16 Apr Momonga Monday: General Kuton

Goodies, it’s Monday again! Time for another Momonga update. This week we have a look at General Kuton, the toughest end boss in the game.

This old owl general is one of the most cunning owls in the kingdom. He is an exceptional strategist, immensely strong, and hardened from innumerable successful battles during the Great War.

From hero to villain

Kuton has always served the Owl lineage with pride and was a legend in the making. His enemies, the Raven Empire, noticed this too. In the midst of night a small band of elite Raven assasins assaulted Kuton’s home. They injured his wife and took his first-born son.

The general begged the king to organize a rescue party, but the king refused to put more lives at stake. Kuton was torn by this loss, and decided to go alone and rescue his son from the Raven prisons. He left one night, and was never again seen in the Owl Kingdom.

Kuton lead the raid on Momo’s village. He is the one who injured Momo and left him for dead. Kuton left a huge scar on Momo’s back, which turned into a blue, glowing stripe after Panda healed him.

After leaving Momo to die, Kuton proceeded to take the rest of the Momongas and complete his mission. He will be waiting for Momo at the village, determined to capture the last free Momonga.

Character design

Owls are awesome (Must. Not. Say. Owlsome).

The character design of General Kuton was based on 2 owls in particular: The southern white-faced owl, better known as the “transformer owl”, and the Great Grey Owl.

Kuton is an owl with stature and self-respect, and he is not evil by heart or upbringing. The owls in the world of Momonga are honorable and organized creatures. This is why we took a deeper look at the Great Owl – he has a look of wisdom, and his white facial feathers are like the frowned brows of an old man. This suits a veteran general like Kuton perfectly.

We then translated this into the game’s art style:

In Momonga, purple is the color of enemies and things to avoid (like the ball drain and owls). Here we experimented with the coloring:

In the end this was too kind and childlike. We went for a more agressive and twisted Kuton. Note the body armor, helmet and katana. These samurai attributes give Kuton another layer of honour. He is like a fallen warrior, twisted and fighting for his sanity.

And this is the in-game model:

An impression of what Kuton will look like in his environment when facing Momo. This is the face-off in the village, where you have to defeat the general.

Kuton is the last end boss in the game, and he is incredibly tough to beat. We will post some in-game screenshots of him in one of the upcoming Momonga Mondays.

Next week we will look at Momo! Stay tuned 🙂

Cheers,
Peter & Derk