テイルズ・オブ・シンフォニア 1

A nice adaption of the video game

Tales of Symphonia is a manga adaption of the titular video game; this volume covers the beginning of the game up through the seal of fire in Triet. Because the game's a fairly long RPG, quite a few things have to be cut to fit in a reasonable run for the manga; in this volume alone the events of Lloyd being captured by the Renegades are omitted, and it seems like they might have actually killed off Forcystus in Iselia.

For those not familiar with the game, the basic story is this: the land of Sylvarant is slowly dying, and only the Chosen can re-awaken a slumbering goddess to bring prosperity back and seal away the Desians, an evil group of half-elves who enslave humans for unknown reasons in their "human ranches". We follow Lloyd Irving, a young man from the village of Iselia, as he accompanies his childhood friend (and Chosen) Colette on a quest to reach the Tower of Salvation and save the world.

Despite events having to be altered and/or cut short, I enjoyed reading this volume; the main events and emotions still come across well, and the author had some fun highlighting certain things that will become relevant in future volumes. The artstyle can flip nicely between serious and comedic, and the battle scenes are easy to follow.

Vocabulary will include some fantasy vocab, but there's only a few terms that pop up in this first volume; the rest is fairly standard manga fare.