Released in 2016, Aragami was an interesting surprise. Not because it was completely behind in terms of technique, but because the sensations of the game reminded a little of the late Tenchu by its ninja infiltration system.
Today, a sequel is coming, bearing the logical name of Aragami 2, again with great astonishment, since it tries to bring change to the stealth game.
We are in September 2021 and there is a feeling of deja vu in the air in fact...
You are an Aragami after the events of the first game. Propelled into a village filled with individuals like you, you will have the dual objective of freeing the region from the Akatsushi army which is spreading terror in the area and regaining your humanity. Because let us remember, an Aragami is a mass of flesh resuscitated by a desperate miko (Japanese priestesses whose legends tell of extraordinary abilities and sensibilities to spirits) for revenge and whose soul is fragmented by the process of death and " resurrection".
The game thus offers a story that revolves around these two objectives. However, unlike the first episode, the game plays the cooperation card. So don't expect a storyline tied up with onions down to the smallest detail, but an architecture thought out a bit like an MMO or a Live Service game with chapters and missions that can be played and replayed again and again to improve his rank, gain experience or to approach them in a different way. Indeed, you can advance without being seen or touching any enemy whatsoever, neutralize the guards without killing them, or transform them into human sashimi. Personally, I like to mix a little with mainly stealth during which I peacefully and discreetly prune enemy troops, and then it happens for certain missions that I freak out and deceitfully massacre any presence in huge sheaves of blood . But I diverge.
You can therefore form a squad of Aragami of up to 3 players to carry out your missions more efficiently, even if, let's be honest, all of them are largely doable solo. In order to stick to any co-op game, you will have the possibility of customizing your character with various equipment, masks, tops, pants and swords as well as applying various colors and runes to them that you will have previously unlocked. by completing missions or finding blueprints. Curiously, the lag between players is not part of the game, but animation concerns and collision bugs with enemies, if so, it is one of the rare concerns that there was not in solo. In itself, the online is a clumsy, especially since it becomes a nightmare to find the right mission on the map. Just this point could have been avoided by a small visual indicator instead of having to explore all the points of interest (there are several missions per point). To avoid the spoiler, the game blocks access to the missions of the player who has progressed the least in the story of the three. It's a welcome thing. It will therefore be necessary to upgrade it by doing the missions it lacks in order to progress together in the story. Especially since unlike solo, your defeat limit before the failure of the mission, player or body discoveries, money collected, experience, performance, everything is shared. It's both a good idea, but also a very bad one because for the moment the players I've been able to play with haven't understood that it's better not to rush into the heap like big morons . A double table of mission results, one for the group and one for the player we embody, could have been interesting, if only to gauge how well we position ourselves in the group in terms of efficiency, rather than hitting B rankings in a group while solo we align the S...
Your Aragami will have the ability to move normally or stealthily, jump, attack, parry, use spells and objects depending on your Aragami's customization, run, move bodies, and even use Shadow Leap, already present in the first game and which will allow you to reach and hang on various ledges. Nothing exceptional therefore, and even less on the eliminations (KOs or assassinations) which will remind you of any game where infiltration is required. And which will probably be much better done...
Because let's not cut corners: the game is a technical disaster. Aragami 2 is already inefficient for the PS2, so on current consoles, the game sends us right back in time as the technological level is low. We like to rediscover bugs that we haven't seen for decades, while finding flickering, aliasing, tearing, disappearance of elements, collision bugs, holes passing through the decor and so on... this game is a true ode to the disappearance of beta testers.
But you've known me for a while and should know that if the technique fails, as long as the gameplay isn't hampered by it, it won't bother me that much. That's why I still manage to have fun with it.
So no, I'm not saying that the gameplay is not tainted, because it deserves attention on all its flaws, bugs and other inconsistencies. But honestly, I don't have the courage to ask myself why the game has a nice flexibility of sequence for movements (clearly the strong point of the title) but when you need this flexibility for something else, like to quickly move a freshly neutralized body with stealth (violent or not), you have to wait for the end of a clumsy animation that drags on when you are already hot in timing so as not to be detected by nearby enemies. I'm not even going to try to understand why the developers abused the vibration to excess. Maybe they discovered this feature and decided to really put it everywhere and thoroughly? I don't want to talk about the AI either, which is one of the dumbest I've ever seen. Sometimes the alert will be given when you've been quiet from the start hiding in the tall grass, sometimes you can make all the noise you want and they won't flinch or forget the next second. And don't get me started on the fact that when you kill it's hectoliters of blood squirting all over the surfaces (in itself that's not a concern), but enemies literally walk in blood and don't suspect not even that there is a problem? To believe that in the world of the game, menstruation is so abundant (and to believe that the women all walk around without underwear, whereas we do not see a single one in the whole game in the missions) that it It is normal to find this kind of dirt on the floor, walls, ceilings, against trees, etc. Pathetic AI, so and I'll spare you these nonsense you have no idea...
Talking about this and many more things like that which is proof that the game deserved more gestation before it came out. Resource problem? Of time? Motivated? Knowledge? I do not know...
On the other hand, what I would like to know is why am I still having fun despite all these overwhelming and aberrant faults?
I must be good at committing, after all...
- Xbox (Xbox One Tested Version)
- PlayStation
- Steam
