Rhythm is everything Kunitsu-Gami: The Way of the Goddess. On a micro scale, the girl Yoshiro dances through the game with graceful, measured movements, her steps cleansing the black filth that eats away at her mountain and her people. In battle, Yoshiro’s protector, Soh, directs their sword in agile arcs, landing attacks, and attacks based on timing and flow. On a large scale, Kunitsu-Gami uses a soothing cadence of furious combat and a peaceful main building. Guiding Yoshiro down the mountain, Soh’s abilities build to a powerful crescendo, his body deteriorating with each encounter.
Between these waves of tension and tranquility, Kunitsu-Gami but also balances beauty and the fear of hell with supreme skill. Mount Kafuku’s slopes are watery, but its plants, animals, and people languish in caustic pools of foul, oily, and sticky caustic. Dressed in layers of delicate fabrics and glittering metal jewelry, Yoshiro and Soh are mesmerizing in their moves. The demons that have taken over the mountain are hideous – eyeless and oozing with poisonous pus, many of them armed with sharp claws and gaping fangs. The creature designs Kunitsu-Gami the body is monstrous and each animal is grotesquely beautiful in its own way.
Kunitsu-Gami finds harmony in its dichotomies. The main loop of the game revolves around a day and night cycle: During the day, players clear the way for Yoshiro to clear the settlement, while collecting crystals, repairing defenses, and freeing villagers from cocoons of filth. At night, creatures called Seethe pour out of the Torii gates, and Soh must defend Yoshiro with the help of the rescued villagers. Protecting Yoshiro and completing his ritual restores each region to its pre-defilement form, creating a base from which Soh can upgrade his units and abilities.
The game combines real-time combat with tower defense mechanics, and it all takes place in a zoomed-in third-person view with a fully adjustable camera attached to Soh’s body. It’s an effective approach that cuts through the filth, inviting players to mess with the perspective and explore every twist and turn around them.
The mountain has 17 bases and 10 boss stages to clear. Defeating a big bad on difficulty unlocks a new warrior type for Soh, including a healer, mage, ninja, spearman, gunner, marksman, and an aesthetic that can slow down enemies. As night falls on the main battle, the game’s music grows louder and more discordant, hinting at the imminent Seethe invasion. Players use the crystals they collect throughout the day to assign roles to villagers and then place their warriors around Yoshiro on the map. Each battle involves a varying number of units – there are even battles that Soh must complete on his own, leaving the battle entirely up to the villagers when the others are incapacitated. The diversity built into these meetings is refreshing.
The battle requires preparation and constant focus, as Seethe attacks Yoshiro from various sides with a variety of moves, including airstrikes, suicide bombs, and bulbous projectiles that explode in poison pools. It’s often important to reposition units mid-battle, and thankfully, time freezes during these tactical moments.
Soh mainly attacks with the sword in a smooth, rhythmic fashion that feels fantastic to control. Attacks are simple – square for small hits on DualSense and triangle for big hits. Pressing square before triangle sets up intricate sequences where Soh twists and swings their bodies before unleashing a series of big kicks, their placement completely controlled the entire time. It makes the fight feel like one extended dance, the introduction perfectly predicting Soh’s on-screen movements. Soh’s abilities continuously evolve with each victory and base repair, resulting in a long-range bow, an additional swordplay form, more powerful attacks, numerous special moves, and other upgrades being added to their kit.
Mandatory boss levels appear after some settlements have been successfully cleared and offer massive battles against spectacularly gross creatures. I had to replay most of these bosses at least once, adjusting my unit types and positions to suit each demon’s unique attack style and weaknesses. The enemies are all huge and covered in intricate, iridescent designs, but they’re different in other ways: There’s a sparrow centipede that darts in for quick hits, a literal cherry tree with forked roots, a wild floating mage orbiting a rocky ring. spikes and a juicy larval beast that moves like an angry baby and spews deadly slime. The last one is called Notsugo, and he’s my favorite because he’s so obnoxiously adorable.
After a battle in a settlement or boss stage, there’s time to catch your breath and fix some basics. After a successful cleanup, the base moves to the side of Mount Kafuku in the scene selection screen – after the contamination has been cleared from the settlement, players must still make it habitable by having the villagers repair the destroyed buildings and platforms. Repairs take several in-game days to complete, and they unlock additional resources. It’s easy, quiet work. This mechanic provides a soft place to land after a big battle, where players can strategize, improve their skills, hunt a Shiba Inu, or let a deer scream at them. I recommend repairing bases as quickly and thoroughly as possible: This not only gets the net necessary resources at the right speed, but also avoids the annoying base repair lag. In the mid game, I generally had three or four bases on the road at all times, and that was immediately, with max repair.
Bases are also home to some of the coolest aspects of the game. Yoshiro sets up a tent at each base where players manage upgrades, and there are also plates to share food with him. The dessert menu is loaded first, offering a variety of mochi dishes and crystal sweets in stunning photorealistic viewing mode. I don’t know what it is, but I could watch hyper-detailed video game food all day. Kunitsu-Gami understands this desire and serves it.
In addition, the tent features scrolls featuring traditional, woodcut-style artwork from completed stages, and the bases feature collectible boards that display detailed, rotatable images of 3D images of demons and villagers encountered. These are sensational touches that not only expand the game’s lore, but also shine a bright light on Japanese history and culture.
Kunitsu-Gami: The Way of the Goddess perfectly balanced, lovingly crafted and metal as hell. It’s full of foreboding demons and intense battles, but it’s also a peaceful experience that invites players to slow down and recognize the beauty around them, even if it’s in the form of a giant, oozing monster. Especially then.
Kunitsu-Gami: The Way of the Goddess does currently available about PCPS4, PS5Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass. Developed and published by Capcom.
