Elephant in the room first... This is not Aragami game. The orignal one was fun, stylish, slow stealth puzzler focused on shadows like no other stealth game. Shadows meant everything, They concealed you, allowed to instantly teleport, move vertically, restored your mana and you could even paint them over terrain. The story revolved around the conflict between two factions, you guessed it, light and shadow. The level structure was linear, you had distinct levels, stylish art direction and story was sad oriental fairytale. All af it created slow, smart, atmospheric and beautiful stealth game. None of this exists in Aragami 2 Now, it's not shadows that are OP, YOU are OP. Shadow focus is gone. Instead, during first 2 minutes you learn how to jump, jump even higher, double jump, dash forward, grab ledges and execute enemies from above AT THE SAME TIME. You get insane shadow spells / passive abilities on top of that. Levels are full of verticality (enemies can't see you when you are above them) and tall grass where you are completely invisible. This makes the game insanely easy. Speaking of levels, they are open-worldy-esque with generic objectives. You visit the same map on multiple occassions and visit different parts of it during each of he (short) imssions. The story is all over the place, fairytale replaced by generic conflict and everyone and her mother is an Aragami now. The graphic style was made more realistic (not a fairytale anymore) and ambient sounds reduced. The atmophere got huge hit because of that. But strangely, these things combine into enjoyable game. Generic level objectives combined with insane movement, OP spells and ability to defend yourself allow you to play this as arcade action stealth game where you dash throughout the map and deal with enemies how you please, no matter the consequences. Graphics are nice and fast and music is amazing. I recommend this game for these reasons, but I think the first game was much better.
Short but fun. Features some easy puzzles, area to get lost in a bit and couple of decent fights. What the game excels at is capturing the feel of being amorphous, evolving unstoppable man-eating thing. The controls are great, you "fly" to where you left-click and grab whatever you right click. Enemies often outrange you so you want to either move at them with high velocity and devour them like unstoppable carnage you are, or hide in a vent waiting until they turn your back on you to grab them one by one. Either way feels great and cause npcs to scream nicely (I chuckled at how many voice actors they mentioned in credits just for those screams :) ) You eat people obviously. It makes you grow, more tanky, but slower and easier to hit. Whatever, they all get consumed in the process. Solid 3/5 but I add extra star for presentation as pixel art here is beatufiul and fits the monster perfectly. Contrast between sharp pixels and disgusting ever moving tentactle/maw thing is excellent, every detail pronounced to admire protagonist in full of its glory. Best use of this graphic style I've seen.
I bought this game since I love the idea of combining stealth + rewind time mechanics. What I got, well... This is a puzzle game where you avoid being spotted in impossible scenarios by doing trial and error and moving exactly where enemies are not looking in any given second. It works, it's fun but the potential is, simply put, wasted. It's all too minimal. The game is very short. You get to control more than 1 character to create spectacular combo of distract-enemy-then-move-unnoticed, which is cool, What is not cool that you only get to control up to 2 characters and only in about half of missions. The levels are small, there is only 1 type of enemy, there is very few abilities to use and the game can be finished in couple of hours. Presentation is ok with buts. Graphics are pretty but animations are slow and annoying. Music is nice but sound effects are lackluster. Story is poorly presented, using drawn-out cutscenes where your protagonist is moving forward, and I was too dumb to understand what's going on even after finishing the game. You are sad because you lost something so dystopian robots, therefore enjoy art. I think. Overall, nice attempt and I recommend trying it out when it's on sale, but don't expect anything remotely grand.
+ Huge, vertical levels with many paths leading to your goal + Satisfying stealth mechanics: hiding in shadows, hearing enemy footsteps, peeking around corners etc + Well implemented skill system with gameplay changing spells. You puke out clones to distract foes + You can kill everyone in various, spectacular fashions. Traps, environmental kills, throwing knives, aerial stabs... + ...or you can go full pacifist and never be seen by anyone. Both playstyles are equally supported + Everything is climbable + Enemies can insta kill you when you get caught so you NEED to plan ahead + Subtle storytelling and likeable protagonist As for cons, I only have some nitpicks about what I miss from Thief games (I played them far too many times). Like lack of ability to swim. Or no readable objects. Or binary hiding in shadows (either hidden or visible, nothing in between). But on the flip side, it has puking out clones for distraction! And supports being murderer... This game is what Dishonored would be if they bothered to implement actual stealth mechanics other than "You are invincible. And invisible when 1m above enemy head". Great addition to stealth genre.
