For a time in the mid-2000s, Capcom enjoyed an explosion of creativity rarely seen from a major, established publisher. A crack team led by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami oversaw a series of original titles that featured bold design and even bolder visual direction. First came the “Capcom Fivea series of games initially exclusive to the GameCube, including Resident Evil 4 as well as Hideki Kamiya’s side-scrolling brawler Curious Joe and Goichi Suda’s gonzo shooter Murderer 7. Mikami and Kamiya then formed the rebellious internal unit Clover Studio, where they each directed a masterpiece for PlayStation 2: Mikami’s revisionist beat-’em-up God’s hand and Kamiya’s beautiful hand-painted Zelda-esque, Okami.
There was just one problem: the games were almost all flops. Capcom shuttered Clover in 2007, and Kamiya and Mikami left to form PlatinumGames, which inherited some, if not all, of Capcom’s genius from this era. But over the next 17 years, this unique series of games only grew in influence and reputation. Now, a revived Capcom, enjoying unprecedented success on the backs of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, is beginning to feel the stirrings of that creative spirit again. You can see it in its bold triple-A gamble, Dragon Dogma 2. And you can Certainly see it in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
Kunitsu-Gami is a relatively small-scale, challengingly strange game that could have come straight out of the glory days of the 2000s. With its series of small, confined levels, focused action, and tight gameplay loop, it feels more like a remaster of a lost PS2 game than a true product of 2024 (free). The richly detailed, grotesque art is inspired by traditional Japanese folklore and illustration styles, and that aesthetic combines with the premise to create a unique atmosphere that’s equal parts creepy and enchanting. It’s a true one-off.
Image: Capcom
Capcom Calls Kunitsu-Gami an action strategy game – or, to be more precise, a “Kagura Action Strategy” game. Kagura is a ritual ceremonial dance in the Shinto religion that involves a trance-like procession that is said to purify the spirit. In Kunitsu-Gamithe player controls Soh, a swordsman, who must protect the Maiden Yoshiro as she performs a ritual to cleanse demonic contamination from Mount Kafuku, home of the Goddess.
During the day, Yoshiro makes her stately, elegant progress while Soh cleanses small pockets of defilement, rescues villagers, commands them to repair defenses, and assigns them combat roles such as archer, woodcutter, or ascetic (a shaman who can slow the progress of enemies). At night, Yoshiro pauses her progress and dances in place as hideous demons known as the Seethe pour forth from possessed gates and attempt to overwhelm her. At this point, Kunitsu Gami becomes a sort of hybrid of action game and tower defense. The player takes on the strategic placement of villagers while also directly controlling Soh, using his balletic attack combos to carve a path through the stumbling, wriggling monsters.
One resource ties all the action together. The player earns crystals by purifying pollution and defeating Seethe, and spends them on assigning roles to villagers and carving out a path forward for Yoshiro to dance on (literally: in a ridiculously cool animation, Soh plows his sword into the ground and runs forward with it). During the day, there’s a simple yet thoughtful balancing act of preparing well, making enough progress, and leaving Yoshiro in a defensible position come nightfall; maximizing progress along the path isn’t always the best strategy.
Image: Capcom
As unusual as it is in its mix of action and tactics, there is a satisfying simplicity to it Kunitsu Gami that keeps things light. The linear progression through levels makes it feel more dynamic and risky than a more traditional hunkered-down tower defense game, and the constant march of time keeps you on your toes. This is a game with clearly defined and highly rewarding loops. Even after you beat levels, they transform into bases where repair work yields extra rewards, and where you can enter a modest tent to upgrade your villagers, craft buff-granting charms, peruse beautifully rendered scrolls of art, and share deliciously modeled traditional Japanese sweets with Yoshiro.
Capcom clearly knows what it’s evoking with its game from the past Kunitsu-Gami; as a reward for participating in a demo version of the game, players are rewarded with Okami-themed cosmetic items. These two games certainly draw from the same ancient well of Japanese folklore and mythology, and they express this influence in similar characterful (albeit very different) art styles.
But what Kunitsu Gami What Capcom really has in common with the Capcom Five and Clover games is an individuality that comes from combining strong artistic choices and game design in a way that is both innovative and uncomplicated. The result has an almost arcade-like immediacy. Kunitsu Gami also evokes a truly spooky mood, through the surreal monster designs – all knuckles, nails, and tongues – and the way the characters hop and pirouette like puppets around the bleak mountainside dioramas, hoping to catch the sunrise. I can’t think of any other game – including those illustrious predecessors – that even comes close to it.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC via Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. It’s also available day one on Game Pass across PC, cloud, and console.