The New Gate is an VRMMO where thousands of players became trapped inside the game and risked real death if they died in the game. Thanks to veteran player Shin who defeated the final boss, the player base is finally able to log out of the game.
However, after waiting for everyone to log out safely, Shin finds himself engulfed by a mysterious light. When he comes to, he is still in the game world, but 500 years have passed.
Well, that was some Sword Art Online fanfiction alright. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like The New Gate, head on down below.
Anime Like The New Gate
For Fans of Trapped in a Video Game
Sword Art Online
With the aid of NerveGear technology, video game players can now experience their playable worlds like never before – in virtual reality. For Kazuto Kirigaya, his game of choice is Sword Art Online.
After beta testing the game, he logs into the launch and finds himself, as well as ten thousand other players, trapped in the game world.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Sword Art Online
- VRMMO-themed action fantasy anime
- Both start off the same way with a guy fighting to free everyone trapped in a VRMMO
- Suspiciously similar looking, acting, and even named main characters.
- Harems.
- OP main characters wander into the next fight and often solve it pretty quickly with OP powers
Differences Between The New Gate and Sword Art Online
- They leave the VRMMO behind in Sword Art Online while The New Gate is all VRMMO, all the time.
- Sword Art Online has more plot that it is actively pursuing. The New Gate is more just “adventures” and it is not so focused on any overall goal.
In The Land of Leadale
After an accident put her on life support, Keina took up playing the VRMMO game, World of Leadale.
After a power outage at the hospital, she wakes up fully inside the game as her avatar, Cayna. Furthermore, it seems that 200 years have passed since she last played and no other player characters can be found.
Similarities Between The New Gate and In The Land of Leadale
- The characters playing a VRMMO are now in it for real, but hundreds of years later
- The NPCs they made have become sentient people
- The plots consist of adventures and discovering what has happened during the missed period of time
- OP main characters
Differences Between The New Gate and In The Land of Leadale
- In The Land of Leadale has a female main character
- There are no harem elements in In The Land of Leadale
- The main character in In The Land of Leadale is not as nice to her NPC children at times, but they are also vastly more needy.
Overlord
As the final hour approaches in the life cycle of the MMO Yggdrasil, Momonga, a powerful wizard and leader of the dark guild Ainz Ooal Gown, is there to see it off.
However, to his surprise, the servers don’t go down and even stranger is that all the NPC characters have come alive with their own unique personalities.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Overlord
- MMO players are now in the game, but for real
- All the NPCs have come to life and are now sentient people
- OP main characters with OP NPC followers
Differences Between The New Gate and Overlord
- Overlord follows main characters that are more evil-aligned than the standard hero-type that is Shin in The New Gate.
- Overlord, as it goes on, is a lot more about politics and kingdom management
- The main character in Overlord often has others do the fighting for him. Like an overlord, if you will.
Log Horizon
Thirty thousand Japanese players of the popular Elder Tale game all log in to explore the new update of their game, only to discover they are unable to log out.
The story focuses on the socially awkward college student Shiroe, a master strategist in-game, and his friends as they try to navigate their new reality.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Log Horizon
- Both series feature characters that were trapped in a VRMMO and unable to log out
- Those characters don’t make much effort to leave the game, and instead just decide to live their lives.
- NPCs act more like real people
Differences Between The New Gate and Log Horizon
- Log Horizon, as it goes on, is less about adventure and more about politics and economics.
- There are no harem elements in Log Horizon
- The main character in Log Horizon is technically OP, but more so as a strategist
For Fans of Game World Fantasy Adventures
Shangri-La Frontier
For high schooler Rakurou Hizutome, he enjoys playing games like any teen. However, his pleasure in gaming comes from playing trash games.
The broken, the janky, the terribly designed, the ridiculously difficult – he has conquered all of the trash games that no one plays!
After his most recent conquest, the games clerk recommends that he try something that isn’t trash – a new VRMMO game called Shangri-La Frontier. While he decides to give this VRMMO a try, his min-maxing trash game play style allows him to discover some little known secrets of this incredibly popular game that even the major tryhards haven’t found out.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Shangri-la Frontier
- Both series take place inside VRMMO game worlds
- The main character is an OP player
- Both series feature the main character fighting and gathering a compact group of friends to help
Differences Between The New Gate and Shangri-la Frontier
- Shangri-la Frontier puts a lot more of its effort and its budget into stunning, cinematic action.
- Shangri-la Frontier takes place inside a VRMMO game that the main character can and does log out of.
- The New Gate does standard fantasy/isekai/game things like cute waifu harems, average-looking OP MCs, easily won battles, ect. Shangri-la Frontier works to subvert a lot of that.
- The main character in Shangri-la Frontier is a Dark Souls-type gamer, which means he revels in and actively hunts for challenging situations.
A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life
Taichi Tanaka is a middle-aged office worker who enjoys playing video games in his free time. Upon the release of a new VRMMO called One More Free Life Online, he decides to give it a try.
In One More Free Life Online, the player is free to do as they like, and for Taichi – now logged in as a player named Earth – he decides to master skills that are deemed to be useless by the player community. However, the skills he picks turn out to be increasingly valuable to not just his character, but others as well.
Similarities Between The New Gate and A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life
- Weirdly enough, both series feel like generic versions of the premises that more popular fantasy anime did first.
- Both series follow the daily lives of a guy inside a game as he befriends people and solves problems with his OP abilities
Differences Between The New Gate and A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life
- A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life is a VRMMO game that he can and does log out of whereas The New Gate has him trapped in there still.
- A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life’s main character isn’t quite as immediately OP as Shin. He is also more an archer than a swordsman like Shin is.
