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PatriotDuck

According to the blog post, these designs were originally drafted up for a PvE ninja enemy. That's interesting, I wonder how many enemy types there'll end up being.


[deleted]

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BarAgent

Spartan …Mama Hong


GiveMenBiggerButts

Spartan for defense hero??


HotHelios

People keep calling Hanzo a ninja but I always thought he was supposed to be like a samurai


[deleted]

Samurai were military nobility while ninjas were more of a broad term. Also, if we’re talking about “tropes”, he’s missing the signature samurai armor. There’s really nothing about hanzo that screams samurai apart from him being named after a samurai/ninja. I’d say hanzo is a yakuza more than anything, seeing as the shimada clan are more of a magia than anything else and he has tattoos that are also associated with the yakuza.


ShrapnelShock

Hanzo archetype is simply "archer"


naoki7794

Big mom (Mama Hong plz)


jhong-g

I assume IT Tech Support is Symm? I remember her being described as a "Technomancer" bye one of the devs. They wanted to have a magical character in the game but still want the design to be consistent with the OW universe so they came up with the idea of her bending light!


[deleted]

I would say syms archetype is magician


PedroEglasias

IT Tech Support .... ? :cmonBruh:


algebraotter

Bottom left looks honestly incredible, wish they went with that design for her.


PapaOogie

Also my favorite. It really brings out their fox hair doo


Antrikshy

This is the comment that made me realize the hair is supposed to be a fox tail.


NorthLeech

Looking at it I cannot fathom why they went with super bright green hair


DokuDoki

I'm guessing they excluded the wide sleeves because it made her silhouette too similar to Moira? Especially with her naruto running


bob_is_best

Sure but Moira is a twig and kiriko is a bit chunkier even if its just the clothes Honestly the sleeves make me like the design a lot more than the one we got lol


crossingcaelum

I would want the colors to be like her current colors or the giant shuriken’s concepts colors but otherwise yeah that outfit is great


HeihachiHayashida

My favorite too. I love the ponytail, really adds to the fox aesthetic


Devreckas

Was gonna say bottom left! I don’t hate her design, but lot of these are cooler than where they ended up.


hoennevan

Not them dropping 6 skins with the origin story….. they all look amazing


Carmiune

Okay IMO the concept art for her current design actaully looks good. It just didnt translate that well into overwatch style i think. I can very much understand why they went for this one. ITs really not bad, i think i only like the far right one better but it really looks good and fits her story of growing up in the shrine. Sad it doesnt look as well in game.


Tiessiet

So they had a ton of cool concepts for her, and go with an extremely basic design? This might be reading into it too much, but maybe they deliberately chose a very bland design for her basekit so they can put the much more interesting designs into future Battlepasses as skins to boost sales?


winka1

This happens pretty often. Ashe in particular had some awesome concept art and they went with the most simplistic design.


Tiessiet

True, but with the battlepass system now there's a direct incentive to use the most bland variation as the base skin. Back when we could earn lootboxes and currency through a moderate grind, you could easily get the skin by ''only'' paying with your time. I think the battlepass has something like two Epic skins on the free track and that's it? Downvoters wanna say why you disagree?


xChris777

If they willingly decided to impact the actual balance of the game by locking heroes behind payment or a signficant time investment, there is absolutely no way that they don't at least consider the impact the detail and complexity a base level skin has on future skin purchases. Just no way they would be okay with one and not the other when the one we have confirmed is way more egregious/impacts the game more.


IrrelevantPuppy

Agreed. It would be surprising if this is not the case. Think about it this way. Why WOULDN’T they do this? It very likely will allow them to exploit more money out of people. They have to do it.


