Kunitsu-Gami Path of the Goddess review – Style and substance

If you’re looking for a beautifully stylized tower defense game with third-person melee elements, this beautiful game may just be for you. I didn’t know what to expect when I first picked Kunitsu-Gami Path of the Goddess up for review, but what I ended up playing was a very enjoyable surprise.

Simple yet effective

The idea behind Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is very simple. Soh and Yoshiro must make their way down the mountain, clearing out villages and defeating bosses. The mountain has been overrun by evil spirits, and by cleansing the various levels, the mountain and its inhabitants eventually return to normality. However, Yoshiro moves slowly, and once the sun goes down, it is up to Soh and the various villagers to protect her from the waves of varied enemies pushing to stop her.

There is a decent selection of stages, and although, in the beginning, I felt that the levels might become a little repetitive, the game mixed it up enough to keep me entertained. The process stayed the same, but little elements and tweaks introduced kept the game feeling fresh and made me want to push onto the next level as soon as I was done with the last.

The game’s concept is simple, and despite loading you with mechanics and systems in the opening minutes, they quickly become second nature. Once you grasp the way the game plays, it all comes down to how creative and tactical you can be with it.

The blending of genres in Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is one I feel I have wanted for a while, and I have to say, they have done a fantastic job of it.

Mixing Genres

It wes hard to categorize Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess as a single genre while I played for review. In parts, it is a tower defense game, as the various villagers are assigned roles and placed along Yoshiros’ path. However, Soh is independently controlled and has his own upgrade tree and set of attacks that can be used to pick off enemies in the style of a hack and slash. There are also base-building elements requiring resources and upgrades. These three elements come together seamlessly in just the way I hoped they would.

The gameplay loop

The core gameplay is the tower defense aspect. When the sun is up in the village, it’s cleansing time. Soh makes his way around the various stages, freeing villagers from evil entrapment and adding them to his arsenal. They can be assigned roles such as healers, archers, heavies, and other typical towers from the genre. They must then be placed along the path that Yoshiro will take, making sure to cover the many gates enemies could come through when night falls.

Once the sun has dropped, it is time to fight. Waves of enemies will try to attack Yoshiro as she slowly works her way through the level. However, if the right selection of defenders has been chosen, and their placement is just right, she should be safe.

Soh is also a free agent. His fast and beautifully animated sword can cut through enemies, pushing them back, staggering them, and often acting as the final line of defense against the hordes. It is also up to Soh to rearrange the defenses, pulling them back or driving them forward and changing their roles on the fly, depending on needs.

Once the wave has been cleared, it’s time to push further on, possibly finding more villagers and rearranging defenses as Yoshiro dances ever forward.

Once the end of the stage is reached, it’s time to face the level boss. These work in a similar way to the fights, with the protection of Yoshiro being the main goal, except now it’s in an arena with one major enemy and a whole stage to place the defenses.

Clean and simple mechanics

Soh has a satisfying selection of combos, beautifully animated. I often dread a game that forces me to learn a whole head full of buttons, but Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess kept them simple enough to master within a few stages while I was getting ready to review. Once these were under wraps, I was ready to start upgrading them and tweaking, knowing I wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess threw a whole selection of situations my way. The stages are often multi-level, requiring thought and strategy to ensure all avenues are covered. One stage even takes place on a floating raft of 5 boats, all being attacked at the same time as it makes its way downriver.

Throughout the game, I often had to take some time to really work through what I had available in my arsenal. Each unit has its own strengths and weaknesses, and if even one of the limited number of units is inappropriate for the situation, the whole level can be lost. Thankfully, time stops while in the unit placement screen. This allowed for some pretty hasty shuffling when things were going pear-shaped.

As mentioned previously, when I first started playing the game, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information thrown at me. However, within a few stages, I found myself quickly shuffling between unit selection and placement and the satisfying flow of one-on-one combat. The transition between tactical tower defense and plowing through hordes of enemies is seamless and clean.

A feast for the senses

One thing that stood out during my review of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was just how visually and audibly enjoyable the whole game was. Even on my aging GPU, the game ran perfectly smoothly, but more importantly, it looked beautiful.

The art style is dripping with traditional Japanese Edo period stylings. Each cutscene looks pulled straight from a Hokusai print, complete down to the porous paper effect on the screen. The color palette is heavily influenced by the inks and watercolors of the period, and it creates a peaceful and gorgeous style game.

I actually ended up turning up the music during my review time with Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. The levels have their own Japanese, fast-paced jams, varying between traditional music to heavily jazzy numbers. The music uses flutes, strings, and furious drums to add tension to the on-screen battle. However, once a stage is cleared and it’s time to start the peaceful village base-building stage, it’s all wind instruments and gentle movements.

The models, ranging from the individual defense units to the varied monsters and, most importantly, Soh and Yashiro, are all lovingly crafted. As each new boss or enemy is introduced, they are given a splash screen, and I am glad they chose to do it. The intricate detail for each and every one of them shows just how much the team has studied their source material, producing some truly horrific but beautifully designed foes.

A subtle storyline

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess decides to tell its story without exposition and without diverting from the gameplay. I found myself oddly attached to both Soh and Yashiro despite neither of them having much to say.

Moving from stage to stage pushes them both into various levels of peril. Village after village is cleansed, but the toll on them both is evident. A number of times, one of them is weakened or incapacitated to the anguish of the other.

Once the stage is over, it’s time to visit the villages. The brief respite is welcome, and the gentle storytelling in these moments adds so much charm to the two characters. In the moments between battles, I am free to visit the villages I have liberated, upgrade my units and attacks, and enjoy the beautifully animated areas.

As the various villages are rebuilt by the units that fought to defend them, they casually chat away with one another. Once a repair is completed, they await Soh’s approval before patting themselves on the back. The moments between stages could have easily been cut from the game, but I am glad they weren’t. The sense of achievement and time to take in the truly beautiful game design is a pleasure.

A concept executed with style and grace

Combining genres is always a risk in video games. Often, in these situations, a game just kind of half-bakes the two genres, and we end up with something that is the bad bits of both. However, I feel Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess pulls from both the tower defense aspect and the hack-and-slash genre and creates the best of both worlds.

My time to review and play through Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was a delight on many levels. I found the pacing to be absolutely spot on, with the time to complete each stage not too long and not too short. The time it takes to upgrade units, Soh, and the various villages never left me feeling like I was having to grind. The upgrades were noticeable, and each one forced a new play style.

Tactically, the game required me to think. I couldn’t just mindlessly throw units around the map and place myself in one spot. I had to learn my own combos, recognize the various enemies and their attacks, and constantly reposition my defenses. As the stages progressed, the gameplay became fast and satisfyingly tactical. Each new stage clearance felt like I had actually earned it.

To conclude, I have to applaud the visual and audible design of the game. Every so often, a title like this will come out and really exhibit just how wonderfully stylized a game can be. There are too many titles out there that look exactly the same, so to see and hear something with such a beautiful approach is certainly refreshing. This is a game that can be easily enjoyed by seasoned gamers or someone just starting out in their foray into the artistic medium.