A Review of Astral Chain I originally wrote in 2019. It is now on this blog for archival purposes.
While PlatinumGames' latest IP stumbles in some areas, it's still a worth entry to their repertoire
Available and Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch
Astral Chain is PlatinumGames' first original IP in six years and it's as thrilling as some of their best, even if a myriad of problems has made it one of their most divisive games to date.
At a glance Astral Chain is striking, it's neo-cyberpunk anime aesthetic and flashy combat animations are immediately noticeable. When it was revealed at a Nintendo Direct earlier this year, it made waves on social media with its keen sense of aesthetics and style. Platinum's newest game was looking sleek, an action RPG where you play as a cop that controls an alien being in combat.
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| The games artsyle is striking |
While the core combat is solid, there are some underlying issues with the Legion abilities. Platforming feels unintuitive throughout the whole game. The Legion's drop shadow icon doesn't show you were you'll character will land leading to instances where you'll just miss a platform and have some health taken off. The environment also gets in the way with you just stopping midair and falling. Platforming is very abundant in the game and is used to get to areas in the game’s multiple hubs. Each of your five Legion's also have specific abilities that all feel only appropriate for certain situations. The Sword Legion can cut on a specific line, Arrow can shoot at a target precisely, Beast can be ridden on and dig things up, Fist can have you float slightly and punch hard, and Axe can create a large barrier shield. These abilities feel like they are only needed in certain area traversal sections or are used against the annoying enemies that power up others when you’re trying to fight.
Since Astral Chain is more of an action RPG, there's leveling up systems. For your character you'll upgrade their weapon and Legatus, the device that holds your legion. You'll unlock some moves from upgrading your weapon, but it never feels like enough. Having a more diverse move set and kit would've helped ease some of the late game combat repetition. Your Legions can also level up through their skill trees. Unfortunately, their skill trees are all very similar and they share most of the same sections and skills with only a few feeling unique. One of the techniques is something that the game doesn’t explain very well to you which allows your legion to go crazy and switch to another, which while sounding interesting doesn’t have much use.
When you’re playing on the Platinum Standard difficulty and above, then the game will reward you with a letter rank, all the way up to S+. Unlike their other ranking systems, this one isn’t based off how well you keep your combos up or how much damage you take, but rather the game wants you to use all the different mechanics. This choice is… different to say the least. I am in no way a “hardcore” player of these kinds of games, but according to the people I’ve talked with who are, this is a frustrating choice. Many play these games to improve on their technique and get the higher rankings, like in recently released Devil May Cry 5, so this is a system that might not appeal to everyone. The ranking system instead wants to encourage players to use their full kit. It’s a strange choice for sure, and more casual action game fans would probably appreciate it to some degree.
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| A Legion's Skill Tree |
Combat isn't all you're doing in Astral Chain; throughout the games 11 chapters you'll also have to work the beat and complete side activities in the games various hubs. These will range from helping cats stuck in a tree, taking out gang members, saving people from the Astral Plain, and helping a girl get some ice cream. These side activities can sometimes feel like busy work, especially when you're hit with a lot of them right after a climactic chapter and can feel like a pace breaker. Some of them also use some incredibly poor implementation of motion controls, like getting the kid her ice cream, and I just ended up giving up on them rather than continuing to attempt it. Stealth sections are also in the game but luckily, they're incredibly easy and don't come off as too intrusive.
The hubs also start to wear thin when you have to go to the same ones over and over again (I got sick of Harmony Square by File 7 or so), and the Astral Plain gets old by the third time you visit it with every area looking so incredibly similar and it being the location where you have to engage with the games bad platforming mechanics. Some areas like Sector Nine and the Ark Mall are only visited once which feels like a missed opportunity to do something more with those areas. By the mid-way point I started to get tired of exploring the exact same areas again and again trying to find the games various collectibles like toilets, stray cats, and the red matter which feels like a chore to try and complete. Luckily if you’re ever replaying levels to get better rankings, you can always skip the non-combat sections.
Aside from the combat there’s the games story and unfortunately, while the story and setup see promising at first, it ends up being one of the games weakest links. The main problem is that the character that you pick becomes mute, only the other twin will talk in the narrative. This leads to situations where the story will get emotional, but without a meaningful connection or interactions with the protagonist they fall flat and scenes where it feels like you character should talk but another character must be present to do the talking. Even after moments where your avatar should emote even a little bit, like after your twin is hurt, don’t work because they just stand there default posing while other characters move dialogue forward. Major plot points are given to you via text dumps either between chapters, or by going into another menu to read up on some character bios. It also doesn't help that the game's narrative lifts from some of the most popular Sci-Fi anime from the last 20+ years, mainly Evangelion, Akira, and Ghost in the Shell which leads to it feeling incredibly predictable.
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| The Howard Twins |
Character motivations will change on a dime. One of the main antagonists, Jena Anderson, has ideals and motivations so unclear that it leaves me wondering what the writers thought she was supposed to be. Interesting plot threads are just dropped, new characters are introduced only to be shafted the next chapter. Even the interesting dynamic that the twins adoptive father has with his fellow officers is just dropped along with their character arcs once you obtain their Legions. Some characters are fun, like Marie the stations janitor who dresses up as "Lappy" their mascot and Carlos the justice filled beat cop. In fact, Carlos feels like the only character that gets a proper character arc. Platinum has never been known for their stories, the only game of theirs that is known for its writing is NieR Automata which had an outside director and writers so I feel it’s unfair to compare the two, but wasted potential is infinitely worse than no potential. At least you can make your character dress up as the mascot dog by unlocking the outfit which can lead to cutscenes being a bit more entertaining than they were before.
Astral Chain’s music is also noteworthy, it goes from being incredibly catchy like the Neuron HQ theme to some pretty energetic rock tunes. The game even has a couple of vocal themes including an opening, ending, and insert song. Depending on which twin you pick, then the insert and ending song change. I can't help but feel the female vocalist is the better singer of the two, so if you don't really care what gender you are then I'd recommend picking the female main character because her music is a tad better. Each area has an exploration track and a battle track which dynamically transition into each other. Astral Chain does tend to lean a bit too far on orchestrated music with choir's in it towards the end, which easily end up being the weakest part in its soundtrack. The music sounds great on its own, but unfortunately due to some bad audio compression sounds lackluster in game. If you end up liking the soundtrack, I’d recommend checking the album versions to see how they’re supposed to sound.
Recommended Listening:
Overall Astral Chain is an impressive outing from PlatinumGames with its sleek combat and fun sequences but is unfortunately bogged down due to poor gameplay decisions and a mediocre story. If you’re a casual action game fan that doesn’t mind some jank, then it’s a fun time. But if you come in looking for a hardcore action game like Bayonetta, then you’re going to leave feeling a little bit disappointed.
3/5
Reviewers Note: A 3/5 score represents an above average game with flaws that keep it from reaching new heights. Not a direct recommend, but if you can look past it’s faults then you’ll find a worthwhile time. Scores given here are simple out-of-five scores with no half points.(My stance on this has changed since I wrote it, scores will have half points as well now)
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