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.

Monday, 6 July 2026

Kunitsu-Gami Game Design Commentary 23: Yatsurao(八面王やつらおう)

■第23回 課題多すぎ?皆やつれる、やつらおう
ステージ丸々ボス戦という変化球のためにトンデモない労力が…
見た目のデザインするにも先に決めなきゃ行けないことが多いです。
この敵は、ステージの進行コンテを描いたり、レベルデザインも考えつつ、細かな造形デザインも自身でさせて貰いました。途中経過で面白い発想と感じたモノを結構取り込んでいます。
八面王(やつらおう)ヤマタノオロチ的な見た目の山の神というイメージから、自然物に取り憑くので、腕、手、指を軸に考え、指で印を結びを8つ作って顔に見せたりして、その形で攻撃方法が分かると面白いかなと考えました。
全てのセクションで取り組んだ最大級畏哭は、皆の情熱により完成しました。BGMも素晴らしい!
■Round 23: Too Many Challenges? Everyone's Worn Out, the Eight-Faced King
For that curveball of an entire stage being a boss battle, it took an absurd amount of effort...
Even when it comes to designing the visuals, there are so many things that have to be decided in advance.
For this enemy, I handled the stage progression key visuals, thought about level design, and even did the detailed modeling design myself. I've incorporated quite a few ideas that felt intriguing during the process.
The Eight-Faced King (Yatsura-Oh)—starting from the image of a mountain god with a Yamata no Orochi-like appearance, since it possesses natural objects, I built it around arms, hands, and fingers as the core, creating eight mudras with the fingers to make them look like faces, and I thought it would be cool if the attack patterns became clear from that form.
The maximum dread I tackled across all sections was completed thanks to everyone's passion. The BGM is fantastic too!

Plaque Lore:
太古より生きる御神木ごしんぼく。山の伐採ばっさいにより木々がけがれるのをあわれむかのように、自らにけがれを集め続けていると言われている。その御神木ごしんぼく先端せんたんは「顔」と呼ばれ、時折表情を変えるという。その情景を見た村人は八つの面を持つへびのような木としておそれた。
Yatsurao is a sacred tree that has existed since ancient times. It is said that the tree absorbs all of the defilement that has afflicted felled trees into itself out of pity. The tip of the tree is known as its face and has features that change on occasion. Villagers who witnessed this change feared the tree for its likeness to an eight-headed snake.
Yatsurao! 

8 mudras. The number 8 again...