Astral Chain

Voices of: Brianna Knickerbocker, Joe Thomas, Rebecca Davis, Kyle McCarley, Megan Hensley, Cassandra Lee Morris, Jordan Reynolds, Elizabeth Maxwell, Owen Thomas
Developer: PlatinumGames
Directed by: Takahisa Taura, Kaori Ando, Makoto Okazaki
Rating: T
Genre: Hack and slash
System: Nintendo Switch
2019

Times Completed:
Tim: 1

Summary: A police offer in an elite unit must fight against interdimensional beings invading our planet.

Review:
Tim: I had a blast playing Astral Chain. I'm continually so fascinated by Nintendo and I love that they are always innovating new IP. This game, from PlatinumGames has flaws- but it offers up a thoroughly exciting playing experience, a tremendous story, and a lot to accomplish. It's a game I truly enjoyed and would highly recommend, despite its shortcomings.

I really do love the narrative of games more than anything, and I really enjoyed the worldbuilding this game does. You play as a police officer in an elite division, Neuron. There are these gates that open throughout the city, where interdimensional beings pour in and wreck havoc on the populace. You have to fight against these creatures (called Chimeras) by using a captured enemy (called a Legion). You are connected to your Legion through the Astral Chain. The game takes place both in your world and on the Astral Plane, an interdimensional location filled with deadly Chimeras. In addition to the action-based missions, there's plenty of more mundane police matters you need to attend to. It's a weird juxtaposition, but it works within the context of this game. You might be fighting Chimeras one minute and then carrying ice cream to a citizen the next. The game does a nice job of establishing a group of memorable characters and while they all don't get enough time to be memorable, many of them do. Akira Howard (my sister, in this case) is a wonderful, fleshed out character. You really care about her, and Max Howard, the man who adopted us. Yoseph is a mysterious, fascinating character. Olive Espinosa is a terrific, colorful character. Hal is a great companion, too. Lappy was incredible, such a bizarre, unexpected character in the game. As you play through the game, you really get to know these characters and feel sucked into their world. That was one of the chief things I loved about this game. The characters and story are top notch.

The gameplay itself is really fun. You control both the main character and a Legion at the same time. This was such a fun mechanic- you fight, controlling two characters bound together by an Astral Chain- at the same time! The coolest thing to do is to encircle your prey and wrap them up in the Astral Chain. The whole thing takes a little time to get used to, but it's a blast when you're fully up-to-speed on how it works. The combat is really engaging and so much fun. You collect different Legion as the game progresses, and each one has its own strengths and abilities. Shifting between Legions is pretty easy, so you fairly quickly become a formidable opponent.

In addition to the main storyline, there's a ton of additional content. You can upgrade your weapons, upgrade your Legion, there's both Red & Blue cases to complete, and hidden things to find. At the end of the game, I attained the "Master" Rank, fully upgraded both my X-baton and my Legion, Completed 100% of the Red & Blue Cases, I found all the cats, found every Hidden Toilet (seriously, hilarious), and defeated every golden slime. I achieved 80%+ Red Matter Clean Up on every file, completed all the Photo Orders- and, with all that (which is a TON), I still tapped out after completing 150/185 Orders. After you finish the game, Olive has all these additional cases to complete. She has a ridiculous 71 additional orders! I completed 25 of them, because it's all extra hard combat with no real story elements. This is a game I spent almost 56 hours on and while I feel like I did all the things that really mattered to me, I didn't come close to doing everything. There's apparently a hidden final boss, but I was burned out on the game and wasn't willing to put in all the extra hours to get there (a consistent pattern for me).

So, it's amazing how much is in this game! Now, the downside is that to accomplish what I accomplished, you find yourself replaying levels over and over. The game does make it easier, you can skip to specific sections of the chapters so you're not necessarily replaying the whole level again. However, to accomplish most things, it's a ton of replaying. This was kind of fun- you get really good by practice, but it also grew so tiresome. A few times I dreaded having to restart the level to accomplish one last objective. I think I did it the best way- play through the first 8 files, then once you've unlocked all the Legions, go back file-by-file to close each one out. It's definitely repetitive at times, and while accomplishing Orders was fun, it absolutely becomes a bit tedious. That was undoubtedly one of the biggest frustrations I had.

The graphics are great- I know the Switch isn't the most powerful system by far, but the design of the game worked. I never had any issues with it. The characters look great, a nice edgy anime quality to them. The level design is a bit similar between different files, but they throw in enough differences so that each file feels somewhat unique. As a whole, it's a really well made game with a great story and it's a video game I'd highly recommend.

I have to say, I do find myself spending a lot of time playing through games in well-established franchises. That's a big part of the video game world. However, the last few years, I've been trying to branch out more, trying to experience more unique video games. I loved stepping into the world of Astral Chain. Nintendo continues to innovate, continues to branch out beyond their typical IP and I sincerely hope we get more games in this franchise. Yes, the tedium hits you at times, but this game was so much fun. I loved the story and characters and I'm so happy I took a chance on it.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Game, We Recommend: Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Borderlands, Mass Effect