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I get caught in the bottomless pit of new anime games all the time. A brand new release comes out, it looks shiny and cool and has an interesting gameplay hook, and I go ahead and buy it…even though I have no real familiarity with the source material beyond basic recognition.
Uh oh, they got me again.
Sure enough, I’m then plunged into a nightmare hole of lore, codex entries, character cameos, and menu after menu explaining mechanics I’ll instantly forget. Before I can get to the true meat of the game, I have to sit through dozens of little mini cutscenes I have no attachment to or ability to comprehend because they rely on TV episodes I’ve never watched. I’m now deeply caught by the classic anime game trap, a problem I thought that modern game design and market forces would have destroyed by now.
How do you take the vast amount of story and lore from a typical anime series and cram it into a modern video game, while still making a title that’s actually fun to play if you’re not caught up on all the episodes?
That’s an age-old game design question that’s only grown more important as the genre continues to expand…and one that also impacts other non-show-based games influenced by this growing space and its ongoing market success. I’ve played so many…
