aragami 2
developer: lince works
genre: action stealth
multiplayer/co-op: yes
release date: september 17, 2021
price: a review copy of the title was provided by the publisher for review purposes
msrp: $39.99
platforms: pc, playstation, xbox
reviewed on: ps5
- visual: 8/10
- audio: 6/10
- gameplay: 8/10
- narrative: 6/10
- challenge: 7.5/10
- replayability: 8/10
- value: 8/10
- personal grade: 7/10
pros:
- n/a
cons:
- n/a
total score: 7/10
buy at full price, sale, never: sale
hours spent on the game: 15 hours
platinumed? no
Aragami 2 Review: Shadows Wait Thrice
In today’s gaming market, it’s quite rare to see games of the stealth genre, with nothing quite living up to Tenchu or the Metal Gear Solid series. It’s a very niche genre with a lot of waiting involved, so it has to be done right in order to be engaging and fun. Indie developer Lince Works ended that drought in 2016 with its debut title Aragami, an action-adventure stealth game following a ninja assassin with supernatural abilities.
Now, the long-awaited sequel has finally arrived, putting players a century after the events of Aragami. Though there are connections to the first game, Aragami 2 is a standalone sequel that follows the journey of Kurai, as he rises to become the last hope of the Kurotsuba clan after being threatened by a never-ending curse. While still staying mostly true to a stealth game, the sequel takes a shocking departure from many of the gameplay mechanics of the first game. The introduction of sword to sword combat, along with stealth assassinations, makes the game play like a combination of Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro.
The Aragami are a collective of cursed individuals that are victims of a supernatural affliction that slowly robs them of their humanity, body, and mind. On top of this, they are also enslaved by the Akatsuchi Empire in their conquest of the Rashomon Valley, and it is up to you to stop them.
As mentioned before, there are drastic differences between the sequel and the first game. While there is almost guaranteed death when spotted in Aragami 1, Aragami 2 allows for a welcome change of head-on combat instead. The main protagonist’s signature cape from the first game that is sapped of shadow essence energy every time you stand in light is replaced with a stamina bar instead. Level design is larger and free-roam exploration is incentivized with hidden collectibles and blueprints.
Aragami 2 is a fairly linear game, but instead of the story guided missions in Aragami 1, Aragami 2 introduces a central hub known as Kakurega Village, where you can select missions via a map, talk to friendly NPCs, unlock abilities, and purchase items. Each mission is still ranked by a letter for performance, with S being the highest tier ranking. The ranking system still works well as it incentivizes replayability for players wishing to challenge themselves for a better score. Completing missions earn you experience points that you can exchange for abilities in a skill tree. Scattered in each level are money bags you can collect to purchase consumables or cosmetic armor sets via the blacksmith in Kakurega Village.
Lince Works also offers a respectable number of customization options into Aragami 2 by allowing you to purchase different dyes for your armor from a merchant found in the village. Rudimentary dye colors are unlocked as you progress through the story, but rarer colors must be found via hidden blueprints in each stage. The same goes for armor sets, as you get only a handful of armors available if you do only the story.
Many of the design principles that crippled the first game make its way into the second one as well. A long, drawn out campaign bloated with fluff in the middle along with repetitive mission objectives makes Aragami 2 a chore to get through at times. You revisit the same maps upwards of seven to eight times as you cycle through the same loop of mission objectives: rescue or kidnap someone, fetch some items, or kill some enemies.
Traversing each level, you can no longer shadow leap to areas of darkness, but instead to cliffs, ledges, windows, and rooftops. The grandiose scale of each map paired with this mechanic made each level feel like a playground I was swinging across.
The narrative of the first game was never its strong point, and the same goes for Aragami 2. The repetition of the middle bulk of the game brings the story to a halt, and it isn’t until the end of the game that new map layouts, enemy types, and mission objectives are introduced. The same goes for visual and audio design. For an indie title, the cel-shaded artwork is passable, with slightly better quality than the first title. Voice acting is abysmal and awkward, with characters speaking without their mouths moving in a language that I assume is supposed to be Japanese but doesn’t sound like it at all. For the most part, these details are excusable because the main focus is on the gameplay mechanics. On the topic of gameplay, Aragami 2 is definitely more ambitious than the first, with some things done well, and some things not so well.
While your signature move, shadow kill, still makes an appearance in Aragami 2, there are a multitude of cool new skills and abilities you can unlock. These range from creating a cloud of stunning gas via lamp posts and summoning a shadow clone for distraction, to warp striking your enemy, akin to Noctis’s ability in Final Fantasy XV. By the end of the game, your entire arsenal of shadow powers allows for some very satisfying gameplay. Stringing together a slew of tightly knit executions without being spotted by an enemy always left a sly grin on my face. The versatility of the skill tree also greatly benefits the replayability of the game, allowing you to tackle previously completed missions with some new tricks up your sleeve.
Though Aragami 2 does offer the element of real time combat if you manage to break stealth, it doesn’t do it well at all. I did not expect the quality and polish of a triple A title such as Sekiro or Ghost of Tsushima, but the sword combat is flat out incompetent. The button input response was insanely inconsistent, where perfectly timed parries did nothing and enemies often hit me through walls, or broke out of my stunlock to one shot me. In the end, if I was spotted, I always opted to run away because of how unbalanced and unpolished the combat mechanics were. I understand that stealth should and still is the main focus of the game, but introducing a new mechanic and not implementing it well is just unacceptable.
In addition to the clunky combat, the enemy AI is pretty stupid. They don’t notice the splattered blood of their dead comrades right in front of them, and quickly lose interest in you after you jump onto a ledge, hilariously allowing you to backstab them within seconds. The entire mechanic of picking up a body and disposing of it is rendered useless because of the lackluster AI.
Despite its flaws, Aragami 2 is still an extremely fun game to play. I reckon it’d be more so with cooperative play, but I was not able to test that out in this review. Laying waste to unsuspecting enemies as you jump from rooftop to rooftop gives a sense of satisfaction that no other game can. Aragami 2 is a far departure from its predecessor, but one that I can respect as it stays true to its roots of being a stealth adventure game. With more environment and enemy variety, smarter AI, and a revamp of its combat system, Aragami 2 can very well stand at the forefront of indie titles.