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I think my issue is that Wuyang isn't WuXia campy enough.

Cassidy is utter cowboy spaghetti western camp, Cass looks entirely out era in a scifi setting with meta camp: from BAMF buckle, to cigar stern stare, to action combat roll, fanning the hammer, pocket sand stun, and ridiculous tumbleweed highnoon ult. Not to mention he looks like Clint Eastwood with the shawl:

THAT'S what makes Cassidy an "oddball" and thus fitting into overwatch's universe.

Wuyang is much too tame a design/kit for how campy WuXia can get, and I think they should have really dug into the fun of the genre more for Wuyang's kit and design!

I presume this version (1983) was the inspiration the crew refered to?

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Preface: I absolutely feel for the writer, and I hope he genuinely finds healing because (if you haven't read the note he left) it is a very rough thing to go through as a child. Conditional love and trying to live up to accedemic excellence in a "child of an immigrant" household with high expectations is very hard to live through. Not the same culture ofc, but I've been through it as a child of an immigrant myself, and I have seen it in my family and in friend's families and I know for a fact I am LUCKY that my full effort (learning is a passion of mine, I genuinely love it, I have many special interests) got me A's and top of my class. Because if I didn't get As? My life would be VERY different. And that's scary.

I suppose my issue with Wuyang's story comes from the fact Wuyang's story doesn't feel... hopeful. What is his core motivation? To "prove himself"? Wuyang genuinely tries his best, tries to be resourceful, and THATS what makes him a hero. ...But his motivation to do all this, is fueled by shame. Shame pushes him to be a hero...? Which is a horrible outlook on education or any major life choices. Learning should be a PASSION, not a grind for approval just to avoid rejection. Living up to societal expectations in a situation that throws you aside due to "average" performance... is not hopeful. It's rooted in ableism.

A rudolph the rednosed reindeer story is NOT uplifting. If being "average" is bad because "excellence" is deemed the only acceptable answer, it is ableism. Wuyang shouldn't have to prove himself. He's not a burden for trying his hardest. The real issue is the system that makes him think that way. Which then compounds that China in overwatch thus far has been portrayed cartoonishly "evil villain" with Lucheng and the Lunar Colony, scientists torturing animals and the lead woman Hammond faced. Hierarchy, conditional love, apathy. It is different from say, Vishkar where it is a commentary on corporate overreach rather than inherently Indian culture. China in overwatch is: Mei the climatologist saving Juno bc the Chinese company abandoned innocents and tortures space animals, and Wuxing university that puts harsh standards on students and the community around Wuxing shames students for anything but excellence.

Look at Symmetra's story-- her trying to live up to perfect standards of excellence in a society she had to "prove her worth in" was shown to be unhealthy and WRONG. She is still struggling to let go of the propaganda, but hopefully LifeWeaver can convince Symmetra to join the Atlantic Arcology.

Obviously we have to wait for Wuyang's full story to come out, but if he doesn't get an arc where he learns chasing conditional love is unhealthy, that's bleak. Really bleak. Wuyang deserves to meet someone who loves him unconditionally! For goodness sake, he's a DOCTOR IN SCHOOL, that's ridiculous that his story is saying Wuyang ought to 'prove himself'.

The way the motion comic portrayed Wuyang's story, it portrayed a "you're average? just try harder" as a heroic thing? It ignores the root issue of the unhealthy pressures, and Wuyang is basically like "haha. Very funny..." while everyone gives him a hard time. It genuinely makes me sad for Wuyang, get him into a place he can find love man lol. With stories like Winston, Bastion, Genji, Hazard, Symmetra, etc. Overwatch has stated found family matters, and sometimes blood family isn't worth trying to "earn your place" in.

I am going to wait until the official release of Wuyang so we have access to his lore page before I make my full critiques.

But. If this is a WUXING college set IN CHINA, why do the elemental colleges have incorrect Wuxing element colors?

In Wuxing, Fire is Red, Earth is Yellow, Water is BLACK, and Metal is WHITE, and WOOD is blue/green (NOT Water).

