[Original review based on ~25 hours of playtime, final edited review based on ~50 hours playtime. Completed all stages and side-objectives for both the first cycle and New Game+ w/ 100% achievements]

In a year with Unicorn Overlord, Shadow of the Erdtree, FF14 Dawntrail, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Hades II, P3 Reload, FF7 Rebirth, Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, SMTV Vengeance, etc etc etc (all of them excellent)….never in a million years did I expect a strange little tower-defense action game to come along and take ALL my spare time and attention.

I won’t go into gameplay details as a demo is available and other reviews have already touched on a lot, but the overall experience is phenomenal: music, art design, progression and upgrades, difficulty, amount of content, gameplay, direction, story and writing, thoughtfulness w/ controls, UI, and graphics options - all *excellent*. It has a really unique vibe that teeters back and forth between being cool, silly, horrifying, zen, super intense, and very sweet / genuine…as a whole I don’t think I’ve ever played anything else quite like it. Hands-down the most creative thing I’ve seen come out of Capcom since Ōkami.

It’s not an insanely difficult strategy title, but I would never call it easy or mindless. Level to level I’ve been constantly kept on my toes while adapting to new situations and enemy types, there’s an awesome amount of variety in how the stages “work”, what units you need to prioritize, and some seriously great boss battles and set pieces. Everything hits just right.

Being a brand new property in a VERY niche style and genre, I do wish Capcom had actually promoted this + priced it at $40 to appeal to more people, but personally I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. I’ve seen a lot of comments such as “it’s like a PS2 8/10 game”, but I think that’s severely underselling it - whereas “things like this don’t get made anymore” feels scarily spot-on. Even if it’s outside of the usual type of game you enjoy, please try the demo and consider supporting Kunitsu-Gami. It’s beyond worth it and I’d love to see more companies take chances on non-AAA games.

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Final edit and note post New Game+ / 100% achievements = sad to shelf this game for now, but extremely satisfied with my time spent. All my original thoughts held through till the very end, I couldn't put it down until I had done everything.

New Game+ makes every stage handle a little differently, enemy types are changed up and there's a lot more coming your way with each wave. It's a blast to play around with the more upgraded units and see how your own strategy has improved since the first run. Each stage also gets two new side objectives to complete, and certain ones definitely make you step up your game / can take a few attempts + some patience to get through. Finally, there is one extra "super boss" at the very end to really test your skills, and it's a great trial to wrap everything up with.
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Kunitsu-Gami gets my highest recommendation. It’s weird and truly wonderful, I’m overjoyed it exists, and will be shoving it in the faces of friends / plugging it every chance I get in online comment sections for years to come. I hope you enjoy it!