Going into 2020, EA has committed to making Apex Legends the company's flagship shooter. But like many modern-day titles, the battle royale shooter loves making pop-culture references to popular anime, games, or other current news. On that note, the Respawn Entertainment team has included another one of these throwbacks with the arrival of their latest Legend, Revenant.
Season 4 introduces the character Revenant, a human assassin turned into a machine that seeks revenge on the Mercenary Syndicate who made him that way. In-game, Revenant has new abilities such as silencing enemies in an area, climbing walls faster, and being harder to hit. His "Death Totem" ultimate allows any player that clicks it to respawn at the totem with 1 HP instead of being killed and eliminated. The animation that rarely plays, however, should be familiar to anyone that has watched the anime series Naruto.
When casting "Death Totem", Revenant has a chance to weave together a series of intricate hand signs that cause the totem to appear. At this point, any anime watchers can guess that the motions are from Naruto. But Apex Legends players who are also dedicated fans will be able to tell that those movements are the exact hand seals for the Summoning: Impure World Resurrection a.k.a. Edo Tensei. This reference isn't only a fun Easter Egg, but thematically fits for Revenant and the technique's intended use.
In Naruto, Edo Tensei is a forbidden jutsu that summons the soul of a deceased person, binding them to a living body and tethering them to the world once more. To that effect, Revenant's totem serves a similar purpose in binding a character as long as they stay in range, granting a second chance at life if they fall in battle. The spawning animation for the totem is also reminiscent of coffins that are used to summon or move around Edo Tensei-reincarnated individuals.
After this discovery, it seems that someone on the Apex Legends team is a huge fan of Naruto. When players look through history, there are Easter Eggs of Overwatch, Titanfall 2, Megaman, and other fourth wall-breaking examples hidden in-game. And if the past and present are indicators of what's coming, there will be many more references to find in the future.
As of yesterday, Season 4 - Assimilation has started, bringing a new battle pass and the Sentinel sniper rifle in addition to Revenant. But some players simply don't feel like returning to World's Edge or ranked for the next few months. In that case, they should rejoice when Kings Canyon is reintroduced later this season.
Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.