9 Anime You Didn’t Know Were Based on Video Games

Most of us might assume that video games develop from Anime, not vice versa. It may be surprising to discover that some of the best Anime were born of successful video games.

Popular video games have become super hits with energizing battles, intriguing characters, and beautiful scenes. When video game-based anime is successful, this can bring new players when viewers consider the source material.

Adapting a video game into an anime is quite challenging because the video game is interactive while the film is a passive medium.

Complicated video game themes are only sometimes easy to translate into other mediums. Anime, however, does lend itself to these transformations thanks to great storylines, vibrant colors, and spectacular energy.

1. Pokemon

Many people assume that the show came first, followed by the games. Surprise, it’s not so! Often considered among the best anime games, the Pokemon games’ earliest editions (Red and Blue) appeared in 1996.

The confusion comes from the fact that the show was such a hit immediately. !999 saw the launching of Pokemon Yellow, where the original video games are retold but with plot aspects developed from Anime.

2. Higurashi: When They Cry

Released in 2006, Higurashi is bloody, whatever the medium, game or otherwise. Taking place in a small village, the entire population is eliminated through a string of murders. As gamers play, characters remember what has transpired before.

Gruesome imagery and intricate plots turned this game into an instant success story upon release. The Anime that was developed mirrored this using time travel. Varying timelines and violent conclusions only add to the success.

3. Castlevania

Castlevania games were the foundation of the Metroidvanias, where exploration and combat took the lead. First designed in 1986, it has proven to be one of Konami’s most enduring game franchises.

This new genre, with the Metroid saga, placed action and advancing to the next level as the priorities rather than storytelling.

This makes the success of Castlevania Anime, which developed from the games, even more impressive. The success lies in the original titles being maintained and paired with a compelling storyline.

The Trevor Belmont saga, in which the Belmont clan pits itself against evil forces, is a delight with fun characters and a story that consistently refers to the original source material thanks to locations, items, and monsters.

Beautiful animation tops it off. The first two seasons of the Anime were adaptations of Dracula’s Curse or the third game.

4. The End of Hope’s Peak High School: Danganronpa 3

The source video games have interesting, elaborate plots and take games from the depths of despair to the heights of hope every time.

Then there’s the added fun of solving murder mysteries as well. The translation to Anime worked well, and the Anime shows complement the gaming, making layers wish for more pairings between games and shows.

5. Devil May Cry

The Devil May Cry protagonist, Dante, should make this series of games easy to transform into any medium.

Action-filled hunting is the name of the game. When the animated series was developed, it kept faith with the original video games.

The series permits viewers to get to know more in-depth Lady, Trish, and, of course, Dante while in action and their quieter moments. It’s a fascinating 2007 anime with a charmer as the protagonist.

6. Dragon Age Absolution

Transforming role-playing games into animation is a challenge, but it can be rewarding. Role-playing games offer lots of great storylines.

The greatest challenge may be creating a player-created protagonist on the screen when player-made leads define the consequences of the individual’s actions. In Dragon Age Absolution, the Anime works because it has the same elements as the original games do.

7. Hack

Usually referred to as ‘dot hack’, this role-playing game was created in 2002 for Play Station 2. It later expanded into several games and, as of April 2004, had sold over a million games in Japan alone. The Bee Train anime studio then developed an anime called ‘.hack//Sign’.

This Anime follows the character of Tsukasa as he enters a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or MMORPG referred to as the ‘World’. Unfortunately, our protagonist has no memory of traveling there and no log-out escape.

While attempting to return home, he needs to avoid the Crimson Knights and find an escape. He will also meet others in the same predicament.

8. Clannad

Kyoto Animation’s early project, Clannad, is a drama-comedy released in 2007. It began as a visual novel three years earlier, in 2004, when it became popular in Japan. As the Anime gained popularity, so did the game that provided the source material.

The story involves an adolescent delinquent, Tomoya Okazaki, who has lost his mother and is trying to bond with his father.

After an injury that cost him his place on the basketball team, he loses all interest in school and studying until he meets Nagisa Furukawa, and his direction changes.

9. Infamous School Days

A harem-romance visual novel game, School Days, was created in 2005 originally for PC and afterward for PlayStation.

The anime studio TNK decided to adapt School Days into an anime. It soon became famous, but mainly for the wrong reasons. It was considered to have three flawed characters and a terrible anime couple.

The story concerned a freshman in high school with a crush on a classmate. A third classmate offers to help him get closer to his crush but grows jealous, forming what appears to be a traditional love triangle until it delves into darker situations.

Final Thoughts

Anime based on video games has been around for some time, although mainstream entertainment probably noticed it until Netflix stepped in with its adaption of Castlevania. These anime adaptations have almost the same history as the original video games.

What’s more, anime adaptations are no longer reserved only for visual novel games or best-selling games but now include niche video games. That’s great news for anime followers and gamers alike.