At this point I think Capcom is one of the AAA devs that every other should take a strong look at and study them hard. Seems like they’ve been firing on all cylinders since 2017 and they continue their string of strong releases with Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess.

The story sees a warrior named Soh and a divine maiden named Yoshiro tasked with eradicating an army of demonic spirits known as the seethe who have taken over and corrupted a massive mountain, trapping the villagers along the way.

The game is a hybrid between action, tower defense, strategy and base building. The gameplay sort of reminds me of the hybrid style brutal legend tried years ago, although I think it was pulled off more effectively here.

Pros

Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess isn’t too plot heavy as Soh and Yoshiro are the only two characters and there isn’t any dialogue within the cutscenes. Something impressive is still done however in that you actually do care about the characters as what is happening to them becomes more clear. Soh and Yoshiro can’t exist without each other and as things go on, their necessary quest seems to become more and more ill fated for them.

While the plot isn’t bad, it’s not the focus and I won’t spend too much time on it. The gameplay is where Kunitsu-Gami really shines above all else.

Gameplay is divided into two stages. During the day is the preparation stage. You purify the area to gather crystals, set a path for Yoshiro to walk through, rescue any trapped villagers and optional purify some of the wild animals as well , which net you extra health items.

You can also build various traps and barriers to help against the seethe depending on the level. What you do to prepare varies greatly on the stage. At night is where Soh leads the villagers to fight the seethe and defend Yoshiro who’s vulnerable during this time.

The villagers you save can be equipped set to one of twelve classes you’ll eventually unlock.  These range from the woodcutter who uses quick melee attacks and a group of them can rip enemies apart in seconds, to powerful ranged fighters like the archer and magic users such as the ascetic who slows enemies to a crawl. My personal favorite was probably the sumo wrestler as he draws enemies to him and can take a lot of hits. Each class can be upgraded as well. These range from simple health and attack upgrades to giving them special abilities such as the archers being able to use fire arrows and a twin shot. While you do get other types of melee and ranged fighters, each has their own abilities and weaknesses so none feel invalidated. Each class costs a certain amount of crystals as well, so you need to manage those as these same crystals are needed to build the path that Yoshiro walks to cleanse the area.

Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess isn’t a game where you’re more reliant on the troops however. Soh is an absolute powerhouse who can be upgraded as well. He can unleash a few different combos and has two different fighting styles he can set. His combat isn’t as detailed as action games such as Devil May Cry or Bayonetta but, he’s still fun to control overall. As things goes on Soh can unlock a pretty wide array of upgrades ranging from upgrading his swordplay, his bow or his command over the villagers. he can also equip various talismans that can either buff him, the villagers or Yoshiro. Some  can even be equipped to give yourself a greater challenge.

Soh’s most powerful abilities come in the form of different coins called Tsuba Guards. Many of these are satisfying to pull off and very powerful. They range from Soh being able to summon an earthquake for high damage, or things such as making a clone or barrier. They do have a pretty lengthy timer however. So you can’t abuse them. They can easily turn the tide of a fight and definitely helped me barely get out of some of the more difficult missions.

Your enemies aren’t necessarily the smartest bunch. The Seethe are almost like animalistic demons for the most part but they are relentless. And this is what keeps the game from just being a mindless slasher. As strong as Soh is, he can’t be everywhere at once. In some missions the seethe will be attacking you from all sides and this can be tough to manage as the more powerful enemies come into play. Some of these enemies range from enchanting the Seethe so they turn into berserkers to disabling Soh’s ability to command his troops. Each mission changes up the enemy variety pretty well so no fight really feels the same.

The games bosses were also well done. Not only are their designs great, they were also all pretty fun to fight and had their own unique ways to take them down. The earlier bosses are straight forward but by the time you reach the third boss things begin to change. You can find yourself having to fight a boss who thrives in total darkness to a 1 on 1 fight with a giant swordsman.

Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess mixes up it’s mission variety pretty well. Things start off straight forward but soon you find yourself having to navigate a pitch black cave where your troops can’t fight properly unless you light torches to certain missions where even Soh himself will be out of commission and you have to rely on commanding your troops. Despite not being a short game, Capcom did well to make sure the same mission type doesn’t repeat more than once or twice and if it does, another twist is added as well.

Graphically, Kunitsu-Gami doesn’t try to push ground breaking boundaries but, it does offer a unique art style that resembles depictions of heaven and hell in Japanese paintings. This isn’t a horror game but the Seethe all look pretty nightmarish, (no surprise given Capcom’s history with making something scary.) the designs of the characters and villagers are great as well as each has their own mask design which are simple, yet pretty detailed at the same time.

The environments particularly stand out in an area before you’ve cleansed it. It paints a picture that the Seethe have all but defeated you at this point. The wildlife is all corrupted and they quite literally have their hands everywhere as there are demonic hands coming out of everything.

Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess also provides great replay value as well. After you complete a mission, you can go into the various villages to start rebuilding them. You can also replay each mission for additional challenges for more rewards and the game does feature a new game plus which has more challenges added to each mission.

Cons

There are only a couple of small downsides I had. The first being that while you’re troops can be upgraded after the first mission, Soh himself can’t really be upgraded until maybe about a third of the way through. This just seemed like an odd choice but, I guess if Soh had some of his upgrades that early he’d feel overpowered.

The other is that some may feel Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess is a bit too easy for some players. There are some harder missions but even later in the game there were often times where I was never close to losing any villagers nor was Yoshiro close to getting touched.

Final thoughts.

Overall I was interested in Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess when I heard about it. I didn’t expect to be walking away with one of the most enjoyable games of the year for me however. It’s a game where I had very few small gripes and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Kunitsu-Gami Path Of The Goddess is available from the 19th of July on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4/PS5 and PC. Gamer Social Club were kindly provided a code from Capcom.