Astral Chain (Switch)
In the fast-paced action of Astral Chain you fight with two characters chained together, but the way this is handled is rather elegant. Rather than the player being overwhelmed managing both or the characters just being essentially one move set split across two bodies, the player’s human character is a consistent damage dealer and the main body to protect while the second fighter, a supernatural being called a Legion, will attack sometimes automatically but most of your special skills involve guiding it into position, activating its powers, or grouping up with them for quick specialized maneuvers. It truly feels like both battlers are important but distinct, your character’s preternatural knack for handling this style of combat not just something the story tells you you’re good at to make the player feel special.
As for why you are chained to a creature from another dimension, that all has to do with the science fiction setting of Astral Chain. In Earth’s future, gates to the Astral Plane have begun opening around the planet, malicious invisible creatures known as Chimeras crossing over and corrupting the world around them with their mere presence. Most of humanity has been forced into an artificial colony known as the Ark for their own safety, a special police force known as Neuron made up of some of the few people who can even see the Chimeras let alone fight them. A great step forward is made in the battle against the Chimeras when an experimental technology allows humans to chain Chimeras to them and use them in battle, these becoming the Legions that you’ll be fighting alongside. Your character is particularly gifted in the handling of Legions, and while you get to customize your character to a great degree and outfit pieces are a pretty common reward for doing side activities, the most important decision you’ll likely make is whether they’re a male or female. Whichever you pick will determine the sex of your twin sibling Akira Howard, and while your character is completely quiet and thus more of a powerful hammer wielded against threats, Akira ends up the one that strongly reacts to plot developments but not really as a main character. Some of their own angst comes from the fact they’re your twin but not nearly as gifted in handling the Legions but the game thankfully doesn’t forget that a bond between two twins would be quite strong, Akira not hasty to let their insecurities ruin their relationship with their sibling.
Astral Chain’s story begins first with mostly Chimera-related police work before it starts to delve more into trying to uncover the truth about Chimera activity and the efforts made towards stopping the threat once and for all. Besides the interesting development Akira undergoes, there are other members of the cast that will grow on you and a good amount of time spent exploring the Ark’s history and culture helps flesh out the world you find yourself in. While the energetic battles will be the moments that will likely make up most of the game’s standout moments, your work as a cop does give you time to explore areas you find yourself in and even conduct some proper investigations. Speaking with citizens and picking up keywords will eventually culminate in a quiz of sorts where a partner will go over the information about recent phenomena and you need to try and say the right keywords at the right points. There is no penalty for being incorrect but there are higher rewards for paying attention, and having these calmer moments not only give you some time to immerse yourself in the Ark’s different locations but you can often pick up plenty of side quests before continuing on with the story conflicts. While these come in Red and Blue versions meant to delineate how substantial they are, some Blue cases are nice character work, some Red ones include distinct minigame styles, and both Red and Blue can sometimes basically just be excuses to throw in a few more battles. It is a shame some are fairly generic ideas like multiple ones involving finding lost children, but you can also get some delightful side quests like Carlos Kajioka’s set of missions where his grandiose ideas about justice make him sound like a classic superhero.
Combat will still be the main interaction you’ll use to make progress in Astral Chain, and while there are often points where you can use a Legion to do a little puzzle solving or platforming, their role is definitely first and foremost as a vital tool in taking down Chimeras. The player character fights mostly with simple combo strings involving a transforming weapon, it able to serve as a quick and effective police baton, a rapid fire but rather weak pistol, and a slow but powerful gladius blade. Switching between them is as easy as pressing down or up and can be done mid-combo, but your attacks are mostly there for consistent damage rather than anything that will really shift the flow of battle. Your Legions add extra layers to your combat options though. Guide your Legion around the enemy with the right control stick and you can snag a foe in the astral chain, leaving them helpless as you both whale on them with ease. Yank yourself towards your Legion to quickly cross the battlefield or place the chain in the path of a charging enemy to snap them backwards like a rope in a wrestling ring. There are quite a few nifty applications of the supernatural binding used to control your Legion before you add in Sync Attacks where you can both strike in tandem under certain conditions like the end of an attack combo, and as the game progresses you will get different Legions with their own advantages and attack options. An archer one is good for fighting flying foes while you can wear the heavy-hitting Arm Legion as armor to give yourself a new range of attacks, the Legions even having unique out of battle properties like the Beast Legion letting you track things or dig for items.
