That’s right I said it. I know it’s a smoldering hot take because everyone else is getting juicy over her, but let me tell you a little story about a movie called The Phantom Menace. It’s not a story the content creators would tell you…
The year was 1999, and George Lucas treated us to the first Star Wars movie in well over a decade. It was a spectacular sci-fi masterpiece. Critics lauded it. Audiences obsessed over it. It was an enormous commercial hit that satisfied all expectations.
We wanted to love it. We needed to love it, because we had been starved of Star Wars content for years and weren’t yet emotionally ready to process our disappointment. But deep down, we knew the disappointment was there. Once we felt ready to recognize it, we realized…this movie actually sucks Guinness world record-sized horse balls.
Kiriko isn’t as bad as The Phantom Menace. And the people who love Kiriko aren’t lying to themselves. But I do think her praise is inflated and will fade once the honeymoon period is over. Had Kiriko been released in 2017 – rather than at a time when she was the first new support hero in 3.5 years – I believe the community response would’ve been an overwhelming “meh.” Now here’s why I personally think her design (not her power level) sucks.
DAMAGE
If you’ve ever been pissed on by a seagull (or by Seagull), then you know what it’s like to be struck by Kiriko’s kunai. It’s an annoyance, but you’ll probably survive. “But wait!” you say, “3X headshot damage!”
3X headshot damage is a deceptive marketing gimmick. In truth it’s more fair to say she has 1/3X bodyshot damage. 120 damage crits isn’t noteworthy. Bap’s full burst does 150. Lucio’s burst does 160. But damage doesn’t matter. DPS matters, and here Kiriko is even more underwhelming.
Looking exclusively at crit DPS, Kiriko does 219 – a little more than Mercy’s 200. Zen does 240. Bap does 259. Zen with discord does 300. And this is headshots only. Kiriko falls even further behind when bodyshots are considered, which are the vast majority of hits.
I know, I know… “She has mobility! She can flank behind the enemy, get a kill then swift step to safety.” It’s a meme strat. Basically 2022’s version of Flankhardt. Unlike Bap, Lucio and Zen, Kiriko can’t damage and heal simultaneously. Flanking to provide damage then relying on her mobility to disengage means forsaking her team for a considerable period.
In the time it takes Kiriko to reach an off angle and get a kill, Zen would already have gotten two kills and had brunch with a friend, formed a special connection that led to more than friendship, gotten married, gotten divorced 3 years later due to irreconcilable differences, hated his ex for several years until each of them developed the maturity to reflect and realize they were both at fault, both apologize and re-establish their friendship, then have brunch again like old times. Forsaking her teammates this long to secure a kill could be viable if her damage were as strong as her healing, but it’s not.
SKILL EXPRESSION
Without a secondary means of dealing damage like Lucio, Ana, Moira, Zen and Brig (the latter two each have 3), Kiriko feels unfinished and mundane. She can’t perform complex animation cancels to change healing targets while simultaneously damaging and debuffing enemies like Zen can. She can’t leverage her mobility while firing to attack more evasively like Lucio. She can’t heal an ally while also damaging their target to provide them two layers of concurrent support like Bap, Brig, Zen or Lucio. Her movement ability is skill-less and automated, lacking all the intricacies that Mercy, Lucio and to an extent even Moira and Brig can demonstrate with theirs. Her healing method is utilitarian, following an ally like repair pack and harmony. But while Brig and Zen can fire those abilities quickly then resume offense, Kiriko has to commit to a long casting of healing, locked out of her other abilities (unless she chooses to cancel the healing and sacrifice heals for damage – another needless handicap Brig and Zen don’t have to endure). In short, Kiriko can only do one thing at a time.
Though content creators claimed she had the highest skill ceiling of any support, Kiriko has one of the lowest. This is a simple, low APM hero whose skill floor and ceiling are entirely defined by a single ability: her kunai. She is not the Genji of supports. She’s the Soldier 76; all of her mechanical skill expression lies in standing and aiming. Even worse, despite having a low skill ceiling she also has an arguably high skill floor, due to her kunai being ineffective by design, presenting the illusion of difficulty. Her damage application requires more effort for the same reward, all without the promise that the character’s output will continue to scale with the player’s growing skill like most other supports.
SLOW AND CLUNKY
Game designers and game design aficionados seem to dislike non-technical terms like “clunky,” so I’ll articulate precisely what it means. Clunky means the hero is overburdened with excessive casting and recovery animations that prioritize technical balance over fun. She feels slow and unengaging to players accustomed to faster-paced kits. Kiriko plays like a bulky, lumbering knight ala Dark Souls – not a swift, dexterous ninja ala Sekiro.
Her lack of animation cancels means she’s frequently waiting for her actions to complete, and the player is powerless to do anything about it. With latency exacerbating these issues further, even players with the sharpest of reflexes will find themselves acting first yet dying first as suzu and swift step fail them in times of need. Many times, using swift step in a team fight is like trying to get a Blizz exec penalized for sexual harassment. It takes at least 7 attempts. Where is the ninja-like grace in this implementation? Can we get the breast milk thieves to do a rework? Now those dudes must have a firm grasp of stealth and swiftness.
