Aragami is an adventure and infiltration game developed by Lince Works and released on 04/10/2016 for Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Aragami plunges us into the heart of a strange world where magic, mystery, secrecy, war and divinity mingle. We find ourselves at the helm of a dark character, named Aragami, a vengeful spirit who has been summoned, thanks to an ancient spell, by a strange and enigmatic beautiful woman called Yamiko in order to help him to free himself, but also to free him. the rare few survivors of his people who were locked up and kept prisoner by a clan adept of light and mastering magic, the Kaiho clan, a clan of warrior and conqueror who invaded and destroyed the lands of Yamiko, but also slaughtered his people.
It is therefore on this joyful and lively note that begins the adventure of Aramagi and Yamiko who will have to go through the 13 chapters of the game in order to save Yamiko and his people, but also to discover why it is this precise Aramagi who has been summoned, because it seems that there is a mysterious and strange connection between Yamiko and Aragami ...
The game plunges us into 13 chapters. Each of these chapters will gradually reveal the story through cutscenes, but also via hidden elements and will offer a real challenge that will delight players who want to be a real shadow by not killing anyone like potential assassins. And for that, Aragami has a whole arsenal of techniques and abilities. But let's start with the very base, the shadow essence.
Shadow Essence is the game's resource, which allows Aragami to use whatever he has at his disposal and even to move around. Materialized by symbols on Aragami's cloak and outfit, this resource is consumed as soon as Aragami uses an ability, but also when he is in the light, because yes, in this game, the light is an enemy to full fledged. Besides making you fully visible to enemies, it will “absorb” Aragami's shadow essence and some light sources can even kill you, outright. But fortunately, the shadows will be your greatest allies. As soon as Aragami is in the shadows, he becomes totally invisible and gradually recharges his shadow essence.
Aragami will unlock, during the adventure, the possibility of creating his own temporary shadow zones, which will allow him to use his main and primordial ability: leap of shadows. This ability, which obviously consumes shadow essence, is Aragami's ability and allows him to teleport from one shadow area to another. It may sound like too powerful an ability and makes the game too simple, but it is not and should be used very carefully, as the shadow essence drains at high speed and even though there is a lot of gray area in the first chapters, they become rarer and more spaced as we advance in the chapters. The leap of shadows therefore makes it possible to move from area to area, but also to cross gates, barriers, etc. by teleporting to the other side. It is possible to create a shadow zone using its shadow essence, but this will consume it very quickly and above all, the zone will be temporary and will generally allow you to make a simple jump before it disappears. With bad timing, you risk finding yourself in the open and above all, being immediately detected by enemies. In addition, it is impossible to create a shadow area near a light source or through it.
Aragami has many other abilities. However, the latter do not necessarily use shadow essence, but runes, which causes the player to think carefully about when and the situation to use them. They are limited to 2 per technique, so you won't be able to throw dozens of knives in a row to kill your enemies or send your raven to scout every 30 seconds, etc. However, it is possible, thanks to skill points, to obtain a technique that allows you to regain a rune for the selected spell by killing an enemy in a certain and excruciating way, which is very appreciable, because the levels can be very long and have more than a hundred enemies for the older ones.
Aragami therefore has a varied arsenal, throwing knives, the creation of a shadow to distract enemies, send a reconnaissance crow to mark enemies and display (temporarily) their field of vision, blind enemies, place mines. 'shadows on the ground or even squarely on an enemy, causing it to explode whenever we want and being able to kill it, as well as any enemies around.
All these techniques will be welcome, because the enemies will be numerous, but above all, the slightest damage received makes us start again at the beginning of the level, or at a checkpoint which are either very far apart, or very rare and, what is more, can only be activated and used once. That is, once you activate a checkpoint, it saves the progress you have made so far, but you cannot go and accomplish multiple things and then come back and save again, it will leave you alone. You will have to find another checkpoint or complete the level without getting hit.
The enemies are not extremely varied, but the type of enemy present and the fact of dying on the slightest hit is sufficient. We will meet ordinary soldiers, armed with light swords which light up around the enemy when they are drawn, projecting a wave of light at medium distance if the enemy attacks you. We will also meet archers there, shooting arrows from, I'm on target, light. The latter are deceitful, because if the archer misses you, the arrow will create an area of light where it lands / crashes, which can obviously make you visible and worst of all, absorb your essence of shadow risking thus prevent you from using your shadow jump, or even certain abilities. We will even come across an enemy who is in fact a source of magical light, a kind of floating flame which, if you get too close to it or if you enter its glow, will start to chase you in order to stick to Aragami, This "absorbs" all of your shadow essence at very high speed (faster than a normal light source) and explodes after a few seconds, killing you if you are within range at that time. Suffice to say that if this kind of enemy spots you, the time will no longer be for subtlety or caution, you will have to start running to escape at full speed, unfortunately risking being detected by human enemies. and trigger the alarm.
Despite all this, and the fact that you want to play by killing everyone or by not spilling the slightest drop of blood, you will still have to play in a stealth way, because the game is difficult and the followers of the "I go for it". in the pile and come what may ”risk swinging the joystick in the screen after two minutes! The game is very difficult, but above all, very punitive! The slightest mistake can be fatal and the fact that there are very few waypoints in the levels and, as previously indicated, can only be activated once, makes the levels very tense and requires to be a minimum concentrated from start to finish, under penalty of, thinking to have killed everyone and wandering "quietly" in the level until the exit, come face to face with a guard who stuns Aragami and kills him, forcing him to restart the level and lose 20 minutes ... (yes, it's real life!)
Moreover, the game "rewards" the different ways of playing, whether it is not to kill anyone or to create a pool of blood. Each action gives points, whether it is a way of assassinating (murder with a sword does not give the same number of points as killing with a knife throwing), hiding bodies, not being detected, not triggering alert, etc. At the end of the mission, you get a score as you can often get in this kind of game (rank A, rank C, rank S, etc.). A summary appears once the level is finished, showing the time spent in the level, the number of items found (scrolls, secrets, etc.) the number of times an enemy has suspected a problem, if there has been bodies of discovered, if you have been detected and even the number of enemies eliminated compared to the total number of enemies present in the level.
The game can be played entirely as a duo. Unfortunately, not knowing anyone who also has the game, I was unable to test this mode. But I offer you, instead, an official gameplay video showing what it does.
Conclusion
The game just stunned me. The first few minutes, the latter reminded me a lot of Mark of the Ninja, a ninja game, but in 2D, which I had extremely appreciated at the time. The visual and sound atmosphere transcribes the dark and cruel story told throughout the adventure. The game is very punitive without being frustrating, as the levels are full of possibilities both in how to sneak in and how to get rid of enemies. The game has a lifespan of 10-15 hours to be completed, but offers fairly good replayability, easily allowing the same level to be repeated several times. I did however note a few times an issue where enemies "bugged" some simply not moving or getting stuck in the background. However, this was extremely rare, I encountered this problem only two or three times during the whole adventure, affecting only one or two enemies of the level.
If you are a fan of demanding games and stealth, I highly recommend it! At the price of 19,99 € (which you can find at -20% at our partners by clicking on the links under the game sheet!), It would be a shame to deprive yourself of this little independent pearl.
- A demanding and punitive game.
- A dark and well-written story.
- Possibility to play the entire game in cooperation.
- The general atmosphere of the game, which transcribes the story well.
- Some rare script bugs on enemies.
