ᴄᴀʀʀʏɪɴɢ ᴀ sᴡᴏʀᴅ ʙᴜᴛ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ɴᴀᴍᴇ, ᴀ Fɪɢᴜʀᴇ ʀᴜɴs ᴀᴄʀᴏss ᴛʜᴇ ʙʀɪᴅɢᴇ ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴs ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴀʀᴛʜ.

Oh, ᴀ ᴍᴇssᴇɴɢᴇʀ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇɪᴛʏ ʜᴀs ᴄᴏᴍᴇ!

❀ Previous Theory(until I write about my new, current one)❀

Kunitsu-Gami lore as its own entity: looking at myth of the mountain god and new ideas on Cursed Soh's identity.

Saturday, 9 May 2026

Kunitsu-Gami Game Design Commentary 10: Hozukime (鬼灯目ほおずきめ)

■第10回 範囲攻撃=爆発!?鬼灯目
モチーフより、機能から!
役割としては各職業を固めて置いておくと痛い目に会うかもよ?という存在。これを、”範囲攻撃と抽象化した敵デザイン”での表現を目指しました。記号としては分かり易くなっている思います。
デザイン的には百目っぽい事をやりたいと考えていましたが、そもそも、目が無いって設定にもしたい…、どうしよう。
目の様な物に穢れが入った水風船と思い込んでデザインしたんですけど、伝わりにくいので自身のアイデアは没!!
思考を変える為に、鬼灯目にしたいんですという事だけを伝え、モデラーの方にデザインして頂きました!自分には無い路線で、一塊としてみて、両側に赤目っぽい装飾があり、顔っぽい部分が鼻。そして、亜種の土壌汚しの際には顔が伸びで亀のような見た目!!面白く仕上がりました。珍しくデザイン画も多かったキャラクター。
■10th Round: Area Attack = Explosion!? Lantern Eye
From function, rather than motif!
In terms of role, it's an entity that might make you regret locking down each class too rigidly. For this, I aimed to express it through "area attacks and abstracted enemy design." As a symbol, I think it's become quite clear and easy to understand.
In terms of design, I wanted to go for something reminiscent of a hundred-eyed creature, but at the same time, I also wanted the setting to be that it fundamentally has no eyes... What to do.
I ended up designing it by imagining a water balloon filled with filth in the shape of an eye, but it was hard to convey, so I scrapped my own idea!!
To shift my thinking, I just conveyed to the modeler that I wanted to make it a Lantern Eye, and had them design it! It went in a direction I wouldn't have thought of: viewed as a single mass, with red eye-like decorations on both sides, and the face-like part serving as the nose. And during the subspecies' soil contamination phase, the face stretches out to give it a turtle-like appearance!! It turned out really fun. Unusually for me, this character had a lot of design sketches.

Plaque Lore:
人の手によって開拓かいたくされた土地、土地を敬う心を忘れた人々、それらによって生じたけがれが土地を返せとなげく時に姿を現す。 刺激しげきあたえるとその目は赤くなり、散り際に周囲にけがれをまき散らす。 その様が人々から鬼灯ほおずきのようだと言われている。
Humans have forgotten their place as they till, shear, and cleave the ever-giving earth, the benefactor of their very existence. The Hozukimeare born of the defiled land, lamenting its destruction. The shape of
a ground cherry, their eyes turn red when provoked, and when they are destroyed, the defilement within their bodies returns to the earth.