At Summer Games Fest, we got to go hands on with Capcom’s newest upcoming IP in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. The game is a mix of genres so it doesn’t fit into what Capcom is usually known for, but it’s nice to see them try to experiment in areas of games they don’t usually dabble in. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess may not be the strongest first go, but it has plenty of good ideas.
The demo we played was near the beginning of the game and covered two separate sections. The first was a small town section where the town has been infected by a form of corruption with a day and night cycle. During the daytime, our goal was to clear the corrupted areas and free the trapped villagers, and, as you clear the corruption, you gain spirit orbs. These orbs can then be traded to give the villagers certain roles. These roles, once assigned, allow villagers to help in the nighttime combat sections. Prior to that though, you can guide the priestess that accompanies you to clear the rest of the corruption.
Unfortunately, this takes a long period of time and she didn’t clear it before night time started. Night time sees the Seethe, the corrupting demons, invade and try to kill the priestess so they can spread more corruption. This basically becomes a tower defense section as you can move villagers around the area to help defend the priestess from the enemy attacks, Once you fend off all the enemies through the night, you can finish the mission and then are able to proceed or level up your villagers’ roles or yourself.
The next section we played was a boss battle. The boss battle was the game becoming more straight action combat compared to the tower defense section we played. This is where the game really shined as the combat and being able to use villagers to fight and defend as a unit was a lot of fun. The game features a way to even avoid death in the game as once your health runs out you enter a spirit state where after a short time you become your corporeal self again with around half health. However, while you’re in your spirit state you can still control your villagers and have them go either on offensive or defensive while you are trying to recover.
Overall, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is an enjoyable experience that has some good ideas that need a bit more time to develop. We’ll see how Capcom improves the game when it finally gets to release. You can check out 20 minutes of gameplay below: