It's a sad day for fans of the Aragami series. Developer Lince Works, which was founded back in 2014, has revealed on Twitter that it will be closing its doors today. Citing "economic context" as an issue, it seems that the studio was underway on a new project that will unfortunately never see the light of day. You can read the full message below.

Thank you for this journey. A message from Lince Works. pic.twitter.com/hr72RIur2o

— Lince Works (@LinceWorks) March 7, 2023

Expressing gratitude for both its dev team and the community that has supported it, Lince Works signs off this letter by saying the journey has been an unforgettable one. The studio also vows to help those affected by this news land on their feet and continue their careers in gaming.

While known only for the Aragami series, Lince Works showed tremendous talent in adapting unique art styles to interesting gameplay concepts. You would never mistake these games for big-budget fare, but there was a certain charm to skulking in the shadows and taking out foes that has been missing from gaming for a long time. We also don't know what title was in the works from the studio, which could have shifted genres entirely.

If you'd still like to play either Aragami game, both will remain available for purchase on their respective storefronts. Online co-op will remain accessible for the foreseeable future and is a solid way to experience the thrills that Aragami  and Aragami 2 offer. The series is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch with cross-platform multiplayer support.

I came away from my preview of Aragami 2 feeling quite excited about it. The core idea is that you play as a shadowy ninja tasked with saving their village from evil. You're not just shadowy in name either; you're a supernatural assassin with the ability to teleport around, blend into shadows, and eventually do things like make enemies explode into mist. Or literally, just turn invisible. 

The ability to fight your way through enemies if you failed to be sneaky enough makes for more exciting gameplay than just outright failing, and Aragami 2 starts to almost feel like an immersive sim in all of the ways you can do "things." That's not to mention the abilities you can unlock the further you get.

Basically, I felt as though there was a lot of potential in Aragami 2, and that was all before I even had the chance to try out co-op, which is often where games like this shine. After playing through the final build for this review, though, I'm not quite as excited, and I find myself mostly conflicted about the game. 

Aragami 2 Review: Not Quite the Master Assassin

The story of Aragami 2 goes beyond simply saving your village; as you'll have to uncover the plots of the evildoers who are targeting you are brewing. But the elder talks your ears off in-between each mission, providing exposition and context about the next mission while (maybe) revealing other bits and bobs about the world.

I don't loathe this as a story-telling device, but you'll occasionally have to chat to multiple people, or even the same person multiple times, in these sections. Yet that same person will teleport away to a different part of the village after the first conversation, leading to a lot of time spent not stabbing people in a game where stabbing people is the fun bit. 

The missions themselves aren't all that varied either. Realistically, you either end up with missions that have you going somewhere and interacting with something, missions where you have to kill someone (or someones) somewhere, and missions where you have to rescue someone ... somewhere.

There's not a huge amount of variety in Aragami 2's quest structure, and if I wasn't playing through so much of the game with a friend during review, I'd likely have become very bored with it all. 

Teamwork Makes the Dream ... ERROR

Thankfully, I managed to find someone else who was playing Aragami 2 ahead of its release, and we made a point of trying the co-op as much as possible. This is the kind of game that screams co-op, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that assessment.

But while co-op is certainly fun, it doesn't always work. Hosts are unlikely to be afflicted by anything more irksome than the odd floating body. However, for those joining someone else's game, there are plenty of issues to contend with.

Combat is basically impossible because animations don't work as intended. While you're meant to attack and parry your opponent until their health or stamina is depleted, the latter making them vulnerable to an instakill or knockout attack, the online peculiarities mess with that.

For example, you may have to parry attacks facing away from you or resign yourself to getting hit by enemies who don't even seem to be attacking. It means stealth is the only option, and while that can still be fun, it kind of defeats the point of learning to fight in the first place. 

Aragami 2 Review — The Bottom Line

Pros

• Fun gameplay and abilities
• Co-op is fun despite being a bit broken

Cons

• Very buggy when playing online
• Repetitive story missions
• Frustrating moments in the downtime 

Despite those issues, Aragami 2 is still a fun game, but only when you view it as a playground, rather than taking it all that seriously. Speedrunning is good fun, and trying to kill every single enemy without failing just before the end can be a blast.

I want to recommend Aragami 2 to anybody looking for a new co-op game, but the caveat is that they don't mind putting up with jank (at least right out of the gate). As a single-player experience, or just to those who get annoyed by goofy glitches, this probably isn't worth the stress. 

[Note: Lince Works provided the copy of Aragami 2 used for this review.] 

I never played the original Aragami. I liked the look of it and the idea of its gameplay loop, but I loathe fail-state stealth games. The moment you're spotted things go horribly awry and you can't fight back?. No thanks.

It's never made sense to me that an undead ninja would be unable to fight back in a pinch, so I'm incredibly glad that Aragami 2, on top of all the usual stealth shenanigans you'd expect, adds in some proper combat options, too.

After a few hours with a preview build of the game, things are looking good for this stealth sequel. 

Sneaky, Sneaky, Sir

You can now parry, block, dodge, and just button-mash your way through some of the fights. It's not an ideal thing to do, though, because while Aragami does allow for a bit more flexibility in viable playstyles, you're definitely better off using the ridiculous array of unlockable stealth skills.

Along with being able to crouch, hang off of ledges, and double jump, you also have access to a few supernatural abilities, including the ability to teleport to a ledge if you're within a certain range and even the ability to go into shadow vision to see everything around you that's a threat.

These are just the abilities you start off with; it turns out that there are a lot of other abilities you can unlock as you play that all feel a lot like new toys, but where your toys let you kill people or knock them out.

All of this gameplay takes place across missions that you take from your village, all with the aim of keeping the Rashomon Valley safe. Missions vary between attacking specific places or people, finding different items, rescuing people, and just generally exploring areas. While you're essentially running between objective markers, and it's all fairly good fun, it's not without its flaws.

Incredibly Cool Backflip, Followed by Two Minutes of Being Lost

While most of the levels are designed in a way that allows you to move fluidly from one cool stealth move to another, and that feels great every single time, there are a fair few moments where you just kind of wander around a bit aimlessly. They don't ruin the game (at least so far; this is a preview after all), they do make things a bit lackluster and crop up more than I'd like. 

On the plus side (though this isn't something I've had a chance to check out just yet), there is actually co-op in Aragami 2. While I did start to suspect some of the missions could creep into being repetitive when playing solo, I imagine that's completely offset by running around as a group of three trying to maintain stealth while undoubtedly getting in each other's way.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Keeping an Eye on a Stealth Game Feels Heretical

Aragami 2 is definitely a game I'm going to be keeping an eye on. Its mix of stealth and action really helps it break away from what I was worried about in the original, and the style is just cartoony enough to justify the absurd shadow powers you'll be learning as you hack, slash, and sneak your way through the stunning scenery.

There's a lot of promise here, and while I'd definitely be less inclined to keep up with things if it was exclusively solo, co-op always enhances a game, so I'll be checking back in with the final product when it launches September 17 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and XSX|S.