As someone who played the original game, I am really happy with this episode: the creators did a wonderful job on it. Yeah, sure, it wasn’t 100% faithful, and a lot of the minor parts were cut away, but who cares! This episode really delivered where it should have, and it did especially Sheena justice.
Sheena’s story really took up the main focus of this episode, and I’m really glad to see that the creators of the anime realized that it’s indeed the characters who made the original game so good, rather than its typical story. I also love how much of a bigger role Corrine had here: it even appeared in front of Lloyd, to make him trust Sheena: he never did that in the game. The anime also put a lot more focus on the parallel between Sheena’s two attempts to summon a pact with Volt. The actual fight with Volt was done better in the game, but everything around it was actually way superior in the anime in my opinion.
It’s also interesting to see that the anime creators decided to reveal Lloyd’s father this early here. To come with a bit of a comparison: in the game we’re still on the first disk. Yuan only exposes Kratos, halfway through the second disk. Still, they really didn’t have any choice here, with the really shallow way that they’ve been foreshadowing it. That really was something at which the game was better. But at the same time, the revelation in the anime also really packed a punch: it was well timed and worked really well as a cliff-hanger at the end of this episode.
This is something subtle, but I also love what the creators did with Raine’s powers: in the games she already was one of the best characters in terms of combat, but they really made her kick ass beyond belief here: able to block Volt’s rays for several minutes, and while some of the other characters struggle to just slay one dragon, she blasts an entire army away. On top of that, I also really love the way that the creators found in order to reveal that she’s actually a half-elf: it both showed Regal’s intelligence, and also pretty much enabled that Pope to remain out of the storyline here. It’s much more subtle here, and I like it a lot more than in the games.
There is one part about this episode that I didn’t like, though: it’s the portrayal of Lloyd: he just doesn’t feel like a worthy main character here. In the game, he also had his flaws, but at the same time he was the one who pulled the rest of the characters along with him: he was impulsive, but resolute and that allowed everyone to move forward. The others in the meantime were the ones who provided him with advice when he was having a hard time. That latter is too much overstated in the anime: he just gets pulled around, he is a bit of a whiny brat, especially at the time when Yuan proposed an alliance. He just isn’t the leader here, which on the other hand isn’t so bad, because the rest of the cast is that awesome.
OVA Episode Rating: 8.75/10
