If you have played the game you owe it to yourself to see this movie, trust me your going to love it. If you have never played the game Tales of Vesperia, well it is still a fantastic movie.
The story of the movie takes place several years before the events of the game. Yuri Lowel is a new recruit the knights, and is put under the command of a very interesting captain. Alongside Yuri is his child hood friend Flent, and they still don’t get along together but can agree with one thing ” justice” but how you execute it that’s another story. The two main characters and the supporting cast are sent to a town to protect the villagers from the creatures coming from the forest which have been getting stronger by the day. More time passes and some events cause a few twists to happen, and more people die. Something must be done to save the villagers and the forest from total destruction. Can Yuri and the Knights stop the source of evil, or is something bigger hiding in the shadows?
Visually stunning, the quality of the animation is great, the colors, texture and frame rate all very smooth and crisp. With many Games that became anime the art style is lost with Tales of Vesperia the game and the movie line up perfectly, and the artists that worked on the game were major players in the movies creation. The same visual team at Bandai Japan, has done well with this franchise, for those who have not played the game its like playing an anime RPG that looks and feels like anime. Bandai did throw in a few shots taken striaght from the game, and used the map on a few occasions.
The characters are just like the ones found in the game, Though the movie takes place several years before the game many of the supporting cast make cameos during the films duration. Some new characters are in the mix and the cast is solid. You will not be disappointment with the character development regardless if you have played the game or not. If you have played the games you will be not as surprised about Yuri’s past but I will hold out on spoilers there are a few good ones in there. All the original voice cast from the game are back, and some top notch talent was added for extras. This movie took several years to make and it shows, bandai really cares about its fans and its franchise.
Plot was much better then expected, I initially thought this was going to be some low budget re-hash but I was completely wrong. The plot was a deep and rich tale full of good and bad, tales of life and plenty of death. This film jerks your heart around and leaves you on the edge of your seat at times. This is not a Rated G film for sure, but it kept a very high class tone, I would put it in at about Princess Mononoke about a PG-13 film. Sometimes fan service and vulgar language can take the backseat to solid plot and amazing characters, this is the case with Tales of Vesperia.
Overall I think this movie is a solid 4/5 if I had to give it a number. Why not a 5 well its still kinda short on a few things and was a little off topic at times, other than that I thought it was fantastic. I really hope this gets a US-release it deserves it. Bandai please give us the Blu-ray! Which you can buy in Japan but not here yet, the blu-ray is fantastic!
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