As Overwatch 2 heads into its second month, it’s time for Season 2 to gear up behind the scenes. The first season welcomed Kiriko, a support hero with great mobility and offensive abilities, and the next will introduce another new addition to the tank roster: Ramattra.
The character, voiced by Ramon Tikaram (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dark Souls III), made his debut in an origin story video that was shown during the Grand Finals of Overwatch League. In it, he muses about his creation as a war machine, and details his rise to an agent of annihilation from a peace-loving Omnic.
There are some lore bits to note here: firstly, that Ramattra was formerly a monk of the Shambali, which Zenyatta is part of. Just like the latter, he initially advocated for peace and tranquility, but the continued acts of prejudice, violence, and killing against his people prompted him to sow destruction as he becomes the leader of Null Sector.
Ramattra will arrive in Overwatch 2 as a tank at the beginning of Season Two starting 6 December. While the name is a new one, his appearance should be familiar to those who have played through the Storm Rising event, which included a face reveal of the character (albeit with slight design variations) in the end cinematic. Storm Rising is one of the three story-focused missions that unlock during the annual Anniversary Event, with the other two being Uprising and Retribution.
The Omnic now joins Doomfist, Moira, Reaper, Sombra, Sigma, and Widowmaker as the anti-heroes of the in-game universe. The specifics of his toolkit are still under wraps, but we do know that his core unique feature is two forms: his basic Omnic form and a more aggressive Nemesis form. Unlike Wrecking Ball and Bastion, who can also transform freely at will, his Nemesis state is an activated ability with a cooldown.
“When we start hero development, we think about the fantasy of the hero we want to be; for example, with Reinhardt, it was about being a knight or the protector of his own people,” art director Dion Rogers shared in a regional media interview that Geek Culture attended. “We’ve always known that Ramattra would be a tank…but what you’ll find with his Nemesis form, when he turns into this big hulking hero, there’s the fantasy there of being the Hulk.”
“[Ramattra also] has this more neutral but very dangerous form when he becomes this menacing character that was part of the fantasy of Ramattra as we developed him, and we really wanted the two forms to feel very different, but you’ll still get the sense that he’s the same hero,” he added. “When you’re playing the game, when is the right time to do the swap between Omnic and Nemesis form?”
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how Ramattra can shake up the conventional tank play in Overwatch 2, as well as his in-game interactions with Zenyatta. More information is expected to drop in the coming days, as per the official announcement post.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Edwin Teo
