Unlike anime adapted to games, games adapted to anime usually end up being an enjoyable experience.
While it is rather strange to want a game’s story adapted shot-for-shot into an anime when you have already experienced it that way, anime based on games are usually a distinctly fun form of fan service.
Instead of adapting a game’s story shot-for-shot, what you normally get is an anime that either contributes to the world of the game, or one that improves the narrative tale that the game couldn’t fully bring to life since games also need to be about gameplay.
Maybe they had to cut story to save budget. Maybe they needed to make sure their game had enough actual gameplay so they couldn’t capture subtleties. Maybe the original creative team expressed their second thoughts on parts of the story.
Regardless as to why, a lot of anime adapted from games end up being a great experience for fans of that game even if it isn’t exactly like what they played. If done right, anime adapted from games can also serve to bring in new fans to a game too. If you are looking for anime based on video games so you can indulge two hobbies, give these anime recommendations a try.
Do note I will not be covering visual novels and gacha games or else this would take quite awhile.
Best Anime Adapted From Video Games
Danganronpa
I said before that anime adapted from games either adapt the game’s story with small differences or add to the world of the game. Danganronpa made the punk rock choice of actually doing both.
The original Danganronpa anime is an pretty faithful adaptation of the first game. The second season of Danganronpa, confusingly called Danganronpa 3, adapts parts of the second game, but had an original story after the events of both games.
Danganronpa is actually kind of frustrating because it expects you to have played the second game to know what is going on in the second season of the anime, which is why a watch order guide is crucial despite only having two seasons.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Cyberpunk Edgerunners is proof that, while anime adaptations of games are considered subpar anime, anime adapted from from games can actually be great anime in their own right.
What the game Cyberpunk 2077 did for Cyberpunk Edgerunners is create an interesting cyberpunk world where a number of different stories were going on at any one time. Cyberpunk Edgreunners isn’t an adaptation of the story of the game, but takes place in the world.
What you get in Cyberpunk Edgerunners is little treats for those that played the game, but it features a wholly original story. You can and likely will enjoy the anime story even if you never even looked at the game, but game knowledge adds further context.
As Cyberpunk Edgerunners is also artfully animated alongside its interesting plot about giving away your humanity in return for cybernetic power, it has everything working for it.
Nier Automata
When the Nier Automata anime aired, the question that everyone asked themselves is if it will be an adaptation of the game or something else.
If you know nothing of Yoko Taro, you only really need to know two things – he is and oddball and to expect the unexpected with his games. That is why fans of the Nier franchise watched the anime so closely. What looks like an adaptation could well be an continuation in Yoko Taro’s hands.
It is this knowledge that makes the Nier Automata anime a uniquely exciting experience, particularly for people who have played at least the game it is titled after.
The anime doesn’t necessarily adapt the game, but yet sometimes it does. Its full title, Nier Automata Ver1.1a is apt. Since it it sometimes like moments in the game, but with small or large changes.
Nier is one of those anime adaptation where playing the game is almost necessarily. The story in the anime is cohesive, but hollow. Without knowledge of the game and its many twists, you always feel like you are missing information when watch the anime.
Gungrave
I am willing to bet that for most people who watch Gungrave, they watch the anime, enjoy it, and only then learn that it has a game.
The Gungrave games have always been a well under-the-radar sort of games, even back when they were making them regularly.
This third-person shooter got initial acclaim by having character designs from Yashiro Nightow, creator of Trigun. The anime and the first game tell the same story of revenge that the main character was brought back from the dead to carry out.
However, the game often makes you work for the story, which means having it all neatly laid out in anime form is actually a huge benefit. This is usually why even people who played the games remember Gungrave most fondly for the anime.
Pokemon
At this point, I think there is more Pokemon anime than Pokemon games. While that speaks to how beloved Pokemon anime is to fans of any age, it is also probably faster to make a Pokemon anime series than it is to make a Pokemon game.
However, while the games are loved by fans, the anime often sits in a different realm. Pokemon has never had the most robust story, which means the anime is aimed at younger Pokemon fans rather than the now-adults who grew up with the games.
This means that while you may enjoy Pokemon games, the older you get, the harder it is to enjoy the Pokemon anime.
Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5
Ask any fan of the Persona games about the anime adaptation, and they will tell you that they are not great.
However, that’s not actually true.
You see, each Persona game has at least 50 hours of main story, lengthened even more by side activities and spending time with friends to build your social links.
You can’t fit all that content into the 25 episodes that Persona 4 and Persona 5 both got, let alone the three movies that Persona 3 only received. And when you cut out the fun social link scenes and various nuances, passionate fans tend to not be happy.
The Persona anime series all give the rough outline of the story from each game, and as Persona is often a game where you are invested in the story and characters more than the gameplay, it actually makes for a decent anime story. However, the more familiar you are with the games, the more flaws you can spot in the anime.
Tales of Zestiria the X
Before Tales of Zestiria, anime adaptations of the long-running “Tales of” game franchise were relegated to shorter OVAs. They told quick and compact versions of the lengthy game stories or just told certain moments of a game.
Tale of Zestiria the X was the first full-length “Tales of” anime adaptation.
A long-time fan of the game series would wish it happened to a different, perhaps better game, but Tales of Zestiria the X actually did improve on one of the weaker “Tales of” game stories.
By exploring characters that controversially left the story in an oddly rushed way in the game as well as slightly changing some events, it made the story less jarring at certain points as well as just more interesting.
Tales of Zestiria often felt like one of those game stories that suffered because the game wanted more instances of gameplay. Having an anime retell and expand upon it was only a boon.
Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyria Chronicles, the game, was a tactical RPG that successfully brought an anime-esque war story together with unique gameplay. The game itself was actually quite fun, and quite hard if you weren’t so good at tactical thinking.
