About the Anime

The Tales of Phantasia anime is a 4-episode series based on the events of the Tales of Phantasia RPG. These episodes were released in Japan rather painfully with long periods between each one. They were released throughout 2004-2006. In 2007, a bundled DVD was released both in Japan and North America.

The anime attempts to squeeze as much as it can from the entire game into the four episodes. The story is as follows:

• Episode 1 - Dhoas is revived. Magic is the only thing that can hurt Dhaos, so Cless and Mint are sent to the past to find the magic-users, Klarth and Arche. Once in the past, the story jumps to Cless, Mint, Klarth, and Arche already acquainted and joined together. They're defending Alvanista from Dhaos' army. A devastating magical weapon is used.
• Episode 2 - The heroes find a time machine to return to the present. However, it requires more Mana to be in the world to have enough power to activate. Cless, Mint, and Arche journey to the Tree of Life so that Mint can heal it and bring Mana back to its full strength.
• Episode 3 - The episode begins with an exciting battle as everyone travels to the present to save Chester from Dhaos. A surprise visitor from the future seeks help against humankind's hopeless battle against Dhaos. Cless, Mint, Klarthe, and Arche (now called the Heroes of Time) are led to visit the elves to enter Trent's forest and summon Origin. Origin is needed to create a weapon that can stop Dhaos.
• Episode 4 - The exciting climax! The heroes enter Dhaos' castle for the final confrontation. Everyone's resolve is questioned. Is Dhaos truly evil? Is Cless doing the right thing by defeating him?

The Fanbase Reaction

Tales of Phantasia is one of the best RPGs on the Super Nintendo. In North America, it attracted a great deal of popularity thanks to the fan translation released in 2001. Just imagine what it must've been like for the gaming community back in 2004 when we first heard about the Tales of Phantasia anime. Everyone was pissing in their pants! It's not every day we get an anime based on a megahit RPG.

There should be no surprise that the anime community leaked English fansubs as the episodes for Tales of Phantasia were released in Japan. The effort was thanks to Phantasian Productions and AOI Anime. Their fansubs were available for download on their site for a couple of years until 2007 when they took them down due to the North American release of the DVD.

My Opinion

The anime's art style and animation are high quality. Every episode was a treasure that was well worth the long wait. The storytelling is executed gracefully and doesn't feel rushed. They did a great job selecting the biggest parts of the game and connecting them into a larger story that made sense. Even people who aren't a fan of the game would find this anime entertaining. The soundtrack is excellent as well. I still listen to it even today. The Tales of Phantasia anime overall is excellent and comes highly recommended.

Soundtrack

I embedded the opening and ending themes below so you can preview the soundtrack. If you would like to download the entire soundtrack, you can grab it from this site's general Music page.

Desktop Wallpapers

Several desktop wallpapers based on the anime are available in this site's general Desktop Wallpapers page.

Where to Download It

The Tales of Phantasia anime can be easily downloaded via torrents from Nyaa.si, the #1 anime download site. Here's a direct link to Tales of Phantasia in their search. If you need a BitTorrent program (Windows or Mac), the two best free ones are qBittorent and Transmission.