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Aragami | Review Thread | A Ninja is Marked

B

BraXzy

Member
header.jpg


Steam | PSN - Out NOW!
$19.99 / £14.99 / €14.99
Trailer

I have been excited for this since seeing early footage back in 2014. Reviews are sneaking in now, I figured a review thread was in order. General consensus seems to be that it is fun, replayable and stylish but marred by rough performance and controls.

Destuctoid - 7/10

Although the occasional technical issue and odd mechanic put a damper on things, Aragami has its heart in the right place. It's strict adherence to stealth with no ifs, ands, or buts will turn some people off, but it'll speak to a lot of old-school fans who are sick of experiences that allow you to blast your way out of everything.
Click to expand...

GameSpew - 8/10

With its elegant design, solid gameplay and a narrative that keeps you engaged, Aragami is a wonderful return – and tribute – to the old formula of classic stealth. There are some niggles here and there that can be rather irritating, but it’s not enough to put a black mark on this otherwise great game.
Click to expand...

Push Square - 7/10

The patient, cunning mindset Aragami puts you in with its strictly stealth gameplay is something we long for with more titles. With simple yet smart level design and mechanics, it proves to be a focused title with heart and soul that has learned much from its old masters. But the game does lack polish in its performance and appearance, and the AI can be irritating at times. Fortunately, the release's story, visuals, and sound design ultimately help lift it out of the darkness.
Click to expand...

The Sixth Axis - 6/10

Everything about the game shows a love for the stealth genre and the games that made the genre so great. Unfortunately, it isn’t until you get up close and start to play the game that you also see all the cracks. Aragami has a lot going for it, but it also has a lot going against it, and those issues keep a good game from being a great game.
Click to expand...

ACG (YouTube Review) - Wait

IGN NL - 7/10

God is a Geek - 9/10

WCCFtech - 8.5

Start Replay - 8/10

PlayStation LifeStyle - 7.5/10

Will be updating the thread as more come in.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
I really should play Mark of the Ninja already, but I wanna clear my dumbass PC backlog :V
Will start this once I'm done with Silver Case and Mad Max.
 
NeoRaider

NeoRaider

Member
I saw few gameplay videos and game looked unpolished and boring. I will wait for sale or game to be included in HB maybe.
 
S

sym30l1c

Member
I've been playing for a couple of days (got the signature edition on Saturday) and I'm 2/3 into the game.

It's certainly a good game, with good mechanics and big levels. The game rewards you for killing every enemy in one level, or not killing anybody, and for remaining undetected. That certainly favours replayability since you can replay any level after completing them. You unlock more abilities as you progress through the game by finding scrolls hidden in the levels. One complaint I have though is that there is no way to incapacitate your enemies (unless I've missed something): you either kill them or you just try to stay undetected.

The big problem with the game though is the framerate and screen tearing on PS4. You can enable v-sync and screen tearing is not an issue anymore, but the framerate is very inconsistent and quite bad and annoying at times. I hope they can optimise it better, but considering it's a game built in Unity, I'm afraid it won't get much better than this.

Still, it's a good game so far. Hopefully I'll have the same opinion at the end.
 
F

FelipeMGM

Member
Still finishing my review but yeah, performance on PS4 is not the best. Game had two patches on the meantime but still not on point. Playing chapter 6 with 1.01 was really rough since is a huge level and performance issues were clear. (didnt come back yet with 1.02 installed tho)

AI is mostly ok, but on one of the boss battles it deeply bothered me. The boss AI is pretending to not knowing where you are basically, bc it follows you anyway even tho no one spotted you through the level. It gets it to a point in if you are separated from the boss trough a wall and keep moving left and right, the boss will do the same. Chep stuff to make it more difficult I guess.

But overall the game is good, the powers are mad fun to use when you can combine them and like go trough 5 enemies really fast. If you get really good at it it gets an amazing balance of patience and execution. Just the beggining is slow because you dont have many abilities.

Story was ok,
but the twists very predictable
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
FelipeMGM said:
But overall the game is good, the powers are mad fun to use when you can combine them and like go trough 5 enemies really fast. If you get really good at it it gets a near perfect balance of patience and execution. Just the beggining is slow because you dont have many abilities.
Click to expand...

Do you know if there is a NG+?
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
FelipeMGM said:
You can replay any chapter with all the abilities you got, so not a NG+ exactly but kinda

Game incourages you to replay to get medals like play trough the whole chapter without beeing spotted or killing everyone in a chapter
Click to expand...

Ah, cool. Thanks for answering.
 
