- This Review Contains Spoilers -
Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike
I’ll start this one off by saying hello to all newcomers, and welcome back to all you Tales fans out there. Word to the wise: This movie is a prequel to Tales of Vesperia, an Xbox 360 exclusive video game and the tenth mothership title in the Tales series of games. If you have no interest in Tales, this movie won’t do as well for you as it will for a fan. Keep that in mind before continuing.
VISUALS [ 8/10 ]
This is a solid movie, through and through. Visuals are fantastic for the most part, especially for 2009. We do see some minor issues here, however. Some scenes are poorly transitioned, which will take you out of the experience for a couple seconds.
As with many older shows, First Strike has problems with distance shots. Characters will appear a bit off model, and will not look anywhere near as sharp as the close-ups do. Movement is a little inconsistent too, with some scenes being better animated than others. Not a dealbreaker, but watch with any level of scrutiny and you’ll notice. Long story short, some scenes clearly got more attention than others. Most importantly, this movie does a great job keeping to that Tales feel. Fans will warm up to this movie like a good conversation with an old friend.
SETTING [ 9/10 ]
Pretty great background art, well produced still shots, and generally just a solid setting in general. First Strike only gives you the minimum amount of knowledge you need to know about the world, but it works well. This is one movie that delivers in its world building. Civilians all look different and can be recognised during different scenes as the movie progresses. It feels like the knights have something worth protecting. You don’t understand the importance of that detail unless you’ve watched something that lacks it.
Scenes in the later half of First Strike start to feel a little samey. Not a huge blow, but they could have done even better.
PLOT [ 9/10 ]
Did you ever want to watch a movie that makes you want to immediately go play the game it’s based off of? That is exactly what Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike does. You will want to go play the game if you own it. There’s a strong chance you’ll want to go buy the game if you don’t. Okay, all that aside, what about the movie?
This is a very unique film, and one you should watch for that reason alone. First Strike is a prequel to Tales of Vesperia. For all intensive purposes, you could watch this and then go play the game. You’d have an excellent introduction to the characters, and I wish I’d known about it back then. Entire mediums are crossed in this movie, and it does an excellent job making that transition.
About a year before the events of the game, First Strike follows Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo, two newly recruited knights in the Imperial army. They are assigned to a brigade out in the country. You get acquainted with what life is like day by day, and then watch as events rapidly spiral out of control in the same way a tornado or earthquake does. Naturally, the knights move to address the problem. Conflict ensues, in the forms of both action and ideology. Characters question their orders, and the actions of others. The tone is mostly serious, but it was never so overbearing that it started to eat at my overall enjoyment of the film. The plot is very focused around the young knights, but will sometimes jump around to other characters. Made perfect sense to me, but there are scenes that will confuse those who haven’t played the game.
CHARACTERS [ 7/10 ]
The weakest part is the characterization. Don't get me wrong, it's not awful - just very minimal. Not a whole lot of character development throughout this movie at all. Yuri and Flynn are affected by the events of the movie, but only a little bit. Everyone else is pretty much static. Supporting characters are actually done pretty well here, but the main cast gets neglected.
The writers were trying to avoid messing with the narrative that follows, since this is a prequel. The lack of development alone is gonna be enough to drop First Strike to about a seven out of ten if you didn't know some of these characters already.
PACING AND PRODUCTION [ 8/10 ]
This is a very solid movie. Nothing extra attached, just a very well produced Tales prequel. Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike has aged beautifully over the years. Sight or sound, you’ll not find anything that leaves you thinking,’Ehh, they could have done better.’ There is a little bit of CG woven in there, but it's not awful. Chances are if aren't looking for it, you won't even notice. The sound design is fantastic. Coming from someone who rarely notices sound at all in an anime, that means a lot. That said, the score for this movie was super average. I don't remember any of the music at all - probably because I was so engrossed in the visuals.
For the most part, First Strike is almost perfectly paced, but there are occasional moments where a bad transition will take you out of it for a moment. There's an odd issue present here, where scene transitions are sometimes sharp and jarring. Not a deal breaker, just one of those odd quirks that anime sometimes have.
First Strike definitely succeeds as a movie, no worries there. My experiences were overwhelmingly positive. You should have no trouble powering through the whole runtime in one sitting.
STORY [ 10/10 ]
Here we have one of those rare prequels that actually lives up to the source material. This section is spoiler territory, so stay away if you want to watch without spoilers.