- A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life has more occasional focus on in-game events and non-combat activities like crafting.
Full Dive – The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!
Average high school student Hiro Yuuki obtains a copy of the full dive RPG game called Kiwame Quest. This game is uses the pinnacle of gaming technology to create an experience as close to real life as possible.
Unfortunately, while the sights, smells, and sensations are very realistic, it does make it a difficult game to beat. For players, their real life abilities are reflected in game and being hit also leaves serious wounds on your character that hurt and heal slowly.
It is not a game for casuals, but with a supreme sense of accomplishment on the line for beating it, who could say no?
Similarities Between The New Gate and Full Dive
- Both series take place in a VRMMO world
- The main character adventures and unravels various intrigue in the world
Differences Between The New Gate and Full Dive
- In Full Dive, the main character can and does log out of the VRMMO
- Full Dive has distinctly more comedy flavor since his VRMMO adventures often go unexpectedly
- There is quite a bit of dark humor in Full Dive since it twists tropes in a darker sort of way.
- Full Dive has higher stakes since the main character is NOT overpowered and if he gets hurt in the game, he gets hurt for real.
Bofuri – I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense
After receiving an invitation from a friend, Kaede Honjou starts playing the VRMMO game New World Online as a character named Maple.
However, in her desire to not get hurt, she puts all her stats in Vitality. This makes her move very slowly, unable to use magic, and get attacked by even the smallest creatures. However, it does allow her impenetrable defense, and the gear she finds while wandering grants her a one-hit counter skill.
And so, her adventures begin.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Bofuri
- Both series follow main characters in a VRMMO game
- The main characters are OP
- Their overpowered-ness and good attitude often attracts a number of companions
- The plot often consists of individual adventures
Differences Between The New Gate and Bofuri
- Bofuri features a VRMMO game that people can and do log out of. The main character in Bofuri is also playing with other players and not NPCs like Shin in The New Gate.
- Bofuri has a main character OP in defense, which becomes an OP offense
- The New Gate is a pretty standard game-themed fantasy adventure, by comparison, Bofuri is often cuter? More pleasant?
- There is no harem in Bofuri. It also has a female main character.
Infinite Dendrogram
Infinite Dendrogram is the world’s first successful full-dive VRMMO. It can replicate the five senses and provides infinite possibilities.
College freshman Reiji has just started playing with his brother Shuu and is ready to set off on adventure.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Infinite Dendrogram
- Both are VRMMO adventure anime
- Both series work with a lot of familiar concepts from more popular series and do them in a way that is “fine, but not spectacular.”
- Unique side characters that kind of outshine the main character in terms of how interesting they are
Differences Between The New Gate and Infinite Dendrogram
- The main character isn’t OP in Infinite Dendrogram
- People can and do log out of the VRMMO in Infinite Dendrogram
- There is no harem in Infinite Dendrogram
Seven Sense of the Re’Union
Union was once a world-renowned VRMMORPG, and among its top players was a tight group of elementary school friends in a guild called Subaru. However, Union came to an end after Asahi, a member of Subaru, passed away while playing the game.
After Asahi’s death and the end of the game, Subaru went their separate ways, with Asahi’s death hitting her partner Haruto particularly hard.
Six years later, a new version of Union launches called Re’Union. As Haruto logs in, he is reunited face-to-face with Asahi. He immediately gathers Subaru’s other members to find out if this is Asahi or some kind of electronic ghost.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Seven Senses of ReUnion
- Both follow people who played a VRMMO that had some sort of scandal (people couldn’t log out, a girl died)
- All the girls love the pretty average male main character
Differences Between The New Gate and Seven Senses of ReUnion
- Re’Union is more of an emotional drama about reuniting with the ghost of a dead friend in game and trying to solve the mystery of that while also moving on from the trauma it caused them. This offers more plot depth, but also plot purpose which is often something The New Gate lacks.
- No one is OP in Re’Union
- You could say that Re’Union is more drama than adventure.
For Fans of Well-Loved By NPCs
Death March to a Parallel World Rhapsody
Suzuki Ichirou is a programmer for a game company, and in order to keep up with demands, he frequently sets his work pace to “death march” in which he works for days straight with little sleep and without going home.
During one of these death marches, he falls asleep and when he wakes up, he is somehow transported inside of one of his games.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Death March to a Parallel World Rhapsody
- Main characters are suddenly trapped in a game world
- They become OP
- The get a harem of NPCs that find them amazing
Differences Between The New Gate and Death March to a Parallel World Rhapsody
- Death March features a game dev that worked himself to death and ended up inside his game
- The main character in Death March is a little colder and more calculating than Shin in The New Gate.
Demon Lord Retry
Akira Oono manages the MMORPG Infinity Game. After 15 years, he has decided to shut down the servers. However, at midnight, he finds himself in the game and transformed into Hakuto Kunai, the demon lord of the MMO.
Further puzzling things, he saves a girl that he does not remember creating in the game.
Similarities Between The New Gate and Demon Lord Retry
- Both series are about being in a MMO for real, mysteriously
- The main characters meet a series of NPCs that they know
- The main characters are OP
Differences Between The New Gate and Demon Lord Retry
- Demon Lord Retry is following a mystery of the main character, who was the game dev, traveling with an NPC he doesn’t remember creating.
- The main character in Demon Lord Retry is technically the villain of the game
- The main character in Demon Lord Retry is a bit colder than Shin in The New Gate.
- Demon Lord Retry is often more comical than anything else.
Do you have more anime recommendations like The New Gate? Let fans know in the comments section below.