It looks great (especially for a Switch game), sounds lovely and has a pleasantly off-kilter personality. Then it all clicked and I spent the rest of the surprisingly lengthy adventure slinging my pet monsters all over the arena, balletically backflipping over enemy strikes, switching up weapons mid-combo and generally owning bones. For a while, I was worried that this was too esoteric – that I’d bounce off it in the way I did The Wonderful 101. You have to split your attention between what you’re doing, what your Legion is doing, what enemies are doing and various meters and cooldowns that dictate what you can do. This is connected to you by the titular ‘astral chain’ and the key to the game is managing both yourself and your Legion at the same time.įor the first few hours it’s a pat your head/rub your belly kind of deal. The core of combat is synchronising with a partly AI-controlled partner – your ‘Legion’.
But you’re going to have to work a little harder than usual to get there. I’m here to kick some ass and look good doing it, and Astral Chain provides that in spades. The plot is total anime nonsense, but coming here for that is like putting a porno on and wondering when the electrician is going to fix the woman’s TV.
I mean, tracking down a guy’s wallet is a lot easier when you have an invisible science-fiction hell-dog to sniff it out for you. You mix acrobatically disintegrating killer monsters with bobby-on-the-beat police work. This is a barmy anime-inspired adventure about super-powered teen future cops wielding demon-slaves from another dimension aboard a dystopian floating city. No other studio does this schtick so well and no other studio could have made Astral Chain. On top of that, they’ve got style coming out the wazoo, with fights taking place to an intense guitar-led soundtrack, lots of flashing lights, and your character constantly vogueing for the virtual lens. Their combat systems flow together like no other studios’, rewarding precision, tactics and fast reflexes.
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