To do so, the player must simply equip a “skin” for Bastion (”skin” is basically the gaming jargon for “outfit”). Despite the problems with Ganymede’s identification, Bastion’s bird friend can also appear in the guise of actual real-life bird species. Screenshots from the game.Īs we pointed out before, Ganymede’s design is an original creation and does not represent an actual species, although some of its features might be traced to the cardinal. Fireplace of the hunting lodge in the Eichenwalde stage, with close-up of the painting. The latter are American species and seem to represent the tufted titmouse ( Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766)), even though one of them is more bluish in color.įigure 4. This painting shows four local bird species one of them is the “Ganymede species”, while the others seem to be actual species: the Eurasian blue tit ( Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758)) and two titmice.

Moreover, in the Eichenwalde stage (which, in the game’s lore, is located nearby Stuttgart), there is a painting resting above the hunting lodge’s fireplace (Fig. Photo by Pawel Ryszawa (2008) image extracted from Wikimedia Commons. However, its slenderer body shape, thinner beak and lack of crest are all very different from Ganymede.įigure 3. Actually, in the whole European bird fauna, only the golden oriole, Oriolus oriolus (Linnaeus, 1758), comes close to it, with its yellow color and dark horizontal stripe across the eyes (Fig.

There is no bird here in Stuttgart that looks like Ganymede (one of us lives here, by the way). The bird appears on its home forest in the animated short The Last Bastion (from August 2016), which takes place in the outskirts of Stuttgart, Germany. Photo by Laitche (2016) image extracted and modified from Wikimedia Commons.ĭespite being based in an American species, Ganymede seems to be native to European forests. Right: A Japanese white-eye, Zosterops japonicas (Temminck & Schlegel, 1847). Photo by Jim McCormac (2013), extracted from “Ohio Birds and Biodiversity”. Center: A xanthochroic northern cardinal. Photo by Stephen Wolfe (2011) image extracted and modified from Wikimedia Commons. Left: A male northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis. 2C), which live in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and Australasia.įigure 2. Ganymede also has a white area around its eyes, a trait not seen in cardinals, but well-known from species of the genus Zosterops (commonly known as “white-eyes” Fig. 2A), but there are rare naturally occurring yellow mutants, called xanthochroic cardinals (Fig. Cardinals usually have a red plumage (Fig. Ganymede’s design is an original creation of Blizzard’s artists, although it resembles in shape and size a northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758), a common species in Canada and the USA. Image extracted from “Bastion Reference Kit” (official Overwatch website). Right: Ganymede (official artwork from the game). Left: Bastion with Ganymede (official artwork from the game). Actually, the single animal to appear in the whole game (besides the hominids, of course) is Bastion’s pet bird, called Ganymede (Fig. The hero Bastion is a nature-loving animal-friend robot. While the morals of these self-proclaimed heroes are rather open to debate, one of them at least has some redeeming personality traits. In the game, the so-called “heroes” spend most of their time trying to kill each other to secure a payload. The video game Overwatch is Blizzard Entertainment’s new hit, released on May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Tübingen, Germany. Email: babi.mt (at) gmail (dot) comĢ Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart Stuttgart, Germany. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Groningen, The Netherlands. Salvador 2ġ Netherlands Institute of Ecology Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Overwatch bastion overgrown