Overwatch 2 Fans Wish Blizzard Followed Through on One Genji Change

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 25, 2024 3 Views 5 Min Read
Overwatch 2 Fans Wish Blizzard Followed Through on One Genji Change



Key Takeaways

  • Genji’s hood was removed in Overwatch 2 despite its iconic appearance in the announcement cinematic.
  • Many players prefer Genji’s hooded look, but Blizzard may have avoided altering his silhouette for balance reasons.
  • The Street Runner Genji skin has a hood, leading fans to believe a hooded default skin should also be available.



Overwatch 2 fans have been lamenting Blizzard’s decision to keep Genji’s hood down in his default appearance in the sequel. While many prefer the hooded look the cyborg ninja sported when he appeared in the Overwatch 2 announcement cinematic, Blizzard ended up removing the hood on the default skin itself.

As one of the original heroes released in Overwatch back in 2016, Genji is one of the most recognizable characters in the game. The agile cyborg ninja’s iconic stance, weaponry, and face mask make him stand out from every other character that has come to the game in the last eight years.

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However, one missed opportunity might have seen Genji look quite different in Overwatch 2. As pointed out by BlackbirdKos on Reddit, Genji appears with an awesome hood that seamlessly carries the glow of his mask across it during the “Zero Hour” cinematic reveal trailer for Overwatch 2. He battles several Null Sector robots with the hood up, though he pulls it down before slicing through the giant mech’s hand, and for the final shot of the trailer. Unfortunately, the hero’s default model in Overwatch 2 likewise removed the hood, much to the disappointment of players who preferred his hooded design.



Genji’s Hood in Overwatch 2

On one hand, adding the hood to Genji would have changed the character’s silhouette. Historically, Overwatch 2 has tried to ensure all characters are easily recognizable through cosmetics to ensure no skin gives players an edge. That said, Overwatch 2 released the Street Runner Genji Epic skin shortly after the game launched, which sports a recolored version of the “Zero Hour” hood, making the silhouette argument a moot point.


Another reason players presented was that having his hood up would have set a new baseline for his other skins. Future cosmetics would have been expected to have hoods by default, with only some pulling it down in an inverse to the current situation. Regardless of the reason, many fans think the default skin having the hood would be better and, at the very least, want to see a hooded version added, considering the model already exists with the Street Runner skin.

In another world, Genji himself could have been quite different from what he does now. He and his brother Hanzo were originally conceptualized as a single character wielding both a bow and sword. He went through many iterations during development, including versions with instant-kill abilities or melee-only builds. Considering future runs of Overwatch: Classic plans to visit pre-launch versions of some heroes, there is a small chance that players might see echoes of these early versions of Genji in game some time in the future.

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