é um jogo legal, me chamou bastante atenção na época que os trailers saíram, mas eu só fui jogar em 2022 e só terminei agora kkkk. o gráfico é bonito, a jogabilidade é muito boa, mas a história desse jogo é tão genérica, previsível e desinteressante que em diversos momentos eu ficava caindo de sono, pra piorar o protagonista fica quieto o jogo todo e só serve de massa de manobra pra história acontecer enquanto a irmã dele (ou irmão, depende de quem você escolheu jogar) é simplesmente insuportável e aparece o tempo inteiro, parece mais que era pra ela ser a protagonista, aí como se a história já não fosse chata o suficiente, o jogo tem vários trechos de investigação que até têm alguma profundidade, mas esses trechos não conversam nem um pouco com o resto da gameplay e são monótonos demais. já falando da gameplay, essa é a parte em que o jogo realmente brilha, é bem original, divertida e variada, além de usar basicamente tudo que a platinum já testou em cada jogo dela, pra ser sincero se não fosse a gameplay eu teria dropado o jogo, já que ele só pega tração bem pro final, mas infelizmente até a gameplay tem alguns defeitos, os trechos de plataforma/parkour são horríveis e imprecisos, e as missões secundárias ao longo do jogo são extremamente chatas e só servem pra encher linguiça. pra piorar, vc mal dá dano no último chefe e ele tem trocentos ataques que te matam com um hit e aí quando vc mata ele o jogo simplesmente acaba do nada

the 7.6/10 game of all time is calling..

astral chain’s story starts off incredibly basic and kind of annoying.. to the point where i thought i wouldn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would. to put my feelings on the characters as blunt as i possibly can: this game is like evangelion if the cast spoke like ragna the bloodedge 50% of the time. do NOT play this game in english for any reason unless you’re prepared to hear akira act like the worst isekai protagonist you’ve ever had the displeasure of listening to. the game toys with some pretty interesting ideas and concepts but the ‘chosen one’ and silent protagonist tropes end up preventing it from being something amazing. this is a game that really depends on your attachment to the familial bond of the two main characters to have an impact, and because the player’s character ends up being silent, some story beats fall entirely flat.

from what i’ve said so far, you’d probably think i didn’t really enjoy the story of this game, but i actually really did. there is a lot of lore here for players to sift through if they want and when the writers choose to actually write this game can be great. the last 45% of this game is really good, and i do think it’s worth sitting through the pretty OK first half to get to. there is a lot of symbolism here with birds which i think is pretty awesome when you link things together.

i'll keep things brief on the combat side of things, mostly out of credit to platinum for always making good action games. fighting in this game is so much fun just because of the amount of skills and playstyles you have at your disposal. in every single combat encounter with an enemy, you can link up attacks to make things feel at least somewhat engaging, which is all something like this needs to be fun. every legion (these are basically mini eva units with different playstyles that affect how you fight. beast is the best one btw.) i would have liked to have seen more types of weapons for the protagonist.. three is alright but i didn’t see myself using the pistol much unless there was something on the wall. speaking of.. this game sometimes decides that it wants to do air combat, and when it does it really just becomes an extremely shallow exchange between you and the enemy where you’re either sending the legion out to hit them in the air repeatedly, or shooting at them with the gun. definitely a weak point for the game, albeit not a large one. side note, platinum needs to stop trying to work with multiple playstyles and halfassing one. the bike portions are cool to look at but annoying to play.

SPOILERS FOR MAIN STORY EVENTS AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.


let’s start with akira for character reviews as i think he’s the most fleshed out character here. um.. i kind of don’t like him but i also think he’s cool. it’s weird. every single time he starts to act somewhat human, they have to either punch down at him or throw him the most annoying and forced line of all time. when the writers decide they actually feel like writing him, however, he has some great character moments that build him up and are genuinely touching. his ending was amazing and one of my favorite moments in the entire story.

hal was probably my second favorite character in the game. i can’t exactly explain why, because he’s not even relatively significant in the grand scheme of things, but i just have a thing for boys that are nerds like he is. hal always comes across well and has a good heart that i really enjoyed. his role in the story never felt forced which is actually surprising, considering many other characters struggle to make as big of an impact as him while being present for longer.

