For those who want to find out what Tales of Phantasia is about, but don't have the time to sit down and play a game for 40+ hours to do so, a ToP anime OVA has been in progress since last year. The OVA has, so far, only been released in Japan, and has had one episode released every couple months. There will be four full episodes when the OVA is fully complete (they're up to #3 right now). The storyline is basically a majorly condensed version of ToP the game.

Of course, thanks to technology, a subtitled English (and French, though I can't find a site for that...) translation of 2 of the 3 currently released episodes are available on this here interweb. I myself am not usually one for anime, but this is quite well-done. You can pick it up via Bit Torrent here: http://www.tales-cless.org/?page=topova. I didn't recognize any of the music as being from the game, but it's quite good, as well.

Supposedly, a full English translation (new voice work) is in the works by Namco, and the OVA might get a US release. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed on that one.

hooray

Awsome find man,I'll be sure to watch them. I alredy watched the first one,I didnt know the rest were out

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I'll be watching this.

I watched it already! It's pretty cool. I think they changed the characters a little though. I think Mint is a little less of a "quiet and pristine holy girl", and that she was much more lively in the game. (Not that the events it showed in the first two episodes were any time for happiness.)

Arche was made into your staple anime-spunky-funny girl, but as we all know from the game, she's a little more "R-Rated" than that. XD

Klarth is super-cool, though I think he's a little more rough around the edges than we got to see in the show. He's an interesting character because he defies all stereotypes.

The drawing is very clean and nice. I'm looking forward to more episodes.

(I don't even watch anime, too. o.O)

Well, if you want to get technical, DeJap added a WHOLE LOT of unnecessary shit in their translation, probably making the sexual references a bit more extreme than was originally intended. From the anime that I've seen [and that's an ungodly amount of anime] Japanese humor regarding sexuality has been a little more subtle than that.

Heh, you got to it before I did. I was about to say, the DeJap translators did a good job changing and adding stuff in. Personally, I really liked the R-rated Arche stuff ("We can even use these ropes!")

Hey, I need some help (sorry to double-post)... I'm trying to save a screenshot of Klarth in the first episode, summoning Maxwell, but when I use Alt+PrintScrn and paste it in PSP7 or Paint, it just shows the Windows Media borders and a black box in the middle. Can anyone help me with this?

Most video players have an embedded protection to prevent you from taking screenshots. You'll have to use an external program such as this (it's free) to grab screenshots from video files.

Just so you know Kyle is totally wrong It's not a "protection feature" really, it's just that printscreen doesn't pick up the video layer.

Anyways, if you're using Media Player Classic, there's a "Save Image" function, really handy. But that program also works.

Then how do you explain the Print Screen function working just fine on video in Quicktime (which is a good alternative if you can't get any of the other programs to work)?

Crud. I used to run into that problem, and then I found a way around it. Of course, I can't remember what it was now. >.>

I searched for it on Google, and found the solution...

Basically, the video layer is kept separate from just about anything else, making you save a blackscreen when you try Alt+PrintScrn. Thus, Windows Media Player (the only player I could get to recognize the file type...) has a special command just for saving screenshots - Ctrl + I. I still can't get a screenshot in fullscreen mode, because the video player minimizes to bring up the 'Save As..." dialog box, but... hey, it's better than nothing.

It's a picture of Klarth, BTW, summoning Maxwell - the green runes around him are glowing for just a split second in between the subtitles, and I caught that shot for a screenie. I'm probably gonna make it my background if I can get a fullscreen version...

If the original size is smaller than fullscreen, what's the difference between making a smaller picture out of your wallpaper and stretching it than a big picture out of fullscreen?

A bigger rip makes for better quality.

I agree with whoever said Klarth isn't nearly as rough n' ready as he was in the game... though I don't mind him being kinda goofy.

Also, Chester just became twenty times cooler.