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 will ship what’s wanted: a reasonably good time. A time marked by a loop that does hack ‘n slash, administration, and a touch of base repairs to a median diploma. For me, although, and probably many others, I merely do not assume this combine ever really captures what makes even the only of tower defence video games so fascinating.
Kunitsu’s set on Mt. Kafuku, an enormous mountain that is been ravaged by dribbly demons. They emerged at evening over the course of nonetheless many days or perhaps weeks or months and toppled the beautiful Kafuku neighborhood, who clearly hadn’t put up sufficient sandbags. All these pretty 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 via 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 break up into two missions: the primary is a tower defence hybrid I am going to get into in only a jiffy, whereas the second is a self-contained boss battle. 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 solution to beat it through the use of your tactical nous. Though I by no means had a difficulty with this, as the sport’s comparatively easy and offers you sufficient assets to degree up Soh and his minions to maintain up with the dribblies.
Tower defence model missions have an equally easy setup, typically 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, in fact, a few catches. The gates spill demons at evening and Yoshiro strikes at tumbleweed tempo, so you possibly can’t simply maintain her hand and stroll her over to every gate whereas it is gentle out. As an alternative, you may burn up particular orbs to carve out a path for her to comply with in her personal time, and that just about at all times means you may be ready a number of day/evening 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 trying to find groaning, demonic stalks to cleanse as a fundamental supply of orbs; incomes rations to heal you and your allies by bashing wild animals affected by the evil gunk; repairing buildings like barricades to gradual demon marches; and most significantly, liberating folks from the gloop and utilizing your orbs to rework 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 matches a sure archetype. Archers cope with flying enemies finest however are weak up shut, whereas massive Sumo lads are nice at absorbing consideration however are reliant on others to dish out the injury. There’s undoubtedly satisfaction find good combos or positioning them on environmental buffers (perches for archers to get elevated vary, for instance) so that they do their jobs a bit higher than regular, though their “regular” is fairly underwhelming.
And that is due to your position as Soh. In 90% of conditions you are required to get amongst it along with your friends and harvest the orbs dropped by felled baddies. You’ll be able to hack, slash, and with later upgrades, fireplace 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 power compared to my friends 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, in the end, of probably not doing something in any respect. With Kunitsu, you play a micromanager who always cleans up after a workforce who’s designed to do their job suboptimally. Somewhat than discover it thrilling to again up my friends, I actually discover it a bit exhausting.
Survive the evening 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 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 am going to admit that somewhat a part of my soul adopts the foetal place and rocks forwards and backwards. Primarily as a result of the day routine – orb assortment, minion recruitment and many others. – adopted by the evening portion additional reinforces a repetitive loop that I merely cannot be bothered with.
Sometimes the missions swap it up fully, which is sweet! One time you have received a number of boats to defend as you float throughout a lake, whereas one other time you have received some drums to bash, sending out area-of-effect spells along with your beats. Paradoxically, although, probably the most enjoyable I ever had was when the sport reworked me right into a spirit, who may solely gather orbs and deposit them at Yoshiro – and who wanted liberating from a demonic headcrab. The sport lastly let me command extra minions and elevated them right into a place of authority, pinning the duty on their efficiency moderately than mine.
Boss fights allow you to unlock new sorts of pal, with the boss fights themselves towards 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 good (if sometimes infuriating) situations 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 gradual 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 might change too, so you possibly can’t go with out experimentation. But their upgrades are a bit uninspiring (extra well being, extra injury, 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 skills 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. Generally you ask villagers to choose up wooden scattered round these bases earlier than having them restore a costlier, however extra rewarding mission. You then return to those bases after every mission, gather your doodads, and rinse and repeat.
What do you get whenever you lastly restore a base? No interactions with the villagers, no little “Cheers mate” from Yoshiro, nothing however somewhat extra foreign money. At the very least Nick Knowles received to speak with the builders and households after doing up their homes.
I do assume it is nice that Capcom have launched a bizarre, generally fantastic tower defence/ motion RPG hybrid with such robust 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 solution 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 may be stuffed with distinct parts 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 assessment is predicated on a assessment construct of the sport offered by the developer.
