Many anime shows from the last five years should be adapted into video games. While several of the shows I’m featuring have small games not released in America, many of these shows could work as larger titles in the console and PC spaces. Regardless of the likelihood of a big-budget adaptation happening, here are 10 modern anime that could make fantastic video games.
Aldnoah.Zero
What is it? – Aldnoah.Zero is a return to the mecha anime of yesteryear, but with brutal depictions of advanced warfare and a suitably grim storyline featuring the people of Mars (who originated from Earth) returning to capture the resources of Earth by annihilating anyone who resists them.
The game – Nearly all of the mech fights in Aldnoah.Zero pit average human robots against specialized giant robots from Mars that are nearly indestructible. Each of the Martian robots inevitably has a weak point that the protagonist figures out how to exploit through observation and experimentation. An Aldnoah.Zero game should be about using your robot to take down all of the Martian Knights exclusively in boss fights similar to something like Shadow of the Colossus. To capture the drama at the heart of the story, you could break up the action by exploring the ship you are traveling on and talking with your crewmates. The game should alternate between following both Inaho Kaizuka fighting for Earth and Slaine Troyard fighting for the Martians to give you a glimpse behind both sides of the conflict.
Durarara!!
What is it? – Durarara!! explores how various characters and gangs intersect with one another in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo. Watching small sparks of conflict ignite into a raging inferno that challenges all of the characters is the highlight of the show.
The game – If Durarara!! were adapted into a game, it would be best if it followed an original character that was ushered into the world of Durarara!! similar to how the main protagonist Mikado enters the city. In this manner, you could interact with the entirety of the large cast of characters without any baggage. If Mikado were the main character, he wouldn’t enter any fights himself, which would be hard to build action around. If you want to be able to tackle fighting any of the factions or ride motorcycles, you would need an original character who is willing to participate in all of the exciting happenings in Ikebukuro. It would be awesome to explore the city and to personally develop relationships with the characters both when the city is peaceful and when violence inevitably erupts.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
What is it? – Madoka Magica follows a middle school girl named Madoka who is offered the chance to become a magical girl and have one of her wishes granted. The anime is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre with engaging, lovable characters and razor-sharp writing.
The game – Madoka Magica already possesses a game-like structure in its universe, as the magical girls must descend into the various labyrinths to fight witches and their familiars. The labyrinths are colorful, disorienting, and haunting; featuring wildly divergent terrain and imagery, which makes them ideal levels to be further explored. It might be best to make a Madoka game divorced from the core story not only because it hasn’t been done before, but because it gives the designers more room to work with. By focusing on original stories and characters, it would necessitate that new surprises be around every corner – which could be very satisfying. It also helps that you can craft characters with powers even more suited for a video game. Of course, due to the flexibility of the structure of the show, a developer could easily tie their original characters and storyline back into the main fiction, which could provide the best of both worlds.
Keep reading for ideas on Pyscho Pass, Attack on Titan, and more…