Interview: How Overwatch 2 Wuyang’s story and design reflect Chinese culture

Overwatch 2 recently revealed the story and lore behind Wuyang, who is the game's next support hero. Ahead of the reveal, esports.gg sat down with the Overwatch 2 team for an interview about the meaning behind his story and its themes of family, expectations, and finding one's place. We also went into how Wuyang's design relates to Chinese culture and more!

In Overwatch 2, Wuyang is the second playable Chinese hero, and his story reflects the common struggle in Chinese culture of feeling shame and guilt when failing to meet family expectations. In the interview with esports.gg, senior narrative designer Joshi Zhang talked about this in length, revealing that Wuyang's story draws from the desire to give back to family and the burden of falling short of their hopes. However, it also draws from how to pick yourself up afterward and truly become your own hero.

"I'm really excited for players to experience that because I hope that people feel seen by his story," Zhang said. "I think there's a lot of people, a lot of young people playing Overwatch that need to see themselves in order to understand that they have what it takes to be a hero, too."

The team had many discussions about Wuxing philosophy and its importance in Chinese culture. Other influences for Wuyang's character included classic Chinese media like Legend of the Condor Heroes, which is a wuxia kung fu fantasy known to many who grew up with those traditional shows. While Journey to the West was an early inspiration, the team found that Chinese culture is far richer and more diverse than what is widely known.

Wuyang's design also carefully reflects his Chinese heritage, especially through his unique weapon. Zhang and lead character designer Daryl Tan revealed that Wuyang's weapon, called the Xuanwu staff, condenses water from the air and ionizes it to create a charged orb of water molecules. This draws from a mix of real and fictional concepts.

"The staff condenses the water from the air, and it does this stuff to it, like ionizing it. And there's something to do with the charge of [how] the water particles and the molecules are combined in the ball form at the front," Zhang explained.

A special part on his glove controls the orb's trajectory as well, and this skill requires practice to master.

"We really love this idea of the Chinese fantasy of, 'Oh, this guy -- he trains so hard, he can control water.' We do want to lean into that fantasy because we think it's very poignant to players that grew up with that kind of media and that fantasy, but it's really important to us that we don't cross into the magic realm because magic doesn't exist in Overwatch, so we're trying to lean into that fun side while keeping it super technical," Zhang told esports.gg.

Wuyang's Xuanwu staff is inspired by a mythological creature that is a tortoise and snake hybrid linked to water. As noted, the staff helps Wuyang conjure and manipulate water like condensing water vapor from the air. Meanwhile, Wuyang's gloves and gauntlet work together with the staff to control and project the water. This helps him heal allies and attack enemies. As for the explosive orb he creates, it represents a concentrated burst of energy formed by condensing water into a high-pressure attack.

"In terms of his fantasy, we wanted him to be a martial artist as well, right? So like Josh, you mentioned a big part of him is wielding his water -- it has to do with him being proficient at it," Tan told esports.gg. "So no amount of tech can give him that proficiency if he doesn't train. So therefore, on his visual design, we condensed all the tech to exist only on his gauntlet, his glove, and his staff, and nowhere else on his body do we see extra tech around because we don't want to sell the idea like, 'Oh, he is only good at what he's doing because of all the tech that supports him.' He's only able to do what he does because he went through so much training and he worked really hard to get to where he got."

It's also worth mentioning that Wuyang's parents were top fighters from Wuxing University's fire college during the Omnic Crisis. The university’s elemental colleges joined forces to build towering mechs. This combined technology from the metal college with strategy from the fire college. Although Wuyang studies at the water college, which is known for its focus on healing, he still faced a direct threat when Null Sector attacked Chengdu. Chengdu is the city where the school is located.

"Because the crisis was so long ago, and Wuyang is not in the fire college or the metal college, his focus is more on the side of healing," Zhang said. "The water college is focused on healing technology, and the way that that the significance that has in Chinese culture -- you can think of things like acupuncture, traditional medicine, understanding of like energy medians, yin and yang -- things that still influence Chinese traditional medicine today that people still use -- that would be more of where he's focused, I would say."

Zhang then referenced the "Against the Tide" comic, where Wuyang had some conflict with Null Sector following its attack on Chengdu.

"I would say that was like a pretty formative moment for him, but I don't know that it necessarily changed his opinion on like some of the omnics that we have in our cast just because Null Sector and our playable omnics, our sentient omnics, are quite different."

In terms of what the Overwatch 2 team is most excited for players to discover about Wuyang, hero producer Kenny Hudson said that he's quite eager to see how high players can push Wuyang's skill ceiling with his primary fire. He's also interested in seeing the cool combos using Wuyang’s ultimates and interactions with other heroes on the roster.

"When we playtest, [...] you'll always hear a bunch of yelling around the floor because everybody's kind of playing," Hudson said. "When we were developing Wuyang during our hero team playtest, you just hear this explosion of laughter coming from any corner of the building, and you just kind of knew that they had come up with something awesome and super fun. So super excited to see what players think."

That's all for now. Are you ready to try out Wuyang? His trial begins on Aug. 14. Stick around on esports.gg for more interviews, news, and updates!