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On July 19, 2024, Capcom released Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. This action-strategy title is one of Capcom’s first new original game pitches in nearly a decade, which has naturally drawn a lot of eyes to the title. With the pitch of combining two vastly different genres of games, a large number of people are also naturally cautious about picking up this title. While I am personally all for supporting original IPs from AAA companies, the mere idea of something new isn’t enough for everyone. So let’s give the game a look and dissect it piece by piece so you can decide for yourself if Kunitsu-Gami is a game worth picking up.
Gameplay – 9/10
Kunitsu-Gami’s gameplay is a very shocking mix of the Hack-n-Slash and Tower Defense gaming genres. During the daytime portion of any stage, players will be tasked with recruiting villagers and assigning them roles while simultaneously carving a path to the walk to the end of the stage.
Then, during the night players will have to fight against hordes of enemies. While your villagers fight in the roles you assigned to them, you yourself can run up to and attack enemies with various combos. The main gameplay loop of Kunitsu-Gami involves finding a balance where you yourself can take out enemies in one area while the villagers successfully defend the woman you escort.
This gameplay loop is incredibly simple, but also perfect for short bursts of fun. A single stage of Kunitsu-Gami will take around 10 minutes to complete, quite lengthy for this genre, but at no point did it feel like any levels dragged on longer than they needed to.
The game also isn’t afraid to mix up the formula in various ways to shock the player. From stages that are cloaked in darkness to allow enemies to creep closer to you, bosses that require you to quickly move all your villagers on a whim, and stages where your main unit is unavailable (requiring you to rely only on the villagers).
All of these different stage styles form together to create a very fun and unique gameplay experience that could only come from a developer like Capcom. My only issues with the gameplay come from a feeling of repetitiveness in the gameplay loop. This was clearly a game made to be played in short bursts and not marathoned for long hours on end.
Presentation – 8/10
While the graphics of Kunitsu-Gami may not blow you away, this game has a very distinct style that helps set it apart from most (if not all) other tower-defense-styled games. Every detail of this game pops out at you and although it isn’t exactly like Capcom’s classic title Okami, fans of that game’s style will feel at home here.
The one aspect where the game’s visuals can fall flat is unfortunately the area designs. Many of the game’s stages tend to blend together visually and can be hard to tell apart at a glance. There are various ways the game mixes things up such as snowy environments, but it is still an (albeit minor) issue with the game.
An area where Kunitsu-Gami’s visuals truly shine is the camera, and the game flaunts this fact almost immediately. When starting up the game you’ll be greeted by a camera angle that would look perfect in a 2D sidescroller, only to then be prompted to move the camera wherever you want. I cannot stress enough how amazed I was with the camera in this game. No matter where you angle it, it will always look like you are playing a game designed for it to be aimed there.
Whether it be top-down, behind your back, or aimed at the side it will always look perfect. This is an absolutely incredible feat and the game designers deserve to be praised for making this work.
Overall, Kunitsu-Gami is a great-looking game that is only held back by some repetitive area visuals.
Performance – 10/10
Despite Kunitsu-Gami featuring massive hordes of enemies that march their way through the night toward your units, the game runs as smooth as butter. Capcom has years of experience developing games on the RE Engine which run fantastically on all modern platforms. Despite constantly trying out different genres in the engine, it seems suited to running any type of game Capcom tries creating with it.
This review was written after an experience with the PlayStation 5 version of the game, however, I think it’s safe to assume that the Xbox Series S|X and Steam versions of the game run similarly smoothly. At no point during my experience did I ever experience any framerate drops or graphical glitches.
As gaming has moved to an era where all major consoles run on similar technology, the performance of games has begun to improve. A large step for Capcom in particular who in the past would have some games struggle to perform on PlayStation hardware in particular.
Enjoyment – 9/10
Kunitsu-Gami truly feels like a callback to the PlayStation 2 era of gaming. When Japanese companies like Namco and Capcom felt free to experiment with shorter-budget titles that would provide unique never-before-tried experiences. While these types of games slowly died off in recent gaming generations, the spirit of creativity behind them never vanished. It’s a rarity to receive a game nothing like anything you’ve seen before and I’m glad Kunitsu-Gami provides that experience.
The gameplay of Kunitsu-Gami does a great job of blending together two very different genres of gameplay in a way I have never seen before and skillfully combines them in a way where the best aspects of each complement each other. Whether it be destroying bosses or protecting the target, the gameplay and creativity of Kunitsu-Gami shine through at every opportunity.
As I briefly highlighted in the gameplay portion of this review, Kunitsu-Gami should be played in short bursts in order to prevent burning yourself out, but if you are picking up this game to play a stage a day or perhaps in between working on other projects, then this is the perfect title to pick up and play.
Overall, Kunitsu-Gami is a title that I highly recommend you try out if you want to experience something new and perhaps reinvigorate your love for both gaming and the creative minds at Capcom.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Bottom Line
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is an experience like no other, making it truly feel like a new-age Capcom classic.
