Overwatch’s NieR Automata Collab Delivers a Bunch of Hits and One Massive Miss

Overwatch has had no shortage of collabs in recent months, even doubling down on its crossovers with its big Season 1 relaunch. After a Sanrio collab got the ball rolling at the start of the Season (and provided Lucio mains with a delightfully spammable Keroppi voice line), the midseason has brought gamers a NieR Automata collab. While the price point for these skins is debatable — many have pointed to the fact that the actual game NieR: Automata is available for half the price of the full crossover bundle — their actual quality is undeniable. Being able to fly around on the pod via a Mercy movement emote is great, too, while a pod following alongside 2B Kiriko at all times is a terrific touch.

The skins featured in this collab manage to hit all the fan favorites, as well as a Commander White skin for the game’s resident skin-seller, Mercy. Vendetta is A2, wielding a neat buster sword with Emil’s face near the hilt. Kiriko and Wuyang are 2B and 9S, boasting their signature eye coverings, with the 2B skin looking particularly good in first person thanks to the feathers on Kiri’s arms. Lifeweaver rounds out the collab skins with his ADAM outfit, ensuring that the most popular androids are fully represented in Overwatch. But even though all these skins are undoubtedly well done, it’s hard not to notice the elephant in the room: Omnics got no love despite the story of NieR: Automata being all about machines.

NieR: Automata’s Premise Practically Demands an Omnic Skin

Overwatch’s varied lineup of Omnic heroes — Orisa, Echo, Ramattra, Zenyatta, and Bastion — would have been natural candidates for cosmetics based on Machines, the adorable adversaries that 2B and 9S battle as part of Automata’s story. Of the options here, the two that stand out as having the most potential are Ramattra and Bastion. Considering how neither of these heroes have Mythic skins, and haven’t gotten much love on the collab front since Transformers, it would have been great to see them get one of the following outfits.

For Bastion, a skin based on the adorable, peace-loving NPC Pascal would have been awesome. Personality-wise, he’s a brilliant fit for Bastion, as though the Damage hero can wreak havoc with his turret form, he’s sweet whenever he’s not forced into a fight. Appearance-wise, not much would have to change from Pascal’s default, steampunk look, as it’s quite a natural fit for Bastion’s base form. As for turret mode, simply throwing Pascal’s signature glowing eyes somewhere on the model would keep the design intact. The only question is what Bastion’s bird Ganymede would look like — some kind of machine, maybe, though Pascal sharing Bastion’s love for nature means an actual bird of some kind would be viable.

As for Ramattra, one of the adorable Stubbies would be a perfect fit. Specifically, the form-changing Medium-Quadruped, which takes advantage of Ramattra’s signature mechanic. The dome-shaped head would be adorable to see in Overwatch’s art style, and though some liberties would have to be taken to come up with a design for Ramattra’s staff, a NieR-inspired look likely wouldn’t have been too difficult for Blizzard to think up. It’s unclear why there were no machine skins in this collab, especially with a minor character like Commander White being represented. A super cute look for Bastion or Ramattra would have really tied the collab together and taken full advantage of the NieR IP instead of just honing in on the androids.

Even With This Missed Opportunity, Overwatch’s NieR Collab is a Win

While it would have been nice to see some machine love when it comes to the skins (and maybe even an event mode or special challenges to spice up the crossover), what’s there is still very good. Vendetta’s A2 skin is cool enough that some players will likely consider learning a melee hero just to use it, while Mercy’s deep-cut cosmetic looks nice even if someone has no attachment to NieR. The earnable Emil charm is a fun bonus reward to chase, too, similar to the Morgana charm offered alongside Overwatch’s Persona 5 skins. Ultimately, though it really would have been great to see Overwatch’s omnics doing some NieR cosplay of their own, there’s plenty to appreciate about the content that players actually got.