Well, Blizzard’s surprise has been spoiled. Late last night, a YouTuber named Kuriboh cervantes uploaded a video revealing Overwatch 2‘s newest hero, Kiriko. The company tried cracking down on the content, an unfinished animated short that gives a bit of backstory to who Kiriko is and shows off some of her abilities, but it’s too already late. The cinematic is easily findable online.
Read More: Overwatch 2 Will Replace The Original, Making It Unplayable In October
Overwatch 2 is Blizzard’s upcoming hero shooter. Replacing the OG game wholesale, the sequel has already redefined what Overwatch is, with the biggest change being its free-to-play model. Of course, a new game means new characters, and Overwatch 2 has made a few roster additions in the form of Sojourn (the game’s first playable Black woman) and Junker Queen, a Mad Max-looking tank. New heroes will get added periodically, unlocked through the new battle pass, a total departure from how you’d normally gain access to Overwatch characters via free updates.
One of those heroes is Kiriko, a support hero Blizzard accidentally revealed earlier this week in a now-deleted section of Overwatch 2‘s $US40 ($56) Watchpoint Pack that includes skins, virtual in-game currency, a few Season 1 Premium battle pass tiers, and automatic access to Kiriko when she joins the game.
While Blizzard was trying to remove all mention of Kiriko from Overwatch 2‘s marketing materials, in came Kuriboh cervantes with the unfinished animated short for the character. Uploaded in Spanish with still-in-progress renders, the cinematic shows the green-haired fox hero strutting around her home estate, using sign language to chat with what could be her younger sister before “face kicking” this game’s Yakuza, the Hashimoto clan. She fights with two kunai, appears to have a healing ability, and can seemingly teleport freely around the environment. Towards the end of the fight sequence, Kiriko activates some ghostly torii gates that appear to buff the abilities of herself and her allies. I’m imagining some kinda amalgam of Lucio, Moira, and Tracer, and that sounds hella annoying to deal with.
Blizzard has since copyright claimed the video, but you can totally find it elsewhere online. As PC Gamer has pointed out, a password-protected mirror version is currently watchable on Daily Motion. If you’re wondering what the password is, it’s simply “overwatch.” I know, so original, right? (It’s worth noting, though, that the password appears to have changed very recently.)
Overwatch 2 New Hero Kiriko 🦊⛩️
※Source: https://t.co/6kJ4d0HTaB pic.twitter.com/WOjZHh2TWk
— Naeri X 나에리 (@OverwatchNaeri) September 8, 2022
Kotaku has reached out to Blizzard for comment.
Read More: Blizzard Asks Overwatch Players If They’d Pay $US45 ($62) For A Skin
Blizzard has been on some damage control lately, and not because it’s facing another lawsuit. No, instead the company’s “addressing some incomplete info” it’s been posting about Overwatch 2. Namely, the game’s commercial leader John Spector clarified on Twitter that heroes in the sequel will be available on the free track of the battle pass, meaning you can likely either pay directly to unlock them or grind for hours to gain access to the new slate of characters coming to the game. Bummer.
Overwatch 2 lands on October 4 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox consoles.
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