You know what Manga would make a great Game? Sakamoto Days

How would a Sakamoto Days game play?

Imagine a game with a game world similar to a small-scale Yakuza title. You have mini-games that involve you maintaining your store. Using a day-to-day system similar to a Persona stage set up, you occasionally have a day where an assassin finds the store or you encounter an assassin on an errand and are forced to deal with them. Countering their unique gimmicks and getting them to admit defeat.

Just like in the manga, occasionally you’ll also encounter interesting characters that will end up working for you. Whether it be experimental clairvoyants, the daughter of the Chinese triad, or an incredibly skilled sniper with the mental prowess of a 12-year-old. You end up hiring these people to your store to give them a second chance at an almost normal life.

These employees would play in both the store management sim and in the battles against other foes as support.

Over time, you get the store capable of running itself long enough for you to go out and investigate who has put a hit out on you and why. Eventually helping Tarou Sakamoto put an end to the nonsense and allowing him to live the normal life he’s desperately searching for.

Instead of button-mashing combat, I’d like to see something similar to No More Heroes more unique boss fights in which you have to make your way towards an assassin with a unique gimmick, using a Spider-man-like counter system allowing Sakamoto to make quick dodges and counters when he senses danger. Then the subduing system could be a series of quick-time events in which Sakamoto deals with the assassin in a non-lethal but still remarkably violent fashion so he can get back to his shop.

In closing

I know that Shonen Jump is no stranger to turning the stories they help publish into games and I think this one could be an incredible change of pace for them. Fill the game with fun cut scenes. Clever mini-games like management sims and getting supplies (while also deftly fending off assassination attempts). And give us some clever fight scenes that capture Sakamoto’s unique fighting ability instead of turning it into a button masher.

Also just make sure that there’s a ton of option side quests helping out around the community.

Do this and I think Shonen Jump has a game on their hands that’s as much of a killer as Sakamoto isn’t. Especially now that Jump Force is dead and gone, they could use a new IP.