by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

A new article has appeared on the Overwatch news feed, playing up the possibility that a new character is going to be revealed at gamescom next week.

This article contains a couple of EDM music samples posted to music streaming site Soundcloud, which is interesting in and of it itself. In tandem with last week’s post of an image to imgur (which we totally missed; sorry everyone!) this shows that Blizzard seems to be interested in flexing some of the multimedia elements of the Internet itself as part of the approach of the transmedia storytelling that Overwatch seems poised to engage.

Read the full article below, along with some speculation about who this new character might be afterwards.

Lúcio, an acclaimed musical artist who’s built his career doing live shows, has already become something of a national icon in his home country of Brazil. Now he’s poised to win an international following with his Synaesthesia world tour.

“My heart beats for Brazil,” Lúcio told Atlas News. “I get inspired by the people here. Their struggles. Their triumphs. I want to share that energy—the energy of their lives—with the rest of the world.”

Lúcio is touring to promote his debut album, Synaesthesia Auditiva. He has labored over this work for two years, and from what we’ve heard so far, it shows. Last week, he teased fans across the globe by releasing two scintillating tracks from Synaesthesia. These previews have already skyrocketed to the top of the charts, surpassing his breakout single from last year, “Sonhos Ômnicos.”

If you haven’t listened to them yet, have no fear: we’ve linked both songs below.

Synaesthesia’s positive early reception has delighted Lúcio, but he’s even more interested in what people will think of his tour. “I’ve spent two years working on new technology for the show. It’ll bring the music to life. You’re going to do more than just listen to it,” Lúcio said. “You’re going to feel it. See it.”

The Synaesthesia world tour begins next Wednesday in Cologne, Germany. The opening show has already sold out, but Lúcio has said that a holostream service will be offered to simulate the experience for viewers at home.

Synaesthesia Auditiva Track List

1. Bem-vindos à Society 2.0 (Viemos para ficar)
2. HELIOTROPICS
3. Hard Light, Hard Time
4. Rejuvenescência
5. Sonhos Ômnicos (Extended Mix)
6. Maximum Tempo
7. The Millennium Anxiety
8. Quebrando a Barreira do Som (Drop the Beat)
9. Robot After All
10. We Move Together As One
11. Synaesthesia Auditiva

A Brazilian hero who’s into music seems to be the big thing strongly implied by all of this. It’s notable that one of the older key art images for the game includes a character who might match that description:

Visual clues are plentiful:

• The colors of the outfit evoke the colors of the Brazilian flag.
• The character has a dark complection, consistent with Brazilians of native American or African descent.
• The character is young in appearance, consistent with the article’s hints that Lúcio is a new player on the music scene.

After that, there are plenty of additional cues that are corroborated by the text.

• The weapon in his hand looks like it could actually be a speaker or spotlight. Given all the references to synaesthesia in the article, that gives the impression that the gun emits sound or light that impacts the target physically. One of the tracks in the article is called “Hard Light, Hard Time” which accentuates the increasingly common sci-fi concept of tangible light.
• The gear at his left hand could be anything, but the shape of it suggests that it could actually be a hip-mounted turntable. Yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but please recall that this guy is in the same key art with a gorilla from the moon and a Zen Buddhist monk robot.
• “Synaesthesia” literally means “the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.” Lúcio’s dialogue stating that his new technology will “bring the music to life… You’re going to feel it. See it.” definitely gives the impression that sound is being converted into something both visible and tangible.

We’re confident that the various Portuguese phrases in the track titles give some hints as to what Lúcio’s abilities could be, so as soon as we get those translated by our resident native speakers, we’ll be adding to this story.

The core takeaway from this (aside from the rather dope EDM samples, which you should totally listen to by visiting the official blog) is that we’re going to know more about Lúcio when gamescom kicks off next week. Whether the character announced matches with the piece of key art or not is up in the air, but we’re definitely going to see a character reveal next week, and once we know details, you’ll know them about two minutes later.