Astral Chain (2019)

Just finished this game… and I have very mixed thoughts about it. I started playing it a few months ago and didn’t know what to expect. At first, i was disappointed with the fact that you cannot really control your legion : you just move it towards the ennemies and it attacks by itself. So I stopped playing it and went back to it last week to finish it.

The gameplay is VERY demanding and complex, and it takes a lot of time to master it but it’s very satisfying when you do. You can alternate combos between your character and the legion The scenario is nice but the end could be better and shorter : it looks like Platinum games never wants a game to end… and always finds ways to make the experience longer, but sometimes for nothing (cf: Bayonetta 3 ans Nier Automata)

Graphics are ok but unfortunately, when too many ennemies show themselves, the frame rate drops drastically

Overall, it’s a good and complex game, and it’s always great to have some new franchises coming on NS.

For you if:

• you loved Bayonetta and Nier
• You are looking for a gameplay oriented game

I recently picked this one back up and decided to make a decent go of it. It's managed to suck me in and I would really like to finish it sometime in the next few weeks.

Combat is still surprisingly fresh (especially with the unlocking of different legion as the story progresses) and the story seems to be evolving in an interesting way. I hope it can stick the landing as I make my way a little over halfway through the game. Currently on chapter 8.

Kind of pushed this into the backlog. I'm not bored with it, just taking my time. I'm also expecting a grip for my Switch for Christmas so I'm putting it off until next year where I'll want a steady library of handheld games as I'll be too flat out for TV play.

The controls feel a little tricky, I imagine it'll take a while to get used to some of the more complex moves which is a little daunting. Still, I'm not put off the game and I am excited to get back to it in the future.

What an absolute beast of a game with every single check box ticked from the Japanese trope list. Action Chain offers seldom a dull moment with some of the coolest action packed sequences that make you think on your feet.

The ending felt like it should have ended one mission earlier but I guess that's a creative call we'll have to pass on. The mechanics are the strong point of the game albeit it gets a tad bit easy once you get the hang of it.

Easily one of the best games of 2019 for me.

I feel like Astral Chain flew a little under the radar since it was released while people were still going through Fire Emblem, but I am absolutely loving this game. As an action game, it just has so much going for it. The set pieces feel massive in scale. The combat is tremendously fun, getting more and more complex as the game progresses while remaining totally manageable.

Mainly, I just find this game to be so well paced in every respect. I love how each mission is almost split up into phases. You have a set-up phase in the HQ where you upgrade and customize. Then usually you start by doing an investigation, piecing the story of the mission together. Then trading off between exploration and combat. I played Vanquish recently, another Platinum game with tight combat, and my takeaway there was that it was exhausting to just do high octane shootout after shootout. I never get tired of fighting in Astral Chain because the battles are so spaced out, which gives me time to breath and re-prepare every mission. Problems with the camera aside, it's been such a killer experience so far.