When executed properly, a video game crossover to another medium has the potential to achieve mass-market success and unify fandoms across pop culture. With the introduction of the anime x video game crossover, we’ve been blessed with gems like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a 2005 film that captivated audiences with its heartfelt story and immaculate art style featuring the beloved cast of the timeless RPG Final Fantasy 7.
Since then, games like DOTA and Cyberpunk 2077 have also received anime makeovers. To keep this tradition going, we have a few more titles to offer up to the mantel. With their mystical worlds, enchanting visuals, and achievements in art and sound design, the following list of games would handle an anime makeover with finesse. Quick! Somebody get a petition going.
1. Little Nightmares
Although a TV adaptation is reportedly in the works, we’d love to see Little Nightmares as an anime someday. It’s eerie atmosphere and terrifying villains would do well with an anime makeover. Little Nightmares is a horrific puzzle platformer developed by Tarsier Studios. It takes you on the journey of a girl named Six, a mysterious child armed with nothing but a lighter and a yellow raincoat.
In Little Nightmares, your objective is to help Six escape the Maw while avoiding the capture of villains like the Janitor and the Lady. As Six traverses through the creepy underwater vessel, you’ll walk, run, jump, climb, and sneak through rooms, solving complex puzzles that help you tap into your inner child. Little Nightmares really tests your resolve and imagination; its stressful circumstances and complex challenges will keep you on edge, triggering your fight or flight reflexes. The scarcity of resources, limited skills, and dimly lit setting make Little Nightmares a hair-raising experience. Its creepy story would fit right in with creepy shonen like The Promised Neverland, another horror story that focuses on children.
2. Spyro the Dragon
Spyro’s adorable characters and vivid art style would look amazing with a Kawaii aesthetic. The premise alone screams “fantasy shonen.” In Spyro, you play as the titular character: a small purple dragon with sharp horns and an unquenchable sense of adventure. Spyro’s desire to fly, charge, and engulf bad guys in flame takes you on countless adventures throughout his colorful universe, unlocking new quests and hidden abilities along the way. As you travel from land to land solving the world’s ills, you’ll use your new abilities to defeat villains, collect rare items, and lose all your patience trying to solve puzzles so tough, you’ll be stuck for hours.
It would be exciting to see the POV an anime studio would use for a Spyro series. Fans would look forward to the depiction of the popular worlds, cameos from side characters, and the demonstration of Spyro’s fun, complex puzzles. A fantasy adventure of this caliber would require fine attention to detail to accurately capture the essence of its magical story. However, anime like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime gives us hope.
3. The Sims
Can we please get a Sims anime in the works? It has a formula that would be perfect as a Slice of Life. The popular life simulator the Sims allows you to create a virtual life of your own and live out this life in an expansive world filled with other Sims. As you play, you’ll develop skills, achieve goals, and work on an unlimited number of objectives that range from quitting your job to playing pranks on children. The best thing about the Sims is its limitless options and resources. This sense of autonomy allows you to live virtually any lifestyle you want. Whether your Sim is a professional thief or an alien, all in all, the main goal is to help your Sim lead a fulfilling life until its fateful meeting with the Grim Reaper.
This premise could work as an anime series broken up into short stories. Each mini-episode would be from the perspective of a different Sim, and each Sim would have their own aspiration (complete with a character bio). To keep things true to the source material, the anime would be set in the neighborhoods featured in the game, and the supporting characters would be Sim faves like Nina Caliente and Bella Goth.
It would be so cute to see the Sims in real life, interacting with real words so we don’t have to decipher every “dag-dag.” With that considered, here’s a list of things Sims fans will not compromise on:
- The appearance of the floating green crystal (with mood-changing effects)
- The inclusion of Sims food (which is honestly appetizing even without the anime facelift)
If you throw in the Sims expansion packs, all its sequels, and upgrades, this anime could go on for years.
4. Kingdom Hearts
Although an animated series is reportedly in the works for Disney+, an anime based on Kingdom Hearts would be amazing. The critically acclaimed RPG Kingdom Hearts is a lovechild of Disney and Square Enix combining the fundamentals and mechanics of Final Fantasy with the characters and worlds of Disney. In Kingdom Hearts, you play as Sora, an ambitious boy burdened with saving the universe from being consumed by darkness. As you travel through the galaxy, saving worlds from evil organizations Heartless and Nobodys, you’re accompanied by Donald and Goofy, who each bring their own unique set of skills to the table.
Its achievements in writing, animation, and gameplay make it one of the most popular RPGS of this generation. Fans love Kingdom Hearts for its extensive lore and the clever incorporation of animated heroes from the Disney vault. Exploring vast worlds inspired by Disney movies while helping Disney protagonists take down their villains is an experience you’ll never forget. Combine that with cool power-ups, high-stakes battles, and an epic score, and you have an addictive game with boundless entertainment.
The opportunity to see Disney icons drawn over in an anime style would be a dream come true for animation fans. With cameos from Final Fantasy characters like Sephiroth and nostalgic trips through the Disney vault, a Kingdom Hearts anime would be legendary. Seeing its fluid mechanics and epic powerups translate to a superpowered anime fight sequence would be tear-inducing. With its endless supply of lore, a Kingdom Hearts anime could go on forever, spawning several spin-offs and OVAs, just like its successors Pokemon and Fate. The only catch: Utada Hikaru has to do the soundtrack.
With games like Kingdom Hearts and Spyro, Hollywood has a wide selection of games to choose from should they choose to pursue more video games for anime adaptations. Which video games would you like to see as an anime? Let us know on social media @blackgirlnerds.