V

Vuze

Member
Also had the chance to play it for a bit earlier today and performance on PC is fine.
Silly Unity Engine had some trouble with Gsync (capped at 23fps, had to change to fixed refresh rate and then change back to Gsync for it to work) but now it's running fine at about 110-120fps at 1440p (4790k / 1080).

Really enjoying the gameplay so far and I also like the artstyle.
I actually was inclined to replay the level instantly to clear it 100% which is kinda rare for me (no kills / no alarms / all killed are the three medals) but decided to do that later on.

Karak said:
My Review for ACG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzFVKN9FCuE
Rated it a Wait for Sale.

Its not bad but performance and technical issues hold it back right now.
Click to expand...
Oh. Guess the performance issues will show up later down the line eh? Will keep an eye out
 
S

sym30l1c

Member
Screaming Meat said:
How bad are the performance issues? Are they something that a patch can fix (PS4) or are they more fundamental?
Click to expand...

Game is still playable, but performance can be quite annoying at times. This is more of a question for the developers to answer, but I guess with further optimisation the game can run better. Or at least it should, because in all honesty I don't see how this game cannot run at stable 30fps (at least!) on a PS4.
 
A

atomic moth

Member
I know there are links to buy it in the OP, but you might want to mention its MSRP of $20. I think the price is just as important as any other major feature of the game.
 
X

xDavidLeon

Member
sym30l1c said:
Game is still playable, but performance can be quite annoying at times. This is more of a question for the developers to answer, but I guess with further optimisation the game can run better. Or at least it should, because in all honesty I don't see how this game cannot run at stable 30fps (at least!) on a PS4.
Click to expand...

Game runs mostly at 30fps, but I've noticed some levels (mostly chapter 4, 5 and 11) where it averages 20-25fps. There's a patch on Thursday focusing on a quick fix for a chapter 5 bug, but I'll be working on general performance improvements thorough the week.
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
sym30l1c said:
Game is still playable, but performance can be quite annoying at times. This is more of a question for the developers to answer, but I guess with further optimisation the game can run better. Or at least it should, because in all honesty I don't see how this game cannot run at stable 30fps (at least!) on a PS4.
Click to expand...

Thanks, sym. If its not obnoxiously bad, I think I can live with it till a dev fixe---

xDavidLeon said:
Game runs mostly at 30fps, but I've noticed some levels (mostly chapter 4, 5 and 11) where it averages 20-25fps. There's a patch on Thursday focusing on a quick fix for a chapter 5 bug, but I'll be working on general performance improvements thorough the week.
Click to expand...

Well, there we have it. Cheers, David. Congrats on the launch. Looking forward to dipping in!
 
S

sym30l1c

Member
xDavidLeon said:
Game runs mostly at 30fps, but I've noticed some levels (mostly chapter 4, 5 and 11) where it averages 20-25fps. There's a patch on Thursday focusing on a quick fix for a chapter 5 bug, but I'll be working on general performance improvements thorough the week.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification!

I'm really liking the game, and seeing other people's reaction it looks like I'm not alone in thinking it's a good game. Congratulations on the launch!
 
F

FelipeMGM

Member
sym30l1c said:
Thanks for the clarification!

I'm really liking the game, and seeing other people's reaction it looks like I'm not alone in thinking it's a good game. Congratulations on the launch!
Click to expand...

Game is indeed really good, the gameplay is very satisfing most of the time and the animations of Aragami and its abilities are great. Very impressive for a first game for sure

I do hope Leon and the guys at Lince can keep working together for some sort of sequel where they can improve in some areas. They nailed a bunch of stealth mechanics and I would love see them develop even further on the genre.
 
S

sym30l1c

Member
Screaming Meat said:
Thanks, sym. If its not obnoxiously bad, I think I can live with it till a dev fixe---
Click to expand...

Oh no, performance is nowhere near obnoxiously bad!
To be fair it's mostly fine, but the framerate gets inconsistent and fluctuates in some of the big levels. So, while it can be annoying, the game is still very playable and I would certainly recommend it.
 
S

sym30l1c

Member
FelipeMGM said:
Game is indeed really good, the gameplay is very satisfing most of the time and the animations of Aragami and its abilities are great. Very impressive for a first game for sure

I do hope Leon and the guys at Lince can keep working together for some sort of sequel where they can improve in some areas. They nailed a bunch of stealth mechanics and I would love see them develop even further on the genre.
Click to expand...

I agree, gameplay is really impressive and very fluid. Warping undetected and getting rid of the enemies is a lot of fun and it gets better when you start unlocking more abilities.
 
S

Shikoba

Member
Whoa! Is this Tenchu inspired? First time I've heard of this and I use to play the crap out of Tenchu growing up. Color me interested!!
 