Okay, so as stated previously, I’m a pretty big fan of the Tales franchise. Coming from a fan, this movie is like a dream come true. You always think to yourself when you first load up the game, “I wonder what Tales would be like if all of it was animated like this anime opening?” This question was apparently answered in 2009 with the release of this movie.
When playing through Tales of Vesperia you always wondered what Yuri and Flynn’s backstory really was. That question was answered with a level of satisfaction I was not expecting, to the point where I’m still upset that The First Strike wasn’t part of the game itself. This is a must-watch for any Tales fan, assuming you’re willing to watch a let’s play of the game, should you not own an xbox 360. If you would rather pretend that this game/movie doesn’t exist, then you should. Tales of Vesperia is one of the best narratives Tales can offer, and you shouldn’t put yourself through the journey if you aren’t willing to experience it from the back seat.
On to movie itself. First thing’s first, First Strike can’t stand on its own for the previously stated reasons. There’s an incredibly strong chance that you’ll want to continue the story after watching this film. Yuri and Flynn are both excellent characters, and for them alone you’ll want a complete story and not just the first arc.
And what an arc it is. All expectations shattered, seriously. Yuri and Flynn are so fleshed out by the end that you’ll wonder how you ever lived without knowing all this about them. Glimpses into their training, a solid understanding of their daily lives, and interesting characters that don’t even show up in the game all prove beyond a doubt that they knew what ‘prequel’ meant when they made First Strike.
Suddenly, without warning, what looked like a simple anomaly in the aer turned into a terrifying and powerful force that seemed to have a will of its own. Aer is the naturally occurring source of energy and magic in this world, and when it goes awry shit gets real very quickly. Beasts turned hostile and tough choices had to be made. First some pretty impressive magic explosives were used to thin out the monster population. After that attacks started happening frequently, and the true foe reared its ugly head. A grotesque and highly aggressive mass of aer began consuming any and all living creatures in its path. Eventually the hunting dogs owned by the knights are lured into the forest and become part of the creature. An impressively violent action scene follows, and Yuri proves himself as he fights the beast almost single-handedly, and ultimately has to put down the dogs.
Meanwhile, Flynn is sent to the capital city to get reinforcements. Unfortunately, politics get in the way and you get a glimpse at the true enemy, sitting nonchalantly at the head of the Knights. Flynn is ultimately unsuccessful due to political unrest in the capital. Flynn makes it back to town not long after the battle in the forest. Both Yuri and Flynn are feeling terrible after their respective battles and end up fighting each other out of sheer frustration. The plot continues.
Most people who watch this movie are going to be coming from the game. They already know just how fantastic Yuri and Flynn are, regardless of who you side with. Getting to see more from them is more than reason enough to watch, with a few moments involving other characters from the game filling in the gaps. In all honesty, this movie is fanservice in its purest form. This movie could brighten up a funeral if there were Tales of Vesperia fans in there for heaven’s sake, which I really think is the bottom line here. You want to see more of these characters, or you’re interested in the game? Stop reading - go watch the movie. It’s on FUNimation Now.
I will take a moment and voice one complaint that I have. The twins. These two sisters are part of Yuri and Flynn’s squad. They’re endearing in their own right, and most of the time they hit home, don’t get me wrong. In certain scenes, however, these two seem incredibly wimpy in comparison to Yuri and Flynn. Their reactions to major story events struck me as how a civilian, and not a knight, would react. Some of their major lines consist of screaming in terror, crying, or both. These sisters really seem like they’re in over their heads, and perhaps that was the point. Or maybe I’m just a cold-hearted bastard. Either way, onwards to the final score.
OVERALL [ 8/10 ]
TL;DR-
Fantastic visuals, with some minor inconsistencies
Strong but limited characterization
Amazing dub, featuring actors from the game
Great pacing for the most part
Has that distinctive Tales feel that fans love
An example of what a great prequel should be like
Relies heavily on its source material - for better or worse
Quite a bit more gory than Tales fans are used to
Never wastes your time with unnecessary scenes
Fans of the game will love this movie, whereas people with no interest in the Tales games will be frequently confused
For alternate recommendations, I point to Tales of Zestiria The X for fans of the Tales franchise. I haven’t seen it myself, but seeing as how good this movie is, I doubt they screwed it up. Other recommendations include Soul Eater for excellent characters and plot, Yona of the Dawn for your action/adventure fix, and the series of six movies known as Break Blade if you want to watch a bunch of awesome anime movies. Good luck with your animes, and if you’re not a Tales fan, this is good place to start!