Highlights

  • Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess blends action, strategy, and tower defense, with a day-night cycle gameplay.
  • The game draws inspiration from Japanese mythology, focusing on purging evil and assisting villagers through divine means.
  • While Kunitsu-Gami shares similarities with Okami, Capcom has no plans for an Okami sequel, making this game a unique experience.

Capcom has been keeping up a steady flow of new releases, with Dragon's Dogma 2 as its latest and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess joining it soon. Arriving July 19, 2024, this game will blend action and real-time strategy elements with a striking traditional Japanese-painted aesthetic. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess sees players take control of the warrior Soh as he supports the Maiden Yoshiro in freeing villages from the corrupting influence of evil Seethe spirits. There isn't much out there that looks or plays exactly like Kunitsu-Gami, but it does bring a Capcom IP to mind that gets close.

Back in 2006, Capcom published the action-adventure PS2 game Okami as Studio Clover’s second-to-last title before its closure. What began as a cult classic grew over time, gaining ports to modern platforms and even a Nintendo DS sequel called Okamiden. This franchise stands out in the wider Capcom library, as even with plenty of games like Kunitsu-Gami and even Clover’s own Viewtiful Joe sporting comparable art styles or gameplay, nothing looks and feels exactly like Okami. Kunitsu-Gami still carries Okami’s spirit in many ways, but that, unfortunately, does not mean the series has made a return.

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Explaining Kunitsu-Gami and Okami's Similarities

Okami and Kunitsu-Gami are broadly different games, but have more than enough in common to be compared. Both are concerned with adapting various parts of Japanese mythology, especially with how humans and spirits interact. Purging evil from the land and helping its inhabitants through divine means are major themes in both games, and there's even a need for humanity and the good supernatural forces to unite against evil. Comparing each game's monsters may be difficult due to Kunitsu-Gami's surreal, yet realistic art style heavily diverging from Okami’s clean, cell-shaded appearance, but their shared inspirations should be evident under scrutiny.

Okami and Kunitsu-Gami's Common Elements Run Deep

It could even be said that Okami and Kunitsu-Gami are different in similar ways as well. Setting aside their visuals, both titles are Capcom action games that include major mechanics that separate them from the genre's norms. Okami has its Celestial Brush techniques, while Kunitsu-Gami incorporates real-time strategy and tower defense elements into its nighttime battles. Outside of combat, Okami is primarily an adventure game, while Kunitsu-Gami's daytime segments involve setting up for the night, though both still involve helping people along the way. In spite of their many differences, Kunitsu-Gami still works as a spiritual successor to Okami.

Kunitsu-Gami Can't Share The Spotlight With Okami

Those similarities are appreciated, but a question then arises regarding why Kunitsu-Gami is a new IP if it's this close to an existing Capcom property. Kunitsu-Gami is not so close to Okami that it needs to shackle itself to an old name, but an Okami: Path of the Goddess is easy to imagine. Naming an experimental action-RTS that would probably spark outrage from Okami fans who would prefer the forgotten franchise gets another full game instead of a sudden spin-off, but it could have been a springboard for reintroducing the franchise. Unfortunately, the only conclusion to draw here is that Capcom has no Okami resurrection planned right now, and would rather make something brand-new instead.

Okami's Future Looks Unclear

Okami has kept itself alive through protagonist Amaterasu's crossovers in games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Teppen, as well as Okami HD being ported to Amazon Luna as recently as 2022, but it's difficult to call that a surefire sign of life. Fans will have to wait and see if Capcom chooses to revisit the mythological franchise, and it's likely any new games in its setting will look and play very differently from the old ones. Still, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess shows a similar command over the same spiritual Japanese material, so Okami's old players might as well give this like-minded title a shot.