Tales of Phantasia

To start off, I'm going to clear some misconceptions. This OVA, in my opinion, is heavily targeted towards the audience who have played the game. For a 4 episode anime, it clearly does not cover many significant aspects of the actual story, as you would expect. Many reviews, including external resources out of MAL, disregard this important matter and criticize and how lacking the anime is. For fans who have played the game, such as myself, it is an extra treat. Tales of Phantasia could easily be seen as one of the best Tales series out there, but you won't get the appreciation out of itthrough the OVAs, but through the game. The animation is great, especially the battle scenes. The theme songs, especially the ending theme, "Prayer" by Masami Suzuki, really gives you a very emotional feel that will leave you feeling mixed emotions of sadness, hope, and tragedy; at least that is what I felt. I really love the song. As I have played the game, I know the actual story, and I truly appreciate this story and animation. Some people say that the characters are typical cliche fantasy characters, but these characters are, undoubtedly, very well presented. As you may have guessed, do not expect to see much character development; you get all of that in the game. So in summary, if you have played the game, I greatly suggest you watch it, but do not watch it for the story, as the OVA is very slightly different than the game itself. Watch it for a recap and to appreciate the characters coming to life as it is very well illustrated and it creates a truly memorable "Tales" experience. For those who haven't played the game, but still wish to watch it, go ahead. This animation has the qualities of a great anime, but being only 4 episodes long, the plot is greatly reduced, and is heavily ignored/criticized by people who have not played the game. It is truly a shame. I give the ratings I give only because I have played the game, which makes my rating biased. But I also believe it is because I watched this anime expecting it to be a recap and only to see the characters coming to life, not as a series. If you have the time, I suggest you play the game. The Super Nintendo (SNES) version you can find is the Japanese version of the game with unofficial translations, but the translations are cleverly done and quite enjoyable. The GBA version of the game is just horrible,voice acting especially, although the graphics may be a little better. I suggest the SNES if you do wish to play. Do not underestimate this game just because it is old. 1) For fans of the game = Must-watch 2) For people who have not played the game = Highly recommended to appreciate the animation, but not the plot, as it is rushed.

The Tales series games have made welcome additions to any RPG aficionado's collection since the 16-bit era. Every single installment I've played has been, at the very least, good. Not surprisingly, a lot of the Tales games have received anime adaptations. So, where should you start when looking at these adaptations? How about with the original Tales game, Phantasia. The story in the OVA is close to the story in the game. A demon lord named Dhaos is revived at the expense of two villages and two young people, Cress and Mint, are sent back in time to find two magic users to bring back totheir time and defeat him. If you've played the game then you can probably spot some difference there. That's why I said "close to" rather than "exactly like." The OVA does leave some stuff out, mainly for the sake of time, it's only four episodes. For those of you who are curious about the OVA but aren't interested in playing the game, as little sense as that seems to make, I'll talk about how it stands on its own. It's a really fast paced adventure. The story is a lot of fun and they manage to get quite a bit of complexity into it. Really, there are two issues. The first is that the pace is hectic. There's a lot of story in the game and they fit as much of it into the OVA as they possibly can. The result is that things progress really quickly without much time for things to wind down or the action to fall. The other issue is that there are some scenes that only make sense if you've played the game. Without that background they seem to be kind of pointless. Now, these are pretty minor problems for anyone who's played the game, but they could bother you if you haven't. Tales of Phantasia has some spectacular characters. The OVA keeps their personalities intact. It also fits in the most important aspects of their backstories. The only real exception is Suzu who barely plays a role in the OVA, showing up in only a few scenes. One thing that the OVA does do better than the game is fleshing out Dhaos's character. In the game his motivations are barely touched on and he comes off as being randomly evil for the evils until the very end. In the OVA they actually make him a really sympathetic character which makes the conflict much more three dimensional and interesting. The art is pretty good. They manage to copy the monsters really well. The action scenes are exciting and have a grand scale. It looks similar to the cut scene art in Lunar 2. My only real complaint is that the noses look bizarre. They're barely there in most scenes, although they occasionally become more pronounced for no apparent reason. It's a minor complaint but it bothered me. The voice acting is really well done. Kusao Takeshi does really well in the hero's role, almost like he's played a similar role before. Which he has,several years before Tales of Phantasia he played the role of Adol Christin in the Book of Ys OVA, I may get to those eventually. Kanai Mika, Inoue Kazuhiko and Itou Kentarou also do really well. Morikawa Toshiyuki is well suited as a villain. In fact, I think I've heard him do it before in a different video game based anime. Admit it, you looked it up. The background music is really similar to what you might find in a game, appropriately enough, and the theme music is... not particularly memorable, sorry to say. The yuri factor is a 1/10. I've always thought that Phantasia would be a better game with some yuri, not that it isn't awesome anyway, but the OVA did not change that. My final rating for Tales of Phantasia is an 8/10. This is a great anime, especially for fans of the Tales games. You will probably like it better if you're a fan of the game, but it's still enjoyable if you just like a good fantasy story. Either way, give it a try.

Based on the video game by the same name, Tales of Phantasia follows the journey of Cless, Mint, Klarth, Chester, and Arche as they try to defeat the demon king Dhaos, who is bent on annihilating the human race. Like most anime series based on video games, Tales of Phantasia lacks many essential storyline elements, preventing it from living up to its initial potential. While the premise promises a grand, fantastical adventure, Tales' limitation to 4 episodes makes this impossible. The storyline is rushed and unless you've played the game you won't understand some scenes (why, for instance, is Fujibayashi suddenly in a fight to thedeath with her own father to prevent him from entering Dhaos' castle?). The series' brevity further results in a lack of any substantial character development, and moments that should have some build-up are forced and unrealistic (Chester and Arche go from disliking each other to cuddling up close after a 5 second apology). The story itself lacks depth and is cliche, and it may become hard to watch even all 4 episodes when there is nothing suspenseful or shocking. Weak storyline notwithstanding, Tales has exceptionally clear, attractive animation and lots of cool magic spells. Characters and scenery are sufficiently detailed but nothing special, and character designs are original. Both the Japanese and English voice casts are superb: in particular, Cless (in English) is voiced by the extremely popular Johnny Yong Bosch (see Ichigo in Bleach, Lelouch in Code Geass, and Kiba in Wolf's Rain). The OST is nothing spectacular but it gets the job done and sounds professional enough. Overall, aesthetic and audial elements make Tales of Phantasia a well presented package, but the storyline plays out too much like the video game on which it's based and cuts too many corners to be anything special. Animation: 7.8/10 Audio: 7.4/10 Storyline: 6.3/10 Overall Score: 6.7/10 (Good) Find snapshots and downloadable episodes at my blog, http://animefiend.blogspot.com

Tales of Phantasia is a great game and the first of the series to be created. The artwork is great, ths characters are the best, it is just a great anime! Though the kinda down side is that it skips some parts from the game. So you can't see the moments where Cress and Mint first meet Claus ( He's called Klarth in the anime) and Arche. And also the parts where Claus makes pacts with the summon spirits at the beginning. But other than that the anime is great. And the best part is that it includes most of the main characters from thegame such as Suzu and Barnard. So if you like the game, you should watch the anime too.