maltran not revealed to be a hellion (which made Alisha a much better character in the game)? How did Rose know Dezels real name having only met him just a bit ago? How did Sorey know Lailah, Edna and Zaveids real names without ever asking?
Why was the war between Rolance and Hyland like a sideplot of a sideplot? Why was the fact that dragons couldn't be purified just thrown into the wind for plot development? How did Rose and Alisha go from not being able to armitize without being half dead, to being able to do it perfectly in the very same episode. Why was Symonne just graciously accepted and allowed to follow the team to the north?
Why did Lunarre suddenly change his view of the world and humans and kill himself protecting them? How was Heldalf able to completely subdue Maotelus (one of the 5 Gods) without any effort whatsoever.I could go on and on but this review would get very tedious.
Let's just say this, if it weren't for Ufotables ever incredible animation, and the soundtrack ripped straight from the game which I adored, this show would be like a 2/10 at best. Also, Sorey is literally the worst anime main character I have EVER been cursed to witness. He is not only responsible for Rose having an existential crisis, and changing her way of life as a result, but the death of Dezel who is one of my favorite characters. This show sucked, don't waste your time.
Bandai-Namco’s long running ‘Tales of’ series has been going strong for two decades now, with the publisher finally regularly localising entries into the series. Since Tales of Symphonia’s release and almost universal praise 10 years ago, the series has been inconsistent at best with their subsequent entries since.
It’s not often that a fully fledged Japanese RPG makes it’s way onto a mainstream console now, with many in the genre languishing on the Playstation Vita, so Tales of Zestiria’s port to the PS4 as well as a PS3 for the western release was a smart move by Bandai-Namco.The opening moments of Tales of Zestiria feel like a time capsule. The long, needlessly complex exposition dumps left me less than impressed. This is delivered via long, borderline condescendingly over explained cutscenes and character dialogue.You take the role of Sorey, a human living in the protected spirit realm above normal society.
Naturally, Sorey is a naive teenager with a destiny greater than what he can possibly imagine, taking on the role of a Shepherd and guiding the rest of the world to a brighter future. The rest of the cast and story hit on almost every cliche in the book but like any other good JRPG the game only ever flouts these cliches after you’ve invested a lot of time into the mainline story and regularly watch the skits which are not included in the base game, but available as a free update from the Playstation Store.
Getting to know the cast of Tales of Zestiria is a massive time investment that doesn’t pay off until quite late in the game, and the game has a distinct feeling that it never really begins, just petering on with weak dialogue and almost no urgency with regards to the plot. With the caliber of writing that we’re used to seeing in most modern RPGs in particular, Tales of Zestiria doesn’t quite feel up to snuff. However Bandai-Namco have made an attempt to modernise other aspects of the game.Minimalistic overworlds have been a long staple of the ‘Tales of’ series, however Tales of Zestiria kicks that to the curb and create a more open world experience we’re used to seeing in many modern games.
However it never really felt ‘Open’ in the same way that RPGs like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the Fallout series do, the world is sparse, only peppered with occasional chests. In addition to this the world is also cut off- with loading screens separating the zones regularly. It makes The game's world feel a little odd, bloated and disjointed. The saving grace in Tales of Zestiria is the combat system. Tales of Zestiria makes use of a combat system named the “Fusionic Chain Linear Motion Battle System” - which is a variant upon what we’ve previously seen in the ‘Tales of’ series. Instead of a traditional, turn based system Tales of Zestiria’s combat system is more akin to an action game like God Hand or DmC.
Built upon the basis of using different “artes” to perform and chain attacks together, building up a combo meter and managing your SC bar to perform these artes. This is the backbone for most of the game, which is also supported by a robust equipment fusion system. The main action is always fun and satisfying, with the combat being Tales of Zestiria’s biggest strength.Tales of Zestiria is meant to be Bandai-Namco’s celebration of the series’s 20th anniversary both Motoi Sakuraba and Go Shiina composing the soundtrack, however Sakuraba’s work sounds iterative and uninspired, however balancing this out is Go Shiina’s beautiful and truly iconic themes. Sadly we don’t see many tracks composed by Go Shiina, with Sakuraba’s themes dominating the main brunt of the game. In many ways, Tales of Zestiria feels like a game out of it’s time. From the story, world design, characters and even the soundtrack, Bandai-Namco’s 20th anniversary ‘Tales of’ title feels just like that.
Tales of Zestiria feels like a game that we would see from over 10 years ago. The attempts to modernise the game fall flat, with the sparse open world being the game’s biggest failure.
Modern game design has surpassed a lot of what Tales of Zestiria does. Instead of feeling like an adventure, the pacing issues mean that Tales of Zestiria never really feels like it ever really starts, not even the excellent combat system can Save the game from feeling archaic.If Bandai-Namco truly want to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 'Tales of' series, then much more needs to be done to keep these games from feeling archaic and played out. If Tales of Zestiria wants to be the banner for modern Japanese RPGs, then much more effort and work needed to be done for the game to stand up amongst modern classics such as Persona 4 and Xenoblade: Chronicles. The next game in the series; Tales of Berseria is already in development, but whether or not another entry into the series can stand up against other modern RPGs remains to be seen.
Tales of Zestiria is a profound disappointment, and does not deserve the time investment that huge games of this length require.