Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is possibly one of the most inventive games I’ve played in a long time. Not so much the basics. Kunitsu-Gami’s blend of action and strategy uses simple ideas that are common to both genres. What makes it stand out is how these ideas unfold and the presentation Capcom couches them in. Kunitsu-Gami is a fantastically stylish and creative take on real-time strategy, one that does a lot with a handful of basic concepts and shines in the small details.

And then the monsters ate them

Kunitsu-Gami plays out like a folktale performed on stage. The setting is Mt. Kafuku, home to several villages that formerly basked in plenty – but, as silly little village people so often do in these tales, it wasn’t enough. The people fell into debauchery and lusted for even greater riches and pleasures, and the strength of their depravity corrupted the land and opened a door to the netherworld. Hideous monsters called the Seethe spilled over the dimensional divide, consuming and destroying everything in their wake. Shrine maiden Yoshiro and her guardian Soh – that’s you – arrive on the mountain to free the people, cleanse the land, and banish the Seethe forever.

That’s about the extent of Kunitsu-Gami’s narrative setup, but despite being on the light side, it works perfectly for what Capcom has here. Kunitsu-Gami focuses less on who Yoshiro and Soh are and more on what they do and, equally as important, where. She’s the shrine maiden, you’re her guardian, and that’s all there is to it – just like in a folktale.

What makes Kunitsu-Gami so impressive is how it deftly handles so many moving pieces. Capcom calls it a Kageru Action Strategy game, but there’s a lot more going on here than just dance-inspired strategy. Each village you rescue is an absolute wreck by the time the Seethe retreat, and there’s a light management element involved in rebuilding the town and establishing your base of operations. 

Soh has a skill tree and a few slots for equipping special skills that lend it some light RPG elements, and there’s even a little bit of princess raising. Yoshiro sits in her tent after a battle and waits for you to visit, give and receive offerings, and provide her with sustenance in the form of whatever food you manage to find as a reward or by clearing away corruption. Should you feed a shrine maiden a sweet bun that came out of a mass of writhing hands and god-knows-what-else? Probably not, but she likes it anyway.

It’d be easy for Capcom to fumble somewhere along the way, with Kunitsu-Gami juggling so many styles and activities at once, but they all blend seamlessly. It might not be like anything you’ve seen before, but it works and feels completely natural.

Dance for your life

Kagura is a ritual dance, so it’s fitting that the whole thing has a distinct aura of stageplay about it. Everything from the highly choreographed movements, rich visual detail of the costumes and monsters, and even the increasingly frantic chatter of an off-stage chorus as night creeps over the horizon, makes it feel like you’re watching an elaborate outdoor performance, a feeling almost no other video game even tries to evoke.

There are also a handful of other stylish touches that have nothing to do with stageplay, including your health bar being a handpainted ofuda – a Shinto charm tag – and illustrated pages marking the dawn of a new day. Every location resembles a diorama as well, constructed in layers not unlike Mistwalker’s Fantasian and looking absolutely gorgeous. Kunitsu-Gami is easily one of the most artistically ambitious and fascinating games of the year, but there’s more to it than just good looks.

The wandering savior

The way it all plays out is like this: You visit a new village and have to purify as much corruption as you can find, free villagers, and create a purified road for Yoshiro to travel on as she performs her cleansing dance. Newly-freed villagers join your cause by fighting in one of several roles – from the humble woodsman to more niche fighters and support units later on – and clearing all the corruption before reaching the last gate rewards you with a new talisman to augment Soh’s abilities. Corruption nodes are well-placed in such a way that finding and clearing them all feels like completing a little puzzle, and it’s a smart method for making sure you familiarize yourself with every part of a map.

Assigning villager roles and preparing Yoshiro’s way costs crystals, which you get from purifying corruption nodes big and small – but never enough to do everything all at once. Kunitsu-Gami’s strategy starts while the sun still blazes overhead, as it expects you to spend your crystals wisely between army prep and getting Yoshiro to the next Torii gate. It seems deceptively simple at first, especially since the first two villages are rather small, but each new village presents more obstacles and longer routes to plan around. Kunitsu-Gami is rarely grueling, but it still feels satisfying to pull off a well-planned strategy and clear maps as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Once night falls – you can, thankfully, speed the flow of time along to make this happen faster – the Seethe invade, regardless of how far Yoshiro has made it along her path. Your job switches to defeating waves of Seethe and keeping them from harming Yoshiro, and the villagers you saved can join in the fight, assuming you assigned them a role. They stay where you place them, or you can command them en masse to attack or defend. It’s light strategy compared to other RTS games out there, but Kunitsu-Gami’s many moving pieces and cleverly designed maps mean you still have to keep your wits about you. 

The only downtime is between waves of Seethe, when there’s literally nothing to do but wait for the next horrors to crawl through the corrupted gate. I guess the idea is for you to reposition units or take that time to heal, but you can do that in an instant during combat anyway. The dead time is annoying, all the more so for how curiously out of place it feels when everything else is so polished.

Repetition is the key to upgrades

You’re back on the purity road once day breaks again, and after Yoshiro finally arrives at the Torii gate, you and she perform a last cleansing ritual that stops the Seethe from invading the village every night. Then it’s on to the next village, or you can stay and rebuild the one you just liberated. Most of these rebuilding exercises require a few villagers and take several battles to complete. You can just rush on to the next one, but Kunitsu-Gami expects you to replay maps more than once to get as many upgrade materials for your villagers and Yoshiro as you can. That sounds tedious, but each village has a set of challenges that push you to think harder about your strategy and make for a good excuse to replay.

You unlock new villager roles as you defeat major Seethe and progress down the mountain, and as usual with the genre, each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The woodsman, for example, is excellent at holding back weak Seethe, but flying enemies quickly overwhelm them. Enemy variety starts changing quickly, so you can't just stick with one strategy and hope for the best.

Soh has a set of basic attacks and dancing attack combos that suit most situations, and while they’re simple, using them is just plain fun. One combo sees Soh swirl into the air with a visual flourish and take down flying foes, while another unleashes several attacks in a row in a series of coordinated, fancy-looking sword twirls. It’s hard to overstate how stylish Kunitsu-Gami’s little visual effects are, and they go a long way toward building its strong, unique identity. 

Soh also learns several other skills that involve more strategy. Some of these have limited uses and need good timing to work well, while others buff nearby villagers in a short range, which, on larger maps, means you have to pick the two or three fighters who need that help the most. You can block and dodge, heal, and pause time to issue commands. 

Kunitsu-Gami isn’t particularly deep. However, it makes the most of all its many concepts, and outside the few dull moments of downtime, it’s always pushing you to think carefully and take in every part of its richly realized world. There’s genuinely nothing else like it, and I hope there’s more to come in the future.

This review is based on a PC copy of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess that the publisher provided. Kunitsu-Gami launches on July 19, 2024, for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Game Pass, PS4, and PS5.