10 Video Game Genre Flips That Blew Our MIND

Video games often seem like a simple relationship to most players, where gamers have the needs, and developers supply the goods. 

You’re a fan of first-person shooters? You’re going to need your annual FPS fix (e.g., CoD). Fan of hack-and-slash? God of War has you covered. American football? Buy Madden. Want to explore the dating scene as a red-cheeked Japanese high school girl right out of an Anime? Well… you’re definitely a niche gamer, but there’s plenty on Steam and PSN to keep you satisfied.

It’s a transactional relationship that most developers wouldn’t dare betray - risk doing so, and they'll face the wrath of many an angry gamer via forums or classy review-bombing. Yet… sometimes a developer does have the guts to subvert expectations and stray from the norm.

In theory, it shouldn’t work - and more often than not, it doesn’t. But this list explores the exceptions to the rule: when a studio had an out-of-the-box concept, pulled off the daring feat, and somehow made it back at breakfast time for a smoked kipper.

You can always count on game director Yoko Taro to scoff at genre conventions. His high-fantasy ARPG Drakengard 3 sucker-punched players by shifting from a conventional Dynasty Warriors/God of War-style hybrid to a rhythm-game-based final boss battle. Meanwhile, the original Nier briefly switched genres so often it sometimes felt like it was doing it just for giggles.

Now let’s look at his arguable masterpiece, Nier: Automata. Not only does it represent the pinnacle of his work so far, it’s also his most relentless and erratic in terms of genre shifting. Just consider this list: action RPG hack-and-slash, bullet hell, on-rails shooter, 2D side-scroller, top-down twin-stick shooter, and text adventure - this game jumps through all of those genres… within the first hour!

To its credit, the game does calm down afterwards, settling into a third-person action-exploration core with unique offshoots at specific moments. And as scattershot as that all sounds, it somehow all works thanks to the glue that holds it together: a compelling, fascinating, and emotionally gruelling storyline about a central duo of androids attempting to find their humanity in the middle of a bleak, pointless conflict.

Without that central core, it could have easily felt like developer-level trolling. But paired with PlatinumGames’ trademark action mechanics, Taro instead delivered one of the essential games of that console era.