Astral Chain is something special. However, the story falls completely flat just a few hours in . Characters are also fine, passable to good. Get that stuff out of the way. This is an action game, and the action is impeccable, but I want to touch on the stuff supporting it first. The story and the fact that it had no greater implications was a little disappointing since Platinum’s last game, Nier: Automata, was super story heavy and is one of my favorite games ever. But N:A is about story, and this is about innovative action.
You pick to play as either the brother or sister who are both asked to join an elite task force and guard the world against the terrors of the astral plane. You begin by customizing the skin color, eye color, and haircut/hair color. It’s actually not too bad of a character creator, but no face sliders. Let me get my other big negative out of the way as well - the nonspeaking protagonist, while it works in Fallout and Skyrim, does not work here. I wish my character had some personality, but your sibling, Akira, kind of ends up speaking and carrying conversations for you. I’m a little sick of this trend RPGs have of silent protagonists so you can “immerse” yourself.
The world of Astral Chain really sells this way more than the writing quality for the characters or story. It is SO INTERESTING. Everything about this cyberpunk future is attention grabbing in the most subtle ways. The way the police are structured, the attitude of civilians toward you, the fact that so many NPC’s have something to say. Seeing Tokyo in 2065 is awesome on its own but it really looks like it would. Other than the police uniforms and actual legions, the actual cyberpunk aesthetic is subtle and closer to realistic. The game places you in small open world areas for each mission that you explore. Turning on your scanner on any NPC will give you a quick list of facts about them, including Name, Age, Sex, and Blood Type among others. It’s a neat little feature that makes the people feel real if for a moment and makes the world feel alive. For instance, i walked by a woman named Ikumi Dabrowski and thought “oh that woman is clearly half Japanese, but it’s the year 2065 so of course we’re more integrated.” I started looking around and noticed a TON of half-Japanese people, which was a neat little thing. Just an example.
The general structure is that for each mission there is a crime involving the astral plane somewhere in the city. You essentially have a detective phase and then a combat phase. During the detective phase you’re in a small explorable area with 5-6 side quests. The detective work is better done than any other action game. The Witcher 3 and Assassin’s Creed have light detective elements which consist of just turning on your scanner, walking up to the yellow object and pressing A. In Astral Chain, you have to question eye witnesses all over the crime scene area as well as collect hard evidence, and store each clue as a keyword. Then you report to your field officer who quizzes you on what happened, and you answer using the correct keywords. The coolest thing here is that you can’t trust eyewitness reports - not because they’re liars, but because like in real life they are unreliable. They will miss small details sometimes and you have to fact check witnesses against hard evidence.This is awesome and to my knowledge isn’t done often in games.
So, the action. This is what you come for. This is a brilliant design for action and I’m not sure that anything like it has ever existed before. You individually control yourself as well as your legion, an otherworldly entity bound to you by the titular astral chain. This is NOT a combo based game like Bayonetta, which I appreciate (I’m very bad at combos). Combat does involve a lot of mashing the Y button, sure, but the real fun of it is utilizing the chain between your two entities. Wrapping up an enemy in a chain by running around them in circles traps them momentarily. If an enemy rushes you, you can catch it in your chain and slingshot it across the arena. The main mechanic is rushing your Legion into the enemy and then either calling it to slide kick back to you or slide kicking towards it. Combat is 100% based on your positioning in relation to the enemy , and then added onto with new abilities and attacks you can unlock for your 5 different legions. It’s hard to describe. It takes a few minutes to pick up (I recommend going through the training stuff) but it feels amazing. It looks like you’re button mashing to an observer but as a player you can see yourself individually controlling two characters on the screen and the results of their interactions. So satisfying. I can’t speak enough praise for the combat.
Aside from that, music is A+ (I’d venture to say it’s the best score this year as well) and the cell shaded artwork looks beautiful even in handheld. Runs at a consistent 30 FPS, and since it’s got cartoon-like graphics its barely distinguishable from 60 FPS. 8 hours in and not one single frame rate drop even in handheld - That’s impressive. Plus, tsundere vending machine.
Astral Chain has perhaps the most innovative combat of the decade. In an awesomely constructed but mostly colorless cyberpunk world with a passable story and forgettable characters, 90% of the burden to carry this game falls on the action - and the action delivers. The combat’s dependence on movement and positioning rather than remembering combo strings sets it apart from the rest of its genre. This is one part Bayonetta, 2 parts Nier: Automata, and 1 part Psycho-Pass. Even though the story falls flat at the end, the time investment is an easy trade for the amount of fun you’ll have chaining, wrapping, dodge kicking, and blasting your way across the astral plane.
