Forum - View topicREVIEW: Farmagia Anime Series Review
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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So I guess a less than stellar game turned out a less than stellar anime.
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archy10
Posts: 38 |
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As one of the few people on the planet who played Farmagia, I'd call it a less than "less than stellar" adaptation. Not only did it crunch and water the story down into mush, it also changed all the characters into gag-driven caricatures of whatever Fairy Tail character they look like. Say what you want about Mashima's design choices, but he never makes one-to-one copies of their personalities and relationships, and he knows when and when not to use a gag. And I'll have you know, Ten and his "Not-Gray" rival Leii are best buddies in the game, not a rehash of Natsu and Gray. Even though the game isn't much to write home about, it does a much better job with its story and characters. They're still cliched, but it's solid stuff with the added bonus of a great English script and, dare I say it, a spectacular English dub cast (Joe Zieja is a scene stealer as Lookie-Loo, even if he sounds utterly different from Atsumi Tanezaki). I can honestly say that for a mediocre game, I got more enjoyment out of it than I did with this anime. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4871 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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i have played the game and it is ok. the problem is that the story of the game is better than its anine version! is it a bad game adaptation? yes! especially when there are way better video game anime adaptations out there & thats including guilty gear strive dual rulers! but is it a bad anime, nope! especially compared to this year's stinkers like UZUMAKI & UBEL BLATT! those two are prime examples that they should have remain in source material format! |
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Covnam
 Posts: 4398 |
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I haven't played the game, so I felt similar to the review that this came off as a discount Fairy Tail. I'd probably rate it a little higher though since it wasn't so bad I dropped it. Though that's not taking in to account the bad CG lol
This creature, like some others (for example: Plue), is just one of Mashima's creations that show up in many of his works. |
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The_Daytona_500
 Posts: 184 |
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Completely agree, I have no idea what they were thinking by injecting a whole bunch of comedy into the anime that doesn't exist in the game. They made Ten have some weird fear of wolves that he doesn't have in the game, made him unable to grow Farmagia even though he has them already in the game's tutorial, and completely cut out the Elementals which are like the best characters in the game. The anime felt like the writer was trying to copy Mashiema without having an understanding of what makes Mashima's work good. It's sad cause I actually hated the game's gameplay, if they had just done a straight adaption they easily could have surpassed the forgettable game. |
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archy10
Posts: 38 |
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Truth be told, I never dropped it either since I at least thought it was cool to see the different locations that are mentioned but never shown in the game. The downside there is the lack of variety with its settings and backgrounds: the cutscenes are almost all VN style, and gameplay always takes place in some kind of forest or an identical throne room for all but the final boss.
Yeah, that's Tanchimo from Rave Master, one of the Mashima references the animators put in. The game only has Griff (as a rare enemy spawn) and the Oracion Seis (the main bosses). Chief director Ishihira's stated goal on X was to take the game's content and turn it into a generic Mashima work as he believes Mashima would have done it. The sad thing is, Ishihira was also involved in the adaptations of Fairy Tail and Edens Zero. If that's what he thinks, I'd rather stick to Mashima's manga from now on, because even if his designs and basic themes lack variety, he at least tries not to tell Fairy Tail all over again. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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Thank you for better clarifying! |
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kaiju3
Posts: 79 |
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Meh. There are tons of great games that have terrible anime adaptations which makes the few pretty good ones Valkyria Chronicles, Street Fighter II (movie and TV series), Tales of the Abyss etc. even more noteworthy. The funny thing is that some of the most successful "anime of the game" efforts were from games that were middling successes - i.e. Princess Connect Re:Dive got 2 seasons for a game that is no longer available outside Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan, and the second season was considered quite good - or were outright bombs like Kemono Friends. The problem isn't that the game anime tries to recreate gameplay or cutscenes, or just ignores the game and tries to tell a completely different story. It is that for some reason they get the lowest budgets imaginable. I don't understand how an "anime to promote the manga" for middling titles and magazines usually get at least "average" budgets but the adaptation of a successful AAA JRPG title like Trails of Cold Steel: The Northern War's budget was so low that they actually had to limit their use of color. And unlike most video game adaptations, the anime was not only canon but entirely new material! Meaning that you had to watch an extremely cheap and terrible anime to fully understand what is going on in Cold Steel 3 and 4! I guess that it is because the manga and light novel publishers have existing agreements with the likes of Kodansha, Kadokawa etc. that guarantees a minimum budget for anime productions that video game studios, even some of the larger or more established ones, lack. It seems that CyGames avoids this issue by creating their own studio, which explains why their Princess Connect Re:Dive and Uma Musume: Pretty Derby adaptations were good, and in some cases VERY good, quality. The other video game companies should take note. Or if not, just spend the extra hundred thousand or two required to get ufotable, Science Saru or Madhouse adapt their canon entirely new material. |
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yeehaw
 Posts: 884 |
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I just don't understand why Mashima got to design the game characters from the start when he's just not great at character designs. I feel like he just keeps drawing Lucy and Natsu but slightly different over and over again. And his artstyle itself is just discount Oda
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archy10
Posts: 38 |
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I reckon it's because he's a known game enthusiast in Japan, and he's always found the time to do all sorts of side projects. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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I like his designs! |
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archy10
Posts: 38 |
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Plus his drawing style hasn't been in its "Oda" phase for at least 15 years. |
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Spike Terra
 Subscriber Posts: 372 Location: Maryland |
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So I enjoyed the game for Farmagia, though I think it would have made for a better turn based rpg or even a tactics game.
There are two positive things I can say about this show: 1: The opening and ending themes were real good 2: The additional scenes with Lisan gave me more context about what her actual deal was Everything else was either a disaster or passable at best. Cutting the spirits from the anime is major mistake in terms of world building and the replacement scenes just feel awkward and unearned. I think the only two characters that didn't get flanderized were Lookie - Loo (who has way less to do) and Arche (whose character is mostly intact albeit her story is as rushed as everything else in this show). I think the worse character change is Ten. You have a series that is essentially farming for pokemon and you make your main character afraid of animals. Which he never really gets over, Ten just waffles back forth between afraid and competent. This baffling decision reminds me of one of my favorite episodes in another anime based on a Marvelous Video Game: Senran Kagura. So the ninjas in Senran Kagura derive their powers from animal spirits. Asuka (the MC) has the frog as her spirit. The problem is Asuka is afraid of frogs and that fear is handicapping her abilities. So the anime spends an episode establishing this issue and resolving it. I think it's really well set up and I just wanted that level of care put into anything involving the Farmagia anime. |
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