[Hero concept] Miho, the nine tailed fox (concept art included!)

jeonggiyun23

New member
Hello, I've been really enjoying the game and wanted to contribute something to this great project.
I saw that there was a japanese character (Yamato) and Thought to myself " If there is a japanese character in the game, Why cant a Korean one be in it as well?" and went straight to work.
Poured my time and sweat on this one, enjoy!

p.s English is not my native language, so there might be some grammer mistakes. Apologizes in advance.

<Miho Core concept art>
Since the game was set in the 1920s Noir with supernatural elements, my mind went through lot of drafts, but ultimately landed on three core concepts.
1. Korean - american History (The japanese occupation era)
3. Casino / gambling house entertainer (noir fiction genre and a great aesthetical substitute for Kpop )
2. The nine tailed fox (supernatural creature known for tricks and charming preys)
I thought these three concepts could meld well in the game.

Miho_project_chr.jpg





<Miho lore concept>
Since 1920 was during the japanese occupation era for Korea, the lore had to have a reason why the hero is in America.
And to this, I found a great book that inspired me to conjure up a story that could give a reason to the conundrum above.

Miho_project_chr_lore.jpg



<Miho animation concept>
Since the character is based on magicians and entertainers, i thought it would be paramount for the hero to have a flare of showmanship when she is moving around.
The cane and tophat could work as a great way to emphasize burst of mobility.

Miho_project_chr_anims.jpg



<Miho ability concepts>
I tried to give the hero an ability kit that is fitting to her theme as a trickster that will also feel unique against current and future heroes.
Miho is a high skill floor, high skill ceiling utility hero that disorientate and confuse the enemy by being able to bypass a lot of the games rules, but only if you understand how to play her right.

Especially ability 2, Shapeshift can be a great tool when giving your team comp some much needed unpredictablity as you can technically play any character in the middle of the match. The burst AoE also makes sure that enemies won't be coming in close quarters without a second thought as they do not know if what they see in front of them is a Vindicta whose one punch away from dying, or a shapeshifted Miho whose full HP and ready to pounce.

Ability 3 Clone is a great escape tool that can also be used for various situations such as semi creeps, extending AoE or items reach, and nuking if aligned correctly.

Ability 1 and 4 are tools that turn the tide of momentum of a duel, gank or team fight.

Ability 1 Charm is a tool that when hit, not only forces them to walk towards you, but also steal a portion of the enemies health, gun and spirit damage for a short duration. Therefore, The stronger and tankier the enemies are, the more effective this ability will be.

Ability 4 Ensnare not only burns enemies for 10% of their max HP, but also forces them to fight amongst each other for a short second. This ability shows its full potential in team fight as every second could result in either your team wiping or your enemies wiping.

Miho_project_chr_ability1.jpg
Miho_project_chr_ability2_1.jpg
Miho_project_chr_ability2_2.jpg
Miho_project_chr_ability3.jpg
Miho_project_chr_ability4_1.jpg
Miho_project_chr_ability4_2.jpg

<Conclusion>
I, like many other, see the potential of the game to be a great success. And as crass it may be, I would like to see a hero that comes from my country ! So Thank you for reading this hopeful fools post til the end.
 
Hate the hair and I also don't like the nine-tailed fox demon theme but that's just a personal bias after having seen it in so much anime. Other than that I like the design as I love Zatanna and 1900s magician aesthetic

The moves are interesting but shape-shift is broken with being able to use other heroes moves and resetting cooldowns that would have to be an ultimate and even then it's probably broken.

Ability 1 just flat out removing gun and spirit shield seems too strong

Also ult is probably busted unless they are basically immune to damage from your team while fighting see Winter Wyvern in Dota 2 as an example
 
Neat idea. You've put a lot of effort in this. I like the idea in the concept art and the ideas are neat. I can't really discuss balance, but the post above me already fills like that role.
I will have to agree with the person about the nine tailed fox, I also don't like it. Are there any other animals you could use for her concept or is a fox set in stone from a design perspective?
All in all good job, really neat concept and hope Valve notices it.
 
love the zatana kinda hero idea .. maybe just have magician theme instead of nine tail fox. very cool art work though i love how much work u put into it. but i think there are too many 9 tail fox stuff goin around in mobas.
 
