Among the countless varieties of computer games, jRPGs have always been somewhat special; most of them have quite a plot to boast about. Tales of Zestiria the Cross is a Japanese anime television series based on both Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios that was made to promote both games. It is produced by Ufotable, directed by Haruo Sotozaki and written by Hikaru Kondo, featuring character designs by Akira Matsushima and music by Motoi Sakuraba and Go Shiina. But did it help to appreciate Berseria and Zesteria? This is the question I will try toanswer.
Tales of Zesteria as mentioned before is based on the game and, of course, the game has many details that have not been mentioned in the anime adaptation. Story wise, from way back, people worshiped Seraphs as Gods. Seraphs are beings that are able to use magic, however, they have always been among people. Yet, only a few are able to see them, those who can, leave their names and legacies in the history of the mankind. Sorey, the main protagonist of the series, is a human raised by the Seraphs. Long-long time ago, Shepherds, humans contracted to a powerful Seraph, were that only power keeping peace and all terrors of wars away from the humanity. They are no more, so the world sinks in malevolence. Sorey having saved the princess, finds out that the humanity is in grave danger yet again. He together with his friend Mikleo and the princess Alisha embarks on a quest to save the mankind.
The fact that the series is based on the game is pretty obvious; there are so many interesting characters, with a well thought out storyline. And, of course, it is nothing special for a game, where you can devote character and story as much time as you want, however, it is all different for an anime. So, long story short, Tales of Zesteria, does not have enough episodes to work with, in result, characters do not receive enough development. Indeed, the heroes cannot be called bad, because they still get some development to work with. And this is the main problem, because not only does the series lack enough time to provide the viewer with a good story and well-developed characters, but it also tries to show the events of Tales of Berseria, which is kinda a prequel to Zesteria.
And that is why it fails. Tales of Berseria alone has so many things that are needed to be explained to the viewers for them to have some kind of an understanding of what is happening, but the series also tries to focus on the events of Tales of Zesteria, so what I am trying to say is that with no time to waste, the creators should have made an anime adaptation of either Tales of Berseria, or Tales of Zesteria only. That way, it would have done the work the way it should be. But as something that should promote the game, it did its job pretty well. Even with some great misses in story and character development, Tales of Zesteria the anime is still an amazing journey, with quite a stunning animation and amazing OST. Indeed, it has problems I have already mentioned, but you might check the game and enjoy the amazing world of the both Tales games, too. Even if you do not want to check the game, do check the anime series; quite an enjoyable series to watch.