Now Playing: Astral Chain

It took me some time to wrap my head around Astral Chain, but once I did, it became a serious contender for my GOTY. I wrote a blog post recently in which I talked about games ‘driving in the same direction’ – how so many AAA games are turning into generic, by the numbers, open world ‘live service’ clones. Stale, unoriginal and bland. Inoffensive.

And then a game like Astral Chain comes along. It’s fresh. New. Packed full of cool ideas and engaging mechanics. It’s not afraid to try new things, to mix up its formula and continually challenge the player to learn and experiment. It’s everything I think I needed from a game, at just the right moment. It reminded me just how much f**king fun and ridiculous games can be.

The core story of Astral Chain may be dark and serious, but the game knows how to lighten the mood. I won’t spoil the story, but it takes some expected and some unexpected twists as you progress. There are some aspects in which it isn’t entirely clear – I’m still not sure exactly what one character was hoping to achieve through their actions – but though the plot may be a little messy in terms of story, the game does get the character stuff right and delivers a satisfying conclusion in that regard.

 

The game is structured into chapters, each broken down into smaller sections which, when you complete the game, can be replayed as you please. And you’ll want to replay these chapters because so many of them have areas you weren’t able to access the first time through as you hadn’t yet unlocked the necessary skills.

Just playing through the game once will likely take between 25-30 hours, so it’s already a fairly substantial experience. And that play time only increases once you begin to revisit missions in order to discover all the cool little things you missed on your initial run. Adding yet more value is the post game combat missions. I don’t know exactly how many of these there are but there’s a lot – I saw someone online say there are 71, but I can’t be sure because I’ve not unlocked them all yet.

I already talked at length about the combat in Astral Chain in my First Impressions post so I won’t repeat myself here. But as I said in that post, the sheer amount of combat options you have is kind of ridiculous. When you factor in the five Legion types, the 3 weapon types, the various sync attacks based upon Legion and weapon type, the Legion special abilities, skills and command abilities . . . I’m still unlocking and experimenting with them.

 

Because as I said in my FI post, Astral Chain is a game which encourages and rewards creative play. It’s not just about finishing battles quickly or taking zero damage – it’s about winning with style. It’s about mixing up your play, switching Legion types and utilising special attacks to build a massive chain of bonus points.

Once you understand this is how the ranking system works, it’s pretty easy to figure out a regular pattern which will all but guarantee an S+ rank on every combat encounter, but that’s not really the point. The game just wants you to have fun and be as creative and as stylish as you can.

Combat isn’t the only part of Astral Chain though, as the game has a pretty substantial exploration and environmental puzzle element too. Between combat encounters you’ll get to explore the various environments of each chapter, seek out hidden items or bonus missions, or simply chat to local npcs who will help flesh out the world and story.

 

And whereas so many other AAA games are cramming in every cosmetic micro-transaction they can, Astral Chain just doesn’t care and gives you some pretty extensive cosmetic customisation for both character and Legion all as part of the package. You don’t have to purchase f**king colour schemes in this game. In fact, you unlock a lot of the cosmetic stuff by completing in game ‘orders’ – think achievements – as you play.

Graphically, Astral Chain looks fantastic. It’s bright, vibrant and it’s easily one of the best looking games on the Switch. And no, the 30FPS lock really isn’t an issue. Because I play primarily on PC, I’m normally more aware of that kind of thing, but – aside from a couple of ‘busy’ areas – Astral Chain felt smooth to play.

Oh, and the music. The music is great. The only thing I don’t like about the music is when it ramps up to a fast paced, urgent beat at the beginning of a chapter when you just want to wander about and explore your HQ. It feels a little silly.

Overall, Astral Chain is a fantastic and enjoyable experience. It’s got a substantial quantity of content and plenty of gameplay depth to keep exploring beyond your initial run. It’s a timely reminder of just how colourful, unique and crazy video games can be. It’s pure arcade, action packed fun and it’s a strong contender for my GOTY.

9/10