Today, the long-running multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight dropped its previously announced crossover with the worldwide anime phenomenon Attack on Titan. This event was first announced on Twitter with a teaser photo of the massive infamous Armored Titan peering into a building at the viewer. However, rather than receiving the full DLC treatment as some fans may have hoped, Attack on Titan will be entering the game as costumed reimaginings of original Dead by Daylight “Survivors.” As such, the cast of characters may appear a bit different than the anime portrayals you’re used to. 

Whatcha doing? pic.twitter.com/cqE1MIq8t1

— Dead by Daylight (@DeadByBHVR) July 13, 2022

However, the thought behind the reimaginings is interesting, as the Dead by Daylight team wanted to connect each specific Attack on Titan character with a corresponding Survivor, making sure there was some element of similarity between the two other than aesthetic. As explained in the official blog post by Rose Li, Dead by Daylight’s Product Manager: 

We dove into the backstories of our characters to ensure their outfits were representative of the original Attack on Titan character emotions or values.

For example, Titan’s Historia was assigned to Survivor Kate Denson and wears a similar cloak to reflect the two characters’ shared personality trait of compassion – Historia wears the cloak to visit an orphanage in the anime, connecting these two over their “embodied kindness.” Similarly Survivor Dwight Fairfield, as Eren Yeager, wears similar glasses to Eren’s father Grisha. This rings true for the rest of the total 8 Survivors, including Yui Kimura as Mikasa, Felix Richter as Armin, Meg Thomas as Annie, Zarina Kassir as Zoe Hange, Jake Park as Levi, Ace Visconti as Kenny, and of course, Kate Denson as Historia and Dwight Fairfield as Eren. All 8 will be Very Rare outfits available alongside two more Ultra Rare outfits dedicated to the Killers. 

Continuing the philosophy of connecting specific outfit choices with events from the anime/manga, the two Ultra Rare Killer outfits are for The Oni as the Armored Titan and The Spirit as the War Hammer Titan. In order to fully bring the “constant source of danger” of Attack on Titan’s namesake Titans to life, the team decided to “highlight two generations of the Yamaoka bloodline.” Thus, the Spirit’s teleportation mimics the War Hammer’s abilities and The Oni’s Blood Fury visually “holds true” to the anime, in addition to the Thunder Spears embedded in his skin (Thunder Spears were Titan-killing devices developed specifically to combat the Armored Titan). 

While there are the paid cosmetics on offer, those opting to avoid purchases can still receive an in-game reward; anyone logging in starting today will immediately receive the Cadet Corps Crest Charm. Additionally, four other exclusive Charms will become available with purchases of the skins, including the Scout Regiment Crest, Military Police Regiment Crest, Garrison Regiment Crest, and the Wall Titan Charm.

This follows hot on the tails of several other anime crossovers, from Fortnite’s new Anime Legends pack and popular crossover with Naruto last month to Apex Legends’ recent anime-themed Gaiden event.