Aragami 2

My friend and I played through this after having played through Aragami 1 together. This game is different in several ways to the Aragami 1. This is more of an MMO style game with a hub area where you select missions that you/your team go on with less of a focus on the overarching story. Whereas Aragami 1 was a level-by-level progression that had more of an emphasis on its overarching story. Thing is, the story of Aragami 1 wasn't that great and I'd that it's only slightly better than Aragami 2's story. Most importantly, the gameplay is vastly different. Aragami 1 had a unique thing where you could teleport to any shadow, which was changed in Aragami 2 (you now can teleport to ledges and do like a teleporting dash). Thing is, the teleport to any shadow thing Aragami 1 had was finnicky and sometimes resulted in death. Aragami 1 also had its fair share of gameplay annoyances that made playing it less fun than playing Aragami 2: 1) You couldn't jump in Aragami 1 (you can in 2, as well as double jump). Meaning you had to use the finnicky shadow teleport thing to get on top of anything (even a shallow ledge that any basic human could just step up onto) 2) You couldn't grab onto ledges in Aragami 1 (you can in 2), Meaning you could very easily fall a perch you are on 3) Going into any water that was like thigh deep would kill you in Aragami 1 (in Aragami 2, if you were to fall into deep water, your character would just freely warp back to the last safe spot you were on). This combined with the finnicky shadow warping led to some deaths. 4) You couldn't run in Aragami 1 (you can in 2). I understand these are stealth games, but you play as a supernatural ninja assassin in both games. I would expect the least you could be able to do is run Is Aragami 2 perfect? No. There's only a handful of maps that get reuesed and there were several bugs we encountered, but my friend and I had a good time playing through Aragami 2

The first Aragami game, was very special to me, it's story really spoke to me, the gameplay was really creative and the artistic direction was gorgeous. The first did feel new in a sense even though it did get inspiration from other games, I can't say I played a game quite like the first one. Aragami 2 though, doesn't exactly go the direction some of the fans want and I get that, I also do think some things could've been executed better and whatnot but the game is still worth checking out. What I'll say is, if you expect the game to be as contained as the first game was in terms of story and for the gameplay to use what was already established and build upon that, you're not exactly gonna get that here and it's not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact Aragami 2 feels more like an attempt at putting the series on the track to become the next Tenchu which if you know Stealth gaming, we haven't gotten an entry in what feels like an eternity, and it does an alright job at it, it's absolutely not perfect, but at the end of the day the game is fun to play, and while it does lack a bit of difficulty overall, the game still makes you feel like a cool ninja with the powers of the shadows. The story doesn't really hit the mark for me unlike the first game did. It's not bad, just serves the purpose of making you play the game. So uh yeah, kinda disjointed review but if you remotely like Stealth games, you'll have fun playing this game, it won't feel like the original game, but still great !

This game is notably larger and takes a more open level design approach with some ideas even borrowed from Monster Hunter of all things (like the hub village that you go to in between missions). That said there are a few gameplay differences between this and the first Aragami. While the original Aragami was far more purist in the approach to stealth gameplay, this game gives you a fighting chance in the event that you actually get caught. That said it is still very much a stealth game at it's core, and despite the janky nature of it at times I'd have to give a recommendation. Here is a first impressions video I made for those curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIinC5W_dZU

"Oh no! There are guards just EVERYWHERE and even one of them could kill me! Whatever shall I do? WHATEVER SHALL... What? You say the guards can't see even slightly above them, there are fences and barriers everywhere to limit everyone's line of sight to less than 20 feet, they're deaf as a stone and can't hear you kill someone elese 5 feet away and you have superpowers? Never mind. I got this. I R Master Ninja!" Ahem... The game is a carefully constructed sandbox to make you feel like a super-sneaky ninja. All the Hitman tropes are here though - Being even slightly above a guard's head makes you invisible to him, every guard is carefully placed so he can't accidentally see you outside of the area where he's supposed to notice you and sound doesn't travel AT ALL in this world. No challenge for a veteran of real stealth games, but a nice little power trip to blow through in one day.