Attack on Titan (known as AOT: Wings of Freedom in Europe) is a 2016 video game based on the popular franchise of the same name. It covers the first season of the anime (or up to chapter 33 of the manga), as well as some elements from the then-upcoming Season 2. The game was released February 18, 2016 in Japan for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita, with an English localization following on August 26 and 30 of the same year for Europe and North America, respectively; the Western release added Xbox One and PC ports.
A sequel called Attack on Titan 2, adapting first two seasons of the anime, was released in March 2018. An expansion pack adapting the third season, titled Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle, was released in July 2019.
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Armin dukes it out in the frontlines as much as the rest of the gang in this game.
- In the source material, Eren took a notoriously long time to actually kill a Titan using the 3DM gear and, even then, his combat skills with the 3DM are considered middling at best and he's most useful in his Titan form, though that can be attributed to him just not getting the chance to and is more or less forced to use his Titan form - almost killing the Colossal Titan once and actually taking it down. In this game, he kills dozens if not hundreds of Titans on his own.
- Hell, literally everyone who can be played has several more levels of badass. Keep in mind, not even Levi can match the number of kills a player can rack up.
- Adaptation Expansion: Changes are made to some parts of the story to allow for more gameplay. For example, Armin's encounter with the Female Titan in the source material is a Curb-Stomp Battle that leaves him paralyzed on the ground as she runs away, while the corresponding mission has him pursuing her from village to village and putting up a good fight before he's swatted down as in canon.
- Adaptation Distillation: The Epilogue Missions, meanwhile, strip out major story beats from the chapters not yet adapted so as not to spoil those who haven't read the manga. So the Beast Titan doesn't speak in its introduction, the battle at Utgard Castle passes without incident, there is no mention of the Military Police conflict or Krista's importance, and the battles with the Armored and Colossal Titan take place while Eren is still unaware of their identities.
- Bowdlerize: Some of the scenes the games re-enact are noticeably less gory than the source material; for example, when Eren gets his leg bitten off, there's only a small splash of blood, and you never actually see the bloody stump. Later during his fight with the Female Titan, she only dislocates his jaw instead of ripping it off.
- Breakable Weapons: Taking the lead from the source material, swords will become dull with use depending on the durability score of the blade.
- Colossus Climb: Every large titan is technically fought this way, but the Colossal Titan battle is the most conventional example.
- Cutscene Incompetence: Due to the Adaptation Expansion, characters can have a titan on death's door in gameplay, only to be swiftly taken down in the following cutscene so the canon story can proceed.
- Deadly Euphemism: You don't kill Titans, you subjugate them.
- Degraded Boss: The special abnormal titans start off as mission-ending unique battles, made more difficult by their high attack power and the fact that you have to destroy their limbs before their napes become vulnerable. In later missions, they're just mixed in with the standard enemy mobs, while the new mission-ending battles are "Bizarre Titans," recolors of actual bosses like the Female, Armored, and Beast Titans.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Armin's one of the biggest Fragile Speedsters in a game with multiple Lightning Bruisers. That said, proper use of his command ability allows you to combo titans to death.
- Fan Disservice: The camera has a disturbing tendency to fill the screen with naked Titan ass.
- Final Boss: The Female Titan at the end of the anime's story arc, while the Colossal Titan serves as the True Final Boss at the end of the Epilogue Missions.
- Fragile Speedster: Weaker characters like Armin and Sasha exchange attack strength for higher speed, along with the ability to direct other, stronger soldiers to specific targets to compensate.
- Giant Equals Invincible: The larger the titan is, the harder it is to damage and kill. The Colossal Titan takes numerous hits to every part of its body just to slow down, and can take a ridiculous amount of damage to the nape.
- Jack of All Stats: Eren is a solid fighter with standard speed and strength, at least until he gets to turn into a titan.
- Just Eat Him: Good thing the Titans will hold you in front of their faces for a little while instead of just popping you into their mouths, or this game would be a whole lot harder.
