History VideoGame / Aragami

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:Yamiko the Shadow Empress. It took the sacrifice of Ryo to seal her in the first place.]]

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Yamiko the Shadow Empress is considered to be a goddess due to her immense power. During her fight she calls out Aragami for challenging her as she brought him back to life, stating that she is his goddess now.]]

* LonelyRichKid:[[spoiler: Yamiko became the Shadow Empress at a young age, but she did not seem to be happy. Every time Hyo, her father figure, asked her if she was happy about being their Empress, she would only reply that she was fine. Hyo noted that Yamiko had been like this ever since the death of her friends.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Yamiko saw her parents killed in front of her, lived in a forest alone for years, and, when she attempted to avenge her parents, witnessed the death of her friends at the hands of those who killed her parents. [[spoiler: This led her to lose it and become consumed by anger and hate to the point of going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and leveling the whole city, killing everyone in it.]]
* DarkIsNotEvil: Aragami, Yamiko, and the Shadow Empress (Yamiko in other words) are all powerful users of Shadow essence. This applies to Dakudaga, the organization Yamiko was a part of, and the entire country of Nisshoku as well. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to be more a case of [[GrayAndGrayMorality Dark Is Not That Much More Evil Than Light]].]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: Aragami, Yamiko, and the Shadow Empress (Yamiko in other words) are all powerful users of Shadow essence. This applies to Dakudaga, the organization Yamiko was a part of, and the entire country of Nisshoku as well. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to be more a case of [[NotSoDifferent Dark Is Not That Much More Evil Than Light]].]]

--->'''Aragami:''' [[NotSoDifferent Just like what you have done here.]]

* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler:Aragami says this about him and Yamiko. Both of them were motivated by revenge for the deaths of their respective parents, which started them on their paths in life. He wonders if he could have ended up twisted like her if he didn't have his friends by his side at the start. Before Aragami moves to kill Yamiko, he wishes that there was another way to end all of the fighting, and in her last moment Yamiko herself admits that she also wishes the same thing. After their deaths, both Aragami and Yamiko leave something behind, Yamiko leaving her doll next to Aragami's sword from his days as Ryo.]]

* TheDulcineaEffect: Aragami agrees to spend [[YourDaysAreNumbered his entire lifespan]] jailbreaking Yamiko minutes after meeting her. {{Justified}} because aragami are spirits of vengeance bound to serve their summoners. [[spoiler:Except it turns out Yamiko actually [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] this trope deliberately instead. When Aragami turns on her, he does so without any trouble, meaning everything he did for her was voluntary.]]

The sequel, ''VideoGame/Aragami2'' was announced in 2020, and is set to release on September 17, 2021 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesX, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

A Nintendo Switch version that includes the DLC came out on February 21, 2019.

The sequel, ''VideoGame/Aragami2'' was annouced in 2020.

* WomanInWhite: Yamiko, the one who invoked Aragami. [[spoiler:At least the image she projected to Aragami to convince him to help her. Once she's free, she appears in the Shadow Empress' black dress, albeit torn from her imprisonment.]]

* [[spoiler:AmnesiacDissonance]]: [[spoiler:Aragami was Kaiho's leader before his death.]]

* [[spoiler:HeroAntagonist]]: [[spoiler:Hikaru and Sora, leaders of the Kaiho.]]

* [[OneHitPointWonder One-Hit-Point Wonder]]: Aragami can be killed by a single hit of intensely bright light. Since even the weakest mooks you fight have weaponized light magic, this means any hit you take is your last.

* [[spoiler:VillainProtagonist]]: [[spoiler:Yamiko and Aragami for the majority of the game. Yamiko dupes Aragami into massacring his own men, pushing one of his friends to suicide, and killing the current Kaiho general, who it's heavily implied he was in a relationship with before his death.]]

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Aragami only last for the night they're invoked, dissipating when the sun rises.

Not to be confused with the 2003 movie ''Film/{{Aragami}}''.

* PhysicalGod: The Shadow Empress.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Aragami, Yamiko, and the Shadow Empress are all powerful users of Shadow essence. This applies to Dakudaga, the organization Yamiko was a part of, and the entire country of Nisshoku as well. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to be more a case of [[NotSoDifferent Dark Is Not That Much More Evil Than Light]].]]

* FlashbackEcho: Throughout the game, Aragami gets brief flashes of memories from both Yamiko and a Light adept, [[spoiler:Ryo, the first Kaiho general]].

