Tales of Zestiria: The X (2017)

WolfAngelus Apr 15, 2017

10

This season surprisingly takes a detour from following the flow of the story from the game and its story in general. If anything, this season is even better than the game as things that seemed simple at the surface all have much more depth and complexity. The first 6 episodes dive deeply into Rose and a lot of her story and her background. The events still match up with the game to some extent, but this is more of a in depth look at what happened during that timeframe. The start of it may be a bit slow, but it builds a really important connection with the choices Rose makes and how she fits into the main story with Sorey, and why she chooses the path she does. After the Rose filled episodes, Alisha is brought into the mix and shows her development and how she fits alongside Sorey. The mood from the first half continues as the malevolence plays a major role in the dark theme, then eventually some light shines, and more darkness. The pacing also gets drastically faster towards the last episodes as it heads towards the final battle. This is also where it gets epic and has more action with the Armatus forms (my favorite piece) and the showdown with the Lord of Calamity come. The final episode is a pretty amazing conclusion/battle. Lots of flash and all the armatus power you could want! While the pacing may seem slower in the first episodes, having played the game, I can say that all of what is shown is pretty critical to what makes Zestiria. The concept of malevolence is made very clear and so are each of the main characters roles. There is a lot more flash and effects as you progress through the season though. The depth, amount of information, and clarity of the characters is a beautiful combination really and made me love the Zestiria universe even more. It is really neat seeing the difficulty and effort that goes into the armatization process for example, where as in the game, the characters are simply able to do it. As you would expect based on the first season, the animation is crazy awesome and the sound is just as amazing. Any effects look amazing and from the opening theme, all the way through to the ending theme, the amount of effort and work put in really shows compared to almost any other anime out there. In episode 5 of the dubbed version (and ep8 skit) however, they had a different voice actor for Sorey for whatever reason, and it was just terrible sounding, so that is the reason for a .25 sound deduction. This could have been avoided but they made a slip in judgement and choice there. Also, don't forget to watch the little skits after the credits. Naturally, they are in the same format as from the game and have the same charm. Just a little extra effort on top of everything really. If all that wasn't enough, the additional connection to the Tales of Berseria universe and some of the story referencing to that era and a few of its main characters was a neat addition. It is always nice to see ties among the different universes and how the stories connect between them. Overall, an amazing season. It is a heavier story and character driven season, but this is an important aspect of the Tales series. It was also nice to see a lot of new stuff and lore not seen in the game. I could write tons more simply because of how much I love both the anime and the game, and the depth and complexity behind stuff that seemed simple is just beautiful which I think makes the anime more exciting than the game. Review of Season 1 ; Scored 10/10

kialia Jan 24, 2017

5

 I've only watch the first three episodes but I'm already disappointed  first of all there haven't been any fights no real plot to the story  The main character doesn't really have a goal in these episodes I might have to drop it Animation  The enemy she isn't too bad not too good they also use 3-D and I haven't really been a fan of 3-D being used anime Nevertheless  it's not bad  8/10 sound  The sound effects are not amazing and they're not bad either  6/10 Characters  the  characters specifically sorey haven't really had and in even an ounce of development its like he's just always at square one hopefully he'll go through some character development  4/10 Overall i can't really give this anime an overall score because it hasn't ended yet who knows maybe the story will improve 

alexgausa Aug 31, 2023

1

I was disappointed with this season because of all the opinions, view points it pushes.  Yes I am aware that there are those in in Japan who hate the Christian faith as can be seen in many anime... so they present churches or people of faith as badly as they can, that is common in Hollywood.  On the other hand they push the protection of mass murderers.  If you could prevent a single innocent life from being taken by taking out a horrible human being, would you?  Would you take out a person who has through their actions killed hundreds or thousands or even millions of people when you know they will kill even more?  The perspective of this anime is that you should not, which I strongly disagree with.  I am not talking about people who are set up as the bad guy (such as the princess was in the first season), or people that are misunderstood (innocent), or those that have been manipulated, I mean the really bad people that know what they do, and kill up to millions for their own sake with complete disregard for life... like drug lords... the scum of the earth, put all the mass murderers together and they do not kill as many people as one drug lord.  So when I see the MC lecture Rose for example on her killing bad people, those who caused all the problems he is trying to resolve.. he is just as stupid as you can get.. dumb as a rock... or worse, an enabler in mass murder.  So if you killed the minister Barthlow that caused the war in the first season before he was able to start it, think of all the people that would have been saved.  Instead he is allowed to stay alive and kill the Princesses loyal guards and arrest those that oppose him, and cause more harm.  I do not care if it is in anime or the real world... the really bad black hearted people should be disposed of.  In this anime if you simply disposed of the very small amout of people with power that cause almost all of the wrongs that created the spread Malevolents in the first place you would save the world without all the loss of life and sacrifice.  So I see the MC as a complete imbecile!