jena anderson is awesome. to be honest, i think that this game would have benefitted from keeping her around for longer. i like yohan as this game’s antagonist, but jena is just so much more interesting as a character what with her dirty and careless look compared to the well kept, clean feel of the main cast. 10/10 character stuck in a 7.5/10 game. i hope she comes back if there’s a sequel.

somehow the most nonexistent, forgettable game i've ever played. the combat system is wonky and hard to grapple with yet the game is piss easy 99% of the time, the plot is hammy yet impossible to follow... the game's aesthetic can be pretty cool at times and it's got a few funky songs, but it's one of those games where i forgot almost everything about it the second i put it down. for other platinum games i can kinda understand the appeal of optimizing your combat and getting those S ranks, but you couldn't pay me to replay any of these levels.

Complexity and depth are two words frequently mentioned when talking about action games. Some even use them interchangeably, but this is a misconception. Complexity refers to the total number of actions a character can perform, whereas depth refers to the total number of applications possible from said actions. This distinction is important because complex movesets do not automatically have more depth than their simpler cousins. Let’s imagine for a moment a game where pressing A, B, X, or Y leads to a kick with slightly different windup times. The slower the kick, the more damage. There’s some depth with the low risk vs. reward of fast kicks and the opposite with slow kicks, and its technically complex because four buttons on the controller are being used, but is there really a need to have four slight variations on one attack? I would argue no. And yet action games, especially those from Platinum and recent Capcom titles, often resort to such excess in their combat design. In Bayonetta, for example, you are incentivized to change your combos to get better scores, but when the overwhelming majority of said combos merely hitstun foes and have imperceptible variations in damage output, I question why all of these combos are necessary. Brutally slaughtering foes in numerous ways is all fun and games until you realize these attacks look different instead of playing different.

Prioritizing combos via complex button sequences is a pursuit of diminishing returns, especially with game controllers now having (arguably) perfect button layouts. So it’s surprising that the studio who popularized combo-based action would evolve away from that. Astral Chain has only one button for attacking and three weapons: a blaster with weak damage, a fast baton with average damage, and a slow gladius with high damage. Pretty basic so far, but then the Jojo Stands Legions come in. Once unlocked, these can be summoned by pressing ZL and boom, you have a combat ally. Where it becomes interesting is if you hold the button, you can use the right analog stick to direct them around your vicinity, giving you real-time control over what enemies the Legion attacks. When coupled with a grappling hook-esque jump that pulls you to your Legion’s current location and a solid enemy roster, the dynamism of battles expands considerably. Every Legion having its own weapon and movement speed guarantees they serve some purpose. Them being tethered closely to your character subtly encourages staying close to enemies to temporarily bind them with the titular chain and pile damage together. It’s a very creative and methodical type of combat.

I have only two issues with the execution. The first is that the Axe Legion isn’t unlocked until late in the game, giving you less time to learn and upgrade its abilities. The second regards sync attacks. If certain conditions are met, your character will briefly glow, at which point you can press the summon button to unleash a powerful Legion attack. The problem is that you don’t consistently have i-frames or stun foes when performing these, meaning you’re liable to take damage when used against agile aggressors. It feels sloppy and Platinum appears to agree given they granted i-frames to sync attacks in Bayonetta 3, whose evolved combat clearly took inspiration from this title.

Outside of the combat, I’m ambivalent. Playing as a police officer, the detective work in the first half feels appropriate, but the interactions are extremely barebones. Most of these are about finding out information on a threat I was already expecting. Even if I didn’t know what was coming, I wasn’t even punished for failing to piece the clues together. I had no desire to replay any of the chapters because on top of them frequently overstaying their welcome, you can’t skip to the combat challenges. This was a problem in previous Platinum titles, but their non-combat gameplay was usually over with quickly. Another issue is a slight overabundance of RPG systems. The Legion skill trees are fine, but minor upgrades to your weapons and Legatus unit for summoning Legions is overkill. The less developers have to worry about number balancing, the better, so I don’t get why Platinum insists on including these.

