While the OVA special created the "He ate Maisen!" meme to the village's nonexistent reaction to Maisen's death, the game actually emphasizes more on how pissed Sorey and Mikleo are that Maisen was killed, they even have a skit about how angry they are over it. Sorey and Mikleo have never left the village before, so Maisen is one of the only people they know in the world. It's pretty heartclenching to see them get angry for him.
This leads to an entirely different kind of heartwarming in the anime adaptation: Sorey and Mikleo strike Lunarre first, resulting in a sequence of events that means, at least in this version, he didn't eat Maisen. The other villagers' smiles of relief at his recovery under healing magic is a short but extremely touching moment if you were expecting him to die. Again.
Sorey and Mikleo's relationship in general. Their loyalty to each other is constantly tested, but never broken. Even to the very end.
Any time they go off tangent and start ranting about ruins together or bickering about their childhood days Like an Old Married Couple. It just shows how close they are and how naturally they can act around each other, even fighting for world peace so far from home.
A skit after Sorey wakes up from being unconscious for three days with a fever after becoming the Shepherd has Lailah mentioning that Mikleo never left Sorey's side. For three days.
The "make up" part of Sorey and Mikleo's "break up and make up" arc. After getting into a fight with Sorey about subjecting his life to be Sorey's accompanying Seraph, Mikleo leaves the group for a little while and Sorey is so upset he can't even bring himself to get excited over the ruins. Mikleo finally returns in a Big Damn Heroes worthy entrance and shoves it in Sorey's face that this journey is about their dream, not just Sorey's, and Sorey finally agrees to make a contract with him and they fuse successfully. The entire scene after they win the battle is so heartwarming, and it's only after this that Sorey is completely able to control his Shepherd powers.
When Mikleo needs to announce his true name, he says that Sorey already knows it, that's how much he trusts Sorey.
Mikleo usually stays on Sorey's lefthand side, because Sorey is right-handed and Mikleo is left-handed, so they can better support each other. However, when Sorey goes blind in his right eye, Mikleo switches to Sorey's right to cover his blind side. He switches back to Sorey's left when his eye is healed.
Mikleo and Sorey's pre-final battle talk under the stars where Mikleo brings up how Sorey is going to have to disappear for a few hundred years while absorbing Maoteras and allowing humans to see Seraphs. Mikleo asks about their dream to see the ruins of the world together, and Sorey promises to find him when he wakes up, because their dream will live on. Mikleo promises to wait for him no matter how long it takes.
Sorey actually switches his position here so that Mikleo's on his right side, like the time when he was blind, implying that he'll always need Mikleo's support, no matter what.
And in that epilogue Mikleo is seen to be wearing a feather tied around his waist as a memento to Sorey. It's subtle, but it lets the audience know that even now he's thinking about Sorey.
Edna's devotion to her brother, who became a dragon. While there's no known cure for Seraphs who have turned into dragons, she continues to try and find a way to save him, agreeing to accompany Sorey to do so. Becomes a Tearjerker when she's not able to find one and has to kill him anyway. However, it's still incredibly heartwarming to see the snarky, prideful Edna talk about how much she loves her brother, though subtly, even wearing his old gloves and boots and hairbands from when he was once a Seraph. She really loves him. In the Tales of Zestiria The X anime, she is shown in the ending speaking with her brother, who is still a dragon, but is implied to be being slowly purified. He is even able to speak to her briefly and because Sorey can purify dragons, it's implied that he'll come back as soon as he gets a chance, as the ending also shows him returning and meeting up with Mikleo. A total reversal of what happens in the game and surely heartwarming for Edna and Eizel fans.
Dezel's utter devotion to Roze. He never leaves her side, ever, and even sacrifices himself to save her from Symmone. He's stoic and no-nonsense, but just watching him be so dedicated to her is heartwarming all it's own. The one time he truly smiles is when he was dying for her and telling her that he was grateful to her.
He even gets a moment during the pre-final battle scene, as Sorey and everyone are exchanging their last bit of peace in town, and the wind blows his hat off Zaveid's head and into Sorey's arms. They take a moment to acknowledge his presence, and Sorey actually puts the hat on. Before Zaveid takes it back, of course.
Roze acknowledging how much Alisha cares for her at the end of the Alisha DLC. While the Seraphs protect them, she's realizes that she doesn't have to be alone, especially when Alisha's there to share her burden. She finally sits down and talks to Alisha, and Alisha is so happy to have her friend back. They defeat the final boss together with a dual attack and go off to see Sorey together.
Alisha's answer to Sorey, at the end of the same DLC. She thanks him for all he's done for her, and that she'll be strong no matter what happens or who she wants to be.
Using Zaveid's gun against Heldalf is presumed to kill the seraphim Sorey shoots with. After Sorey stabs Heldalf, though, the seraphim are released from Heldalf's body and Sorey smiles for the last time in the game, knowing that his friends are alive.
An optional skit that occurs after Zaveid joins the party has him understandably wondering if the rest of the group hates him considering all that he's put them through in the first half of the game. Lailah then comes in and reassures Zaveid that no one truly hates him and, to further prove her point, reads a fortune that says that Zaveid is a friend to the group. Granted, this is Lailah we're talking about, so how serious she is is up to debate, but it is rather touching to see her bear no ill will to someone who previously stood in the way of her journey.
Lailah: "Zaveid is our..."friend", it says!
Zaveid: "...It's just some dumb fortune."
Lailah: "Maybe. But my fortunes are never wrong."
Even more heartwarming is the fact that she uses a paper flower with only one petal (i.e. only one outcome in a fortune), which means that she may have purposefully rigged the fortune-telling just so she could make someone feel better.
For anyone who's played through Tales of Graces: there's just something about Sophie calling herself "Sophie Lhant" that really makes you go "Awww". Even more so is the fact that Sophie wears her "Toast of the Town" costume from Grace's future arc, which means that she is officially part of Asbel's family and is certainly proud of it.
Would you believe item crafting counts? Even if Seraphs don't need to eat, they're still making delicious foods and desserts for their human friends and eating alongside them just to make them feel more comfortable.
In the DLC, Alisha is forced to fight Maltran again, but instead of having it play out like the previous time, Alisha uses the opportunity to wipe the slate clean so she can move on in life with no regrets. She then thanks the person responsible for giving her this chance...who happens to be Symmone. Symmone doesn't know how to react and ends up at a loss for words, not just because she didn't get the intended reaction from Alisha, but because someone other than Heldalfthanked her for using her illusion powers and is grateful to her. For someone who thought that her powers were only good for mischief and evil, a compliment doesn't come very often. For a split second, Alisha wasn't the only one who was grateful.
The anime finale has Eizen regaining his sanity and while he is still a dragon at least he is able to recognized his sister and maybe with time, he might be able to return to his normal form.
is the CMOH to crown them all.