You pick to play as either the brother or sister who are both asked to join an elite task force and guard the world against the terrors of the astral plane. You begin by customizing the skin color, eye color, and haircut/hair color. It’s actually not too bad of a character creator, but no face sliders. Let me get my other big negative out of the way as well - the nonspeaking protagonist, while it works in Fallout and Skyrim, does not work here. I wish my character had some personality, but your sibling, Akira, kind of ends up speaking and carrying conversations for you. I’m a little sick of this trend RPGs have of silent protagonists so you can “immerse” yourself.
The world of Astral Chain really sells this way more than the writing quality for the characters or story. It is SO INTERESTING. Everything about this cyberpunk future is attention grabbing in the most subtle ways. The way the police are structured, the attitude of civilians toward you, the fact that so many NPC’s have something to say. Seeing Tokyo in 2065 is awesome on its own but it really looks like it would. Other than the police uniforms and actual legions, the actual cyberpunk aesthetic is subtle and closer to realistic. The game places you in small open world areas for each mission that you explore. Turning on your scanner on any NPC will give you a quick list of facts about them, including Name, Age, Sex, and Blood Type among others. It’s a neat little feature that makes the people feel real if for a moment and makes the world feel alive. For instance, i walked by a woman named Ikumi Dabrowski and thought “oh that woman is clearly half Japanese, but it’s the year 2065 so of course we’re more integrated.” I started looking around and noticed a TON of half-Japanese people, which was a neat little thing. Just an example.
The general structure is that for each mission there is a crime involving the astral plane somewhere in the city. You essentially have a detective phase and then a combat phase. During the detective phase you’re in a small explorable area with 5-6 side quests. The detective work is better done than any other action game. The Witcher 3 and Assassin’s Creed have light detective elements which consist of just turning on your scanner, walking up to the yellow object and pressing A. In Astral Chain, you have to question eye witnesses all over the crime scene area as well as collect hard evidence, and store each clue as a keyword. Then you report to your field officer who quizzes you on what happened, and you answer using the correct keywords. The coolest thing here is that you can’t trust eyewitness reports - not because they’re liars, but because like in real life they are unreliable. They will miss small details sometimes and you have to fact check witnesses against hard evidence.This is awesome and to my knowledge isn’t done often in games.
So, the action. This is what you come for. This is a brilliant design for action and I’m not sure that anything like it has ever existed before. You individually control yourself as well as your legion, an otherworldly entity bound to you by the titular astral chain. This is NOT a combo based game like Bayonetta, which I appreciate (I’m very bad at combos). Combat does involve a lot of mashing the Y button, sure, but the real fun of it is utilizing the chain between your two entities. Wrapping up an enemy in a chain by running around them in circles traps them momentarily. If an enemy rushes you, you can catch it in your chain and slingshot it across the arena. The main mechanic is rushing your Legion into the enemy and then either calling it to slide kick back to you or slide kicking towards it. Combat is 100% based on your positioning in relation to the enemy , and then added onto with new abilities and attacks you can unlock for your 5 different legions. It’s hard to describe. It takes a few minutes to pick up (I recommend going through the training stuff) but it feels amazing. It looks like you’re button mashing to an observer but as a player you can see yourself individually controlling two characters on the screen and the results of their interactions. So satisfying. I can’t speak enough praise for the combat.
Aside from that, music is A+ (I’d venture to say it’s the best score this year as well) and the cell shaded artwork looks beautiful even in handheld. Runs at a consistent 30 FPS, and since it’s got cartoon-like graphics its barely distinguishable from 60 FPS. 8 hours in and not one single frame rate drop even in handheld - That’s impressive. Plus, tsundere vending machine.
Astral Chain has perhaps the most innovative combat of the decade. In an awesomely constructed but mostly colorless cyberpunk world with a passable story and forgettable characters, 90% of the burden to carry this game falls on the action - and the action delivers. The combat’s dependence on movement and positioning rather than remembering combo strings sets it apart from the rest of its genre. This is one part Bayonetta, 2 parts Nier: Automata, and 1 part Psycho-Pass. Even though the story falls flat at the end, the time investment is an easy trade for the amount of fun you’ll have chaining, wrapping, dodge kicking, and blasting your way across the astral plane.