Video games and manga have a long and intertwined history. In the early days of video games, manga was often used to promote new games or to tell stories that were too complex to fit into the limited gameplay of the time. This need has waned as video games have become more and more capable of telling their story without the aid of additional media. Regardless of this, many manga based off of video games continue to be produced and I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the more notable ones.
Let’s start off with, as far as I can tell, the best-selling manga based on a video game, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Based on the popular Dragon Quest video game series, The Adventures of Dai follows the titular character as, after being the only human on an island called Delmurin that was filled with monsters after the fall of the last demon lord, he learns that the demon lord has returned and that he must be trained by the previous hero, Avan, to fight against this menace. The series has proved popular with numerous anime adaptations and several video games and an estimated 50 million volumes sold as of 2022.