There's no problem with Wuyang having blues in his design as a water support hero, but his Wuxing Water college uniform indicator ought to be the correct color (Black Water) imo. It makes zero sense for the Water college to be represented by the Wood color.

I could MAYBE pass off Metal as a shiny light silver instead of dark grey, and yeah the fire being red is right, but that fits Western color associations. :/

Wuyang's lore, specifically world building, feels really uninspired and Westernized atm. If they wanted to do a "modern Westernized spin!" on a dead religion like Greek mythos, I could give some room, but Wuxing and Taoism are active belief systems believed by millions today. The Wuxing college feels really disingenuous and I imagine many Chinese players will see this and go "huh???" because the basics are inaccurate. The Wuxing technology doesn't follow Wuxing principles, it feels like a hogwarts set in China, or Avatar elements (which are based on the Greek humors western alchemy, not Chinese Wuxing eastern alchemy).

In Wuxing philosophy, there is no "one superior element" over others, every element checks eachother and balances. It makes no sense that Fire is the best grades and Water is the lowest grades. It makes zero sense for only one element to do martial arts, and it makes zero sense for the Water college to have no martial arts combat utility. I could understand that maybe the Wuxing tech itself might not be combat focused, but each college should be studying martial arts and be able to fight lol. Also, even if you did want to seperate the Elements into studies, why are there no arts? Music and Poetry are important studies in the cultivation genre, no?

Plus the Wood and Earth colleges seem completely reversed theming from my understanding? Civil engineering (city planning) and Enviormental engineering (managing pollution) are more so Earth element associated because of the absorbing qualities of Earth (avoid pollution) and geomancy of Feng shui (city design). You change the earth to build cities, no?

And while the Wood element is not litterally wood, it is the essence of growing, I would imagine a focus on growing things is pretty wood element, no? Creating a bountiful harvest and generous with resources, growing to meet demands, ensuring future growth through sustainable growing practices? Idk man I don't know Wuxing in depth but even I can tell something feels off about the way the Wuxing colleges are presented in lore.

When I saw "Wuxing college" in the description, I thought it hinted that Wuyang would be a WuXia or XianXia genre reference, or even a Gong fu cinema reference, just like how Cass is a spaghetti western cowboy movie ref. But nope, ig not. Wuxing just seems like superficial flavor text for flamethrower implants/fire spears that students get at a Avatar-hogwarts in China.

There's a plethora of Chinese fiction to be inspired by, idk why they didn't do a deep dive and make Wuyang an iconic ref, like how Cassidy or Winston etc is a take on iconic media.

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I am going to wait until the official release of Wuyang so we have access to his lore page before I make my full critiques.

But. If this is a WUXING college set IN CHINA, why do the elemental colleges have incorrect Wuxing element colors?

In Wuxing, Fire is Red, Earth is Yellow, Water is BLACK, and Metal is WHITE, and WOOD is blue/green (NOT Water).

There's no problem with Wuyang having blues in his design as a water support hero, but his Wuxing Water college uniform indicator ought to be the correct color (Black Water) imo. It makes zero sense for the Water college to be represented by the Wood color.

I could MAYBE pass off Metal as a shiny light silver instead of dark grey, and yeah the fire being red is right, but that fits Western color associations. :/

Wuyang's lore, specifically world building, feels really uninspired and Westernized atm. If they wanted to do a "modern Westernized spin!" on a dead religion like Greek mythos, I could give some room, but Wuxing and Taoism are active belief systems believed by millions today. The Wuxing college feels really disingenuous and I imagine many Chinese players will see this and go "huh???" because the basics are inaccurate. The Wuxing technology doesn't follow Wuxing principles, it feels like a hogwarts set in China, or Avatar elements (which are based on the Greek humors western alchemy, not Chinese Wuxing eastern alchemy).

In Wuxing philosophy, there is no "one superior element" over others, every element checks eachother and balances. It makes no sense that Fire is the best grades and Water is the lowest grades. It makes zero sense for only one element to do martial arts, and it makes zero sense for the Water college to have no martial arts combat utility. I could understand that maybe the Wuxing tech itself might not be combat focused, but each college should be studying martial arts and be able to fight lol. Also, even if you did want to seperate the Elements into studies, why are there no arts? Music and Poetry are important studies in the cultivation genre, no?

