Everything's better with friends, apart from when you're all paying separately at a restaurant.įor the most part, though, the opening hours of Aragami 2 feel like they could do with a good stretch, loosening up its slightly stiff stealth muscles and just generally letting the player have a bit more fun with its supernatural protagonist. Sure, they're not the most revolutionary ideas on the ninja curriculum, but I'm hopeful that there are tricksier delights lying in wait further in. The same goes for an even later mission where I'd outright fail if I was detected. I was forced to carry her on my shoulders as I skulked through narrow corridors and hid in bushes, which offered an interesting challenge compared to the jobs that came before it. In the latter stages of my preview build, I was pleased when my list of jobs finally started to deviate from the trad 'Eliminate 4 targets' or 'Check these 4 boxes' type affairs, and one of my favourite jobs ended up being finding and rescuing a damsel in distress. If it's deviously spiking cups of sake you're after, then you'll be better off flexing your stealth brain in something like IO Interactive's trilogy of Hitman games.Įqually, Aragami 2 could just be a bit of a slow burner. Taking a leaf from Monster Hunter: World's playbook, the game's early missions will see you revisiting some of the same areas multiple times over the first few hours, which, while very pretty in their presentation, don't allow for a lot of creative or interesting ways to stick it to your enemies. This may be a consequence of Aragami 2's new job structure, which sees you constantly darting back and forth from its village hub world. Once this guard gets close enough, you can do the classic slice-then-pull-to-the-side ninja technique. However, these bursts of joy weren't quite as frequent as I'd like, and were often followed by long stretches that bordered on feeling repetitive - a pitfall the first Aragami game often fell into as well. The game's at its best when you're slinging abilities, jumping off ledges and executing enemies in a carefully orchestrated attack. These duels aren't easy by any means, and I found them a hair-raising contrast to all that measured slinking you'll be doing.Ĭombine this with Aragami 2's fluid movement and it makes for some genuinely brilliant stealth moments punctuated by thrilling combat duels. One or two hits is all it takes for you to hit the dirt, so patience is crucial to success.

The aim here is to whittle down your opponent's stamina bar with well-timed blocks and slashes. Unlike the first Aragami where you had no option but to flee if you were spotted, Aragami 2 lets you face off against those you've alerted in a tense clash of steel. Inevitably, there will be times when you'll fumble a ninja move that looked impressive in your head, but actually turned out to be as subtle as three speakers in a shinobi cloak. After upgrading this skill further, it turned the steam into a concussive cloud, knocking out those in its radius instantly. Plus, I could use them as cover to cross gaps unseen. If I clicked my fingers, they'd produce these pools of steam which would blind and disorient enemies. My favourite one let me take advantage of blue lamps scattered around certain missions. Some of these abilities are really fun to use. While welcome, I'd hoped that they'd also help bolster my sneaking with tangible benefits other than making me look nice. In my early preview build, I unlocked a fella who sold me dyes to change the colour of my armour. As you progress in Aragami 2, new vendors will set up shop in Kakurega Village. It's not long before you're spending skill points on abilities that will really help you bamboozle your enemies. The self-contained missions keep the momentum ticking over, and the upgrades pour in at a satisfying rate.

I like its simplicity, as I could dive straight into the action without faffing around. Once you've got your ninja look on point, Aragami 2 falls into a familiar pattern: take on a job, step through a portal, do some assassinating, return to the portal from whence you came, and trade in your spoils for upgrades back in the village. For a hefty sum, you can also buy new swords and armour pieces from them too, although as far as I can tell, these are purely cosmetic and have no discernible benefits other than looking very, very cool. You'll also become very familiar with the local blacksmith here, who'll sell you useful items like lethal shurikens and needles that'll put enemies to sleep. The jobs come thick and fast in Aragami 2, and you'll take them on from your village that serves as the game's main hub.

Aragami 2 join room timed out