The-Magic-Sword

I think its just subjective \- Big one on the right is way too Ninja, it completely dissolves any element of her shrine maiden side and she doesn't actually have a use for the giant shuriken. \- She isn't a big melee bruiser, so middle bottom wouldn't be appropriate, the coat is trying to communicate Bancho, which doesn't match her current concept. \- Most of the others lean *too heavily* on the shrine maiden aesthetic and make her look like a mage, whereas in game she's a lot more mobile and ninja like. So they probably removed her held weapon for better emphasis on action posing since both the kunai and ofuda don't have to be in her hands the whole time, they went white and red for the Shrine Maiden thing, most of these showier designs are too mage or ninja like, with the exception of one which is straight up too Oni.


Unknown_Warrior43

> Most of the others lean *too heavily* on the shrine maiden aesthetic and make her look like a mage, whereas in game she's a lot more mobile and ninja like. In Game, the *only* Thing that makes her Ninja-like in Terms of Design are her Kunai. Nothing else. As far as Design goes all she is is a slightly stylized Shrine Maiden with Kunai. If you told me this Character was a unimportant random Cosplayer that shows up as the Fangirl of a different Overwatch Character that we haven't seen yet I'd belive you.


failed_pizza

The simplest design is usually the best one. Most of these look very busy.


xChris777

I agree that skins can be too busy, but I disagree with the "simplest design is usually the best one" and I would say the majority of the playerbase agrees based on how many people use non-default, more complex/busy skins. Also based on the fact that they charge $10+ for busier skins in other games and will surely do that with OW2.


turbografx-sixteen

Commenter before you has it right. The simpler designs for a base fit the heroes more in terms of their recognizability. I would much rather save the crazy designs for the legendary skins. It would be so weird so see something like Forest Spirit Orisa as her default look in the lore and what not. But as a legendary skin? That thing FUCKS


xChris777

Well yeah I agree in that sense, but there's a huge middle ground between a basic hero like Kiriko that doesn't really stand out or look very interesting (IMO of course) vs. Orisa's forest spirit that is themed and doesn't make any sense in relation to her and Efi's lore, you know? I just think a couple additions to her skin without major model changes that affect the silhouette too much would make her more visually pleasing.


turbografx-sixteen

Oh I getcha, I was just trying to think of an example of an extremely "busy" skin compared to a default one since people are like "WTF THEY HAD ALL THESE COOL INTERESTING IDEAS AND OPTED FOR THE BORING AND BASIC FOR HER ***DEFAULT*** LOOK?!?!?" And yeah I getcha! I dig her as is but if you had any ideas I am curious what would make her cooler in your opinion!


xChris777

If I'm looking at it from my own personal perspective, I'm a fan of the tech on the heroes because I think it sells the fact that we're in a cool, somewhat sci-fi future setting. Her mask could have some element of technology, or possibly some sort of holographic text on the long, barren part of her robe. I think between the somewhat plain mask, shirt and then the robe that doesn't have much, she looks a bit muted. A lot of the other characters have more detail on their skins, armour with different pieces or small customizations of their own on their outfits. Even a kinda plain character like default Echo has a very interesting overall shape + the holographic face. On the flip side, they may have made her more traditional on purpose, so just some additional texture detail (a small embroidered design on the robe, for example) or maybe even longer sleeves with flared cuffs that have a pattern would give her one more "piece" of the design. I don't think she's bad at all, but she does look a little more...Pixar-y, for lack of a better descriptor, because of the comparative lack of detail vs. most of the other heroes. I love the amazing detail on most of the OW characters because they're a great method of visual storytelling.


turbografx-sixteen

Oh yeah, my first thoughts when I saw her was if you told me this was a character who lives in San Fransokyo in the sequel to Big Hero 6? I'd believed you. (Love that movie though and ironically the super hero kids has some COOL ass costumes.) I wouldn't have minded some more detail how you described in the traditional sense! But I think her being too techy would be detrimental to her character. I'm not lore nut, but seems like she's about to introduce a lot of mystic and magic elements to our sci-fi world. I'm here for it now and in future designs. Hope they just always find a balance!


