Opinion: The best anime games you can play right now

Anime is great. So are video games. Why not enjoy them together? There are thousands of anime games out there, some good and some bad, but anime fans flock to them anyway and sink hundreds of hours into games that remind them of the anime they love.

But what are the best anime games? That’s what we’re here to answer. We’re going to be a bit flexible with what we consider an “anime” game here — games that are both based on anime and games that have anime vibes are both eligible for inclusion.

All in all, we’ve rounded up nine of the best anime games you can play right now — all of which are readily available on modern platforms.

Doraemon Story of Seasons

The Story of Seasons series – formerly known as Harvest Moon, which is a different thing now – has always been celebrated for its chill, quaint farming vibes. Just about every game in the series is great, but you know what most of them are missing? Doraemon. Thankfully, developer Marvelous came to the rescue, and created a version of Story of Seasons set vaguely in the world of Doraemon, with characters and themes from the series very present. It’s a fun new twist for both franchises, and a crossover that’s an absolute delight to play.

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

It would have been easy to fill this list with JRPGs, but we tried to keep it to a minimum just to have some variety. That said, Atelier Ryza is absolutely worthy of inclusion here, with its intriguing mix of turn-based combat, a heavy story focus, and alchemy minigames. The Atelier series has always been quite dense and somewhat impenetrable for new players, but the Ryza subseries does its best to be approachable for longtime fans and newcomers alike. It also got an anime adaptation a while back, and while it’s not quite the same as playing the game itself, it’s still pretty great.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

Ace Attorney is probably the furthest thing from anime on this list, but it did get an anime adaptation that more or less looks identical to the games, and covers a lot of the same beats. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy covers the first three games in the series, a detective investigation series that’s packed with out-of-the-box thinking and deduction. Solving cases, presenting them in court, and seeking justice for victims is all absolutely thrilling, even if the story can go completely off the rails sometimes. In what other series can you interrogate a parrot or an orca on the stand? None.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

The first Ni no Kuni game was a co-production between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli, and it tends to get all of the attention. We’re here to tell you that Ni no Kuni II is just as good… and maybe even better. While Ghibli itself wasn’t directly involved, former Ghibli character designer Yoshiyuki Momose and composer Joe Hisaishi both worked on this sequel, giving it the look and feel of a Ghibli film nonetheless. Unlike the turn-based creature catcher before it, NNK2 is more of an action RPG, more along the lines of the Tales of series, and it’s surprisingly great! It’s got a wonderful story, some great characters, and even some isekai elements thrown in for good measure.

Whether you’ve played the first game, or haven’t heard of either, Ni no Kuni II is an excellent game and well worth playing.

Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle

Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle is a card battler video game based on an anime that was based on a card battler video game. Y’know, just to make things confusing for everyone. It’s pretty dang good, though, confusing as its lineage may be. The card game itself is basically a variant of Hearthstone, which is itself based on trading card games like Magic: The Gathering. It’s got most of the mechanics you’ll see in Hearthstone too, but also a few new twists of its own, like the ability to “evolve” a monster card to make it twice as strong a few times a battle. There’s some deep strategy to it, and there are hundreds of cards across multiple elements to build decks from.

But that’s not all — there’s a full-on RPG story in here too, with a bunch of likable characters, plenty of twists and turns, and a truly shocking amount of voiced dialogue for a game of this scale. You can even play online against other players, and at the time of writing, it doesn’t take long at all to find a match. Check it out if you’re into card battlers.

Persona 5

You knew Persona 5 was going to make the list, so we’ll keep it short. The Persona series is one of the best JRPG series out there, and each one is dripping with enough anime style to power Crunchyroll’s servers for a decade. Persona 5 is the latest and greatest in the series, and no matter if you play the original version or the enhanced Persona 5 Royal, you’re in for a real treat. You don’t need to play previous games to enjoy this one, but they’re all good too, so you may as well.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy

CyberConnect2’s Ultimate Ninja series is hands down one of the best arena fighter series on the planet, and likewise one of the best anime to game adaptations we’ve ever seen. The Legacy collection includes HD remasters of the first three Ultimate Ninja Storm games, as well as Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, all of which are fantastic games. They let you play through essentially all of the story of the original Naruto series and Naruto Shippuden, with every major fight you can imagine present here in a playable form. There is actually a newer game in the series, Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, which has Boruto characters too, but it drops the free roaming aspect featured in previous games, which is a huge bummer. If you like Naruto, Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy is very much for you.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

What’s that? Another licensed fighting game based on a hit anime series that’s beloved by fans the world over? That’s right, it’s Dragon Ball FighterZ, the latest and greatest in a long line of fighting games set in the Dragon Ball universe. FighterZ is a much more traditional 2D fighting game, but it’s made by Arc System Works, which excels in gorgeous 2D fighting games that somehow look almost identical to the 2D anime they’re based on. FighterZ is tight, snappy, a heck of a lot of fun for both casual and competitive play, and has a huge roster of characters — if you can forgive half the roster being some variant of Goku.

Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue

Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue is based on Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror, an alternate reality spinoff of Love Live! Sunshine, and if you can believe it, it’s a classic old-school metroidvania. It’s developed by Inti Creates, the studio that made games like Mega Man Zero (amazing), Azure Striker Gunvolt (incredible), and Gal Gun (uhhhh… next question), and the people there are very good at making 2D sidescroller games. Blaze in the Deepblue is no exception, and is an absolute must-play for Love Live! fans and metroidvania fans alike.