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Aragami 2 returns with more slow-burn stealth, but its beefed up shadow powers have great potentialCloak and dagger
Cloak and dagger
Aragami 2is a third-person stealth ‘em up where you take control of an assassin with mystical powers. As a member of Kakurega Village, it’s your responsibility to take on jobs that largely involve assassinating folk to keep the community thriving. Based on an early preview build of the game, however, there’s a lot more that needs doing besides stabbing up your long list of targets. Supply crates need checking, land needs surveying, and shady contacts need your details.
Tick off these tasks, and you’ll gradually grow stronger and gain access to tougher ones. It’s the kind of stuff you imagine Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa would probably get one of his underlings to do while he’s off painting the town red, but Aragami 2’s restrained checklist approach could be just the thing for those after a more methodical type of shadow-based murdering.
Aragami 2 - Dev Walkthrough: Stealth & Combat FeaturesWatch on YouTube
Aragami 2 - Dev Walkthrough: Stealth & Combat Features
The jobs come thick and fast in Aragami 2, and you’ll take them on from your village that serves as the game’s main hub. You’ll also become very familiar with the local blacksmith here, who’ll sell you useful items like lethal shurikens and needles that’ll put enemies to sleep. For a hefty sum, you can also buy new swords and armour pieces from them too, although as far as I can tell, these are purely cosmetic and have no discernible benefits other than looking very, very cool.
Once you’ve got your ninja look on point, Aragami 2 falls into a familiar pattern: take on a job, step through a portal, do some assassinating, return to the portal from whence you came, and trade in your spoils for upgrades back in the village. I like its simplicity, as I could dive straight into the action without faffing around. The self-contained missions keep the momentum ticking over, and the upgrades pour in at a satisfying rate. It’s not long before you’re spending skill points on abilities that will really help you bamboozle your enemies.
As you progress in Aragami 2, new vendors will set up shop in Kakurega Village. In my early preview build, I unlocked a fella who sold me dyes to change the colour of my armour. While welcome, I’d hoped that they’d also help bolster my sneaking with tangible benefits other than making me look nice.
Some of these abilities are really fun to use. My favourite one let me take advantage of blue lamps scattered around certain missions. If I clicked my fingers, they’d produce these pools of steam which would blind and disorient enemies. Plus, I could use them as cover to cross gaps unseen. After upgrading this skill further, it turned the steam into a concussive cloud, knocking out those in its radius instantly.
Once this guard gets close enough, you can do the classic slice-then-pull-to-the-side ninja technique.
This may be a consequence of Aragami 2’s new job structure, which sees you constantly darting back and forth from its village hub world. Taking a leaf fromMonster Hunter: World’s playbook, the game’s early missions will see you revisiting some of the same areas multiple times over the first few hours, which, while very pretty in their presentation, don’t allow for a lot of creative or interesting ways to stick it to your enemies. If it’s deviously spiking cups of sake you’re after, then you’ll be better off flexing your stealth brain in something like IO Interactive’s trilogy ofHitmangames.
Equally, Aragami 2 could just be a bit of a slow burner. In the latter stages of my preview build, I was pleased when my list of jobs finally started to deviate from the trad “Eliminate 4 targets” or “Check these 4 boxes” type affairs, and one of my favourite jobs ended up being finding and rescuing a damsel in distress. I was forced to carry her on my shoulders as I skulked through narrow corridors and hid in bushes, which offered an interesting challenge compared to the jobs that came before it. The same goes for an even later mission where I’d outright fail if I was detected. Sure, they’re not the most revolutionary ideas on the ninja curriculum, but I’m hopeful that there are tricksier delights lying in wait further in.
Everything’s better with friends, apart from when you’re all paying separately at a restaurant.