Plus the Wood and Earth colleges seem completely reversed theming from my understanding? Civil engineering (city planning) and Enviormental engineering (managing pollution) are more so Earth element associated because of the absorbing qualities of Earth (avoid pollution) and geomancy of Feng shui (city design). You change the earth to build cities, no?

And while the Wood element is not litterally wood, it is the essence of growing, I would imagine a focus on growing things is pretty wood element, no? Creating a bountiful harvest and generous with resources, growing to meet demands, ensuring future growth through sustainable growing practices? Idk man I don't know Wuxing in depth but even I can tell something feels off about the way the Wuxing colleges are presented in lore.

When I saw "Wuxing college" in the description, I thought it hinted that Wuyang would be a WuXia or XianXia genre reference, or even a Gong fu cinema reference, just like how Cass is a spaghetti western cowboy movie ref. But nope, ig not. Wuxing just seems like superficial flavor text for flamethrower implants/fire spears that students get at a Avatar-hogwarts in China.

There's a plethora of Chinese fiction to be inspired by, idk why they didn't do a deep dive and make Wuyang an iconic ref, like how Cassidy or Winston etc is a take on iconic media.

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Overwatch give me Greece lore already, what has the country faced and how is it doing after the omnic crisis,,, ilios has been a map since DAY ONE, yet it's been a decade and we are getting an Italian Tank hero and a Turkish Emre(support?) as a hero in game, before even ONE Greek hero has been mentioned in lore???? ;_;

(Athena does not count, she is ai and doesn't even have a Greek accent)

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I keep thinking I'm being a little hater because new stuff for series I follow isn't really interesting/gripping to me, then I look back at old stuff and I'm like, yeah.... the old stuff was better crafted, more polished. Not nostalgia talking, it just had more dev time probably, and it's not a cash grab sequel.

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Hey so I had no idea Level 5 was using Genai????? :( I would have never purchased Fantasy Life i if I had known, Level 5 was the last company I expected to do this. (FLi is also a complete disappointment of a game compared to the original 3ds game, it plays like a different game but with Fantasy Life aesthetics. I will be sticking to my for-SURE no gen-ai use 3ds game that actually has polish, fun progression, and a lovingly crafted world, thank you.)

I think it's important for consumers to be informed before purchase. For me, even if Fantasy Life i doesn't use genai, I wouldn't want to financially support a company that does use genai with purchases.

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It’s sorta niche, but I drew Yuelia from Fantasy Life

I’m part of an FL zine that’s celebrating the release of the sequel in October, and it’s like my favorite game so how could I not join in LOL

I sketched this so I could have an idea how to incorporate my style and the FL style together

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...I might be stupid. I never got into MMOs so I never looked into what World of Warcraft was all about. I finally checked it out and let's just say I am SHOCKED that Overwatch is as respectful as it currently is, compared to WoW's treatment of cultures. WoW has full on bigoted stereotypes. Taurens, Trolls, Goblins... This means my naive assumption of that it was ignorance of global cultures for certain heroes was wrong, and the bad stereotypes are done on PURPOSE, just like how it's done in WoW. Looking at WoW, no wonder they wanted to make Junkrat indigenous Australian in the concepts. Reinhardt is an unacceptable stereotype, and it's absolutely purposeful. Cass as a confederate flag wearing self insert cowboy makes complete sense when looking at WoW. Of COURSE Ramattra is written as the villain if you look at WoW. Then you get stereotypes like Tracer, and YES she's a stereotype but it's camp!!!! not outright offensive, and even a very fun subversion (A pilot poster girl who is also a pilot poster girl). But Pharah? Absolutely rancid stereotype (stereotypical Egyptian nose and hair + middle eastern bomber stereotype 'justice rains from above' bs (especially since she is based on ironman, it feels extra bad if you know ironman lore) + 'warchief' stereotype as seen in WoW + for some reason's she's a Helix "skycop" (warcrimes for hire) when that makes no sense for her character, etc.)

