Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess starts, as many games do, with disaster. Mt. Kafuku has fallen to the Seethe, a collection of monstrous creatures who serve the Mountain Goddess. We shouldn’t be surprised that it’s all humanity’s fault, with the local populace growing greedy and taking all of the mountain’s wealth. You take on the role of Soh, a samurai called upon to assist the Maiden Yoshiro, and together you must purify the mountain, and return it to its natural state.

While there’s plenty of hack-and-slash action here, Kunitsu-Gami brings in elements of Pikmin and tower defence titles to create an invigorating amalgam of the three. As you enter each village you come across its inhabitants that have been petrified, and once you release them you can add them to your group, assigning them roles to help defend against the Seethe that will attack at night.

While these villagers are an essential part of your fighting force, it’s Soh that stands resolutely at the front, holding back the Seethe with pirouetting dance moves that send his blade swinging in all directions. You can upgrade Soh’s loadout with different Tsuba Guards containing unique and extremely handy powers, as well as a series of different skills which further augment your abilities. Soh’s controls are relatively familiar, and at times you may be underwhelmed by the limited number of combos, but you’ve got rather a lot to deal with elsewhere.

Each level sees you guiding the Maiden Yoshiro along the spirit path, leading her to a corrupted Torii gate, the source of blight on the area. Once you’ve laid the path, she dances along very, very slowly, meaning that she won’t generally make it to the gate during the first day. With the arrival of night, monsters start spewing from the gate, and you have to protect Yoshiro from them.

If you’ve played games like Hellwardens, Dungeon Defenders or Orcs Must Die, you’ll understand how this plays out. The monsters travel along different routes towards Yoshiro and your