Kunitsu-Gami Game Design Commentary 15: Batsu(魃ばつ)

■第15回　色々混ざった乾きの大ボス！魃… pic.twitter.com/AMku2ujoHv

— 【公式】 祇（くにつがみ）：Path of the Goddess (@Kunitsu_Gami_JP) May 20, 2026

■第15回　色々混ざった乾きの大ボス！魃

最初期にボスとしてラフ絵は上げていたもので考えた通りの敵になりました。大ボスの設定、干ばつのイメージから、乾き→地面ひび割れ→蜘蛛の巣っぽい→蜘蛛…みたいな連想を繰り返し、顔は動物では無く人寄り、開くと獣感、牛鬼とくだんを混ぜた様な印象にしました。

当初は尻尾に当たる部分は考えておらず、前後の分かり易さ、後ろが隙みたいな印象が必要かな？との意見もあり、蜘蛛の糸を出すようなよく動く尻尾をつけ足しました。この部分の動きの柔らかさも相まって妙な迫力が出ましたね。

当時はデザイン、モデル、リグ制作、アニメーションまで全部作ったのも、良い情熱の思い出。

ひび割れのエフェクトが良い感じに蜘蛛の巣要素を演出してもらえたり、プログラムでの動きも良い感じに生き生きとした制御。

異界遷宮で通常ウェーブで出て来た時のインパクトは必見です。

■15th Round: The Great Boss of Mixed-Up Dryness! The Drought Spirit

This was one I had uploaded rough sketches of as a boss from the very earliest stages, and it turned out exactly as I had envisioned as an enemy. For the great boss's setup, drawing from the image of drought, I went through associations like dryness → cracked ground → spiderweb-like → spider..., and made the face more human-like rather than animalistic, with a beastly feel when it opens, giving an impression like a mix of a cow demon and a prophetic beast.

Originally, I hadn't thought about the part that serves as a tail, but there were opinions that it might be necessary for clarity between front and back, and to give the impression of a vulnerability in the rear, so I added a highly mobile tail that looks like it could shoot out spider threads. Combined with the softness of movement in this part, it ended up creating a strangely compelling intensity.

Back then, making everything from the design, modeling, rigging, to animation was a fond memory of passionate effort.

The crack effects nicely brought out the spiderweb elements, and the programming for its movements was controlled in a way that made it vividly lively.

The impact when it appears in a normal wave in the Otherworldly Migration is a must-see.

Plaque Lore:

人が増えれば増えるほど様々な穢けがれを呼び込こむ。人が人を忌いみ嫌きらい、妬ねたみなどを向け呪のろいをかける。その昔、自分の土地よりも豊かに土地を実らせた人々を妬ねたむ村人がいた。その村人はついには家畜かちくの死体を使い、人々を呪のろってしまったという。呪のろいの力は凄すさまじく、山の一部をすべて干上がらせてしまった。魃ばつとは呪のろいをかけたその村人が変貌へんぼうした姿とも言われている。

Humans and defilement increase in equal parts, curses born from humanity's disdain and envy. Long ago, a man who was envious of those with more abundant fields used the carcasses of livestock to cast a curse upon the land. Legend states that the curse was so potent it dried out the entire side of the mountain and transformed the envious man into a frightening beast.