B

Briarios

Member
atomic moth said:
I know there are links to buy it in the OP, but you might want to mention it's MSRP of $20. I think the price is just as important as any other major feature of the game.
Click to expand...

That's actually true - there are things I'll overlook at $20 that I wouldn't at $40. May pick this up today.
 
Moff

Moff

Member
Shikoba said:
Whoa! Is this Tenchu inspired? First time I've heard of this and I use to play the crap out of Tenchu growing up. Color me interested!!
Click to expand...

it really isn't, it's a stealth game with ninjas but that's about it
it plays a lot differently, it has very unique gameplay

actually I am not even sure there's ninjas
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
sym30l1c said:
Oh no, performance is nowhere near obnoxiously bad!
To be fair it's mostly fine, but the framerate gets inconsistent and fluctuates in some of the big levels. So, while it can be annoying, the game is still very playable and I would certainly recommend it.
Click to expand...

Awesome. I'll definitely dip in on pay day. Stealth is my bag!
 
Karak

Karak

Member
BraXzy said:
Somehow missed it, added to the OP :)
Click to expand...

Can you add mine for ACG that I added a couple hours ago? Or are we not doing youtubers. It always seems up in the air.

If we are doing youtubers "A good game held down by technical problems every time it tries to excel." Can be my quote.
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Gold Member
Thanks for reminding me, OP. Was out and about today so forgot to buy it. Will do it first thing in the morning. Going to be stuck indoors anyway for half the day, can't wait
 
P

Pif

Banned
Gonna pic it up for sure.

But I'm gonna wait for a price reduction of the physical release.
 
B

BraXzy

Member
illusionary said:
Cheers for putting this together - I'm very pleased with my Signature Edition for now!

Minor nitpick - the UK digital pricing is £14.99 on Steam (10% launch discount to £13.49) and £15.99 on the PSN.
Click to expand...

Yeah I copy pasted the prices, definitely wrong, I've updated to £14.99.

Karak said:
Can you add mine for ACG that I added a couple hours ago? Or are we not doing youtubers. It always seems up in the air.

If we are doing youtubers "A good game held down by technical problems every time it tries to excel." Can be my quote.
Click to expand...

I don't believe it matters if the review is written or not, unless someone says otherwise I'll add you in!

Love your reviews btw, recently found your channel :D
 
E

epmode

Member
Vuze said:
Also had the chance to play it for a bit earlier today and performance on PC is fine.
Silly Unity Engine had some trouble with Gsync (capped at 23fps, had to change to fixed refresh rate and then change back to Gsync for it to work) but now it's running fine at about 110-120fps at 1440p (4790k / 1080).
Click to expand...

This happens to me somewhat often with Unity games, and it only happens on first launch after installation. I just saw it a few days ago after reinstalling Furi. 24 FPS until I rebooted. Really weird.
 
B

B-B-Bomba!

Member
Congratulations on the launch, and positive reception! Looking forward to playing this.

sym30l1c said:
One complaint I have though is that there is no way to incapacitate your enemies (unless I've missed something): you either kill them or you just try to stay undetected.
Click to expand...
A certain purity in that, no? I appreciate having a 'moral high ground' button in RPGs, but this is a ninja game ... Ninja don't have time to fuck about putting people's pj's on and reading them a bedtime story :D
 
A

atomic moth

Member
This will be a good, cheapish stocking stuffer for some old friends with whom I used to pass the controller around while playing Tenchu and splinter cell.
 
S

spineduke

Unconfirmed Member
As a fan of pure stealth, how does this compare to other games like Styx and the Thief classics? I'm super wary of publications complaining about difficulty given their history with reviewing such games.

TechRaptor review 6/10

... but they have "Challenging Later Levels" listed as a con. Yeesh.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
B-B-Bomba! said:
Congratulations on the launch, and positive reception! Looking forward to playing this.


A certain purity in that, no? I appreciate having a 'moral high ground' button in RPGs, but this is a ninja game ... Ninja don't have time to fuck about putting people's pj's on and reading them a bedtime story :D
Click to expand...

There's also a story impetus for Aragami not being a... 'Soft touch' sort of ninja.

spindoc said:
As a fan of pure stealth, how does this compare to other games like Styx and the Thief classics? I'm super wary of publications complaining about difficulty given their history with reviewing such games.

TechRaptor review 6/10

... but they have "Challenging Later Levels" listed as a con. Yeesh.
Click to expand...

The levels just get better and better, especially after the halfway point. How strange.
 
D

Draginite

Neo Member
Thanks for sharing my review! I'm the Sixth Axis writer.

I might dip back into this game sometime, because as soon as I finished my review, they put out a patch that was supposed to fix/improve a lot of the issues I had with the game in the first place, haha.
 
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