Any rewrite I do would drastically change aspects to curb more towards a Tracer kind of camp and not a bigoted stereotype. ie: Reinhardt would NOT be named Reinhardt NOR would crusader armor be called crusader armor lmafo. And especially with the Kiriko norse skin that had a NAZI SYMBOL IN IT'S DESIGN ON RELEASE (that was later changed), I give no excuses for this bullshit. No idea why Overwatch can't place a focus on 'being a hero while playing your favorite heroes!' for the ip. The mercy charity was awesome, why not have more charity events that match heroes? Like Sojourn for autoimmune charity, Bastion for eco conservation charity, etc? I want more cases like Illari where a global playerbase gets to see unique cultures around the globe and gets to see their language and cultures represented decently. I think it's awesome that Quechua is being actively voiced and preserved in this game. Now, meanwhile Lucio took forever to get Portuguese lines and has botched Portuguese, and Zarya has botched Russian from my understanding. Mercy doesn't speak with the right accent. Mauga has botched pronunciations on his voice lines. You would think with how much they brag about the cultural aspects they would actually get it right....? Not to mention the white washing in sprays and skins. Why does Overwatch have to stagnate when the world building could be a project that is profitable AND does ACTUAL good? Why not make overwatch be a part of an optimistic future? Why is it that the writers don't know the freaking ages characters ought to be? Kiriko is still way too young, Sojourn had to be retconned to be older, Freja was supposedly 28 before being changed to 34. And I will be honest Freja's vibes are more so 28 so!!!! My feelings about Hazard being 31 makes more sense especially given the ages of omnics (it ruins his story of being born after the crisis though). Why is it that WoW can get PVE level cinematics for npcs, but not release in game asset cinematics for main Overwatch heroes? The cell shading style does not look that great and using in game assets would make more sense. Hell, I would prefer the Junkrat style sfm cinematic because atleast it's more expressive. idk. If I had known what WoW was like, I probably wouldn't have gotten so invested into Overwatch considering Reinhardt is just... an awful stereotype if it was done on purpose (it most likely was). Pharah too. Roadhog too. Mauga too. LifeWeaver too. etc. What I saw naively as culturally ignorant writing choices, are intentional stereotypes.

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Freja is officially 34, born September 6th!

https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/heroes/freja/

The omnic crisis started 28 years ago (canon seen in the codex) in Overwatch 2. Freja current day HAS to be older than 28 because she was born prior to the first omnic crisis.

The comic portrays child Freja older than toddler stage, but still rather small. Let's say at MINIMUM she has to be 5 here in the comic (a stretch imo, she looks older, because she is above half the height of her mom in standing shots.)

28+5 is 33, so mid 30s to late 30s for Freja is a good range. 34 to 37 is my best guess for Freja's age as of now. When she releases next season we will get her age and birthday.

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Ngl I hope the Gladiator tank gets an omnic skin or armor skins because a design like Titus would have been so cool for a Gladiator! Would add a lot to lore too, like imagine it as a foil to JunkerQueen in that Titus (or an adjacent omnic design) is fighting against Real Steel Vr controlled units, being the only real omnic in the fight against human players or something?

I hope new heroes going forward are not only "attractive young human" designs because. Tbh people don't play overwatch for conventional designs, they play for the fun and outlandish and imaginative twists on old archetypes. Not to mention, we only have Bastion, Zenyatta, and Ramattra as sapient awakened omnic characters. Orisa and Echo are nonsapient ai. We have yet to have a real look into 'civilian' omnics on the roster. (Closest is Reggie and Claire from PVE lol)

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Ngl kinda getting pissed off at official overwatch art getting facial features and skin tones wrong. There is a new kpop art as an example, it ignores a lot of distinct facial features for characters and no "art style" isn't an excuse when you make Illari and Mercy have similar facial structure. :/

On one hand: the spite in me is compelling me to make a character ref sheet for each character

On the other: why isn't there a ref sheet already with flats for base skin tones, iris colors, etc, and can they just get someone to color the sprays CORRECTLY because if I see another overwatch character's skin tone lightened in sprays... Baptiste you deserve so much better. The eyedropper tool is not hard to use.

