Tales of Symphonia Review

Tales of Symphonia follows the popular Gamecube game that has been released for the past several years, and follows the main plot of the series as well. However, released as several OVAs it is hard to put a plot like this into just four, 44 minute episodes. I give credit to them for what they did accomplish, though.

Like you could assume a lot of things were rushed, and a lot of things were left out. They kept a few of the key battles, such as that against Kvar, and included a couple more (the fight of Kratos Vs. Yuan had particularly good animation).

Animation styles for the characters is well fitting of what you'd think them to be in traditional anime, but isn't as flattened as I felt some of the animation in the game was (especially for the ending movie). Movement was excellent for the characters, and this is something that's hard to pull off for some animes.
One thing that made it interesting was the lighting effects used on some blade attacks, that made it seem even more like the game, in a good way. Examples of this can be seen in episode 1. There were a couple minor disappointments, such as Tsugach who wasn't animated as well as I'd hoped he'd be, but nothing major that would take away from the series.

The acting in the series seemed to be pretty good. The music was wonderful and the sound effects were better. There was little that this series left to desire, other than some game elements that people might have liked to see incorperated.

When it all boils down I think the anime did a very good job of containing the series into this four-episode Sylvarant saga, and although some parts are obviously rushed (such as some of the seals) it could have been a lot worse. I would recommend watching this, regardless of rather or not you've played the game. It should be worth at least one run through.