Astral Chain: Japanese Open-World Games & Hub Worlds 

heres a song that i made that i used in this video soundcloud.com/adolfnomura/topaz im sure itll end up on an album at some point

This guy is so freaking underrated.

Only in Astral Chain can you go from high octane fights with giant monstrosities to peaceful garbage collecting and helping a guy get to a restaurant called "Larger Burger"

Me: "Oh hey Astral Chain. Don't really care about the game but i'm interested in what Thor has to say about it." **Thor sneaking in a mini review of yet another weird PS1 game with sexy ass menus and style** Me: "Of course."

The editing of this video is amazing. It shows how much you know both in visual language and about the subject. You're so talented. Also, ass.

“Fuckaroundability”... I like that

All this talk about Akira’s butt and no discussion about our lord and savior: Alicia’s giant thighs?

Astral Chain finally feels like something that would come from Clover Studios again, an more involved and weird game in the vein of Okami, it took basically 11 years, but I'm glad they are starting to make this type of experiences again.

Shenmue is so influential in this regard, huge open worlds with a lot of interactivity. it definitely made its mark in the Japanese videogame scene

The game at 2:22 is Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance for PS2. The game at 21:07 is P.N.03 for GameCube.

Astral Chain won me over immediately cause it uses dithering shading for the hologram stuff. made me miss ps1 and psp dithering. love that shit. its a dumb thing to win me over but the game also turned out to be really good so i win

Videogame Reviewer: Graphics, Musics, Gameplay, Story etc. Thor: *BUTT*

I've been watching Mr. ThorHighHeels for something like 1-2 years and even back a couple years ago I didn't know why he wasn't more popular,and I still dont know. Mr. ThorHighHeels you are my favorite youtuber never change.

something a friend once told me a long time ago that I still think about regarding the difference between western and japanese media "American media is about how something looks, while Japanese media is about how something feels." and you can see this in things like ghibli movies, where the tears are huge and globular and cartoonish, because if you're that sad, that's how it FEELS.

Reminds me a lot of the Trails/Kiseki series where often enough the NPCs have their own storyline and drama that develops as you go through the story and they react to the development of the world, passage of time, and other characters' reactions that come out of it. I feel like Japanese devs gets it better that it's the community, the people, that make a world feel alive.

"Took a good 10 years to surpass Old Snake's ass and Astral Chain was the one to do it" me: *THIS MAN DIDN'T PLAY NIER AUTOMATA*

"Bing Bing Wahoo!" - Carl 'CJ' Johnson

Red Dead 2 is the most western western Japanese open world game

Last time I came this early, I got an S+ rank

The way that you articulate things that I've FELT but never KNOWN is unbelievably fulfilling.

DAT ASStral chain, had to do it. Interesting title, The PS1 one too. Gonna check em out.

ok you convinced me to buy it

Its funny you say that about Yakuza 7 being turn-based now,every reply on the Japanese twitter account after the reveal was a complaint about the change.

It's mostly the difference between inhabiting a place, playing with a place, and being a tourist in a place, just like people do in real life. Great video as always.

Easily one of my favorite channels on yt so far. From creating original music to even the aesthetically pleasing presentation. Always look forward to the next video!

Excellent video, I've always had a fondness for just being able to chill and do kind of pointless but fun things in a hub or home base. Even though its "down time" it doesn't make me wish I was out playing the main meat of the game, its just a different kind of fun to what's the main draw, it also just feels cozy.

it's that essence. that interactivity that makes you feel like you are actually somewhere new. few people talk about it with more clarity than my Boi Thor 👍 great vid

I remember a quest in Nier Automata, where chick constantly erases her boyfriend's personality to create a perfect man. It was the best quest I have ever seen.

Hey man, This is an excellent edited video analysis, as always. Look forward to the next one. Good stuff as usual.

highest quality content around here. love the track "topaz" btw! that fender rhodes almost has that emu sp1200 feel to it!