- Kill It with Fire: The Beast Titan is only vulnerable when you use molotovs to singe off its fur.
- Lightning Bruiser: Mikasa and Levi are fast, agile, and extremely strong. Mikasa has the ability to rapidly strike the same target multiple times, which other characters have to upgrade their gear to do, while Levi has a single special strike that is strong enough to instantly kill most titans. Not to mention that not only does he later gets Mikasa's chain attack, he even gets another ability that improves on it, turning him into an absolute butcher.
- Infinity +1 Sword: There are a good amount of candidates, but most agree the winner is the Cloud Zero Plus.
- Master of All: Erwin has a great mix of strength and speed, along with his ability to command soldiers.
- Neck Lift: One of the attacks Eren uses as the Attack Titan is one he can turn into a throw.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: In Survey Missions, characters will get eaten by a Titan...and then "flee the battle."
- One-Hit Kill: Failing to escape a titan's grasp gets you Eaten Alive, which is an instant mission failure. To balance, a good strike to the nape will instantly kill almost any standard titan, especially if you're playing Levi.
- Optional Boss: The Colossal, Armored, and Beast Titans are exclusive to the optional Epilogue Missions rather than the main game.
- Press X to Not Die: If the player gets grabbed by a titan, they can break free by button mashing in order to slice off the titan's fingers before it can chomp down.
- Purposefully Overpowered: Levi is just as broken as he ought to be.
- Spell My Name With An S: Not being translated by the same people as the manga or anime, some of the names are a bit different:
- Connie Springer: Conny Springer
- Sasha Blouse: Sasha Braus
- Krista Lenz: Christa Lenz
- Mike Zacharias: Miche Zacharias
- Survey Corps: Scout Regiment
- Spoiler Opening: The game intro shows a transformation into a titan, even though titan shifters were a pretty big reveal for the first season.
- Super Mode: Eren can transform into a titan after the main story is completed. This form also has its own Super Mode, in which it turns red and gains even more speed and power.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The Colossal Titan battle on the wall is functionally a Giant Hands of Doom boss fought with cannons instead of the normal grapple system. You only fight it normally in the last Epilogue Mission. There's also playing as the Attack Titan, in which Eren trades in his Omnidimensional Mobility Gear for the ability to punch stuff to death as a Titan (in the vein of something more like Koei's own Dynasty Warriors franchise).
Attack on Titan 2
Attack on Titan 2 contains examples of:
- The Ace: The Player Character is often described as this. No matter how good or bad you do in training, you're mentioned as being on par with the top performers in the Cadet Corps, though due to plot reasons you cannot place in the top 10. A lot of characters will express surprise at this, some even explicitly saying that you should have placed. The ending lends further credence to this in your character's Offscreen Moment of Awesome as they jump into a horde of pursuing Titans so that the heroes can escape to safety as you fight alone. The Stinger hints you survived this encounter, something not even the most experienced veterans could do.
- Adaptation Expansion: While carrying over almost every trait from the previous game, the new Daily Life mode allows the player to look into the lives of almost every major character in the series.
- Alternate Universe: Zigzagged; whilst a majority of the canon remains true to the source material, the inclusion of the Player Character as a fellow survivor of Shinganshina and a participant in a number of noteworthy conflicts means that scenarios don't always play out exactly as they did in the series. However, due to plot-reasons, events drag your character away from incidents that cost the lives of a number of major characters that you could have prevented, meaning the plot carries on as it's meant to. The ending also separates the Player Character from the rest of the main cast, leaving the rest of the story to continue much like the manga and anime. This trope can be played completely straight if you go back and replay missions where characters die and win special side-missions to save their lives.
- Another Side, Another Story: You play the entirety of Season 1 and Season 2 from the eyes of your own character, witnessing the events that take place as a bystander.
- Badass Bystander: As mentioned above, the Player Character is more or less just a bystander to the events of the first two seasons, but they have the potential of being one of the deadliest soldiers in the Survey Corps, capable of holding their own on par with the likes of Levi.
