Overwatch mainstay and popular tank hero D.Va is about to be joined by her longtime teammate and friend. You can welcome D.Mon to the battlefield as part of season four on Aug. 11.
In the lead-up to D.Mon’s anticipated release, many players have been concerned that the fellow MEKA squad member would be too similar to D.Va, especially now that it’s confirmed that they are both tanks. While they both pilot a mech and have some similar aspects because of that, Overwatch devs explained that these are two distinct characters in a few ways in a recent interview with Destructoid.
Not quite a carbon copy
In Overwatch’s growing lore, D.Va and D.Mon (real name Yuna Lee) both originated as professional esports gamers in South Korea who were forced into action as part of MEKA Squad, using their gaming skills to pilot mechs and fight off the Omnic invasion.
“For [D.Mon’s] personality, I think one of the biggest things is, they both came from this esports champion league, so gaming is a really big core of both of them,” D.Mon’s narrative designer Eleni Rivera told me. “But we wanted to make sure that they were very distinct. And the way that you do that is you think about two different types of gamers. You know, you’ve got your [in-game leader], but then you’ve got the person who’s like ‘I’m ready to just be the support,’ or, ‘maybe I’m just gonna tank.’ And I think that that’s kind of where we went with [D.Mon and D.Va], and that’s where we wanted to differentiate them, so they can still stand out.”
After being teased in the lore for several years, it’s finally time for D.Mon to step into the spotlight alongside D.Va and other Overwatch members, and the dev suspects that fans will really enjoy watching and hearing the two “besties” interact.
“They know each other, they back each other up,” Rivera said. ” I think that was a challenge, but a good challenge, if that makes sense, where we got a chance to explore team dynamic, friendship dynamic, and make sure that D.Mon felt like her own self, and not like players would think, ‘oh, this is just a D.Va 2.0.’ We want her to feel like she’s this standout hero, and she’s got her own motivations, her own griefs and everything like that.”
Lead character concept artist Daryl Tan also acknowledged and detailed D.Mon’s physical design while in the mech, which was inevitably going to be somewhat similar to D.Va’s in some ways considering they are both tanks and both mech pilots from the same faction. But it was a concerted effort to differentiate the two.
Tan said the team “did our best to make them both visually unique and distinct from each other in a variety of ways,” like how “D.Va is more hunched and guns forward, like a very aggressive pose, whereas D.Mon is more upright when she uses the sword and board, which is the fantasy we were trying to shoot for.”
This specific goal to differentiate the two MEKA pilot heroes led to a design that quickly became controversial with players yesterday after her full model was revealed, as D.Mon’s pilot form and physical body are more exposed within the mech than you may expect, especially after being used to D.Va’s design for so many years.
“Organically it just also shows off D.Mon’s more athletic nature, because we also made sure that her cockpit design and everything showcased her being able to execute her moves physically,” he said. “Like, you see her swing her sword in her cockpit, and the mech is doing the same thing. So, that’s where I would say it’s a pretty big departure visually from D.Va, and I think that makes her also stand out from D.Va.”
A new leader
Lore-wise, D.Mon arrives in Overwatch’s season four due to the overarching conflict in the narrative, including the Junkers (working with Talon) invading her territory and attacking Busan, so she and MEKA Squad are forced to act. And that means D.Mon stepping into a new role.
“Since D.Va left [MEKA Squad], they have been trying to navigate changes within their structure,” Rivera said. “Like, who’s leading, how are they going to fight the Gwishin, things like that. And so, the Junkers invading — [MEKA Squad] already knew about Talon, they kind of knew what was happening around the world, and they had an inkling that danger could be coming, which means that they have to be sharp. So, we get a chance to see D.Mon take leadership in the MEKA Squad and sort of lead the team.”
The Busan map in Overwatch is getting some environmental storytelling updates to reflect this conflict, illustrating how D.Mon and MEKA Squad “get it together” and are able to stave off the invasion.
Given how D.Mon has been built up and anticipated by players for some time, Rivera said that the “fun part” of writing her up and bringing her to life was expanding on what players already knew while also differentiating her from D.Va, including giving her a very different demeanor.
“The challenge was not necessarily creating a new character, but it was like, ‘how do we expand on her and really make her dynamic and not just sort of one-note?” Rivera said. “I brought up the idea that she’s this untouchable, cool, ice queen. So, she will put you in your place, but she’s not just going to comment just to comment. You know, she’s very much in her lane, and she likes things a certain way. She’s also a big fan of Gundam, so she likes to sit in her room and build that and sort of tinker away.”
Rivera did note that D.Mon’s “got that competitiveness about her, because she is a gamer” like D.Va, but illustrated how different the two are in a very fun way.
“I like to joke around that the idea was, if you have a streamer, they have their camera on, she’d be the streamer with the camera on her hands,” Rivera said. “She’s only showing her gameplay style, and that’s it. She’s not going to have herself on screen. And she also enjoys a bit of that taunting, provoking, to really get her team to move and to get the enemies a little scared.”
With D.Mon now joining D.Va as the second Korean hero in the game, during a decidedly Korean-themed season (the Busan story and changes along with an upcoming collaboration with massively popular K-pop girl group LE SSERAFIM during BlizzCon), Rivera said that D.Mon’s heritage also helps inform a part of her identity.
“Yuna is extremely prideful of her country and that’s why she makes MEKA Squad her number one priority,” Rivera said. “It’s her duty and it is a privilege to serve and protect the people of Busan, which absolutely shines through her personality. Then of course, there’s the fun bits of her, her interests and hobby that really add more flavor to her personality that meshes so well with the team and D.Va.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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