Shion is such a demanding Overwatch hero, Blizzard needed brand-new tech

She started life with a Devil May Cry-inspired style meter, too

Blizzard's thrown a lot at Overwatch over the last 10 years — genetically modified hamster, big robot daddy, flying cat — but the thing that tested their engineering the most was a motorcycle. Shion, Overwatch's 52nd character and 24th damage hero, hops on a high-end bike during one of her abilities, before launching it at foes and exploding it. And for a while during development, Overwatch's hero designers couldn't figure out why she was invincible during that move.

"We were like, ‘Dude, no one's killing Shion while she's riding,’" senior game producer Kenny Hudson told Polygon in a digital roundtable interview. "Like, what's going on? And when we looked at it and slowed things down, we noticed that [the hitbox] was even smaller [when Shion was on the bike] than it was when she was standing. We had to come up with new tech to dynamically stretch the hitbox to include the bike as well when it gets summoned, which is something we've never really had to deal with."

The bike was essential to Shion's identity, though. It was one of the first things the design team came up with for her, the centerpiece for her role as a new kind of combo-heavy, acrobatic flanker.

Blizzard wanted action to define the reborn Overwatch's first year, so highly mobile characters were a must. Shion is also one of the first heroes the team designed with combos in mind — her own, not just how she pairs with other characters. The concept was such a major part of her original form that Blizzard even added a Devil May Cry-adjacent style meter that leveled up when you pulled off combos. But raising that meter ended up being stressful, not fun, and Hudson's team struggled to figure out what would make a suitable reward for maxing it out, one that wouldn't make Shion ridiculously overpowered.

So they focused on how her moves work together instead. Shion has a hitscan standard fire (where there's no time between when you pull the trigger and when the bullet hits its mark), and an alt-fire she can charge that releases a concentrated blast powerful enough to instantly eliminate squishier foes. Then there's her bike, a dash skill that grants overhealth, and an ultimate where she enters an empowered state and deals extra damage.

If the "overhealth when diving" addition sounds like something you might've expected for Vendetta, there's a good reason for that. Shion's development happened alongside the team's various efforts at getting Vendetta's balance right. Hudson doesn't expect Shion's launch to be without issue. No amount of pre-launch balancing and testing can simulate a live scenario, after all. But after the work done on Vendetta and years of refining how the team tracks data after a hero's launch, he does feel confident that they "landed in a good place" with Shion.

However much Shion might seem like "just another flanker," Hudson hopes people dig deeper and recognize the potential in how the pieces of her kit work together. Take the evade skill, for example. Shion can rush in with it, a bit safer than usual thanks to the overhealth it provides, empty her pistol clips at close-range for maximum damage and finish with her execution skill before riding off on her bike. Or she can target the back lines by hurling her bike at them, picking off stragglers at mid-range, and dashing away to safety before things get hectic.

It's easy to watch someone like Hudson demonstrate all these possibilities and think Shion's overpowered, but the team designed her with somewhat of a learning curve.

"We went with a glass cannon archetype," Hudson said. "There is some movement in this kit, and we hope people always feel like they have something to do without being too overpowered or overwhelmed. But learning when to use these abilities and how to use them to weave together this awesome kind of combo is something that we hope players get from the gameplay loop."

Hudson says the best way to play Shion is going to be with dive or brawl teams. She's a natural choice to soften enemies for sturdy tanks like Junker Queen and has the mobility to keep up with someone like Winston or D.Va. Even with the release of so many new characters this year, Blizzard is still keeping the game balanced for all the older heroes. Hudson said Shion's most dangerous counter is any hero with a crowd control ability, like Ana, Junkrat, Brigitte, Reinhardt — most of the roster from the game's first few years, basically.

Shion debuts in Overwatch season 3, Into the Tiger's Den, which goes live on June 16.