* DarkIsNotEvil: Aragami, Yamiko, and the Shadow Empress are all powerful users of Shadow Essence. This applies to Dakudaga, the organization Yamiko was a part of, and the entire country of Nisshoku as well. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to be more a case of [[NotSoDifferent Dark Is Not That Much More Evil Than Light]].]]

* [[spoiler:HeroAntagonist]]: [[spoiler:Hikaru and Sora, Kaiho leaders.]]

* LightIsGood / LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler:Kaiho used their Light Essence powers to battle the Shadow Empress and Nisshoku.]] These same powers were used to ruthlessly kill Yamiko's parents.

* NonHumanSidekick: Kurosu[[spoiler:/Kibo]], a [[CleverCrows crow]] you free early on in the game that can scout the level and show how far away your objective is. You can upgrade him to show the locations of scrolls.

* FlashbackEcho: Throughout the game, Aragami gets brief flashes of memories from both Yamiko and a Light adept, [[spoiler:Ryo, the first general of the Kaiho]].

* GhostAmnesia: [[spoiler:Aragami is actually the soul of Ryo, the first general of the Kaiho, who died when sealing away Yamiko the Shadow Empress. Yamiko summoned him as an aragami to set her free, and he has no memory of his past life, at least initially.]]

* [[spoiler:HeroAntagonist]]: [[spoiler:Hikaru and Sora, leaders of the Kaiho.]]

* LightIsGood / LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler:The Kaiho used their Light Essence powers to battle the Shadow Empress and Nisshoku.]] These same powers were used to ruthlessly kill Yamiko's parents.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Aragami, who pulls a HeelFaceTurn in the final level after discovering a truth. He's still an aragami, however, and dies when the sun rises.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: After Yamiko and her team were defeated when tryinh to avenge Yamiko's parents. Yamiko saw her friends die to those who killed her parents, which awakened her powers and caused her go berserk and kill everyone in the enemy city.]]

* ItsQuietTooQuiet: When Aragami enters the temple where the Shadow Empress is sealed, he asks Yamiko what he needs to do to free her. He never gets a reply.

* BattleInTheRain: Sora's boss fight happens during a thunderstorm, complete with occasional lightning flashes that count as bright light across the entire map. Subverted in that she doesn't actually ''fight'' you there.

* [[spoiler:AmnesiacDissonance]]

* AnimalMotifs: A few, mostly for Yamiko's old Nisshoku team, lampshaded in Hyo's notes: Yamiko being the Fox, Ryuta being the Dragon, and Orochi being the Snake.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Yamiko is defeated, the world is saved from destruction, and Ryo / Aragami is at peace, but the Light army has been torn to pieces by their former general's own hand, [[KillEmAll every named character except Tsuyoshi's bird is dead]], and the damage wreaked by Aragami is severe.]]

* CradlingYourKill: [[spoiler:When Aragami thrusts his sword into Sora, he sees flashes of his memories as Ryo, which leads to him cradling her as they talk.]]

* DamselInDistress: Yamiko and the Shadow Empress.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Yamiko saw her parent killed in front of her, lived in a forest alone for years, and, when she attempted to avenge her parents, witnessed the death of her friends at the hands of those who killed her parents. [[spoiler: This led her to lose it and become consumed by anger and hate to the point of going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and leveling the whole city, killing everyone in it.]]

* DarkReprise: Call of Yamiko plays in the first and last level. The mood the second time around is ''very'' different.

* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler:Aragami was Ryo, the first general of Kaiho. As an aragami, he is fighting the Kaiho. Captain Hikaru and General Sora were his friends.]]

* NonHumanSidekick: Kurosu, [[spoiler:whose real name is Kibo]], a [[CleverCrows crow]] you free early on in the game that can scout the level and show how far away your objective is. You can upgrade him to show the locations of scrolls.

* SwordBeam: If the enemy has a sword, they can fire sword beams. [[spoiler:Aragami is no exception.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Yamiko. By the end of it, Aragami states that he pities her and feels partially responsible for turning her into the vicious EvilSorcerer she is now.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: Aragami, Yamiko, and the Shadow Empress are all powerful users of Shadow Essence. This applies to Dakudaga, the organization Yamiko was a part of, and the entire country of Nisshoku as well. [[spoiler:Though it turns out to be more a case of DarkIsNotThatMuchMoreEvilThanLight.]]

* Foreshadowing: All over the place.

* KillEmAll: There is a seal you can earn in each chapter by killing every one of the hostile mooks.

