Aragami

After finishing 5 missions, I have no wish to play any more of this game. So let's start with the story, in short you're a vengeful spirit summoned by another spirit of a girl whose body is guarded by the "bad guys", so go do stuff and save the world. While not the most intriguing premise, it's not a bad one. Sometimes you'll hear enemies talk about lore of the world, and that's about the only good thing I have to say. Gameplay. You have a small assortment of skills, most of which are almost useless for two reasons: 1)They require charges that you can only get from one time use shrines, of which there are usually about two per zone. 2)Most of them are kill-oriented so if you want to play full ghost, you won't have to bother with getting scrolls. The AI is just plain bad compared to a game that came out 18 years before Aragami, which to this day is still one of the best stealth games out there. Enemies will see you in the shadows even if you're crouching, which begs the question why even tell the palyer to keep to the shadows if it makes almost no difference whether you are hiding in a shadow or standing in plain view. Despite having great eyesight they have awful memory and will blame the wind or mind playing tricks after 5 seconds of searching. Level design is mediocre, most of the time you follow a linear route and there are no options for divergence or any kind of side objectives. Can't in good faith recommend this game to anyone who likes stealth games.

'Aragami' is a fun PC stealth game, but its strict rules and the limited leeway it gives you can make the game frustrating. If you into stealth games like I, you'll likely enjoy 'Aragami'. But, the more I played, the more glaring the game's inconsistencies and odd design decisions became. It was hard to ignore them no matter how much I liked playing it. For one, you getting detected pretty much means death, usually instantly by your enemies' light powered weapons. Despite being a shadow spirit, you can still be detected by your enemies for some reason even when you're completely in the dark. And although you're a spirit summoned to wrought vengeance, you can only use your sword during a stealth or aerial kill. Sure, you'd use your sword when executing a kill at close range upon being detected, but you can't use it at any other time. You can't even use it or your other weapon, a shadow kunai, way to manipulate the environment in any way to your advantage. To distract your enemies, you'll need to draw their attention to you first and then sneak away. Wouldn't it be great to be able to draw their attention elsewhere and not on yourself? For a game that stresses on stealth, it sure doesn't reward it. Stealth, aerial, shadow, and regular kill upon detection are all weighed the same. The game doesn't encourage stealth, but imposes it with little room for experimentation. Aside from a few more open levels, playing the game means figuring out the one or two routes that the developers want you to take to pass the level. And because the shadow is the source of your power, not being in it can mean detection and death as you'll have no access to your offensive and defensive Shadow Abilities and Techniques. In the end, 'Aragami' is a fun game, but a hard one to recommend. I think stealth game enthusiasts will enjoy it to a certain degree, but it'll be hard to ignore some flaws and dated design. For other players, they may be better off playing other stealth games instead.

It's an average stealth game with C O N S T A N T L Y repeating objectives and clunky gameplay. Play only if you are craving some okay-ish stealth, otherwise don't bother.

...and I mean that as a compliment. The look and gameplay immediately transported me back and filled me with that same warm feeling I used to get playing my (still) favorite games on the PS2, but with higher resolution and a much better framerate. I'm not the type to gamer who cares much about story, so I can't really comment on that, but I love the collection of play mechanics. They manage to keep a stealth game dynamic, action-packed and as fast or slow paced as you want it to be. It's almost like Shinobi as a stealth game with more complexity.

Personally I have always been a huge fan of stealth games. And Aragami checks all boxes that make one a good stealth game. It has unique mechanics. All enemies can one shot you, if they detect you, but if they don't detect you, you can one shot them back. It also has a cool story. The only reason why I give it 4 stars is because there are a few problems with the Linux version. Mainly cutscenes. For some reason Cutscenes don't play.