Hey, hey, hey! Missed me, fellow DDN-reading people? I’m back again with another one of my anime reviews. Some of you may concur, some others will lift their clenched fists in disapproval, but nevertheless we’ll get to remember (or meet) great, awful, bizarre, and even moe anime from great Japan.

This time, one OVA of one of the best RPG sagas out there, makes its DDN debut: Tales of Phantasia. Still, even though the games are great, sometimes franchise expansion goes somewhat unplanned. . .

Made by Studio NAMCO (well, that’s a new one. . .) and published in 2004, it has been brought to the US by Geneon entertainment, so try your luck at your local anime store to get this one. This OVA was based on the popular RPG that appeared on the Playstation and recently on the GBA by the same name.

GENRE: Fantasy, Video Games.

STORY:

Following after the first half of the story of the game, Cless (the main character, Knight), along with Mint (Heroine of the story, Priest), Arche (Sorcerer), and Claus (Summoner) are assisting the army of Alvanista for them to defeat the evil army of the Evil King Dhaos. They also have to find a way to return to their own time 100 years in the future, so there’s still plenty of adventure for our heroes!

Although this may sound pretty awesome, NAMCO managed to: 1. Make the story boring. 2. Chop the story, leaving important factors behind. This is obviously expected in a four episode OVA which lasts exactly 2 hours, but a lot of non important scenes could have gone faster, leaving room for the essential.

GRAPHICS:

As all OVA’s, they have superior animation compared to regular TV series so, adding to this the great pens of Ah, Megamisama!’s creator Kosuke Fuijishima, character designs are really desired. Special Effects like lighting bolts, water, and wind are excellently managed.

SOUND & MUSIC:

Music originally composed by awesome Japanese composer Kimio Nomura, the OP and ED songs by Mika Watanabe and Ibuko Noguchi, sung by Masami Suzuki. although the style is very very similar to what Motoi Sakuraba uses for the Tales series, this one uses more 3/4 time signatures; It is still fitting to the series.

OVERALL:

A great game that even though tried to envolve us in its veil of fantasy, guts, friendship and world peace, fails to do so in a smooth way. A lot of segments are boring, and it starts without any background info, which may lead to WTF expressions on people that haven’t played Tales of Phantasia. Sadly, this OVA is just 4 episodes long, but these 2 hours weren’t enough to make a solid story out of a 30-hour RPG. Watch it if you’re a fan of the series, or if you want to kill some time and there’s nothing else to do. In any case, get the OST.

STORY:

GRAPHICS:

SOUND & MUSIC:

OVERALL: 8.5/10 Diamonds