Neon Genesis Evangelion characters join the Goddess of Victory: NIKKE playable roster on August 22

Developer Shift Up has announced that the latest crossover event planned for its shooter-RPG Goddess of Victory: NIKKE will see characters from the classic Neon Genesis Evangelion anime franchise join the game's playable roster. The event launches on August 22, 2024.

Shift Up promoted the coming crossover, which is titled "You Can (Not) Evade," with a new animated trailer.

NIKKE x Evangelion Crossover Trailer

The trailer begins by emulating the visual style and title cards used in Evangelion episodes. It also paid homage to the Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 film by recreating the attack of the Angel Ramiel, the octahedron entity that attempted to destroy Tokyo-3 with a massive beam weapon. The Evangelion characters Asuka Langley, Rei Ayanami, and Mari Makinami are seen donning their familiar plugsuit uniforms and picking up less familiar firearms. Their commander Misato is also present, though it is unconfirmed if she'll be playable. From the NIKKE cast, characters like Rapi, Anis, and Neon show up, alongside newer characters like Ein, Marciana, Zwei, and Rei.

In promotional posts, Shift Up confirmed that both Asuka, Rei, and Mari and Rei will be added to the playable roster, obtainable via a special gacha banner. Though their weapon types are not confirmed as of this writing, from the promo video, Asuka is likely to be an Assault Rifle unit, while Rei will likely be a Machine Gun or Rocket Launcher unit. Mari may be a Sniper Rifle unit. Leaks from data miners on social media also confirmed that all three characters will have multiple costumes available to acquire. Historically, NIKKE has attached costumes to a battle pass-like system with a separate purchase, as well as through a separate, limited gacha-style prize roulette.

The Evangelion crossover is NIKKE's fifth crossover event. The first event involved the Chainsaw Man anime adaptation, while the second added characters from NieR: Automata, including crossover queen 2B. The third event added characters from the Re:Zero anime series, while the fourth crossover was more of a mini-event coinciding with the game's summer seasonal festivities. That crossover added a minigame and costumes based on Dave the Diver.

NIKKE is available on iOS, Android, and PC. The Evangelion crossover event launches on August 22, 2024.