Review for Aragami Shadow Edition. Game for Linux, PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 05/06/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 21/02/2019
Since the days of Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation, Stealth video games have always fascinated a good slice of the public: thanks to the difficulty and the cold and calculating attitude to be used within these titles. Video games such as HITMAN, Tenchu, Dishonored and the aforementioned Kojima saga have managed to gain more and more acclaim from gamers over the years: precisely for this reason, more and more developers risk creating a Stealth game. Today we are here to talk to you about such a title, namely Aragami.
The latter can be considered the evolution of an already pre-existing title, namely Path of the Shadows; both were in fact created by a small Spanish university team who, after having obtained several awards and appreciation from PotS, decided to create Aragami, with the desire to expand the previous game in terms of mechanics and at the same time on an artistic level. In fact, the imprint of titles such as Okami, which make a strong use of cell-shading, a graphic development technique that makes everything more cartoonish and colorful, is easily traceable; however the game had already been released for PC and PlayStation 4, and will most likely be released on Xbox One in the future. Specifically, today we will analyze the Shadow Edition of the title, which includes both the base game and the expansion "Nightfall".
In the title of Lince Works you will play as a killer spirit called Aragami, who can move and exploit the shadows at will; your mission will therefore be simplified by Yamiko, a young woman captured in the fortress of Kyuryu, who will guide you thanks to a spiritually projected image of her. Your goal will be precisely to advance up to the aforementioned fortress, making use of the shadows and your skills: the spirit has a variety of powers, such as teleportation between the shadow areas and the creation of a dark area for a few. seconds, excellent for reaching places that were previously illuminated. However you will not be free to use your best moves at will: on your cloak you will find a drawing that will show you how many shadow essence you have, to represent the "fuel" needed to activate your abilities, which will be recharged in the shadow and exhausted in the light areas.
But your advance will not be so easy: on your way you will find dozens and dozens of light guards, who with their illuminated katana can literally kill you with a single blow. Precisely for this reason every single map and situation will be studied with care and minutia, in order to avoid death and be forced to restart the mission from the last check-point, which very often can prove to be really frustrating. Once you have worked out your strategy you can then advance by teleporting yourself from one area to another in the dark; taking out the guards a few times will be necessary, but once back in the shadows you will be safe again. The AI of the game is developed in an excellent way, so much so as to force you to foresee every single movement due to the patrol that the guards carry out in the various areas: you will need some time to master the various techniques, but with training you should be able to proceed without problems, without prejudice to the difficulty deriving from the level of challenge you have chosen in the options. After completing a chapter you will be awarded a grade, which will depend on the times you have been discovered, the number of kills, the time taken etc.
As if that were not enough, being a Stealth game, you will not be able to use any offensive approach: at the slightest mistake or corpse found, the guards will become suspicious, launching themselves in search of you. To confuse the guards you can use a bell to create a sound that will disturb them, while to kill them you can rely on your katana, which we advise you to use only in desperate cases. The arsenal will also provide you with Kunai and other unlockable skills from your skill tree, which branches into 3 categories: shadow powers enhancement, offensive and defensive powers. As for the Nightfall expansion, this is a sequel to what is the base game; in fact the DLC inserts 4 chapters that take place before the main story. It also brings in two new characters, Hyo and Shinobu, and several new powers.
On the graphics side there is not much to say: as already mentioned above, Aragami is a game made in cell-shading and has a pleasing graphics to the eyes, even if it presents some truly exaggerated drops in framerate in some areas and situations on consoles. As for the audio sector, it contains some real goodies, which will certainly be appreciated by lovers of the Rising Sun; finally, for all those who do not like single-player, it will be possible to play the various chapters also online in cross-play with other platforms, a truly fun experience.
Aragami is a title that proposes itself as Stealth fully succeeding in its enterprise, mixing the right difficulty, a good graphics sector and a respectable audio; the DLC is no exception, and extends a game that in itself is quite short, since it can be finished in about 10 hours of play if you are experienced, thus extending the longevity of the whole. Definitely recommended for lovers of the genre.
► Aragami Shadow Edition is an Adventure type game published by Merge Games for Linux, PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 05/06/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 21/02/2019