- Bittersweet Ending: Bertholdt's, Reiner's, and the Beast Titan's raid to steal the crystallized Annie is foiled, and the Survey Corps gets Annie back, but the Player Character sacrifices themselves to hold off a pursuing horde of Titans so that the others may escape, leaving the Survey Corps shocked and devastated from their loss. Eren, however, keeps the Player Character's journal, and after reading it, is only further resolved to take back Shinganshina and defeat the Armored Titan...for all four of them now. The post-credits scene hints you survived, putting more emphasis on the "sweet".
- But Thou Must!: One event has the Levi Squad trying to find a gift for Levi. All three of your responses when Orou considers a special dust cloth are "No way".
- When prompted on which branch you want to choose, all of your choices are either in support of joining the Survey Corps or against joining the other two branches.
- Deadpan Snarker: Kare can be this if you choose the right dialogue options. Despite the seriousness of the series, a lot of their answers are sarcastic or just downright absurd given the situation.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Titan Biological Research has you controlling a hypothetical titan rampage that either ends in Eren punching you to dust or Levi killing you once time runs out.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Excluding the plot related ones, every titan can be caught and turned into the Titan Research Facility for various rewards and to unlock them for use in the Titan Mode.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the epilogue mission, you jump head-first into a swarm of pursuing Titans to give your friends enough time to make it back to safety within the walls. The last thing you see is a Titan's hand reaching for you before it fades to black, and your friends struggle to hope for your return. A final scene hints that you survive.
- In Spite of a Nail: The game's premise is basically, "What if there was another Shinganshina survivor who joined the Survey Corps with the original trio?" The result is, basically, the same, with some minor alterations to fit them into the plot without changing anything too drastically, though as mentioned in the Set Right What Once Went Wrong entry, you do have a few opportunities to break out of canon.
- Lighter and Softer: Played with. The game mostly plays faithfully to the series' overall dramatic and scary themes, but the gore is notably toned down, with many of the iconic recreated scenes being slightly edited in composition to hide or completely remove depiction of gore.note Of note is Hannes' death: Rather than being bitten in half, he is simply eaten whole.
- Limit Break: Final Battle adds Showdown Equipment, which drains fast when activated, but is reloaded by clearing side missions. Blade loadouts get Thunder Spears, which deal heavy explosive damage to all of a Titan's parts (or multiple Titans, if grouped properly), while Firearm loadouts get twin gatling guns that can chew through Titan limbs quickly.
- Player Character: An unknown, unidentified soldier in the Survey Corps known as "Our Friend"* who kept a journal of their experiences from joining the Cadet Corps to just after Bertholt's and Reiner's betrayal.
- Promoted to Playable: Technically, almost every titan in game is playable in the Titan Research Center minigame.
- Like with Eren above, the other titan shifters can be played in their titan forms this time around. The sole exception being the Colossal Titan who is instead just an attack.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The player can save characters who died in canon in special missions unlocked after completing the main story and replaying past missions. These characters will then return in the daily life segments in Story Mode.
- Story and Gameplay Segregation: Clearing the main campaign unlocks Titan Shifting powers for Eren, Bertholdt, Annie, Reiner and Ymir as well as Armin and Zeke when Character Episode mode is completed that replaces their usual attacks when squadded up, leading to situations where the Armored or Colossal Titan show up willingly to fight on the humans' side.
- As nearly every squaddie have a set of "big Titan" vocal responses, regardless of friend or foe, it is entirely possible for say, Reiner, to express shock when hulking up into the Armored Titan.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The first encounter with the Colossal Titan removes your ability to grapple, forcing you to hide behind rubble to avoid getting pushed around by its steam while dodging rocks.
- The Manual Turret and Titan Mode has this happen during battle: The former mode puts you in control of a stationary cannon that absolutely wrecks Titans, even Abnormals, while the latter puts you in control of a Titan Shifter for a short amount of time, allowing you to absolutely wail on anything in your way.
