"Aragami" This Game is Rated What?


     Look, I mean no disrespect to the developers of Aragami, but how did this game get a rating of 9/10 on Steam? Like I'm being serious, the game is fun, I love stealth gameplay, but it does not deserve the high rating it got. With the cel shading art style, and the fun concept, this game seems like it'd be a joy to play through, but I'm sorry to report that this game will leave you sorely disappointed. I really tried to love this game, I did, but just the overall product is like finding four hairs in a meal. Like one hair? That's gross, I'll let it slide depending on how much I enjoy the food but four hairs? Well, did anyone even take a look at what you were giving me?

    I'll be honest, I don't remember buying this game, I think it came along during one of my spending sprees when I was younger. Where the idea of buying 10 mystery Steam keys, or numerous bundles on sites like Fanatical or Green Man Gaming was a novel idea to me and more than just spending absurd amounts of money, so it's not like I spent 50 dollars to buy this game on release, but despite that I still somehow felt cheated?

    To preface, I'll say I played this game using keyboard and mouse, and frankly I don't know how anyone with an ounce of impatience was able to play it using a controller. At first you'd think it's a great idea, the games cute, it doesn't look too sweaty, and you'd be able to kick back and relax, but you'll quickly realize with how finnicky the shadow jumping system is, you'll be sorely missing out on keyboard and mouses much more precise and fine controls.

    I mean there are multiple times, even in final levels, where there's a shadowed area you think you'd be able to jump to, but for some reason you'd have to just move your mouse around that general area and hoped the game actually detected it. Not to mention, the game has some hilariously bad game breaking bugs. There were multiple times where I had died, and then the game would teleport me back to a checkpoint where I had to restart the entire level, because the game had glitched out. Breaking orbs is fine, but the fact that if you die while too much is happening on the screen, you get stuck in a level is ridiculous. 
    
    Did anyone even play this game once? It takes about maybe 6 to 10 hours to complete, with a mere 13ish levels to do not counting the DLC, yet there were multiple times where I played the game wondering if it had ever been tested at all. By far, the worst part was in the final level climactic fight is cut short by dialogue that goes all over the place, hardly matching frankly anything as you randomly hear gibberish, and you can beat the boss in a record 15 seconds. 

    The first "boss fight" of the game was easy enough, considering the fact that he moves like a snail in the smallest area possible, but the boss fight was just shameful. Don't get me wrong, the story was fine, but to hype up the shadow empress as this big bad, only for me to kill her by leaping and just pressing space when it showed up on my screen, despite barely actually seeing her do anything in game, was ridiculous. 

    Speaking of gameplay, it becomes painfully easy once you unlock three abilities, the raven that marks enemies, the bell that attracts enemies, and the ability to hide bodies. While I thought some of the abilities, like the shadow monster, or the cool ward ability were fun, ultimately 90% of the other abilities are absolutely useless and pale in comparison. Moreover,  it's not like the game gets much more difficult in the endgame anyways, so you just end up using the same strategies over and over again, as the amount of enemies is the only thing that increases.

Final Score: 55/100

    Ultimately, this game is pretty mediocre, I wanted to rate it higher, but even 9 years later, it still feels like it was a buggy game released at launch. I don't even know if I want to attempt the second game, knowing that it came out last year, because I'm just afraid it'll be the same over again. From gameplay that stays relatively the same, to useless abilities, to boss fights that are bafflingly easier than the normal levels, I really do question who tried this game out? I mean the cel shading is cool, but if you lift that veil all you'll find under the hood is a half baked game with a cool concept.

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