Let the Kitsune guide you: A first look at Kiriko's concept and playstyle
She's been on all our minds since we teased her in the June reveal event, and now, she’s here. Kiriko Kamori is staged to join the support roster as Overwatch’s 35th hero, and we’re excited to share more about her personality, toolkit, and gameplay!
Drawing on her Miko and Kunoichi training, Kiriko supports her team through gentle healing, deadly precision, and fluid mobility. The early idea for her kit was to create a dual damage/support hero with strong mobility and a high skill ceiling. Kiriko can be rewarding for high-skill players while also being a great healing option for beginning players.
She was created by narrative and hero design mostly in tandem since Kiriko’s concept art was originally drafted for a PvE enemy from the ninja ecology. Her concept art inspired the direction of both her gameplay and narrative, and we’re happy that her big personality shines through her playstyle.
To hear more about the process of bringing Kiriko from concept to launch, we talked to three designers who worked on her: hero designer Josh Noh, and narrative designers Justin Groot and Kyungseo Min.
Kiriko’s primary fire, Healing Ofuda, are talismans that heal her teammates. She fires up to ten healing projectiles depending on how long the primary fire key is held. Healing Ofuda is a single target heal, with blue talismans that home in on allies and turn yellow when they heal; the charms are breezy and slow, so the further you are from your teammates, the longer it will take to heal them.
"The visual and sound effects associated with Kiriko's primary heal draw on themes from nature, and we tried to match this in her lines," Groot explains. "So, you'll hear Kiriko say things like 'The breeze brings relief,' or 'Like a gentle rain,' when
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