Tales of Symphonia: Rodeo Ride Tour vol.2

テイルズ オブ シンフォニア 〜ロデオライド・ツアー〜  下巻

Company: Frontierworks
Based on: Game
Released: 2005.06.24



Rodeo Ride Tour is a story that takes place after the events of Tales of Symphonia, and centres on Sheena (CV: Okamura Akemi) and Zelos (CV: Onosaka Masaya). Due to Zelos his life possibly being in danger because he has become the taget of a terrorist organisation, the two of them travel around the world to avoid danger and possibly draw out the attackers.

Due to this story taking place after the events of Tales of Symphonia, it is of course best if you know the entire story before listening to this. There are also a few scenes from near the ending of the game (making me remember all of it and feel nostalgic).

This time the tracks are more related than in the first CD. The first track is about Zelos and Sheena saving a few girls that were about to be abducted and traded off (I forgot that Tales of isn't afraid of using themes like that) but the rest of the tracks are all related.

In the second and third track Zelos and Sheena visit Lloyd (CV: Konishi Katsuyuki) in Iselia. He is living there for a while with Colette (CV: Mizuki Nana) before they continue on their journey to collect exspheres, Colette is away for a few days though. The two spend the night at Lloyd his house, and Zelos teasingly reminds Sheena of the fact that she used to like Lloyd. When Sheena intends to stay a little longer however Zelos gets angry because they agreed to never stay longer than one night, and takes off on his own. Despite wanting to stay longer, Sheena does however follow him.

In the next three tracks Orochi tracks the two of them down to report thatthe terrorist organisation that was after Zelos his life has been dismantled and that there is no more need to travel around any more. Neither of them seems to be truly happy with the news though. However the story doesn't end there.

After Zelos has gone on ahead, Orochi tells Sheena that before being dismantled, a few members of the terrorist organisation escaped and kidnapped Seles, Zelos his younger sister. They threatened to kill her unless he would come alone to a specific place, and thus Zelos has gone after them. Zelos didn't want Sheena to know this, but now that she does know she of course goes after him.

The scenes with Lloyd were very interesting. It the game it is never explicitly said that Sheena likes Lloyd (though there are enough hints) so this was the first time that I really heard it confirmed. I liked the way they handled it though. It is clear that Sheena still likes Lloyd a bit but has already given up on the idea.

Zelos gets his moments in the spotlights when he goes to save Seles. Somehow he always gets a few good lines somewhere near the end. Although Sheena was the one to save the day. The end was very good as well, the final track starts exactly the same as when Zelos came to Mizuho in the first CD. However, this time when Sheena asks what he came to do he simply answers "I came to see you face". It looks like he became a little more honest ;)

The bonus track has Konishi-san hosting the radio show 'Tales Ring' one more time (they revived it for one more episode) with Onosaka-san and Okamura-san as guests. They tease him a bit about the fact that he wasn't in the first CD, to which he replies that 'he doesn't care because he got his part in the second half of the story'. They all together joke about Lloyd being mean because he is so nice to Sheena, not knowing how she felt xD


Conclusion:
Just like before this is a Sheena x Zelos festival, so only listen if you like/tolerate the pairing. I liked this CD a bit more than the first one, probably because the story was a bit more coherent. The scene with Sheena and Zelos in the rain from the first CD is still my favourite scene from this story though.