Anime & Gaming

As this little slice of my blog is dedicated to both gaming and anime, I thought it might be interesting to explore the relationship between the two. I was first introduced to video games as a young kid, and anime followed shortly behind. 

I can’t remember exactly what the first anime I watched would have been, but if I had to wager a guess, I’d say Pokemon would be a safe bet. As one of the most famous examples of a game becoming a popular anime series, I was also the exact demographic for both the games and the show. 

Once I got a gameboy I remember playing pokemon red and yellow, and can distinctly recall the first Pokemon movie, aptly named “Pokémon: The First Movie.” I adored Pokemon as a kid, and it was popular enough that it gave me common ground with most kids my age. 

I hadn’t thought much about the crossover of video games and anime at that time, it was just a popular game that became a show. But as I grew more interested in both anime and video games, it was interesting to see all the ways the two distinct art forms would reference and influence each other.

I was always particularly interested in Role Playing Games, often developed in Japan, and these games probably drew more directly from anime than western Role Playing Games for instance. Sometimes this would be just an aesthetic, with video games adopting art styles meant to mimic characters or backgrounds often portrayed in anime. 

I even began to encounter video games about video games. The .Hack series follows characters logging into a fake online game and playing as another avatar character who you as the player control as they go on their adventures. Simple, right? Games were even starting to reference the idea of people playing games as a setting, very meta.

I often felt games borrowed more from anime than the other way around, that was true until Sword Art Online burst onto the scene. This very popular anime was about players becoming trapped in an online role playing game, where if you die in the game, you die in real life.

This anime can largely be attributed to popularizing this concept of anime about video games and virtual reality, or more broadly, the Isekai genre of anime.

I hope to break down Isekai and anime genres in depth sometime, but anime in this genre tend to have things often found in video games like skills, levels, magic, and even user interface elements common to video games. It often involves real people being transported to an alternate fantasy world with special powers or memories of their past life.

Perhaps because I play video games so often, but this genre has always been a struggle for me. It’s tricky to watch an anime approximating the experience of playing a game, I’d often rather just go play a game myself.

Then as the snake begins to eat its tail, Sword Art Online becomes adapted into an ongoing series of video games. A game adapting a show about characters playing fake online games role playing their own fake created characters. Confused yet? 

I think there’s plenty of room for anime and games to truly complement each other and play to their own unique strengths and weaknesses.

Since games require play input and provide much more freedom, they allow for players to create their own stories and experiences with the tools and world provided. While anime can tell excellent hand crafted stories that can really zero in on specific characters or elements of the setting.

One example of this is Cyberpunk 2077 (game) and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (anime). Cyberpunk 2077 puts the player in control of V, a mercenary that can be customized by the player. As V, you can explore Night City, take missions, drive cars, get into firefights, and collect loot.

Overall I was fairly lukewarm on the game, but it had its fair share of strengths. When the anime came out, I was pretty excited as the studio behind it, Studio Trigger, has a great track record. I was pretty blown away by the show, it was able to develop its characters and further explore the setting in ways I felt the game struggled.

Now that Cyberpunk 2077 has received its 2.0 update and some new dlc, I may consider returning to night city to see how the game has improved. If it weren’t for the anime, I doubt I would feel the same compulsion to return to the game. It really helped me appreciate the setting and the kinds of stories that can be told in the world of Cyberpunk.

While in the case of Cyberpunk, an anime adaptation helped to strengthen the game and strengthen my interest, let's look at a property that had the opposite effect on me. Final Fantasy 15. 

I could probably write a whole article about this, and I might just do it someday, but Final Fantasy 15 was a miss for me. I’ve beat the game twice but still can’t say I’m that fond of it. I wanted it to work so badly.

 Final Fantasy 15 has a pretty messy extended universe, with an anime, a feature length film, a VR fishing game, and more. I find the story of Final Fantasy 15 pretty rough, it bites off more than it can chew and never lands for me. 

Hours into the game, you get a few brief stills of images from the movie Kingsglaive, and with little context you’re shuffled off to the next plot point. The Kingsglaive movie feels pretty important to the overall plot, as it shows what happens to the main character’s father, and serves as an introduction to the game’s villain and “love interest”.

Those are two, supposedly, very important characters and events that just felt missing from the game. Similarly, the core cast of four characters all have existing relationships. How did they meet and come to be friends you wonder? Well you certainly won’t find out from playing the game.

That backstory is all done through a 5 episode anime adaptation, Brotherhood. It’s not a bad anime, and since I had high hopes for the game, I watched a few episodes. I remember being quickly endeared to Prompto, our main character’s loveable sidekick as he does his best to lose weight in hopes he’ll be able to become friends with our protagonist.

Does this ever come up in the game? Not really. In fact, thanks to an out of nowhere, and rather unimportant, twist, I feel like this character work is all undone. While the dlc, a later addition, tries to bridge the gap, it all just feels messy.

Minor Final Fantasy 15 spoilers below! 

Prompto is a clone soldier from an enemy nation. Somehow, Prompto was stolen by troops from the same city as the main character and is adopted by a family there. Why was Prompto taken by these troops? Wouldn’t they know he was a clone meant for war, why would they give him to a random family? Why would they genetically engineer a clone meant for war that could become overweight? 

The affection I had for the character built up in the anime was undone by this weird 11th hour twist at the end of the game, that was resolved by “well you’re still our friend, what does it matter where you came from?”. Great question, what did it matter? Why was this in here at all, just to force some arbitrary conflict? 

End Final Fantasy 15 spoilers. 

Sometimes an anime adaptation and video game adaptation can feel at odds with one another, as if they’re portraying different versions of the same characters even if they’re meant to be the same. 

I could go on with another great example like the Nier Automata anime adaptation of the game by the same name, and countless other examples but we’d be here all day. Not only do video games often become anime, or vice versa, but they often feel inspired by one another. 

Trends in anime can make their way to games, or novel ideas in games can be referenced in anime down the line. As a fan of both, I love the ways these two art forms intersect and push each other to become even better. I believe that loving games helped me love anime, and loving anime makes me appreciate games even more.