Overwatch 2 Releases Animated Short for New Hero, Kiriko

A new animated short for Overwatch 2 reveals more about Kiriko’s life and powers and it’s a bit of a tearjerker. The Overwatch series has made a lot of fans simply from its beautifully made animated shorts. This has allowed Blizzard to add more backstory to some beloved heroes, expand the lore of the world, and just allow people to enjoy something even if they aren’t overly familiar with the games. They’re entertaining on their own merit and are almost akin to those incredibly well-made shorts at the start of a Pixar film. The latest short only proves that and doubles down on the strengths of the animation medium.

During TwitchCon, Blizzard released a new short about Overwatch 2‘s latest hero, Kiriko. The hero is a young woman in the support class who can heal allies. All of her powers are expertly demonstrated in this new short which sees her returning to her apartment with donuts and encountering a maintenance worker with his deaf granddaughter. Her mother than ambushes her with concerns about the location of her apartment. Loan sharks then attack the old maintenance worker, prompting Kiriko to jump into action. She uses her throwables, agility, and teleportation skills to make quick work of her foes, even using her healing abilities to revive the maintenance worker after he gets shot. It has great action and beautiful character work, so if you’re a fan of Overwatch 2 (or just like animated shorts), it’s certainly worth giving a watch!

Overwatch 2 has had a bit of a rough week outside of this short. The game launched and was immediately hit with a DDoS attack and has been plagued by some controversial choices. One of the biggest issues has been the requirement of a phone number to sign in as a way to prevent cheaters from making new accounts if they get banned. This requirement has been lifted for those who had a Battle.net account prior to the release of Overwatch 2, but new players will still need one. Blizzard is still working to ensure stability with the game, but some players are having problems still.

What do you think of Overwatch 2? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.