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i know this topic has been done to death but omg hazard is such a meh design. everyday i think about what kind of gameplay we could have gotten if they went with these concepts

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I am pretty hyped for Aqua. Based on Gavin saying Aqua has a weapon from "older games" and how the staff has pen-like ends, and that there is Hànzì (Chinese characters) in the corner of his concept art that is a poetic saying about water, I am guessing Aqua will have a calligraphy style weapon! Having a water hero be "ink" based is really cool imo. I bet Aqua might write out characters for different boons or something? Maybe Lucio style gameplay where you switch between modes? I also hope Aqua is from a different part of China than Mei, so that different aspects of Chinese culture and language can be shown. I am also curious how Aqua's tech works. Maybe he is from a new faction that uses hydrokinesis technology, or maybe it is hard light used in a way we haven't seen before? He looks like he has cybernetic implants to control the water.

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The omnic crisis started 28 years ago (canon seen in the codex) in Overwatch 2. Freja current day HAS to be older than 28 because she was born prior to the first omnic crisis.

The comic portrays child Freja older than toddler stage, but still rather small. Let's say at MINIMUM she has to be 5 here in the comic (a stretch imo, she looks older, because she is above half the height of her mom in standing shots.)

28+5 is 33, so mid 30s to late 30s for Freja is a good range. 34 to 37 is my best guess for Freja's age as of now. When she releases next season we will get her age and birthday.

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First bit: So why did Overwatch allow a mispronounced "Emre Sarioglu" in the comic reading. For a character that is important to Freja's lore you would think they would get Emre's full name right… :< or maybe it was the music being too loud? But Sarioglu was mispronounced as far as I can hear. Like... just take the few minutes to learn how to pronounce the name??? It's not hard.

My thoughts on Freja:

Her visual design doesn't fit her character with the nonsense fanservice genshin impact style outfit (her arteries and heart are shown… she is a bounty hunter from a frigid area? Where is her armor like Cass and Ana lol.), she should have had like… a circular blade copter jetpack to tie into her search-and-rescue past with a 'perch turkey hunter' twist, or at least have a batman style cape that acts like a hang glider to tie into her wind motif instead of a…. high-fantasy cape? Like it looks cool, but it isn't very 'overwatch' because there isn't enough of a tech focus. And if they wanted to go the magical route, at least give her a proper Freja mythos falcon feather veil (but techy, so like hard light or something)? I was surprised her necklace had nothing to do with her lore as it looks like a glowy rune AND both Freja and "GEFN" in Norse mythos have stories about Loki trying to steal her necklace. As of now, Freja is veering too close to Illari's silhouette for my liking (plus the 'woven' visual motif would have much better fit Solar threading for Illari imo), and her head features are not distinct enough to not look like a Widow or Ashe skin from afar. Her face is like a combo of Brigitte and Widow ig? They should have maybe given her an eyebrow scar or something to tie back to her history in the omnic crisis (would have been cool to have the blue symbol over a scared portion of her face). I am sure Freja will get a more so tactical skin that better fits her someday, but I think her base visual design was a miss. I DO like her hair and her distinct accent. I was worried she may sound too close to Brigitte (Freja's effort sounds sound similar) but the accent chosen works great and her tone fits the serious bounty hunter archetype. She looks better in more tactical gear as seen in the comic read out video. I did notice one thing, the belts on Lara Croft's design are the same areas that Freja has a boob window and thigh highs, so maybe it's a stylization? Freja does feel kind of like Overwatch's take on a "Lara Croft" archetype, and I honestly really like the idea of her being a bounty hunter instead of tomb raider.

