There are three difficulty levels; Casual and Pt Standard (where I mostly played) are available from the outset, with Pt Ultimate unlocking after finishing a file on Pt Standard. While playing on Casual mode you also have the option to turn on Unchained mode, which adds the ability to automate several gameplay elements, notably Legion summoning and attacking. The main differences between the difficulty levels are enemy health and damage output, as well as the game rating your performance from D to S+ after each mission on Pt Standard and Ultimate modes. The rating system actually confused me at first; I’d feel like I performed well on a stage, playing safely and taking little damage and end up with a C or D; while on another I’d take more risks and take a bunch of damage, using healing items or even needing revives, and still get S+. After playing more I was able to get a better feel for it and what the game expects you to do. Even if you take damage in attempting it, the game rewards experimentation and risk-taking; things like Perfect Calls, Perfect Dodges, Chain Binds, and Legion Counters all get large numbers of points, while staying back and exclusively using normal attack strings with your ranged weapon gets far fewer even if you get through the fight without taking damage. When you’re taking those risks is also when the combat system is at its best, showing that there’s a lot more to do than just slashing, shooting, and dodging. Each of the five Legions you acquire – Sword, Arrow, Arm, Beast, and Axe – has unique abilities and traits that make them suited for different combat situations as well, and being able to switch between them on the fly to take advantage of this makes combat feel even more dynamic.
There’s also a progression system in place called Legion Learning, where you can spend Gene Codes and Material Codes you find in missions to upgrade your Legions’ stats and learn new skills, such as boosts to attack and defense, command skills with left stick motions and ZL, and more opportunities for Sync Attacks, among other things. You can also equip Ability Codes you come across for other miscellaneous bonuses. It always feels good to progress the Legions you enjoy using the most, and it helps that many of the upgrades feel substantial rather than all being simple attack and defense boosts.
The gameplay isn’t perfect, unfortunately. I found the Chain Jump to be unreliable, given that you often slightly overshoot the Legion’s position when you use it. As a result, it’s somewhat difficult to jump to narrow pathways or platforms. You can also wrap the chain around certain pillars to curve your jump, but this is also somewhat unpredictable, especially when it involves moving the Legion out of your line of sight to get around a corner. There are also a few stealth segments, but the actual stealth mechanics themselves are fairly limited. It’s reasonably suited to the sections where you need to tail people, but the stealth areas themselves often end up being more of an annoyance than anything else. Certain stages also have you ride your motorcycle to the mission area and fighting enemies along the way, but this only happens twice. I would have liked to see it used more and expanded upon. There are also some side missions where you use motion controls to balance a stack of objects, and these are terrible. There’s also a co-op mode where one player controls the protagonist and the other controls the Legion, but I kept forgetting this mode existed and never got a chance to try it.
The story has its somewhat predictable twists and turns throughout the first 11 files, while still remaining fast-paced and exciting throughout. I found the characters consistently appealing, and there’s a good amount of variety in the NPCs within Neuron. The setting of the Ark is also grounded yet fascinating, and I always enjoy seeing ordinary people and everyday life within fantasy or science fiction settings. The Astral Plane reminds me of the interpretation of the Astral Plane from Control; lots of angular surfaces within an endless void, albeit with more of a red-focused color scheme than Control’s monochrome black-and-white design. It has its own details and crystalline elements to match the aesthetic of the corruption spread by chimeras in the Ark, which itself looks appropriately otherworldly and out-of-place in the mundane back alleys and clean, shiny city center.
While much of the music didn’t particularly stand out to me, it matches the setting well, and properly amplifies the atmosphere, especially the unnerving style of the Astral Plane. There are a few vocal tracks, such as the opening and ending themes. Towards the end of the game you gain the ability to temporarily transform in combat, and this form has its own vocal theme song that temporarily replaces the regular music whenever you use it, making the fight even more exciting and raising the energy past its usual point. The art style is clean and colorful, with the Astral Plane and corruption contrasting sharply with the Ark itself. The character designs also deserve special mention, being the product of manga artist Masakazu Katsura, the artist behind series such as DNA², Zetman, and Tiger and Bunny, to name a few. The character designs are similarly appealing to the rest of the game’s visuals, and even though the character customization options are somewhat limited, it all grew on me as I played more of the game. There’s also a lot of variety in the costume customization items and colors you pick up as you progress through the game.
Astral Chain is one of my favourite games that I’ve played recently, largely because of its combat system. It’s incredibly fast-paced, satisfying, and deep, especially when you get comfortable enough with the system to start going out of your way to explore it. There are so many options at your disposal, and none of them feel bad to use or extraneous, even if certain things feel a bit cumbersome at first. That isn’t to say that the game is perfect, considering the somewhat ill-advised stealth segments, unreliable Chain Jump, and woefully underutilized motorcycle, but I think the stellar combat makes up for those shortcomings. If you enjoyed the gameplay in the other work of Hideki Kamiya – such as Bayonetta and Devil May Cry – or Taura’s previous work Nier: Automata, Astral Chain will likely be right up your alley. It’s well worth the $59.99 USD for the over 30 hours and counting it’s offered me so far, and it’ll be much more before I find everything hidden in the various stages. Even if some of the more auxiliary mechanics may fall short, Astral Chain is still one of the best action games I’ve played in quite some time.
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Overall |   |
Review copy provided by publisher
