For years gaming fans have dreamed about the idea of Studio Ghibli working on a video game. After all a lot of their work can be cited as inspirations for video games. Final Fantasy, for example, shares a lot with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and Castle in the Sky is also very RPG-like. Then, at long last, the dreams were fulfilled when Level-5 partnered up with the storied company for Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
The visual style was exactly what fans had been envisioning for years. Even though they didn’t work directly on the sequel, it at least shares the same aesthetic. More games should look like this, which is why we dug through many art galleries to see what fans have come up with. Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot out there with the exact Ghibli art style, but what we did find was glorious.
10 The Legend of Zelda
Nintendo is like the Disney of video games and out of all of their properties, The Legend of Zelda makes the most sense to turn into a Ghibli movie. Link doesn’t even have to talk. Their animation style excels at expression, which can often communicate a thousand words. Plus Zelda can be there to talk as someone to speak for the audience. This artwork is gorgeous.
Miavern created this piece of fan art and shared it on Twitter.
9 Overwatch
Out of these three Overwatch characters, which we put into a collage, Mei’s portrait looks the most Ghibli-like. Even her animated short is very lighthearted along the lines of what one would find in one of their films. Blizzard does a good job with their story trailers and they actually look high quality, but one can’t help but wonder what they would like like in 2D animation.
Grieverjoe created this piece of fan art and shared it on Imgur.
8 Dark Souls
Studio Ghibli isn’t known for creating silent films. Some are more talkative than others, but for the most part their narratives have a lot of character interaction. So a game like Dark Souls may do better with someone along the lines of Genndy Tartakovsky at the wheel. His storytelling in Samurai Jack is second to none. If he directed it and Ghibli did the art, this would be a fantastic movie.
Kyle Van Wyk created this piece of fan art and shared it on Imgur.
7 The Witcher
And now begins the first of several amazing Lap Pun Cheung pieces. The first tackles The Witcher, which already looks so good in this Ghibli style. Ciri’s boisterous stance is amazing. The new Netflix series is okay, but something animated in this style, like their Castlevania anime, would have been a lot better. The closest film this could be related to is Princess Mononoke in terms of the gore.
Lap Pun Cheung created this piece of fan art and shared it on ArtStation.
6 God of War
This is kind of a cheat on Lap Pun Cheung‘a part since it looks almost exactly like The Witcher piece from the framing of the characters to the background. That said we absolutely adore this one as well. At its core the reboot of God of War has a similar story to it. In this case the “boy” is just much younger of a pupil than Ciri.
Lap Pun Cheung created this piece of fan art and shared it on ArtStation.
5 Final Fantasy VIII
Lap Pun Cheung actually has a whole gallery of artwork in this similar style for Final Fantasy VIII along with some pieces not in this style. Of the few on there, we went with this amazing opening scene between Squall and Seifer. Look Ghibli. There is no reason to turn this entire game into a movie. We would be satisfied with them at least animating this opening.
Lap Pun Cheung created this piece of fan art and shared it on ArtStation.
4 Star Wars
Okay, so Star Wars isn’t exactly a video game series. But it isn't exactly not a series either! The point is that there are Star Wars video games and Lap Pun Cheung‘s work is too good not to highlight this one last time. This one reimagines a world wherein Star Wars is seemingly crossed over with Castle in the Sky, one of their best films.
Lap Pun Cheung created this piece of fan art and shared it on ArtStation.
3 Pokémon
This artwork reimagines Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur in a style that looks a lot like how Totoro is drawn. The teeth really solidifies this point. Pokémon recreated in this style would be too creepy so we wouldn’t want a film to look exactly like this, but a real Ghibli artist going to town on the many monsters within would prove to be a beautiful thing, or at least we hope.
Piscimancy created this piece of fan art and shared it on DeviantArt.
2 Kingdom Hearts
This is not a piece of artwork so much as it is someone seemingly hastily whipping together an environment to put some 3D models in. As crude as it is, we put it in here to get the ball rolling on the idea of creating a Ghibli world in the next game. Studio Ghibli is not a Disney studio, but Disney does do a lot of work on the English versions. There must be a way for them to make this deal happen, right? Out of all their films, Spirited Away probably makes the most sense.
Vitor-Aizen created this piece of fan art and shared it on DeviantArt.
1 Death Stranding
Speaking of Spirited Away, this piece is more like what if a Ghibli movie was in a video game. In this case we have Death Stranding, which sort of makes sense with the movie’s premise in that there are ghosts and demons.
It may go against the idea of this article overall, but it’s funny enough that we had to have it on here. The idea street goes both ways. Adam Tazi created this piece of fan art and shared it on Pixalry.