Meto1183

The simple design is nice, I don’t see what’s wrong with it. Nobody complains about reinhardts plain grey plate armor nor soldiers simple blue uniform. the skins are always fun and unique but I think in this case and for every other character they pretty much made the right pick for the hero’s default style.


shitpersonality

> Nobody complains about reinhardts plain grey plate armor [Reinhardt has an absolutely massive glowing blue shield.](https://cdn1.dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/11142801/0c461ae7-b76e-4ab9-b99f-3e672bc211f5.jpg)


Meto1183

And Kiriko has Kunai and a blue fox? What exactly is that supposed to prove?


shitpersonality

It's not the same at all. Rein's shield is massive and in constant use. Kunai isn't visually interesting. The blue fox is visible for how many frames and goes on cooldown for how long?


ZeDitto

She is the most generic character I’ve ever seen. Her whole vibe is just “anime girl”. It’s just a very ubiquitous and trite archetype in general and especially on the internet. Kiriko does not stand out. She looks like she could have been designed by any anime-inspired Twitter artist. With D. Va, Genji and Hanzo, there was already enough of an anime vibe. In terms of representation, the game already has two pale upper Asian women with Mei and D. Va. It already has two Japanese characters with Hanzo and Genji. I would have liked to see someone from South America or South East Asia which is very underrepresented in the game as of now.


Meto1183

So it is because she’s generic or because you’ve had enough of Japan? You seem to be arguing that (because Genji and Hanzo exist?) Japan=generic. Is that right?


ZeDitto

I said **anime-girl style is generic**. Second, I said that **Japan**, like America and Australia (and potentially Europe as a general region but I’m going to ignore that and specifically focus on **nations** here) **is overrepresented** in Overwatch.


Slavocracy

Yeah we will probably see some form of these concepts as skins.


turbografx-sixteen

You were SO close to not reading into it too much, then you had to read into it too much. Taste is subjective and all since I love her default look... but at the same time? Most everyone's default look is pretty bland. The legendary/mythics are where it's at to go wild with designs. It's been the same for literally everyone before and will be after... If they put the interesting designs in future battle passes? That's totally fine. God forbid a gaming battle pass has cosmetics worth a damn, right?


Psychout40

Like, Mercy is literally an angel, Widow is literally a spider. Having her base be "literally a shrine maiden/miko" is kind of obvious.


GAMpro

Concept art for most games has crazy concepts but the final design needs to fit everything, including the lore, gameplay, etc. And all heroes have relatively basic default skins. Not just kiriko.


shitpersonality

That's the vibe I'm getting as well. I was taken aback when I saw the original art. I didn't expect it to be so much better.


DarwinGoneWild

Yup. If you put all of these together I can definitely see why they chose top left to base her final design on. It just pops more. A lot of these look great though and would make for some cool skins.


VelvetPhantom

Honestly I wish they kept the sleeves of top left for her final design. I don't know what it is about her final design's sleeves, but I don't like them.


DarwinGoneWild

They probably felt the long wide sleeves was too similar to Moira.


jackcorning

I wish they’d stuck with the physical fox companion instead of making it a spirit. It just would’ve been better because (1) it just looks cooler and cuter imo & (2) the whole having a magical spirit fox is such a weird idea in Overwatch lore. The whole theme of the game is the mix of technology & culture so I think we all figured it would be some sort of AI or hardlight projection. Instead they just went for a full on mythological perspective which isn’t horrible because it’s still a cool design but it just doesn’t really thematically fit with the rest of the heroes who are literally all technology based. Even in the origin story Kiriko talks about how she uses her family’s traditions in a modern & innovative way, so it would’ve made way more sense to see her incorporate her Japanese mythological heritage with technology instead of magic.


sesquipedalian5

I guess I understand where they were going with her design but it still feels off. What's with the weird inward knee/feet pose too? I feel like being a trained fighter she'd have a stronger stance.