Speaking of balance, the difficulty spike in the finale is insane! I played on hard difficulty (Pt Standard) and the final boss killed me more times than every other fight combined! Its moveset is great, but its colossal healthpool makes the ordeal feel like an optional superboss instead of a main story climax. It’s almost unthinkable an actual superboss exists.

The music is very good. Emergency feels me with adrenaline and Task Force Neuron is the perfect tune to hear after a long chapter. None of them compare to the Astral Plane though. Not since Twilight Princess have I felt both fear and excitement when entering a new realm. It was always a bummer when I had to leave it because of the hauntingly beautiful atmosphere. This made exploration and fighting chimeras even more fun than it already was.

Astral Chain is good. It offers a compelling argument for less complex movesets in action games and is a miracle in combat design. Platinum made controlling two characters at once intuitive. The fun is not always there, but it is fresh and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the 3D kings of the genre.

Wife’s Reaction:
“What’s this game called again? Ass Chain?”

All Cops Are Astrals:
I want to like this game more but it just kept getting in its own way. On one hand, the game has some cool, unique combat, as well as some great music. On the other hand, everything else from the cop sidequests to the story and cutscenes are a bore and it all drags the experience down.

A very fun game that ends up feeling half complete. Sure the story finishes but I feel like there are so many plot points and characters that aren't fully explored. I was honestly surprised when it became clear I was facing the final boss (even most of the way into the mission, I was expecting more)

Thankfully the gameplay is some enjoyable action with some unique mechanics and a good soundtrack. Don't be put off just because the more anime aesthetic doesn't fit in with some of PlatinumGames' more well-praised action games.

"A história? Ah... a história que se foda"
-Sujiro Kimimame, diretor criativo de Astral Chain

Esse jogo pode muito bem ser o maior exemplo de "estilo sobre substância" que existe na face do planeta Terra.

Sendo mais uma obra da Platinum, o essencial não podia faltar, e no quesito combate, felizmente estamos bem servidos!
Como de praxe da produtora, a gameplay da vez é divertida, legal de se ver, empolgante e tudo mais. Se parecer que falta profundidade durante uma gameplay imediata, é porque os twists próprios do jogo tratam de dar essa aprofundada em outros lugares
As implementações próprias da vez são do fato de você controlar DOIS lutadores ao mesmo tempo, e na ligação que ocupa um espaço físico no jogo (a corrente, lol) entre os dois personagens. Essas "novidades" dão palco pra, por exemplo, o uso mais aprofundado dos cenários na hora de planejar uma abordagem, e também na divisão da atenção do jogador na hora de engajar no combate, já que vai controlar duas coisas ao mesmo tempo
Uma ressalva que fica para o combate, é que o jogo é bem fácil no geral, dando desafio só quando você ainda não entendeu a dinâmica, e mais pro final. Infelizmente, as dificuldades mais difíceis estão presas no replay

Outra faceta do jogo que merece destaque é no visual! No lado técnico, não tem exatamente o que se impressionar, ainda é bem óbvio que é um switch, e pro próprio patamar, é bem competente! Com exceção de certas proporções de tamanho e escala que o jogo toma em determinados momentos, e que o jogo consegue se segurar muito bem no desempenho, não tem nada de novo por aqui
Onde os aplausos devem ser focados é na direção de arte do jogo, excelente escolha de cor, efeitos muito bem colocados, design de modelos... só procure no YT os primeiros 10 minutos do jogo, e na hora, vai entender o que eu tô falando

Completando a trindade de elogios pro jogo, a trilha sonora hypa bastante os combates fodões do jogo! Não é nada extraordinário, nenhuma faixa me deu vontade de parar o jogo e procurar no spotify ou YT por exemplo (nem as faixas-chave...) mas durante a gameplay, serviram muito bem o propósito

