Okay, so I just attended the Overwatch Panel at SDCC about Ana, with Kim Phan, Michael Chu, Arnold Tsang, and James Waugh, and I’ve collected some new or confirmed information. I’m on mobile so the format is a little wonky.
Ana
-Ana was considered to be the best sniper in the world before Widowmaker took out her dominant eye. Now, Ana uses her non-dominant eye for the scope of her sniper rifle.
-She was Jack Morrison’s second in command while he was in charge of Overwatch. Despite this, she never wanted to leave the front line, even though she was always pained by each life she took.
-After her eye was taken, she decided to run due to the moral weight of all of the people she had killed.
-When creating her character, developers drew inspiration from older women who were snipers, as well as women who wear hijabs.
-Ana does wear a hijab
-Despite the fact that it is possible for her eye to be replaced, she refuses to do so because the scar means something to her.
-The reason that her biotic rifle (Image 2) inflicts damage on enemies but heals team mates could be explained in two ways. 1) Her allies are injected with a chemical that reacts with the medicine in her biotic rifle, allowing it to heal them, or 2) she has different rounds she switches between.
Another few details came up about this image (Image 3) from Ana’s origin short
-The photo was taken 20 years from when the game takes place, making both Mercy and McCree are 17, Torbjörn 37, Ana 40, Reinhardt 41, Jack about 35, Reyes about 36, and Pharah about 12 or 13(they said early teens, but this is the conclusion based on the given timeline).
-McCree had newly joined Blackwatch when the picture was taken.
-Despite speculation, the man in the bottom left corner is NOT Liao, a founding member of Overwatch.
After all of the details on Ana and her release, some other general or character specific information came from the Q&A session:
-Get excited because there WILL be more animated shorts
-More comics will be released over time.
-A lot of story that has been released so far seems like exposition (and it is, there is a lot to set up), but it will eventually all be resolved. It is simply a matter of time.
-The game itself is not canon in the Overwatch universe, allowing characters who are enemies to work on the same team. Their exchanges are what may have happened if they were in a situation where they had to work together.
-Many facts are common knowledge to developers and characters in the game, but the right time to release the information to players hasn’t come yet. Examples of this are McCree’s recruitment by Reyes, early escapades of Blackwatch (a comic of this is ready for release, it is just a matter of time), Pharah’s father, and how McCree lost his arm.
-Mercy is NOT an evil immortal.
-Symmetra’s arm IS a prosthetic.
-Each character’s prosthetic limbs are meant to show or represent something about the character or their personality. Characters with prosthetics are Torbjörn, McCree, Symmetra, Gengi, and Junkrat.
-Hanzo has “delicate ankles”. The developers joked that he should train with Zarya to beef them up.
-The character of Lúcio was inspired by the bard class in other games.
-Multiplayer is Blizzard’s main focus right now, but mission or story specific missions are a thought. Nothing about this is confirmed, but it is in the developer’s minds and a future possibility.
-The graphic novel, Overwatch: First Strike, is about the beginning and dark days of The Omnic Crisis as well as the founding of Overwatch and will be available in November 2016 digitally. A deluxe physical version will be available in April of 2017.
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