This anime adaption is pretty much the character Alisha's point of view. I believe that the writer decided to center Zestiria's anime around Alisha because she didn't have consistent character development in the game version. As a person who played the game, Alisha is kind of forgotten about after a certain point in the game. Her name comes up every once in awhile but a lot of her actions are done off screen. There's side quests that involve her presence too however, some players might decide not to even do these side quests. The X begins with episode 0 which is like an introduction to the series. This pretty much follows the game except for a Alisha's scenes. I'm guessing her scenes were like a foreshadow for what was to happen as the main conflict of this anime. From there the story takes a life of its own while adding little bits from the game here and there. Please be in mind that this anime is based off of a game that had a ton of loop holes in its plot line so both productions are not consistent in storytelling. Writer, Hikaru Kondo did edit out a couple of events that happened in the game that made the game have a deeper emotional storyline. These events were also necessary to create complexed characters in the game but they got cut out to make room for Alisha's involvement in the anime adaption. Sorey gets enough screen time to have a solid character along with Rose thanks to their backgrounds being needed to push the story forward. Alisha always finds a way back into the story though. Even when she wasn't with the party anymore. The plot progressed like Sorey and his party were the Shepard express that came to pick up Alisha at the damn train station. Some big surprises about the plot were how it tried to incorporate Tales of Berseria into it's story. This happened more so in season one that two. In season two, Velvet(Berseria's heroine) is just mentioned by the characters as legend along with two other characters from the series. Zestitria's characters also visit a town that was in Berseria but these scenes are only treats for viewers who have completed both games. Which brings me to the point that this anime was written more so fans of the games could watch the series in this format. Its clearly not the same story as the game and the creators did that on purpose. They just wanted to give fans an anime not only from Alisha's point of view but also with a new spin on the two games. I wish that Velvet was brought back a little more in the anime since I loved Berseria as a game way more than I did Zestiria. Alisha being in on the action this time around was awesome especially during the fusion with the seraphim. The ending of the anime gave a little more expansion on the game's ending which made both the game and the anime feel more secure too. Sorey's journey gets a little dragged out so the ending feels like a destination worth finally arriving at. My biggest problem with this anime is that I didn't like what the story did with some of the villains. Their actions were watered down to stall time for an episode or two. I didn't like this cheap trick too much. Alisha fans benefit from the creation of this anime the most. She kicks ass big time all throughout the show.
Matsushima Akira drew the character designs for the anime AND Let me just tell you, that every detail in Zestiria: The X looks is amazing. The CGI used to create the town's buildings and the flashy abilities of the Shepard make the anime pop out at viewers like one of those pop out books that children love. Alisha's character design when she fused with the seraphim made her look like she was the star of the damn show. Sorey and Rose's character fusion designs should be old news to people who played the game. If you never played the game, then your lucky enough to see all the eye candy action as a new experience. I liked all the opening and ending sequences of animation that brought back rock band FLOW to perform two theme songs for both seasons also. Ufotable got it right when it came to making an anime thats good to look at. Best thing that ever happened to this anime was the fight scenes. Well…. and maybe the skits at the end of each episode[INSERT ME LAUGHING].
I would have a hard time recommending this anime to people because of the inconsistencies in the story. You might be able to watch this anime and make some sense out ofeverything but I recommend trying to learn a little background about Zestiria and Berseria before watching it. Understand that this anime isn't bad, just a mess of plot loop holes attempted to be filled with good graphics and fan service. P.S.: I was all for the Sorey/Mikleo pairing. Alisha has some competition…..
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