Using a power uses up one of three points for each one. Depending on your playstyle, you’ll use one of these areas of powers more than the other, but they are all viable options going forward. Defensive powers entail things like invisibility, dissolving bodies so they don’t get discovered and creating a distracting hologram of yourself aggressive powers offer throwing knives, a vortex trap that when activated sucks nearby foes into oblivion, and the power to temporarily blind enemies in front of you and the more passive abilities enable you to scan the area for enemies, obtain additional mana and so on. Defensive powers, aggressive powers, and more passive ones. You have three areas that you can spec into. There is no open combat, so to speak – violence is very much a sneak up and stab affair, and running towards enemies will almost certainly result in your death – however the range of other abilities offer a variety of options, both violent and non. It’s a bit of a task to get used to initially, particularly when you factor in the limited range of the teleport, however when you get to grips with it, it’s essential for mastering the game. Your teleport ability can also be used to get to higher areas which is great for scouting ahead or getting a good kill vantage point – dropping down on heads ala Assassin’s Creed. It sounds like it might be a bit of a cop-out of the challenge that comes with stealth, however it’s the quick thinking and management of energy that creates the challenge – especially when you consider these shadows you create will rapidly disappear. This, however, can only be performed into shadows and when you have enough mana – so, for example, an enemy is positioned in a light area, there’s no way of teleporting next to him or walking up without being seen, so you create a shadow behind him, teleport in and kill him.

In rather Dishonored fashion, Aragami can teleport himself (basically a ‘blink’) a short distance. Creating a shadow will use up some of this energy, though in a pinch it will allow you to hide from sight for a short time.Ĭreating shadows is also useful for setting up quick escapes and getting yourself closer to enemies to assassinate them. It’s essentially a mana system, nothing we haven’t seen before, though it being displayed on our hero’s cape is much more interesting than the usual blue bar. In order to use a power Aragami must have some energy to do so. Thankfully among Aragami’s list of powers, creating shadows is one of them. Unlike Dishonored, open violence is not a viable option and will almost certainly result in your death, so by ‘essential’ I really mean it.

So keeping in shadows and behind cover is the best way to go about not dying. By that I don’t mean exposure to light will kill you (unless that light is blasted at you from an enemy’s sword – that’s not even a joke, enemy weapons are all light based), but it will drain your power and obviously expose you to anyone in range. In Aragami, shadows are your essential ally, and light an actively harmful enemy. Basically that means it’s an amalgamation of shadowy stealthing, assassination and mystical powers. With that goal in mind, we must sneak, stab and dash around the painterly levels to help our retained friend.Īs already mentioned, the game holds a bearing to stealth classic Tenchu, as well as the more modern Dishonored. These are triggered mainly by objects Yamiko guides us towards, and are suspiciously heavily guarded, so it’s thought there must be some importance to them. Initially we set out experiencing visions of what appear to be memories from Yamiko’s past. Of course, Aragami is missing the memory of his own life (video game narrative 101 – amnesia) and so hopes to regain that along the way, and while not knowing exactly what will happen after his task is completed, hopes that he can find peace afterwards. An undead warrior brought back by Yamiko, a young girl who wants to use him and his powers to release her from prison and take revenge on those responsible for her being there. Essentially a stealth assassin game with a fantastical concept, and a set of powers that help you along with your sneaking and murdering – neither of which are compulsory throughout most of the game. If you were to amalgamate elements of games like Tenchu and Dishonoured, you wouldn’t have an idea too dissimilar to that of Aragami.

Aragami game review