Blizzard's latest animated short for its multiplayer FPS Overwatch is now available, with "Dragons" telling the story of Hanzo and Genji's complicated relationship.

With Overwatch's roster of playable characters totaling to twenty one and with plans existing to increase that number in the future, Blizzard has to get creative in order to introduce each Hero to players. Some heroes are featured in short comic strips, and some are featured on Taco Bell special edition soda cups, but Blizzard's favorites star in Overwatch's high quality animated shorts. Two lucky heroes, Hanzo and Genji, are the latest to be spotlighted in a third animated short cinematic, "Dragons."

Dragons, like previous animated trailers, focuses primarily on filling in backstory of the heroes which are featured. Hanzo, Overwatch's bow and arrow sniper hero, and his brother Genji, the robot ninja, share a complicated history involving betrayal and a search for redemption. For those unfamiliar, the two are brothers, heirs to the Shimada yakuza clan and trained assassins. When their father died, Hanzo was pushed to "reign in" Genji and ultimately killed him instead. Overwatch managed to save Genji's life, but Hanzo has since wandered while trying to come to terms with his actions.

Where Dragons picks up is 10 years in the future, with Hanzo performing his annual return to Hanamura shrine—one of the maps in the gameto pay his respects to his fallen brother. His brother Genji is, of course, waiting for him, now ready to reveal that he still lives to his brother. Why? It seems like Genji has heard the call to reform Overwatch and believes that his brother can help if Hanzo can overcome his inner turmoil.

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This marks the third official animated short film for Overwatch which Blizzard has released. The first, which introduced Winston and the current status of the Overwatch program, and the second, which starred Tracer as she fought to prevent a Widowmaker assassination, both dealt with the world conflict ongoing in Overwatch's setting. Dragons is a more character-centric story, focusing almost entirely on just two of the very large roster. Yet the implication is also clear -- now that Overwatch has been reformed, it is recruiting new talent as well as old.

Blizzard's goal with the animation shorts is definitely to set the stage for Overwatch's story and setting. Ongoing world conflicts are being dealt with by heroes and villains which make up the roster of Overwatch. Whether they will all be united under one Overwatch banner or split into groups of good and evil is yet to be shown, but the general idea makes sense. And even if it didn't make any sense, at least Blizzard's cinematics are great fun to watch.

Overwatch will be available starting May 24 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: PlayOverwatch - YouTube