It’s also frustrating that the suzu recovery animation locks her out of swift step. Is this a technical band-aid fix because Blizz couldn’t figure out how to transition from suzu recovery animation into swift step animation? Regardless of the answer, this doesn’t meet AAA standards. It’s another reminder that the quintessential “Blizzard polish” mainly pertains to aesthetics, though their aesthetics are indeed always impressive.
KUNAI HITBOX PROBLEMS
Tracer’s hands are up, which explains some of what’s seen here but not all of it. I tested every projectile hero who can crit and while most had quirks against Tracer, Kiriko was by far the worst. Lucio’s shots had no difficulty making it past Tracer’s hands to crit her from head on, despite that his projectiles are larger. I can’t help but wonder what other heroes she may struggle against. Hitboxes for heroes and projectiles may need a full sweep.
CHARACTER
Genji and Hanzo are forged by trauma. Genji tries to reconcile his past with his new, more optimistic lease on life, as Hanzo broods and wallows in regret. But despite also having a tough background and still fighting gangs to this day, Kiriko isn’t allowed to express her pain. Her job is to look cute and be an anime magical girl while delivering the occasional edgy line in a calculated (and futile) attempt to convince us she’s totally not a Mary Sue.
D.Va’s and Mei’s shorts deepened their characters by showing their struggle to balance strength with vulnerability. Kiriko’s short showed only her strength and lovability, suggesting she lacks depth beyond that. Why couldn’t Kiriko be the deaf character, still dealing with insecurities about her handicap as an adult? Why couldn’t she be a former Hashimoto clan member, who now fights them in part for the ulterior quest for redemption? Why doesn’t she resent her mother for abandoning Genji and Hanzo after their father’s death? Why isn’t Kiriko anything but eye candy?
Maybe there are in-game lines expanding upon her character and I just haven’t encountered them yet. So far, all I’m seeing is the adorable, compassionate, funny, confident dream girlfriend who can protect us but never burdens us with her emotional baggage, all while inexplicably speaking English with an American accent to maximize her dubbed anime waifu vibes. If anyone is curious about how not to write a female character, Kiriko is a masterclass.
IN CONCLUSION
I consider Kiriko the pinnacle of mediocrity – at least her current version. It’s common for a hero’s abilities to emphasize gratifying mechanics over imagination, but Kiriko’s kit is uninspired both mechanically and creatively, while her personality can best be described as “existing.” I don’t hate Kiriko quite as much as Blizz hates consumer-friendly monetization, but I certainly dislike her. If this represents OW2 hero design in a post-Goodman world, I’m worried about the game’s future. On a positive note, her design has a strong foundation and can easily be refined.
HOW I’D CHANGE HER
Not claiming this is an improvement over Blizz’s work. These are just selfish changes that would make Kiriko more fun for me personally. All values are placeholders to demonstrate the concepts.
I’d reduce swift step from 30m to 20m and remove the ally requirement. Take Kiriko off her leash and let her go where she wants when she wants. The ally target requirement is incongruous with the character design; she’s a powerful, independent leader. Not a follower. The current swift step is as inappropriate for Kiriko as Sigma’s kit was for Mauga.
I’d adjust her damage values. Start by changing 40/120 to 50/100. Then increase kunai RoF by 15%. I want to feel like I’m spending less time waiting and more time doing.
She needs a secondary attack desperately. I’d make Kiriko’s quick melee activate on button release rather than on button press. Now, tapping the button still performs the current quick melee, but holding the button charges up a spirit orb (maybe the fox itself). Charge time is 1.5 to 2s. Once charged, Kiriko releases the button and her punch fires out the orb, which deals a moderate damage value like 50 within a small AoE comparable to that of helix rocket. Enemies hit by Kiriko’s melee strike as she fires the orb take 80 damage (30+50). There’s no charging animation, so Kiriko can charge the orb while performing other actions. Firing the orb animation cancels kunai exactly as quick melee currently does.
This provides a secondary attack without occupying another ability slot. It creates combos and makes Kiriko a viable peeler. She now has access to more mechanically intricate plays like damaging an enemy while charging orb, swift stepping close behind them, then unleashing the orb supplemented by quick melee damage as the finishing blow.
I’d moderately increase suzu casting speed as well. It seems designed as a reactive ability, but its capacity to be used reactively is buffered by its casting time. Maybe I’m misreading the intent, but it often feels bad to use right now.
Allow her to animation cancel suzu with swift step. Now she can more reliably throw suzu long distances and swift step into it. There are numerous scenarios where this would be helpful, and having this tactic more readily available adds another layer of skill expression.
Give her a dark secret or insecurity. Did she work for the Hashimoto clan during a rebellious period in her teen years? In her naivete, did she think she was doing the right thing for a time? How would Genji and Hanzo feel if they knew she once helped the clan responsible for their father’s death? Make her an actual character. I realize none of these ideas are special. They’re a very rough starting point. Blizz could do much better. I’m just hoping their commitment to more quantity doesn’t mean continued degradation of quality.
If you love Kiriko and hate everything I said and want to slap me (harder, mommy 
), that’s okay. I’m glad you’re happy with the hero! Just needed to get this off my chest, but I still have plenty of other heroes I can play, and I’m still grateful for all of them.
