#i haven't seen much about tozx since i returned to zestiria fandom in 2021 but what i have is basically always negative and that's fair

[kresnikcest]

Was sorting through my Zestiria merch and remembered I own the ufotable lineart books for TOZX and yeah there are still nice things in a vacuum to like about TOZX tbh. It fails as an adaptation and it fails as a standalone story, but it is still quite interesting for what it chooses to create anew.

Even though I don't think the anime used it very well (and it does have like way too much of a "suffering for humanity's sins" vibe) I liked that Sorey purifying malevolence basically puts him through what caused that person to become malevolent, and I definitely preferred that method of exposition to the Earthen Historia (which, yes, I know Berseria also did it and made it more streamlined, but in an anime adaptation that sort of fetch quest would not work).

If Alisha had to leave the party because of Sorey's blindness I definitely prefer the manga's take on it where she has more agency in doing so, but ultimately I still prefer Rose and Alisha's storylines in TOZX to what they get in the game because the focus is better placed on them having conflicts to deal with, especially actually treating Rose's murder thing as murder.

(Sure, we know she vets targets and has good intentions, but why should the party believe her when it's been established you can think you're 100% right about something and not generate malevolence.)

And I like that Alisha takes part in the final battle. I ~know~ there's a point to her staying gone in the game/manga but I'll take my silly power of friendship cheesiness in non-canon adaptation.

Like don't get me wrong, TOZX is a disappointing adaptation for sure, but TOZX wasn't a prequel or a sequel so if I wanted more of Sorey and Mikleo, game/manga canon was still there... Whereas we didn't really get much of Rose and Alisha interacting that way outside of the DLC.

Honestly I was just kind of "filling in the blanks" during most of TOZX imagining that the party were doing their usual party things while the focus was on Rose or Alisha, and you kind of have to when very little in TOZX feels "earned" through the continuity of that adaptation, you basically need to care about the characters via what you know about them from the game, but it's still nice to me to be able to see in some sense "what could have been".

(Hence, TOZX didn't have to be a faithful adaptation of Zestiria, but it was also not a good story as a standalone experience, so I imagine first-time audiences were very confused and existing fans were. well.)

But even if Eizen going back to normal was sudden (in an ending that was already over-the-top happy with everything neatly resolved), even if dragons can't be purified and they do it anyway, it's still a heartwarming thing in a vacuum, like how the Epileo and Sorey hug is still sweet even in TOZX continuity it's actually pretty fucking depressing confirming that Sorey is still human.

Like yeah, TOZX is a bad adaptation and it doesn't work as a story on its own either, but there are still small details I really like. I would have preferred an adaptation that was more faithful to the game lore, and I feel like they wasted a lot of money on it and probably should have just adapted Berseria instead since interest in Zestiria was dying already with Berseria's release, but for what we got it wasn't completely worthless.

Or maybe it's just because, to me, any adaptation is just free fanfic inspo to me and I just take the parts I like and ignore the rest.