Capcom’s turned again the clock with Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess, bringing to us an motion RPG tower defence hybrid that is very 2000s and very welcome on this age of open world, reside service-ness. And for some, it’s going to ship what’s wanted: a reasonably good time. A time marked by a loop that does hack ‘n slash, administration, and a splash of base repairs to a mean diploma. For me, although, and presumably many others, I merely do not assume this combine ever really captures what makes even the best of tower defence video games so charming.
Kunitsu’s set on Mt. Kafuku, an enormous mountain that is been ravaged by dribbly demons. They emerged at night time over the course of nonetheless many days or even weeks or months and toppled the stunning Kafuku neighborhood, who clearly hadn’t put up sufficient sandbags. All these beautiful lakes and quiet villages? Lined in gloop mate, sorry. However! There may be hope, although, because the maiden of the mountain Yoshiro has the magical powers and the dance strikes to dispel the darkness and rid the mountain of gloop as soon as and for all. And that is the place you, a lad referred to as Soh, should information Yoshiro safely by the cleaning course of with the powers of swordsmanship and folks administration.
The cleaning course of naturally leads you thru a set of progressively troublesome areas of the mountain, every cut up into two missions: the primary is a tower defence hybrid I will get into in only a jiffy, whereas the second is a self-contained boss combat. There is not any straying from the trail you are given, so for those who get caught on a degree you may have to discover a approach to beat it by utilizing your tactical nous. Though I by no means had a problem with this, as the sport’s comparatively simple and offers you sufficient assets to degree up Soh and his minions to maintain up with the dribblies.
Tower defence fashion missions have an equally easy setup, usually plopping Yoshiro on one finish of the map, earlier than tasking you with main her safely to the Torii gate on the different finish so she will dispel it. There are, after all, a few catches. The gates spill demons at night time and Yoshiro strikes at tumbleweed tempo, so you may’t simply maintain her hand and stroll her over to every gate whereas it is gentle out. As an alternative, you may dissipate particular orbs to carve out a path for her to comply with in her personal time, and that nearly at all times means you may be ready a number of day/night time cycles for her to finish her pissing pilgrimage.
As Yoshiro shimmies over to the gate, you may spend your day parts – timed by a setting solar icon within the backside left – gathering assets and establishing defences prepared for nighttime onslaughts. This includes: operating about looking for groaning, demonic stalks to cleanse as a major supply of orbs; incomes rations to heal you and your allies by bashing wild animals affected by the evil gunk; repairing constructions like barricades to sluggish demon marches; and most significantly, releasing individuals from the gloop and utilizing your orbs to remodel them into minions.
Then it is a case of seeing the place the enemies may come from (marked by the purple gates in your minimap) and inserting your minions within the spots the place you assume they’re going to defend Yoshiro finest. And as you’d count on, every of those minions suits a sure archetype. Archers take care of flying enemies finest however are weak up shut, whereas giant Sumo lads are nice at absorbing consideration however are reliant on others to dish out the harm. There’s positively satisfaction to find good combos or positioning them on environmental buffers (perches for archers to get elevated vary, for instance) in order that they do their jobs a bit higher than regular, though their “regular” is fairly underwhelming.
And that is due to your function as Soh. In 90% of conditions you are required to get amongst it together with your buddies and harvest the orbs dropped by felled baddies. You possibly can hack, slash, and with later upgrades, hearth arrows and carry out ending strikes to largely obliterate even the nastiest dribblers. Some may discover it satisfying to contribute to the defence, and I definitely discover my elevated energy compared to my buddies fulfilled an influence fantasy. However obligatory participation robs the sport of the true pleasure of tower defence video games, I reckon.
What’s that pleasure? The enjoyment of being a supervisor sat in a drone floating above the map, plopping some people down and watching idly as they rinse the hordes. The enjoyment, finally, of not likely doing something in any respect. With Kunitsu, you play a micromanager who continually cleans up after a workforce who’s designed to do their job suboptimally. Relatively than discover it thrilling to again up my buddies, I actually discover it a bit exhausting.
Survive the night time and it will transition to day, auto-burning any demons left on the map. And it is right here the place you may spend all of the orbs you have collected on both pushing Yoshiro additional in the direction of the endpoint, or – if that endpoint transitions right into a second, harder gate chase – build up a wholly new set of defences and minions. If it ever launches me right into a second gate chase, I will admit that a bit of a part of my soul adopts the foetal place and rocks backwards and forwards. Primarily as a result of the day routine – orb assortment, minion recruitment and many others. – adopted by the night time portion additional reinforces a repetitive loop that I merely cannot be bothered with.
Sometimes the missions change it up fully, which is sweet! One time you have obtained a number of boats to defend as you float throughout a lake, whereas one other time you have obtained some drums to bash, sending out area-of-effect spells together with your beats. Satirically, although, probably the most enjoyable I ever had was when the sport reworked me right into a spirit, who might solely gather orbs and deposit them at Yoshiro – and who wanted releasing from a demonic headcrab. The sport lastly let me command extra minions and elevated them right into a place of authority, pinning the accountability on their efficiency somewhat than mine.
Boss fights allow you to unlock new varieties of pal, with the boss fights themselves in opposition to menacing demons with splendidly horrible designs, like flailing centipedes and tormented buddhas who use prayer beads like knuckle dusters. Early fights are a bit repetitive, however that repetitiveness is shaken off afterward for sensible (if sometimes infuriating) eventualities that drive you to separate focus between boss-hitting and Yoshiro-aiding.
Whereas it is grand unlocking new minions, like shamans who heal or spear-wielders who sweep or ascetics who summon zones that sluggish enemies, I can not assist however really feel they’re all a bit… eh. Enemy selection does drive you into utilizing totally different archetypes, and map layouts could change too, so you may’t go with out experimentation. But their upgrades are a bit uninspiring (extra well being, extra harm, a few higher strikes), which makes your investments really feel extra such as you’ve poured your hard-earned money right into a Souls stat-sheet than I might like.
Full an space – by each finishing their related tower defence and boss missions – and you’ll revisit these cleansed areas as bases that you’re going to have to restore. These act purely as currency-generators, granting you Musubi (used for upgrading your minions or Soh), orbs, and charms (which grant you special-ish talents and stat boosts), must you efficiently restore them to their former glory. Whereas initially satisfying, these restore jobs aren’t a patch on DIY SOS and rapidly turn into a senseless train. You assign villagers to restore spots, which take nonetheless many missions days to finish. Typically you ask villagers to choose up wooden scattered round these bases earlier than having them restore a costlier, however extra rewarding undertaking. You then return to those bases after every mission, gather your doodads, and rinse and repeat.
What do you get while you lastly restore a base? No interactions with the villagers, no little “Cheers mate” from Yoshiro, nothing however a bit of extra forex. No less than Nick Knowles obtained to speak with the builders and households after doing up their homes.
I do assume it is nice that Capcom have launched a bizarre, typically great tower defence/ motion RPG hybrid with such sturdy early-millennium vibes. And I feel some will discover its micromanagement extra compelling than I did, with base repairs and the gradual energy climb forming a straightforward approach to spend a night with an average-to-good online game. And but, I additionally assume many will discover its tackle tower defence solely half-delivers. It could be stuffed with distinct components that always work collectively, be they base-building or hack ‘n’ slashing, however as an entire, it falls right into a repetitive rhythm that struggles to seize the thrill and thrills of a lot less complicated tower defence video games.
This evaluate relies on a evaluate construct of the sport offered by the developer.