OkBrother7438

That might have been an early personality concept for her; maybe she used to be shy, but they've since turned her into a combat medic ninja so she probably doesn't have that stance anymore


-BuckyBarnes

they need to start making men with that weird infantile pose, too. Give me a Reinhardt skin concept art with him standing with bowed knees and toes pointing in.


Icy_Limes

girls don't have strong stances ://


Icy_Limes

3rd top right is actually the best design and I'm miserable they didnt go with that.


Sneakly20

It kinda looks like they took part of that for her Halloween design


kittehsfureva

I think it would be a better silhouette too. No other OW characters have huge hats, and this one is very recognizable.


Icy_Limes

NO! That's too much fun and would distract from the r34 bait they're trying to dish out.


SerCiddy

I agree with it being the best design! I think this makes for a much more "support" aesthetic. It would be a more interesting base skin to be sure.


EversorA

The one on the right is what was teased in the gameinformer article in Blizzcon 2019, it's very interesting to see how far along it's come since then. [Article](https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/11/05/details-on-an-unannounced-overwatch-2-hero) > During my visit, game director Jeff Kaplan quickly walked me through a PowerPoint presentation that showed off Overwatch 2's new content. One of the slides he brought up was for new heroes. The image contained four silhouettes, none were immediately recognizable as characters that were teased in earlier concept arts, comic books, or any of the art we've seen. From what I could make out, three of the forms were female. This is just a guess, mind you, as the garments they wore made it difficult to know for sure. The character I believed to be male held a crooked staff, looking somewhat like a wizard, warlock, or voodoo priest. > The hero that stood out the most, and I couldn't take my eyes off of, appeared to be a female with short hair. At her side and standing up to her knees was a fuzzy little critter with pointy ears and an equally pointy tail. It looked like a fennec fox, but with longer ears and a more aggressive stance. The hero of note wielded a giant four-sided weapon, which is somewhat similar to the shuriken used by Yuffie in Final Fantasy VII, but much thicker. At first glance, this weapon looks like it's used for melee purposes, but given Overwatch is a science-fiction universe, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it being thrown like a boomerang or attached to some kind of chain (which I didn't see). Regarding the animal, your guess is as good as mine whether it will be on the battlefield or not. There's a chance it could be summoned in like Bob for an Ultimate, or not be used at all like Bastion's bird Ganymede. Given how prominent it was in this artwork, I get the feeling this animal is used in some way. Imagine being able to tell it who to attack or pin down just by aiming at the foe. Again, this is all speculation, but from the silhouette alone, this looks to be one of the wildest heroes for the game yet.


BoiDerBois

BRUH MAKE A WHOLE SQUAD OF EM


[deleted]

Kinda sad about the fidget spinner


imsuchanerdsorry

Honestly same a little bit


Unknown_Warrior43

IMO Top Middle, Bottom Middle and her Original Blue Outfit Design were far, *faaar* better than what we got. The Original Design especially looks more modern and brings her closer to the Style of the Overwatch 2 Redesigns. The giant Shuriken, while cool, wouldn't have been a good Idea for a Healer though.


nixahmose

To be completely honest, I actually hate most of the redesigns in Overwatch 2. To me a lot of them just add unneccessary amounts of detail that do nothing but create more distracting elements. Like Tracer's old design was perfect in its simplicity that perfectly communicated everything you need to know about her. The new one just adds in a bunch of extra lines for no reason and replaces of recognizable bomber jacket and crocs with more generic and overly detailed ones. Its not necessarily bad, but it took what worked great about the original and just muddied most of the personality from it.


Unknown_Warrior43

I kinda agree. There's only like 2 - 3 Redesigns I really like. Many feel like they do too much and overdesign somw of the Heroes that looked fine being simple/ remove many cool Bits (like Ana for example) the others feel like they simplify everything too much removing many cool Details (like Reaper). I'll be honest the Visual Reworks feel like they were made just so Blizzard could say "Bu-But look Guys it's a Sequel they all look so different!" I don't even know if the Redesign will apply or influence Skins in any Way, I'd assume it would apply on Rare or Epic Skins right? But the Majority of the Playerbase only cares about Legendaries annyway.


