Summary
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddessis a great game, as many of us at TheGamer have beentryingtotell youfor weeks. I’ve been working my way through it at a very leisurely pace, which means I’m nowhere close to finishing it, but I’ve still been chatting about it with my colleagues, especiallyour reviewerJames Kennedy.
There’s no dialogue in Kunitsu-Gami, which is fine, since the game is pretty light on story. This is an RTS-action hybrid, so that’s not really an issue. As spirit warrior Soh, you alternately spend your time cleansing villages of the evil plaguing them and rebuilding them into bases. Cleansing these villages is tantamount to a joyous dance, and I mean that quite literally – your job is to usher a shrine goddess through each level, and she weaves gracefully down the path you clear for her as you fight off waves of demonic Seethe coming through possessed torii gates. When she reaches the gate at the end of the level, you and your villagers join her in a coordinated dance as she rids it of evil.
What’s particularly interesting in this game is that throughout, your role as Soh is to protect her. She can’t fight for herself as she moves through each stage, which means you have to position your villagers around each level in order to ensure no monsters make it anywhere near her. You have to keep an eye on your map during each wave, making sure that no enemies get through your defences, and kill those that do. If she takes enough damage from the yokai, she dies. Her role is to reach the end, and yours is to ensure she makes it there alive. You are swift and graceful, launching brutal attacks on enemies, and she is the picture of beauty and gentleness. The game seems to frame her as a defenceless maiden, who has powers you don’t, but who needs you to make sure she can do her job.
But, as James told me during one of our discussions, there’s a big reveal at the end of the game. I’m about to spoil it for you, so look away if you haven’t finished it.
As Soh defeats the final boss, a flurry of defilement flies towards Yoshiro, who seemingly turns to stone. As she does, we see a bright light shine from her chest, and the evil leaves the land entirely – the mountains are back to their former beauty.
We then see Yoshiro walking on water that reflects the massive clouds around her – probably heaven or something similar, just going off contextual clues. She approaches a glowing Soh with a smile, and touches their mask gently. Soh’s mask fades away to reveal that they share Yoshiro’s face, and after a second, they dissipate into light. Yoshiro is left holding Soh’s mask, alone. A bit later, we then see a village rebuilding, and what appears to be Soh’s feet walking away.
This is all obviously very up to interpretation, especially with a total lack of dialogue to give us any concrete answers as to what this means. Regardless of what Soh actually is and what happened to them after Yoshiro’s petrification, my guess is that Soh was an aspect of Yoshiro, less a protector than a manifested tool to keep her safe. Yoshiro wasn’t helpless after all, nor a damsel in distress – quite the opposite. It flips this tired trope on its head.
This interpretation is in keeping with the game’s opening, when Yoshiro prayed and made Soh appear seemingly out of nowhere.
Another interesting point here is that throughout, Soh is explicitly referred to with gender neutral terms and they/them pronouns, even in Capcom’s marketing materials. This could just be for dramatic effect, to ensure that nobody sees the plot twist of Soh and Yoshiro being one and the same coming, but James suggested that this could be a modern twist on Metroid’s original ending, when Samus was revealed to be a woman the whole time.
Kunitsu-Gami has long been compared to Okami – somethingI’ve dove into already. And Okami’s protagonist, Amaterasu, has often been interpreted as genderless. In this game, Amaterasu is a wolf, so that’s neither here nor there. But there are a number of genderless gods and deities in Japanese culture, and in most Eastern religions more generally. Aspects of gods often manifest with different genders or bodies, and this has been observed in religious texts throughout history.
Is Soh the nonbinary aspect of Yoshiro? Is Yoshiro a female aspect of a separate deity? Does any of this mean anything? It’s hard to say – the game doesn’t give us a lot to work with in terms of analysis. But this interesting twist on gender and gender roles feels perfectly in keeping withthe other ways the game pays tribute to Japanese culture and mythology. Everybody should play Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
WHERE TO PLAY
A single-player action-adventure from Capcom, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess takes place in a fantastical version of feudal Japan. You must guide the Spirit Stone Goddess on her journey to cleanse a mountain of its ills.
