Cygames is a Japanese game company founded in 2011, by several former Square Enix developers and artists, that mainly specializes in making mobile games for iOS and Android, both licensed and original. Several of their games have been obscenely profitable to the point where they often rank in top 10 charts for top grossing on both Apple's App Store and Google Play.
They often work with CyDesignation, also formed by several former Square Enix artists in 2012 and together with Cygames under the wider umbrella of Cyber Agent, for producing artwork for their games. In 2016, the company founded CygamesPictures, an in-house animation studio to produce original anime and adaptations of their mobile game IPs and bought out background studio Kusanagi around the same time. Further branching out into non-game media includes Cycomi to handle all manga published in print and on the web, and Cymusic to handle music production and selling.
Console Games
- Granblue Fantasy
- Granblue Fantasy Versus, 2020; A console Fighting Game spinoff of Granblue for the PS4, co-developed with Arc System Works. Published by XSEED Games in English-speaking countries.
- Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, 2023; the sequel to Versus for PS4, PS5, and PC, still co-developed with Arc System Works.
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink, 2024; A console Action RPG for PS4, previously co-developed with PlatinumGames.
- Shadowverse: Champion's Battle, 2020; A console game for the Nintendo Switch, based on the Shadowverse anime.
- Little Noah Scion Of Paradise, 2022 (A console follow-up to Little Noah, co-developed with Grounding Inc.)
- Project Awakening, TBA; The company's first original, internally-developed console game, an Action RPG for PS4
- Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary, TBA;
Collaborations
- Zone of The Enders: The 2nd Runner M∀RS, 2018 (Co-developed with Konami)
Mobile Games
- Rage of Bahamut, 2011 for Japan/2012 for the West; the English version was shut down in 2016. As their first work, it pretty much formed the character foundations for several of their other games and defined the card-based gacha mobile game in Japan for years to come.
- THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, 2011
- Knights of Glory, 2013, shut down in 2016
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light, 2014
- Granblue Fantasy, 2014; though an English language option was added to the game client in 2016, it is "officially" not available in any country besides Japan (though it also has no IP limitations and players the world over can access it via any computing device equipped with a Chrome browser).
- Little Noahnote , 2015
- The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage, 2015
- Princess Connect, 2015
- Princess Connect! Re:Dive, 2018 for Japan/2021 worldwide; A reboot of Princess Connect. Global version published by Crunchyroll. Service for Global version ended in 2023.
- Shadowverse, 2016; the first Cygames title to have an in-house directed global release and English dub.
- Lost Order, 2017; a tactical RPG collaboration with PlatinumGames.
- Dragalia Lost, 2018; a mobile Action RPG co-developed in tandem with Nintendo. Ended service in 2022.
- World Flipper, 2019 for Japan/2021 worldwide; a pinball/RPG hybrid. Global version published by Kakao Games. Will end service in 2024.
- Uma Musume, 2021; horse training simulator, featuring moe anthropomorphized racehorses.
Anime produced or assisted by Cygames, both as Cygames and Cygames Pictures:
- Akiba Maid War (Episodic Co-Production and Music Production; Key, 2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Assault Lily: Bouquet (2nd Key Animation)
- Bang Brave Bang Bravern! (Cygames Pictures)
- Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 (Cygames Pictures)
- Chainsaw Man (Key, 2nd Key & In-Between Animation; Background Art)
- Fuuto P.I. (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Good Night World (2nd Key Animation)
- Granblue Fantasy (Co-Production)
- GRIDMAN UNIVERSE (Co-Production; In-Between Animation)
- Heavenly Delusion (2nd Key Animation)
- THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls (Co-Production)
- Japan Sinks (Background Art)
- Made in Abyss (Co-Production)
- The Marginal Service (Production)
- Mysteria Friends (Cygames Pictures)
- Pluto (Background Art Cooperation; Finish & In-Between Animation)
- Princess Connect! Re:Dive (Cygames Pictures)
- Rage of Bahamut: Genesis (Co-Production)
- Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Key & 2nd Key Animation)
- Sk8 the Infinity (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Spy X Family (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Summer Time Rendering (2nd Key Animation)
- takt op. Destiny (2nd Key Animation)
- Uma Musume (Co-Production)
- Yuri!!! on Ice (Animation Assistance; Key Animation)
- Zombie Land Saga (Co-Production; In-Between Animation for Revenge)
Tropes employed by Cygames include:
- Anti-Frustration Features: One of the first, if not the first, developer that gave short story summary if the player wants to skip cutscenes and dialogue scenes.
