
The online game business is in a interval of contraction. Corporations like Bungie are canceling video games and shedding builders in order that they can residence in and deal with one or two enormous titles. Why put money into smaller, riskier initiatives when making bigger video games in well-known franchises will yield better returns? Capcom, however, is dedicated to doing each.
“I consider that the expertise with a collection or remake is valuable, however the expertise of a modern IP can also be valuable,” Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Director Shuichi Kawata informed me in an e-mail interview following the discharge of one in all Capcom’s extra experimental modern video games but.
That’s a uncommon sentiment to listen to from somebody at a serious online game developer and writer behind AAA franchises. For the previous a number of years, Capcom has continued to launch video games in celebrated collection like Road Fighter, Resident Evil, and Dragon’s Dogma. Monster Hunter Wilds is poised to be one in all the most important video games of 2025. Over that very same interval, it has additionally taken the time to create extra experimental video games like underwater Metroidvania Shinsekai: Into the Depths, multiplayer dinosaur shooter Exoprimal, and action-tower protection hybrid Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
These video games are only as entertaining as the most recent Resident Evil or Road Fighter, giving Capcom one of the actively various and galvanizing recreation lineups exterior of Nintendo. I interviewed Kawata, and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi. Discussing their work on a modern IP uncovered a key motive why Capcom is presently on a scorching streak.
Making a modern IP at Capcom
The opinion for Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess got here to Kawata across the time Apple Arcade unique Shinsekai: Into the Depths was accomplished. Kawata was a enormous fan of tower protection video games and the technique they require, and he questioned what it’d be like if a participant needed to acquire piece in that motion. The end result is a recreation the place gamers command models to defend a maiden from creatures referred to as Seethe as she works to purify a corrupted Japanese mountain.
Kunitsu-Gami is a daring recreation with a novel gameplay style combine, minimalistic however emotional storytelling, and mesmerizing visuals. Whereas Kunitsu-Gami has drawn some comparisons to Capcom franchises like Okami and Onimusha, the recreation thrives as a result of it isn’t pigeonholed to both of these collection and is free to be as wild and inventive because it needs.
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Making a modern IP in that method isn’t simple, however Kawata thinks it advantages the entire improvement workforce. “I consider that the problem of making a modern IP with your entire workforce beneath limitations will result in the development of each the workforce and every particular person, as every workforce member can expertise the strategy of giving form to concepts and creating merchandise,” he defined.
In the meantime, Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi’s issues are extra player-facing. Hirabayashi has expertise engaged on authentic video games like Kunitsu-Gami and well-worn franchises like Resident Evil. He thinks the most important challenges with modern IP are “getting customers to acknowledge the titles” and “getting gamers to share the enjoyable.”
To deal with this, Hirabayashi says that Capcom has to pay further consideration to the “order we ship recreation components and the way we talk with the neighborhood.” Kawata believes that is estimable for the development of particular person workforce members, who should work collectively and discover solutions to a few of these powerful questions in a “versatile and powerful method with out getting caught up in our concepts.” That exposes an valuable factor all Capcom video games execute effectively: they sustain the participant in thoughts.
What gamers need
Even for one thing as esoteric as Kunitsu-Gami, when you depart hands-on with the recreation, you’ll perceive there’s one thing enchanting about it. I noticed this in motion at Summer time Recreation Fest this yr. Kunitsu-Gami was a recreation few individuals knew about heading into their Capcom appointment at this press occasion, however they raved about it as soon as they performed it.
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Kunitsu-Gami is the form of recreation that should be seen to be believed, which is why I mediate it was a sensible bound to net the recreation in Xbox Recreation Go and into the fingers of press and creators, who then raved about its progressive concepts. In the end, these Capcom devs mentioned that maintaining the “goal person perspective” in thoughts is essentially the most valuable factor when engaged on a recreation, whether or not it’s a modern IP or not.
“I mediate essentially the most valuable issues in recreation improvement are nonetheless the identical: the significance of working collectively to create the recreation and the significance of interested by the individuals who might be taking part in the recreation, no matter whether or not it’s a collection, remake, or a modern IP,” Hirabayashi says.
It doesn’t matter if the recreation is in a widely known franchise or probably the beginning of a brand-new collection. If the builders work collectively effectively and create one thing estimable that they are going to relish, then the outcomes might be spectacular. That could appear easy, however an upfront method towards recreation improvement and creating modern IP appears to be the factor that makes Capcom video games really feel like Capcom video games.
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That’s one thing lots of firms aren’t trying to execute as they lay off builders and reorganize their groups to work on fewer initiatives that execute more cash. Whether or not gamers yelp it outright or not, there may be a requirement for modern IP with progressive gameplay concepts from well-known studios. Capcom is prepared to acquire bets on extra experimental video games like Kunitsu-Gami, whereas understanding that the challenges of creating one thing very interesting to gamers at that scale are even harder as a recognized franchise isn’t hooked up. It’s discovering success whereas doing so too, as Kunitsu-Gami has already amassed 500,000 gamers lower than a month after launch.
We’ve probably gotten what may very well be the beginning of a modern Capcom collection; if not, it’s nonetheless a well-executed novelty within the recreation library of Capcom’s renaissance. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is now accessible for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X.