Summary
The Pinocchio skin for Zenyatta has been downgraded, upsetting some of theOverwatch 2fanbase. It’s unclear if the change was done on purpose or by accident, but this is the secondOverwatch 2skin controversy in the last two months, and both controversies are strangely similar.
Legendary skins inOverwatch 2are highly coveted cosmetic items that players can acquire to customize the appearance of their heroes. Legendary skins are among the highest rarity inOverwatch 2,and they often come with unique visual effects, altered animations, or other character-specific changes. In season 4 ofOverwatch 2, Zenyatta, the Omnic monk known for his long-range attacks and healing abilities, received a legendary skin that turned the zen-like robot into Pinocchio. Zenyatta’s Pinocchio skin was beloved by the fanbase for its charming design and how Zenyatta’s nose would grow as he used his abilities.
Reddit user Fya3754 was one of the firstOverwatch 2fans to notice a change in Zenyatta’s legendary skinand posted a picture on theOverwatchsubreddit about the issue. The controversy surrounds Zenyatta’s “Orbs of Destruction,” which are normally metallic, but when using the Pinocchio skin, the orbs would appear wooden to match the rest of the theme. Right now, the orbs appear silver and gray with a strange design on them. Here’s a video of what the Orbs of Destruction looked like with the Pinocchio skin before the change and the Reddit post by Fya3754 showing the difference:
Zenyatta’s fans are not happy with the change, as many of the commenters wonder if this is a deliberate choice by Blizzard or a bug. There are plenty ofbugs and glitches inOverwatch 2, but usually, these pertain to gameplay, not skins. One commenter suggested that the developers may be dealing with spaghetti code, a colloquial term for a source code that has no actual structure to it, often due to a multitude of changes over a large amount of time or too many programmers fixing the code without leaving detailed notes for the next person. WithOverwatch 2being an extension to the firstOverwatch, a game that came out in 2016, this is certainly a possibility.
This situation with the Zenyatta Pinocchio skin is very similar toOrisa’s Forest Spirit skin controversyabout two months ago. Blizzard released a skin for Orisa that changed her spear from metal to wood, which reverted back to its original design weeks later. Both Zenyatta’s orbs and Orisa’s spear were made out of wood for their reskins, so it’s possible that wooden texture is becoming a problem during gameplay or some other aspect of the game, and Blizzard made these changes on purpose. It’s also possible that these skin changes are glitched. No explanation has been given so far.
Overwatch 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
