The two-player co-op feature worked very well in Aragami: players loved beating the campaign alongside a friend and planning different strategies to complete the missions. Let’s start by looking back at the previous game we released – Aragami. Instead, we favored parries, since they are more dynamic and technical in their application.īut how does this work with a three-player co-op system? At the same time, we discouraged blocking, since we want to keep action fast-paced and convey that our character uses his agility and reflexes over strength. Compound this with the player's ability to create shadows at will (meaning that they can appear beside a foe at a moment's notice), and you're left with a combat mechanic offering the player little more than a rudimentary challenge.We based the combat on fast character movement, explosive dodges, and lightning-fast combo attacks. Were the player faced with a more complex situation, such as a front-facing attack creating a large deal of sound or allowing for a higher potential of counterattack, the subsequent decision would've felt much tougher and, thus, more enjoyable.
While the takedown is a much more difficult task to perform on a guard in active combat, it means that savvy users must do little more than simply be within a few feet of an unaware, or even semi-aware, victim to silently remove them from existence. However, the problem lies in its ability to be enacted on a foe from almost any angle or level of awareness.
On its own, this is a non-issue and, in fact, should've assisted in enforcing the notion of vulnerability. In its place is a single, context-sensitive button that sends the aragami into a canned (and initially enjoyable) takedown animation. Melee combat is absent in the traditional sense. Despite a bit of frustration stemming from the need for precision (especially in regards to ledges and the shadows of very small objects), the actual act of leaping from shadow to shadow feels quite sharp and opens stages up in unexpected ways. It's a fun augmentation, but rather than subvert any traditional approaches to the stealth genre, it mostly serves to reinforce existing notions. Most of this is to be expected of a standard stealth experience, but developer Lince Works then twists the formula slightly by enforcing an intense reliance on darkness not only must the aragami stick to the shadows to avoid discovery, he can also use them to teleport throughout the level and charge various abilities. To aid the player in this task, the titular aragami can employ a number of obtainable powers to blind, distract, or consume his foes. For large swaths of the campaign, objectives alternate between reaching the far end of a stage and destroying an object somewhere within it, slaying or slipping past wandering guards all the while. It is on this logical side of the margin that Aragami stakes its claim, and while the game itself is solid and, in some ways, intensely clever, it seems to be afraid of itself afraid of delving too deeply into certain mechanics, and of allowing the player anything more than a glimpse at some much-needed chaos.Īragami's core gameplay isn't terribly different from its predecessors. Stray too far on the side of chaos, and the game feels impenetrable, with the player left betrayed by their gained knowledge. Stray too far on the side of logic, and the game becomes rote, a simple exercise in pattern recognition.
In their purest form, stealth games make the player feel both all-powerful and crushingly vulnerable.Ĭreating a stealth game, then, is an act of balancing both sides of the equation. They let the player feel both control over a situation and a degree of wariness, of uncertainty. They feel alive, and yet decipherable in ways real life can't be. When at their best, stealth games feel like a mixture of logical puzzle-solving and pure, chaotic improvisation.