Five Video Game Franchises That Need Anime Adaptations

Anime Video Game adaptations have been the hot new thing over the last few years, and surprisingly, many of them are very, very good.

The likes of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Nier: Automata Ver1.1a, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf and Arcane have all done a spectacular job of adapting their source material for an anime audience.

But while there are some stellar examples out there, it feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with so many fantastic video games on the market.

So, with that in mind, here are five video games that we think are worthy of getting the anime adaptation treatment.

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Honorable Mentions

Before the real list gets underway, I’d like to drop a couple of honorable mentions in here:

• Metal Gear
• Kirby
• Metroid
• F-Zero
• Yakuza

1. The Elder Scrolls/Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls series is huge. It spans a variety of games, each with its own cast of interesting characters and races.

Setting an anime on the continent of Tamriel would give the series’ creators so much to work with, not only with the interesting characters but deep lore, its multitude of sub-plots and the potential for so many great antagonists.

With Fallout getting a TV adaptation from Bethesda, this wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. Plus, with how much Skyrim has been re-released, it’d be worth it for the memes alone.

2. The Legend of Zelda

With Mario hitting the big screen in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Legend of Zelda seems the next logical choice to get some kind of adaptation.

The franchise is easily one of Nintendo’s biggest, alongside Mario and Pokemon, and there have long been rumours that it will be making the jump from video games at some point.

While a live-action remake seems to have the most rumblings, the oftentimes dark world of The Legend of Zelda feels like it would fit right in with many anime already out there and there are so many fantastic stories, from Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild that could so easily be adapted.

3. Doom

An anime featuring the Doom Slayer battling the armies of hell, what more could you want.

While there’s not as much “lore” to pull from with Doom as there are the first two suggestions, there’s still potential to create a high-octane story similar to those in the two most recent games (2016 and Eternal).

It would also give an anime studio the opportunity to showcase some incredible animation as a Doom anime would need to be fast-paced, gritty, gory and just outright bombastic. A Doom video game anime adaptation would be great.

4. God of War

Okay, so I know there’s a live-action God of War series in the works for Amazon Prime, but hear me out – A God of War anime series.

Focusing on the two most recent games, an animated series focusing around Kratos and Atreus would be a sight to behold.

Aside from a fantastic story to draw from, the world is so rich in history and seeing the different branches of mythology all come together seems better suited to an anime. At least for me.

5. Bloodborne and/or Elden Ring

As you can tell, a lot of these anime video game adaptations are focused heavily on lore, but none do it quite as well as FromSoftware.

Both Bloodborne and/or Elden Ring would be absolutely prime candidates to receive this treatment thanks to their myriad of twisted characters, lore and fantastic worlds.

Although I’m a massive Zelda fan, if you were to ask me to pick one from this list, I’d choose these.