Anime Adaptations ... of Video Games

Question

Anime Adaptations ... of Video Games

Why are they always so terrible? Guilty Gear got me thinking again. Pic related, top left to bottom right from least bad to worst offenders, from what I've actually watched. I also tried that Kiseki anime and Nier anime but I dropped those after like 2-3 episodes.

And no, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners doesn't count (not that I liked that either), since that's just an anime set in the same universe, with no significant characters from the game. And I don't care about VN adaptations either, the real challenge of these adaptations is working around the unique feelings caused by player's agency, the challenges presented in the game, and the lack of it in the anime.

The Bayonetta OVA wasn't so bad, at least the parts that they actually animated weren't, it had great fights against fodder but then for the bosses they ran out of animation and just had the boss fights just get dragged straight off with poor animation at the start of each fight.

it also made it easier to follow the plot

I fucking love Baiken so much bros *sob*

All of these were made as a means to capitalize on the IP, nothing more.

But all of anime is made for money!!!

Blahblah, yeah sure, but there are anime who are made with real intent behind.

Kirby was good.

Oh yeah? Write 5 full meaningful sentences about Baiken, why you like her, without mentioning her teats.

bad source material = bad adaptation

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HOW DARE YOU

The new DMC anime from this season is an absolute boppin BANGER. It's the Dandadan of spring 2026.

Technically Galaxy Angel is a game anime.

All of us loved Nier anime thoughbeit. It was one of our AOTSs.

I'm pretty sure Persona 4 is the only decent one here. If anything, it should be P5 here

Persona 4 had just one good episode, the one before the final boss. But I put both Persona 5 and 4 on the list, the ugly gaijin girl in the picture is the quadroon from Persona 5.

Oh! Megaman Star Force!

Danganrompa was handled like a nightmare

Well the game was crap, so...

Why do we need most of these in the first place
Like ace attorney for example, the game is already like an anime

Bomberman was kino

The greatest video game adaptation of all time

They typically exist as promotion rather than adaptation or anime to themselves.
The only good video game works in anime are typically ones that hold the video game at a distance. They are:

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken

An adaptation of a spin-off manga. Both anime work because they're typical battle anime fare, though I think the 2020 one dropping the video game music helps it work far better.

Digital Devil Story

It's adapting the novel so, again, it works. Kind of. It's still awkward.

Pokemon

Will get shit for this, but it's basically just an episodic kids TV anime a la Detective Conan. It's just fun to watch.

Digimon, Mega Man Battle Network, Yo-Kai Watch

All of these were conceptualized as multimedia projects first and foremost, so the anime are equally important even if they are alien to the video games.

That's about it.

Persona is simply a childish mid story

The Persona 4 anime wasn't too bad. They handled the blank slate self-insert protagonist with the appropriate levity so that he's not totally boring to watch. The Persona 5 anime fucked this up.

ngl i kinda see your point
It definitely a product of its time

Media is more than the sum of it's parts. adapting a game's story is like adapting a book's page count

it insists upon itself

og Persona 4 anime was good, the shitty one was Persona 4 golden's anime

And yet the anime mutilated every single case.

the Street Fighter 2 adaptions were kino, and so were the Fatal Fury ones.

Street fighter had excellent anime adaptations, this scene is iconic:

youtube.com/watch?v=IuB8fB_Cr40

because they had japanese economy bubble ova sakuga and don't have to follow a plot

When you adapt a book into visual mediums, you have to adjust descriptions and instead convey things through pure visuals. When you adapt a visual medium into a book, you have to turn those visuals into a description. Something will inevitably be lost in the process, and it's best to make your adaptation play to its strengths of the medium. Street Fighter is a game about fighting, so its movie had really, really good fighting that was choreographed well, but it also focused on a core cast with the occasional fighter cameo.

the tv anime was good too, and it had to really stretch its budget

Halo had the best one though
youtu.be/DofP5Zt1Gdk?si=cGFO50uPkZDa9gBG

Why are they always so terrible?

They aren't. Pic related.

This.

funny guy, you're a real funny guy

ah yes I remember playing as the boygirl in .hack

us

our

But it's the truth

They/them are right though

No you don't.

P5 is there.

Am I supposed to dislike those milk tits?

Who even asked for the BlazBlue adaptation? It was the first anime that I've ever watched and even back then I thought it was god awful.

It’s a great one though. They let the studios do what they wanted essentially

I'm glad they adapted Persona 3 into movies instead of the semi-okay Persona 4 TV show. It got the budget and polish it deserved.

I hate nu-Baiken so much, it's unreal. Bring the Kenshin-looking girl back. And I don't care about so-called "character development", it's straight up flanderization.

Nier automata just recently had one of the best video game adaptations to date.

when will it happen? no the ova doesn't count and I'm seriously surprised Square Enix hasn't outright just made an anime adaptation of any of their games yet.