Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「霊峰レイフォルク」 (Reihou Reiforuku Rayfalke Spiritcrest)
“Rayfalke Spiritcrest”
Tales fans should be happy they’re getting one of the few genuinely good video game anime adaptations out there. While this episode wasn’t exceptional, by any fair measure it was good fun and a pleasant watch. As I play catch up with so many anime that I’m currently behind on, I look forward to watching each new Zestiria episode because I know exactly what I’m going to get, and almost every time it delivers what I want (and occasionally exceeds expectations). This wasn’t packed with anything too original – it was just good old fashion magic and dragons and dungeon goodness, and as you’d expect, it looks great. But now that we’re finally introducing the rest of the cast who have yet to show up in the story, this is when the quality of this production will either shine or stumble. Thankfully, the introductions to Edna (Fukuen Misato) and Zaveid (Tsuda Kenjirou) are off to a solid start.
From what I know, Edna is apparently pretty popular with fans of the game. So far, I can understand why. Her personality doesn’t feel too forced in this first episode we see her, and her interactions with Sorey are enough of a sell. I highly doubt she will end up a romantic interest (if anything Mikleo is Sorey’s true love interest), but I like how cold and brutal she was without tipping to the point of being a tsundere. Her design is sweet as well, and even though we just got introduced to her and her brother, her quest to save him from his dragon hell is compelling enough. Again, it’s nothing extraordinary, but it’s damn good fun and by the end of the episode I actually cared about her journey. Nothing was resolved in this episode, but we did get hints that there’s still something inside those dragon eyes that stops him from killing his own sister. Would it be predictable if they found some magic cure to bring him back to his former self and they lived happily after? Yes, but if done with the quality and bombast that Zestiria has delivered thus far, I can’t imagine I’d be complaining all that much.
Zaveid also pops up (and later wanders off like the mysterious badass he wants to be) and makes it obvious that he thinks killing these hellions and dragons is the fairest thing to do. Sorey’s softness seems to exist mainly to counter balance other characters, and I can’t imagine he’ll be a pacifist for ever. That being said, Zaveid did warm to the idea of bringing Eizen back to himself by the final minutes, and I’m sure he’ll turn up again when he’s most required and show he actually possesses a heart. His character archetype is not a personal favourite of mine, but he gave us plenty of our weekly action quota, so I’m happy with that.
We do get to see what Alisha and Mikleo are up to, albeit briefly. I like that they’re given something to do in the meantime; if it turns out to be relevant and genuinely exciting then I’ll be content. I heard that Alisha’s development and story has already exceeded that of the games, so I pray that’s a taste of things to come. Meanwhile, Sorey seems like he doesn’t have much a mission of his own (apart from finding out the truth of the cataclysm from ages past), but rather is intent of helping those he meets along the way, and becoming part of their own storylines. He’s not the most proactive lead, but I’m willing to accept that set-up if it allows for us to meet the rest of the cast in a similar fashion to Edna and Zaveid.
Preview
 |
 |
 |
Edna best girl.
I also like what they did with Zavied
Show Spoiler ▼
Edna BEST WAIFU! Seriously, she’s like the only few good things about the actual game lol.
What happened in the game:
-Zavied kills the ogre, a boss fight with him occurs. Zavied leaves after that. All that fighting with Eizen and the flashbacks is anime-original.
-The crew meets Eizen the dragon, which Lailah mistakes as Edna at first. Unwinnable boss fight with Eizen occurs.
-You have like a 10 minute conversation with Edna and then she joins you. That’s it. No further fights, no Eizen still having some control left, nothing.
-The bridge scene at the end is a big change, because that occurs before going to Rayfalke. The whole reason why they went there in the game was because in order to fix the bridge, Lailah suggests getting Edna to repair the bridge with her powers. This is possibly a HUGE change order of events, if you played the game.
Also just realised, Edna’s brother Eizan appeared in Berseria OP from a couple of episodes ago. He’s probably one of the Velvet’s group.
