2024 was, by far, the best year for anime games since the PS3 released. At every level, everyone was firing at all cylinders. From Bandai’s three-month streak of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: ISEKAI Chronicles, Gundam Breaker 4, Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, and Death Note: Killer Within, to the success of both BeXide’s Yohane the Parhelion: NUMAZU in the MIRAGE and Bushiroad’s Revue Starlight: El Dorado, anime gamers had a variety in IP, publisher, and genre that we haven’t seen since the PS2. So what were the highlights?
BEST ANNOUNCEMENT
Rumors of a new BLEACH game had been floating around since 2020, when a CyberConnect2 call confirmed that Bandai held the rights to the series. Since then, I tried to guess when a game would be announced, only for the announcement to be accidentally leaked shortly before Anime Expo. This slightly killed the hype (not really), but what the official website revealed afterward:
Tamsoft, one of my favorite lesser known developers, was working on Rebirth of Souls. As somebody who’s played almost every Tamsoft action game since 2015, this was both absolutely insane and a dream come true. A lot of Tamsoft quirks and features shine through here, including:
- Combat is structured like a more grounded Oneechanbara Origin boss fight.
- Tamsoft’s transformation knowhow from the Senran Kagura series perfectly translated to the awakening system.
- The story seems to be modeled after Utawarerumono ZAN 2’s story.
BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls launches March 21, 2025 for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). I went over my expectations for the game and why I was so excited in this video.
WORST ANNOUNCEMENT
Every announcement related to Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. 2 OVERBOOST and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Last Survivor that isn’t an announcement of a console port.
In all seriousness, the confirmation that the Western release of MACROSS -Shooting Insight- would not receive the Do You Remember Love? DLC was expected, but still hard to hear.
BEST COLLABORATION
A good game collaboration has multiple factors: the series matches the world it’s joining, the characters joining and their story are a good match for the game’s story, and most importantly, I can pull at least one of the characters. The only collab this year that ticked all boxes with GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE’s collab with EVANGELION.
The school setting and emphasis on teamwork between the Nikkes and the Eva pilots was a nice touch, and I liked playing the minigame too. That being said, I don’t care for NIKKE’s Rei.
Honorable Mention: Frieren’s appearance in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: ISEKAI Memories probably would’ve won if I pulled Frieren instead of Himmel twice.
WEIRDEST COLLABORATION
Sometimes anime make their way into games that seem like a total mismatch. Sometimes, though, the mismatch makes it funny, and that’s how I felt when one of my favorite gacha games, Alice Gear Aegis, announced that its next collaboration would be Laid-Back Camp. On paper, it makes sense. Colopl owns MAGES., who published a Laid-Back Camp game in 2021. In practice… just look at Nadeshiko.
The Laid-Back Camp collaboration ended on December 27, but Alice Gear Aegis is still available in Japan for Android, iOS, and PC (via DMM Games). A spinoff fighting game, Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix, is available worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
Last year, I realized that the icon in your PS5 library changes depending on what region you’re in. If you have a Japanese game and you live in the United States, if that game is available in the United States, the icon will reflect that version instead of the game you actually own. This little quirk is how I found out that The Quintessential Quintuplets: Memories of a Quintessential Summer and The Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You would receive a Western release.
With the game finally out worldwide, I uploaded a playthrough of both game’s Miku route just to spite MAGES. Both games are available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam).
BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT
Sometimes, all a game needs is some time to apply feedback, especially if that game was allegedly a rushed project like Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash. I didn’t like the game when it first came out, but as of the Shibuya Incident update it’s much more in line with the game I thought it’d be at launch.
BIGGEST MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Let’s say you make a game about a dog. The dog is adorable. The dog is also a menace. Let’s say this adorable dog game is an indie project from Bandai Namco staff. Let’s say an anime that Bandai has been sponsoring for years has an anime with a dog protagonist. Let’s say that the franchise that this anime with a dog protagonist belongs to actually got a game from a Bandai Namco subsidiary last year, which means Bandai is actively trying to use the IP.
I say all of this to ask: Why hasn’t Doronko Wanko added Komugi from Wonderful PreCure! yet?
BIGGEST “ROCC CALLED IT” MOMENT
One of the most heavily debated anime game topics of 2024 was the roster of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO. The game was supposed to have “the most characters in series history,” and this was usually represented by a 164-space grid. Although this technically would be the largest roster in the series history, it was only three more than Tenkaichi 3’s 161. Because of that seemingly minor increase, along with the fact that Dragon Ball Super would have taken up nearly 30% of the roster, I had one thought: Bandai and Spike Chunsoft would expand the grid.
That’s exactly what they did, giving us 182 characters right out the gate.
WORST GACHA GAME
I’m not even gonna waste time with a setup here. Tokyo Revengers: Last Mission fucking sucks, holy shit. I’m already biased against gacha action games since the format doesn’t allow most of them to do anything interesting combat-wise, but the stiff gameplay isn’t doing Last Mission any favors. Even logging in feels like a chore. Imagine delaying a game by nearly a year and this is still how it turns out.
BEST GACHA GAME
Throughout 2024, only four gacha games kept my attention. Of those four, only one was actually released in 2024. My best gacha game is 2.5 Dimensional Seduction: Angels on Stage! The game features both the story from the anime and an original story, using a turn-based gameplay style that fits the series a lot more than I expected, just by swapping out actual damage with hype. Angels on Stage has done a great job keeping my attention, while reminding me that sometimes all you need is to reword something for it to make sense.
WORST ACTUAL GAME
If I wanted to play a dungeon RPG based on an anime I’m aware of, KonoSuba: Labyrinth of Hope and the Gathering Adventurers. Mushoku Tensei: Quest of Memories is Labyrinth of Hope but uglier and with less likable characters. I finally started playing after receiving the English version as a Christmas gift and I feel like I was robbed.
BEST ACTUAL GAME
2024 brought anime games to new heights, and it was actually difficult to choose a winner here. Gundam Breaker 4 wiped away all the shame of New Gundam Breaker, while Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO showed that Spike Chunsoft’s biggest problem was just the IPs they were given. The game that shined more than both, however, was Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream. After Sword Art Online: Last Recollection ended the Gameverse story, I wondered where the SAO games would go in the future. Would another 10-year story begin? Would the team start adapting the anime storyline? Turns out the answer was “both.” This new story comes after the end of the anime, and it sets up a new Gameverse to explore. Now that the cast is already familiar with each other (and collectively does not respect Oberon), there are a lot more interesting character interactions that can be set up. On top of all that, it’s a good ass game. Characters play well, the difficulty’s just about right (although I think it could be harder), and I’ve had minimal issues online. Combos don’t stop after too hits here, either.
Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam). A demo is available on all platforms.
Question for the readers: What were your favorite anime games, announcements, collabs, etc. in 2024?
AniPlug Media 
Leave a comment