Review #692: Astral Chain

 Off the chain.

 I'm really starting to enjoy this pseudo partnership between Platinum Games and Nintendo. Astral Chain is their latest join venture, and yet again, Platinum Games manage to impress with a fantastic new action game, featuring their trademark gameplay alongside Nintendo's budget.

 The game has you playing as either Howard twin, you can pick either the male or the female twin, and whoever you didn't pick gets voiced lines, the name 'Akira' and a personality, since the main character is pretty much a mute. Much noise was made about customization, but its actually pretty lame.You get a few haircuts, most which you can then find other NPCs wearing, and as far as costume pieces go... its pretty limited. You'll be able to find things such as different glasses or silly accessories, but there's little in the way of actual clothes. Most of the time you'll be limited to preset color palettes, but you can unlock custom colors. Whichever the case, don't come at the game expecting a decent amount of customization or you'll be sorely disappointed.

 Both twins followed their father's footsteps and became police officers in a bleak, cyberpunkish futuristic world. Think Ghost in the Shell meets Evangelion as far as the setting and the story go. Pretty early on they get assigned to their father's division, NEURON, and outfitted with a Legion, a Chimera from the Astral Plane that was subdued with an Astral Chain, and thus their job becomes saving people from Chimeras and their otherworldly corruption. The game takes place throughout 11 different chapters, and it's quite long for a Platinum game, it took me 20 hours to beat it, being more or less complete. 'Cause you see, there are a ton of sidequests throughout each chapter, which aren't required to finish the game, but why wouldn't you? Getting extra goodies is always a good thing!

 One thing to keep in mind is that the game has a very slow beginning, it doesn't get good until the third chapter, and by then I had already spent over two hours. I thought the attack animations were lame, the roll sucked and there wasn't much to the Legion. But then chapter 2 ended, and by the time chapter 3 starts you get new fancy attack and dodging animations as well as get the ability to change between Legions(You get one per chapter, so you slowly start collecting them) between five different types, each one with unique attacks and special abilities, both for fighting and puzzle solving. You also get the ability to upgrade legions with experience points, equip them with Skills as well as passive skills and even get a third weapon type for your playable character. Heck, on the second-to-last chapter you unlock a Super Mode, so it's not until chapter 10 that you get everything. Needless to say, it takes a while, but when it gets good, it gets GOOD.

 When approaching Astral Chain do not come at it expecting the next Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, this is neither, but rather, its own brand of action game. It's not about stylish combos, so don't let the 30 FPS cap scare you, but rather about dealing with huge enemies and crowds of enemies alongside your Legion. Controls can feel a bit weird at times, since your main attack buttons are the shoulder buttons. Tapping ZR performs your basic attack combo, while ZL is used to manipulate your legion. Holding ZL lets you move your Legion around with the right analog stick, so that you can position it towards whichever enemy you want it to attack. You can also hold ZL and press either X or Y to use whichever two skills your Legion has equipped. Holding ZL and pressing ZR lets your legion pull you towards it by the chain, which can work as an evasive maneuver, a weak attack or as means to cross some chasms.

 Most fights in the game rely in correctly positioning both yourself and your legion. You'll want to spread out your legion to keep other enemies busy or to assist you with the baddie you're fighting at the moment. There are a few other techniques you can use to aid you, just as tying both ends of the Astral chain(You and your legion) around an enemy to stun it for a few seconds. You can also press ZL whenever a bright circle shines around your character, signaling a chance for a Synced attack. Legions can be outfitted with abilities found from fallen enemies, as well as upgraded with experience points obtained from defeating enemies. Your character can increase his maximum HP by scoring high after each mission and increasing rank,  and you can enhance your weapons by spending money and resources whenever you're at the Police HQ. Speaking of weapons, your X-Baton can change forms at any moment, even mid-combo, between a weak but long ranged gun, the all-around X-Baton or the slow, but powerful, Gladius mode.

 Depending on the difficulty setting, you may also get a few revives, but you shouldn't worry too much since you can take a ton of healing items with you. Avoiding damage is a bit tough, since the roll seems to be very stingy with invincibility frames, so its easy to dodge into another attack. You can either try to perform perfect dodges(Press B at the right moment) or be more predictive and try to gain distance with the enemy before it unleashes its attack. One small annoyance is maintenance, after each fight you have to go into a maintenance mini-game in which you clear corruption off of your Legions, all five of them. It's not really mandatory, but if you skip it they'll be slower in battle. It's a pretty dull waste of time that you simply have to engage in for whatever reason. It's not fun, it's not endearing, it's just a waste of time.

 On the other hand, each Legion is quite different from one another. For starters, you can equip every Legion with a different color-set, which is pretty neat, but they also have different abilities in battle and for puzzling, heck, every Legion has a unique function with the L button: Sword lets you cut energy beams, Arrow lets you shoot with third-person aiming, Arm lets you wear it(Which grants you a multi-punching JoJo ORA attack, as well as levitating over the ground), Beast lets you ride it and Axe puts a protective aura around you, protecting you from attacks or environmental hazards such as poison or fire. There's more to it than that, for example, Arm will be pushing blocks or platforms around, as well as opening jammed doors, Beast can track scents or dig through rubble and Axe can destroy barriers, so you'll find yourself switch between your legions if only to progress through the more puzzle-oriented sections.

 As you can tell, this is not a hack-and-slash like Devil May Cry, since puzzle elements are quite prevalent in how you traverse the world. As a matter of fact, most missions start you off investigating a situation, so you'll talk with NPCs to gather information or examine the aftermath of whatever disaster just occurred. Beginnings can be a bit on the slow side, with sidequests themed around being a good cop and reuniting a girl with her mother or capturing a graffiti artist, but once the action begins it doesn't let up until you finish the chapter. You can replay chapters if you examine the PC on the Police HQ, and you're actually encouraged to, since many early chapters require Legions you won't get until much later in the game if you want to do side missions. And many of these side-missions feature unique one-time bosses that you won't get to fight otherwise! It's quite a complete game, with tons to do and find.

 No, it's not the next evolution of hack-and-slash games, but it's not what it wants to be either. Astral Chain does its own thing, and does it extremely well. It's a fantastic action game, with a ton of fun ideas and mechanics, exactly what one would expect out of Platinum Games.
 9.5 out of 10