Much like last year's Exoprimal, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of The Goddess shows a Capcom willing to take risks. In this particular experiment, a tower defense/action strategy hybrid is bathed in Japanese culture with deliberate--sometimes slow--gameplay.
Were you ever good at Desktop Tower Defense? I certainly wasn’t.
But that didn’t stop me from soaking up hours of it on Kongregate or whatever Flash game website at the time. The tower defense zeitgeist at the time seemed to revolve around that dumb, simple game and rather than be on my PlayStation 3 I was probably idling away on it between Tumblr refreshes and browsing mp3 download sites.
Yet there was a certain patience I did not possess that often resulted in forward momentum crumbling after a few rounds. I didn’t prepare enough anti-air squiggle thingies. The effort to raze and rebuild for flying only rounds would leave me weak when stronger ground units began to flood in. I couldn’t kill fast enough to collect the gold to upgrade and build what–in my mind–was the perfect maze to keep the creeps busy. Now it seems like tower defense has found a happy home with Match 3 mobile games… or at least that’s what the constant ads on my phone tell me.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of The Goddess is inherently a strategy game. But I couldn’t help identify it as a tower defense game drenched in complexity and Japanese set dressing.
Making such black and white comparisons between games and genres always feels a touch gross to me. Many developers attempt to differentiate themselves and only a few dare to shamelessly copy and paste. But Kunitsu-Gami is likely to be so absolutely weird to some that establishing a base level is a boon to both player and game.
In tower defense there’s usually a central object or destination that a steady flood of opposing forces will inch towards. The player employs any number of moving or static defenses meant to destroy those pesky forces before they overwhelm the target. And a quick reflection of my time with Kunitsu-Gami is able to identify those elements throughout–with significant elaboration, of course.
On-boarding is simple. The players are thrust into the action at the peak of Mt. Kafuku where monsters from the spirit realm are pouring forth. A delightfully bizarre cutscene plays showing countless bony, demonic fingers wreathed around a sickly demonic gate. Monsters pour forth as a maiden begins to dance, summoning a sword-wielding fighter. The arena is covered in masked people chanting and dancing in unison.
And it’s all quite strange and beautiful.
The little story present in Kunitsu-Gami servers to envelop players in a richly detailed world of Japanese folklore and aesthetics. The sacred land surrounding Mt. Kafuku has become plagued with corruption that must be cleansed. The opening slice of combat ends unceremoniously as the forces overwhelm players, severing the maiden from her dance and the purging force she creates. From here, the maiden, known as Yoshiro, and her spirit protector Soh, must find renewed strength and cleanse the surrounding areas of Mt. Kafuku before attempting to tackle the primary demon gate that bested them.
To restore peace to Mt. Kafuku, Soh, Yoshiro, and the player are tasked with cleansing vast swaths of land, stripping the world of its demonic presence. The process is done by Soh literally carving a path through the corruption, allowing Yoshiro time to dance through each pocket of land.
This is translated in-game by Yoshiro and Soh starting at the beginning of a level with a darkened path leading to a Torii gate. To progress, Soh consumes spirit crystals to remove the corruption from Yoshiro’s path. However, this only works during the day because when night falls, the demons, known as the Seethe begin to emerge from the Torii gate to stop Yoshiro’s cleansing dance.
Kunitsu-Gami is primarily split into day and night cycles–basically preparation and defense phases. When it’s daytime, players will guide Soh around the map, getting a feel for its layout. Scattered along the map are villagers that are cocooned in corruption who must be freed. Once rescued, players can assign these villagers roles that act as attack and defense units to protect Yoshiro when night falls.
When the game starts, players initially only have access to the Woodcutter, a melee role that acts as the first line of defense. To turn a villager into a helper unit, players must expend crystals, with each unit type costing varying amounts. The Woodcutter and the subsequently acquired Archer cost only 50 and more complex units can double or even quadruple in cost. As Kunitsu-Gami progresses, players are able to use a unique currency to upgrade units’ health pool, attack power, and unlock special abilities for them. But because this currency is finite, players need to be mindful of what may best suit the upcoming level. Thankfully, any upgrades made can be refunded at no cost, making an often frustrating mechanic quite remorseless.
What makes Kunitsu-Gami‘s translation of tower defense and strategy work so well is that it layers its complexity level by level before ramping up in difficulty. The first level is a simple one-lane effort. Players are easily able to identify that Yoshiro may not be able to cross her path in one night. The game indicates this by a white outline appearing at the point in the path where Yoshiro will stop. If it’s blue, she will make it to the gate before night. Players have the option to fast-forward time after preparation to speed up getting to the attack phase. Once night hits, the Seethe emerge and lurch towards Yoshiro.
During the day, players are meant to observe the level and identify where Seethe come from, specific choke points and potential weaknesses. From there it goes to assigning roles to villagers and placing them in a defensive position. When players go into a kind of “tactical mode” the action freezes and gives direct control on where a unit can be moved and the range it will attack and influence enemies or other units around it.
This helpful methodology takes some of the guess work out of best unit placement because the game opts for a semi-isometric viewpoint. The camera can be swung around in all manner of direction and can even be aligned to make the game look 2.5D. The neutral speed of the camera’s movement is a bit slow but I acclimated to the default after awhile.
However, Kunitsu-Gami can be extremely busy both in its menus and trying to discern where the action is taking place. On PlayStation 5, triggering the tactical mode is done by a press of R1, freezing the action. But R1 and L1 also allow players to cycle through villagers and what roles they are given. As the game progresses, players are given larger numbers of villagers to work with to set up elaborate defenses. But the half-circle radial menu that appears isn’t entirely efficient when trying to find or select a specific villager to move with. Almost every time I went to go into tactical view I cycled through several villagers because I was still holding R1.
Additionally, the game only uses a few unobtrusive elements to express if a villager is stationary or on the move. But what also becomes confusing is in the pre-night rush to cleanse spots, assess the map, collect items, and free villagers, players may forget to assign roles. Attempting to seek out those unassigned villagers could have been represented better. And because the menu illustrations representing the various units are kind of similar, it can take a lot of time to ensure you don’t waste precious crystals or fumble placement.
When night arrives, the Seethe will begin their march. Initially, they come through one gate and have only one specific path to walk. But as the game progresses, multiple Torii gates are implemented to create diverse avenues of threats. Traps, barriers, and buff areas can be repaired by a carpenter during the day. Yoshiro can rest at a square that emits a damaging pulse making her not completely helpless. Elevation is used to allow ranged enemies the opportunity to pepper units with attacks.
As you may expect, the night phases of Seethe attacks can become quite chaotic, asking a lot of the player and their preparation prowess. It isn’t enough that villagers act as defensible positions, however. Players are also granted control of Soh who uses a dancing swordsman style to provide assistance. By allowing players the choice to run around a map as Soh, Kunitsu-Gami makes its gameplay more engaging than it would be otherwise. Being able to directly rush to lanes that suddenly have heavier mobs burst in doesn’t mean that constant panic is a driving factor. Soh is able to usually hold their own against a good amount of enemies but can easily be overwhelmed without help. Still, that kind of direct control is a welcome mechanical quirk.
And while I enjoy the synergy between the active combat of Soh and the deliberate, tactical nature of arranging villagers, I recognize that Kunitsu-Gami‘s gameplay loop can feel like a bit of a slog at times. After the first level, Yoshiro’s path usually requires passing through multiple Torii gates. This means multiple instances of cleansing, set-up, and defense. There are times where the day cycles feel like they go faster than the night. And the game doesn’t easily allow players to simply rush their way through.
Players are able to acquire new roles for villagers usually after a boss fight that is more about becoming an overwhelming attack force against a singular enemy that occasionally releases smaller mobs that go for Yoshiro. Each boss on the first attempt feels like a small test of the player’s current aptitude, usually a DPS or kind of skill check to ensure a good variety of villagers and Soh-management were conducted.
Kunitsu-Gami allows players to go back into old levels and complete optional objectives for more upgrade currency, passive buffs, and active ultimate skills for Soh. But as I realized when trying to replay an earlier level, you can’t simply purchase the best units to destroy the Seethe. Doing so will deplete the crystal reserves required to carve the path to the Torii gate. While I think the game is wonderfully balanced in terms of difficulty and how it presents new obstacles, there were some levels I dreaded replaying because I knew they would take a long time to complete, even with upgraded abilities.
But the palpable sense of reward one receives from cleansing a level comes from the serene ability to then wander that level in safety. Between missions, player can revisit these places as base camps that require repairs. By assigning villagers to construction jobs, players can then complete a mission, return to base, and be rewarded after a project is completed. Rewards come in the form of upgrade currency, pieces of art, snacks you can give to Yoshiro, and new abilities. Plus, this system can be gamed a bit by going to the first boss fight and defeating it, which takes about a minute. I won’t lie, I used this method to fix bases faster and ratchet up my upgrades.
My gripes with Kunitsu-Gami usually resided in the slow periods of nothing to do, wishing for a fast-forward or maybe a higher base movement speed for Soh. There are times where players are simply standing around to make sure the villagers aren’t dying or that they are still placed in an ideal position. While the game looks a little muddy in the dark and the Seethe that don’t have distinct blotches of color swirl together, Capcom has created a game that lovingly encapsulates Japanese culture and folklore. It reminded me of Ghostwire Tokyo and its emphasis on creepy spirit beings that may be unknown to non-Japanese audiences.
The game is bursting with unique touches that emphasize how strange it is but also how engaging it can be. The authentic sound cues, delicate piano music in the safety of the base, the distinct design of the masked villagers, and the flowing dance of Yoshiro are elements that wouldn’t make sense in any other game.
It’s that charm which elevates Kunitsu-Gami, transforming it into more than just a bizarre diversion. There is some thoughtful gameplay here that can definitely challenge players’ way of thinking about strategy. Plus it’s friendly enough that it wants you to progress through its numerous stages and optional challenges, all the way into a New Game+ that contains its own unique rewards.
In fact, Kunitsu-Gami reminds me so much of Exoprimal, Capcom’s weird game from July 2023. I was a massive fan of the loop provided by fighting hordes of dinosaurs against other players. Like many, though, I lamented that there was truly only one mode at launch and the game obfuscated some of its cooler moments behind long stretches of matches and a touch of random luck. But I’m not sure if Exoprimal was meant to set the world on fire, merely be enjoyed by an intimate group of players who truly appreciated that they had a unique game on hand. To me, Capcom seems to be working to capture that strange fire again with Kunitsu-Gami.
Kinitsu-Gami: Path of The Goddess yet again shows a Capcom willing to take risks. Who would of thought a niche hybrid of action, strategy, and tower defense would translate into a Japanese mold like this? While the game suffers from familiar genre tropes like a sluggish pace and busy menus, players won’t deny the clever, tense implementation of building an impeccable line of defense. From fighting dinosaurs from the future to dancing away evil spirits, I’m excited to see what new experiment Capcom brings us next.
