As I’ve said before, video game movies can be pretty rough. At times, a movie based on a video game may have a terribly translated story, while at other times, it can cross over from one medium to the other beautifully. This time, we’re looking at Tales of Vesperia, a well known Xbox 360 RPG that I’ve played in the past. The movie version, Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, doesn’t take its main story from the video game itself, but takes its cues from the series as a whole.
Let’s see how that went over in my review of Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike.
As I said, Tales of Vesperia is a fairly well known RPG on the Xbox 360 platform. I’ve had time with the game, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve shown it any love. What’s the movie about? In a mythical kingdom, people are able to harness a magic known as Aer, a type of substance that everyone can use. This ranges from having lights in a house to adding a power to weapons. One day, something about the Aer changes, and it’s not a change for the better. The color of the Aer has changed from green to red, which is controlling the wilderness and destroying the lands for an unknown reason. Is someone behind this? What’s going on? Is it natural? Join Flynn, the son of a fallen hero, and Yuri, who you may remember from the Tales of Vesperia video game, as they embark on an adventure of discovery filled with twists and turns, thrills, battles, and betrayal.
FUNimation did a great job in translating Tales of Vesperia to an anime format. As I’ve said many times before, when it comes to turning video games into movies, you’re running a major risk of it ending up…bad. There are so many video game movies that have been badly done that the default expectation for one is that it will be bad. With Tales of Vesperia, FUNimation made sure to keep the story detailed and similar to the video game. The plot is incredibly detailed, progresses very well, develops the characters smoothly and fully, and provides a great deal of action.
On top of that, the graphics and audio for the title were both very well done. Some of the characters look just like they do in the video game. The battles, city, and landscapes throughout the movie have been drawn and animated as if they came straight out of the game itself. Being able to provide the brilliant artwork of the game in the form of an animated film is a major plus. With the audio, you always have to keep an eye out for two things: voice acting and music. The voice acting was spot on, and did a great job of conveying emotion when necessary while the film was animated to sync to the dialog perfectly. The score throughout the movie was very placed. When it comes to huge battle scenes, you want something that pulls you in and gets your blood pumping. When something shocking or sad happens, you want music to convey a sense of gravitas.
Overall, if you’re looking for an awesome animated title based on a video game, this is definitely one to consider. This is one animated movie not to miss out on! If you’re a fan of the video game, you’ll enjoy the movie as much as me. As I said above, this movie offers thrills, betrayal, action, and might just get you to go purchase the game if you don’t own it. With an anime movie such as this so much more can be added into the future and hopefully it is planned for its future. If not I’ll be surprised. The price for the animated movie also spot on and well worth going out to your local retailer for an awesome item to add to your collection.
Review
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Solid voice acting and musical scores Movie presents itself in a good way coming from a hit Xbox 360 title Ending provided the feeling as if another movie could be created | None |
| Rating |
Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike was provided by FUNimation Entertainment. For more information on movie Tales of Vesperia: The First Stirke, please visit www.funimation.com.
