In the world of Kaiju No. 8, titanic, otherworldly beasts are a constant threat in Japan: to the extent that not only is there a military organisation – the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force (JAKDF) – set up to deal with them, but there are also regimented clean-up crews whose jobs are to come in and cut up then cart away the often skyscraper-sized foes once they’ve been felled.

Lead character Kafka Hibino dreams of being a JAKDF officer, but at the start of the series is working in clean-up, and hoping that when there’s work to be done he doesn’t get assigned the intestines… for obvious reasons. It’s not long, however, before he’s – season one spoiler alert here – both a member of the JAKDF and dealing with the fact that he’s somehow been gifted/cursed with the powers of a kaiju himself, designated by the powers that be as Kaiju No. 8.

Stylish action, goofy humour and bad-ass characters all come together to make what follows a whole heap of fun, and frankly, excellent fodder for a video game. Why so? Well, in terms of action, the series focuses around squad-based combat against bizarre and menacing enemies both large and small, with battles decided by exposing each creature’s core (i.e. weak point) and finishing it off. Pair that with highly individual characters, who have a range of expertise in different weapons and fighting styles, and you’ve got a video game waiting to happen.

Enter Akatsuki Games, and Kaiju No. 8 The Game. This free-to-play turn-based RPG on mobile (with PC to follow) very much fits the mold for modern Japanese live service mobile games, with gacha rolls for characters and weapons, and numerous different currencies and crafting materials that allow you to level up characters, moves, weapons and more. This is a game with daily check in rewards, time-limited events and grinding for materials so you can enhance your characters and take on the next challenge.

Whether that’s your kind of thing is up to you, but there’s no doubt that the team has put a lot of effort into this title. Akatsuki Games has been working on Kaiju No. 8 The Game for more than two years – since well before the anime started airing – with a team size of around 200 people.

The result is a game with excellent presentation, thanks to well-realised 3D character models, a good sense of scale, and super slick combat animations. The core gameplay loop is compelling too, putting you in control of a four person squad in turn-based battles that move quickly and have plenty of room for strategic depth.

Kaiju No. 8 The Game also has an impressive amount of content out of the gate. Not only does it have an original story to play through (set during the second season of the anime, which is airing now), complete with an impressive amount of voice acting (in Japanese), but it has other modes that highlight iconic moments from the manga/anime’s story, tell side stories for the main characters, and so on. It even has a side-scrolling combat mini-game.

Let’s dig into some of the specifics.

What’s the Story?

In Kaiju No. 8 The Game, Dimensional Gates are opening up in the sky and a stream of kaiju threats are swarming out. Is this a job for the JAKDF? Yes, but with a little help from CLOZER (that’s the rather awkward “Closing Order With Zero Restrictions”, in case you’re curious), a special organisation tasked with sealing said gates. The plot twist, however, is that the captain of CLOZER is Sagan Shinomiya – one of a handful of brand new characters – and fan fave Kikoru Shinomiya’s sister.

The set-up allows for a never-ending stream of gameplay as you fight through the kaiju from a particular gate, culminating in a boss battle and closing the gate, then moving on to another. It’s a fun premise, however, as the gates themselves connect to a different dimension, meaning that iconic kaiju that have already been neutralised in Kaiju No. 8’s world can still appear, allowing the game to dive into battles only referenced in the manga/anime. My hands-on, for instance, culminated in a fight with an alternate version of the legendary Kaiju No. 2.

Another important point is that while the manga/anime is set entirely in Japan, these gates are opening up globally, so the game can roam all over the place. You can imagine how a live service title might take advantage of travelling to different parts of the world.

In addition to Sagan, and a couple of other entirely new characters, Kaiju No. 8 The Game is packing all the series mainstays you’d expect, from the captain of the Third Division Mina Ashiro (and her tiger Bakko) and her vice captain Soshiro Hoshina, through to the captain of the First Division (and otaku slacker) Gen Narumi and Kafka’s partner Reno Ichikawa. Each, as you would expect, has a signature weapon and fighting style, from Hoshina’s twin swords through to Sagan’s shield, which she uses like a blunt weapon.

Kafka is perhaps the most interesting, as he is essentially two characters in one. All the other fighters unleash a flashy attack when their Ultimate is triggered in battle, but Kafka’s Ultimate sees him transform into Kaiju No. 8 for the rest of the encounter, giving him a completely different set of moves.

