With its latest edition of the Archives 2021 event, Overwatch unveiled a new skin for the sword-wielding Shimada brother, Genji. Due to Genji's massive popularity among players, Twitter exploded with Overwatch fans' reactions to the release.
The new skin is called Bushi Genji—"Bushi" being Japanese for "warrior"—and outfits Genji in a bulkier suit of cybernetic armor. The new look transforms Genji from ninja to samurai and is filled with subtle nods to the character's history. The crest of his helmet, for instance, features the signature Shimada brothers symbol with two dragons engulfing one another. His chest plate also features a shuriken emblem as a tribute to his basic attack. Genji's iconic sword is also transformed, taking on a much larger hilt and guard.
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Bushi Genji is part of the Archives 2021 event, a lore-centric event that also comes with a whole host of skin releases, emotes, voice lines, and tons of other in-game goodies. While the first three years of the Archives event unveiled different missions, last year's event simply offered players the chance to replay these missions. Players will be able to experience the Uprising, Retribution, and Storm Rising missions that released from 2017 to 2019. While this morning's Widowmaker skin reveal, generated a bit of buzz, the ever-controversial Genji caused Twitter to positively explode.
Fans of the skin seemed to overwhelmingly agree that this was one of the best skins ever released for the character. They complimented the sleek, intimidating look, and were intrigued by the massive departure from the character's normal armor. Despite the complaints of oversaturation from other users, Genji mains were delighted. Of course, opinions on Genji's new look were not entirely supportive. Some were dismayed by the Archives event's first offerings.
Among the most common criticisms of the new skin is the color palette. The blue and orange scheme is a fairly large departure from Genji's basic white, grey, and green look. On top of that, many fans were confused by how the samurai appearance would fit into the history associated with Genji—considering the Archives event is primarily about lore. But, the hate could also simply be flowing from a recent bug that left Genji overpowered. Either way, the Bushi Genji skin has managed to generate a ridiculous amount of interest in only a few hours, and whether it is to fans' tastes or not, there is still plenty to come from the event.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.