* VisibleInvisibility: As long as he isn't directly in from of someone, Aragami is invisible to hostiles when he stays still in shadows. There is also a skill that lets Aragami be invisible outside of shadows for a limited amount of time.

* CycleOfRevenge: Essentially the entire backstory of the game. Light and Dark have been warring so long that ''both'' sides have committed atrocities in the name of revenge, and those atrocities inevitably gave rise to a new force bent on getting vengeance on ''them.''

* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler:Aragami was Ryo, the first general of the Kaiho. As an aragami, he is fighting the Kaiho. Captain Hikaru and General Sora were his friends.]]

** [[Nine-tailed foxes in mythology are known for tricking people with illusions, often by turning into beautiful women. Guess what the Shadow Empress, represented by nine-tailed fox statues, spends most of the game doing.]]
** [[You can hear guards talking about Captain Yuki's recent death in several levels. The timing isn't a coincidence. Yuki was one of the Kaiho officers who sealed the Shadow Empress away, and, like the other officers, he stole a piece of her soul during the sealing. That piece was released when he died, which is the reason Yamiko is able to project herself out of her seal and invoke Aragami.]]

* ParentalSubstitute: Hyo is this to Yamiko after he found her.

* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: [[spoiler: Before Yamiko was the Shadow Empress, she was just a young girl with a tragic past who had lost her parents and best friends to Light adepts. She became the Shadow Empress in order to prevent what happened to her from happening to others. However, by the time of the game, she uses and manipulates Ryo-as-Aragami into killing his own friends and men, mocking and laughing at Sora's dead body after she is released. In the end, despite her noble intentions, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters she becomes the same destructive evil force she believes the Light armies to be]].]]

In ancient Japan, there is a war between the armies of the Light and the Dark. This war has raged for centuries, and resulted in the utter defeat of the Dark, sealing them and their powerful magic away. After gaining enough power to project herself through the seal, a sorceress and aide to the Dark Empire summons an Aragami- a vengeful spirit that is meant to obey the wishes of the summoner to kill the summoner's enemies. The Light Empire has been oppressing the Dark for years, and it is up to the sorceress and the Aragami to free their Empress and take revenge on the Army of Light.

Gameplay is inspired by ''Videogame/{{Tenchu}}''. It is entirely stealth based, as Aragami cannot take a single hit without dying. However, he is armed with the ability to teleport to any shadow in range, create his own shadows and more. The game is also encouraged to be replayed multiple times due to it's open-ended level design and numerous unlockable powers. Aragami can also blend into the shadows to hide, and the game can be beaten lethally or non-lethally.

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Yamiko the Shadow Empress is considered to be a goddess due to her immense power. During her fight she calls out Aragami for challenging her as she brought him back to life stating that she is his goddess now.]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler: As Yamiko is revived, Aragami-revealed to be Ryo, one of the Kaiho generals, brought back by her- points out that the Nisshoku was completely destroyed, and she is alone.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Yamiko is defeated, the world is saved from destruction, and Ryo / Aragami is at peace, but the Light Army has been torn to pieces by their former generals own hand, [[KillEmAll every named character is dead]] and the damage wreaked by Aragami is severe.]]
* CastingAShadow: Aragami can use the powers of shadows. He can [[{{Teleportation}} teleport to shadows]], create shadows to teleport to, blinding hostiles temporarily, and [[DisposingOfABody get rid of corpses]].
** In the backstory, the Nisshoku. [[spoiler: With Yamiko as one of strongest Shadow Adepts in the world.]]
* CradlingYourKill: [[spoiler:When Aragami thrusts his sword into Sora, he sees flashes of his memories as Ryo which leads to him cradling her as they talk which lets Aragami remember he was Ryo.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Yamiko had a very dark and troubled past. Seeing her parent killed in front of her, lived in a forest alone for years and when she attempted to avenge her parents she witnessed the death of her friends at the hands of those who killed her parents [[spoiler: this lead her to lose it and become consumed by anger and hate to the point of going on a roaring rampage of revenge and levelling the whole city, killing everyone in it.]]

* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler:Aragami was Ryo the first general of the Kaiho. As an Aragami, he is fighting the Kaiho. Captain Hikaru and General Sora were his friends.]]
* FlashbackEcho: Throughout the game, Aragami gets brief flashes of memories from both Yamiko and a light adept, [[spoiler:Ryo the first general of the Kaiho]].

