| Kaiju No. 8 The Game | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Register & Pre-Order | Review |
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Review Overview
What is Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME?
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME is a free-to-play turn-based RPG based on the manga and anime series of the same name, and is the IP’s first video game. It features an original plotline with both new and returning characters, set far into the series’ main story sometime before the ending. In this RPG, the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force runs into a mysterious phenomenon that involves parallel worlds, Dimensional Gates, and worst of all—the existence of Kaiju thought long to be already neutralized. It’s up to them and the special unit called CLOZER to find a way to eliminate the threat before it’s too late.
Gameplay revolves around turn-based combat where players lead a squad of four Defense Force members to subjugate waves of enemies in different stages. Players dish out damage through their abilities in order to expose their weaknesses for easier elimination. Characters are attained through gacha mechanics, and can be upgraded by levelling up and enhancing their individual skills.
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME’s gameplay and story.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME features:
⚫︎ Turn-Based Combat
⚫︎ Original Story and Characters
⚫︎ Familiar Faces from the Anime
| Digital Storefronts | ||
|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 App Store |
 Google Play |
| TBA | Free-to-Play | |
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Fun Character Interactions Original Story, More Content Decent Turn-Based Combat Gameplay |
Animations can be Clunky Can Lag |
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Overall Score - 70/100
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME is a turn-based RPG based on the IP that is decent, serviceable, and fun to a certain degree—just painfully average. It’s not the most innovative game of 2025 by any means, but it’s interesting enough gameplay-wise and story-wise to be entertaining for some time until you find another, more substantial game to sink your teeth into. Fans of the series may find more merit in the game, especially for the original storyline and the character interactions, but those who aren’t familiar with its universe might not be as willing to lug themselves thoroughly into it.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Story - 7/10
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME’s story is decent enough—nothing groundbreaking and can be predictable at times (how many monsters have destroyed Tokyo at this point in different universes huh), but it seems to fit in just right with the IP’s universe. The characters, even the new ones, are interesting in their own right. Aside from the main story, players are also able to dive into individual character stories for a more in-depth understanding, so there’s that.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Gameplay - 7/10
Its overall combat gameplay is decent, but it can get grindy and stale the more you play, especially in higher levels. Luckily, there are ways to auto-battle and skip battles for resources and materials as well. However, controls can be slightly laggy for some reason, perhaps because of the FPS lock, requiring extra taps to register skills or even just running through the menus.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Visuals - 7/10
The game’s visuals are pretty great, as the characters and backgrounds look polished and clean. It’s not an eyesore in any way, and cutscenes and skills are thrilling to watch nevertheless. However, it suffers from clunky animation, awkward transitions, and the woe of being permanently locked into 30 FPS which makes everything else lag by just a tiny bit.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Audio - 7/10
The background tracks are nothing special, with the same action-themed menu track playing in a loop while going through most of the game’s interface. In the story, they do their part in adding to the whole atmosphere, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. Nevertheless, the faithful voice-acting is done well, with the same Japanese voice actors reprising their roles for the game.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Value for Money - 7/10
It’s a free-to-play game at its core, and thus it’s inevitable it's laced with microtransactions. It’s roughly around $2 a pull, with some material packs costing around $5—pretty average monetization for a gacha game. However, it gets a brownie point for its forgiving pull rates at 3% and 5% for 5-Stars, which is a little more than twice what the average rate is for other gacha games.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Review: It’s Okay, Just Meh
I’m a fan of the IP, having read the manga and slowly catching up to the anime as well (thank the heavens, bless Hoshina in animation)—so when I heard that there was going to be a game on it, it certainly piqued my interest. Aside from the story surrounding protagonist Kafka Hibino and having to deal with being fused to a literal monster, Kaiju No. 8 revolved around thrilling action sequences and battles, as well as a colorful cast of characters. Naturally, being a gamer myself, I was psyched for its release.
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME is finally here, and while it’s not the most innovative anime/manga-themed game out there, it’s serviceable, decent, and will keep you entertained…though probably not for very long. It’s a painfully average game at best, but if you’re not looking for a superbly deep and substantial game to waste time away with, Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME might just be for you.
Big Warning to All Future Players for Spoilers
I’d like to preface the rest of the review with a warning—Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME immediately skips over a huge chunk of the main story and starts off at a point after a lot of important events have concluded. To be precise, it’s after the entire first season of the anime, and manga-wise, it starts off around Chapter 55. I highly suggest that you watch or read until these points so that you don’t get surprised from where the game picks up.
With that being said, if you already caught up with the anime, completed the manga, or just don’t care for spoilers, continue on reading.
The game takes place after the intense battle with Kaiju No. 9 in Shinagawa, which ended with the hostile Kaiju escaping and the death of an important character. In preparation for Kaiju No. 9’s imminent return, the Defense Forces continue their daily training while also neutralizing smaller kaiju threats.
One day, Kaiju No. 8 protagonist Kafka Hibino and his colleague Kikoru Shinomiya from the First Division are dispatched to take care of the issue, one that could be completed easily. However, they end up biting off more than they can chew as a mysterious hole in the sky endlessly brings in waves of Kaiju—even those that were supposedly neutralized in the past. Identified as Kaiju Dimensional Gates with the power to open up parallel worlds, the Defence Forces, along with special unit CLOZER, work in tandem to permanently close these threatening gates once and for all.