Squad Up!

The battle system lets you choose a squad of four before each mission, and the order in which you place them creates two pairs of “battle buddies”, dictating who executes follow-up attacks when you expose a kaiju’s core. (More on that in a sec.)

Combat is turn-based, with the upcoming move order shown at the bottom of the screen. As you’d expect, characters have a wide array of options from single and multi-target strikes through to buffs and debuffs, but there are a couple of key systems that open up strategy. The first is that your party has a shared SP pool (mana, essentially). A normal attack restores a pip, while using a combat skill depletes one. This approach means you need to be tactical in how you manage your resources in order to use your characters’ most powerful techniques.

On top of this is the system for exposing an enemy’s core – a pivotal part of combat in the manga/anime that’s been brought across to the game. Enemies have discreet shields (called plates) that reduce the amount of damage they’ll take, so the main priority in any combat encounter is working out the most efficient way to break them. Some plates can be broken with any attack, others require specific types of attacks. You might need to use an elemental attack, or even more specifically, an attack utilising one of the five elements in the game (fire, ice, wind, lightning and water). Obviously different characters have different types of attacks, so ensuring your squad has the affinities necessary for the combat encounter you’re going into is key.

Breaking enemy plates is vital because once you destroy them all, the kaiju in question’s core is exposed, triggering an automatic follow-up attack from the attacking character’s partner and forcing the foe to skip a turn, bumping it back down the turn order sequence at the bottom of screen. It’s pretty satisfying knocking a kaiju back just as it’s about to attack, or better yet, preventing it from unleashing its Ultimate.

Speaking of Ultimates, each character has a gauge that fills as they fight (with follow-up attacks boosting it significantly), and these are – as you’d expect – some of the flashiest and strongest attacks in the game. Ultimates are great for finishing off kaiju with their core exposed, and can be triggered at any time, overriding the upcoming attack order. One thing to bear in mind is that missions are made up of several combat encounters, one after the other (with fast-paced ninja running in between, as the squad sprint to the next battle), and your SP pool and Ultimate charges carry over from battle to battle so, if the final encounter is significantly harder, you can prep for it.

Combat overall is fast and slick, letting each character show off their individual styles while also working as a team. You’re generally fighting smaller kaiju that attack in groups, but the game does also pit you against the kinds of towering monsters the manga/anime is known for, with the camera set low to really help sell the scale of the encounters.

Enhancing and Ascending

There’s a good strategic foundation to Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s combat, but as with most RPGs, your characters need to be constantly leveling to keep up with the opposition you’ll face next. There are a somewhat overwhelming number of systems in place to allow your characters to grow more powerful, and they’re pretty much all centered around material drops.

Just to quickly give you an idea, you use Defense Force Manuals (of which there are several rarities), along with credits, to “enhance” (i.e. level up) your characters. These all drop from playing the game and are essentially spendable XP. Initially your characters max out at level 20, but the level caps can be expanded, boosting the character in question and also increasing the challenge level of story missions and opening up higher difficulty training options. (Training, incidentally, is how you get the materials to enhance individual skills, but is subject to a stamina system.)

Characters can also “Ascend”. This requires you to have a double of the character and other resources, and gives you a bonus perk. On top of all this you can enhance your characters’ weapons and individual skills. There’s a lot to keep track of, and it feels like you’ll need to have a decent pool of competitive characters in order to swap your squad around if you need specific plate-breaking abilities, which means engaging with a tonne of different collectables.

New weapons and characters are acquired through the game’s gacha rolls, and utilise a star system for rarity. For the most part you’ll be getting three star weapons, and it remains to be seen how many rolls free-to-play players will be able to generate, as well as how fairly priced the gacha system will be for paying players. One thing is certain, though – the pool of characters and weapons is pretty large, and the rarest drops infrequent, so if you’re hunting for something specific, it may be a long process.

Despite the many trappings of free-to-play mobile game design, Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s moment to moment gameplay has a lot going for it, with clever core battle mechanics, slick animations and impressive visuals. And with its strong emphasis on story, and clear reverence for the source material, this adaptation will definitely be worth a look for fans of the series. Kaiju No. 8 The Game is out on August 31.

Cam Shea visited Akatsuki Games in Tokyo as a guest. He’s a former IGN staffer, now freelance writer and beer geek.