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The light and dark adepts both have legitimate reasons to hate each other, and both sides have oppressed the other's people. Aragami sums it up pretty well when confronting Hikaru:

* GhostAmnesia: [[spoiler:Aragami is actually the soul of Ryo the first general of the Kaiho who died when sealing away Yamiko the Shadow Empress. Yamiko summoned him as an Aragami to set her free and he has no memory of his past life at least initially.]]
* HeroAntagonist: [[spoiler:Hikaru and Sora, leaders of the Kaiho.]]

* LightIsGood / LightIsNotGood: The Kaiho used their Light Essence powers to battle the Shadow Empress and Nisshoku. These same powers were used to ruthlessly kill Yamiko's parents.
* LonelyRichKid:[[spoiler: Yamiko became the Shadow Empress at a young age, but she did not seem to be happy and every time Hyo, her father figure, ask her if she was happy about being their Empress she would only reply that she is fine. Hyo noted that Yamiko been like this ever since the death of her friends.]]
* NonHumanSidekick: Kurosu, a [[CleverCrows crow]] you free early on in the game that can scout the level and show how far away your objective is.
* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler:Aragami Ryo says this about him and Yamiko. Both of them were motivated by revenge for the deaths of their respective parents which stated them on their paths in life. He wonders if he could have ended up twisted like her if he didn't have had his friends by his side at the start. Before Aragami moved to kill Yamiko he wished that there was another way to end all of the fighting and in her last moment Yamiko herself admitted that she also wishes the same thing. After their death both Aragami and Yamiko leave something behind, Yamiko leave her doll next to Aragami's sword from his days as Ryo.]]

* PacifistRun: There is a seal you can earn in each chapter by not killing any of the mooks.

* {{Revenge}}: Why Yamiko summoned Aragami: to free her, and to get revenge on the Kaiho for what it did to her and her people.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: after Yamiko and her team tried to avenge Yamiko's parents but were defeated. Yamiko saw her friends get killed by those who killed her parents which lead her to be consumed by anger and hate which awakened her powers and went berserk, killing everyone in the enemy city.]]
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: [[spoiler: Before Yamiko was the Shadow Empress, she was just a young girl with a tragic past that had lost her parents and best friends to Light Adepts. She became the Shadow Empress in order to prevent what happened to her from happening to others. However, by the time of the game, she uses and manipulates Ryo-as-Aragami into killing his own friends and men, mocking and laughing at Sora's dead body after she was released. In the end, despite her noble intentions, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters she had become the same destructive evil force she believed the Light Armies to be]].]]

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Hikaru at the end of the BossBattle tries this, it doesn't work.]]
* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:Yamiko by her memories that Aragami Ryo sees: Her parents were brutally murdered by Light Adepts, she spent years living in the wilderness out of fear that said murderers were waiting for her to return, finally returns to civilization makes friends only for them to die to ''the same light adepts that killed her parents.'' Hyo muses in his chronicles that part of her died that day.]]
* VisibleInvisibility: Aragami is invisible to hostiles when he is in shadows. There is also a skill that lets Aragami be invisible outside of shadows for a limited amount of time.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Yamiko had a very dark and troubled past. Seeing her parent killed in front of her, lived in a forest alone for years and when she attempt to avenge her parents she witnessed the death of her friends at the hands of those who killed her parents [[spoiler: this lead her to lose it and become consumed by anger and hate to the point of going on a roaring rampage of revenge and levelling the whole city, killing everyone in it.]]

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The light and dark adepts both have legitimate reason to hate each other, and both sides have oppressed the other's people. Aragami sums it up pretty well when confronting Hikaru:

* {{Kitsune}}: The statues that represent to Shadow Empress. [[spoiler:The fact that Yamiko tells you she likes them is early {{Foreshadowing}}.]]

* LightIsGood / LightIsNotGood: The Kaiho used used their Light Essence powers to battle the Shadow Empress and Nisshoku. These same powers were used to ruthlessly kill Yamiko's parents.
* LonelyRichKid:[[spoiler: Yamiko became the Shadow Empress at a young age, but she did not seem to be happy and every time Hyo, her father figure, ask her if she was happy about being their Empress she would only reply that she is fine. Hyo noted that that Yamiko been like this ever since the death of her friends.]]

Not to be confused with the 2003 movie Film/{{Aragami}}.

Gameplay is inspired by {{Videogame/Tenchu}}. It is entirely stealth based, as Aragami cannot take a single hit without dying. However, he is armed with the ability to teleport to any shadow in range, create his own shadows and more. The game is also encouraged to be replayed multiple times due to it's open-ended level design and numerous unlockable powers. Aragami can also blend into the shadows to hide, and the game can be beaten lethally or non-lethally.