As soon as I finished demoing Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess at Summer Game Fest, I knew it was a game I absolutely needed. After finishing my playthrough, I have everything I need to know that this is one of my favorite releases this year.
In Kunitsu-Gami, you assume control of Soh, a warrior tasked with protecting a divine maiden named Yoshiro as she attempts to cleanse Mt. Kafuku of its gross defilement. The game’s story and themes are heavily inspired by Japanese folklore, as you can see it not only in the feudal setting and royal attire that the main characters wear but the ceremonial dances performed to purge the villages of their defilement.
Now that you know what the game is about, it should be easier to understand what it is you’ll actually be doing. It’s complex, to say the least. At its core, Kunitsu-Gami is a tower defense and strategy game that eventually becomes an action game, and the cool thing about this melding of genres is each method of of play intensifies each other as you get further into it.
Gameplay works like this: The object of most of the levels in the game is to get Yoshiro from Point A to Point B safely. These levels begin in the daytime, and it’s in the daytime where Yoshiro can actually move. Once night falls, danger ensues, and it’s all about protecting her from the enemies that come through the defiled gates until dawn. It’s at night where the tower defense and action-based gameplay elements come into play.
So not only do you have to help navigate Yoshiro to the end of the map in the daytime, but you also have to prepare yourself for the dangers at night. Preparation comes in the form of purging the small defilement you see throughout the map. Most of the defilement you cleanse will simply award you with orbs that we’ll talk about in a bit, while the rest are actually villagers that the defilement infected. Once you cleanse the villagers of their defilement, they’re for you to use at your disposal with their main purpose also being to protect the maiden. The orbs you get for purging defilement are used to change the jobs of the villagers you saved, and they’ll also primarily be used to “forge the spirit path” for Yoshiro to get to the end of the level.
A look at a bunch of the jobs/classes in the game.
The villager jobs mentioned are to make sure everybody has a purpose, mainly for battle. As simple villagers, they can’t do much except work on obstacles that might prevent access from more defilement to purge as Soh. The first job available for the villagers is the Woodcutter, which grants them an axe that effectively turns them into infantrymen once night falls. You’ll eventually be able to get access to other jobs such as the Archer, which arm the villagers with bows and arrows to attack enemies from a distance, as well as the Ascetic which gives villagers the ability to freeze enemies in their tracks making them easier for other villagers or yourself to take out once they go bump in the night. While you don’t have direct control of your villagers, you can select them and move them anywhere on the map, so most of what you’ll be doing is putting them in advantageous spots to help fight and protect Yoshiro. In the instance you have you Soh die, you still have the ability to control his ghost and give orders to your villagers, and you’ll also be revived in a given amount of time. The stress that you feel when dying in the game is a unique stressful feeling that adds to the game’s charm.
Again, once Yoshiro gets to the end of the map, you’re able to purify the gate and complete the level. To go along with that, each level in the game comes with objectives that’ll reward you with spoils that can help you on your adventure. I’ll talk about those in a bit, but it’s worth noting that you can play each level to your heart’s content to complete those objectives, because those spoils really are helpful. Objectives include not having anybody die, or not having Soh or Yoshiro take any damage–that sort of thing.
When you complete one of these levels, a base is formed, allowing you to come back to the area and rebuild the village. This is done by allocating a number of villagers to a project, and the process from start to finish typically takes a day–which passes when you do something else in the game, either by clearing a new level or beating one you already did before. Each project you finish will net you different collectibles, but the most valuable of which is mochi, which I’ll go over later. In addition to rebuilding the villages, each base also has a tent that’s housing Yoshiro as well as different ways to upgrade your loadouts. When you completely rebuild a base, you’re also given bonus items to help on your journey.
This is one of the coolest menus I’ve ever seen in a game, and I’m not talking about food.
Back to the mochi–it serves not only as food, but the consumable required to upgrade the various jobs you have in your party. Whether its increasing their health or making them stronger, mochi will come at a premium because these are sort of permanent upgrades to your party. Why sort of? Because you have the ability to remove the upgrades and use them for any other job if you’d rather try something else. Later in the game, you’ll also have the ability to give Soh more abilities and upgrade those, so mochi really remains quite the premium. I’m not saying that lightly either. When I got to the point of the game where I really had to upgrade Soh himself, I found myself replaying levels over and over just to complete objectives for more mochi, just so I can make sure I was really prepared for what’s next.
