Anime Studio Story

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 60 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement.

Anime Studio Story originally released on mobile devices in 2015, then saw a port to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2020, then to PC in 2022 and to Xbox One in 2024. And this is one of the clearest examples of Kariosoft copying an earlier template, with Anime Studio Story pulling directly from the gameplay of Game Dev Story, with players trying to mix-and-match elements to make a successful anime series.

That’s not to say there’s nothing unique going on here – in addition to the setting and theme (or themes, as you can now use two at a time), you also have fictional characters you can reuse and level up just like you can with your staff. What’s more, you’re given extra incentive not to make a bad product, as yearly awards ceremonies penalize you with negative funds if you make something especially bad. Neither of these is especially realistic – I don’t see characters in contemporary sports anime shows repurposed in sci-fi action epics very often in the real world, and if awards shows could penalize bad products then maybe the Nintendo Switch eShop wouldn’t have so many asset flips. However, realistic or no, they do add an interesting new element to the gameplay.

Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of some other elements from Game Dev Story that aren’t included here, like having to anticipate an old game platform’s decline and jumping to a new one, or seeing multiple products on the market at once. What’s more, try as I might I just could not seem to find much success in my setting and theme pairings, even when pairing together topics that seemed like they went together well. Maybe this was my fault, but I suspect that the game either wasn’t making it clear when I hit on a good combo, or decided on odd pairings for its successful combos that I just couldn’t anticipate.

As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals, paired with repetitive chiptune music and sound effects. Apart from the forgettable, annoying synthesized music, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

Overall, I went into Anime Studio Story excited at the prospect of another game that followed in the footsteps of Game Dev Story, but came out of it disappointed. While this game does indeed copy a lot from the former Management Simulation, it ditches some of that prior game’s best elements and the resulting game just isn’t as compelling as a result. Unless you’ve completed Game Dev Story and absolutely need to play something similar to it, I suggest you get that game instead.

tl;dr – Anime Studio Story is a Management Simulation where players combine settings and themes to try to make a successful anime show. This game copies much of its formula from Game Dev Story, but loses some of the gameplay elements that made that game work, resulting in something that just doesn’t find the same success of its predecessor. Unless you’re a diehard fan of this specific type of Management Simulation, I suggest you just stick with Game Dev Story instead of this.

Grade: C

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