10 Best Fantasy Games In Anime

There is plenty of great anime based on existing games, such as Chihayafuru and Hikaru no Go. However, sometimes an anime will take that concept a step further and create a game of its own. Sometimes this game will only feature in one episode or arc, and sometimes the whole show is centered on it.

Whether it’s a card game like Yu-Gi-Oh! or a board game like in Hunter x Hunter, viewers are sure to wish these favorite pastimes were real.

Bakugan (Bakugan Battle Brawlers)

As Dan Kuso explains in the episode “Bakugan: The Battle Begins,” Bakugan brought itself into the world when one day, out of nowhere, cards came raining down from the sky. People who collected the cards found that they contained the creatures called Bakugan, and a battle game using them was quickly popularized.

Bakugan brawls take place in a separate field of reality and are played by throwing down Gate Cards that boost the elemental powers of the Bakugan used. Once one player runs out of Bakugan, they lose. Some Bakugan, like Dan’s partner Drago, are sentient creatures who become brawlers’ strongest fighters and closest friends.

OZ (Summer Wars)

One of Mamoru Hosoda’s best movies, according to IMDb, is a family drama combined with a desperate race to save the world from nuclear destruction. In the near future, the virtual reality game, OZ, is all the rage, but the release of a malicious, powerful AI called Love Machine threatens to turn the game into a weapon of war.

OZ’s combat system is fast and unforgiving: the slightest mistake can spell doom, making for several incredibly suspenseful scenes. Its avatar designs are memorably creative, a notable example being Love Machine itself, which assimilates beaten players’ avatars in order to grow stronger, which upgrades its look as well.

Darwin’s Game (Darwin’s Game)

Some anime have characters sent into a virtual game world. Others have them playing on physical devices. Darwin’s Game combines the two. When unwitting players accept the app’s invitation, the game is brought to life, and it’s a part of their world now permanently. The only escape is to win or die, but because players can win serious real-life money, they’re willing to keep playing even if it means killing other players.

While the show itself is lackluster, the underutilized concept of the game is interesting, with battles, abilities, and special events visible only to players. Kaname being chased through the streets in the episode “First Game,” by Banda-Kun, a knife-wielding panda mascot programmed to eliminate new players who don’t learn fast enough, is particularly suspenseful.

Prosfair (Blood Blockade Battlefront)

An anime to watch if you love Cowboy Bebop, Blood Blockade Battlefront presents a truly extreme answer to chess and shogi. Prosfair takes place on an otherworldly plane in which time moves much more slowly than in the outside world. Since players can become stronger the longer the game lasts, this gives them ample opportunity to bring out their true potential.

In the episode “A Game Between Two Worlds,” Klaus must play a 99-hour Prosfair game with Alterworld boss and Prosfair enthusiast Don Arlelelle Eruca Fulgrouche in order to gain information. If he loses, Don Arlelelle will take his brain and add it to his own body.

Izaya’s Game (Durarara!!)

Just because only one person in the world understands the game doesn’t mean it can’t count. In the episode “Out of Your Control,” Izaya Orihara amuses himself with a game of his own invention. It involves arranging shogi, Reversi, and chess pieces on a shogi board, and then setting the whole thing on fire.

The inscrutable game is symbolic of both Izaya’s worldview and his role in the story. As an information broker, he knows everything about the rest of the cast and usually sits above and apart from them, manipulating them like playing pieces. His only object in doing so is to cause chaos among them, more or less setting their world on fire.

Beyblade (Beyblade)

Blades might resemble spinning tops, but Beyblade is a far more intense game. The powerful metal tops are fired from specialized wrist launchers with incredible force, and the one who destroys the other’s Beyblade is the winner. On the professional circuit, Beybladers compete in teams to become the greatest in the world.

By letting their Blades loose in the arena, some Beybladers can unleash the powerful monsters hidden within, known as BitBeasts. These creatures have many different special abilities that give their users a huge boost in matches, such as Tyson’s Dragoon, whose Storm Attacks summon tornadoes, sandstorms, and more.

Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors (Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor)

While rock-paper-scissors is a game that already exists, Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor‘s version of it is practically unrecognizable. The players aboard the cruise ship Espoir are all in debt to the Teiai Corporation. To win their freedom, they must gamble in a deadly game that makes this anime much like Netflix’s Squid Game.

Teiai’s version of rock-paper-scissors requires players to bet with star tokens and use a deck of 12 cards to represent hand motions. The goal is to lose all cards while keeping the stars, and if players run out of stars, it’s game over. Players can team up if they wish, but there’s no guarantee their teammates won’t stab them in the back.

Shoe-Launching Game (Asobi Asobase)

If viewers are looking for a show that revolves entirely around made-up games, Asobi Asobase should be their first stop. It revolves around the members of the Pastimes Club — Kasumi, Olivia, and Hanako — and their goal to have as much fun as possible. In episode 3, the Pastimes Club challenges the Shogi Club to a contest they invent on the fly: whoever kicks their shoe the furthest wins the empty club room.

When Olivia gets 50 meters by kicking her shoe while on swings, the outraged Shogi Club president destroys her score by riding top speed downhill on a bike and kicking her shoe 1000 kilometers as she leaps off. However, it’s a pyrrhic victory: she breaks several bones doing so, meaning the Pastimes Club gets the room anyway while she recovers at home.

Gungi (Hunter x Hunter)

Though the MMORPG Greed Island is very plot-important, as the setting of an entire arc, the strategy board game Gungi directly shapes the arc of two characters. Gungi master Komugi is the only gaming champion that ruthless Chimera Ant King Meruem can’t beat. While battle rages outside Meruem’s palace, these two stay inside playing game after game.

As they play, Meruem comes to understand the value of human life by observing Komugi’s resilience and strength, and they form a close bond. This culminates in one of the saddest Hunter x Hunter episodes, where Komugi and Meruem play one final game as they both succumb to radiation poisoning.

Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

This trading card game took the world by storm when billionaire artist, Maximillion Pegasus, brought it onto the scene. Duelists battle with Monster cards to eliminate each other’s Life Points, empowering their own Monsters with Spell Cards and tripping their opponents up with Trap Cards. KaibaCorp’s holographic technology allows duelists to watch their cards brought to life on a large battlefield.

Pegasus reveals that he didn’t technically create Duel Monsters, but based them off the battles that took place in ancient Egypt, using real monster spirits. These original Shadow Games are portrayed onscreen in season 5, in which the heroes are shown the events of five thousand years ago.