When the west was playing Dungeons and dragons, a little studio in Japan had noticed the craze and made a animated series that tried to capture the essence of the phenomenon.  I think they also read a series of books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, called the DragonLance series.   I recommend you read these books first.  It will give you some idea what to expect from this series. 

I will give you idea what the characters are like and tell me that they don’t come straight out of these books.  First is the knight, a young a reckless individual who goes head on into fights with out thinking.  Next is the elf, an aloof girl around one hundred and eighty years of age.  In elf years, she’s a teenager and for some reason is prone to fall in love with the first male the she sees, which just happens to the knight.  Then we have the dwarf who has a serious attitude problem and hates water.  You have the thief who is a little bit slimy and last but not least you have the magician.

The only thing missing is a mouse icon and a series of squares, where you decide the points that each character has to split between their abilities and how much money they start the adventure off with.

I haven’t seen this series for a while and even though they did make a TV series, which also is very good.  I prefer the OVA.  By the way OVA means Original Video Animation.  This meant the series was never shown in this incarnation on TV and had nothing removed.

Story.  As far as I can remember, two kings who hate each other start a war and the group help one side.  A weird witch helps the other side, with as usual an agenda of her own that only become apparent later on in the series.  She keeps talking about the need for balance in the continent.  You latter find out the years ago the original witch had died and infused a headpiece with her spirit and, anyone that picked it up would be possessed by the spirit of the long since dead witch.  She causes the war and in the end of the war, watches as the king she seemed to be helping gets killed and then disappeared.  Just as soon as one war has finished, another war starts and that is the basis of the entire series and the subsequent TV series.  

It’s ok but seriously clichéd.  If you have ever experienced fantasy in any dungeon-based world, you have an idea what to expect.  When I say that nothing is new, I mean it.  I kept expecting them to start rolling dice or to line up and take turns attacking each other.   It’s a bit like an advert in the UK selling Ronseal Varnish.  I does exactly what it says on the tin.