Turn-Based, Weakness-Focused Combat
If you’re familiar with Honkai: Star Rail, the gameplay of Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME is highly similar, sharing several mechanics like turn-based combat, weakness breaks, advantages, buffs, debuffs and more.
Most of the game revolves around battle, and Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME employs turn-based combat that focuses on making use of enemy weaknesses against them. Characters have four basic attack skills, namely the Normal Attack, Special Attack, Ultimate, and the Follow-Up Attacks. All of their abilities have either one or two attributes from a set of eight. There are three Physical attributes: Slash, Blunt, Shot, while there are five Elemental ones: Fire, Ice, Wind, Lightning, and Water.
Enemies also have these same attributes as weaknesses. Hitting their weaknesses will slowly fill up their Plate (PLT) or armor gauge. Destroying the PLT will make the enemy Core Exposed, both making the enemy vulnerable and immediately activating a party member’s Follow-Up Attack, which will make the battle so much easier to accomplish.
It’s decent, and is pretty fun in its own right. Combat gameplay is the core in a title like this, where the story progression is determined by clearing the chapters, most of which are topped off with a battle with either small fry enemies or a big bad boss. Thus, leveling up characters, their weapons, and Uniparts is essential in winning battles.
It’s easier to do those at first, but once your roster starts growing and resources start becoming more expensive, there’s a bit of grindy-ness and management that needs to be done. Gamers who are a fan of that gameplay loop will find themselves enjoying it, nonetheless.
Great Character Interactions
If you’re a fan of the anime and manga, then you’ll have a field day with the game. Despite the main storyline being rather serious, the little interactions such as the Follow Up Attacks to the amusing group chats and messages from the characters on the Home Screen offer a glimpse into their dynamics and banter. It’s a nice breather from all the dread of living in a monster-infested world that could be annihilated anytime soon, and it’s refreshing.
In addition to that, a little detail I found amusing is that if you set certain characters as Battle Buddies, their follow-up attack lines for each other will differ slightly, usually with a call-out for their partner’s name. For instance, Kikoru calls out to Reno and Kafka simply with their names, but refers to Rin as captain. Minor things, but it’s nice they paid attention to these things nonetheless.
Gacha Rates Are More Generous
Ah, of course. The anime-themed IP is a gacha game, and Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME is no stranger to that. However, their saving grace is that the drop rates are actually higher than your average gacha titles. Appearance rates for characters and weapons are 3% and 5% respectively, compared to the standard 1% to 1.5%-ish of most other pools. Sparking or getting a guarantee from the exchange shop is at a costly 250 tokens, but with higher rates, you’ll probably be able to max out their Ascensions (or popularly known as Constellations via Genshin) long before 250.
In my case, I was pulling a 5-Star character or weapon every 10 pulls (at least in the Standard pool, which has the same probabilities) and was even able to ascend both my 5-Star characters once each and their 5-Star weapons as well—twice. Perhaps it’s an immense stroke of luck combined with the fact that it’s still the first banner with not many characters to fight probabilities for, but nevertheless, its gacha rates do feel a little better than in most cases.
Awkward Animations
Despite its positives in other ways, there are some factors that just…don’t feel great. For one thing, the game’s animations aren’t all bad, but they look a bit stiff, especially in cutscenes. Their mouths move oddly, and they’re not in sync with the lines—it feels rather cheap sometimes. Sometimes, the voice pauses in between but the mouth keeps moving. Even outside of cutscenes, battle transitions feel choppy and awkward. This is the case even for those boss fights—the battle just…ends and sometimes it’s even choppy. It feels so anticlimactic, as if I didn’t just beat down a 100 foot scaled dinosaur Kaiju.
Additionally under the animations umbrella, it was such a lazy detail to have the gacha pulling animation be the EXACT SAME ONE as Hibino’s 4-Star Ultimate. It was a bit disappointing that they couldn’t even be bothered to change it—there are a few differences like the light shining on his palms in the gacha animation will change depending on what you’ll be receiving (e.g. glowing a bright orange-gold if you get a 5-Star character or weapon), but that’s about it. Hibino looks exactly the same, moves exactly the same.
Is Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Worth It?
Scratches the Itch, but Only for a While
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME is exactly as average as it sounds on the title—like come on, they could have had something like Solo Leveling: ARISE or The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin or what…but they decided to go the straightforward but rather boring route in titling. With that said, it’s decent, but that’s all it is—average.
Decent story (even if it’s an original plot just for the game), okay visuals, okay audio. It’s entertaining to an extent, but as it is, it’s not a game that most would be playing for long unless they’re big fans of the series and find more fun into the smaller things like the character interactions. Outside of its other aspects, if you’re wanting to scratch a certain gacha itch, then maybe Kaiju No. 8 will manage to help in that department as well.
In short, if you’ve got time, or you’re a fan of the series already and want to see Hibino and the crew in more action, or if you just want to pull in a gacha pool, then by all means, it’s worth it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be trying to get more Reno.
| Digital Storefronts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Steam |
App Store |
Google Play |
| TBA | Free-to-Play | |
Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME FAQ
When will Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME come to PC?
There is no specific date as to when it will arrive on Steam, but the game is available to be wishlisted on the platform ahead of time.
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Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Product Information
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| Title | Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME |
|---|---|
| Release Date | August 31, 2025 (Android, iOS) TBD (Steam) |
| Developer | Akatsuki Games Inc. |
| Publisher | Akatsuki Games Inc. |
| Supported Platforms | Steam, Android, iOS |
| Genre | Action, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME Official Website |
