At Anime Expo 2025, I had the chance to get a little hands-on time with Kaiju No. 8 The Game and chat with some of the game’s dev team. If you’re not familiar with Kaiju No. 8, it is an anime series which can be seen on Crunchyroll that is adapted from the Shonen Jump+ manga. It tells the story of Kafka Hibino, a man who earns his living working to clean up the remains of kaiju after the Kaiju Defense Force gets through with them. He’s always dreamed of joining The Defense Force himself, just as his childhood friend Mina Ashiro has. When a new coworker named Reno Ichikawa joins his team, Reno’s strong desire to pass The Defense Force entrance exams and join the force inspires Kafka to give it one last go. While Kafka has tried and failed before, this time he has a secret weapon that just might help him make the force.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the series, the game is designed to appeal to you. The game will include a story mode that follows the first season of the anime, so even if you’re experiencing Kafka’s adventures for the first time, you’ll be able to enjoy the game without feeling lost. And those of you who are fans of the anime can look forward to an original storyline not seen in the animated series, and additional stories that focus on each character in The Defense Force. In addition, there are plans to add new content post-launch, include more original adventures and story modes based on upcoming seasons of the anime as they are released. I was able to watch a few of the cutscenes used to advance the narrative in the game and was impressed with how good they looked for a game being demoed on a phone. Fans of the series’ art and animation styles are sure to be pleased.
The game itself is a team-based tactical RPG. You’ll select your squad of Defense Force officers from the game’s roster of characters before going into battle. If you’ve seen the anime, you’ll see some familiar faces on the roster beyond Kafka and Reno, such as Kikoru and Soshito, but the game will also include some new characters introduced in the game’s original story. You’ll be able to play with different combinations of characters to find special synergies and to fit your preferred playstyle.
When battling a kaiju, your goal is to wear down its defenses until you expose its core. Once the core is exposed, you can attack it directly to cause damage to the kaiju. During a battle, the attack timeline fills the bottom of the screen and will let you know the attack order for your squad and when the kaiju that you’re confronting will attack. When it’s one of your character’s turns, you will have a primary and secondary attack option for that character. You’ll also see your current squad members on the right side of the screen, with their status such as current health listed for each. Each character also has an ultimate attack, and you can monitor their charge levels as the battle progresses. Once an ultimate’s icon is fully charged, you can unleash that ultimate attack at any point, even if it’s not that character’s turn at the moment.
There’s a lot of strategy behind when you should trigger an ultimate. Whether or not the kaiju’s core is exposed, the attack’s effect on the turn timeline – will it push the kaiju’s attack back or move it forward, which teammates will potentially benefit and when they are scheduled to act next… The one thing you can count on, though, is that each ultimate has its own unique animated attack sequence which are all a joy to watch.
Between battles you’ll have access to the game’s RPG elements. Characters can level-up and earn stat boosts and enhanced skills. In addition, there is a weapons progression system that will allow you to enhance the characters’ weapons to make their attacks even more devastating in battle.
Kaiju No. 8 The Game will be available later this year on PC and mobile, and pre-registration is now open on the Apple App Store and Google Play, and the game can also now be wishlisted on Steam.