Announced with surprise during the direct last February, Astral Chain is the brand new IP developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch by the talented team of PlatinumGames. Captained by Takahisa Taura, who became famous for being one of the game designers of NieR: Automata, the game will be supervised by Hideki Kamiya, father of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, while the character design will be by the mangaka Masakazu Katsura, legendary author of works like Video Girl Ai and Zetman.
During the Nintendo Post E3 event organized in Milan we had the opportunity to attend a very in-depth preview of Astral Chain, and we are ready to tell you our impressions.
Astral Chain is set in the near future in which humanity is at risk of extinction due to an invasion of mysterious creatures called Chimera arrived through portals, the so-called Astral Plane. The population gathered in a metropolis called the Ark and established Neuron, a special police force, with the aim of fighting chimeras with the help of the Legions, or chimeras subdued with the aid of a technology that allows the officers to command them through a chain.
The protagonists are two twin brothers, sons of the head of Neuron, who have recently joined the police force. The player can choose between one of the two brothers, male and female, and will be able to customize the aesthetics. Obviously, being twins, much of the physical changes of the main character will be reflected in the brother / sister.
The peculiarity of Astral Chain is that, unlike the usual purely action titles, this introduces cases to be solved through investigations. In fact, there are numerous dialogues in which talking with people it will be necessary to acquire keywords (highlighted in red) and use them to find clues that will lead to the resolution of the enigma. In the first case, which serves as a tutorial, it was necessary to investigate a red substance called Red Matter, which we discovered to be lethal to humans and coming from chimeras.
The obtaining of clues takes place mainly through dialogues and, above all, thanks to the use of a technology called Iris, with which it is possible to obtain data and information through augmented reality. Iris also allows you to see elements invisible to the naked eye or even reproduce events that happened until a few moments before in holographic form. Even the Legion can be used in the investigative phases, for example it was possible to absorb the red substance revealing the imprint of a large chimera paw, making us understand that the person responsible was a very large creature. The Legion was also useful for eavesdropping on some conversations and learning more information to continue with the case we faced in this preview of Astral Chain.
At the end of each case it will be necessary to recap the events to reconstruct in detail what happened. As per PlatinumGames tradition, each mission, in this case resolution, will be evaluated with a score ranging from D to S and depending on the result you will get various rewards, as well as experience points that will then be invested to learn skills or upgrade the Legion through one skill tree that vaguely recalls the spherography of Final Fantasy X.
Let's go now to combat, which has always been the spearhead of PlatinumGames, which once again did not hold back and offered a series of rather interesting features that are based on the harmony between the protagonist and the legion. The hero of our story, regardless of whether it is the brother or the sister, will be the only character that we will control during the story and will fight through the use of hand-to-hand weapons or firearms. The legion, on the other hand, is autonomous and will fight independently of the type of membership. There are 5 categories of Legion: Sword, Archer, Ax, Arm and Beast. In the preview of Astral Chain at our disposal we tested the characteristics of Sword and Archer.
As expected, in the case of Sword we will have a closer approach, while with Archer on the long distance. The use of Legions will be limited to one stamina bar that wears out over time or if the Legion takes damage. If this gauge is reset, the legion will disappear for some time and will return as soon as the gauge is charged again. The stamina, however, can be recharged by absorbing the red substance left by the killed enemies or by running a finisher, or killing a monster when it is dying.
The game allows you to manage one Legion at a time, changing it in real time using a special button, but there are exceptional cases in which you can have two in the field at the same time.
In the flow of the fight, particularly during specific moments, a synchronized move with the legion can also be performed to maximize damage. They range from the simple execution of a combo, passing through a counterattack or a dodge performed with a particular timing, as from the PlatinumGames school.
Another game mechanic not to be underestimated is the use of the chain: not only does the latter have the utility of blocking enemies during combat, but it is also possible to use it to throw yourself at enemies when they are in the air (because they fly or because launched by the Legion), so as to also be able to perform area combos despite the fact that there is no type of jump in the game.
In case of difficulty, especially against the tough bosses of the game, it is also possible to resort to Iris to discover the weaknesses of the opponents at the expense of lower ratings and consequent lower rewards. If this were not enough, it will always be possible to help yourself with the use of potions to restore energy or, in the event of death, resurrect a certain number of times depending on the batteries we have available, which allow for resuscitation.
Although the Legions cannot be controlled directly, it is possible to give them commands to make them perform specific moves, some of these essential to defeat certain types of enemies or even to overcome various environmental puzzles that will be proposed in some areas of the game , especially within the Astral Plane. These abilities are mappable up to four at a time. One of these even allows you to break the chain of the Legion that keeps it tied and let it go Berserk for a few moments, so as to be able to immediately summon a second Legion and thus have two in the field, where commonly it would not be possible.
The variety of enemies seemed very good to us, especially for the implementation of some special chimeras with powers capable of making other creatures invulnerable or even strengthening them. These enemies therefore create a connection with other monsters, similar to the chain with which we command the Legions: it will therefore be essential to use special skills to break that bond.
In addition to the investigative phases and the fighting, however, there are moments in which we will have to walk around the city of Ark and keep order as good policemen as we are. It will therefore be important to set an example to citizens by not crossing with red, helping people in difficulty or even picking up trash from the ground. Otherwise we could even be fined. During the exploration of Ark we will then be able to undertake several secondary missions or run into extra cases to be solved to obtain specific and particularly useful rewards.
The chain also has several secondary uses, especially in the city when you want to tackle secondary missions to quell fights, catch the criminals and so on.
Astral Chain is not the usual PlatinumGames game, but it turns out to be rather layered and atypical, interspersing the battles with investigative and exploratory sections. The fights clearly remain the most interesting and accurate part of the entire production, developed with that imprint and those characteristics that have made the Japanese software house famous. The other components will then have to be thoroughly analyzed, but for the moment we are satisfied with what has been shown to us. Astral Chain seems like a game that puts an extra gear on the creative value of PlatinumGames and that could prove to be one of the biggest surprises of this summer. The title, in fact, will be released on August 30th. We can not wait.
