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For a time in the mid-2000s, Capcom enjoyed an explosion of creativity rarely seen from any major, established publisher. Foot team led by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami has led a series of original titles characterized by bold design and even bolder visual direction. First, there was the “Capcom Five,” a series of originally GameCube-exclusive games that included Contagious evil 4 as well as Hideki Kamiya’s side-scrolling brawler Watching Joe and Goichi Suda’s gonzo shooter Killer 7. Mikami and Kamiya then formed the in-house rebel unit Clover Studio, where they each directed a PlayStation 2 masterpiece: Mikami’s revisionist beat-’em-up God’s hand and Kamiya’s gorgeous hand-drawn Zelda-like, Okami.

There was just one problem: almost all the games bombed. Capcom shut down Clover in 2007, and Kamiya and Mikami left to form PlatinumGames, which inherited some, if not all, of Capcom’s spark of genius from that era. But over the next 17 years, the influence and reputation of this unique series of games only grew. Now a reinvigorated Capcom, enjoying unparalleled success on the back of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, is beginning to feel the stirrings of that creative spirit again. You can see it in his daring triple gamble, Dragon’s Dogma 2. You can too definitely see it in Kunitsu-Gami: The Way of the Goddess.

Kunitsu-Gami is a relatively small, defiantly quirky game that could have been ripped straight from the heyday of the 2000s. With its sequence of small, limited stages, focused action, and tight gameplay, it feels more like a remaster of some lost PS2 game than a true product of 2024 (Free). His richly detailed, grotesque art is inspired by traditional Japanese folklore and illustration styles, and this aesthetic combines with the premise to create a unique atmosphere that is both eerie and alluring. This is truly a one-off.

Capcom is calling Kunitsu-Gami an action-strategy game — or, to be more precise, a Kagura Action Strategy game. Kagura is a ritual ceremonial dance in the Shinto religion that involves a trance-like procession said to purify the spirit. in Kunitsu-Gamithe player controls Soh, a swordsman who must protect the maiden Yoshiro as she performs a ritual to cleanse the demonic pollution from Mount Kafuku, the home of the Goddess.

By day, Yoshiro makes his stately, elegant progress, while Sō clears small pockets of filth, rescues villagers, orders them to repair defenses, and assigns them combat roles such as archer, woodcutter, or ascetic (a shaman who can slow the advance of enemies). At night, Yoshiro halts her forward progress and dances in place as the hideous demons known as Seethe pour forth from the possessed gates and attempt to defeat her. In this moment, Kunitsu-Gami becomes something of a hybrid of an action game and a tower defense game. The player takes control of the strategic placement of the villagers while controlling Soh directly, using his balletic attack combos to make his way through the confused, writhing monsters.

One resource unites all actions. The player earns crystals from clearing defilement and dispatching Seethe and spends them on assigning roles to the villagers and carving a path forward for Yoshiro to dance on (literally: in an absurdly cool animation, Soh sticks his blade into the ground and runs forward with it). . During the day, there’s a simple yet thoughtful balancing act of trying to prepare well, make enough progress, and leave Yoshiro in a safe place when night falls; maximizing progress along the way is not always the best strategy.

Image: Capcom

As unusual as it is in its mix of action and tactics, there’s a satisfying simplicity to it Kunitsu-Gami which keeps him slightly on his feet. The linear progression through the levels makes it feel more dynamic and risky than a more traditional tower defense game, and the constant passage of time keeps you on your toes. It is a game of clearly defined and highly rewarding cycles. Even after you’ve made it through the stages, they transform into bases where renovations provide additional rewards and where you can enter a humble tent to upgrade your villagers, tinker with buff-giving talismans, peruse gorgeous scrolls of art, and to share appetizingly modeled traditional Japanese sweets with Yoshiro.

Capcom clearly knows what it’s evoking from its past Kunitsu-Gami; as a reward for participating in a demo version of the game, players receive s Okami– themed cosmetic items. These two games certainly draw from the same ancient well of Japanese folklore and mythology, and express that influence in similarly distinctive (albeit very different) art styles.

But what Kunitsu-Gami indeed shares with the Capcom Five games and Clover is an individuality born from combining strong artistic decisions with game design in a way that is both innovative and unpretentious, creating a result that has an almost arcade immediacy. Kunitsu-Gami evokes a truly haunting mood from its surreal monstrous designs—all knuckles, claws, and tongues—and the way the characters bounce and pirouette like puppets around bleak mountain dioramas, hoping to make it to the sunrise. I can’t think of any other game — including those illustrious predecessors — that is anything like it.

Kunitsu-Gami: The Way of the Goddess is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC via Steam, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. Also available from day one on Game Pass on PC, cloud and console.