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REVIEW: Tales of Zestiria the X BD+DVD




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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 895
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 9:15 am Reply with quote
I don't think I'll ever be truly over how the anime managed to be the tonal opposite of the game at just about every point it could be. In part 1 we started with Alicia's extremely dark intro episode that put the game's darkness to shame, and then immediately followed that up with a much lighter intro for Sorey and Mikleo, complete with them saving Mason (whose instantly-forgotten death in the TV special became a bit of a meme). By the end of season 2 we're left with a huge list of averted tragedies and rescued character arcs that makes me wonder why they didn't just tell the story like this to begin with.

The answer is probably budget.
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Eddy564



Joined: 14 Sep 2008
Posts: 340
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 10:27 am Reply with quote
I definitely enjoyed this show but there was a lot of abrupt tonal shifts that ended up making the story a little problematic to invest in. And, the limited amount of episodes made it so that they had to disregard and stretch certain parts of the lore that should have been treated a lot more carefully.
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DigitalScratch





PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:43 am Reply with quote
I do love how Alisha’s role was expanded on spoiler[and that she was actually given the chance to armatize.] Also spoiler[Eizen gets to survive and has a chance to recover!] I really liked him in Berseria so seeing him given this chance, rather than essentially putting him down in the actual game, made me really happy.

So I do like that some parts of Tales of Zesteria’s game were expanded upon or changed. X is actually how I think a lot of anime adaptations of games should be handled. Instead of telling everything near perfect to the game, tell an adjusted-for-anime story that does things the game couldn’t/didn’t with the same characters and messages. The Tales of Symphonia OVAs did something similar and I personally think it works for the Tales of series considering how convoluted the games can be.

But yeah the short run time and almost whiplash shifts in tone can make for a strange ride. And I’m not very happy that Zaveid’s time with the party wasn’t very long. He joins super late in game but even so I still would’ve liked him to be around more or have a focus episode. spoiler[Also apparently not even Dezel could be spared in the anime] I’m a little peeved cause his death was super last minute and felt like the writers were suddenly reminded that he had to die.Though, they’re both my favorites so I’m prob just hugely biased ^^;;;
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:19 pm Reply with quote
While admitting I never played and never will play the game, I was rather surprised at how this became such a new recent favorite for me. Although it is definitely a traditional fantasy epic, there is enough of that UFOtable charm (in terms of both animation and characterization) to really distinguish it and give it a life of its own, and keep me entertained the whole way through even after three viewings. It's too bad Funimation never did a limited edition release for the second-half of this series, but I just simply took out the blu-rays of this set, put them in place of the DVD's on the limited edition first-half set, and thus I got a limited edition set of the complete series!
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:22 am Reply with quote
DigitalScratch wrote:
The Tales of Symphonia OVAs did something similar and I personally think it works for the Tales of series considering how convoluted the games can be.


The games tend to be pretty straightforward with their themes and plot; the deciding factor is how the series tends to subvert expectations and turn tropes on their side, such as with Tales of the Abyss. Which titles do you think are convoluted?
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