I admit, I started the game with low expectations due to the reviews, but I liked the first Aragami enough to try the second and had some time to kill. Well, turns out I missed out. First of all, with all the patches included so far, there's a surprising amount of content. 51 missions, 4 difficulty levels, including one that shifts the game closer to the original Aragami, various unlockables including 9 additional modular outfits, dyes, passive bonuses in form of runestones, and a well-stocked list of more or less supernatural abilities for your ninjaing pleasure. Missions can be repeated at will once unlocked. Graphics are serviceable enough, the game was remarkably bug-free (I had two minor glitches, none of them game-breaking and both resolved themselves after a few moments). Controls are different from the first game, with a much higher emphasis on agility; you can air-dash, double-jump, grab ledges and hang from railings, and movement is plain and simply fun - you're a supernatural ninja, and the game makes you feel like one. There is a combat system, which, while serviceable and responsive enough, is basically just for offering a second chance in case you screwed up the "sneaky" part of "sneaky-stabby-fun". Sure, you can fumble your way through the levels like a drunk oni after a particularly heavy sake-bender (and dress accordingly), but the game grades your performance accordingly, and similar to certain other franchises, part of the attraction is succeeding with style and panache, not merely getting by. Cutscenes, while serviceable, have no facial animations (and let's be honest, all except one of the characters involved wear face masks) and use vaguely japanese-sounding simlish with subtitles. The story again is serviceable, serving to tie your missions into a narrative without getting too much into the way of your sneaky-stabby fun. The soundtrack is surprisingly good, on the other hand. 5/5, brought back lovely memories of playing Tenchu on the PS1
Bad End Theater can best be described as four intertwined, super-short visual novels, whose endings are determined by your choices for the four acting characters. It's half puzzle, half visual novel, held together by the metasetting of you, the player, interacting with the playwright that wrote those tragedies. You unlock more actions (well, switches, really, yes, those novels are THAT short for a reason...) as you progress, enabling you to access more (bad) endings. Well, it's not called "Happy End Theater", so yep, expect plenty of pain and suffering. The visuals are held in an adorable chibi-style, even when people die left, right and center. The game has an overview of the paths you have and have not yet taken, so it's impossible to get stuck, and can be completed in a couple of hours. It's also a sweet story about hope, which I won't spoil. Well, I liked it. The game cost me as much as a decent pizza, lasted and entertained me longer than that, and left a warm fuzzy feeling inside. 5/5, would eat the maiden and overthrow the overlord again.
