Game News This new Capcom license is one of the good surprises of 2024 and here’s why!
It’s one of the most original surprises of the year! This new Capcom game has some good times in store for you.
SCRIPT FROM THE VIDEO
Introduction
The summer is quiet, but Capcom is kind enough to keep us busy with a new license that arrives all fresh and chic to heat up our consoles and PCs in our rooms that are already simmering in this heat wave, a new action strategy game that takes us to a Japanese fantasy world. Looking at the images, we could believe in a little mix between Okami and Monster Hunter Wilds, and if it is indeed Japanese folklore, it actually has little to do with the two games mentioned. The app is coming soon, on July 19th on PC, PS5, Xbox Series and good news, it will even be included in Xbox Game Pass. Is Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess the game to have this summer? Here’s our opinion.
universe
In Kunitsu-Gami, the player has ONE mission that never changes: play as a warrior named Soh and escort a priestess named Yoshiro over Mount Kafuku, whose descent takes twenty hours. And for what purpose, you ask me? It’s good to help Madame free all the villages from the invasion of the damned Ikoku, who have poured their corruption over all the locations of the map. The Ikokus are demonic creatures that look like animals and emanate from the Torii, these traditional Japanese gates that we often see erected at the entrance of a Shinto shrine. We assure you that these are practically the only Japanese words you need to know to fully master the game’s jargon. Oh, there is one last thing to remember: Kagura! It is the form of Shinto ceremonial ritual dance that inspires all the movements of the game’s characters and its entire world.
It adds a certain grace to the characters and just has a really stylish side to it. Watch the priestess clean the torii elegantly. Very good idea. And then the art direction is honestly very successful; the priestess is the queen of style, she really has the best wardrobe in the game. In a different genre, the monsters all look pretty incredibleand then the whole color palette of the game is very pretty overall, the settings are pretty nice, we are also treated to a handful of extremely cool cutscenes And besides, it runs very well at 60 fps. That’s it for the frame. In reality, the story doesn’t progress much. Also, the characters are all silent, we don’t have a single line of dialogue in the game, except when the priestess whispers to us to help her when she’s about to be disemboweled. In short, don’t worry if your headset is broken, you won’t miss much, apart from a very nice ambient music that alone fills the entire sound part of the game. The lack of narration isn’t really disturbing in itself, the gameplay is sufficient in itself. After that, we would have liked to have taken a few elements of lore from the world of Kagura and co. The game is inspired by it in its movements and aesthetics, but doesn’t say much about it, and that’s a real shame.
Contents
We told you that Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is an action strategy game with a big emphasis on strategy, so you have to complete an objective that doesn’t change from level to level: that is, escort a priestess, who has no other defenses than yours and those of the allied villagers, through a village, clean the torii, and then, from time to time, face a boss who is patiently waiting for you in a cave, and start this gameplay loop over and over again. This priestess on the ground is quite a big burden to have to carry around, but she’s also the only person capable of stopping the corruption on the mountain, so we don’t want to blame her too much. To prepare for monsters, you have to collect crystals during the day: These crystals are the central resource of the game and serve several purposes: First, to create a path that leads the priestess Yoshiro to the door she must cleanse but also to transform the villagers into warriors to help them fight the Ikaku at night.
We love the idea, firstly because it’s a pretty clever system, but also because it’s a limited resource that we have to distribute cleverly, with certain villager roles costing more than others, for example: the cheapest is with the lumberjack and the archer, who is very good at melee attacks and ranged attacks, and you have something more expensive like the sumo, very robust, which attracts all enemies, or the shaman, who heals all villagers within its radius. You will receive these roles as the adventure progresses and it is this evolving aspect in particular that allows you to maintain a good rhythm in the game . Unfortunately, these roles are really not all the same, there are even some that I only used once in the game for science before forgetting about them forever to always remain the same. It’s all a matter of balance that we don’t find entirely satisfactory. In short, these stories about crystals to recover and villagers to transform, We have to deal with them very, very quickly, because in addition to limited resources, there is also the idea of limited time ! Time passes very quickly in the game, you have to think FAST and that’s what makes the level so fun. As soon as the day ends, night falls and the Ikaku emerge from their magical portal, it’s time to act.
Gameplay
We hope that you have placed your priestess in the safest possible place, because at night the monsters show no mercy and have only one idea: to kill her. If it is not possible to move the priestess during the confrontation, the same does not apply to your villagers.. The game offers you the option to pause the fights to replace them Your villagers in the most strategic places. For example, we will favor high places for archers and place melee attackers near portals. These are not the most comfortable operations, there is also a small camera bug that we do not always find particularly pleasant, but we are entitled to an overview large enough to be able to make our decisions quickly. There is also a manipulation that asks the whole team to go on the offensive as a group or go on the defense when the priestess is in danger.
Well, in addition to placing your villagers, you also have to manage yourself! We’ll have to use Soh’s sword fighting skills to help these wonderful people. Combat takes place with a katana, combining simple two-touch attacks. The combo choreography is fluid and elegant, but you can’t really evolve anything in this regard, you can only give her a new special attack from time to time, not all of them are the same. As for the evolution of your character, we’re therefore not on a very advanced path. On the other hand, you can improve the roles of your villagers in exchange for resources. It’s quite a nice idea, but again, it’s quite limited: we had already maxed out the lumberjacks halfway through the game.
When Soh dies, he turns into a ghost and has to wait a while before he reappears in physical form. This mechanic gives a strategic dimension to combat and we find it really original. And as you may have guessed, the game is absolutely not punishing. In addition, if the priestess dies, you start again from the nearest checkpoint. There is only one difficulty level in the game, but it is not necessarily something very complex, but very accessible. In general, the first hour of play offered us relatively easy fights, so we wondered if we wouldn’t get a little bored, but as time goes on, everything actually becomes more dynamic. In fact, the gameplay loop remains largely the same, but Capcom always has new ideas to avoid the impression that everything is going in circles too much .
There is, for example, this level where we completely renounce our bodies and all we can do is help the villagers by replacing them and collecting the crystals they generate by killing monsters. And there is this other time where the entire level is surrounded by toxic swamps and we are forced to constantly avoid them. The less entertaining side of this passage is the allied AI. Your villagers accidentally keep dragging themselves into the swamps and literally killing themselves slowly before your eyes. Otherwise, you will find that the bestiary is still very attractive and varied enough that we can constantly have fun on the spot, not to mention the bosses, who are all different and constantly have some surprises in store for us; you never know what new beast you will come across.
Kunitsu-Gami is also very cool for completionists: in addition to the secondary challenges to overcome, basic repairs must also be performed ! Once the villages are cleaned, you’ll have to repair a lot of things by mobilizing the villagers. It brings a little satisfaction when it’s done and it also provides you with resources.
Diploma
In summary, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is the guarantee to discover a rather unique game and an extremely stylish universe . We love the idea of integrating traditional dances into this whole world of Japanese folklore, it makes the choreographies very elegant and it is also very, very cool to discover the bestiary. Surprises, there are also some in the gameplay loop that can reserve some new things for you while asking you to achieve the same objective throughout the game. And then we love the originality of the different systems of the game on this cycle of day / night, these limited resources and this great strategic aspect to manage. It is clever and fun from start to finish and for all these reasons we give it a score of 15/20.
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