Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

Capcom is really on a roll these days. They have been for a number of years now, with several excellent remakes of different Resident Evil games, the Monster Hunter series just seems to get stronger and stronger with each release and most recently Capcom has had good success with Dragon's Dogma II, which sold more than three million copies in the first two months.

But Capcom can do more than just the big high-profile titles. Exoprimal may have missed the mark, but Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess will not, and it's one of 2024's most surprising games to date. It comes from a small team at Capcom, who have created a game that is deeply rooted in Japanese culture and successfully blends multiple genres such as action, tower defence and strategy.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is set on the lush and beautiful Mount Kafuku, where small idyllic villages, beautiful cemeteries and shimmering lakes are dotted around the mountainside. For hundreds of years, the mountain goddess has protected the inhabitants of the mountain, but now an evil darkness and horrific yokai-inspired creatures (called Seethe) have taken over and the goddess' 12 masks have been stolen and scattered all over the mountain.

Together with the maiden of the mountain, Yoshiro, as her squire and protector Soh, you must now make your way down the mountain, dispelling the Seethe monsters along the way, liberating and rebuilding the villages and of course finding the missing masks, to finally perform a ritual at the foot of the mountain that will banish the evil from Mount Kafuku once and for all.

All around the mountain are the sacred Torii gates, which are what the Seethe monsters use to invade our world - but they only do so at night. Therefore, you have the daytime to gather your forces among the mountain's inhabitants, assigning them several different roles, for example a Woodcutter with a big axe, an Archer with bow and arrows or an Ascetic who can create barriers blocking the enemies. As you progress through the game and find more and more masks, you gain access to more roles and these can all be updated continuously, as can a wide range of Soh's abilities.

Once the roles are assigned, you must strategically position your forces so that when night falls and the Seethe monsters come pouring out of the Torii gates, you are ready to defeat them and, at all costs, protect Yoshiro from attack. Under no circumstances should she fall in battle, as only she can perform the vital ritual at the foot of Mount Kafuku.

In addition to positioning your forces correctly, Soh also allows you to attack the enemy with swords and special attacks and you can continuously order your forces to either retreat and protect Yoshiro, to attack the enemy, or to stay in their assigned positions and defeat the enemy as they get closer. The missions vary quite nicely along the way; one of them takes place on a boat, which changes the combat considerably, and other times you can't use Soh who has been enchanted, so you can only give commands to your forces.

When the night is over, you lick your wounds, prepare for the next night while slowly getting Yoshiro closer and closer to the main Torii gate of the area, which she cleanses of evil when she gets there, putting an end to the nightly visits from the Seethe monsters in that area.

As the above description might suggest, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is a mix of several different genres, and it actually works surprisingly well. There's action as Soh takes on hordes of enemies and the tower defence part is evident as you gather forces, assign them roles and strategically place them around the Torii gates. The strategy part comes into play when you order your forces to attack or defend during battles - and when you search for resources and rebuild the area after the battle is over, repairing the damage that the dark evil has inflicted on buildings, defences or religious stonework, for example.

All this is spiced up with references from the deep Japanese culture. This is a very Japanese game, but not in the shrill way that Final Fantasy can be, with the perhaps slightly childish characters and scantily clad heroines - this feels like a believable look into the rich and complex Japanese culture.

When games mix multiple genres, there is a risk that it ends up being a lukewarm middle ground on all fronts and although Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is neither a particularly deep strategy game, a particularly clear tower defence game nor a particularly good action game, it all works quite well together. Placing your forces correctly is a bit confusing and awkward due to the camera angle, but you learn to work around that and it ends up being overshadowed by the game's strengths, which are fortunately in abundance here.

The rich Japanese culture also shines through clearly on the visual side. Everything from the character design, the masks and the beautiful robes worn by the mountain maiden Yoshiro, to the beautiful temples and altars placed on the mountainside, all the way down to the game's menus and of course the soundtrack, is really well done and quite well designed.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess shows how versatile Capcom can be and it ends up making one of 2024's most surprising games to date. It's surprising because it shakes things up so that pieces from several different genres end up landing in quite surprising ways. It's a surprisingly well-functioning hybrid between an action game, a tower defence and a strategy game, so it's hard to say who Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is really aimed at.

For me at least, it was a positive surprise and if you're into strategy games or tower defence and would like some alternative summer holiday entertainment, I would definitely check out Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess - there's even a demo on all platforms, so you can try it out and see if it might be something for you. I recommend at least giving the demo a go.