Aragami was an enjoyable twist to your classic stealth game. The gameplay was original, and the graphics and music were solid. I definitely had some minor issues with the game mechanics but nothing that would sway me from buying it. If I had to make a change in the game, I would suggest a more engaging story and a little more diversification when it comes to the enemies. Overall, though, I had an enjoyable experience and would suggest this to anyone looking for a fun stealth game.
Aragami is an action-adventure stealth assassination game where you play as a shadow spirit summoned by an astral projection of Yamiko, a young girl who has been captured by the Kaiho. The Kaiho is an army of light who, after winning the war, have conquered and oppressed the Nisshoku and their land. The Shadow Empress, leader of the Nisshoku, has been captured and imprisoned by the Kaiho. After summoning you, Yamiko requests that you help her free the imprisoned Empress and take back the land from the Kaiho. Should you choose to accept, your mission is to collect all six talismans so that you may unlock the prison where the Empress is being held. Aragami has an intriguing story with plenty of dialogue to go along with it. Be wary though, if you’re looking for an all spoken storyline, you won’t find it here. The characters mumble while you receive written dialogue at the bottom of the screen. While this doesn’t take away from the action of the game, it does dampen the storytelling a bit. My experience was not altered by this fact but I missed a few important dialogue points because I accidentally skipped through a conversation.
In my opinion, the gameplay is what makes this game special. Aragami offers a more strategic and patient experience that a lot of “stealth” based games overlook. You control a ninja assassin who can teleport to areas around himself that are occupied by shadows. These shadows hide you from enemies and regain your ‘shadow essence’ that you expend each time you use an ability. Your goal for each level is to sneak or slice your way through a number of enemies so that you may reach your objective. If you choose to sneak through the level without assassinating any guards, you need to be patient and wait for the right opportunities to move throughout the level. If you choose to assassinate all the guards to reach your objective, you run the risk of other guards finding their dead bodies and, in turn, alerting the area of your presence. Either way, you go about it takes precision and patience, for if you are attacked, it only takes one hit for your character to die. Having two ways to go about a level gives the player a variety of ways to play the game and provides them with more solutions to a puzzle. I’ve played too many games that have forced me to try the same solution over and over until I got it right but Aragami says, ”here’s a maze with several solutions. Find the best one that fits your style of gameplay.”
While each level was different, the enemies generally stayed the same. Your main enemy is a guard and each guard has the same range of sight. If a guard spots you or finds a body that you have assassinated, he will sound an alarm and the whole area will be alerted. This can be avoided by taking out the aware guard, but you have to be quick. There are also archers on each level. These guys will spot you from their lookout nests above the map. They can alert the area of your presence as well so it’s crucial to take these guys out first. Sadly main guards and archers are the only variations of guards in each level. It’s a not that big of a deal but repetitively killing the same guard can get boring so make sure to change your strategy up to keep the game fresh.
Let’s talk a little about the combat, shall we? Basically, your sword assassination ability is the only thing you need. If you walk up to an enemy and press X, your character will perform an assassination move. It’s a pretty cool animation and you get 100 points for doing it but there’s a point where it gets a bit repetitive and you start seeing the same assassination over and over again. I understand that this is a stealth game and it’s not all about the killing but it would be nice to see more attention dedicated to combat. Thankfully, what it lacks in main combat, it makes up for in the abilities. Abilities are a nice break from the regular combat and give you different ways to take down your enemy. Say you’re trying to take out an archer but you’re too far. No worries. There’s an ability that lets you throw knives across the map.
The abilities in Aragami are extremely useful for completing levels. At the start of the game, you are only given the ability to teleport to shadowed areas around your character. As the game progresses, you are given different abilities that make sneaking around easier and give the game a more tactile feel. For example, the second ability you receive is the ability to cast your own shadow by pointing your cursor at any area you wish to place it. You can then teleport to that shadow by using your teleport ability. Other abilities require you to unlock them by collecting hidden scrolls in each level. These abilities have limited uses and can only be used twice before you need to refill them.
As far as game mechanics go, I only had trouble while I was just starting out at the game. Movement and camera controls were very smooth which I give them props for. The teleporting, however, was troublesome which was a little disheartening due to this being about 80% of your movement in the game. Say you are trying to teleport to an area 20 feet away but you can’t because the area you want to teleport to is just a sliver of shadow. The only way to make it work is to perform micro adjustments on your analog stick until you get the right angle. This can become frustrating when you’re trying to evade or hide from a nearby enemy. While this was only a minor inconvenience, it offset much of the flow of gameplay.
Aragami also offers beautiful artwork and a pleasant soundtrack. The visuals remind me of Borderlands as the animations feel almost like a comic book. This style of artwork plays well into the game. The music, however, adds great emotion to the game and changes depending on what’s happening. If you are sneaking around undetected, the music will be calm and soothing but if you are detected by one of the guards, the music will pick up and become suspenseful. This adds a pleasant level of emersion that you are pretty much in charge of.
Aragami also just released the first expansion pack for the game. This expansion lets you play as Hyo or Shinobu, two shadow assassins on a mission to bring back a long-lost companion. New abilities have been added, as well as additional levels. It’s important to note that these events take place before the main campaign so it may be important to you to play that campaign first. I played a few levels from this expansion and overall it was a solid experience. The levels feature much harder puzzles than the main campaign so I would suggest you play this only if you are confident in your Aragami skills.
All in all, Aragami was an enjoyable twist to your classic stealth game. The gameplay was original, and the graphics and music were solid. I definitely had some minor issues with the game mechanics but nothing that would sway me from buying it. If I had to make a change in the game, I would suggest a more engaging story and a little more diversification when it comes to the enemies. Overall, though, I had an enjoyable experience and would suggest this to anyone looking for a fun stealth game.
