The Tales series is probably still my overall favorite JRPG series. I love its mix of actionbased combat and surprisingly deep character development. That said the series has had an interesting history of anime adaptationsfrom Eternias animeoriginal story to Symphonia just covering its main story beats Abyss being a mostly solid adaptation Vesperia acting as a prequel and Zestiria being a weird mix of adaptation and animeoriginal content. Before all the modern adaptations there was a fourepisode OVA of the original Tales game Phantasia. The best way I can describe this OVA is quick fan service. The fight animations are solid and for the most part it does a decent job of conveying the personalities of the five main characters while providing a general idea of the setting and plot. The scenes that are included stay faithful to the game and there are some nice wholesome character interactions that are fun to see fully voiced and animatedsomething you wouldnt get from the original game which was originally a Super Nintendo title that has only been ported as 2D spritebased versions and never received a full remake. You get an idea of what sets Cless and Chesters journey in motion some shiptease moments between Cless and Mint as well as Chester and Arche and Klaus being a decent enough old man support character. Suzu though its disappointing that she never got fully recruited in this OVA. Unfortunately thats about all the praise I can give. If youre looking for even a halfdecent adaptation of Tales of Phantasias story you wont find it here. The episodes jump around so much that unless youve already played the game youll probably be confused about how characters get from one event to another. There are massive gaps in the story and character development happens offscreen between episodes making it feel disjointed. For example every single character recruitment scene for the main party is completely skipped. These moments are crucial for building emotional connections with the characters and understanding why they join the quest but the OVA doesnt bother to include them at all. That said its still cool to see the world in anime form and get a glimpse of Dhaos the main villain who helped start the trend of Tales antagonists having greater good motives that clash with the heroes. But even then Dhaos isnt given nearly as much development or buildup as he had in the game. At best this OVA might serve as a teaser to make you want to play Tales of Phantasia. But if youre hoping for a complete or even decent retelling of the story youre out of luckunless you just want to see some cool fantasy action.