At first glance, Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess feels like the spinning plates metaphor made manifest. Each stage requires you to purge supernatural rot, rescue villagers, build traps, and fight off waves of hideous demons, all with the goal of aiding a divine maiden in her quest to rid Mt. Kafuku of a plague. The gameplay mechanics required to achieve all of those tasks, however, bundle together to create one of the more distinct experiences in video games this year.
On a moment-to-moment basis, Kunitsu-Gami tests your fighting skills, as well as your wits and your ability to think on your feet, lest the maiden in your care succumb to the rot. There are elements where the fun of its sword-swinging, demon-slaying action is supplanted by menial tasks, but those hiccups aren't enough to derail the whole experience. Kunitsu-Gami is a refreshing new addition to Capcom's stable of IP and a solid execution of an engaging gameplay loop.
This new adventure puts you in control of Soh, a samurai warrior who is sworn to protect Yoshiro, the aforementioned divine maiden. Their home, Mt. Kafuku, has been invaded by the Seethe, a demonic force of otherworldly entities who have spread a hideous plague of "defilement" throughout the land. Soh must lead Yoshiro through each town and village on the mountain, protecting her at all costs as she purges the defilement once and for all.
Right away, you can see the deep Japanese cultural influence on this game. The ceremonial garb, traditional dancing, and musical choices are immediately absorbing, and it feels like we're playing a piece of Japanese folklore. Notably, the game achieves this despite having very little dialogue; it is simply the actions of the characters on the screen that pull you in, and that's very impressive.
That said, the narrative arc also takes a backseat to the central gameplay loop, which renders the story as a whole slightly less effective. Kunitsu-Gami cares much more about making you work for each victory than it does about telling you a story before and after you achieve it. While this is a bummer, the potency of that gameplay loop--and the just-one-more-level feeling it creates--neutralizes the disappointment quickly.
Each new chapter starts with Yoshiro and Soh standing on one end of the stage, with a black path in the ground signaling the way to a Torii gate covered in rot, which, when cleansed, will restore the entire area. The day/night cycle provides two distinct-yet-intertwined gameplay modes, each providing its own challenges.
During the day, you'll scout the area while rescuing villagers ensnared in rot and purging smaller, contained areas of defilement. Cleaning up these areas earns you crystals--through purges and through cutting down small plants lining the pathways--and they can be spent both to carve the path through the rot for Yoshiro to move along and to assign jobs to the villagers you rescue. Once all of the defilement is purged from an area, a shrine opens and you'll earn a reward.
The simple act of starting a stage and going through the setup phase creates many stress-inducing decisions you'll need to think about before the first attack. Crystals are a finite resource, but are they better spent on the villagers who act as defense, or on carving the path for Yoshiro? Is there a happy medium where Yoshiro can walk to a point that's better defended than her starting point? The strategy element is fascinating, stressful, and exhilarating all at once, and that tension only builds as day turns into night.
Once night falls, the strategy elements immediately give way to hack-and-slash action as Soh and company take on the Seethe hordes. Their numbers increase as more waves come out during the night, and not having a solid strategy for dealing with those numbers could leave you overwhelmed. I was impressed with how many different types of Seethe are in the game; it feels like every stage comes with some new horrible enemy to face, each with its own abilities and weaknesses. The creeps also drop crystals for use in the next daytime cycle, so despite how scary these monsters are, you're encouraged to fight every one of them. Thankfully, slashing through these demons is a lot of fun, as the waves of enemies from moon up to moon down provide intense and constant action.
The Seethe can be dumb sometimes, however, which breaks the flow of the action every time it occurs. For example, one type of Seethe is meant to keep a distance and attack with projectiles. In keeping that distance, however, they corner themselves and stay in one place. Since waves of Seethe don't normally begin until the previous wave is defeated, you can leave that lone demon alone for as long as you like, which gives you an unintended breather that feels like cheating in a way.
Kunitsu-Gami is a refreshing new addition to Capcom's stable of IP and a solid execution of an engaging gameplay loop
What's most impressive about Kunitsu-Gami's core loop is how the nighttime fights immediately bear the fruits of your labor in the daytime segments--or shine a spotlight on something you missed. You might have put up that protective barrier to fortify the path in front of Yoshiro, but the left or right flank might be wide open. When multiple portals of Seethe open in later stages, what you thought might account for both paths might only impact one. Should you make a wrong decision, most of the time you can adjust formations on the fly or figure out a different plan in the next cycle, but sometimes one mistake can ruin an entire run, and you'll have to adjust after the game-over screen. That instant payoff, positive or negative, is always a thrill and immediately gets you thinking about what's next.
While what's described above is the main format of each stage, some of them take a completely different approach, as if Capcom realized that keeping with the same day/night cycle over and over again might turn some players off. One stage puts Soh, Yoshiro, and all of the villagers on a boat crossing a river, which is inundated with Seethe from all sides. Another sees a unique type of demon possessing Yoshiro immediately, which renders Soh unable to fight, so all you can do is assign the villagers jobs and direct them as a small floating spirit. Forrest Gump's old adage about chocolate somehow, incredibly, applies here too; you never know what you're going to get when you start up a new stage.
Most stages also have an adjacent boss battle, which unlocks once the main challenge is completed. These are the best parts of Kunitsu-Gami, as each boss provides some of the best battles in games this year. Some are just bigger and badder versions of Seethe we've seen before, but others are completely unique monsters with a suite of attacks that requires deft dodging, well-timed parries, and measured attacks. Defeating them earns Soh and company a mask, which manifests in new jobs for the villagers to assume--a fair reward for the intense battles you're put through that feeds back into adding new wrinkles to the core gameplay loop.
Outside of the core loop, there's also a base-building mechanic, but this is far more mundane than anything else in the game. Soh can revisit areas already cleansed by Yoshiro and instruct the villagers to rebuild areas destroyed by the Seethe. These tasks are completed while you advance through the main story chapters, which means you have to return to earn the reward given by these repairs.
On the surface, this sounds like an optional side quest, but there's a catch: The main reward for completing these base building tasks is musubi, a material that acts as the main upgrade resource for both Soh and the villagers. This turns a boring-but-skippable side quest into a boring-but-super-important one, which forces you to backtrack after every completed stage, and in turn bogs down the entire experience. Also, the requirement to get these repairs done is completing a certain number of missions--which includes replaying older missions, but repeating the same mission over and over again just adds to the boredom.
Additionally, while the idea of rebuilding what was destroyed isn't a problem, its implementation is; in order to initiate these repairs, you must run to specific points in the area, which drags the pace down even further. All of this could have been managed in menus, which would allow you to get back in the action more quickly than we do now.
The different ways Kunitsu-Gami pulls your mind during a day/night cycle in real time is intense, but the thrill of it all is hard to describe. Capcom's deft merging of two seemingly disparate genres, with tower defense and even some RPG elements thrown in for flavor, has created an experience that's noteworthy for its successes more than its failures. Sure, there are a few missteps--namely in the incredibly tedious base-building segments--but the action and strategy provided in the core experience overcomes that tedium to create a game worthy of your time.
Capcom has been firing on all cylinders lately in regards to its tenured franchises, and now that success has manifested in an interesting new IP. Kunitsu-Gami begins on strong footing, and we may be witnessing the next great Capcom franchise carving a path right in front of our eyes.
