Capcom is no stranger to making offbeat or otherwise unexpected games. For every home run release like Resident Evil 4 or Monster Hunter World, they also take plenty of risks, producing games like Dead Rising, Viewtiful Joe, and Lost Planet. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess definitely falls on the latter side of that Capcom split, offering a fusion of hack ‘n slash action and tower defense-style strategy, presented in a vibrant world of Japanese mythology. Playing as the guardian spirit, Soh, you’ll protect your beautiful maiden from an onslaught of horrific monsters, making preparations during the day and clashing with the foul creatures by night. It’s an intriguing concept complimented by flashy visuals, but is it any fun? Is Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess a good gamble from Capcom, or a miscalculated risk gone wrong?
We’ll Be Coming Down the Mountain
Utilizing very little dialogue apart from the intro cutscene, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess weaves a myth of maidens and monsters, presented in a flowery, traditional Japanese style. On the revered Mt. Kafuku, a demonic presence has taken hold, defiling the land and the beloved maiden, Yoshiro. With the mount in disarray, Yoshiro’s guardian warrior, Soh, must escort her down from the summit, cleansing villages and other locations along the way. The setup is succinct, dramatic, and gives us just enough motivation to continue the long descent to safety.
Throughout the entire game, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is remarkably light on dialogue or exposition, almost exclusively using environmental storytelling to paint its narrative picture. Yoshiro and Soh are the only characters to speak of, and there’s no big, focal villain to constantly taunt you. Instead, Kunitsu-Gami‘s story is told through its moody vibe and atmosphere, shifting in tone as you descend Mt. Kafuku.
The absence of a traditional plot doesn’t hurt the experience, since the satisfaction of protecting Yoshiro and restoring the mountain to its original beauty is rewarding enough, complete with satisfying visual flourishes. The adventure from summit to base is thrilling, suspenseful, and even artful at times, rarely pumping the brakes and always keeping the action at the forefront.
The Yokai Come at Night
Your quest down Mt. Kafuku is a linear path of levels with one clear objective: guide Yoshiro through the defiled environment and fend off any creatures that threaten her. Each stage functions on a day/night cycle, giving you some safe time to prepare during the day before the many monsters begin their nightly assault. At all times, you are in control of Soh, using your deft swordsmanship to attack, block, perform special moves, and much more (especially as you unlock upgrades). The combat is more hack ‘n slash than it is souls-like, but your slices and stabs have a noticeable feeling of weight and purpose. Button mashing can get the job done, but as the strongest and fastest fighter on the battlefield, being strategic with your attacks is always the best option. Plus, it’s not your survival you have to worry about, it’s Yoshiro’s.
Thankfully, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is nothing like a dreaded escort mission, and instead, plays like a tower-defense game with a lot more action. During the daytime, Yoshiro slowly dances across the stage on a predetermined path, giving you plenty of time to explore your surroundings, set traps, and plan your strategy for the night ahead. For some much-needed help, Soh can rescue villagers from their defilement cocoons and recruit them for the coming battle, assigning each villager a class and a position to defend. Additional villager classes are unlocked as you progress, and there’s enough variety to form a competent mini-army, including soldiers, archers, healers, tanks, and more. Once the sun falls, Yoshiro ceases her movement and is left vulnerable, leaving Soh and the recruited villagers to fend off the endless waves of defiled demons.
It’s a good thing that you have a lot of combat options and villagers at your side, because the creatures you fight each night are as numerous and varied as can be. Inspired by the supernatural Japanese yokai, the enemies of Kunitsu-Gami come in all shapes and sizes, and no matter how skilled you are with a sword, there are too many to defeat single-handedly. Often flooding into the map from multiple entrances, there are usually dozens of cannon fodder enemies to contend with, pulling your attention away from the specialized yokai who can burrow, fly, shape-shift, or otherwise bombard Yoshiro and your soldiers.
The recruited villagers are competent and can hold their own in a fight, but Soh must do a lot of the heavy lifting on the battlefield, so be prepared to shift your focus between combat and commanding your troops. It sounds overwhelming in concept, but Kunitsu-Gami does a great job of introducing the player to its mechanics in a digestible way, and after a few levels, everything feels natural.
Bases and Bosses
After you’ve guided Yoshiro through a location and cleansed the corrupt Torii gate at the end, that level becomes a base, accessible at any time during the rest of your playthrough. At bases, you can use villagers to repair buildings, shrines, and decorations, earning upgrade materials and other boons in the process. Repairs take time, though, so you must return to each base occasionally to check in and collect your goodies.
At any base, inside Yoshiro’s tent, you can upgrade your villager classes and Soh’s abilities using musubi, a resource you’ll earn for completing level-specific challenges and making repairs. You can also equip talismans for passive bonuses, swap out special moves, inspect collectibles, and increase your combos for greater damage output.
Whether you’re focusing on Soh or the villagers, keeping your crew upgraded is essential, as Kunitsu-Gami contains many challenging boss fights that will severely punish the unprepared. Every couple of levels, you can expect to run into an “ominous presence” stage, where you battle particularly large and destructive boss yokai while keeping Yoshiro alive.
Unlike regular stages, these boss fights put combat at the forefront, with minimal moments of safety or downtime. Experimenting with villager classes and figuring out the right plan of approach is important, but it’s hard to remain completely confident, as bosses can humble you in just a few hits. Although a few ominous presence battles are annoying, the majority are well-designed, bombastic set pieces that offer grand spectacle and sweaty hands combat.
The Bottom Line on Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is a good time and it’s also one of the more inventive video games of the generation so far. The mix of hack ‘n slash action and real-time strategy is well-executed, the presentation is pristine, and the art design is both creepy and calming. Spanning over 15 levels and 9 boss encounters, the main game holds approximately 20 – 30 hours of content, with extra sub-objectives and New Game + for added replayability. Thanks to its easy controls and well-paced introduction of game mechanics, Kunitsu-Gami is a good pick for strategy game newbies or action fans who’d like a bit more depth. Don’t pass over this quirky Capcom title, as Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is a sleeper hit of 2024.
Score: 8/10