That is sometimes a shame, because you actually are left wanting to see more of the story. Yet, if you got stuck in the gameplay, the Valkyria Chronicles anime offers a reprieve by telling you that story in a compact anime form.
In fact, the story hit a little harder when it isn’t broken up by moments of gameplay. It can be surprisingly emotional as you bond with the likable characters.
God Eater
You don’t play monster hunting-type games for the story. It is kind of an unwritten universal expectation among fans that you will endure the story and not really be too invested in it because the developers put like one guy on writing it. This is why it is strange that God Eater, a monster hunting-type game, got an anime adaptation.
To its credit, it is a monster hunting game with the most ambitious attempt at story, but at the end of the day, it is still a “ kill thing, now you must go kill this stronger thing” sort of story.
What carries the story of God Eater as an anime is more the time it gives to exploring its characters rather than the overall story of the world. It gives you more time with the characters, building them out more than the game ever did.
Its dedication to back story and character development aside, when it comes to combat in the anime, it gives people who have played the game plenty of combat fan service too.
Devil May Cry
There are few other game characters as quintessentially anime as Dante from Devil May Cry. His multi-weapon combat, edgy clothes, and especially his “devil may care” attitude are everything you expect in an action anime protagonist.
This is why the Devil May Cry anime works so well. Furthermore, the anime isn’t adapting the game story, it is adding to it. The story takes place between the first and second games. This means it tells an original story with no expectations from those who played the games, and adds plenty of fan service in every scenes for fans of the games.
Sengoku Basara
Sengoku Basara was Capcom’s answer to Koei Techmo’s Dynasty Warriors franchise, or more specifically, their Samurai Warriors franchise.
The Segoku Basara games are historical hack-and-slash games that act out periods of time in the Sengoku Era of Japan, depicting all their most famous samurai warlords with over-the-top martial powers.
Their weapons and fighting skills are often so over-the-top even that even in the game you look at the characters and think that they would make a pretty fun action anime character, and making that is just what happened.
Honestly, Sengoku Basara – the game – was just an imitation. However, its anime captured the anime-levels of fun that the story in the game displayed perfectly. So much so that people remember Sengoku Basara more for its anime than its games.
Shenmue
Back in the day, Shenmue was always a niche game, popular with only a handful of fans. It is that popularity that has kept the Shenmue dream alive enough to kickstart a third game that, again, only a handful of fans liked.
The Shenmue anime was likely created as a way to bridge the gap between the old Shenmue games and the recent new one. The Shenmue anime tells an abridged story of the first and second Shenmue games so potential new fans that wanted to play Shenmue III didn’t have to hunt down a Sega Dreamcast to actually the know the story.
Regardless, the anime looks great and the narrative is even better without the constraints of Dreamcast technology. In essence, with the third Shenmue game being a bit of a disappointment, the anime actually ended up being one of the best products in the Shenmue franchise.
Disgaea
The Disgaea anime follows the plot of the first Disgaea game, Hour of Darkness. Seeing as Disgaea is a particularly anime-style turn-based JRPG, it transferred quite well to the anime format.
That said, there were a few minor alterations between the anime and the game, made so that it became a more cohesive story instead of one that was often punctuated by battles.
The Disgaea anime does share a similar problem with the first Disgaea game – its age. Both the game and the anime are pretty old at this point, and the game is not as pretty as more modern Disgaea games while the anime is not as good looking as even other anime at the time.
Still, Disgaea tells a fun story, and the anime can be a great option if you can’t sink dozens of hours into the quite lengthy game.
.hack//
Before Sword Art Online went and made it look cooler, .hack// was trapping kids in their VRMMO in all its old animation glory. And before that, it was doing that same thing in the games.
The .hack// franchise is a franchise of significant girth. The anime adaptations are often used to augment the story of the games, particularly when it comes to the OVAs, rather than just being straight retelling of the stories.
Rather, what you most often get from .hack// TV anime is not retelling of the game story, but stories that take place in that same world. The games and anime all explore VRMMO-based mysteries, but rarely tell the same stories.
This means it is entirely possible to watch most .hack// anime without playing the games as well as to play the games without ever watching a single .hack// anime. Both are strong enough to stand alone, making exploring it for fans of both anime and games a long endeavor.
Xenosaga
Xenosaga was a particularly ambitious JRPG from the early 00’s. It brazenly stated that, after the first game, they planned a six-game saga. Then budget issues saw a six-game saga cut down to a more manageable trilogy. It is a game most notorious for cutscene length, some of which over 45 minutes long.
Xenosaga, the anime, tells roughly the same story as the first game. However, it alters and condenses events to fit in a less open-ended narrative since they weren’t anticipating more seasons.
As Xenosaga has lengthy cutscenes and an anime style, it transferred almost better to anime form.
Scarlet Nexus
Scarlet Nexus is a JRPG that doesn’t have a problem for a game, but kind of does when it comes to adapting it to an anime.
The problem with Scarlet Nexus is that its gameplay was its best part of the game.
This means that no matter how occasionally generic and eye-rolling the story was with its anime character tropes, it was okay because it was still pretty fun to play the game.
You see the problem here, right? An anime adaptation of a game is all story, and the Scarlet Nexus anime often didn’t change enough to make up for innate shortcomings in its story and characters.
This series often felt like it was meant to be a game-hyping device to generate interest in another vein. However, game-hyping anime is usually often short OVAs, and for a reason. Scarlet Nexus got 26 episodes, which is more than most modern anime series get these days.
When adapting the story faithfully to hype a game, you only want viewers to get a taste, so OVA format is the natural choice. Scarlet Nexus adapted the entire game story, which was lackluster. However, it did do better at expanding the cast of character.
Do you have more anime recommendations that were based on video games? Let fans know in the comment section below.