Now I really want to know his story and what turned him into a dragon even more.
Yeah, same here. I’ve been keeping myself largely in the dark on Berseria spoilers before this anime, so seeing that flashback of Eizen after the Berseria OP was quite an a-ha moment.
i watched the Skirts of the Game again, and saw a hint in what this connection could be.
Show Spoiler ▼
or using some Diablo (The Games) mind Pictures:
Show Spoiler ▼
I almost nothing about Berseria but I intend to play it becuase today I managed to finish Zestiria and from what I could gather of the anime and promotional videos of the game I think it goes like this for the setting:
-Artorius Colbrande use some sort of human sacrifice to bind all the Malak (original name of the seraphim) and this sacrifice gave him god-like powers, this kicks on the plot becuase the sacrifice was Velvet´s brother.
-The exorcist under Artorius command use the seraphim as slaves to fuel their magic powers to kill or capture the hellions.
-The captured hellions are fed to the Devourers, people like Velvet that eat up the Malevolence but still retain their humanity.
-The exorcist are scum, they would kill off 95% of the planet to save the remaining 5% and see the seraphim only as tools.
Any adaptation of Zestiria is bound to be better than the game considering it is one of the worst game of the series.
I really want a Tales of Graces anime. It wasn’t an amazing game, but it was kinda fun. I have the game on the Wii and PS3 lol.
I hear this statement all the time, but “worst Tales game” is a popular but purely a subjective idea.
For instance: for me, Zestiria was probably the first Tales game I actually gave two craps about. It has it’s issues, true – a LOT of issues, especially w/the pacing and gameplay – but it did some many things right, too. Zestiria has my favorite cast, easily.
The anime is doing a lot to correct the faults that were present in the game, but there’s a lot of wonderful things that were already present in Zestiria pre-adaption…
Tales of Vesperia is easily a far superior game to Zestiria. 😉
Too Bad that Vesperia is only on Xbox, the english version. I watch some LP but I want to play it..
I’ve completed the PS3 version personally. I loved the game, I don’t think Bandai Namco have produced a better Tales game since. When you compare it to Zestiria, it’s just a superior game in almost every way, story, gameplay, characters, world. I’m not sure how many Vesperia fans are here, as I’m not really active on these Tales anime discussions, but I’d like to think there are people out there who would agree. 🙂
@Lyfe If we want to humor an objective statement, I’d say Tales of Graces is superior in terms of gameplay.
Old post, but still wanted to chime in. Definitely agree on Tales of Grace having one of the best, if not the best, battle systems. I also really enjoyed Xillia/Xillia’s two dual arts, it was a blast spamming them in all kinds of battles and playing around with different partners. Story-wise though, it’s pretty subjective, but sometimes good characters can make a generic story much better, which is true for most tales games.
In the one I’ll call “modern age of tales” from Tales of Symphonia onward, it’s most about ingame settings, and what you like most. For example i’ve played all of those tales, and on a personal level i consider Xillia 1 totally bad, a game where you can just farm money and mobs randomly and find yourself with top tier gear and kill everything on sight, with some spells that are totally broken and you end up using the same thing through all the game (fireballs from the old guy that still hit for more than everything else later, negative gate with the little girl and so on). As a whole Vesperia, Graces and Symphonia are above the other ones, with Graces F the longest journey, and probably one of the most touching as a whole. I consider Yuri the most badass of all MC in any other tales, but at the same time i totally love the stupid romance thing in Symphonia 2 with Emiru and Marta, it’s the tales game that made me cry most of all (coz i’m a lil bich probably but still i don’t care haha), Richter is TOTALLY the best villain/antihero of all tales, he has so many reasons to act as he does. Ofc i can’t forget “blablabla meteor storm” from rika, and all the yuribait thing. Vesperia,Graces,Tos1/2, i’m not able to choose which one i like more. I’ve played for at least 250 hours any of the 3, I can agree that xillia 1+2 and zestiria are totally below these 3.