Mochi and upgrades aside, in Yoshiro’s tent you can also make changes to your equipped Tsuba Guards and Mazo Talismans. Tsuba Guards work as spells that Soh can use when you’re in a bind, while Mazo Talismans allow Soh to equip various buffs like making the villagers stronger, or giving you a discount on the amount of orbs it costs to switch jobs. Each of these are essential to your loadout and will be a part of your strategy depending on the kind of levels you play.
The last levels to talk about are the ones where there are an ominous presence–the game’s words for a boss, and these bosses are really what show your abilities as both a fighter and tactician. The cool thing about boss levels is you don’t have to worry about the day and night cycle, but you still have to protect Yoshiro. That said, it’s easier to just focus on these boss fights when you don’t have to worry about using orbs to get more villagers to fight for you.
These fights really made me think of Pikmin as far as how they feel. Sure, you’ll be able to do some damage as Soh, but it’s really the assists you’ll get from the Woodcutters, Archers, Marksmen, and whoever you decide to bring with you for these fights. The main difference is that unlike Pikmin, you’ll only have a set number of villagers with you, and choosing which jobs for them to serve along with when to attack the boss and when to defend Yoshiro are the main factors that’ll test you. I had my share of issues with the difficulty cadence with some of the bosses. The first boss teaches you how to attack with your Woodcutters, and the second boss teaches you how to attack with Archers while keeping Yoshiro safe. And then all of a sudden, the third boss has you worry about lighting torches, so the villagers can actually see the monster on top of you dealing with the job management. This was actually the one I had the hardest time with except for the game’s final boss–which also isn’t really the final boss, if you catch my drift.
Take a look at that big nasty. He isn’t even a boss.
The beauty of Kunitsu-Gami is that while a lot of what I mentioned about the gameplay seems dense, it couldn’t be more simple as soon as you get your hands on it. On top of that, with the mix of resource gathering, tower defense, action combat, and recovery all in the gameplay, it’s impressive knowing right away thay you’re getting better. After rolling the credits, which initially took me about 20 hours to do, you’re treated to a New Game+ that takes the challenge to another level, and that’s something old-school Capcom fans can appreciate.
With the way it melds all kinds of different gameplay elements from various genres, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is one of the biggest surprises and best games of the year. Capcom has certainly been on a roll, and if this game is any indication, they won’t be stopping anytime soon.
As soon as I finished demoing Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess at Summer Game Fest, I knew it was a game I absolutely needed. After finishing my playthrough, I have everything I need to know that this is one of my favorite releases this year.
As soon as I finished demoing Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess at Summer Game Fest, I knew it was a game I absolutely needed. After finishing my playthrough, I have everything I need to know that this is one of my favorite releases this year.
In Kunitsu-Gami, you assume control of Soh, a warrior tasked with protecting a divine maiden named Yoshiro as she attempts to cleanse Mt. Kafuku of its gross defilement. The game’s story and themes are heavily inspired by Japanese folklore, as you can see it not only in the feudal setting and royal attire that the main characters wear but the ceremonial dances performed to purge the villages of their defilement.
Now that you know what the game is about, it should be easier to understand what it is you’ll actually be doing. It’s complex, to say the least. At its core, Kunitsu-Gami is a tower defense and strategy game that eventually becomes an action game, and the cool thing about this melding of genres is each method of of play intensifies each other as you get further into it.
Gameplay works like this: The object of most of the levels in the game is to get Yoshiro from Point A to Point B safely. These levels begin in the daytime, and it’s in the daytime where Yoshiro can actually move. Once night falls, danger ensues, and it’s all about protecting her from the enemies that come through the defiled gates until dawn. It’s at night where the tower defense and action-based gameplay elements come into play.
So not only do you have to help navigate Yoshiro to the end of the map in the daytime, but you also have to prepare yourself for the dangers at night. Preparation comes in the form of purging the small defilement you see throughout the map. Most of the defilement you cleanse will simply award you with orbs that we’ll talk about in a bit, while the rest are actually villagers that the defilement infected. Once you cleanse the villagers of their defilement, they’re for you to use at your disposal with their main purpose also being to protect the maiden. The orbs you get for purging defilement are used to change the jobs of the villagers you saved, and they’ll also primarily be used to “forge the spirit path” for Yoshiro to get to the end of the level.
A look at a bunch of the jobs/classes in the game.
