Round Table Discussion - Best Anime MMO Part 3

Lan Nguyen on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 4:00PM

Which anime series would make the best MMO universe based on story, characters, and abilities?

Duke Hong (KibouHou) of Ningin.com

Which anime would make the best MMORPG? It’s a fun question. I would love to see my favorite animes made into MMOs, although some lack the potential (A “Lovely Complex” MMO would be a bit difficult to design). After giving it some thought, one anime seemed to have everything an MMO needs. Soul Eater was first aired in April, it’s a recent anime best known here as “that anime which T.M Revolution did the opening for”. The story revolves around Maka and Soul, both students at the “Shinigami Weapon Meister Vocational School (Shinigami Buki Shokunin Senmon Gakko) or better known as Shibusen. There are two types of students at these schools, meisters and weapons. Weapons are well…weapons. They are students that can transform into weapons (literally). Then there are meisters, students who wield weapons. The MMO could place a player in the shoes of either a weapon or meister. Between both weapon and meister, you would have tons of customization options. While playing the game, you would do what any ordinary Shibusen student would do: collect souls and hunt witches.

PvE? Players can fight against “Evil Souls” and witches. PvP? The series has already shown the school accepts dueling between the students. Although players would start in Shibusen, they could take “assignments” and travel to various parts of the world to quest. There could be different artifacts (loot) to be found that players could use. There could also be plenty of end-game content. After players “graduate”, they would gain new powers such as the ability to wield or become “Death Scythes”. Some might call the concept generic, but I believe it’s still a good one. If anything we could always make a MMORPG out of “Tower of Druaga” or the “Dot Hack Series”. Oh wait…right.

Name’s Duke Hong. I’m currently a student living in Northern New Jersey. Got a knack for rhythm games and taking naps. I’m fairly new to Ningin but I hope to get along with everyone there.

Barry Zou (BZou) of Otakuinternational.com

In today’s online gaming scene; everything has become a generic follow-up of the other, nothing new and nothing out of the ordinary. Some may say this is a sad time to be an online gamer, and they may be right. Therefore anything that provides a new unique concept would make an interesting game worth trying. Now granted there have been some tried and true methods that we should not forget, however, there is just too many fantasy based MMO out today following each others trends; World of Warcraft, Everquest (and its sequel), FFXI, only to name a few.

Since fantasy MMO are so common, perhaps something like a space genre might fair better. Personally, I think that the anime series “Cowboy Bebop” would make a great MMO. Looking past our main characters storyline, the Bebop Universe is filled with a lot of content that can make a great game. The world is filled with different law enforcement officials, syndicates, bounty hunters, and common thugs. The world is practically what I would call a “Space Western,” the world/space in which they live is disorganized and filled with unruly criminals which makes up for some pretty interesting adventures. Imagine a game like this revolving around cooperation of teammates (like a crew) traveling this system filled with chaos all the while trying to survive for another day; sounds fun to me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I doubt anyone would disagree that we need something new that defies the current MMO trend.

Barry Zou (BZou) is an Otaku born and raised in NYC, he grew up enjoying anime series such as DBZ, Saint Seiya, and City Hunter. Only natural to say that these Anime series had an influence over him and created the Otaku that is BZou today.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

This blog posting is part of the 8 Days of Anime event in partnership with the New York Anime Festival happening Sept. 26-28. For tickets or more info about the festival, please visit their website at http://www.nyanimefestival.com/.

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