Overwatch 2’s new hero Ramattra was a long time coming for Blizzard

Overwatch’s latest hero had a long journey coming to Overwatch 2, no less than from the angle of when gamers first noticed him — three-and-half years in the past, throughout the authentic sport’s Storm Rising occasion — to when he was lastly launched final week. Like many heroes in Blizzard’s shooter, the new tank hero Ramattra is a assortment of concepts that took a long time to gel.

The hero’s prolonged gestation can also be the results of the Overwatch group desirous to seed Easter eggs and hints of what’s to return, even when the payoff is years sooner or later.

“It takes us a long time to create a hero on Overwatch actually,” artwork director Dion Sanders instructed Polygon in a latest interview. “Especially as we get more and more heroes, it does take a while.” But Ramattra was “pretty important to the ongoing narrative of the game,” Sanders stated, noting “we have to, you know, release some when the time feels right.”

Ramattra dates again to 2017, when Blizzard artists had been designing Null Sector models. One lieutenant character from that group, a monk-like determine holding a employees, stood out from the group, based on lead idea artist Qiu Fang. The sand-based powers of these Egyptian-inspired robots ultimately developed into nanites, which give Ramattra his powers.

Compounding the prolonged improvement of Ramattra was his sophisticated character, each by way of his gameplay mechanics and his narrative design. Ramattra performs in two totally different types — Omnic and Nemesis — bringing technical issues and double the work for the Overwatch artwork group, just like two-in-one heroes like D.Va and Ashe (and BOB).

Ramattra’s twin nature in matches of Overwatch 2 are a reflection of his persona, stated lead hero designer Alec Dawson.

“When you look at him mechanically, we want to capture this hero that has [two] sides to him, in terms of what he’s willing to do to protect his people,” Dawson stated. “[Ramattra] can be a bit more calm or reserved, and you see that with him putting out his shield barrier [and] poking from afar. And then when he transforms, when he goes into his Nemesis form, you see a different side of him. You see some of that force coming out — what he’s actually capable of.”

On paper, Ramattra’s talents sound scary, doubtlessly meta-breaking. He can change between two types, giving him two units of offensive and defensive capabilities, he can pierce obstacles, and his Ravenous Vortex capacity will disrupt flying enemies like Pharah, Echo, and Mercy. He pairs properly with a Lucio or a Kiriko who may give him a velocity burst. But he’s additionally extremely vulnerable to counters like Ana’s sleep dart or being flanked whereas in Nemesis type. Using him successfully takes talent.

“With Ramattra’s gameplay, we’re really focusing on some of the skill elements, [like] when to capitalize and turn the tide of battle,” Dawson stated. “There’s a lot of focus on transforming to Nemesis, pushing forward into the enemy backline, and making sure all of that’s [happening at] the right moment. You have a lot at your disposal, but the focus is still on when exactly to transform, when exactly to engage with your whole team together, and being that leader in front.”

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, lead narrative designer and author for Overwatch, stated his writing for Ramattra’s again story and ongoing narrative comes “from the sort of fascination I’ve had in my career with the interactions between machine and human intelligence,” subjects he’s explored in Wasteland 3, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and Horizon Zero Dawn.

“You have this character who was created to hunt and ultimately kill humans in the Omnic crisis, that was his sole purpose,” Jurgens-Fyhrie stated. “He gained awareness when he woke up, so to speak, in New York and was forced to confront […] what he’d done during the Omnic Crisis — basically he’d lead countless Omnics to their deaths. These are Omnics that would never know awareness like he does, and this is something that drives him. It’s something that haunts him.”

As instructed in a just lately launched “Reflections” brief story for Ramattra, the Omnic Ravager goes to Shambali to study below the monk Mondatta, however experiences one thing of a second awakening. “He wanted to find his place in the world, to answer those questions like What’s my purpose?” Jurgens-Fyhrie stated, “but also to understand how could he atone? How could he make the world better for Omnics, who are a finite race? We saw him try, and we saw the world fail him. Not only is humanity not making the same effort from his point of view, but a lot of the Ravagers — his Omnic model type — are dead. So we have someone who is no longer trying to make peace with humanity. He believes it’s impossible. And in fact, he believes it’s dangerous to seek peace with humanity.”

Image: Sylvain Decaux/Blizzard Entertainment

Sanders stated that gamers shouldn’t consider Ramattra as a villain, however an “antagonist.” Jurgens-Fyhrie added that gamers could discover themselves agreeing philosophically with the Omnic accountable for all that loss of life and destruction.

Players will get extra dribs and drabs of Ramattra’s story and persona in his interactions with fellow Omnic Zenyatta — and fellow engineer Wrecking Ball — in Overwatch 2, and gamers will be capable of take in a few of Ramattra’s narrative path to Shambali once they climb the map of the identical identify. But Jurgens-Fyhrie stated that Blizzard is “not done telling the story about Ramattra and Zenyatta by a longshot.”

As for what’s subsequent for Overwatch 2 heroes, Jurgens-Fyhrie famous that “we’ve already said that we’re teasing a future hero based on some stuff in [Esperança, the Portugal-set map]” and hinted at voice traces within the sport’s New York map containing some clues. Hopefully, for Overwatch 2 gamers hungry for extra heroes to play, they gained’t take as long to return round as Ramattra.