Abrindo os portões do inferno, há muito tempo que eu não via uma história tão feijão com arroz, tão básica, tão previsível, tão sem graça, tão anime101 em um jogo. A princípio, era pra ser somente um ponto neutro, mas foi TÃO sem sal que se tornou ponto negativo, peguei desgosto pelo bagulho.
Seu protagonista é mudo (lol), o vilão é um arrogante com complexo de Messias, que começa o jogo sendo do bem (lol), tem personagem que morre TRÊS vezes e em NENHUMA delas você sente alguma coisa, sacrifícios baratos acontecem o tempo TODO, CADA um dos eventos chave do jogo podem ser previstos 2 horas antes de se consumarem... é realmente um show de merda, o jogo seria melhor se eles tivessem ido com uma abordagem mais arcade, pra dar espaço só pra parte jogável do jogo

Repetição é outra praga que assola esse jogo. Vou demonstrar com apenas um exemplo: do início do jogo até o fim (+ ou - 20hs de gameplay) as dungeons em que você vai entrar vão ter as mesmas texturas, mesma música de fundo, mesmo background, mesma cor e mesma aparência geral. Paia, né? Sdds Persona.

Como algo mais geral e "etéreo", gostaria de pontuar que o jogo simplesmente parece não ter muita alma, não tem personalidade, algo próprio, saca?

No fim, saio de Astral Chain entendendo BEM o porque de ninguém falar dele hoje em dia, coisa que eu me perguntava antes e quando comecei a jogar o jogo. Mesmo com o combate sendo bom, nada nele é marcante, nada nele é novo, é um jogo legal no máximo, o que, as vezes, é tudo que alguém precisa.
Caso uma história fraca não signifique nada pra você, é uma boa ideia ir testar o jogo, porque a gameplay realmente é boa. Pra mim, minou a experiência e tirou gosto de todas as outras áreas da obra.

This game took me 4 restarts to actually get into it, it was more I wasn't in the mood. Once I got into the game properly it is really really good platinum games smashed it out the park with this. The switch performance is so well with this game. The art style combat and story are all top notch. I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing it. The idea of this game is presented and executed very well. My only complaint with this game is I change the difficulty on the last boss battle and it reset me back and hour to play the chapter again. So I had to look up the ending. Not a fan of that otherwise well worth a play through

Recentemente, sorteei um game para jogar da minha wishlist e caiu o Astral Chain, game que me chamou atenção principalmente pelo seu visual. É até mesmo engraçado falar dele, porque quando comecei a jogá-lo, Astral Chain me passava muito uma vibe de um jogaço, até porque no início dele você já começa na ação pura, em uma moto, e toda essa cena inicial é linda, colorida e muito chamativa. Depois dessa cena, somos apresentados ao combate do jogo, que igualmente parece bem promissor e empolgante. Porém, depois desse início, o jogo cai num limbo de pura repetição.

O jogo peca muito em manter esse ritmo inicial que foi apresentado no começo e rapidamente se torna um jogo típico japonês atual, onde temos diversos objetivos um mais desinteressante que o outro. O jogo meio que passa para você "casos policiais" e, como tal, você estará constantemente voltando para a base, usando uma visão especial para investigar os locais, quebrando completamente o fluxo do jogo. Para mim, a pior parte é essa da "investigação" que você tem que fazer, é chato demais cara. As missões secundárias no jogo são tão chatas quanto as principais, quase sempre são objetivos bobos e que não acrescentam absolutamente nada de bom à gameplay.

Outro conceito que achei bem chato no jogo foram os tutoriais e as mecânicas do game. As mecânicas do game, em teoria, funcionam perfeitamente, porém o controle e a sincronia da gameplay com seu summon são estranhos e meio que ficam na tentativa e erro. O jogo te explica com trocentos guias, porém com o tempo você acaba pegando por conta própria mesmo. Felizmente, o combate puro é ok e consegui ser bem divertido. O que, por outro lado tambem, pode ser ruim já que as missões geralmente começam na base, você parte para a missão, tem investigação, para depois sim você de fato entrar em um combate, só que dura tão pouco tempo que quando você pisca tá de volta na sua base da delegacia.