Gameplay wise she's pretty… simple? And unless I was shown a guide on her skirting roof angles infinitely, I wouldn't have guessed that was her play style. She's like… mechanically Pharah movement but with a Tracer movement mindset, in that her movement is her "interaction" with the environment. I can't say it's really all that exciting beyond the cool cinematic moments of the slowed down scoped shot. She doesn't interact with her environment like widow (mine/grapple launch/team wall hacks) or Ashe (dynamite/coach gun boops you and others/BOB launch) or Hanzo (sonic arrow, wall climb, dragon) unless you get the Freja perk that slows enemies. She has a much simpler kit than Sojourn in that regard, but with more mobility skill ceiling. Even then, I think high mobility 'as the heroes interaction' focused characters work better when grounded horizontally (Tracer, Reaper, etc) OR you have to have some kind of interaction with the environment (Genji deflect and wall climb, even fliers like Pharah interact with the environment via boops, or Echo with sticky bombs and versatile ult). As of now, I honestly think double jump could have been Freja's dash key instead of shift. She doesn't really have any "wind" powers beyond her upward jump. Illari boops feels more "windy" than Freja's kit. I was expecting a wind gust cc ability or something? Her bolas ult also isn't really what I think of when I think of bolas (I would expect it to hit a target and slow a target over time, damaging those around the target into a final KER-KLUNK marble clackers burst damage to all in the AOE to match her scoped shot double hit, not be a tracer bomb with a hinder), but it's a decent ult. Her scoped fire is also what I would rework one shots into, a chunk of damage, then a burst damage or DOT. So idk… I feel they could have cooked a BIT more on her kit? bc her scoped shot is literally what I want Hanzo and Widow one shots to be as to meld better into teamplay.

Also whoever is saying "they want less visual clutter" is lying 100%. Freja launches a whole arrow in you that covers part of the screen. Her ult has a bunch of effects. Hazard also has visual clutter, so does Juno. Mei can definitely have a Frozone style perk, because both Venture and Ashe have to look down to use abilities. Saying visual clutter/not wanting players to look down is not a valid excuse.

Not to mention, I will not trust anyone that says they made the skin basic because they wanted to "preserve the silhouette" when Toxic Venture skin has NO jacket and NO goggles, yet the Avatar collab refused to change Venture's goggles and hair to better match Toph. Same with the OPM Kiriko skin… we had Kriko skins that changed the silhouette out already so. Just admit the budget wasn't there. It's not laziness by the devs, it's mismanagement forcing this, but don't tell obvious lies. People can see through it.

Story wise for Freja: idk why there is discourse, she's meant to be an anti-villain where she did good things for the wrong reasons (thrill of the hunt, to feel useful) and ended up just as corrupt as the "few bad people" she blamed for Overwatch's downfall. As an ex-overwatch agent she knows omnics are sapient yet she STILL chooses to be anti-omnic. The writing was done in such a way where the viewer can empathize with Freja and understand how she came to these incorrect conclusions (she was a child who was traumatized by the first omnic crisis and saw tons of death), without it feeling like Overwatch's narrative is actually endorsing Freja's viewpoint. Freja is a very biased narrator, painting herself as a good person that was abandoned by everyone just because a few bad people ruined it all ("just a few bad apples" is very copaganda-y), and I like that the writing respects the audience's ability to discern Freja is NOT a good person. I also like that Overwatch is exploring more of Overwatch's corruption. Like finally, an anti-villain with no excuses, she instead personally rationalizes away her responsibility with bs logic--THIS is why Overwatch fell. Not just the outright corrupt people, but the people that were complacent. Emre saw Overwatch's malpractice and left, but Freja stayed and kept her head down. (Most likely rationalizing the civilian deaths because her mom had to make hard decisions during the first omnic crisis. But this isn't the first crisis anymore, and Freja knows that.) Freja should not have stayed and kept quiet. She should have left, or whistle blown. But she didn't and she rationalizes this to make it out like she's the 'good guy' everyone turned on. As a viewer you SHOULD be uncomfortable and dislike Freja's outlook of things, that is the response the writing is intending. You are not meant to root for Freja, you should dislike her.

I am curious about where the story with Emre will go, as well as Freja's views on Genji considering that one hero trailer showed that she grouped Genji up with the omnics. Why does she dislike him? Is it because he was involved with blackwatch? or is it because he is a cyborg? What about Sojourn, they must have interacted right? What does she think about members that told the truth about overwatch like Sojourn, is she bitter about that? I want Moira to roast Freja for essentially becoming Widow without any brainwashing needed lol. And I would love to hear Ashe roast Freja for being anti-omnic. I also wonder if Freja will try to go after LifeWeaver because he has a bounty on him…