The Legion system does sound like a promising source for variety, and even though there are limits on it like Legions needing to be dispelled for a bit to recover energy and you’ll need to invest in upgrades for them to unlock their special techniques, the battle system doesn’t feel as deep as it sounds. When you use a certain weapon it’s mostly going to attack in the same way, when a Legion is out they do a lot of automatic fighting until you decide to utilize a handful of tricks. The battles are still lively and some battles can feel like kinetic ballets if you really find a rhythm for utilizing things like the chain bind and Sync Attacks, but the fights often don’t demand too much even if you’re trying to earn high rankings in them. Rankings earn you extra bonuses but aren’t too important, but so long as you’re pretty aggressive and utilize your small range of attack options, S+ ranks don’t actually feel too out of reach even if you take a substantial amount of damage. Even staying in the back with the gun and Archer Legion can sometimes be rewarded with top marks and unfortunately this battle style can work surprisingly well even on the big impressive boss monsters, but thankfully there is a range of Chimera types to draw out different battle strategies and keep you on your toes. You will notice that minibosses, even when presented as something new and fresh, will have lightly altered designs from previous foes you’ve faced, but the combat doesn’t grow repetitious so much as you might wish it stretched its creative muscles a bit more.
Astral Chain does have a lot of treasure to find and small activities to do while exploring like using your Legion to clean up Red Matter corruption to always keep you occupied, but one interesting and intelligent choice was made in regards to how items are handled. For each chapter of the 11 chapter long story, you will receive temporary items that will be removed from your inventory by chapter’s end. Rather than hoarding healing items or buffs, the ephemeral nature of such pick-ups encourages you to use them instead of lose them, and you even get points in the ranking system for doing so. You can carry permanent items if you feel you need extra support as well, although most fights don’t feel too demanding unless you’re playing the higher difficulties or doing the post-game missions. Orders also exist that give you little extras like additional items, resources for upgrades, and more just for performing certain actions, it more like a checklist for doing certain activities but still another small addition to Astral Chain that makes the package feel more robust even when some parts could have used a little more attention.
THE VERDICT: Astral Chain’s two character battle system features a visually impressive spectacle where your range of options do make for an interesting toolkit even if they start to become routine since they feel like they have clear prescribed purposes. This doesn’t drag down the combat though thanks to enemies asking for you to shift your Legion and weapon often, and while sometimes Chimeras seem a bit similar, overall you are given a kinetic action component to add some exciting bursts of conflict into a science fiction setting that has a good deal of interest to learn about and interact with. The investigations and optional activities help flesh out the adventure more, Astral Chain perhaps not exceptional but having some strong ideas to ensure most of what it includes makes the game more enjoyable and diverse.
And so, I give Astral Chain for Nintendo Switch…
A GOOD rating. Setting aside some weak stealth sections, Astral Chain is usually well designed but it also seems to stop before it really achieves greatness. Perhaps the effective balance in making Legions feel useful in combat but not overly complex lead to the odd situation where your range of options doesn’t feel quite as deep as they nominally should be, but it might also be that things feel rather specialized. Binding enemies with your chain is almost always good to attempt if the foe’s not too tough to break out of it, aerial foes are often best handled with the gun and Archer Legion, certain enemy abilities have specific counters in your arsenal, and while battles are multifaceted, you do start slipping into that rhythm of pulling out the skill necessary in the situation. There are times where Chimera types work together to make it not so clear cut what the best choice is, the customization for upgrade paths can help you specialize in situations or overcome deficiencies of one style against certain enemies, and there is a good range of enemies even if the wealth of battle opportunities do make you start to see certain types a bit often. Breaking things up with investigations and chances for extra quests was a wise way to avoid things reaching a point where the action loses its pizazz and there are definitely optional activities that introduce you to fun characters or unique situations that make them worth seeking out. For every few basic ones you’ll get some memorable one with unique interactions, and this can almost apply to battles as well which isn’t always a poor way for them to be. A few basic foes to build up to something more substantial gives you time to warm up, and while you may sometimes wish you had a wider range of skills, the ones you have access to don’t ever really lose their role or how thrilling the game can make them look when pulled off effectively.
Astral Chain does feel distinct and its decision to explore the use of Legions outside of only combat uses perhaps makes it more robust than if the two-character battle system was the only element that received focus. The science fiction setting remains in focus throughout as you learn more about its nature and how it relates to the Chimeras and your odd application of them, Akira giving you a good root in the personal stakes even though your own character just feels like the main weapon of the Neuron cast. For the most part Astral Chain feels well honed to provide some excitement and a plot worth paying attention to, so while it could have been more, that refinement at least helps it provide a consistent level of quality and enjoyment despite a battle style that could have very easily gone awry.