Watching an anime can be exciting, but playing in a world that carries the same style, attitude, and emotional punch is even more exciting. That’s where anime-style games come in. They mix bold art, expressive characters, and dramatic moments with gameplay that keeps players involved instead of sitting on the sidelines.
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These games put in maximum effort to adapt the visuals of the anime series they are based on, resulting in some gorgeous anime-style graphics.
Even players who aren’t hardcore anime fans sometimes find themselves pulled in because these games focus so much on character emotion and eye-catching worlds. Some of these titles offer huge adventures with many hours' worth of quests, while others focus on short, emotional stories or intense combat.
Persona 4 Golden
An Expanded Version With Extra Side Character Storylines And A New Endgame
- Leans into stylish anime drama with a tight mix of school life and supernatural mystery.
- Bright characters and bold colors make it feel like stepping into a long-running anime series.
Persona 4 Golden is pretty cool because the characters behave like people that you might actually meet at school. They are awkward, funny, stubborn, and/or anxious. Their struggles feel grounded, and the mystery grows in a way that gives them space to change naturally.
The expanded Persona 4 Golden takes place in a quiet Japanese town where a group of teenagers is trying to understand a series of unexplained deaths. The trouble begins when people notice the “Midnight Channel,” a rumor that says someone who appears on a foggy night might be the next victim. The story grows from that rumor and leads the group into a hidden world inside a TV. That world is filled with strange creatures and locations shaped by fear, shame, and the secrets people try to hide.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
A Cute Little Book Club With A Dark Secret
- Looks like a sweet high-school anime at first, but it is quite deep.
- Uses familiar anime club tropes in a way that surprises fans who think they’ve seen it all.
Doki Doki Literature Club! Starts like a normal high-school story. A boy joins a small writing club with four girls. They share poems, talk about books, and spend time together. At first, it feels light and friendly, like a calm anime about school life. The game asks players to choose words for their poems. Those choices guide which girl the main character gets closer to.
Over time, small hints show that each girl has hidden struggles. The story slowly turns dark, showing stuff like obsession, sadness, and fear. The horror comes out of nowhere, and it spirals into dark territory from there. The beauty of the early school-club setting makes the later events land harder.
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Engage In High-Speed Anime Fights
- Players pick teams of three fighters and control them in 2D arenas.
- Keeps battles fast and flashy, giving anime fans the exact energy they expect.
If there’s an anime fighting game that does a good job of balancing fun for beginners with depth for competitive players, it’s Dragon Ball FighterZ. Players pick teams of three fighters and control them in 2D arenas where punches, kicks, and energy blasts move as if drawn frame by frame. The game makes powerful attacks feel dramatic without slowing down the fight.
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Characters behave and move like they do in the show, so fans can instantly recognize special moves, transformations, and ultimate attacks. Visually, Dragon Ball FighterZ stands out because it copies the anime’s visual style. Characters keep their sharp outlines, movements flow like animation, and special attacks mimic the energy blasts and explosions from the show.
Bleach: Brave Souls
Play Through Bleach’s Full Timeline
- Features 3D hack-and-slash encounters with iconic Bleach characters.
- Covers story arcs from the early Soul Society days to Thousand-Year Blood War content.
Bleach: Brave Souls is a free-to-play action title that brings the characters of Bleach into 3D hack-and-slash encounters. The game covers key arcs and fights from the series, letting players take part in battles against Soul Reapers, Hollows, and other familiar enemies.
One of the coolest things about this anime game is the team building. Players collect characters, upgrade their abilities, and combine them to create powerful squads. Choosing the right mix is strategic, as some characters support, some deal heavy damage, and others heal or control enemies. This system encourages players to experiment with team compositions and replay content to test out new pairings.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
Wild Pirate Battles With Huge, Chaotic Crowds
- Turns huge anime battles into wild, screen-filling crowd fights.
- Shows the crew with bold, expressive animations straight from the series.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 c aptures the adventure, humor, and power of One Piece by putting players in control of the characters they love. The combination of large-scale combat, diverse abilities, and faithful anime presentation elevates One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 into something exciting and replayable.
What makes the game interesting is the scale of its fights. Players don’t just face single enemies; they tackle armies, giant bosses, and massive siege scenarios. The design encourages creativity, such as using environmental objects to deal extra damage or timing attacks to hit multiple foes. The different characters all have their own unique abilities that require different approaches, so playing as Luffy feels very different from using Zoro or Sanji.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
The Fourth Great Ninja War In Full Cinematic Splendor
- Covers the major battles of the Fourth Great Ninja War.
- Supports team switching in combat, letting players chain jutsu and create fast, stylish combos.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 brings the climactic battles of the anime series to life with large arenas and high-speed combat. Players control ninja from across the Shippuden timeline, performing jutsu, transformations, and combo attacks that mirror the show’s signature fights.
The game tries to make every move feel impactful, from Rasengan strikes to massive team jutsu, while still being easy to learn. Even casual players can enjoy the flashy moves and dramatic camera angles without knowing complicated inputs, while experienced players can master advanced combos, timing, and positioning to dominate fights.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink
Lead A Team Of Skyfarers Into Action
- Follow a crew as they travel from island to island, hunting the source of a growing threat in the skies.
- Players form a party of four from a roster of unique heroes, each with different fighting styles.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink brings the charm of its mobile predecessor into an action-packed, fully 3D world with strong anime visuals. Anime fans who want to play with friends will be delighted to know the game has multiplayer. Up to four players can join in on missions, working together to take down powerful bosses and complete objectives.
8 Beginner Mistakes To Avoid When Playing Granblue Fantasy: Relink
New players to Granblue Fantasy: Relink can start their playthrough on the right track by avoiding the following mistakes.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a game where team strategy matters, whether it’s deciding who attacks, who supports, or when to unleash ultimate abilities. This turns each fight into a coordinated, thrilling experience. Bosses feel like anime villains come to life, and players will need both skill and cooperation to defeat them.
Valkyria Chronicles
A Storybook-Like War Game
- Tells a grounded war story supported by expressive anime-style characters.
- Uses a unique battle system where strategy and planning blends with direct third-person control.
Valkyria Chronicles looks like an anime and plays like a strategy game. It mixes a gentle, hand-drawn art style with real feeling on the battlefield. The game uses a special engine called CANVAS, which makes each scene look like watercolor and pencil art. That art style keeps the world warm and human, even during the more grim war moments.
The heart of the game is the BLiTZ system. The player plans their moves on a map, then zooms in and controls one soldier in real time. Movement uses a small action meter that limits how far a unit can travel. When aiming, the game pauses so that the player can line up shots. It's a completely unique balance of tactical and third-person shooter mechanics that is sorely underrated.
Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom
Build A Kingdom And Grow It Into A Nation
- Mixes heartfelt storytelling with creatures and magic that feel straight out of a feature-length anime.
- Offers a bright, fairy-tale art style supported by orchestral music.
For anime fans who want to pair lively action combat with a kingdom-building system, Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is a great choice. Players who like fairy-tale stories, clear progression, and a friendly visual tone will find plenty to enjoy. Playing as a young prince who lost his home, players have to build a new kingdom piece by piece, gradually turning it into a vast city.
King-making mechanics are what make Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom unique. The kingdom system functions like a mini-game of city planning and rewards players with new shops, better gear, and optional side content. That content will keep them working on the kingdom even after the main story is done.
Attack On Titan 2
Hunt Down Titans
- Captures the fast, aerial movement fans know from the show.
- Follows the anime’s key events with sharp, expressive character models.
Attack on Titan 2 gives players the feeling of moving like the legendary anime’s soldiers. It does a great job of recreating the show’s core thrills, with high-speed aerial movement and the scale of the Titans looking straight out of the anime. The game focuses on vertical movement using the 3D maneuver gear. Players zip through towns and forests, swing around buildings, and aim for a Titan's weak point at the nape of the neck.
The game lets players create a custom character, train alongside the series' protagonists, and replay major events from the anime’s second season while adding original missions that expand the narrative. The developers improved the AI from the first game and provided tools like the Monocular to make Titan encounters more tactical while still maintaining the moment-to-moment action that an Attack on Titan video game has to have.
Best Anime Open-World Games, Ranked
These games do a fine job of blending anime aesthetics into the open-world format. Here are the best open-world anime games, ranked.