Shonen Jump’s Chainsaw Man, written and drawn by the mad genius Tatsuki Fujimoto, is one of the hotest properties in the modern manga and anime scene. Both the original manga and anime adaptation have been at the center of well-deserved praise for their grungy and brutal art style, paired with a story that is just as wild as it is absolutely heartbreaking. If you’re as deep down the Chainsaw hole as I am (and I’ve been in here since the start), you’re probably hankering for more stories like it. Here are the 5 best games like Chainsaw Man.
Best Video Games Like Chainsaw Man
Choosing games that are similar to Chainsaw Man is a bit of a tricky notion because there aren’t many stories out there that can perfectly match its particular blend of over-the-top action and mildly nihilistic storytelling. With a bit of wiggle room, though, these are the games we feel scratch that particular itch, or at least get close to it.
- Yakuza Series
- Elden Ring
- NieR Automata
- BioShock Infinite
- Bloodroots
Related: How to Get Chainsaw Man in Anime Dimensions Simulator
Yakuza Series
If ever there were a series that knew how to strike the point between silly and serious, it’s Yakuza. These games are chock full of brutal fistfights in the streets, as well as some truly bizarre minigames and sidequests. Despite that wackiness, though, these games also tell generally serious stories about how difficult it is to escape the world of organized crime once you’re immersed in it. It’s rather telling that its main protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma, took six games’ worth of stories to make a clean break, and it still didn’t take!
Elden Ring
If there’s one thing many people immediately recognize about Chainsaw Man, it’s how lousy the world it’s set in is. People die for no reason, whatever peace there is is tenuous at best and outright false at worst. There’s a certain similarity there to the Lands Between of Elden Ring, a dying world marked only by those ambitious enough to do something about it. Of course, much like the Devil Hunters of Chainsaw Man, the Tarnished have little hope of fixing things permanently.
NieR Automata
Speaking of perpetual suffering, that’s the bread and butter of the androids of NieR Automata. They’ve been locked in an endless war with the machine lifeforms with no end in sight, constantly throwing away their lives and memories for a cause they have no choice but to believe in or succumb to despair. Much like Denji in Chainsaw Man, 2B and 9S dream of a normal life where they can do fun things together, a life they very much cannot have due to their circumstances.
BioShock Infinite
For reasons beyond his understanding, BioShock Infinite’s Booker DeWitt has no choice but to follow certain rules and predetermined events if he wants to have some semblance of happiness, not unlike Denji being conscripted into being a Devil Hunter. Not unlike in Chainsaw Man’s world, there’s also a lot of sudden, senseless death in Infinite as Columbia is brought to its knees by a civil war between two forces, both arguably in the wrong.
Bloodroots
Some men, for one reason or another, can only live life on a knife’s edge. Mr. Wolf in Bloodroots has absolutely nothing going for him beyond his proficiency for ending human life, which is why all he has is the grudge that powers him. He’s not unlike Denji, only killing Devils at Makima’s behest because it’s the only way he knows to secure something resembling a safe, happy life for himself.
Obviously, we’re reaching a bit with these. I don’t think there’s a single game out there that encapsulates that cross-section of violence and nihilism quite like Chainsaw Man, and if there is, I haven’t played it. Maybe they should just make a Chainsaw Man game.
