Capcom and real-time strategy aren’t words you’d normally put together, but if my first five hours with Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is anything to go by, this is a match that’s shaping up to be truly divine. . This is a strategy game with pure Capcom action at its core, with energetic katana arcs and dazzling button combos laced with some of the most stunning, kaleidoscopic visuals this side of Okami (a connection not lost on Capcom either, thanks to their free Ammy and Waka costume crossovers at launch).
As Soh’s sword moves through the air with its dancing set of moves, it leaves swirling trails of color in its wake, as if it’s constantly cutting through other dimensions that are filled with the brightest and most vibrant origami paper you’ve ever seen. It’s a lovely little treat for repeatedly throwing yourself into the heat of battle, and it gives each level the kind of action-packed excitement that you just don’t get in strategy games where your main job is simply to direct your troops from your skybox to the high one.
Don’t get me wrong – Kunitsu-Gami’s midnight stunts still feature a Pikmin-like layer of organization, as alongside Soh, you’ll also need to free and enlist the help of each town’s trapped villagers to help fend off the nighttime waves of Japanese. yokai monsters that flow through its many cursed torii gates. You can decide what role (or class) they will play and where best to place them, and you can also pause the action at any time if you need to redraw your plan of attack. But it’s this combination of cerebral control and bodily button-mashing that absolutely sings so far in Kunitsu-Gami, and I can’t wait to see what else it has in store for me as I wind my way through this monster-filled mountaintop.
There are dozens of settlements you can save on your quest for purification, and each one acts as a traditional level that you must complete before you can move on to the next one. They often end in stand-alone boss fights with larger, almost Monster Hunter-sized opponents that really test your tactics. Your objectives usually come in three varieties – free all the villagers who have been cocooned in cursed, fleshy pods by the ravaging ‘Seethe’ monsters as they sweep through the mountain, clear the village of all ‘taints’ and carve out a Spirit Path. for your priestess Yoshiro to follow so you can lead her to the main torii gate of the village to clear her once and for all.
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The path itself is solid in each level, marked by an ominous black stripe on the ground as if it had been driven through by a furious stroke of calligraphic ink. Later levels sometimes branch off this path in different directions to add another layer of tactical thinking to the mix, but in the beginning it works as a single rail track that you have to drive and defend against nighttime waves of monsters. You gain control over how far or how small Yoshiro moves through, as carving a path with the sword requires spending the crystals you’ve earned from each level by either clearing the village during the day or defeating its yokai at night. . Likewise, from what I’ve played so far, there are no time limits for completing levels in a certain number of day-night cycles, giving you the freedom to approach each level as you wish.
For example, sometimes it pays to hold back Yoshiro a bit, even if you have crystals to push her further towards your objective. Over several levels, you gain access to a carpenter who can help you repair nets that can slow down enemy progress, as well as upgrade tools that increase the attack power and movement speed of your nearby units. Move Yoshiro too fast and you may not get all the benefits of these fixed items as each fix takes time to complete during the limited daylight hours. Similarly, later in the game there are special Spirit Ward platforms that can act as a temporary Seethe shield to further delay and weaken their numbers, but only when Yoshiro is physically standing on them.
That’s before we get into the whole decision of what units to build as well, which so far range from melee lumberjacks and tank-like sumo wrestlers to long-range archers and movement-binding ascetics. As you’d expect, each has its own strengths and weaknesses to consider, but again, nothing is set in stone if you need to readjust. As long as you have crystals, you can switch villager roles to something more advantageous if you suddenly get ambushed from all angles by flying tongue ghosts (archers all the way) or need to stop the advance of bomb bellies. (ascetics ascetics ascetics).
There are also thieves you can hire to dig through the dirt during the day for more treasure, but who will scurry when the sun goes down, leaving you human unless you cleverly spend more crystals to change their role the second time around she puts it down. And there are other obstacles that you can get your villagers to help you clear to get to those last plants that destroy the carrion (you’ll eat your heart out, The Last of Us) or indeed the critical last villager. Stronger units also cost more crystals, while others can only be taken on by certain villagers – marked by the stamps of certain animals on the selection screen.
There’s a lot to juggle in what always feels like desperately short downtime compared to your nightly fights (I’ve never felt the words ‘summertime’ so strongly here). I can’t speak to the later levels yet, but at least for now the pressure always feels just right to keep the suspense going. My eyes are constantly scanning the densely overgrown trees and finger-like tendrils to root out more patches, and my brain is forever considering which smarts to fix and how best to defend Yoshiro against multiple lines of attack. Will Seethe come from this direction or from that direction? Let’s put my archer here, my sumo there, and maybe I should leave a lumberjack in the back in case they sneak up from behind…
But even if I can’t get all the preparations I want done by the time the lights go out, there’s a part of me that also can’t wait for those torii gates to open and all hell to break loose. When those Seethe show up, it’s 100% go time, and I relish the moment when I can sprint Soh to the front lines, chasing hordes of wagging tongues, bony limbs, sunken eyes, and bulging jaws, while my very capable buddies pick up the slack behind me. Sure, there are times when I need to step back and help them out, especially in larger levels where multiple torii gates are spewing Seethe at once, but for the most part they’re pretty reliable and definitely don’t need that kind. micromanaging it some AI party members do in other games I’ve played (looking at you, Ni No Kuni).
There are undoubtedly more efficient ways to dispatch these ghouls – as evidenced by the amount of time attack successes that keep you coming back for replays later for more upgrade treasures and trinkets to equip – but for now I’m just enjoying the thrill of it. that you’ll see Soh’s sword dance attacks in action (and repeated pauses mid-sword swing to get up close and personal with his really pretty good photo mode). If Kunitsu-Gami can keep up the pace of this energetic tactical action in the second half of the game, it could be something really special – and judging by the number of villager classes unlocked so far, I’m seeing Docket dial on my roll, I really hope this one has the legs to last his still amazing sense of diversity. Each level had a new monster to deal with, a new role to deal with, and a new scenario to rewire my brain with (big shout out to the level that gets rid of Soh entirely so you can focus on how teaches your carpentry creations to function properly) and I loved every second of it. Here’s hoping for an equally heavenly second half.