Topic: Astral Chain

Yeah weird how they don't tell you that.
A bit cumbersome having to hold ZL then press L to activate an ability.
Been trying to get an S+ rank on the bike scene in File 1, bit frustrating. Every time I have a good run I always manage to stuff it up at the end.

@Quarth I feel the same. I'm only up to the boss at the end of File 3 but I know when I'm playing something special.I'm loving every second of this.

I'm really enjoying this. It's one of those rare games that gets just about everything right, and what it doesn't get quite right is still fun. There's a stealth mission at one point in the game, and I hate stealth missions because they're almost never enjoyable. The Arkham series is one of the few to make stealth feel like a strength rather than a liability. Anyway, when I inevitably blew it in Astral Chain's stealth mission, I was delighted to find that you can opt to fight your way through instead.

I think my only real criticism is that the puzzles and quests are incredibly simplistic. Someone will say, "Hey, officer, I seem to have lost my wallet! I think I dropped it in that trashcan that's sitting 10-feet away, but I can't be bothered to look. Can you fetch it for me?" and that's all there is to it. You walk to the trashcan, fetch the wallet, and you're done with the quest in like 5-seconds. I'm nearly 20-hours into the game (File 6, which is the halfway point), and I haven't encountered a single quest that has forced me to have to think about the solution.

I still really like the exploration parts of the game — the art direction is gorgeous, and finding "secrets" is fun — and the combat is top-notch; I just wish the quests offered some challenge.

@OorWullie We're approximately at the same place in the game, I got to chapter 4 before I had to go to bed. The boss fight(s) in chapter 3 = epic!

@Mountain_Man I agree that the investigation part isn't that complicated, especially the fetch quests, but I think it's a nice change of pace that's very welcome between the more intense gameplay moments. And some stuff are quite fun, like solving the riddle offered by the quiz kids in chapter 3.

Loving it so far (no surprises there). Only issue I have though is that as a huge fan of Bayonetta it's super easy to assume the controls are the same given the similar feel of combat. More than once I have depleted all of my healing items thinking X was punch.....

@skywake Try to change the control to Type-C, I hear that one will make it feel more alike Bayo. Or at the very least, it'll make pressing X just make you constantly use the current Legion's special ability

Tbh I played it for an hour and a bit but then I felt I would rather be playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 or Fire Emblem Three Houses instead. It's not a bad game by any means I'm just digging other recent games more.

Im beginning to think the rankings are a fluke. There's been times where I get my rear handed to me, land SOME combos, and get a B rating or whatever. But when i fought the big boss in the mall ( coming down from the ceiling), I absolutely crushed him and landed tons of combos, got hit maybe 2-3 times max, and got a D rating. All on platinum difficulty. So i Dk something seems off on that but other than that I can't see any issues with this game. 10 hours in and it's quite possibly the best game I've played this year.

Yeah, I can't figure the ratings out. Seems like I get a D whether I dominate the fight or barely scrape by.

@NintendoByNature I feel like time plays a big factor.

From what I hear it's to do various type of things- like using different Legion, using their skills, backstab, etc.

The more variety you inject the better

Got the game yesterday. I preordered the collector's edition and it's really nice. Probably my favorite collector's edition I own presentation-wise. I only played the tutorial yesterday and just now finished the first real mission. Gotta say, that was a good start for a game.

My only minor complaint is that the game goes to pause screen if home button is pressed and I happened to instinctively press + to continue but instead it skipped the cutscene I was on. I had to stop for a moment to watch the scene from YouTube since I was really confused on what happened in the time between. Weird that there's no confirmation before skipping a cutscene. I know this was all my fault but it would've saved me from the trouble.

One of the little gripes I have is that I always want to pick up this game’s “coins”. Which is not always a problem, but sometimes the story really wants you to get going but then i’m looking around and think: “But, what about all these coins?” So then I choose to pick them up and look out for more of them but then the pacing really takes a hit lol.

@Spanjard that makes sense. But I usually take my time and inspect every nook and cranny in each level. Eh, oh well.

I don't care what a game urges me to do, I always play at my own pace.

"Hey, we're getting beat up over here! We really need you! Hurry up before we all die!"
"Hold on, let me rescue this cat, retrieve a kid's balloon from a tree, and collect a dozen empty cans first."

Ha ha!

@Spanjard Take your time exploring the maps. The game waits for you. I love that you can "recycle" cola cans (= throwing them in the trash) to get extra cash.

So I've beaten the main game but want to replay certain levels. Anyone know how much progress is lost by doing this?

So like for example you choose File 01, can you go back to your current file with no progress lost once you've finished the level or would you have to play through the remaining files in order?

Oh my gosh. The further I get the better this game gets!

I hereby make a motion to nominate Astral Chain for Game of the Year. I just feel like I want to burst with joy from how good this game is! It’s gosh dang spectacular!

As - tral - CHAIN!!!
As - tral - CHAIN!!!
As - tral - CHAIN!!!

@JaxonH That's how I felt after completing File 3 the other night. It seems I ain't seen nothing yet.