Do you ever find yourself wishing that you’ll get taken out by a truck while crossing the street? You’re not pining not for the sweet release of death, but a new life in a fantasy world as an a bonafide isekai anime protagonist! While I don’t know what anime worlds lie beyond this mortal plane (and wouldn’t recommend trying to find out) I can recommend the next best thing: video games that feel like anime. Why risk your luck with a passing semi when you can just plug in your console and whisk yourself away to anime fantasy bliss? These are 10 video games that feel like playing an anime, for the isekai-loving, death-wishing, anime protagonist in you.
Persona 5
Part anime Inception, part level-grinding JRPG, part life simulator, Persona 5 is everything you want in a video game and more. You take control of Joker (or whatever you want to name him) a young man who was framed for assault and put on probation. The new kid in school, you quickly form lasting friendships with your equally angst-ridden classmates – bonding over your psychospiritual power to break into people’s mindscapes, steal their malevolent desires, and change their hearts for the better. A complex combat system, a lovable cast, and a cerebral story combine into what is perhaps the greatest (and longest) RPG ever made. Seriously, you could spend 50 hours on this game and barely get through half of it. And the cutscenes? They’re literally anime. You’re welcome.
Okami
One of the most underrated games of all time, Okami is essentially a play-through of the greatest Studio Ghibli movie that never was. Set in mythological Japan, you take control of Amaterasu – the reincarnation of a sun goddess who was stripped of her power. Taking the form of a white wolf, you travel the land slaying demons alongside figures of Japanese folklore. Maiden-devouring snake monsters, drunken swordsmen, restless ghosts, wandering gods – the game is truly the stuff of legend. The game also features one of the most unique combat systems ever created – you perform divine attacks by drawing on the screen with a celestial brush. Despite its sweeping scope, the game’s narrative is surprisingly intimate. It’s essentially a story of faith in something greater than yourself, and how with enough support, even underdog (wolf?) can move mountains. Never has there been quite so original a game, and there never will be again.
Nier: Automata
Nier: Automata is post-apocalyptic Final Fantasy, but so much better. Set millennia in the future, the plot follows a proxy war between human made androids and alien machines of extraterrestrial origins. On orders from an orbital base, an android warrior named 2B slashes through enemies with slick anime protagonist style. While warring with the machine menace, she begins to question if the circuitry of these synthetic life forms isn’t so different from her own. A deeply philosophical game, the narrative explores all sorts of thorny existential questions: how do you make meaning in a meaningless universe? What good does cyclical violence serve? What gives a person the right to take a life? Why is everyone wearing a kinky blindfold? These questions aren’t necessarily answered, but met with more questions. To answer your question, yes, it has been adapted into an anime series. Yes, it’s good.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Like Okami before it, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the Witchfeels like another Studio Ghibli movie that never was. Set in a sprawling storybook world, the plot follows a young boy named Oliver, who is left in shambles after the death of his mother. After crying his eyes out, he realizes that his tears have fallen on a doll his mother gave him – causing it to come to life. Oliver is told that he’s actually a denizen of a parallel world ruled by an evil wizard – a world where his mother’s parallel self may still be alive. With its sweeping narrative and real-time meets turn-based combat system, Wrath of the White Witch plays like a tactical Legend of Zelda game – delivering a similar coming-of-age adventure punch. If Chihiro from Spirited Away fought Yubaba by commanding an army of ghostly yokai, you’d have this game.
The Metal Gear Solid Series
Despite its focus on Western politics and (semi) realistic warfare, make no mistake, The Metal Gear Solid series is an anime to its very core. Created by video-game luminary and iconoclast Hideo Kojima, the series is an alternate military history of the world – tracing its narrative back to the mid 20th century. Each game feels like a slightly different film genre – Metal Gear Solid is cerebral 90’s espionage action. Metal Gear Solid 3 is a Cold War thriller with its own James Bond style theme song. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a dystopian sci-fi epic. So where’s the anime influence? Imagine if world politics were decided by Gundam-esque mechs capable of nuclear destruction, and cyborg ninja samurai fought proxy wars against super soldier clones. It’s Ghost In The Shell meets Western war dramas, making for one of the greatest game series ever made.
The Kingdom Hearts Series
Kingdom Hearts shouldn’t have worked. On paper it sounds ludicrous: Final Fantasy meets Walt Disney? How could these two tonal opposites possibly reconciled? With the help of a clown-shoed protagonist swinging a sword-sized key, a groundbreaking new series was born. I’m not going to get into the details of the story (I’d need to write a separate article to explain it all) but it’s essentially about teenagers who wield ridiculous fantasy weapons alongside Disney characters in order to rescue the multiverse from darkness. The anime-ness comes from the “this narrative shouldn’t work but it totally does” story and the balls to the wall combat sequences – slicing buildings in half is a standard boss-fight occurrence.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Arguably the greatest installment of the greatest JRPG series ever made, Final Fantasy VII was given a makeover for the modern era – and she looks GOOD. The plot follows the spiky haired Cloud Strife on his quest to stick it to an evil corporation with the business end of his oversized sword. The plot is pure anime, a team of youthful freedom fighters taking on the world – and one of the most charismatic villains in genre history: Sephiroth. Pure anime bad boy material. The game has already been adapted into an anime – a full length feature called Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. While the details of the plot are a little unclear (a trademark of the franchise) Final Fantasy makes up for its somewhat confusing substance with its ever impeccable style.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild
Have you ever found yourself gazing upon a stunning, soul-stirring, Ghibli-esque landscape wishing “wow, I wish I could just disappear into that“? With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, now you can. 100 years after the collapse of Hyrule due to (surprise, surprise) an attack from Ganon, our favorite silent protagonist Link awakens in a world ripe for exploring. The narrative is pretty standard “defeat the ancient evil” stuff, but you won’t mind. You’ll be too busy leaping off cliffs and paragliding into distant, beautiful vistas beyond the horizon. Playing Breath of The Wild feels like playing a Studio Ghibli nature documentary, a perfect journey into a living, breathing, awe inspiring world.
Sekiro
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is pure seinen anime, a grimdark fantasy world that feels like a mix between Berserk and Ninja Scroll. A one of a kind entry in FromSoftware’s groundbreaking oeuvre, Sekiro is a high octane horror/adventure focused on precision combat against brutally difficult foes. A fantastical interpretation of the bloodstained Warring States Period of Japanese history, the plot follows a shinobi named Wolf who has been tasked with protecting the heir of a dying clan. You navigate a haunted world of giant serpents, undead ape warriors, and dragon gods. The game features some of the most cinematic boss fights in video game history – beautiful and deadly as any climactic anime showdown.
Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is dyed in the wool mecha anime masquerading as a game. The action takes place in the distant future where mega-corporations and interplanetary governments war for control across the stars, the backbone of their militaries composed of Armored Cores – towering mechs controlled by skilled pilots. A reboot of the series, Armored Core 6 is set on the faraway planet of Rubicon 3, where the discovery of a substance called Coral has caused a full-blown war for control across multiple fronts. You play as C4-621 aka “Raven” – a cybernetically enhanced pilot who works for an enigmatic handler looking to obtain Coral for profit. The ultimate sci-fi dystopia, the series is set in a never-ending technological wasteland similar to the world of Blame! With some Knights of Sidonia and classic Gundam thrown into the mix.
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