Deadlock’s Yamato has players enthralled by her detailed & tragic backstory

More people have been getting their hands on Deadlock following the game’s official reveal, and players are already impressed by the level of detail Valve clearly put into the characters for its new MOBA.

After months of rumors and leaks, Valve finally announced Deadlock on August 23. Already, the game has a sizeable audience despite access being limited to an invite-only Closed Alpha.

Though it’s still very early in its life, Deadlock shows a lot of promise, garnering praise from streamers and content creators like shroud and AverageJonas. That’s in no small part thanks to the game’s characters, with players already praising the developers for how it handles their backstories.

Beyond having some interesting lore, that level of detail extends to how this information is presented to the audience. As one Twitter/X user pointed out, Yamato’s backstory is written entirely in Japanese – which is fitting for a character who doesn’t speak English.

Despite likely not being able to read the text itself, the poster called the backstory “funny as s*** but really cool.”

Others pointed out examples of that detail and backstory being integrated into the game. “If you buy items from the shop when playing her the shopkeeper tries to say thank you in Japanese but keeps constantly butchering it until he just apologizes to her lol,” shared one player.

Another said, “she speaks english when giving in game comms actually! all of her voicelines are japanese but when talking to teammates (pushing lane, need help, etc) its always in english. fun touch.”

This is likely done to make things easier for players since having the character give instructions in Japanese would be, as one commenter put it, “confusing as f***.”

For those interested in Yamato’s backstory, one user shared an approximate translation, which reveals that she’s actually named Kaori. However, she took her brother’s name after he sacrificed himself for her both as a way to honor him and because of a misunderstanding when arriving in America.

Players are also amused by other Deadlock character bios, including one for the character Lash that simply reads “Jacob Lash is an a*******.”