Aragami: Shadow Edition Review (Switch)

Now owners of the Switch console can enjoy playing as Aragami, a mystical assassin that can teleport between the shadows and fight their way through the various chapters of a captivating story.

The premise

For those who haven't played the game yet, the story takes place in feudal Japan, and you take on the role of a shadow spirit known as Aragami. Aragami was summoned by Yamiko to free her and the country from the army of the light known as "Kaiho," and he must do this by hiding in the shadows, gathering talismans and facing powerful foes. I can't tell you any more of the story because everything beyond this point should be flagged as one big spoiler, but those of you who are new to the game should be prepared for some M. Night Shyamalan-level plot twists. Once you're done with the main story, you might want to try the Nightfall campaign included in the Shadow Edition of the game, which explores the events that lead to the summoning of Aragami.

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The path you take

Aragami is a stealth game that takes the idea of "stealth" to a whole new level. While you can kill most common foes with just one hit, they can do the same to you, so don't try to go through this game all guns blazing (or in this case, all katana swinging) since you'll most likely die. More so, since you get evaluated at the end of each chapter and being detected severely reduces your score, the path of the patient shadow is the right way to go.

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If Aragami manages to test anything else other than your gaming skills, that would be your patience. Because each level involves getting from point A to point B, you will have to sometimes just sit and watch the guard's movement patterns. *Minor spoiler* Given the storyline, you'll understand why going through chapters without any kills is greatly rewarded.

Chopping heads and taking names

Of course, if you are impatient and out for blood, then you can forget the stealth and go all shinobi on your enemies, at your own risk of course. Silent kills, normal kills, traps, jump kills, projectile-based kills, these are all in a day's work for Aragami, and you'll enjoy every moment of it.

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One aspect that was a bit of a let-down in my honest opinion was that the guards' AI is a bit lacking. For example, while they do indeed go in alert mode if they find the corpse of a fallen comrade, they go back to normal after a brief period, even if the corpse is still lying right there next to them.  More so, the guards seem to have a problem with seeing you whenever you are on top of a piece of furniture because while they do get suspicious of your presence from afar, they lose all interest once they are literally at your feet. As mentioned above, all levels, aside from the few where you face bosses, involve getting across a guard-infested map as stealthy as possible, which is something that makes the game feel a bit repetitive from the 4th Chapter and onwards.

The way it looks

As someone who's played the game on the PC when it was first released, I must say that the graphics of the game are dialed down for the Switch version since it is obvious that the console couldn't handle the original graphics the way they were. For example, the particle effects have been drastically reduced or removed altogether (the first thing that I noticed was the lack of particles around Aragami's cape.) More so, the environmental shadows were also reduced, which is kind of sad considering this is one of the few games where you'd want the "Shadows" settings to be on "Max" by default. This leads to situations where you quickly need to teleport from one shadowy place to another, but can't tell if your destination is actually shaded or if it just has a darker texture. The models are also a bit more blocky (the poly-count on the models seems greatly reduced) which makes them look more like dummies nodding and moving their limbs than actual people.

The way it handles itself

There are many moments within the game where you find yourself in dire need to make a quick teleport in less than 3 seconds. The problem is that if you aren't used to the joysticks of a controller, you might end up dying a lot of times just because you couldn't aim your cursor in time. Aside from this minor inconvenience, the game handles itself wonderfully.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion