Topic: Astral Chain

Played about two-hours, and I like it. It's a solid, well-designed game that's fun to play. It's not life-changing, or a gaming revolution like some people seem to be expecting. Just a really well-made game.

If you guys find things too hard, just turn on the Unchained mode (well it also make things easier, but at least it'll help slightly in the hectic combat)

Been playing on the platinum difficulty level. Getting my @$$ kicked and d rating, but....It's still alot of fun..after two and a half hours or so I'm getting the hang of it.

@Filth_Element the biggest part of training was moving your Legion around by holding ZL so that you can wrap up the enemy in your chain, that and if they charge at you use it as a barrier to send them flying backwards.

Still only a couple of hours in but I love this game so far, I found a toilet faerie and after some digging on the menu's realise old I can now fully customise the colour of my characters uniform and also saw a dazzling amount of achievements and unlockables. I really like the investigation mechanics and arresting perps after a bit of eavesdropping 😉. The combat is top notch and visually it is really good, particularly in handheld and the art style really shines. Very impressed so far

Easily the best game on the Switch right now!

Did anyone else immediately change the button configuration? ZR being the action or melee button really threw me off. I changed it Y and ZR is my dodge

@NintendoByNature I probably would have done bit I've played a lot of God of War and Horizon over the past year or so which has this setup, so I'm used to it. I can see why some may not be used to it though

@carlos82 yea i hear you. It feels more like bayonetta now with the way I set it up ( I think option C?)

I caved and picked up a copy for $50 new at Walmart simply out of respect for Platinum Games and what appears to be a contender for GotY 2019. I probably won't even get around to playing the game until next year considering everything else that's coming on Switch in the next few months.

@NintendoByNature I was contemplating picking Platinum difficulty but I already learned my lesson from previous PlatinumGames products that starting on an easier difficulty for a first playthrough and then going more challenging on future playthroughs worked better for me. If Wonderful 101 gets ported to Switch, I'll do the same there.

Picked up pre ordered copy Yesterday . Absolutely loving it.

Astral Chain user score down to 7.0 (and still dropping) from a mass influx of review bombing. Happened to Fire Emblem also, which has seen a resurgence along with Astral Chain and dropped into the 7 range. It’s like they’re just hitting both games at once.

Does this happen to games on other systems? Because I swear I only ever see this happen to Nintendo exclusives. If ever there was an argument to be made for the worst fanboys on the planet, this would be the evidence brought forward. I can’t imagine anyone here review bombing games on other systems out of spite.

Anyways, my physical copy arrived and I love the artwork on the inside of the case. It matches the Japanese special edition box. I’ll be sure to post the contents of that whenever it arrives.

@JaxonH Take it as a compliment. Games like Zelda, FE, and Astral Chain are excellent enough that SonyBros are feeling threatened and taking to review bombing them.

@Grumblevolcano I mean, It's hard, but not impossible. Im by no means a guy who can push thru most games on the hardest difficulty so i feel like most people would be fine if they tried it. Bayo 1 and 2 I did normal difficulty and it wasn't too bad so that's why i did platinum. After 3.5 hours, i really only struggled on 1 part but eventually overcame it

@NintendoByNature yeah for me so far, since I just finished file 2 (I think). That one boss battle was a bit trying but not impossible. I just had to remember all the moves and attacks. I think I got a D rating...I will replay them once I get bit more used to the mechanics.

@JaxonH Nintendo fans did it to Horizon Zero Dawn a while back and attacked Jim Sterling's site over BOTW but its pathetic either way. Sony fans are just jealous that nothing of note has launched on it for a while and has nothing on the horizon and I say that as a proud PS4 owner but Astral Chain is the best game I've played this year anywhere

This game looks SO good in handheld, it’s kind of insane.

@carlos82
Hmm...

I checked and Horizon is only 5 points lower than the normal score. Its clear there were some rabid fan boys who bombed it- (There’s people like this on all consoles) but it seems to be a much smaller quantity. With Nintendo exclusives you see games dropping like 10-20+ points from it. 89/84 seems a reasonable split. Maybe it’s just because so many people played and reviewed, it averaged it all out. But it’s also a bigger game which draws more detractors.

I’ve known about the Sterling Zelda situation. Which is definitely not something to be proud of. That said, I think there’s a difference between people who get angry in defense of a game they love, and people who actively attack other games they feel threatened by. Group 2 are the ones I hate most.

Like, Nier Automata is the closest thing to a PS4 version of Astral Chain. Yet, that game has a higher user score than official review aggregate. So Platinum Games PS4 exclusive is just fine, yet Platinum Games Nintendo exclusive gets targeted hard.

@Ralizah
True that. My consolation is the schadenfraude of knowing they think the games look so good they can’t stand seeing others love it.

@Spanjard
Handheld mode does look good. This is one of the best looking Switch games.

The review bombers who pollute the user reviews of nearly every top rated game are likely just a very small group of sad, petty individuals who open multiple accounts with different usernames. In Astral Chain's case, it'll be a handful of bitter Sony fanboys who are crippled with jealousy that a game they love the look of isn't on their console. It's really sad but I think most normal folk can see through it.

@JaxonH Horizon Zero Dawn was lower around the time of that Jim Sterling incident, I mean it definitely went both ways between that and Zelda, which is sad as both are amazing games. I would imagine that many reviews in the 2 years since have probably got it back to where it should be. Perhaps Astral Chain will do the same in a few months, as I'd assume that shortly after launch you'll only get genuine reviews on there as the nutters have moved on. I did read a few out of curiosity and it's clear many of the negative ones had never even played the game, one of which just said it was a series of QTE's and some saying the graphics are awful

I think they need to look at how people are actually allowed to review games, maybe have a week or 2 grace period before you can post one to get honest opinions, or make it so you have to link your various gaming accounts so that you can only review games you've actually played