Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Review – Review

I’m one of those people who is far more interested in seeing a games company take a swing on a new concept or idea rather than the endless barrage of sequels, spin-offs and remakes. Capcom has done really well for themselves over the last decade or so. But what excites me more about the company compared to others in the AAA space is their ambition to still take a swing with new ideas and smaller games. ExoPrimal, their take on the PvPvE genre was refreshing, albeit a bit repetitive, and if you looked past those crying out for a new Dino Crisis, it was a solid multiplayer experience. With Kunitsu-Gami: Path of Goddess, it almost feels as if Capcom is trying to channel some of that Clover Studio energy that made Viewteful Joe and Okami back in the early 2000’s. It’s a visually striking action game that blends Japanese mythology with tower defense and troop-management. While it may have fallen flat when it was released last year on other platforms, I sincerely hope that the Switch 2 version will breathe life into it once more, because I found it to be truly something special.

As the mountain Kafuku is engulfed by defilement, you guide a priestess named Yoshiro as her spirit guardian Soh. Armed with a katana you can take out the hordes of enemies, dubbed Seeth, as they come pouring out of the defiled Torii gates. It is your task to protect Yoshiro by night and collect as many crystals as possible, so that during the day you can carve a path for her to follow and purify the region. Along the way you are assisted by the local villagers who you can recruit as fighters to help protect Yoshiro. From simple woodcutters using their axe, to archers, banishers and even sumo wrestlers, at any point you can deploy these villagers or change their role on the battlefield. As you purify the regions, you can rebuild and restore the towns to their former glory and gain more trinkets and abilities to help you battle the defilement.

We can’t dance around this. Visually Kunitsu-Gami looks absolutely gorgeous. From the way the characters, villagers but especially the monsters coming out of the defilement are designed, to how Soh’s dancing blade becomes engulfed in what can only be described as tears in the world made by a kaleidoscope. It’s rare that a world that’s taken over by an evil otherworldly force feels so disturbed and twisted, but the defilement, with rotting appendages draped across the villages you encounter does such a great job at conveying this world needs purification. It all runs beautifully on the Nintendo Switch 2 in both docked and handheld mode. There’s a lot of spectacle in both the cutscenes and the fighters themselves. Especially as you improve the roles your requited army can perform and as you get to trips with the game’s inner mechanics.

Structurally this is where Kunitsu-Gami really sets itself apart. It’s a real-time strategy game with action-elements. Stages are divided into two types, villages and boss battles. When you arrive in a village everything is covered by the defilement. You’ll need to rescue villagers from their pods and assign them roles and position them along the path. The more defilement you clear out, the more crystals you obtain which can be used to carve out a spirit path for Yoshiro to follow. She will keep doing so until night falls, which means that you’ll probably never make it to the main torii gate that needs purging. This is when the monsters of the defilement will come pouting out. All you villagers will automatically engage the horde while you can freely run around and protect yoshiro or move the battle lines ahead. Interaction with the villagers is done via a command menu, where you can reposition each individual villager or reassign their roles.

It all makes for a super dynamic tactical combat system. Where you often are required to change your tactics and approach depending on where Yoshiro ended her purification ritual on the way to the torii. This gets even more hectic when new enemy types are introduced or there’s multiple points of entry for the defilement to approach Yoshiro. Nighttime never gets dull, but it can get overwhelming quickly. There’s equipment you can bring along and some special abilities that can aid you during the battle. As long as you can make it through the night there’s time to refortify your defenses, resurrect your fallen villagers and hope that Yoshiro has enough crystals to make it to the end. In later stages the fight takes multiple days, meaning that you’ll need to consider whether it is even smart to move Yoshiro at all, as she gets closer to the source of the enemies. While you’ll be repeating a lot of similar missions throughout the stages, I found the game throwing plenty of changes into the mix that would require me to change my tactics. For example, one enemy would make it impossible to use the command menu until it was defeated. Another stage sees you crossing a lake at night, while you’re being flanked by monstrous hordes from all sides. It’s these twists and layers to the formula that neatly balances Kunitsu-Gami’s ambition between an action game and strategy game that frankly I haven’t seen since 2009’s Brütal Legend.

The other section of the combat are the boss battles. Horrendous monsters that are truly a spike in difficulty for you to overcome with a set number of villagers. While you are able to prepare before entering the boss’s arena, they use erratic patterns and ways of attacking. Meaning you’ll need to rely on your own skills to guard against incoming attacks, but also perhaps buff your specific villagers to have a chance against these creatures. From a gigantic centipede, for which you’ll need to spend valuable time and a villager to reignite the lights in a cave, so that your archers are able to shoot at it. To a floating scythe that can almost instantly cut down Soh and Yoshiro. At times these bosses felt a bit too unfair, with little time to practice and especially being limited by the amount of crystals at your disposal to convert all your villagers into the appropriate roles. Where the main stages feel like a true test of your tactical and problem solving skills, the boss fighters can be a tad too unpredictable and unfair at times.

When the fighting is over you have some downtime, during which you can rebuild the villages and areas you’ve just recovered from the defilement. Since the game is based on an in-game day and night cycle, you’ll need to put villagers to work to rebuild the shrines and buildings in the town. These give you rewards which you can then equip to improve or adjust Soh’s actions. It’s a system that flows pretty naturally. Stages aren’t simply for you to walk through and get out, it is your job to nurture them back to health and the game really nicely reinforces this idea of community. Especially when you can improve the roles of certain fighters. I immediately wanted to expand the arsenal for my archers, as they proved vital at taking out enemies from a distance. You’re also able to collect little notes on the defilement that are presented as little Ema’s (those wooden panels with wishes at Japanese shrines and temples), that have some fun writing and character to them. It just makes the world of Kunitsu-Gami feel whole as you explore and learn more about the Kafuku mountain and its residents.

I found Kunistu-Gami: Path of the Goddess to be a very big surprise. I was half-afraid that most of the time the systems would be overwhelming as I’m neither big on tower defence nor real-time strategy games. But the way in which Kunitsu-Gami eases you into its mechanics and world is incredibly enjoyable. I loved bringing this world back to life and tackling one or two stages every night for an hour or so. It’s a game best played in segments, rather than one long binge. While I did find the boss battles to be a bit too difficult and some of the core gameplay can be a tad repetitive, Kunitsu-Gami really manages to become a fresh combination of action and real-time strategy. It’s absolutely not for everyone, but if this combination or setting sounds like it may be something for you, you just may find a hidden treasure of a game here. It’s great to see Capcom taking a big swing with something that feels so original. Here’s to hoping that there’s more games from the studio that will follow this particular path.