- Author Appeal: A common form of fanservice in their works involves female characters with bare backs and shoulders, with some even posing in ways that show their armpits. In Granblue Fantasy, the Erunes are a race with this trope in mind.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Their mobile games are all free-to-play but often lock desirables behind a randomly-determined gacha. Thankfully aside from spending money you can acquire in-game rewards and Play Every Day to obtain the necessary currency for the gacha (and Granblue Fantasy, in particular, has become rather famous for its generosity during major seasonal and milestone events and for having a much kinder "safety net" in the Cerulean Spark system for obtaining specific characters compared to much of its competition). Still, Random Drop is in full effect for most of them.
- Creator-Driven Successor: Several of their games have come about as a result of trying to build upon the failure, real or perceived, of a previous project.
- Shadowverse was primarily designed as a response to the failure of Rage of Bahamut in the west, by reusing the card game format in a package that would receive a better response globally (that is to say, one that was a bit closer in rules and play style to Magic: The Gathering-style card games, and most specifically Hearthstone).
- Dragalia Lost was one to Knights of Glory, reviving the concept of summoning and transforming into dragons in an Action RPG package (KoG having been somewhere between a strategy RPG ala Final Fantasy Tactics and a traditional RPG like a numbered FF), along with bringing the KoG job classes into Dragalia Lost as their own distinct characters, to boot. Sadly, Dragalia only lasted marginally longer on the market than KoG itself did (being just a bit over four years old when it shut down, in contrast to KoG being a hair over three years old at the end).
- DVD Bonus Content: A marketing strategy of Cygames, wherein redeemable item codes for rare in-game items in Granblue Fantasy are bundled with the DVD/Blu-Ray discs of their games' anime adaptations such as Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, Uma Musume and Mysteria Friends. Of course, the Granblue anime is no exception.
- Reused Character Design: They've been pretty much porting everyone from Rage of Bahamut into Granblue Fantasy and Shadowverse, though recontextualizing their characters for the new games they appear in. Dragalia Lost gets similar treatment for a few characters (though in this case the recontextualization is often significant, such as turning Jeanne d'Arc into a humanoid dragon) and Princess Connect! Re:Dive (which features a recontextualized Monika, Anne and Grea, and features Djeeta and Arisa somehow directly visiting from their home games).
- Series Mascot:
- Bahamut the dragon specifically represents Cygames as a whole, it being part of the company's logo.
- Their versions of Lucifer and Bahamut from Rage of Bahamut will pop up in pretty much every original IP they develop. To a lesser extent, Albert the Thunderswift Lord, Anne of Mysteria and Grea the Dragonbornnote also tend to crop up in games pretty regularly, as does Cygames' version of Jeanne d'Arc (voiced by Megumi Han) and their version of Cerberus.
- In a broader sense for marketing as a company, the protagonists of each IP (Favaro, Amira, Kaiser, Nina to represent both Rage of Bahamut: Genesis and the game it's adapting, Lyria, Vyrn, and Gran/Djeeta for Granblue Fantasy, Pecorine, Kokkoro, and Karyl for Princess Connect, Special Week for Uma Musume, Euden/the Prince, Notte, and Zethia for Dragalia Lost, and Arisa and Luna for Shadowverse) are used to market the company as a whole and for each individual property.