Aragami (PS4) Review

Killer in the shadows.

  Aragami is a stealth-action game from indie developer Lince Works. It has you following the adventure of a shadow assassin who must rescue an girl held captive by an powerful clan. As a fan of some good stealth games, I had to give Aragami a shot.  It's been a long while since the last stealth game I've played and Aragami seems to be a promising title. How does it fare against other stealth games and does it succeed? Let's find out.


STORY- Aragami is a vengeful soul summoned by a mysterious girl named Yamiko, who is imprisoned by the Kaiho clan. In order to free her, Aragami must first collect five guarded talismans with Yamiko as his guide. Along the way, we learn much of Aragami and Yamiko's pasts and how their future intertwined. While brief, I still enjoyed the narrative though I thought some of the side characters could have benefited from a little bit of exposition.

The plot is interesting with some neat twists.

GAMEPLAY- Aragami is a third-person stealth-action game. You control Aragami as he navigates in the shadows across the game's the 13 chapters. Areas are large and are filled with collectables, thus encouraging exploration. Also, the game's open-ended. You can either choose to silently work in the shadows and pick your targets one after the other or go all-out and kill everyone in sight. Though the latter will always result in your immediate death. Aragami can use his Shadow Essence to teleport between shadows and create new ones. Moreover, Aragami must work in the shadows since stepping into the light will cause his essence to deplete. Enemies are vigilant and will hear your footsteps if you're near and upon seeing dead corpses lying around they'll notify the entire squad. However, at times they're pretty much oblivious since one time where I killed a guard a few meters from him was another who didn't hear the noise at all.

Choose the peaceful route or go

down the blood-soaked one.

  Scattered across the levels are hidden scrolls which grant Aragami special abilities and techniques such as brief invincibility, throwing kunai (daggers) at enemies, summoning shadow monsters to dispose of enemies, and even summoning a shadow version of himself to distract enemies. These powers cost technique bars located on Aragami's cloak so they're uses are limited. Thankfully, shrines can restore techniques upon interacting with them. Initially, the gameplay felt simple and easy at first but as you acquire more powers and get thrust into more enemy-filled areas, things can get pretty tricky.


PRESENTATION - Aragami packs some beautiful Japanese-themed areas. Backgrounds are well-made and look exceptional. Aragami and Yamiko's design are great, and I wish the other character models were just as good. The game runs on the Unity engine, which doesn't have much positive reputation due to how laggy the games that run it are. Sadly, Aragami is a victim to that since the it did occasionally stutter during gameplay and cut-scenes, but thankfully none of that was game-breaking. The soundtrack by studio Two Feathers is good with many tracks fitting the historic Japanese aesthetic of the game.

The visuals and soundtrack complements

the game well.

 OVERALL- After finishing the lengthy story, I was surprised by the game and how engaging it was. I liked the stealth mechanics and the challenge in later chapters. The presentation was also great with some stylish visuals and neat soundtrack. Aragami fares well against other stealth games, though it may come across as a tad simplistic. While it some performance and A.I. issues, they won't hinder the otherwise fun experience. If you're a fan of stealth games, then you should check Aragami out especially since it goes for $20.