Astral Chain

Astral Chain is an action-adventure hack and slash game developed by Bayonetta-famed developer PlatinumGames, and released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch in August 2019. After completing the game, I will say I enjoyed my time with the game overall but it is decidedly mediocre in almost every respect. While the combat is fast, fluid, and always interesting, everything else about this Nintendo Switch exclusive is average at best and just bad at worst.

Without giving too much of the story away, Astral Chain is set in a dystopian cyberpunk-esque future Earth where inter-dimensional beings have invaded and began capturing humans for unknown reasons. As these beings invade the planet, their dimension begins to merge with our own causing much of the world to be inhabitable. Due to this, the game takes place on the only remaining human habitation, an artificial island in the middle of the ocean, called The Ark. The player chooses one of two new twin police recruits to investigate and hopefully stop the interdimensional incursions that are destroying the world. To do this, the twins utilize the titular Astral Chain to restrain creatures called “Legions” who have various powers and abilities that help them combat the interdimensional intruders.

As stated, the game draws heavy inspiration from various other cyberpunk manga and anime like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and even Cowboy Bebop. While the character and environment designs inspired by the cyberpunk aesthetic (namely the Legion and enemy designs) are incredible, the game ultimately fails to capture the same believability as the worlds and characters from the properties it draws inspiration from. To start, the setting of the game, The Ark, barely feels lived in or like a real location. The Ark is supposedly a megafloat - a massive, artificial island city - made up of several distinct districts with their own atmosphere and characteristics. This location is the last bastion of human civilization made up of people from all over the world from all countries and cultures. A playthrough of Astral Chain, however, doesn’t allow the player to observe the distinct districts of The Ark or observe how its various people groups interact or how their cultures have intermingled. With the restricted mission locations, small explorable areas, and lack of any real open world, The Ark and its inhabitants are more of a concept than anything else.

The characters in the game are another point of disappointment when it comes to voice acting, story telling, world building, and interactivity. While the character designs in Astral Chain are very good, with each Legion, boss encounter, and main member of the police force feeling unique and interesting, my attachment to any of them is nonexistent. To start, the English voice cast, outside of the female twin and Harold “Hal” Clark, is not great. Most of the cast does a decent enough job portraying the characters (though I feel the voice work for the main character’s adoptive father is particularly awful), but their voice performances mean little when facial animations barely register and emotional cues and gestures rarely match up to the dialogue. This dialogue and animation dissonance is so jarring and off-putting that many of the game’s otherwise emotionally charged moments feel forced, unearned, and awkward. This resulted in a playthrough where I was more interested in my next battle than I was anything going on in between the combat encounters. On top of the half-baked voice acting and animations, the player character barely interacts with any of the main members of the police force outside of a few missions and cutscenes. None of these interactions evolve past a surface level introduction and, in all honesty, you are likely to care more about the police janitor Marie Wentz than you are any of your teammates or even your own twin sister. This is all just odd for someone who spends most of their time playing first-person games or RPGs that insist on relationship building.

I will say that most of these issues could be somewhat mitigated if it wasn’t for the silent protagonist. I understand why silent protagonists are utilized in gaming and how it is easier for a player to see themselves in such a character, however, this tactic doesn’t necessarily work in such a story heavy single player game like Astral Chain. Other titles have used a silent protagonist to great affect, but the story of those games either takes a backseat to exploration and gameplay or doesn't rely on emotional connections to NPCs for their storytelling. Personally, I would much rather the player character have their own personality that connects and interacts with the NPCs of the game than try to superimpose my own or one I’ve concocted for them onto an empty shell of a character model.

Despite my issues with the story and characterization of its world and characters, the combat in Astral Chain is incredibly fun, engaging, interesting, complex, and deep. Given this complexity and depth, however, the detailed tutorials included in the game are a necessity to complete. The ones included in the Training Room are, thankfully, more than sufficient to teach a new player the ins and outs of Legion combat. Speaking of, each Legion the player acquires has its own playstyle it excels at. The Sword Legion, the first Legion the player gets access to, is really an all around attacker and can be used to decent effect in almost every situation. The Arrow Legion is utilized best during long range skirmishes, while the Arm Legion is better at close quarters combat. The Beast Legion, my least favorite of the five, is great for quick and precise strikes against opponents. Finally, the Axe Legion is a defensive powerhouse that deals slow but devastating damage to foes. All five of the Legions can be utilized by the player in combat in quick succession thanks to the intuitive controls the game provides. A simple press of the Y Button will quickly change the Legion being used, while a tap of the R Trigger will summon or dismiss the selected Legion. The Left Trigger can be used to initiate each Legion’s special ability, while the ZL Trigger is used to send the Legion to attack an opponent or command the Legion to return to your side. The player can also hold down the ZL Trigger to position the Legion exactly where they wish, or whip the Astral Chain around an opponent to bind them in place. This all sounds complicated when typed out, and there are even more aspects to the combat that I can’t explain here, but it really all becomes second nature throughout the playthrough and works together to create a fantastic and rewarding combat loop.

As for structure, the game is broken up into cases which must be cleared to progress the story. These cases are typically broken into two smaller sections that I’m calling an Investigation Phase and a Confrontation Phase. The Investigation Phase, much like the name suggests, sees the player gathering evidence pertaining to the case at hand to determine what happened and what type of enemy we are likely to encounter. The Confrontation Phase, again like the name suggests, is where most of the combat takes place as the player comes face to face with the perpetrator of the crime, which is typically a Legion or interdimensional being of some variety. I was concerned after the first few cases that this pattern would become old, but thanks to the variety of the cases involved and the depth of the investigation that must be done to solve them, it never truly became stale and the gameplay loop stayed engaging until the end.

Interspersed inside each case are a select few side cases. These are less important, don’t affect the overall plot, and really only act to try and flesh out the world of Astral Chain. While most of these side cases are fun and a decent change of pace from investigating and defeating enemies, some of them function more as mini games - moving cars on the road to make a way through, collecting a certain number of items, moving boxes without dropping them, shooting targets to score points, etc. These mini games are fun and typically have some sort of scoring system begging the player to get the highest score possible. Unfortunately, Astral Chain doesn’t allow the player to do many of these mini games over again. They are a one and done deal, so if you fail or would like to go for a higher score, that’s not possible. It’s an annoying mechanic that I can’t see the reason behind its implementation.

Overall, I think Astral Chain is a good game with several glaring flaws that keep it from achieving greater success. Its sci-fi cyberpunk aesthetic is great, the enemy design and Legion designs are fantastic, and the combat is incredible, but the lacklust story, character interactivity, and world building drag this otherwise great experience down. It is a great game to pick up and play on the Nintendo Switch, but not something I would go out of my way to experience.