Video Games You Didn't Know Were Based On Anime

Love it or hate it, anime has had a place in the global pop culture pantheon since Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy charmed viewers in 1963. And with Japan's unique take on animation inevitably debuting on small screens across the United States in the ensuing years, it was only a matter of time before spiky-haired fan-favorites like Goku and Ash Ketchum found their way into other forms of entertainment—namely, video games.

Multimedia anime franchises like Pokémon, Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! proved successful—and profitable—due in no small part to name recognition. But not every anime-inspired game's source material is obvious, especially to gamers without a personal library bursting with seinen manga and Dragon Ball box sets. From throwback fan faves adapted for contemporary consoles to obscure gems inspired by shows that just never caught on in the States, here are 10 games you didn't know were based on anime.

Fate/Extra is a PSP dungeon crawler that puts players in control of one Hakuno Kishinami, a student and recent amnesiac at Tsukumihara Academy—a virtual realm created by an alien supercomputer on the moon to recreate "The Holy Grail War," pitting combatants against one another for the chance to have their greatest wish granted. So, a typical JRPG.

If you're unfamiliar with Fate/Extra, take comfort in knowing you're not alone. According to VGChartz, as of July 2017, the Type-Moon and Image Epoch collaboration only sold around 190,000 copies in the States. This may have something to do with the fact that critics found its presentation "forgettable" and have compared its main protagonist to a mannequin. Or it could have something to do with the fact that the game (which was preceded by a massive number of spinoffs, prequels, anime adaptations, and light novels) is set in a parallel universe of the obscure visual novel that started it all—the similarly inexplicably-named Fate/Stay, which just happened to start its life as an, ahem, eroge, or "erotic game."

When you name your game Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, you'd best take your responsibilities seriously—chief among them delivering skull-crushing, blood-spraying hack-and-slash action along with a gripping gothic tale of an anti-hero's rise to infamy. That's precisely what developer Omega Force offers in their 2017 Dynasty Warriors-style game, and although it was greeted with mixed reviews. critics praised the engaging story, which chronicles protagonist Guts' growth from angsty young mercenary to vengeance-fueled warrior.

This isn't the first time gamers have jumped into Guts' skin (enjoy that metaphor). He's also delivered his patented brand of viscera-splattered justice in 2000's Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage for the late Sega Dreamcast and 2004's Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō—a Japan-only release. But while he's collected his fair share of pixelated scalps, anime fans have a much deeper relationship with the merciless merc—in fact, he's an anime icon, boasting nearly 30 years of notoriety in Kentaro Miura's legendary Berserk manga.

Like .hack, the Sword Art Online games are unique in that they take place inside an MMORPG realm within the greater Sword Art Online reality. As such, it's not a stretch to think that a casual gamer might mistake the latest entry in this multi-game series, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, for an original IP—especially considering how well the game imitates the user interface of a real MMO. After all, it boasts a "chat" window that doubles as an event log, an immense open world, and enough MMO lingo to fill a GameFaqs walkthrough.

In reality, Sword Art Online began as a "light novel," a novel with manga-style illustrations that accompany its story. It was later adapted into a manga, then a well-received anime in 2012, and, finally, a series of video games that began with 2013's Japan-only Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment.

Like the Pokémon games that came before it, Medabots (Medarots in Japan) took a simple idea—customizing and battling personal robots—and turned it into a minor cultural phenomenon that captivated Japanese Game Boy players willing to give the lesser-known franchise a shot. In 1999, two years after its initial Japan-only release, Medabots finally reached Western Game Boy Advance players in the form of Medabots: Metabee and Medabots: Rokusho to mixed response. By combining traditional JRPG elements like random encounters and a world map with quirky characters and a unique battle system, Medabots looked and played like a decent alternative to the vastly more successful Pokémon franchise.

But what many Medabot fans may not have realized was that they could catch their favorite short-fused battle bots every Saturday morning on Fox Kids. Just like Pokémon, which dominated the small screen on Kids WB, Medabots boasted its own anime adaptation. The show garnered Fox Kids some of its highest ratings, but, without the name recognition enjoyed by Ash Ketchum and his cuddly companions, Medabots' television show and games have fallen by the wayside.

If you recognize the name Osamu Tezuka, it's probably not because you played the aggressively obscure Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo. Chances are, it's because you're familiar with Tezuka's most famed creation, Astroboy.

But few outside otaku circles realize that Tezuka's work extends far beyond the trials and tribulations of the iconic young cyborg. In fact, much of the late illustrator's work embraced darker, more adult themes—from the nudity-ridden The Book of Human Insects to Ode to Kirihito, Tezuka's personal exploration of self-discovery as a result of trauma and corruption in the medical industry.

Another one of his most popular works, Dororo—which ran from 1967 to 1968—centered around a rōnin named Hyakkimaru on a quest to slay 48 demons and reclaim his lost body parts. Dororo was adapted into a beloved anime, and, almost 40 years later, it was reimagined as an action-packed, Sega-developed PS2 exclusive with realistic graphics, bazooka arm attachments, and...a slew of mediocre reviews.