Oooooooooooh Astral Chain, you do so much good stuff. The combat is so incredibly satisfying to learn and pull off in this game, the fact your dodge kinda sucks or isn't the most effective way of moving around in combat felt like the team knew they wanted to create something different from the usual Platinum gameplay style and I'm glad they went with it. The chain mechanic and having helpful buddies to swap out at will is rad. Big thumbs up.
I also really like the art style and look for the world. Some characters can maybe feel a little plain but there's a tonne of real standout looks and visuals in this game. Most of the OST I didn't fuck that hard with but the base theme....fuuuuuuuuuuuck. Also Marie Wentz/Lappy a cute.
As for the stuff Astral Chain doesn't do too well...well, for the start the story is kinda trash. Like I know Platinum games aren't expected to have great story but even something as boiler plate as Vanquish's story felt miles better than the one in Astral Chain. For most of the time it kinda stays plain/building stuff up and then two thirds of the way through the story it decides to completely forget characters (remember the cool looking dude with the electronic dreads who was set up to be your rival? yeah.) and just prematurely rush you into the end game where it doesn't even bother giving you the dignity of a satisying ending. Literally fade to black. Awesome!
Also the pacing I found to be a bit dodgy sometimes. The balance of this game is between the real world, where you mostly do fights and explore, and the astral plain, where you sometimes do fights and platform, and I don't think either area are that bad, it's just you sometimes stay in one area for way too long. This especially feels bad with the astral plain sections because I already wasn't too hot on the platforming in the game, so having those sections going on for long felt really bad. Just in general, the flow of the game can feel pretty uneven and sluggish at times.
Also something that sucks is that I feel like you don't really get a good amount of time to feel the full potential of the combat in this game since it keeps handing you out buddies and abilities up until the later parts of the game. Top that with having the combat take a little bit to get used to, you don't ever really feel like you're making the most of the combat potential until you're getting near the end of the game which kinda blows. In something like Devil May Cry this doesn't matter too much since you can just replay the game easily but in Astral Chain that becomes a little bit more laborious due to the amount of dialogue and cutscenes as well as the playtime (my save file said 30 hours when I finished my first playthrough) to the point where you wonder if it's even worth going into the game again.
Also, just in general, I feel like the game has less soul to itself compared to Platinum's other titles.
I know I really went on about the game negatively there but I still do love the core of this game. The combat system, the aesthetic, the world: it's all really good! It's just a shame it also comes with problems that really hurt itself.
Marie still cute.
I also really like the art style and look for the world. Some characters can maybe feel a little plain but there's a tonne of real standout looks and visuals in this game. Most of the OST I didn't fuck that hard with but the base theme....fuuuuuuuuuuuck. Also Marie Wentz/Lappy a cute.
As for the stuff Astral Chain doesn't do too well...well, for the start the story is kinda trash. Like I know Platinum games aren't expected to have great story but even something as boiler plate as Vanquish's story felt miles better than the one in Astral Chain. For most of the time it kinda stays plain/building stuff up and then two thirds of the way through the story it decides to completely forget characters (remember the cool looking dude with the electronic dreads who was set up to be your rival? yeah.) and just prematurely rush you into the end game where it doesn't even bother giving you the dignity of a satisying ending. Literally fade to black. Awesome!
Also the pacing I found to be a bit dodgy sometimes. The balance of this game is between the real world, where you mostly do fights and explore, and the astral plain, where you sometimes do fights and platform, and I don't think either area are that bad, it's just you sometimes stay in one area for way too long. This especially feels bad with the astral plain sections because I already wasn't too hot on the platforming in the game, so having those sections going on for long felt really bad. Just in general, the flow of the game can feel pretty uneven and sluggish at times.
Also something that sucks is that I feel like you don't really get a good amount of time to feel the full potential of the combat in this game since it keeps handing you out buddies and abilities up until the later parts of the game. Top that with having the combat take a little bit to get used to, you don't ever really feel like you're making the most of the combat potential until you're getting near the end of the game which kinda blows. In something like Devil May Cry this doesn't matter too much since you can just replay the game easily but in Astral Chain that becomes a little bit more laborious due to the amount of dialogue and cutscenes as well as the playtime (my save file said 30 hours when I finished my first playthrough) to the point where you wonder if it's even worth going into the game again.
Also, just in general, I feel like the game has less soul to itself compared to Platinum's other titles.
I know I really went on about the game negatively there but I still do love the core of this game. The combat system, the aesthetic, the world: it's all really good! It's just a shame it also comes with problems that really hurt itself.
Marie still cute.