Thus, for a game that could be confined, in premise, to simply keeping out of close-range and out of AI’s line of sight - preventing you from recovering lost energy until you’re back in the comfort of the dark, even punishing you should you veer too close to strong light sources by draining your meter - there’s a surprising level of self-awareness Lince Works show in recognizing that stealth should be as much about a willingness to experiment with navigation, as it is about merely timing your movements well. More so when you accidentally slip up - getting spotted and thus activating the designated “alert” status - and mustering the right amount of finger-twitching, button-pressing to flee from one safe shadow to the next, using ground, walls and mountable surfaces to outmanoeuvre enemies. Yet for a game that on early chapters, structures itself like those classic of block-by-block stealth sequences, Aragami does a great job at not so much masking its somewhat simplified structure, but translating its supernatural premise of light and shadows into gameplay terms - repurposing the concept of sneaking into something that’s both interesting to tackle and more importantly, very enjoyable to get right. For those who aren’t careful and - as the game’s loading screens delightfully offer up - plan out both the use and inevitable recovery of shadow energy, will find themselves flung back to the start many a time over. Nearly all of your character’s abilities are governed by this one bar, be it carving out temporary shadows that slowly fade back out of existence or even jumping from one shadowy area to the next. Later chapters especially show a satisfying degree of inviting (warranting even) player experimentation as levels become more elaborate and the seductive allure of secret routes and hidden paths become a necessity as opposed to an optional nicety in solving its, admittedly safe and at times artificially-lengthening, objectives. Naturally it wouldn’t be a stealth title without a degree of challenge and sense of impeccable odds and Aragami‘s core mechanic makes sure to balance these perks with consistent risk, your shadow-manipulation working essentially like a meter that depletes with every use. Of course you still have your perfectly-disguised enclosed spaces with their allotment of corners, waist-high objects and, obviously, patrolling guards but Lince Works’ level design still shines at points with its fractured displacement of light and dark, making movement feel as much like escaping a labyrinth as it is constant enemy surveillance. Be it teleporting between two shadows (regardless of the surface or even height in certain aspects) or even creating shadow on a whim, Aragami‘s greatest strength is, unquestionably, in its ability to make this most classic of take’s on a renowned genre, feel fresh again thanks to this core mechanic of shadow manipulation. Fortunately, by fitting contrast, title character Aragami is reborn with the power to manipulate shadow - meaning that the slinky, ninja-like elegance present in the character’s animation is even more graceful thanks to the ability to blend into shadows and become (aside from close proximity) invisible to the human eye. Lince Works may, deliberately, be stripping back from all that organic evolution and scale of player liberty, but it goes without saying that even at its most simplistic on a structural and design stand-point, Aragami is a fascinating look-back on classic stealth - revamped for a post-modern, concurrently-nostalgic era of games.Īragami puts you in the shoes of an oriental undead warrior, resurrected by a mysterious maiden who tasks you with rescuing her from the clutches of the Kaiho - a well-equipped, brute-force army, imbued with the power of light. But it’s with notable entries like Chaos Theory, Snake Eater and even contemporary newcomers like Dishonored that’ve cemented stealth’s continuing love of improving, even reinventing itself beyond the mere act of simply memorizing enemy patrol routes. Be it the necessity for strategy, the will-he-won’t-he tension garnered from an AI’s FOV, even something as basic as winding round environments like a snake (trust me no pun intended, that was literally the first metaphor that came to mind), Aragami pays homage to a time when the stealth genre was all about the sumptuous joys of getting from A to B even if, back then, the technical feats were a lot less organic.
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