If you like what the did with NPCs in the hub you should check out the Trails series (also know as Kiseki in japanese). Basically every npc is uniquely named and every time you progress the main story foward every npcs dialogue changes and it creates a feeling that they are real people with lives that will progress interdependently of yours. You don't even half to talk to basically any of them but it adds so much context to the world and makes it feel more real that any game world i've seen before. Also it has an overarching narrative that spans across the entire series and characters reappear from previous games which is pretty insane considering the 10th game is coming out. Super interesting series that is doing something i haven't seen anywhere else.

Man, Astral Chain is such a fantastic game. Going to have to re-play it once I clear through my backlog a little bit.

i discovered your channel the other day, since i kept watching some of your videos, now iam dubbed, you sir are one amazing video game reviewer! lost of hidden gems and old games here.

two years late to this video but i bought astral chain when it came out and then just. never touched for some reason but this video makes it seem like its right up my alley and i want to actually try it now. Towns like in FF12 where you can talk to everyone and they respond to things you do in sidequests or the main plot are a huge reason why i love storytelling in games so much because they create a feeling of not only present in the world but an active part of it too, and no non-interactive medium can do that as well i think

You and Tim Rogers are the coolest thing videogames have going on right now.

Vanark does look really cool. Thanks for the heads up about it existing.

21:06 You gotta do a P.N.03 review! I was so hyped around that game and unlocked everything which was somewhat monotonous but I had a whole extended history in my head around the minimum of that game, like that there were previous P.N.02, 01, etc in my mental stories. At that time there was all this hype around Gamecube's "Capcom Five" and I would talk to everyone about this concept all day. Eventually barely any of that plan stayed how it was told initially as exclusives, but that concept got me into Killer7 as well.

Imma get this when I have a Switch. Reoccurring fun side quest side characters is a thing i like very much in games. Gravity Rush 2 has more minor side characters that show up more often, like a writer who avoids deadlines and pretends to be the characters he writes. Driver San Francisco also has some. My favorite side characters were the Japanese students trying to street race for college money. With a newfound hubris, the driver's bro gets distracted from college and sees more money in races and keeps coerces him into races. Only, it wan't him doing the driving, it was you possessing him. The switch lineup is lookin good but something I noticed that Ninty consoles pre-Wii had more variety of racing games. I guess racing game devs, and its audience prefers the pc and the more HD consoles. Speaking of racing games, I am a fan of the Choro Q games, Road Trip Adventure especially. RTA is jank, but I love that game. I would very much like a modern, less janky but still quirky Road Trip, my dream racing rpg. Forza Horizon might be the cloesest thing that will scratch that itch, and is probably the peak of open world driving games rn, but man it's missing the characters and quirkiness. *Also, please play Gravity Rush 2.*

I'm really surprised you didn't mention Steambot Chronicles (aka Bumpy Trot) in this video. That's another example of a Japanese style open world game that does GTA by way of Shenmue and Zelda. That's a game that downright encourages you to mess around in it and immerse yourself. One minute, you could be playing a saxophone on the street for some pocket change, another you're battling steampunk mecha, and the next you're buying and selling stocks in what I'm guessing is the only time any game actually attempted to implement a system like this.

fck ~ i love your videos so much >.< always happy to see a new upload from you ! ♥️

I'm 100% sure I've never played Astro Trooper Vanark yet that entire Hub section feels like I've spent dozens of hours in it. That must be because I played tons of PS1 games with similar pre-rendered BG environments growing up but I can't for the life of me remember any specific ones.

Oh shit it all got philosophical so fast I wasn't ready. And me thy thought thee thor to be but a mere pesant, you truly are blessed by the glitch.

Awesome, super game. Loved watching

Astral Chain was the first game I got for my Switch, earlier this year. Yes, before *any* first party title. And I don't regret that.

i had never even heard of Astral Chain before randomly finding this video, but now i love it

Everytime I watch your videos it both makes me want to play a bunch of semi-obscure video games and challenges my actual knowledge of video games (probably less vast than I think) but both of these things ramp up to being a highly successful video game RU-vid video

Glad to see more good coverage for Astral Chain. Even if it wasn't strictly the best game of the year, it was still my favorite, simply because it did feel interesting and fresh. Plus I do also find that I love the Japanese style of open world games. They just click with me in a way that only one Western open world game (Red Dead Redemption) ever has. I'd rather have a smaller, richly detailed world with tons of stuff to do than a big, empty world without much to do other than screwing around. I'm also the sort of guy who actually really enjoys when games have diversions that, even if not the most engaging in a vacuum, really adds to the immersion. Astral Chain's police work definitely provided this. In a similar way, RDR did this with things like the stage coach rides and cattle herding minigame. Both of these games could have been made without these diversions, but they wouldn't have the same feeling that they do.

