Capcom has a heart-pounding history of action and intense gameplay in their home franchises.Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddesscontinues the developers' long tradition of making great action and compelling gaming moments and incorporates strategy mechanics to defend your objectives from monstrous creatures while working alongside other warrior units.
Monster Hunter: Rise, a hyper-action-oriented installment by one of Capcom’s biggest franchises, is another action-focused hack-and-slash that pits hunters against large creatures across several diverse environments. Both games have an aesthetic art style that calls back to Japanese Mythology and revolves around dynamic combat against monstrous beings.
8Combat Style - Monster Hunter: Rise
Monster Hunter: Rise is all about intensive hunter vs monster action. Between reading the monster’s movements to exploit openings or creating your openings and wielding your weapons of choice. The action is very involved and relies on your own experience to learn weapon combos and the best silkbind attacks to use in combat.
Kunitsu-Gami doesn’t rely on just your combat abilities with a focus on the tower defense strategies you can apply. This means you cannot manage the encroaching “Seethe” attacks alone. You’ll need to organize and establish a great defense to reinforce, whereas in Monster Hunter: Rise, you can single-handedly take on the many unique monsters of the world.Not just on your own either, since there has always been an element of cooperative play in the series.
7Defense Gameplay - Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess
Both games play with the idea of protecting the end point of your areas from an encroaching legion of monsters. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess revolves entirely around real-time strategy and tower defenses.Villagers rescued during the day could be assigned special roles and placed in tactical points for the nightly fights against monsters. This is the main gameplay loop and is how your efforts against the “Seethe” can be handled.
Monster Hunter: Rise, on the other hand, only applied this to the Rampage quests. A series of monsters will attack in a fenced-in area, and while you fight them, you’re able to deploy weapons and defenses to drive them away. After the initial Rampage quest and a few that unlock the encounter with Ibushi and the Apex Monsters, you hardly ever need to do these quests again.
6Graphics - Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess
Kunitsu-Gami uses the RE Engine for graphics, framerate, and faster animations. As such, it performs beautifully on PC and has a few framerate issues. The art style and flashy aesthetic of Kunitsu-Gami work very well with the Engine and make the game one of the most beautiful games made by Capcom.
Monster Hunter: Rise uses the same Engine, but most of the models, environmental attributes, and the base limitations in the game were built initially for the Nintendo Switch when it was initially an exclusive for the console. Even after getting ported to other consoles like PS5 and PC, the initial looks for Monster Hunter: Rise is still not as impressive as Monster Hunter: World.
5Environmental Exploration - Monster Hunter: Rise
Monster Hunter: Rise is one of the most environmentally open installments in the Monster Hunter Franchise. Each of the seven hunting locales is deep in levels, depth, and travel methods thanks to palemutes and wirebugs. Some maps were returning locations from previous installments with a full makeover to have dozens of open-ended paths.
Exploring these massive expanses of environments is needed for item gathering, tracking certain monsters, finding endemic life creatures that can help in the hunt, or collecting items for progression. Kunitsu-Gami, on the other hand, may have incredibly pretty designs and environments. Still, the exploration is limited to traveling a few points and then engaging in combat and strategizing defenses.
4Japanese Folklore Aesthetic - Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Monster Hunter: Rise has some esthetical designs that are intentionally made with Japanese folklore in mind. But there are still so many other monsters aside from the newest additions that don’t fit that aesthetic and the expansion. Sunbreak drifted from Japanese to Western fables and horror monsters.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is very much made with a Japanese style in combat, tactics, setting, and music. There is a focus on purifying the yokai corruption and cleansing the environment with the Divine Maiden Yoshiro, which is prevalent in Shintoism, and the combat in the game is based on Kagura dances. These are ceremonial dances that are a part of purifying rituals and warding off monstrous spirits. Much of the game is very focused on these cultural aspects and takes real word design and references.
3Plot - Draw
The plots of both games are pretty simplistic once you get past the initial introduction of the premise. The real star of these games is the gameplay loop. The story of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess follows your character named Soh, who is tasked to protect the Maiden Yoshiro on her mission to purify Mt Kafuku. To combat the monstrous “Seethe” that invades the village at night, Soh would summon many different warriors to aid in the defense while combating the monstrous invaders.
In Monster Hunter: Rise, your hunter avatar was raised in Kamura village, a small hunting community known for its unique steelworks and trade with Elgado. Fifty years ago, a catastrophe known as the Rampage ravished the village, and as another one looms in the distance, it’s up to you to prepare the village for defenses while investigating the source of the Rampage. Both of the plots of these games were woven together to make the gameplay and NPC dialogue interesting, and they both do a great job getting you into the setting.
2Enemy Types - Monster Hunter: Rise
Monster Hunter: Rise is known for having a large menagerie of different species of monsters to battle. By the release and final update of the expansion Subreak,there are over 70 different large monsters for you to tackle. They all have different strengths, weaknesses, ways to hunt, and distinguished means to take them on. By comparison, the legions that face you in Kunitsu-Gami are relatively simple to deal with,but the boss fights in Kunitsu-Gami are where the enemy design and challenge shines.
Almost every battle is a unique experience, and the tougher monsters are some of the most dynamic fights in gaming, from Amatsu and the Thunder Serpents to Malzeno and Rathalos. Later in Monster Hunter: Rise and the expansion Sunbreak, you are also introduced to variations of monsters, from Apexes and Afflicted monsters to Risen Elder Dragons, that add to the present challenge.
1Conclusion - Monster Hunter: Rise
Monster Hunter: Rise remains an incredibly well-put-together action RPG. The updates and expansions added by Sunbreak only add to its strengths and longevity. The combat, preparations for the next quest, and the flow in and out of the action are so addicting that hours of your time can be spent collecting armor, upgrading weapons, gaining decorations, and perfecting your best builds.
Monster Hunter: Rise remains one of the best action games of recent years and another great addition to Capcom’s long-running franchise. Yet Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess continues to explore the creative ideas of Capcom’s developers. A Japanese-styled tower defense where Kagura dance-performing warriors fight off demons gives the vibes and atmosphere of Onimusha and other impressively stylized action games based on the myths of Japan.