O que me faz pensar porque só não executaram o game de maneira simples e objetiva, somente se concentrando em um combate simples do jeito que ele é com momentos de ação com sua moto que para mim são o grande destaque do game. A câmera do jogo, como dito antes, é muito importante no game, você controla o seu "Legion", que é o seu summon padrão, porém controlar ele é muito estranho, é quase como se você estivesse jogando "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons", já que lá você controla dois personagens com um único controle, porém aqui, além dos controles de câmera serem pouco precisos, o jogo faz questão de você usar o Legion em diversas situações. O controle nesse sentido é muito mal feito, acho que poderiam deixar o Legion mais independente de você enquanto você simplesmente manda comandos de ação, acho que ficaria muito melhor assim.

Tudo no game, de maneira geral é mais ou menos, e a história também não é lá essas coisas, na real é uma história até que irrelevante e meio "foda-se". Visualmente, para um jogo do Switch, as coisas parecem legais aqui, graficamente falando. Ele não chega a ser uma maravilha dos gráficos, porém ele também não é feio, sendo um game padrão japonês com um estilo anime 3D.

No geral, Astral Chain é um jogo bem OK, para melhor dizer mediano. O jogo tem aí por volta de 15 a 20 horas de história principal, muito disso por conta da enrolação que o game tem e sinceramente, para pegar 100%, eu chuto aí mais de 70 horas e nem senti vontade de jogar novamente. Sendo bem sincero, é um típico game que você vai se forçar demais para achar uma diversão, vai até encontrar, porém logo ela vai embora. Eu sinceramente não entendo como esse jogo tem notas tão altas, é apenas um jogo mediano e não tem literalmente nada demais.

Pontos Positivos:
- Visualmente legal
- Gameplay legalzinha no combate

Pontos Negativos:
- História boba
- Personagem criado por você bobão no meio da história
- Câmera confusa de controlar, principalmente com o Legion
- Problemas de ritmo

Versão utilizada para análise: Switch

It's everything I dislike about platinum games with nothing I like. The overpowered iframe dodge kills whatever cool positioning trickery you could eke out of this stand system, movement is finicky due to the high momentum that inhibits precision despite platforming asking for a modicum of it, there's no semblance of character from anybody in the cast even outside of the protagonist being human cardboard, the narrative is a half-baked parade of anime cliches that assumes much more intrigue than exists of its foreshadowing that feels like it's made so the players' children can follow along, the game continually places its combat gauntlets in a place with one single tileset and very little iteration on what you're doing there, and the detective mechanics aren't interesting and aren't stressed in ways that might be remotely interesting or fun, it's instead concerned with insanely bloated and overlong sequences of you beating on unarmed civilians and doing collectathon bullshit that's over-telegraphed while the parts of the game that actually need explaining go unremarked-upon. I like the police station theme and Marie is funny, though.

Mechanically, very few of its Platinum gimmick inclusions feel like they actually deserve to exist and just slow down the pace? Blade mode, zandatsu, and wicked weaves all feel really bad in comparison to the games they're from and strings are so fucking long before you use a sync attack and so repetitious and uninteractive that it's not really fun to beat on enemies.

The actual legion combat stuff is just not very fun, you just kind of hit L2 and let them do their thing while you mash your own attack and dodge, occasionally using cooldown moves or command inputs that have to be unlocked from the fucking 135 skill nodes. If they didn't have the "teleport to where your legion is standing" move I'd say "literally everything it was trying to do was done better by Bayonetta 3," but I can settle for "99% of what it was trying to do was done better by Bayonetta 3."

Bayonetta 3's decision to make you buffer 1-2 attacks ahead of time while having to dial in combos yourself as well is genius for allowing that left-brain-right-brain fantasy of playing a puppet character in a game like this, but you just can't do that in this game because there's one single attack string for every weapon and pitiful pause combos. The chain stuff doesn't feel like it affects combat as much as it should, circling an enemy to bind them is a lengthy process due to how slow the game is in general and your reward is being able to get a full greatsword string in, which you can do anyways if you get a perfect dodge.

