Kiriko's character design and gameplay mechanics draw from the imagery found in Japanese folklore and Shinto folk religion.

Combining her two matriarchal influences, Kiriko carries the power of a kitsune, which she uses to protect her native Kanezaka, a fictional Japanese city.

In December 2020, Blizzard announced Kanezaka, a fictional Japanese city, would be added to the original Overwatch game as a Deathmatch map.

[12] The character's appearances on the Overwatch 2 menu screen and in her 2022 animated short are accompanied by the song "BOW" by Japanese rapper MFS [ja].

[13] Scott Duwe of Dot Esports wrote that the song was noted by journalists during the game's early press review period and opined, "the tune is perfectly fitting for Kiriko, matching her youthful exuberance with a fiery beat underneath Japanese rap lyricism.

"[13] Undergoing various incarnations "for about four years" prior to the release of Overwatch 2, Kiriko's design originated from concept art intended for the game's player vs. environment (PvE) mode.

Kiriko's original design saw her wield a "massive, fidget spinner-inspired throwing star" and donned a "somewhat more traditional ninjalike appearance".

[15] The development team experimented with a healing shotgun for Kiriko's weapon, before settling on ofuda to lean more toward a spiritual aesthetic, rather than magical tropes, which they aimed to avoid.

[12] The team also scrapped early versions of her kit that saw her as a "trickster hero", including smoke bombs and a "ninja shadow clone ability".

[17] Due to the combination of her healing role and her fast speed, she is able to jump in and out of combat quickly, with Fang stating "not a sit-back-and-heal type of hero".

An initial question posed by the game's development team while designing Kiriko was "How can we create a support hero that DPS players [who] like Genji would enjoy playing?

[18] Kiriko's ability to deal considerable damage was part of the development team's aim to make their support characters more "survivable" and to remove "hard counters".

"[19] Much has been written about Kiriko's buggy status in-game, with Blizzard making several post-release patch updates addressing such bugs.

[25][26] On September 20, 2022, Blizzard released a trailer for Overwatch 2, featuring a short animated origin story centered on Kiriko's upbringing.

[14] Kiriko's demeanor was made to match her play style―as she blends support and offense roles in-game, she has an "in your face" attitude in battle, yet is also "traditional, reserved, and dryly witty.

"[12] Kamiya Kaoru, a character from the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin, has been cited as a source of inspiration for Kiriko's personality.

[16] In addition to being trained by her mother, Kiriko is also strongly influenced by her grandmother, who taught her about spirituality and her ancestral history with the Kanezaka Shrine, as well as protective and healing abilities.

Kiriko, however, initially needed to be unlocked through the game's battle pass, making her the first Overwatch character to hold the distinction.

[38] Delving into the titular character's relationship with her mother, the short demonstrates Kiriko's healing abilities via her saving her apartment complex's elderly maintenance worker from the Hashimoto, a yakuza-like group.

[42] The short received praise from video game writers, with Alyssa Mercante of GamesRadar+ calling it "a funny, heartfelt, badass rollercoaster ride".

[41] Rock Paper Shotgun's Graham Smith praised the righteousness of the short's action scene beatdown, and called the rest of the film's content "inoffensively sweet".

[44] She also has the "Protection Suzu" ability, which releases a small bell area of effect (AOE) that makes any ally within briefly invulnerable.

Despite her inclusion through Overwatch 2's battle pass reward system being criticized by players,[47] some still received her positively including via fan art.

[46] Taylor Hatmaker of TechCrunch was critical of Kiriko's character design, particularly how Blizzard approached her Asian depiction, saying it was "expressed in a way that's a bit over the top, culturally speaking.

Gould further added that "Kiriko's formulaic appearance overshadows" the efforts made to her narrative development and her gameplay and art designs.

[51] Gould closed her comments on Kiriko by assessing that "a character with such an exciting story and design deserves her own identity.

Jessica Howard of GameSpot wrote that Kiriko "exerts a sort of youthful energy and intelligence that makes her incredibly personable.

[53] While calling her backstory "bland", Swanson was also critical of "questionable" lore elements, namely the age gaps between the Shimada brothers and Kiriko, and their pertaining to the narrative's consistency.

Calling her a "a mismatch of a kit that promised one thing and ties to existing male characters that forced her to be something else," Plane felt much of her disappointment with Kiriko's backstory stemmed from Overwatch's previous "pretty good" demonstration "at creating well-established, relatable, unique women to populate its ranks.