>>723668037
The DLC's flesh them out well enough. The problem with the series is that all of the dod and nier games need you to read their side material to really get the characters and plot.

>>723668290
>I've been told to get the full Automata experience you need to watch stage plays?
Automata is a sequel to a stageplay called YoRHa that came out in 2012 and has had a bunch of different stage versions since then (and a manga version). The game has an optional text story segment that goes over the abridged events of the play. I would say to watch "YoRHa 1.2" if you can but it's not easy to find and 99.9% of automata fans have never watched any of the plays or even know they exist.