An Investigation Into Anime Games–And Which Are the Best
What the $%^! is an anime game?
I should know, I’m about to write an article on it. But I’m confused. Is it a game that is inspired by the pantheon of great anime? Is it a game that is a direct adaptation of an anime? Is it simply a game that was made in the style of anime? OR does it just need to feature a Best Girl and we can call it a day?
All of those interpretations are correct. But for this article, we’re mainly going to follow the second criteria: it’s an anime that is a direct adaptation. Because if we use “inspired by” then ANYTHING could be the greatest anime game of all time. Is The Legend of Zelda an anime game? Kinda. Is Super Mario an anime game? Oh god maybe? I mean they both have manga adaptations but … WHATEVER THIS IS CONFUSING.
IF IT WALKS LIKE AN ANIME GAME AND TALKS LIKE AN ANIME GAME IT’S A F*CKING ANIME GAME.
10. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Hinokami Chronicles
Have you ever watched Demon Slayer with a demon-shaped hole in your heart? Wishing that it could be YOU doing the slaying rather than being forced to spectate. Well, now you can! This hack-and-slash action-adventure puts you in the shoes—sandals, whatever—of Tanjiro Kamado, shonen progatonist extraordinaire! Join him as he cuts through the demons that appear in the anime! And if you get sick of him, there are 17 OTHER CHARACTERS you can play as and 13 MORE downloadable as DLC.
9. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
The heart of the cards continues to beat! For those of us who have refused to let Yu-Gi-Oh! become a childhood relic of the past, you can now get this game on PC and battle it out to your heart of the cards’ content! You can fight through a story-based campaign in solo mode, or challenge other nerds online!
8. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Now we’re getting into the big guns. Ultimate Ninja Storm is a classic game that puts you in control of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha as they battle against the Akatsuki in the Fourth Shinobi War. You wanna shank bad guys with kunai? Incinerate them with Fireball blasts? Squash them with giant toads that you summoned with your own blood? Now you can! This game is a mix of flashy hack-and-slash battles with nameless mooks, and deadly one-on-ones with some of the most powerful ninjas in the Naruto series.
7. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle
Thrilling combat! Stylish poses! Rampant homoeroticism! This game has it all!
Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure: All Star Battle features all the exuberance and vibrancy of the anime. Battles are fast-paced and over-the-top, with characters able to use a variety of standard attacks and special abilities in order to punch each other’s lights out. Naturally, the game also allows players to access their Stand abilities. If you don’t know, Stands are the fighting spirits that are bonded to each character. And speaking of characters, there’s a whole MESS of them. Jojo and Dio and friends/foes are all there, plus you can even play as ANIMALS! The combat is easy to learn, but hard to master, making it rewarding for casual and hardcore gamers alike.
6. Attack On Titan 2
This action hack-and-slash puts you in control of a fearless member of the Survey Corps as they duke it out against man-eating Titans. You begin the game by creating your own character and then going through basic training with Eren Jaegar and friends. After that, you’re thrown to the wolves—Titans—and have to use your badass omnidirectional gear in order to defeat the towering giants. Much of the game takes place in the air, with your ODM gear being your primary source of movement. The ODM concept is so original to the series that few games can rival the specificity of this gameplay. Marvel’s SpiderMan comes to mind, but that game doesn’t have giant monsters that can instakill you while you web sling around now does it?
5. Dragon Ball Fighter Z
Just like the anime from which it was inspired, the Dragon Ball Z fighting games created the original template for other anime franchises to follow. Without the Dragon Ball Z games, there would be no Jojo or Naruto games, just like there would be no Jojo or Naruto anime series without DBZ’s influence. Dragon Ball Fighter Z is the best installment in the DBZ game series and does its competitors one better by focusing on three versus three team battles. How does that even work? It sounds like it would be chaos, but the gameplay is buttery smooth.
Plus, the game features an un-super-saiyan-godly amount of fighters to choose from, with big-name heroes and villains from all eras making their return to the battlefield.
4. Doki Doki Literature Club
While this game doesn’t technically have an anime adaption, it would be a crime not to include it. On the surface, Doki Doki Literature Club is an adorable little dating sim where a highschool-aged protagonist has to romance a series of cute classmates. But underneath the cuddly exterior lies one of the finest horror games ever made. As you continue to play, you soon find out that something is … wrong with the girls that you are attempting to romance. Obsession. Manipulation. Violence. I’m not sure what kind of books they’re reading in this literature club, but they definitely aren’t kid-friendly. Things take a turn for the worse when the characters start to break the fourth wall and set their demonic sights directly on you the player.
3. Nier Automata
The latest installment in the endless opaque and philosophical Nier series, this game takes place 10,000 years in Earth’s future. A mysterious race of aliens invaded the Earth using powerful machine lifeforms, and humanity responded by creating a series of sexy, battle-ready androids to combat the threat. Players take control of 2B, an android tasked by the android military organization YorHa to help reclaim the ravaged planet Earth from the machines, allowing the last survivors members of humanity to leave their base on the moon and repopulate the world.
As 2B and her partner 9S search for meaning in their battle with the robots, they soon realize that the seemingly mindless robots themselves may show signs of intelligence as well. The game is essentially a comment on the cross-lifeform desire to find meaning in an apparently meaningless universe. The androids are committed to looking impeccably stylish while doing it. The combat is a beautiful hack-and-slash bonanza of tiny girls telekinetically wielding giant swords. But the swords become ethically complicated to swing once the seemingly heartless machines start to beg for mercy.
2. Persona 5 Royal
Yes, the Persona series has an anime. No, we’re not going to sully this franchise by mentioning it. It’s a monstrosity and not the good kind. No, the Persona series deserves better. After all, this series is one of the most celebrated JRPs in history, with Persona 5 Royal arguably going down as the greatest JRPG of all time. The player controls a character named Joker, who is transferred to Shujin Academy after being falsely accused of assault. There he meets a group of stylish friends and finds a mysterious smartphone that allows him to dive into a parallel dimension known as The Metaverse.
In The Metaverse, Joker and his friends discover their Personas, which are powerful manifestations of their inner selves. They realize that their actions in The Metaverse have direct consequences in the real world, and use their skills to attempt to change the hearts of powerful and corrupt individuals who seek to exploit them. By entering The Metaverse and infiltrating a person’s “palace”, they’re able to confront the demonic manifestation of that person’s inner corruption and defeat it for good, thus forcing that person to change their heart. Yes, it’s complicated. The entire game is complicated. It’s part dating sim, part life sim, part Pokémon “gotta catch all these monsters” game, and part turn-based action RPG. But like a multifaceted diamond, in the complexity lies the beauty.
1. The Pokemon Franchise
I gotta give credit where credit is due. No franchise before or since has had the stranglehold on youth culture quite like the Pokemon games. Millennials, who among you can deny the joy of leveling up your Pokemon Gold starters on the Game Boy Advance during that long drive to grandma’s house? Which of you can deny the thrill of battling and trading with your friends in the parking lot after school? Which of you can deny the love you felt for your carefully assembled Poké-team of gym trainer-killers hand-selected over months, nay, YEARS of playtime? None of you.
After over two decades, Pokémon is still going as strong as ever. Pokémon Sword and Shield have picked up where those old classics left off, and have introduced the magic of the series to an entirely new generation of kids. I still pine after my dear, sweet Umbreon from time to time. I know you have that one Pokémon you miss too.
(featured image: Atlus/P Studio)
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