So here we are with Astral Chain on the Nintendo Switch. I know this is a few months past release so I’m making it a Late To The Party Review, but as I’ve said previously I do like to try and do review requests in between other game releases.

This is another one from Platinum Games, which actually feels kinda timely since I just put out my video on God Hand which was made by some of the alumni from Clover who left to start Platinum.

So the story takes place in this city in the middle of the Pacific – I think – called the “Ark”. Basically these dimensional rifts opened up and started decimating humanity and they made this city in the middle of the ocean that was supposed to protect everybody from it. Because success would mean the game would be over really early, the Ark is not as safe as everybody thought, and 20 years later you’re playing as of two twins who were born right at the start of the whole mess, who’ve decided to follow in their foster dad’s footsteps and be members of an elite police squad called “Neuron”, whose duty is to specifically fight monsters called Chimeras from this other dimension close the gates.

How do they do this you ask? Why, in the most conventional way possible. By using monsters chained to them called “Legions” whom, if unchained can and will try to kill everybody in the room, and also with a fancy nightstick called an “X Baton” that turns into a gun, a club, and a big freaking sword. Totally conventional, right? And what’s to keep this thing from going off in your pants and slicing something important off? So anyways because team Neuron is about as elite as the Gotham City PD, they lose all their Legions early on in the game, which in very predictable fashion means your character gets to accidentally show off their big talent, which is binding these things to your AED and being able to switch between them at will. You’ll need the extra firepower as well, because the Chimera only get bigger as the game progresses, and perhaps most frightening is this crazy, increasingly busted but still semi-hot looking woman who eventually tries killing you too.

So I’ve gotta say this about the game. It was really, really hard for me to stick with it through the first few hours of the game because the pacing sucked. It splits up your time between doing this clue-collecting procedural stuff where you’re using this game’s version of Arkham Asylum’s “detective vision”, and then you get pulled into the monster dimensions, called Red Gates, and then you do some platforming puzzles and eventually fight a boss, which is usually a legion you’ll add to your collection. Also at several points in the beginning it forces you to a lot of tutorials – I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I hate tutorials. I’ll take a game manual any day.

Anyways, something magical happens a little less than halfway through the story. It’s like they realized that people just wanted to kill things, and then they start lessening the clue collecting more, the pacing improves and the game gets pretty fun. It doesn’t ever loosen the reins to the point where you can fly through the game, but it’s enough that you’re not groaning that you have to take another break from fighting. There’s a lot of side quests as well and the rewards are pretty useful because you’ll need a lot of resources to upgrade your baton and your AED that holds the Legions. Don’t worry about specializing one over the other – upgrading both is the best course of action because you’re basically going to control 2 characters at once in combat.

The monster designs are pretty good and menacing, and I found the corrupted humans called “Aberrations” to be pretty creepy, especially when you see them turn into these things.

And speaking of combat, it works pretty well, but feels a little clunky until you’re used to it. basically your character with the left analog and face buttons, and then you’ll mostly use the right analog and ZL to control your Legion. You can switch on the fly depending on the enemies you’re fighting, but you’re mostly free to use whoever you want, which is a nice touch. For example I was afraid I’d have to switch to the Arrow Legion to fight airborne enemies but that’s not necessary. You’ll teach them special moves, assign passive skills that help both of you, and you can even give them a good scrub at the Legatus Terminal. Performing maintenance gets those dirty red crusty crystals off of them, and they’re about as happy about it as when you attempt to give a cat a bath. That is to say that they hate it and occasionally swipe at you.

The graphics are admittedly pretty great. Everything has this semi-cel shaded look to it and I swear I am a sucker for anything cel shaded. The monster designs are pretty good and menacing, and I found the corrupted humans called “Aberrations” to be pretty creepy, especially when you see them turn into these things. Later on the in the game the bosses get predictably huge, though I felt a little like they reuses boss designs from Bayonetta, which I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by since Platinum made this. Borrowed or not it’s a slick looking game.

It sounds good too. The music is fine enough and does the job but the voice acting is pretty good. The music gets appropriately epic when you’re fighting the big bosses and none of the dialogue was groan-worthy.

So if you want an action game that’s a little different from the usual then I think Astral Chain is a good pick. Just keep in mind you may have to trudge through the first quarter to third of the game to get to the more fun parts, but as far as I’m concerned it’s worth it. Platinum has a reputation for making great action games and this is another worthy addition of theirs, whether you’re familiar with them or not. And if you’re not familiar with them, then drop everything you’re doing, play Bayonetta 1 and 2, then play Vanquish, then play Nier Automata if you have a PS4 or Xbox One, then come back and play this.