Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess has echoes of the Japanese action-adventure games of yesteryear.
Although the trailer for Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was shown again during Capcom’s showcase, no substantial details were revealed, other than an additional voiceover describing it as a “beautiful yet unsettling world of mystery” which—in a fittingly mysterious way—doesn’t reveal much about the game itself.
This has diehard fans of Japanese action-adventure games wondering what inspired this new IP. The first and most likely choice for its DNA comes from Capcom’s own Onimusha. Initially intended to be a Sengoku take on Resident Evil, Onimusha became its own well-regarded action series. It’s not had a new release in a while, save a remaster of the first game—Onimusha: Warlords—in 2018, leaving its fanbase hungry for more.
Another source of inspiration could be Okami—another Capcom-published action game—which has been name-dropped for its similar ambitions in presentation. Path of the Goddess looks to be bursting with deep-saturated reds and purples, with an emphasis on the weird and fantastical. Similarly, Okami was lauded for its ink-wash painting, cel-shaded style.
There are also some similarities in the plot between these two titles. In the trailer, we see gnarled hands clawing their way into the landscape, painting everything with a corruptive darkness, before our protagonist bursts onto the scene. Okami starts you off in a similar boat as a reincarnated goddess of the sun summoned to purge the world of similar ills.
One surprise contender mentioned by fans outside of Capcom’s publishing history is Otogi, a FromSoftware Xbox game. Initially released in 2002, Otogi: Myth of Demons is an action-adventure game that follows Raikoh Minamoto as he seeks to—say it with me—purge the land of a demonic infestation. Having watched some gameplay, it’s easy to see the similarities in palette and style, though Otogi maintains FromSoftware’s usual grim pastiche.
While it’s fun to speculate, we won’t find out which mantle this demon-infested game is inheriting until we get our claws on it. As someone who missed out on the era of games it’s resurrecting, I’m very keen to find out. There’s not an exact release date planned, but we know it’ll be coming to Steam and Game Pass on day one.
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