Thank you for taking your time to make a more in-depth review rather than rushing it to be out right after the embargo for views like a lot of channels/publications do.
Combat system is insanely in depth if you want to play the game as it was truly meant to be played. Bunch of upgrades and ways to use your baton. A load of upgrades from your legions each with differering characteristics an S+ earned in Astral chain has to be more rewarding than any other game they have conceived to this point!
@@SwitchWatch I'm sure it will. Plus, there are two other games coming out in September that I'm really hyped for: Blasphemous and of course new old Zelda.
With that argument though, Zelda's story has never really been at the forefront. As much as I'd love Link to talk, the story has just been a means to the gameplay. Astral Chain has hundreds of cutscenes, dialogues and exposition with the story being very important. It's a different league to BotW.
@@brosplit because in those games your choices matter and shape the story/world. But a game with a set driven story where you have zero influence on the story/world it just takes you out of it. Atleast that is my opinion.
@@dushikorsou1 weell imo actually your choices don't matter either. Faux freedom for the sake of role playing. Everyone get the same endings just different process.
Good review! As a fan of most platinum games, my main concern with Astral Chain is how simple the combat is: the biggest reason games like Bayonetta 2 & MGR are replayable considering their short lenght is the fact that the combat is so deep that you can have fun in a 2nd playthrough coming up with new combos...and I've heard Astral Chain is kinda not that complex and more "automatic" so maybe I'll wait for a bit to get it but I'm definitely a fan of what I'm seeing here and I wish they had some tokusatsu license to unleash their talent.
In that regard it may come across a little disappointing for you. But I still find this a very satisfying game when using the chain/legions and their abilities.
I love the art style and the game looks fun. Normally I'd be very tempted, however my gaming cash this week is for a usb keyboard and Fuze on the Switch which releases tomorrow!
What a great new franchise from Platinum Games! Are you picking this action fest up? Let us know below - if you fancy trying some games before buying then check out our hidden gems with demos video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovDs1... Purchase Astral chain from our AMazon store Front under Triple AAA games. www.amazon.co.uk/shop/switchwatch. Thank you!
@@SwitchWatch Haha, cheers, I'm going to have to fit it in with Valkyria Chronicles 4, which I decided to return to after finishing Fire Emblem, but yeah, really looking forward to it!
Bought it right away, loving what I’ve played and I’m about 2 hours in give or take play time being used looking st these gorgeous high tear cell shaded characters ripped right out of a big budget summer anime completely with catchy opening theme. Gotta say ice really enjoyed the Switch and with Bayonetta 3 ( somewhere in the future 😥 lol) and No More Heroes 3 Also, it’s been my most satisfying purchase of the year. Astral Chain is a must for the Switch!
I wasn't too excited about it before... But after this review I started getting some good vibes from this game. Damn it, another game to buy! Thanks SwitchWatch! ;D
I was soo close to preordering this game, guess the only real benefit of doing that for me was a legion pin though, as I have no time to get into a game atm. Will pick it up as soon as I've got a weekend free though.
Played one to two hours yesterday and I really like it. But I also wonder about the value to price ratio. Bayonetta for example is designed to be played multiple times for completionists. But so far I don't see this here? This more feels like a CoD campaign mode which lacks any multi-player option so far. I hope they will somehow give it a content update.
I'm not a fan of silent protagonists either and would have liked to have some banter with both characters but I can't complain too much 😂 I am going to enjoy the game despite this.
Could always go physical and if not for you resell. It's very accessible for casuals and hardcore players. One of the best action games on Seitch so would be a shame to miss out. Good luck 😀👍
Bought the game and enjoying atm. Not blown away but only 30 mins in so I will reserve judgement. My biggest gripe is for some strange reason the developers used low quality speech samples. This is inexcusable in this day and age even for a switch title! Space constraints are a thing of the past!
Can't say I noticed the low quality voice samples, although I was playing with the game audio slightly lower than I would have liked due to circumstances out of my control.
Heard that before. I actually owned Chaos Legion back in the day as a teenager (who could resist a cool name like that?) but I remember not enjoying (understanding it?) and trading it in fairly soon afterwards.
I was really hoping to play this on release day, but I didn't plan on getting hooked to playing Fire Emblem. Then there is Zelda Links Awakening, then Luigi's Mansion 3. Then Pokemon..
@@SwitchWatch hmm.. Not sure about the bad stuff. I don't remember much since it's been a long time since I last played that game, but I personally enjoyed it for a while. However, I eventually got distracted by other games 😂
I disagree about silent protagonist, I think they work really well sometimes. I absolutely love being able to make my own characters. It's worked well in games like Dark Souls, Xenoblade X, and even Ys 8. Things like Fallout 4 have attempted to give their main character a voice and its ruined it for me and many others. Anywho rant over. I look forward to Astral Chain, I'll pick it up tomorrow.
If it's written well then I think all protagonists should have a voice of some sorts. Even if it's just a little or having generic comments. I understand people want to infuse their personality with game characters and if a player can't resonate with the main characters opinions/replies, it does impede the immersion. But for me, unless you're 100% a created character in a 'create your own adventure" type game, then I think main characters should have their personality.
Late comment: The game isn't 10 to 15 hours unless you rushed through the game. I played it through without needless rushing, but I didn't play it super slowly either and it took me about 30 hours. That's not to mention the 20-30 hours of post game content. I'd say the game is comparable to Mario Odyssey in the amount of content, so I'd say it's definitely worth 60 dollars. Completing the game (story + post game) Took me about 60 hours. If I went for 100% it would probably be another 20-30 hours.
I meant to watch this review earlier, but your like on Twitter for my Astral Chain post reminded me. You’re always welcome and I’m pleased to see your channel is still growing in numbers 👍
8:30 Oh Jordan, you don't know what you've done ma man, you've opened Pandora's Box. Now half of the comments are gonna dub vs sub :P That said, you know me, I go for dub out of principle, regardless of quality.
Awww is it really only 10 hours of story? :T I'm 10 hours into it atm after getting the arms legion.. I hope it goes for 30 more hours at least. I spent $60 on this. I want it to last a while ;c Ever since Xenoblade, I kinda had expectations for anime styled RPGs on Nintendo to be like 60+ hours of average gameplay length (Side Quests and Main). And hundreds more for completionists or exploration!
I was slightly on the lower estimate of the run-time. You're looking closer to 15-20 if you do things casually. After the first few chapters I started to just advance the story as fast as possible so that will have skewed my time quite a lot in favour of being quicker. When I was talking about that, I was talking about the action-side of the game being about 10-15 hours I guess I didn't make that clear enough in my script
I was about to cancel my preorder which should ship today, i got it at a bargain 58 AUD (39 USD) as I had a 20% ebay coupon and they were asking 70$ (retail is 79 AU), but after this review I think I'll keep it..It's funny, I hated both bayonettas, and instantly I got jumped on by fanboys telling me I must hate action games.. when 3rd person action games are my number one favourite genre.. You can't have an opinion these days LOL. I just wish this had 60 FPS but it can barely even maintain 30, which is what disappointed me.. This is much more my kind of game than bayonetta and I think i'll really like the actual gameplay.
No, it's very linear although some investigation areas are slightly more expansive, but not anything like an open world game. There are side-quests though
Astral Chain Review Scores: Nintendo Insider- Perfect 10! Switch Player- Perfect 5 Stars! VideoGamesChronicle- Perfect 5 Stars! New York Daily News- Perfect 5 Stars! NintendoEnthusiast- 9.5 out of 10 NintendoLife- 9 out of 10 Excellent! Famitsu- 37/40 GameXplain- Likes-A-Lot! Game Informer- 9 out of 10 Vandal- 9 out of 10 MyNintendoNews- 9 out of 10 Destructoid- 9 out of 10 Hobby Consolas- 93/100 Eurogamer- Essential! WellPlayed- 9 out of 10 Twinfinite- 4.5 out of 5 Great Screenrant- 4.5 Stars out of 5 Another Platinum Games Classic! OpenCritic- 87% CGMagazine- 9.5 out of 10 Wccftech- 9.3 out of 10 IGN- 9 out of 10 Amazing! COGconnected- 91/100 Metacritic- 88% Atomix- 96/100 We Got This Covered- 4.5 Stars out of 5 Fantastic USgamer- 4 out of 5 GamingBoulevard- 9.5 out of 10 Vooks- 4.5 Stars out of 5 GameRankings- 87.29% Metro GameCentral- 9 out of 10 Areajugones- 9.5 out of 10 SA Gamer- 9 out of 10 Polygon- The Best New Nintendo Franchise since Splatoon! God Is A Geek- 9.0 out of 10 EGM- 4 Stars out of 5 Meristation- 9 out of 10 Gameplanet- 9.0 out of 10
Played it for two hours since it's out. I don't understand the ratings and the hype. I just don't like it. I actually can't really discripe why, but it feels "wrong". And every other game which is mentioned in this review I absolutely love, but Astral Chain? I will try it again tomorrow, maybe I just don't see it, but what I've played now: I would say its one of my biggest disappointments of 2019 in videogames.
Ladies and gentlemen I give you Astral Chains first whiny internet pessimist!!! He made record time folks! Give him a hand! Truly a master of the buzz killing arts! #moderngamer
That's a pity buddy. For me it took until after the prologue for it to click with me personally. Hope your second try clicks for you. Just a question, are you using the chain to its full effect? That's where all the major enjoyment came for me in regards to combat.
@LordValFromHell Thanks for your honest opinion man. I was initially on the fence about this game but am tempted to buy it based on all the rave reviews. I hope you get to play a bit more to get a deeper feel for the game, and I would also be grateful if you could then share if that changes your mind or if you still think it's a disappointment.
@@Ponaru I'm more of a dinosaurgamer, but thanks. ;) and actually I'm not very pessimistic, I love a good hype! I'm trying to understand why this game is so well reviewed, I played it and imo its not even a 7/10. But I will try again tonight! And there were comments with a pessimistic view long before mine. ;)
@@SwitchWatch wow, so fast. That's rad man. I know, but it would've been great to know regardless what with the many reviewers not telling this mechanic, kinda makes me wonder what else is not told :( (Specially since the devs decided to put it in, in the first place)
That's the thing with reviews. There's so much to talk about with games as big as Astral Chain and other Triple A titles, but we have to sacrifice some information in order to not make a 30 minute video haha. I guess I should have given it a mention though, my bad!
10 to 15 hours ? Are you speed running the game without reading dialogs ? Lol the average on How long to beat for Main Story (only, no side quest) is 18 hrs (and their data is from really good players in general). Saying the combat system is not that deep also shows you rushed through the game without checking how stuff works and stayed on the basic combos for most of it. And then you're saying "60 BIG BUCKS" like it's a crime to release a solo triple A game at 60 bucks nowadays (also you can pay lower than 60 at release, almost on every switch release...). I get it, you need to put out the review for release day, but that one seems very often off track.
Yeah I guess my first time playing was skewed to the lower end as once I'd sampled a few of the side quests I went straight to the main objectives no messing around. I also wasn't including the post game stuff. And I think you may have taken the wrong connotation when it comes to me stating the price. Perhaps you're new here. I always call triple A games full-fat prices. $60 is a lot to swallow for many gamers considering all the quality indie stuff around. But as stated, it's pretty much worth that price.
Your wrong about English voice acting usually being equally good. Japanese games are always written in Japanese first and characters usually have some Japanese behaviours and this will usually bring down the English version slightly. On top of this the developers usually choose voice actors they know better in Japan. Its more common that the Japanese voice actors fit better and are not chosen as rashly. The budget for the Japanese voice actors is also usually higher, and its usually Japanese people directing a language they might not be experts in. There are many reasons why the Japanese voice acting is usually better and the most common complaints are usually about squeeky sounding girls or what seems like more overacting, but these are cultural differences being reflected in the voice acting and is not a representation of the voice actor not being good.
I think he meant games in general, not only Japanese. Most games with international releases are developed in English. For example a game of a German studio does not automatically lead to a good German voice acting, because they concentrate on English, because that's the language of the market they want to sell their game to.