Tripping charging enemies is cool and evokes an MMO's stack/spread mechanics, but it just doesn't happen enough or have enough layers of mechanical or encounter design to be fully compelling. Also, Shell-type enemies are fucking garbage and one of the worst enemy concepts I've seen in this genre. I would rather fight a DMC4 Chimera than an enemy which makes other people in the encounter full-on invincible until you trial-and-error each variant's weakness, something the game does not deign worthy of explication despite tutorializing the pause menu's function.

Flying around with the chain and doing air combos is its own brand of fun but this game had eight full hours to show me some sauce and there wasn't anything.
Goodbye forever, Takahisa Taura. Your games all suck.

It's badass.

Finally getting to pick this up and play feels a bit surreal to me. I've been eyeing this since it originally released. At the time I passed on it, because I was a lame and judgy 17 yr old who wrote it off as too weird and anime. By the time I convinced myself, physical copies started getting somewhat rare in retail but I was able to find an affordable import on ebay. After playing through it, I can't say my initial impressions were wrong but Astral Chain 's over-the-top, seinen-laced DNA is precisely what endeared me to it so much.

I like how the story carries itself with a sincere grace. The game's narrative somehow manages to grip onto you despite its cast of supporting characters feeling somewhat generic. Fortunately, the twins' relationship takes center stage in the latter half of the game and it's all the better for it. It nevers feel quite too serious though and I appreciate that because I am mowing down demons with my funny dog persona after all.

Speaking of mowing down demons... The combat in this game is pure bliss. I love how responsive the dodge feels. Pulling off a row of perfect dodges into a slew of sync attacks against a miniboss/boss injects you with a metric fuck ton of adrenaline and is some of the most satisfying game feel I've ever encountered. The legions are all so varied and fun to use. There are probably some that are just objectively better to use for an entire playthrough but enemy encounters often had me switching legions mid combo depending on the situation. I like that I felt forced to experiment with the strengths of other legions because it leads to combat always feeling fresh even near the end of the game.

As much as Astral Chain tries to cutout the bullshit and throw the player into the thick of action, it also pays an impressive amount of respect to its setting. At the end of the day you are a police officer and the priority is to protect and serve. The inclusion of the IRIS and the investigation notes add an extra layer of immersion that connects you to this world, its people and its history. The game also expresses this through a variety of optional missions within in each "file" outside of the main quest. These missions can range from balancing a tower of ice cream for a snot-nosed kid to destroying a cocky officer's high score in the shooting range with your Arrow legion. Others can be more sprawling side adventures that often end up in you having to save civilians from an Eldritch horror residing in the Astral Plane. I personally think it strikes the right balance of variety and quality of content. I was a little disappointed with the lack of motorbike missions and how much time I spent on that last sliding puzzle (you know the one).

I would be remiss if I didn't throw out a mention to this game's OST. Astral Chain boasts a seamless dynamic soundtrack. The HQ and civilian area themes present moody, serene synths that effortlessly transition into the more frenetic electric guitars and drums once chimeras burst on the scene. The music is a character in itself and cranks some of the most cinematic moments in this game (like the entirety of File 11) from a 7 to a 10.

Anyways this review is already too long. This is easily a top 2 switch game and has converted me to PlatinumGames enjoyer. I hope they can make a sequel granted the funds and material are there. I'm going to go collect the S+ ranks I missed.

I think this game deserves a 4 even if it didn't always feel like one. It seems to me like a lot of effort was put into this game and there's plenty to do. The story itself is long enough, but there's lots to collect and various side missions. There are customization options and also different kinds of gameplay (the "meat" of the game which is the action/combat but also fetch quests and running through conversations with NPCs, a bit like an RPG). The combat itself is interesting and doesn't get stale throughout. Most people probably haven't played a game like this before and I don't think I can name many like it anyway. It's absolutely worth a shot for the unique gameplay, visuals/vibe, and if you just want to try something new. The story is there and I'd say decent but it was drawn out for me at points and sometimes lost on me. But I tend to get that way with longer games in general. I bet the game looks great on OLED.