The phrase ‘CapcomRenaissance’ is going out of style. Ever since the release ofResident Evil 7, the Japanese developer and publisher has been firing on all cylinders as it places its focus on original IP both big and small with heartfelt remasters and new projects that we’ve never seen before. While there have been acouple of rare missteps, few companies are doing it like Capcom these days, and that warrants celebration.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddessplays a small part in that modern vision, but also comes to represent everything I love about Capcom. It’s willing to take chances, explore new ideas, and develop smaller, more intimate games that don’t require several years and millions upon millions of dollars to make a reality. In fact, it seems to have a pretty good cadence regarding its releases and ensuring all its properties, both big and small, are given a fair shake.
This character action/tower defense hybrid came out of nowhere, and piqued my interest the second it was announced because it was a Capcom property. Not to mention,it’s reminiscent of Okami in several wayswith its focus on Japanese folklore and semi-watercolour aesthetic. It was fresh, unique, and had me asking questions out of intrigue rather than confusion, and that’s incredibly difficult in a gaming landscape where it feels like we’ve seen everything before, especially in the triple-A space.
It’s also on Game Pass, which is a lovely surprise and will hopefully help this cult classic in the making earn a more sizable audience.
Now that I’m playing it for myself, that curiosity has evolved into appreciation for a title that is not once afraid to embrace its own eccentricities, and in the process introduces a gameplay formula I find easy to grasp yet deceptively hard to master in its novel machinations. Every stage is a literal dance down a luscious mountain filled with abandoned shrines, monsters galore, and villagers desperate for salvation. Your job is to guide a goddess down a path and command a small army of soldiers, each with their own distinct roles.
Kunitsu-Gami shows its entire hand within the first few hours, and instead of being overly ambitious with its mechanics or trying too many things for the sake of it, it nails every little fundamental and expands upon them with deeper and more challenging encounters.
It’s rare for a triple-A developer to release a new IP not only at this lower price point, but which also gives designers the freedom to capitalise on their ideas without feature creep diluting its identity into a meaningless husk of what it truly wants to be. Experimentation brings it to life, not a sprawling open world, live-service trappings, or a convoluted narrative. Sure, there’s a chance it gets a little long in the teeth towards the end, but I’d rather play a confident game such as this than an experience that tries to do everything as it falls apart at the seams.
If you’re like me, Kunitsu-Gami will make you nostalgic for Okami. If it doesn’t, stop what you’re doing and play Okami. Seriously, what are you waiting for?
Obviously, I don’t know the exact numbers, but Kunitsu-Gami seems to have been made on a more modest budget, with a $50 price tag to reflect that. It’s a game you can start and finish, then walk away to find something else. You aren’t expected to see everything it has to offer or be a regular player who comes back to engage with seasonal content and battle passes. It is a finished product from the outset, beautifully polished and ready to impress with zero catches. It sucks that to even entertain this sort of thing in the modern age is a rare exception and not the norm, and that modern video games have conditioned us into viewing this as an exception rather than the norm.
Perhaps I’m nostalgic, or maybe I’ve grown impatient with what gaming has become. It should be a source of freeform creativity where developers aren’t obsessed with making profit hand over fist from millions of players, but seeking to tell stories and come up with mechanics that have you grinning widely at the screen as you play for hours and hours. These titles are rare, so it’s worth screaming about exceptions from the rooftop whenever they come along. If we are lucky, Kunitsu-Gami will be just one of many gems from Capcom in the years to come.
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.
