![]() The game features plenty of violent-looking stealth kills with various melee weapons.ĭeaf & Hard of Hearing: The game features subtitles in English and transliterated Japanese (romaji), but voiceovers are locked to Japanese. Parents: According to the ESRB, this game’s rating is M, and contains blood and violence. Rating: 7 out of 10ĭisclosures: This game was developed and published by Lince Works. It is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player and multiplayer modes, and the game was completed. Prospective ninjas who choose to stick it out will easily spend a dozen hours chipping away at ‘perfect’ runs or indulging completionist tendencies, but for most others, Aragami won’t be seen as more than a reasonably competent also-ran. ![]() Further, the game’s thirteen chapters take too long to open up the toybox of abilities, forcing players to stick with safe, boring strategies or exploiting AI dunces to get by. It’s unfortunate, but technical issues and uninspired missions weigh Aragami down, preventing it from living up to its potential.Įnemy AI in classic stealth games has never been especially good, but having an old-school level of bone-headedness alongside a fully-empowered player tends to soften the challenge too much to be engaging. The interplay of shadows and powers gives the game its hook and structure, and in conjunction with its striking and colorful visuals (the main character looks like a ninja rendition of Journey‘s cloaked avatar) Aragami carves out its own niche, almost able to stand alongside its inspirations. Conversely, direct exposure to light drains the player’s abilities. Shadows are Aragami‘s lifeline, providing cover and recharging players’ powers. There are also other shadow-based magics that can make enemy corpses disappear, quietly consume guards from a distance, and most importantly, enlarge and project shadows where they wouldn’t be otherwise. Most visible in this philosophy are the array of special powers available, including a method of teleporting similar to Dishonored‘s Blink. Instead, it takes that older gameplay’s do-or-die style and incorporates innovations that newer, more open styles of stealth have introduced. To its credit, Aragami doesn’t just recall those games and rest on their laurels. ![]() Where newer design philosophy would allow players to accept (or even enjoy!) dealing with failure, Aragami doesn’t hesitate to kick its players back to the last checkpoint if their sneaking isn’t up to snuff. The soldiers of the Army of Light are deadly, and will use their light-infused weapons to instantly kill players as soon as they’re detected. ![]() Aragami‘s style of stealth is, like the older games it draws from, unforgiving in nature. To fulfill this mission, players will stick to the shadows, remain unseen, and kill silently. Set in a fantasy world almost shamelessly inspired by Japanese culture, Aragami casts players as a vengeful ghost, summoned by a mysterious maiden named Yamiko to exact violence upon the not-samurai of the Army of Light. In fact, Tenchu was cited as a primary inspiration for Aragami, and there are shades of the early Splinter Cell titles as well. While standout titles like Mark of the Ninja and Ninja Gaiden have managed to capture the mythical battle prowess of Japan’s most famous assassins and spies, few beyond the ungainly Tenchu series have tackled the subject from a third-person, stealth-focused perspective. In fairness, Lince Works picked a good niche to try and fill - Ninja games. WTF For a shadow ghost ninja, this guy runs awfully slowly…Īragami is both a welcome reminder that ‘obsolete’ has no meaning when it comes to game design, and a sobering affirmation that it’s really difficult to make an ‘old-school’ project that offers appeal beyond mere nostalgia. LOW Old-school pacing issues/mission design with modern finicky controls/incoherence HIGH Old-school stealth with gorgeous modern art
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