Zenyatta (Overwatch)

Tekhartha Zenyatta is a character who appears in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person shooter, and the resulting franchise.

Tekhartha Zenyatta
Overwatch character
Zenyatta's appearance in Overwatch
First game	Overwatch (2016)
Created by	Scott Mercer[1]
Designed by	Arnold Tsang[2]
Voiced by	Feodor Chin[3]
In-universe information
Class	Support
Origin	Nepal

Conception and development

Designed by Arnold Tsang,^[2] Zenyatta began as a concept of a "cyber monk" created by artist Scott Mercer.^[1] While early drafts portrayed him as physically powerful, they felt this made him too similar to existing characters. As a result, they revised the design, shifting away from a martial artists to an "enlightened sage". To further set him apart from other characters, they gave him the ability to levitate. Early designs would have also had Zenyatta having multiple physical arms, though the final version instead chose to have him only have two physical arms. The idea was still retained to some extent, with multiple holographic arms appearing when a player activated his ultimate ability.^[2]

Zenyatta was the second Support-class character they had implemented into the game, following Mercy. Realizing they had a lot of fast moving characters in the game and often into areas a character like Mercy would not want to go, they designed him around the concept of "giving [players] a gift and having them travel on their way" and able to heal remotely with his orbs attaching to targets.^[1] These orbs were originally the physical ones that surrounded his body, however this led to some complications as the development team considered how he would be able to "reload" them like a traditional weapon. They choose instead that the orbs themselves would fire bursts of energy, with different coloration depending on the offensive and defensive nature of them.^[2]

Design

Zenyatta stands 5 ft 8 in (172 cm) tall and is a thin, humanoid, silver colored robot with gold highlights. Pistons are visible on his arms, torso, hands and feet. His head is oval shaped with a gold lower jaw. Above his eyes is a 3x3 grid of nine blue lights. His outfit consists of yellow pants torn midway down the lower leg, a beige back skirt with a black pattern, a gold sash, and a red dhoti atop these that dangles down his front. A red ribbon cable connects from his back to his right upper hip, while tassel beads are tied to his sash and dangle behind him. Zenyatta does not walk, and instead hovers above the ground as he moves with his legs bent under his body.^[4]

Like other Overwatch characters, Zenyatta received skins, unlockable cosmetic items to change his in-game appearance. When designing them, due to the complex nature of his orbs they avoided changing their designs dramatically, and instead chose to retexture them in ways that reflected the nature of each skin.^[5] His shoulders also proved troublesome for the design team, as due to Zenyatta's range of motion they had to account for his animations which limited what textures and fabrics they could use on them.^[6] Particular skins of note include his "Ra" and "Djinnyatta" skins, which reference the Egyptian God Ra and Middle Eastern djinns respectively, enlightened mythological figures they felt reflected his sage-like qualities.^[5]

Appearances

Zenyatta belonged to the Shambali, an order of omnic monks that had settled in a monastery deep within the Himalayas in northern Nepal, after experiencing a "spiritual awakening" that led them to believe that, like humans, omnics also possessed a soul. Their leader, Tekhartha Mondatta, sought to heal the rift between humans and omnics and bring them into societal harmony through peaceful public rallies, one of which resulted in Mondatta's assassination by Widowmaker in London. Zenyatta disagreed with this approach, believing that only directly engaging humans and connecting with them person-to-person would bridge the divide between man and machine. He left the Shambali monastery and wandered the world, seeking to help those he met to find inner peace, including cyborg warrior Genji. He aided Genji in becoming more relaxed and understanding the purpose of his metallic body.^[7] Zenyatta is voiced by Feodor Chin.^[3]

Gameplay

Rather than moving on foot, he floats above the ground in a meditative pose. He is surrounded by a circle of nine floating metal orbs resembling prayer beads, which are named the "Orbs of Destruction". These can be used to a launch a form of energy at foes either one at a time, or through a charged-shot which deals extra damage.^[8] Zenyatta can cast an "Orb of Harmony" on a teammate to regenerate their health, and cast an "Orb of Discord" on an enemy to lower their defenses. His ultimate ability is "Transcendence", which makes him temporarily invulnerable and applies massive regenerative effects to his allies in a large radius around him.^[8]

Promotion and reception

To promote Overwatch and the character, he was one of twelve heroes showcased in a playable build of the game at the 2014 BlizzCon convention.^[9]

Since his debut, Zenyatta has been well received as a character. Levi Rubeck of Kill Screen described Zenyatta as the embodiment of "be cool", comparing him to the protagonist of manga series Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto in how both were stylish and "super-chill", presenting themselves as never being flustered.^[10] These sentiments were echoed by James Whitbrook of Gizmodo who appreciated how much of a departure Zenyatta was from more traditional characters in the first-person shooter due to his means of attacking relying on his spheres and prayer to "reload" them. He additionally praised Zenyatta's monotone voice as "excellently chill", feeling that even in moments of failure it made Zenyatta feel adorable.^[11]

Despite being introduced with the game's release, Zenyatta has been considered often overlooked by the game's lore developments, particularly in light of other characters and despite having ties to other character's in the game's cast.^[12] Blizzard's third party browser-based parody game Loverwatch in particular made light of this issue, with Zenyatta stating in his introductory cutscene it was "sad" the non-canon game was the only place the character could get new content.^[13][14] Polygon's Cass Marshall in particular felt the character was overlooked by both the playerbase and the developers, and suggested that if the playerbase made more use of him over more contemporary support characters the developers may take notice, especially as the character was tied to a major event in Overwatch's continuity.^[15]

Zenyatta's relationships with other characters have also been a subject of discussion. The staff of United Daily News highlighted his in-game dialogue with Ramattra as a standout, enjoying that it felt organic while fans drew art of the characters in romantic tension.^[16] Meanwhile, Associate professor of the University of Tennessee Małgorzata Karolina Citko-DuPlantis likened his relationship with Genji to that of historical figures Benkei and Minamoto no Yoshitsune, providing a contemporary modern view of the figures while also helping to solidify Genji's image as a warrior.^[17]

Analysis of cultural themes and gameplay

In terms of representation, researchers Joong-Gon Lee and Tae-Gu Lee in a paper for the Journal of Korea Game Society observed that Zenyatta's character design was a pastiche of robots with Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism. However, as Buddhism was a foreign concept to many American audiences, they instead emphasized the character's religious aspect, which in itself was a new concept for such audiences.^[18] Shahryar Rizvi in an article for Kill Screen meanwhile argued that several of his skins, particular the "Djinnyatta" and "Ifrit" skins, represented "Orientalist" views of those mythological figures as their appearances relied primarily on European adaptations of said figures. He argued that such arose from attempt to Other Middle Eastern cultures through "hateful stereotyping or idealistic fetishizing that enables colonization and exploitation". Additionally the mix of cultural aspects such as the use of harem pants caused them in his view to blur the ground between cultural appropriation and direct stereotypes.^[19]

Zenyatta's gameplay has also received commentary, as unlike other Support class characters at the time of Overwatch's release, he was particularly notable for having high offensive capabilities.^[15][10][11] This contrast and its effects on players utilizing the character at high-level competitive play was the subject of a study by Peter Braun, Alfredo Cuzzocrea, Timothy D. Keding, Carson K. Leung, Adam G.M. Padzor, and Dell Sayson in the journal Procedia Computer Science, due to the perceived high-skill level the character required. Using a data algorithm for analysis, they observed the differences between high- and low-win rate players and how they adjusted to Zenyatta's traits, for example focusing less on head shots against opponents and relying on a secondary healer for the team.^[20]