During TwitchCon 2022, Blizzard debuted the film.
Although Kiriko and Overwatch 2 both went live earlier this week, Blizzard released a nine-minute video to introduce her at the Twitch Con opening ceremonies.
The animated shorts for Overwatch are entertaining in their own right. The cinematics team behind the game is exceptionally talented, knowing just what buttons to push and levers to pull to cause the most emotional destruction possible. When Bastion went through his PTSD cinematic, I cried, and when Mei had to walk through the snow in "Rise and Shine," I cheered for her. Blizzard published a "Unleash Hope" video in honor of the release of Overwatch 2, which featured a montage of inspirational human accomplishments and artistic works set to a message of hope and love. A computer game meant to earn tons of money shouldn't be so cynical as to play on people's emotions like that, and it's doubly cynical given who's behind this game, but the visuals here really knock me to my knees.
Kiriko's short achieves a similar effect of manipulating the viewer's emotions (in a positive way). We observe Kiriko and her mother arguing about her desire for autonomy. Another touching scene involves Kiriko and a deaf child, with the latter teaching Kiriko the sign for her name. This is a tribute to Overwatch fan Danik Soudakoff, who gained notoriety for developing American Sign Language (ASL) versions of the game's heroes. In the film's climax, Kiriko uses her offensive and healing abilities to take down a group of yakuza to the tune of her ultra-cool theme song. Check it out on Spotify, it's quite neat.
Blizzard is using Twitch Drops to increase anticipation for Overwatch 2 by providing players with free Kiriko skins, guns, and other cosmetics. Here you can learn the steps to take.
Kiriko is a challenging healer to perfect, but her appearance and the implications of her arrival to the roster for Overwatch's canon are awesome.