Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle

slavemaster_1991★ 5

Spoilers ahead. To be honest, this one is a pretty tough anime to review for one simple reason: I can't really point out what went wrong. At first, I liked it, there really was something capturing, some possible plot that was intriguing - and that something got lost somewhere along the way. Maybe it was silly of me to expect something from a game I have never heared about, but whatever, lets me go a bit into detailes. First things first, the sound - while in action itself it is "not great not terrible", I found both openings and endings heavily lacking in quality, none of themwas "that catchy song that you want to listen to a few more times". In fact, after hearing them once I prefered to skip, cause they were way too bland. Art. A mix of animated characters and CGI monsters that didn't look bad, but I can't call it good either. Combat was a bit of simplistic, I'd say even "in budget" as most of the times characters didn't even move while casting whatever sci-fi magic that was. Characters - pretty bland, all of them. Those who had some notable trait were completely defined by said trait. Story - welp, and here lies the dead potential. There are a lot of questions about the world itself, as while being 25 episodes long anime doesn't seem to give us a whole lot of perspective, so we must accept everything as given. Even worse, all the good seeds of promising development were actually resolved by the simpliest way possible by some pretty questionable means. We got an all-knowing entity that doesn't know everything. We got some time travelling shenanigans for no reason. We got a power of friendship like it is some kind of kids show. Why didn't the first boss, who was a kind of "inside enemy" use clever manipulation for some greater cause but just pressed a button "I mindcontrol everyone lol"? Why the greatest plan to defeat the biggest enemy is "Just lets all go for it together lol"? There was so much space to make something outstanding and yet it all was hacked and butchered. While I wrote lots of negative about this anime, I will still give it a 5/10. While it failed it's own promissing future, I can't say it was bad. It just fell into blandness and mediocrity but I don't think there is much to hate about it. Still, watch only if you are in that kind of thing or just want something bland to fill your free time.

LegendAqua★ 7

Is it Darkers or Falspawns?... THIS is the Phantasy Star Online 2 anime adaptation LA wanted...not the horrible mishmash of trainwreck that was Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle from what sources tells IS a retelling of the game and oh boy is it VIOLENT AND DARK. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle tells of Ash voiced by Daisuke Ono who doesn't remember his past but enlist in ARKS, it's not until he stumbles across Matoi voiced by Satomi Sato when thing starts ramping up as they battle the Darkers and the higher beings od Dark Falz who puppeteer a greaterevil than themselves to be opened. The plot progression of Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle takes a leisurely stroll in how it's paced as the majority of the first half is build up for A LOT of stuff. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle takes BOTH it's character development and world building in strides BUT like a typical JRPG in giving us the majority of the plot twists of the world of Phantasy Star Online or it's characters in the latter half. Now is this a bad thing, well no as even though not much happens in the first half, it's the building block of some rather well done plot twists to back it up and the revelations to the world of Phantasy Star Online becomes wider and wider you get invested in it more. So yeah, in terms of world building and character development, it was VERY well done, the ONLY flaw would be that you would've need to slog for...like the first 8 ~ 10 episodes or so until things starts picking up. The world building goes hand in hand with it's characters and their development BUT the only huge obstacle that the world building had to overcome and slight spoilers here but, what Ash, the main character experiences is...-sigh- time travel is involved. BUT LA will say that it's handled in a Steins;Gate way, by that LA means Ash is affected by the "butterfly effect"..as in he CAN'T change the past (well as much as he can), so to this end, LA can give a pass on the entire time travel stuff, LA doesn't like it BUT time travel has a BIG impact and thus all the build up from the first half had and has a purpose to it all, so LA is satisfied with that in all honesty. So the biggest strength (aside from world building) comes in it's characters and their developments with Ash and Matoi having theirs in the final few episodes of the anime. Ash meets a VARIETY of characters who all have reasoning to be in ARKS or their purpose in life with some having links to Ash or Matoi one way or another. An early favorite character LA had was of Melfonsena viced by Kana Hanazawa and she changes ALOT in the anime, though a big shocker happens quite early with her. ANother would be Sarah voiced by Kana Ueda a minor character but becomes a MAJOR focussed character latter down the line and was another favourite character in the anime. All things withstanding and with having LA not spoil anything, but the characters and it's character development made Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle NOT a slog of an anime to get through in the latter half and LA was suprised by even this standards but still great on the character department for Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle and from this anime to FULLY adpat a game's story, yeah it's expected the characters gets the most development in all this. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle's a basic moral theming to it and is at the core of Ash and Matoi as our main duo character sin all this, that of "not sacrificing others for the greater good" isn't the ONLY option and again it easily manifests in Ash's motives and beliefs throughout the anime and this theming goes towards the majority of the characters developments as well. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle's villains on the other hand..well besides two villains in the anime, the rest are borderline typical "evil for evil sakes" which is sad as they could have been utilized quite well with the protagonists quite well, of course the two villains LA mentioned that are exempt from is DOES this, the rest bogs them down or brings them down to their level which is again bad in this respect. The animation done by Gonzo was...typical Gonzo this time round though LA could see them "trying" at times. 3DCGI to many derps and lower quality at time occurring like clockwork, the naimation was an inconsistent mess alot of the time, again Gonzo TRIED when it was the more intense moments or battles but with the battles, 3D CGI was used ALOT maybe to harken back to the game's graphics but sometimes it just makes it blatantly obvious and takes us out of it (though sometimes it is kinda hilariously offputting). The derps in animation occurs mostly in the battle choreography some of the time as well as the character faces derp ALOT and persists thrghout the anime. Yes latter down the line the aniamtion gets slightly better but the derps are still there and though the 3DCGI use is mainly on the Darkers and robotic humans..it's uhhhhh blatant to the point LA CAN'T ignore it as a detriment. The voice cast is HUGE so LA will more or less point out LA's MVP's for this anime otherwise LA will be here all day but it'll go to Satomi Sato as Matoi, Kana Ueda as Sarah, Kana Hanazawa as BOTH Melfonsena and Risa and Daisuke Ono as Ash, with probably LA's favourite seiyuu going to Satomi Sato. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle IS the TRUE Phantasy Star Online 2 anime not Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation all things withstanding, LA won't lie, sure both anime adaptations have vastly different settings and characters, but Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle follows the game as best of it;s ability as it can, Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation however is a poor excuse of a slice of life highschool anime literally fanboying over the Phantasy Star Online 2 brand with no just cause of existing if Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle exists. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle may have it's problems with it's inconsistent animation and it's extremely slow start but man if your a fan of Phantasy Star Online 2 then then anime will do justice to it and this will be coming from someone who ONLY played the PSP Phantasy Star Online 2 game (a bit). It's characters are something to be invested in, the world building flourishes alongside it's characters and heck LA will say it handles TIME TRAVEL to an ok degree of non-abuse~!. Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle not as a Phantasy Star Online anime, but looking at it a an individual entity itself, it's a decent overall space opera-ish anime, not the greatest thing LA has seen but enjoyable most of the time, that only backed with it's characters and world building does this statement actually come into fruition. Yes it has it's ups and downs and constant hiccups but nonetheless it's decent and at worst, just inconsistent animation. WATCH Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle, not the horribly laughable "Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation", it's it's non canon ok.