Many a gamer shed a few tears while watching Blizzard’s latest Overwatch animated short, “Honor and Glory”. The animated short showed us a rather tragic look into part of Reinhardt’s backstory, while at the same time (hopefully) reminding gamers what happens when the designated tank ditches the party in favor of some good ol’ robot smashing mayhem. While some may take the ‘feels-inducing’ shorts at face value, quite a lot of planning and design goes into each one, as told by Lydia Bottegoni, SVP of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard. In a recent interview, Bottegoni reveals that the mission behind each of the Overwatch animated shorts is to induce a strong emotional response out of the viewers, enough that said viewers become emotionally invested in the characters.

We always say our job is to make people feel something. Feel heroic or feel sad or feel triumphant. That’s our overall mission, to make you feel something, and the bigger the emotion, the easier it is to get people there.”

Emotion is one thing the Blizzard team seems to have a handle on. The “Honor and Glory” short revealed why Reinhardt has such a strong commitment to his teammates, while the previously released short titled “Rise and Shine” revealed the tragic events that befell Mei’s team before she joined the current Overwatch conflict. Bottegoni’s next comments involve the plot line of the “Honor and Glory” animated short, which can be seen below:

Though there was quite a lot going on in the above short, the majority of it served to set up Reinhardt’s role as the party tank, while also leaving viewers with an in-depth understanding of why Reinhardt acts the way he does. “I think a lot of it with Reinhardt was setting up where the idea of loyalty and that passing of the torch and how those themes that play out in Reinhardt, where they came from. And the idea of ‘live with honor, die with glory,’ the big statement of loyalty and allegiance to your team and what he went through,” Bottegoni said.

There’s a lot of commentary in there about making sure that he’s there for his team and what his role is for the team and being protective for his team. We see him kind of misstep early in the video for that, so I think that if there was a theme, then that would probably be it, his role on the team and why he’s important.”

Overwatch is available for purchase on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In addition to the latest Overwatch animated short, Blizzard also revealed its latest upcoming hero, Moira. Her reveal video can be seen here.

So, thoughts on the ‘Honor and Glory” Overwatch animated short? Did watching it make you want to play as Reinhardt? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!