Review Astral Chain - The battlefield is full of explosions

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Platinum Games

Release date: August 30 , 2019

Platform: Switch

Platinum Games has a long and successful history of creating action games with its own style and Astral Chain is one of the most successful to date. 

Acrobatic combat is at the heart of this apocalyptic tale, sending heroes and monsters gliding through the air as swords swing wildly and raindrop effects on the battlefield. Experience fighting in a meaningfully built world, beautiful sci-fi visuals are an attractive point that the game brings.

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PlatinumGames also offers a story with many compelling characters, but its flow is turbulent and multi-thematic, spawning chaos from dark moments to hilarious comedy. The changes to the game's tempo are odd, but most of the content is fun or exciting and you just need to detach yourself from any thoughts that are too serious for Platinum Games to take you on a weird but erotic ride. full of excitement through an innovative vision of the future.

Astral Chain takes place in a megacity called Ark, a neon-colored metropolis that is thriving even though the world around it has disappeared. The Ark contains the last of humanity, pushed to the brink of extinction by dimension-hopping aliens known as the Chimera. 

As the numbers of humanity dwindled, a hope budged in the lab as they learned to tame the Chimeras and turn them into weapons called Legions. But the problem is that only a few people possess the ability to harness the power of Legion.

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Two of those who gain that power are a pair of twins, and you can choose either of them to control. Most games with dual playable characters understand that keeping both entities in motion at the same time can be a challenge, often resulting in them moving in the wrong direction. You experience a bit of this in Astral Chain, but since the AI ​​handles the basics of combat and movement, it shouldn't distract you too much. 

Your character is most likely to take out enemies on their own with a baton, sword, or blaster, but the heaviest hits will come from the Legion position. While standing back and watching Legion stab a monster might feel like cheating to you, the real challenge and fun comes from having you combine combat with your monster at the same time. 

When you move your character into position for a sword combo, you can spin Legion around enemies to chain them in place, allowing both of your characters to smack their enemies to death as well. If an enemy is about to lunge at you, you can manually control the Legion again to lunge sideways to turn the chain into a conduit that once again stuns the enemy. You can also tell Legion when to perform its special attacks.

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This dual character system works extremely well and has depth, especially when you unlock all five Legions, each of which is designed to expand combat and exploration options. Legion Arrow unlocks ranged shooting and Legion beast can be used as a mount. 

The worlds you explore are filled with obstacles that only a specific Legion can interact with, as well as puzzles in the game that will force you to use the right type of Legion to overcome. They are basically used like Link's items (bombs, boomerangs, etc) in the Zelda game.

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Legion is also used in a variety of side quests, many of which are lighthearted, like packing boxes or helping a man find a burger joint. However, the rewards are well worth the time you spend so you can power up yourself and your Legion, and also unlock skill items.

Platinum has created a great new universe for players to dive into not only in the game field, but also in the direction of expanding to both manga and anime. The two-character gameplay is also brilliantly designed, and while it's not as difficult as other Platinum Games titles, the twins in the game create an incredibly immersive gameplay experience that makes you feel like a powerful, unstoppable force. 

The plot of the game is still somewhat lacking in investment, but even so, it is still attractive enough to draw players into great moments, and at the same time, also contains many turning points that no one can expect. In summary, the game is really worth our money to buy and experience.

Lesley Montoya

Update 05 January 2022