Astral Chain Review
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Developers: PlatinumGames
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Publishers: Nintendo
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Genres: Hack'n'slash, action-adventure
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Platforms: Nintendo Switch
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Release date:
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August 30th 2019
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Playtime: 40 hours
I’ve been impressed with Astral Chain from the first trailer, but always thought something was off playing the game myself. Fortunately, all my fears were unnecessary as Astral Chain is a brilliant game that I can’t get enough of and, almost immediately, became one of my favorite games on the Nintendo Switch.
For PlatinumGames fans, Astral Chain quickly catches their attention, as it features that oh so good stylish and satisfying combat Platinum has made its trademark. For the general Switch owner, Astral Chain looks appealing for a plenty of other reasons, such as the presentation, the world and the gameplay. You see, while combat clearly draws a lot of attention, that is just one part of the gameplay.
In this world you take control of a Neuron member, a special team that protects the last safe place for humanity. It’s a special team, as they are not your average police officer, no. These are individuals that can control Legions, creatures from another world tamed by Neuron to aid in combat against Chimeras, an invading species that threatens peace for the remaining humanity.
And thus, Legion are not used just for combat. Throughout the eleven chapters, you’ll have a small but densely populated sandbox which you can explore for side-quests and secrets, before continuing on with the main missions. In here, gameplay can vary from simple aid to civilians, solving mysteries, puzzles and, ultimately, fighting off Chimeras when needed. In total, combat only represents about one third of the gameplay throughout the game. You will be spending a lot of time with all the remaining content, even if it’s optional. Why? Because it’s just that good. I was completely engrossed in everything the game made available and I wish it’d never end. The soundtrack is amazing, the atmosphere is captivating and everything in the game is a lot of fun. Plus, areas are populated with minor gimmicks such as a traffic lights system, buying a ten-scoop ice cream, and more. All these combined makes spending time with Astral Chain an absolute joy.
But now let’s turn the attention to the Legion. There is a total of five Legion to be acquired, each with its distinct abilities and usages. For example, the Arrow Legion can shoot at distant objects, while the Beast Legion can dig up secrets or even hidden enemies. Each of them has its own ability tree, which includes stat upgrades and skill unlocks. While there are some skills available across all five Legion, such as the Auto-Binding which tethers all nearby enemies, the unique skills are hard-hitters. For example, the Beast Legion can stun enemies with a howl, the Arm Legion can throw an orb that pulls all enemies towards it and the Axe Legion can plant bombs. Still on the topic of Legion, because they are not all available from the get-go, this gives space to some mild MetroidVania moments in the form of some secrets being locked because of not having the right Legion at the time. You can then replay previous chapters to find some useful rewards for the endgame.
And what about the protagonist character? You can choose between a male and female twin and then the one not chosen will pretty much be your voice throughout the game. The chosen character is silent, and because you will spend a lot of time with their twin, he/she will be the one doing the talking. However, I love how they control during combat, whether we’re talking about their weapons (a gun, a baton or a greatsword) or talking about their movement and animations. And, let’s not forget about the customization. While only the hair and eyes can be changed, there is plenty of choice for costumes. The default Neuron costume is fairly customizable itself, but there’s a lot of accessories and even a couple more costumes to unlock. To be honest, I think Astral Chain has my favorite character customization in a while, not because of the quantity of options available, but because of the combinations that can be created.
And now let’s finally get into combat. One thing I have not mentioned so far is that during combat you’re not in control of one, but two characters: the protagonist and a Legion. While in the first couple hours it was weird to get used to it, as the protagonist is controlled with the left stick, the Legion with the right stick, and both make use of the shoulder buttons to attack, it became a joy to play once it clicked. It was weird at first because it’s not common to be using two characters at once, so I fumbled the controls quite a bit, but once I got the hang of it (about two-three hours in), I understood the potential of combat. Spreading the pair for crowd control or taking advantage of 2v1 scenarios, both feel fresh as you are not dependent on the behavior of an AI-controlled partner. The strategy is up to you and the reward is immediate.
But combat does not take place only in the “normal” human world. Every chapter sees a part of it take place in the Astral Plane, the home of the Chimeras. This part usually has an exploration segment, as you make your way toward an abducted civilian or to fight and recapture an escaping Legion. Just like the human world, the Astral Plane is made up of small chunks, but densely populated with secrets, puzzles and fights. I liked its atmosphere quite a lot, as it truly feels like you’re in an hostile environment and things can go south any second. Chimeras are obviously more aggressive here and there’s more space for environmental puzzles.
But while Astral Chain is a brilliant game, it does have some negative aspects. First up, and this is a general annoyance, not particular to this game, it should give the player the option to change the voice language before starting the game. It forces the player to complete the first chapter with the English dub and, to be perfectly honest, I hated it and did not let me enjoy this initial chapter nearly as much as I did when I later replayed it with the Japanese dub. The delivery is weak, as there’s not much emotion in the voice of the actors and, thus, what happens on screen falls flat once the characters start talking.
The second and last complaint is the excessive focus on presentation. A lot of times I got locked out of going back because of walking one step too far in a direction only to see a missing collectible back on the other side of the newly-placed invisible wall. There are no visual cues for this and sometimes it’s just not explicit which is the critical path. For players like me who want to explore every path before moving on to the main objective, it was annoying to pick the critical path by mistake and not be able to go back and explore the other options without replaying the chapter later. Everything looks the same, that is, it’s hard to distinguish how far you can go before “advancing” to the next area/block and thus it leads to some frustration.
While these are some annoying aspects that could be easily fixed, by the time the credits rolled, I couldn’t really care about them. Yes, of course they are flaws that should be fixed, but as a complete package, Astral Chain is just too damn good. It’s pure joy to play this game, especially if you’re into anime and manga as there’s plenty of moments that make you excited to keep playing. And one thing that I’ve noticed while playing, is that this game kept one-upping itself each chapter. If you had just finished a chapter and thought it was amazing, then the next one would be even better. It’s a constant crescendo in quality and by the time you see the actual credits roll, you have played through three ending-worthy moments. To be clear, I am not saying the game drags itself on, I mean that it has three moments that are on par with the normal ending of a game. And, to top it all of, if you’re disappointed because you expected combat to be more dominant, then I’d like to tell you that the endgame is made up of a lot of combat missions. While Astral Chain does not feature an NG+, it technically does not need it, as in chapter 12 (the post-credits), you can replay any other chapter and complete the aforementioned combat missions.
If you’re looking for a new game to sink your teeth in and you’re into hack’n’slash combat, Japanese entertainment, or both, then I can easily recommend Astral Chain to you. What they’ve done with combat was quite a twist and the moment-to-moment gameplay is just a lot of fun. I just wish there was a demo available. It looks great on video but playing it yourself is just a completely different experience. If you have the chance to play it and this review helped pique your interest, then by all means play Astral Chain!