The reason why there are so many gacha games out there based on pre-existing anime IPs is because there’s so much there already to work with. In the case of shonen series, they typically have a jam-packed roster of popular characters as well as an already-established combat system, so it makes sense to port them over into the gacha format to provide a fun live-service experience for fans and allow them to collect and typically bond with their favorite characters.
Even some shows within the slice-of-life genre have proven to be able to make successful gacha games surrounding them. This is seen in titles such as A3! Actor Training Game where the game focuses around reading stories, attending practices and stage plays with one’s units and puts a large focus on character development and their unique individual personalities. Sadly enough, there are many anime titles – especially older ones that simply hit too early for the gacha gaming market – that don’t have gacha games out for them but absolutely could.
10 Panty & Stocking Comes Jam-Packed With Character Costumes And Fun Enemy Designs
Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt is an obvious contender for a fun, stylish gacha game that easily shows the potential to have either a turn-based RPG style combat system or even an instanced adventure-type game with its colorful locales. While there aren’t more than a handful of main characters, they all get tons of alternate costumes that can be creatively turned into separate units. They could even take the same route that the Revue Starlight gacha game takes and add in game-exclusive characters.
9 Soul Eater’s Characters Have Top-Tier Designs And Creative Battle Styles And Weapons
It’s hard to believe that Soul Eater’s never attempted to venture into the territory of gacha gaming. It boasts a huge roster of colorful characters and creatively designed weapons, the music is phenomenal, and it’d easily make for entertaining fast-paced action or turn-based RPG style gameplay.
The weapon and meister system has the potential to be used in some creative ways, too. For example, instead of Maka defaulting to using Soul like she does in-canon, weapons and meisters could be rolled separately and then mix-and-matched, meaning Maka could wield Tsubaki, opening up other fun combinations as well.
8 Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Bending System And Characters Would Easily Draw In An Audience
Although not technically considered an anime, Avatar: The Last Airbender does draw heavy inspiration from anime in both its style and how its world is handled, and most anime fans also have a soft spot for it. The characters are highly beloved, and considering Korra’s cast as well, they have no shortage of characters to work with.
The bending system that exists within the world could easily make for fun gameplay, although the type system would probably end up working similarly to rock-paper-scissors. It could even work in the style of a game like Genshin Impact given how deep character movesets are as well as travel being a huge central theme of Aang’s journey.
7 Black Butler Is Full Of Intricate, Beloved Character Costumes And Could Actually Make A Compelling Strategy Game
Black Butler might seem like its main character roster is somewhat lacking for a full-fledged gacha game, but it actually has the potential to make for quite the creative title. It could easily make for a more strategy-focused game where the player takes on the role of Ciel, starting with Sebastian and rolling to obtain other characters to use as his pawns.
There’s an easy extra costume system that could be added as well. Ciel could be made visible during gameplay despite not being a controllable character, and some of his many outfits could be purchased for currency at any time. This gives a spending option to players who enjoy supporting their favorite games but don’t like spending on the gacha elements themselves.
6 Kill La Kill’s Character Designs And In-World Combat System Are Beloved And Would Be Incredibly Entertaining To Play
The character designs and combat system already present in Kill La Kill make for an amazing gacha game premise. It could even be one of those titles that allows players to create their very own customizable Honnouji Academy student and control their favorite characters in combat against COVERS. There could be different versions of the main cast and the alternate outfits they can be seen in throughout the anime to increase the roster a bit, and stylish seasonal outfits are an easy must for characters as popular as Ryuko.
5 Zombieland Saga Has All The Makings Of A Fantastic Rhythm Or Idol Management Game
Zombieland Saga is a newer entry that’s seen some crossover events with other pre-existing titles such as Bandori: Girls Band Party and World Flipper. However, it’s yet to have its own standalone gacha game, which is a huge shame considering it would be perfect for either the rhythm game or idol management sim genres. The former would already have the many performances by Franchouchou as well as background tracks to work with, while the latter could see players taking on the role of Kotaro and managing the girls’ day-to-day training while unlocking costumes through the gacha.
4 Ouran High School Host Club Is The Perfect Candidate For A Dating Sim
While not a gacha in the traditional sense of having to unlock characters themselves, Ouran High School Host Club could make use of a costume-unlocking system for the hosts instead, given how many different outfits each member has. The game would see the player take on the role of Haruhi as she navigates through a game-original story involving the other hosts and eventually choosing who she wants to form a deeper bond with. This would hopefully sate fans who have been desiring a second season ever since the first’s release.
3 Highschool Of The Dead Is The Perfect Setup For A Zombie-Apocalypse Survival Gacha
The zombie apocalypse genre continues to be popular in both the world of gaming and anime, at least when it’s done right. Highschool of the Dead is a classic zombie outbreak survival anime with tons of well-designed characters to work with.
The game would likely work best in a turn-based RPG format. Characters are already equipped with weapons in-universe as well, so it eliminates the extra challenge of having to come up with original weapons for them.
2 Fruits Basket Is The Perfect Cozy Anime For A Relaxing Match-Three Type Game
Match-three games don’t have to be limited to titles like Candy Crush or Bejeweled. There are actually quite a few successful match-three gacha games out there, with the longest-running easily being Puzzle & Dragons, with unique combat systems that refresh the genre while injecting a healthy dose of characters to roll for. Fruits Basket has no shortage of beloved characters to pick from, and they already come with casual outfits that could easily make for great skins.
1 Persona Would Have Another Instant Hit If Made Into A Turn-Based RPG Style Gacha
Although originally a video game franchise, Persona has received anime adaptations in the form of four movies for Persona 3, then there’s Persona 4: The Animation and its Golden variant, then finally Persona 5: The Animation. Many of the fifth title’s characters have received cameos in pre-existing gacha titles, but that just makes the desire for an all-Persona title that much stronger!
There’s already a perfect combat system in place in the original games, though it would obviously be simplified for the mobile format, and characters have a wide variety of signature attacks to put on units. The music is already stellar, and finally, there’s not only already a large cast but a large amount of costumes for them.
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About The Author
Hannah Grimes (312 Articles Published)
Hannah has always had a passion for writing, having done creative writing as a personal passion since 2012, and is thrilled to be a content writer for CBR. When she isn’t writing for work or for fun, she can usually be found playing games, cosplaying, singing or petting her cats. You can connect with her here: hostedebt@gmail.com.