Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess – Preview of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess – On the right path

Up there on the mountain

The adventure takes place on Mount Kafufu, a mountain struck by corruption and prey to attacks by the Ikaku. The latter are creatures from the other world (a kind of Yokai), emerging from the Torii (large portals) when night falls. SoHa Warrior, is tasked with accompanying and protecting the Priestess Yoshiro during her journey to purify the mountain.

The game is inspired by Japanese folklore, kagura, masks, music. This therefore gives a rather original artistic direction and in my personal opinion quite successful.

Clear the path

So the objective of the game is quite simple, go from section to section to cleanse them of corruption, gain power, and ultimately free the mountain. There are a number of them divided into 3 categories.

The first is a combat zone with a bit of exploration, apparently where most of the game will take place. You have to bring the Priestess from the beginning of the path to the portal, this requires you to trace the path for her. But time passes, and while the day is quiet, at night, the hordes of creatures come out of the Torii. The young lady stops and you have to protect her until daybreak. Here we have a gameplay very action, almost Beat Them All (combos, special attacks, etc.), but with a bit of tactics. Indeed, during the day phase, it is possible to free villagers, assign them a job, and a location to defend. But these last two points can be changed at will (or almost, because changing a role consumes a resource) during the nights. The game then goes into tactical pause in order to manage all of this. Once the Priestess has reached the Portal, she purifies it, and this unlocks access to the Boss in the area.

Boss phases take place in an arena-like setting. It was not possible to see more than a handful of them, but it seems that each of these fights has a gimmick (related to the previously cleaned section), such as a dark area where it is necessary to fight near torches to get help from the villagers (they cannot attack in the dark).

The last category corresponds to the inhabited area of ​​a liberated section. This is where Yoshiro's tent is located, which allows you to make improvements to the character played, and troops. A lot of what is linked to the Warrior is unlocked via progress in the scenario and accomplishments. It is a question of increasing life points, damage, using different skills, etc. For villager troops on the other hand, this consumes resources obtained during clashes. On the demo, the number of professions was limited to a handful but there seem to be more than ten, each with 6 levels of improvements (increased damage, area of ​​effect, etc.). Suffice to say that unless farmer massively, drastic choices will have to be made. It is also possible to request the reconstruction, restoration, of parts of the village (building, sign, altar, etc.). This requires a specific number of villagers and potentially several days of work, for various gains.

A promising path

After almost two hours of play, the impressions are quite positive. The game offers an atypical universe coupled with gameplay that mixes action and tactics. A fairly original combination that seems to work well. The action part is not very deep but does the job, and the good management of the professions and the placement of the villagers is essential. It will be necessary to judge the interest of the proposal and its renewal over time. On this subject it seems that the game is not too long, about twenty hours a priori. If this is the case it would give a correct duration for this type of proposal, and could ensure an interesting experience without it being too long and exhausting. In any case, it is a nice little surprise that we advise to keep an eye on.