[5][6] Designed by Keigo Chimoto,[1] Developer Hidetoshi Ishizawa noted that due to them running out of time to properly implement her, they were unable to add her to 2nd Impact before release and instead added her to its followup title, Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

Producer Yoshinori Ono felt that her appeal lied in the "exhilaration" she expressed when landing an attack, and focused particularly on her animations to convey this element.

[3] Makoto was introduced in the 1999 video game Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, inheriting her father's Rindōkan karate dojo which has fallen into disrepair and lost students.

She enters the game's tournament to showcase and spread word of her fighting style, and by the conclusion of her story many people travel to try and join her dojo, much to the delight of her family.

[15] However Makoto walks away with nothing due to the tournament secretly being a trap by its organizer, and while repairing the dojo she considers making a name for herself may bring students, leading to her story in 3rd Strike.

According to Capcom developers, unlike other characters in Street Fighter III she lacked the ability to produce large combos, forcing the player to consider each move and making it harder for beginners to use her.

However, the lack of parry in the game leaves her more vulnerable to projectile attacks, something that Okada did by design and feels makes her a harder character for beginners to use.

The other hosts agreed, with Jeremy Parish stating it was one of the reasons people preferred the game over the preceding Street Fighter III titles.

Suriel Vazquez and Eric Van Allen of Paste stated her "brash, intense fighting style perfectly suits a teenager trying to make her mark on the world", comparing her to fellow Street Fighter character Sakura in that regard.

They further described Makoto as her polar opposite due to her being "someone who dreams not of finding a mentor and emulating them, but of forging her own path", adding that her story was "as motivating as Ryu's globe-trotting adventures, and it doesn't get the play it deserves in the series' storyline.

"[39] Den of Geek's Gavin Jasper however felt that when her fighting style was removed from consideration she was somewhat tame compared to the rest of the Street Fighter III cast, stating unlike the other characters she was just "a girl in a karate gi", and in regards to her storyline "at the end of the day, she's like Dan played straight(er), and that doesn't measure up.

Chambers in turn complimented her practical outfit, with LaPergola stating she felt that Makoto was an exception to how many female characters in Street Fighter were designed for the male gaze thanks to the masculine aspects of her appearance.

In their view while she still projected aspects of "the ideal woman", she also reflected traits of the Nio, figures in Buddhist religion, through her prominent hands and feet.

While the authors emphasized that these aspects were often more common in masculine characters, they felt Capcom had avoided the "athlete's 'compromise of femininity'" through her poses and how her karate gi illustrated her developed abdomen and breasts, presenting her in a sensual manner.