Aragami 2 Review

Like most people who were born in the 1980s, I have always been a big fan of ninjas. Running along rooftops and throwing shuriken at people just never looks uncool. There have been a number of third-person games where you play as a ninja over the years, including the original Aragami, which cast you as an undead assassin with shadow powers.

- Andrew Duncan

Publisher: Lince Works

Developer: Lince Works

Genre: Action Release Date: Out Now

Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series

Well, Lince Works are back with Aragami 2, a sequel to the well-regarded first game, with a bit more shadow ninja action. Or, rather, twice as much, because it’s at least twice as long. The formula is also drastically changed, which I welcomed wholeheartedly.

When you start the game, your character awakens with low health in a pile of corpses, a spirit being who can hide in the shadows. By the end of the tutorial section, you’re introduced to a village full of spirit beings like yourself. By the end of the game you’ve discovered how you all came to be, and what’s been causing the gradual madness that has infected so many of your kind…

Admittedly, while I enjoyed the first game, I don’t remember that much about it as I played it around release in 2016. So while Aragami 2 is connected to the original, it wasn’t explicit enough for me to notice - so don’t feel like you have to play it first to understand things.

The biggest change in Aragami 2 is how mobile your character is. No longer stuck to sneaking in the shadows, now you have a full range of ninja mobility options. Sneak in tall grass, become invisible in shadows, teleport a short distance to grab ledges… Each level is built to allow multiple different routes through it - do you go through the main gate, or through the broken drain? Climb along the walls or use the mesa to reach a rooftop?