Theming them after a nine tailed fox, which i had always assumed was japanese, is going to mostly just make people assume the character is japanese, not korean.

The charm ability making people shoot each other is a problem, because either they will be inaccurate and worthless, or the AI will be set too good and it's like an aim bot. I also think you should redesign the ability, so that charm is called something else and what it does is it forces the enemy to do a dodge towards you, wasting one of their stamina. It means the effect doesn't last as long, but is more unique.

Shapeshift seems like it will have problems, hiding as an object won't work unless you are in the exact spot the object is, hiding as a creep seems ok and being able to do the hero's abilities is definitely overpowered. However if I may suggest a tweak to this one, have it be something you use on an enemy hero, then this ability gets replaced with one of their abilities (set for each character by the devs) for the next X seconds. Ranks in shapeshift would count as ranks in the stolen skill, and reduce cooldown/increase duration for the steal.

Clone seems good, similar to that apex legend character's skill. If instead of clones acting randomly they do the thing he does where they move with him in a circle, it would look very thematic and like a performance, very fitting for your magician concept.

The ultimate once again leads to the question, should the heroes turn into aimbots? Maybe instead of using their own attacks, they start channeling a laser, that auto hits the enemy they target (similar to how guardians attack people) but does damage based on their weapon damage +%, rather than actually based on their gun's normal type. So for example they stop being shotgun, machine gun etc but all use the same attack, probably with less damage to make up for the autoaim.

This is one of the better thought out characters.
 
Theming them after a nine tailed fox, which i had always assumed was japanese, is going to mostly just make people assume the character is japanese, not korean.

The charm ability making people shoot each other is a problem, because either they will be inaccurate and worthless, or the AI will be set too good and it's like an aim bot. I also think you should redesign the ability, so that charm is called something else and what it does is it forces the enemy to do a dodge towards you, wasting one of their stamina. It means the effect doesn't last as long, but is more unique.

Shapeshift seems like it will have problems, hiding as an object won't work unless you are in the exact spot the object is, hiding as a creep seems ok and being able to do the hero's abilities is definitely overpowered. However if I may suggest a tweak to this one, have it be something you use on an enemy hero, then this ability gets replaced with one of their abilities (set for each character by the devs) for the next X seconds. Ranks in shapeshift would count as ranks in the stolen skill, and reduce cooldown/increase duration for the steal.

Clone seems good, similar to that apex legend character's skill. If instead of clones acting randomly they do the thing he does where they move with him in a circle, it would look very thematic and like a performance, very fitting for your magician concept.

The ultimate once again leads to the question, should the heroes turn into aimbots? Maybe instead of using their own attacks, they start channeling a laser, that auto hits the enemy they target (similar to how guardians attack people) but does damage based on their weapon damage +%, rather than actually based on their gun's normal type. So for example they stop being shotgun, machine gun etc but all use the same attack, probably with less damage to make up for the autoaim.

This is one of the better thought out characters.
Great point about them being Korean and thus it being kind of inappropriate to use the nine tailed fox
 
I'm not saying it's inappropriate, it is a Korean monster. The Gumiho rather than the Kitsune. I'm saying that people in the west are more familiar with Kitsune than with Gumiho.
The character's name, Miho, is based on the monster it is.
I see, well then I misinterpreted your point but still wholeheartedly agree with you! and am a great example of what you were referring to since I also did not know
 
I'm not bothered by the kitsune theming. The design overall looks very coherent/iconic to me. The ultimate is interesting, but I get lost in the details a little bit. Is it an animation flash, or another form? I like little details here and there, such as knock down on Charm. Shapeshift seems to work quite well, imo, in this iteration. Very simple and reminiscent of Neeko. I'm not sure if I'm following what you intended with Clone, but this also seems like a take on a concept done well.
 
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