The villager jobs mentioned are to make sure everybody has a purpose, mainly for battle. As simple villagers, they can’t do much except work on obstacles that might prevent access from more defilement to purge as Soh. The first job available for the villagers is the Woodcutter, which grants them an axe that effectively turns them into infantrymen once night falls. You’ll eventually be able to get access to other jobs such as the Archer, which arm the villagers with bows and arrows to attack enemies from a distance, as well as the Ascetic which gives villagers the ability to freeze enemies in their tracks making them easier for other villagers or yourself to take out once they go bump in the night. While you don’t have direct control of your villagers, you can select them and move them anywhere on the map, so most of what you’ll be doing is putting them in advantageous spots to help fight and protect Yoshiro. In the instance you have you Soh die, you still have the ability to control his ghost and give orders to your villagers, and you’ll also be revived in a given amount of time. The stress that you feel when dying in the game is a unique stressful feeling that adds to the game’s charm.
Again, once Yoshiro gets to the end of the map, you’re able to purify the gate and complete the level. To go along with that, each level in the game comes with objectives that’ll reward you with spoils that can help you on your adventure. I’ll talk about those in a bit, but it’s worth noting that you can play each level to your heart’s content to complete those objectives, because those spoils really are helpful. Objectives include not having anybody die, or not having Soh or Yoshiro take any damage–that sort of thing.
When you complete one of these levels, a base is formed, allowing you to come back to the area and rebuild the village. This is done by allocating a number of villagers to a project, and the process from start to finish typically takes a day–which passes when you do something else in the game, either by clearing a new level or beating one you already did before. Each project you finish will net you different collectibles, but the most valuable of which is mochi, which I’ll go over later. In addition to rebuilding the villages, each base also has a tent that’s housing Yoshiro as well as different ways to upgrade your loadouts. When you completely rebuild a base, you’re also given bonus items to help on your journey.
This is one of the coolest menus I’ve ever seen in a game, and I’m not talking about food.
Back to the mochi–it serves not only as food, but the consumable required to upgrade the various jobs you have in your party. Whether its increasing their health or making them stronger, mochi will come at a premium because these are sort of permanent upgrades to your party. Why sort of? Because you have the ability to remove the upgrades and use them for any other job if you’d rather try something else. Later in the game, you’ll also have the ability to give Soh more abilities and upgrade those, so mochi really remains quite the premium. I’m not saying that lightly either. When I got to the point of the game where I really had to upgrade Soh himself, I found myself replaying levels over and over just to complete objectives for more mochi, just so I can make sure I was really prepared for what’s next.
Mochi and upgrades aside, in Yoshiro’s tent you can also make changes to your equipped Tsuba Guards and Mazo Talismans. Tsuba Guards work as spells that Soh can use when you’re in a bind, while Mazo Talismans allow Soh to equip various buffs like making the villagers stronger, or giving you a discount on the amount of orbs it costs to switch jobs. Each of these are essential to your loadout and will be a part of your strategy depending on the kind of levels you play.
The last levels to talk about are the ones where there are an ominous presence–the game’s words for a boss, and these bosses are really what show your abilities as both a fighter and tactician. The cool thing about boss levels is you don’t have to worry about the day and night cycle, but you still have to protect Yoshiro. That said, it’s easier to just focus on these boss fights when you don’t have to worry about using orbs to get more villagers to fight for you.
These fights really made me think of Pikmin as far as how they feel. Sure, you’ll be able to do some damage as Soh, but it’s really the assists you’ll get from the Woodcutters, Archers, Marksmen, and whoever you decide to bring with you for these fights. The main difference is that unlike Pikmin, you’ll only have a set number of villagers with you, and choosing which jobs for them to serve along with when to attack the boss and when to defend Yoshiro are the main factors that’ll test you. I had my share of issues with the difficulty cadence with some of the bosses. The first boss teaches you how to attack with your Woodcutters, and the second boss teaches you how to attack with Archers while keeping Yoshiro safe. And then all of a sudden, the third boss has you worry about lighting torches, so the villagers can actually see the monster on top of you dealing with the job management. This was actually the one I had the hardest time with except for the game’s final boss–which also isn’t really the final boss, if you catch my drift.
Take a look at that big nasty. He isn’t even a boss.
The beauty of Kunitsu-Gami is that while a lot of what I mentioned about the gameplay seems dense, it couldn’t be more simple as soon as you get your hands on it. On top of that, with the mix of resource gathering, tower defense, action combat, and recovery all in the gameplay, it’s impressive knowing right away thay you’re getting better. After rolling the credits, which initially took me about 20 hours to do, you’re treated to a New Game+ that takes the challenge to another level, and that’s something old-school Capcom fans can appreciate.
With the way it melds all kinds of different gameplay elements from various genres, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is one of the biggest surprises and best games of the year. Capcom has certainly been on a roll, and if this game is any indication, they won’t be stopping anytime soon.
by Danreb Victorio
