#ARAGAMI GAME REVIEW FULL#

Even as the missions grow increasingly drawn-out and repetitive, the constant stream of cosmetics and upgrades keeps the game feeling fresh all the way up until the credits roll. Armor sets are purely cosmetic, and despite the rest of the game’s visual shortcomings, the clothing in this game is definitely not one of them. Money is used to purchase clothing, dyes, and stat modifying essence runes. The skill tree starts off with strong abilities like invisibility and an enemy luring whistle, and it never lets up from there, providing quality upgrades that fit every playstyle.

Aragami 2įor playing through each mission and finding its plenitude of collectibles, Aragami 2 rewards you with skill points, money, and armor sets. You even have the option to end each combat encounter with a non-lethal takedown so that getting caught doesn’t make you a murderer like in so many other stealth games. It’s definitely not recommended, as two or more enemies can easily overwhelm you, but it’s nice that being discovered isn’t an instant game over anymore. In the instances in which your sneaking just isn’t sneaky enough, the newly added combat system is serviceable when it comes time to cut down your enemies from the front rather than from behind. Enemies can hear you, be scared by you, and most importantly, spot you if you’re being less than covert. While shadows don’t make you practically invisible as they did before (at least not until the endgame), they do help to obscure your movement between more tangible cover locations and still give your ninja the series’ distinct white outline. Whether double jumping into an air dash, vaulting over walls, or backing up to a corner to strike at an approaching enemy, movement in Aragami 2 is a treat. The controls provide a deep and fast paced moveset as you learn to navigate from rooftops to tall grass to the ever-present waist high cover. Every facet of gameplay has seen a massive overhaul from the first. There’s a certain language to the level design that just makes sense the more you explore each corner of its expansive levels. Learning the intricacies of each level and finding each risky but rewarding route to your objective is a welcome change of pace from the original game’s very puzzle-like stealth gameplay. Rather than carry on with the linear nature of the first game, Aragami 2 opts for an open-ended mission-based design with a hub level connected to 10 sizable environments, ranging from small villages to a large town surrounding a massive castle. Takedowns are visceral and satisfying, enemies broadcast their movements with believable weight, and the trail of smoke each time you dash makes deftly navigating through Aragami 2’s increasingly complex sandboxes feel particularly ninja-esque. Despite the poor cutscene animations, gameplay animations are stellar in Aragami 2. That’s not to say the game can’t look great, especially in motion. The charming but low-budget cel shaded art style of the original game has been swapped out for a more sterile appearance, featuring low detail textures making up the environments and an abundance of reused assets. The few characters that don’t wear masks have no lip synching to speak of and clipping issues are abundant. Cutscenes are janky, stilted, and poorly acted with little to no thought given to drama, camera work, or even action in most cases. Presentation is a large hurdle to overcome in Aragami 2. Its problem lies in the execution (pun intended).

On paper, and even sometimes in practice, Aragami 2 has a pretty solid concept for what the best kind of ninja game should be. Each mission rewards you with a new skill or cosmetic item to craft a style of ninja that is entirely your own.

You’ll sneak through over 50 missions consisting of eavesdropping, sabotage, assassination contracts, and every other kind of stealth objective you can imagine. Playing as an Aragami, one of many fragmented souls thriving to be whole again, you’re tasked with discovering the secret behind the Aragami spirits’ solemn curse of immortality and constant decay. By changing the gameplay loop, adding in loads of customization options, and increasing the scale of the previous game fivefold, developer Lince Works hopes to finally fulfill that childhood dream and put us all in the shoes of our own sneaky boys.

#ARAGAMI GAME REVIEW FULL#

The first Aragami tapped into this feeling with its surprisingly authentic stealth experience, but it only ever felt like scratching the surface of that dream - Aragami 2 strives to grant us the full ninja experience. We’ve all had the same dreams of being a ninja: a mask to hide our faces, a headband tied tightly across our foreheads, and the dark of the night concealing us in shadow as we slink across rooftops in demand of a righteous cause.

Aragami game review