Capcom has shared a new gameplay trailer for Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess as part of the recent Xbox Partner Preview. And now, we actually know how the game works.
The game revolves around two characters, as explained in this Xbox Wire post. Yoshiro is the Maiden we see prominently in the trailers (emphasis on capital M). She has powers that fights ghostly creatures referred to as the Seethe, but rather than fighting them literally, she uses ritual purification.
Now, this is an actual Japanese traditional concept, not something American authors made up about the samurai or something like that. The idea behind ritual purification is that people can be rendered unclean by sins, in the Christian sense, as well as distinctly Japanese ideas of uncleanliness. For example, disease and bad luck are also believed to come from this uncleanliness.
The Shinto faith in particular, has rituals to purify, or cleanse people from this state of uncleanliness. And that is the idea behind Kunitsu-Gami. In fact, gameplay literally depicts the ritual of kagura, which is a traditional dance used to remove uncleanliness. But in this game in particular, all the uncleanliness comes from evil creatures called The Seethe.
Your character Soh, protects and fights with Yoshiro, and they get to employ villagers to help. But, Soh has to make specific choices with the villagers, and they also have to deal with fighting during the day and night.
So, this is the gameplay loop. During the day, Soh rescues villagers from the Seethe, and then he gets to assign them masks. Different masks give them different abilities, and they can help Soh and Yoshiro. However, you can only use a small group of villagers at a time. You choose what positions they take in a formation, in preparing them for battle.
During the day, Yoshiro can go to a Torii Gate, which is the entrance way the Seethe use to enter our world. If she successfully passes through before the Seethe stop her, she can seal that gate away. Of course, this is where Soh and his formation of villagers come in to help.
At night. Soh and the villagers have to protect Yoshiro. Now, to Soh’s advantage, he can choose to change villager positions, and the masks they wear, in real time. But of course, that can only mean Capcom is planning to put player through the wringer, if they’re expected to make use of that ability constantly during battle.
In fact, the day and night cycle points to another unique gameplay element: time management. There will only be so many things Soh and Yoshiro can do before she has to rest through the night. Like Olimar, Soh has the lives of many resting on their precious decisions.
It all certainly sounds completely unique, and the sort of thing you expect to see release on the PlayStation 2, or the Wii, or hiding somewhere barely noticed in the Steam store, or itchio. Capcom seems confident enough with this idea to make it a global release; we’ll find out soon enough if they were right to be so confident.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is releasing this year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. You can watch the latest gameplay trailer below.