Great post, I thought Symphonia 2 was a mostly pointless entry with a budget probably a fraction of what you’d expect from a mothership Tales title. Tales of Graces was proof really that you can make a great Tales game on the Wii, what they did with the Symphonia sequel was awful.
It’s a shame that there aren’t many commenters here who have played Vesperia though. I agree that along with Symphonia and Abyss, they’re easily the three best 3D Tales games ever made, followed by Graces/F in a respectable fourth.
Screw me for watching even a single minute of this show, berseria game will already be a prequel, i’m killing all my rpg story watching this lol
I felt the same about Persona 4, I watched the anime before playing the game. While it did lessen the impact of some scenes, it was still kinda fun. It was more me not being a Megaten fan at the time and not being sure what the whole fuss was about when it came to the Persona series. In hindsight, I don’t regret spoiling myself, but I have Persona 5 coming in September, which I’ll play before watching any anime adaption.
The preview for next episode is a perfect representation of why Edna’s the best
Her true name is Hephsin Yulind (ハクヂィム＝ユーバ Hakudimu Yuuba?), meaning “Early-Bloomer Edna”.
https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2008%20-%20Large%20Preview%2003.jpg
Had to check out her name @ http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Edna
I was wondering where I saw Eizen before and I remember him from the Berseria OP and artwork. Also noticed that both Eizen and Edna wear the same boots. Well, if I ever get around to playing Berseria, Eizen, it was nice knowing ya’.
Here’s a tidbit revealed in Berseria, Hellions don’t really notice the weather like normal people, being numb to it instead.
Show Spoiler ▼
As for Eizen he is indeed a playable character in Berseria, which takes place a good 1000 years ago. Show Spoiler ▼
I think is much more into the past, someone told me that Berseria is set in the Age of the Gods and that´s several thousands of years before Zestiria, you even learned the orihing of many ancient monuments of the first game.
It can’t because ship technology was developed 1000 years ago in the Zestiria timeline. The Age of Maotelus followed it a few hundred years later.
https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
Show Spoiler ▼
I saw the end of Berseria and they never actually revealed what happened to him. :/
Yeah, hence the mystery. Like did the same thing happen to someone else in the party, where is Laphicet now in his new form, or especially what became of Velvet after what happened to her in the end and if she’ll ever have any part to play in this story after she was featured in its OP. Ufotable has set up quite the potential for a good story in anime form.
All these things are answered on the game. The thing about Eizen is that they just explain to you what will eventually happen to him.
From what I learned from the Zestiria game the Seraphim stay away from humans because the Malevolence they produce corrupts them very quickly so they use some sort vessel to purify themselfs and the are around them, this way both seraphim and humans are safe and coexist to some degree. Zavied said Eizen loved to travel with humans so most likely he didn´t have a vessel or encounter a situation that affected him so deeply that was corrupted. For example, if you drag a seraph without a vessel into a battlefield you got yourself an instant dragon because of the intensity of negative emotions.
The anime really shortened things up a lot but the gist is still there.
Though the anime Zaveid is nicer than the game Zaveid 😛
The redesigned ruins that Mikleo solo-ed this time round looks great.
Rewriting events to shorten them and running them parallel, refreshing in a way.
The anime world makes the world in the game look so very very much smaller.
But the events in the game is much longer as you need to play though the mundane stuff.
To be honest I haven’t played any tales series since Tales of Eternia, and man did that adaptation suck… That said, the reason for rewriting events is probably to reduce going to, and fro the same places more than necessary. Remember when playing an rpg going back and forth is sometimes required to progress the story, but too much of that will be a problem in an anime that has a set number of episodes.
To be honest Zavied and Sorey held up pretty against Eizen, according to Berseria Eizen was already 1000 years old by the time of the game, a seraph that old most insanely powerful! More so after it turns into a dragon.
Edna is literally the only good thing about Zestiria the game.