Aragami… It’s the name they call him by, but it is not his name. It’s a name given to those summoned from the shadows to defeat the army of light. Aragami fighting a war that’s not his, fighting for someone he does not truly know. Maximum Games and Lince Works have revamped the stealth infiltration genre and it was about time someone tried something new and bloody satisfying.

The 3D stealth genre was made famous by the Metal Gear Solid franchise that defined the genre for years since the original games back on the original Playstation. With that benchmark set it is hard to come into the genre and not be compared to it. But for me the comparison ends here already. And that’s not a bad thing because yes, it is a stealth game but it is so different it could very well stand as a new benchmark within the genre as an Indie!

Are you even a good guy?

“Aragami” are summoned assassins by the use of ancient forbidden rituals. They come from the shadows and are made of shadows. The darkness will be your ally and your only way to survive, as you are extremely vulnerable to the light infused weapons of the army of light.
Your protagonist doesn’t remember his name nor his former life, yet you must obey the plea of a mysterious girl that summoned you to come and save her! Sounds like the typical “save Princess Peach” adventure but it couldn’t be more different. Without spoiling I can say the story is a well written one and it can be elaborated further if the IP sees one or more sequels in the future.

Aragami is a solid addition to the stealth genre.

In the shadows, I’ve been watching…

The main gameplay element is stealth and you will be rewarded with higher scores if you succeed to sneak past all the enemies without sounding alarms or even without killing a single one of them! It is hard to pull off these perfect level playthroughs but they add a certain replayability to the game. Guards will be looking for you actively and shining lights to cast you out of the shadows you reside in. Of course you can just rebel against the main stealth objective and go on a bloody crusade killing all the enemies like you would do in a Hitman game. Although the game discourages you to do so (one hit from an enemy is an instant reset) you can collect skill points through ancient scrolls scattered around the levels and with those you can unlock skills that make you a master assassin using and even summoning shadows to bring destruction to your enemies. From shadow kunai to face-eating-shadow dragons, you choose your own playstyle. And yes it can be bloody.

The main mechanic is to teleport from shadow to shadow. This drains your shadow powers that are neatly represented into your hood so your screen isn’t filled with different status bars.
The game does a great job in the animation of your main character. There’s great transitions in appearance when moving between light and shadow. And the teleporting, using skills or silent assassination animations look so rewarding. Aragami features this kind of cell shaded/comic book graphical style that fits the game perfectly. Just click on the screenshots in this article and tell me this couldn’t be a great comic book series! And I haven’t talked about the music yet! The score is a masterpiece from Two Feathers studio. They did a great job on the music and the ambient sound in this game. The voice acting is not bad either but I feel there could’ve been a bit more emotion in the voice acting altogether. But it certainly isn’t bad though!

The Good, The Bad and the Aragami

Now the shadow control mechanic works great and makes you feel like a shadow assassin from beyond but the game does have some hiccups.

The camera controls are bad in some situations. In the open it all goes well although a bit clunky sometimes but it is on the inside of buildings and when climbing in confined spaces that I found it impossible to center my camera onto an enemy I wanted to kill from above. Maybe by raising the ceilings this could’ve been fixed. I came across the same problem when I wanted to look below my Aragami from a Torii but the foliage of the tree was blocking my view. A shame because if you can’t look and jump down on enemies why give us the option in the first place? But this happened only in a few instances luckily.

Another small hiccup is the fact that when you silently kill an enemy on a ledge you can’t control how he falls down. My enemies’ bodies almost always fell forward from a ledge into the lit area below. And of course the guards noticed and sounded the alarm, raising their awareness level and making it hard to finish the level. A way to counter this is offered within the skill upgrades but I think it would be fitting to include a directional input that decides where the body is placed upon sneak attack.

But Aragami is a welcome change to the genre that has been ruled by some older IPs for decades now. It has a solid basis to build upon and although it has some flaws that can break your flow getting a perfect score, Aragami is a solid addition to the stealth genre.

Aragami has great visuals, a strong score and it has a great variety of skills you can unlock to master the shadows and rescue Yamiko! The further you advance the less shadows you’ll see thus increasing difficulty and forcing you to rely on your shadow skills even more! You’ll want to try playing the different levels using different playstyles and that’s a great way to incorporate replayability. Now master the shadows and bring revenge for the Lady in White!

Score: 4 out of 5