Ur vids are always stylin and on point

As far as the characters in particular go, it seems like they cater very much to the MHA modern anime fan. IDK, I've been playing through SMT DDS recently and the characters in that game albeit being a variously coloured hair anime troupe, have more depth in their dialogue than what it seems like from what you showed in here.

Oh god....that brief clip of Rose from the Legend of Dragoon...took me all the way tf back...

I come for the meta editing. I'm never disappointed.

Your videos are so exquisite.

I never even knew about this game as it's on a console I don't have but this seems like it builds up on things Platinum Games learned from Nier Automata.

I had a great time playing this game, had good atmosphere.

*5* *seconds* *in* TTTTTTTTT T T T

Metal Gear Rising, Bayonetta, Nier Automata, Astral Chain are Platinum most famous games. The secret to their success isn´t the fast combat hack n´slash, it is thicc ass protagonists.

Ok as soon as you started talking about the mascot quest you said enough I'm playing this game I already had it but I only played the opening I should have give it more time

I was on the fence about this game but after this, I think I'll pick it up

Noice video Thor kun.

Damn!! I remember this thanark game!! Always curious about this one. Always playing it after school, lost it, then forgot about the tittle.. until now. If Im trying to describe it, this kinda game can make you feel like these in game location like your own home or school. You get familiar with it and its peoples, and feel safe and warm and comfy while you're there. I know Im weird

0:55 alright I'm sold.

You're my favorite video game dude

I always like watching your videos at night . dunno why that is or why i prefer that . maybe many of your viewers do that too . Like dipping back in seeing what your upto . your gaming tastes are similar About astral chain . platinum games have alot of credit for making quailty games i think some ex members of old MGS games ive heard

Most underrated channel

OMG! thanks you! i was seaching vanark for ages, i played has a child and love but i couldn't remember the games name shit i gonna play it right now

2B's ass: "Do I mean nothing to you?"

That legend of dragoon bit was too good

I dig that way of the samurai track

FUCK FINALLY SOMEONE ACKNOWLEDGED VANARK'S EXISTENCE. Although I don't remember nothing about the walking part, I just have memories of playing the starfox-like levels (without at the time knowing what was starfox)

Talking of Clover, *Okami* is a game that deeply conflicted me as to what is open world, open ended, wide open world etc. You go from South of Japan to the North, and yet each individual area is one giant level, with character interactions, secrets aplenty, hidden mechanics and lots of metroidvania like stopgaps which open up after you get certain ability. Granted it is more Zelda than Shenmue. NPCs are laid out very JRPG fashion where you can walk up to them and talk, but there are fun interactions with barking, biting or with brush techniques.

I remember when this channel was under 10k maybe 8k hard to rememeber exactly but im excited when i see the subs go up, 40k now. These are most anticipated videos. Have you ever thought of doing lets plays, i hate to even ask cuz this is all so perfect and i dont want to fuck with it.also, MORE SEXY STAGES!!

Woah, I was playing this like Bayonetta thinking it was just a linear spectacle fighter. I'm totally gonna replay it to see it all.

Yo, from what game is that "a hitman has appeared", "Shoot/get horny" thing? I laughed my ass to that

Thor can we have a So ive been playing on Kane n lynch 2: dog days? It fits perfectly the PS3 era misunderstood generic third person shooter subgenre.

hanging out in Chrono Cross apreciatin the environtment listenin to the msuic. Pre rendered BGs underrated.

As i watched i only thought about the one game series that accomplishes the nice hub with extensive world building perfectly, the Trails series.

subscribed just because of the "yeah ho" soundclip from juicy j (y)

THE High Heels BOYEEEEEEE!!

