Kunitsu-Gami’s New Mode Reminded Why It’s One Of Capcom's Best Games In Years
One of my favorite games of 2024, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, surprised me with its unique take on the tower defense genre. Capcom’s sleeper hit presents a clear set of rules that are easy to follow, but it’s also never afraid of throwing you into various scenarios that push those rules to their limits.
You play as a swordsman (Soh) who has to protect a priestess (Yoshiro) from creatures (the Seethe) emerging at night. To do so, you can kill them with Soh’s glamorous blade abilities and also recruit local villagers only to turn them into different types of warriors, alongside setting defenses and traps around each level.
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PostsWith the upcoming Switch 2 version, Kunitsu-Gami is back with a new addition: Otherworldly Venture. This essentially functions as a survival mode, where you must withstand two waves of enemies before progressing to the next area.
You earn rewards as you progress, with five different random options to choose from. These can range from a certain amount of Crystals (used to set up traps and transform units) to temporary buffs and new abilities for Soh, among many others.
Make sure to keep an eye on Yoshiro’s health bar, because if she dies, it’s game over and you have to start again from scratch. Contrary to the base game, she doesn’t move: where she spawns is where she’ll remain, and you have to prepare defenses based on that position. You successfully complete the mode when you reach a particular stage, and then you can start again, trying new strategies and attempting to reach higher scores.
This is the case on Normal (the one I played) and the Easy difficulty modes. On Hard, you have to clean waves until Yoshiro is out of health.
Otherworldly Venture is fast. You only have a couple of minutes to prepare yourself, villagers, and defenses. Contrary to the base game, each repair is completed instantly; you just need to interact with the object and pay the cost. Once the wave starts, you can’t repair any structure, and if a villager dies, you need to wait for the next round to revive them. Everything goes faster than in the regular campaign, and you need to be able to react to every new obstacle as quickly as possible.
Mix this feeling of urgency with the randomness of the rewards you can earn, and you’ll have to develop a new way of thinking about Kunitsu-Gami. I wasn’t expecting it, but I found myself struggling with what reward to pick far more times than I’m willing to admit. Should I increase my number of villagers or unlock a new class? Also, I don’t have many Crystals left. Should I select the pack with 1,000 or go for the extra rations, so I have more chances to survive the next round?
You can also interact with shrines to gain upgrades, but each time you use them, they will ask for more Crystals, adding one more variable to keep in mind.
I haven’t played Kunitsu-Gami in months, and this mode is far from the best option to get back into the swing of things. While it doesn’t have too many dense mechanics and systems, I had to go over each tutorial one more time and practice with a few runs. Otherworldly Venture can also be pretty difficult.
It took me three or four runs to fully remember everything, and then adapt that knowledge to this mode’s new rules. The number of enemies you have to face per wave is not small either, with adversaries big and small being thrown at you relentlessly.
CloseAfter a few hours, I was in my element. Thanks to the stages repeating themselves in the same order, I started creating quick strategies to set up solid defenses and be ready to protect Yoshiro.
Sure, I had to change these on the fly from time to time because I never could earn the same rewards (or at least not in the order I needed them), but this only added a level of excitement that kept Otherworldly Venture feeling fresh.
If you’re about to play Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess for the first time, I recommend going through the campaign before trying this new mode. It’s clearly something intended for players who already know what they are doing. For the ones who already played this Capcom gem, there’s a great new reason to come back and spend hours and hours on it.
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Action Strategy Systems 10.0/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 82/100 Critics Rec: 90% Released July 19, 2024 ESRB Teen // Violence, Mild Blood, In-Game Purchases Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Engine RE EngineWHERE TO PLAY
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