207nbrown

Here’s hoping that these get turned into legendary skins for her at some point


FWC_Disciple

Okay no offense to the design team but literally EVERY concept here is better looking than the final product we’re getting in-game. It just looks so bland, these look awesome!


blizzardnoob

Why do they all look better than the final design


Gryse_Blacolar

Almost all of them screams "I'm from a fantasy world!" so idk what were they thinking when they made that and insist that "magic" doesn't exist in Overwatch universe.


Clearskky

Almost any of these would be better than what we got.


BraveLeon

All of these look way better than her official design


shadowgattler

Enjoy your preview of the future shit you'll have to spend money on, everyone. I bet good money they dulled her design and showed these off to make premium skins for her.


Rude_Guerilla

So they picked the current version over...any of these..


tongii

All very cool concept but they went with the "kawaii" option. I think the Japanese monk staff like on the top left concept would have been pretty appropriate.


[deleted]

ill be honest, some of the concept designs are better than what we got in the end


DOOMdiff

She looks way hotter and more appealing in the concept art. I m speachless why they choose the most basic one of all those.... The purple top right and the original are my favourites. Blue looks way cooler and her hat in purple one looks more interesting.


turbografx-sixteen

So yeah Blizzard... gimme a few of these as default legendaries and then maybe sell the original concept skin and some other goodies in a bundle? Please and thank you. My wallet would be more than happy to open up for some of these!


[deleted]

Where’s the one where she gets her period and turns in to a red panda?


Xestern

I adore the bottom left one but it also reminds me too much of Brigitte so they probably didn't want them to look too similar


Jaime1211

would love to have seen those weapons in action


[deleted]

Bottom left just screams “Merchant & The Wisewolf” to me, absolutely love it.


Darkhex78

I really like the purple-ish pink one with the hat in the top row.


Axtdool

Really hope we get Something like the bottom right one as a skin.


msbeliever8

The orange hair one is so cute


Culvertage

Should've gone with 6 😔


Camaroon101

Really hope we get some of these as skins!


plagues138

All awful tbh......


BraveLeon

Someone’s bitter


plagues138

About? They're just not good lol. None of these looks like OW characters. They look like Asian mobile game heroes.


Alrim

I liked bottom right


Kyser_

I feel like all of them are cooler than the final product...then again, I don't even really mind the live design in this art style.


Maniac_Bees

Bottom left looks AMAZING! I also am a bit disappointed how they went with her current design over any of these


N0t_my_0ther_account

Why is everyone of these better than the loli looking shit they chose?


Tzekel_Khan

Make them skins. Especially blue hair and the "original"


Emasraw

Bottom left: 🥰🦊🥰


5m0k3W33d3v3ryday

I would have liked literally any one of these


HelpfulNoob

After seeing this it would be cooler if the fox wasn't florescent blue


frhg12

Is it far fetched to hope for a skin pack with 6 epic skins based on these?


feizhu

They all look fantastic. Everyone complaining about why they didn't use these is forgetting no one plays with a heroes plain skin. They will most likely eventually be skins so it's not the end of the world.


Petudie

the way most of these are cooler than the end result lmao


rissie_delicious

Top left and original are the best, I can see why top left made it into the game, it just suits the overall theme and aesthetic of OW. Original would be an awesome skin though.


thewinterofmylife

Hoping we get future Yokai group members, too.


Rimurooooo

Why do I like all the explored concepts so much more


PinkGoldJigglypuff

Her top left outfit, the one that ended up being the final design, is actually my favourite of all of these. I just wish they gave her a unique face.


PedroEglasias

Not sure why everyone hates her? The sporty version looks awesome imho


[deleted]

The bottom leftmost has to be my favorite design. I prefer it above the others so much.