Now I gotta go buy it

Thor I think u r the best youtuber

Damn, son. Asstral Chain, indeed.

Good shit.

lmao when the Fuck Tha Police instrumental came in early in the video I had to check that my spotify wasnt on in the background

I was sceptic about this game as I couldn't figure out what kind of game it really is besides being Platinum. All this from watching the trailer that raised more questions and didn't really answer a single one of my questions. I was never a huge fan of sandbox worlds as I seldom finish them because they usually have little drive and/or good enough story incentive to beat them. I do love hub worlds on the otherhand and as a kid I spend time in them just fooling around because that was fun to me. You certainly made Astral Chain seem more interesting and gave me a slight better idea what it's about but guess I'll have to look for answers still. 14:00 Nevermind I thought the Astral Chain block was over guess my questions may still get answers yet. Okay it's Open district now I get it. Thanks for providing me the answers I wanted, Thor! Also damnit don't lure me towards getting Astral Chain. I have enough games to play as it is! Anyway great video and thanks for the very much needed entertainment here on youtube.

missed ya baby boi

godlike youtuber

I think this vid made appreciate Astral Chain way more then I normally would. I know before I watch this, I intended to get Astral Chain for the combat. Now I explore the world, talk to the characters and get interested in their arcs. Though it still doesn't change my opinion on the frame rate. I know the director wanted to make an interesting style and world more then a stable frame rate. But I will always prefer 60 over visuals. That and the particles can be a bit too much that I don't know what's going on

23:31 - ASS PHYSICS! THE NEW VIDEO GAME FRONTIER!!

that three 6 mafia love tho 🔥🔥🔥

Yeah. Okay. Legend of dragoon. You got me. Instant like and all, like always. And in a freakingly amazing incorporated way, too. Man Wow Seriously Wow Never stop being the guy you are.

B U T T O C K S Btw can't believe 23:13 is actually being rendered on a Switch, shit looks surprisingly crisp.

I think a western game that FEELS more "japanese inspired" or is surprisingly vibey is Red Dead Redemption 2. It's one of the few open world games that it's equally concerned about scale, interactivity and it's side missions DO tell stories about characters like in Yakuza or most japanese games.

I miss that "So I've been playing" drum and bass :(

Thor did you ever have a look into japanese fishing games, from the more popular Fishermans Bait series and Reel Fishing to the non translated games like Uki Uki no tsuruki? Whats your stance on the genre? Definately some good escapism is to be had there

You convinced me to buy it, then I realized it was on the switch.

Mass Effect should've been on the examples used. The thing with these kind of games, is that most people dont have the "patience" to deal with hese kind of stuff, secret side quests, minor character development that you, as the player, have to find, interact, and react to it constantly in order to keep it moving. Take Mass Effect as an example, fits perfectly in everything you just said in this video, with a character like Conrad Verner appearing in all three games in a wacky manner and finally getting some sort of "fulfillement" to its arc in ME3... Or you can say fuck it and just play the game and do the important things only which are the ones that WILL have a huge impact on the rest of the game, but there are a bunch of secondary missions, decisions and actions that still have an impact, even if its minor, its still referenced and part of the development of the "world". People can like the history of the game, yes, can like its gameplay aswell, of course, but know every snippet behind all of its character both main and secondary? of most of the world the game takes place in it? not so much, because they either started those missions and exploration and in the long run stopped caring because it was taking so long and their time adjust just couldnt let them enjoy the game to its fullest because of work, chores, studying, etc. But even like that they still got most of the main point of it and most importantly, had fun. Which is a shame, they should make an effort in order to complete (not 100% with stuff like collectibles) a game to its ful in both main, and side things IF those side things include side storys and character development of other characters, or the world itself. But time restrains us all in different ways i guess

lov ya man

This channel has a nice _a_ _e_ _s_ _t_ _h_ _e_ _t_ _i_ _c_

I want a Switch now just for AC!

"hanging out in san andreas ,........" me nervously watching the x in the corner to take the video off open emulator and play us squadron a super punishing snes game !!! i also enjoyed astral chain !