Astral Chain

 Switch
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3468 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,079 out of 3468
  2. Mixed: 143 out of 3468
  3. Negative: 246 out of 3468
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  1. Ansb
    Dec 6, 2022
    4
    No invulnerability frames, sword mode unprecis, enemy who one shot in last levels, dodge useless, etc...
  2. Mogus
    Aug 30, 2022
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Starts out great but gets boring really quick. The Story is basically about the character you don’t choose and because you’re character shows no emotion whatsoever er really ruins the few good story elements this game has one time the sibling of your character gets critically injured and is just completely unfazed even though the story tells you they care about each other. The combat can be fun but most of the time it isn’t especially on higher difficulties you the only thing you can do is spam the doge button and let your legion attack. The boss fights are mostly waiting for a boss to come out of his invincibility so you can stun him. The maps all look really similar except one,the final mission even reuses the opening of the game and makes it less fun. I wouldn’t recommend buying this game for full price 60€ is way to much , if it’s on sale and costs less then 15€ I would say go for it because the early game is kind of fun… Expand
  3. Yuke
    Jul 29, 2022
    4
    Spoiler-free.

    Most overrated game on Metacritic, probably.

    - Story gets only told via text documents and still many things won't get explained.

    - Silent protagonist ist super pointless in this scenario.

    - Camera movement is borderline broken.

    - Fight-System is okay and sometimes fun.

    - Graphics are very good for a Switch game.
  4. Jofe
    May 15, 2022
    3
    Could be fun, but his story is mediocre and the camera problems are unbearables.
  5. jsh710
    May 1, 2022
    3
    boring boring story. confusing colors moving so fast, can't recognize what I playing. waste my time and money. my worst game of nintendo switch.
  6. evands
    Dec 12, 2021
    3
    Huge repetitive mess!!! It doesnt know when to end. Like 7 times I thought the game would end and then it starts all over again. The director was having ideas everyday and inserting as he pleased.

    It doesnt know if it is a action hack'n slash, or rpg or stealth. Mix all them together and you have a boring repetitive (including the music) game. story is cliche AF. even naruto didnt    Huge repetitive mess!!! It doesnt know when to end. Like 7 times I thought the game would end and then it starts all over again. The director was having ideas everyday and inserting as he pleased.

    It doesnt know if it is a action hack'n slash, or rpg or stealth. Mix all them together and you have a boring repetitive (including the music) game.

    story is cliche AF. even naruto didnt have so many cheesy dialogues and predictable story points. You play the chapters already knowing the boss doesnt die and will come back later.

    All the good score were made by people that played 3 to 5 hours max, and all of them say they will come back to play the game later and just give high score fo this **** Even critics didnt finish this game or got to half of it to realize how bad this exclusive game is.

    Buy for 20 bucks if you can, Not worth full price.    … Expand
  7. luouxmont
    Nov 11, 2021
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. You either keep your character's family alive and be deemed awake yet imprisoned in police jail, or you kill your family and be cursed asleep but gain access to full functionality of the game mechanics. gtfoutta here platinum games. I'm reselling this game for 15 bucks.… Expand
  8. Phuz
    Oct 7, 2021
    2
    I started this game and it was really exciting but also so forgettable. I played about am hour and then forgot about it. I do this about every 6 months. I play it and then lose any interest to put it on again.

    It's very Hollywood. And Hollywood sucks balls.
  9. Mr-Lecter
    Sep 10, 2021
    2
    I do not understand what is the hype around this game. Nowadays people become fanboys just because and true gaming experience is being lost. I must say that I absolutely love Nintendo and their exclusives, and Nier Automata is one of my favorite games ever and I'm a huge Bayonetta fan too, and Astral Chain, this piece of crap is SO FAR away from being half as good as previous PlatinumI do not understand what is the hype around this game. Nowadays people become fanboys just because and true gaming experience is being lost. I must say that I absolutely love Nintendo and their exclusives, and Nier Automata is one of my favorite games ever and I'm a huge Bayonetta fan too, and Astral Chain, this piece of crap is SO FAR away from being half as good as previous Platinum Games.

    PROS:
    - I personally like the combat system and gameplay, if there was enough action in the game
    - Graphically it looks very original and well presented (I just think it was a silly idea to make this around COPS, yes you are a cop)

    CONS:
    - I absolutely hated the endless and LAZY chores you have to go through, the side quests are not enjoyable or entertaining AT ALL.
    - The map system fails very often and you get to be lost very easily while doing stupid chores (not fun at all), on top of it the character cannot jump, or get through little babies obstacles, making it even more frustrating.
    - Most of the game you will be talking to NPC's and completing boring tasks and then all of the sudden you fight a boss for 3 minutes, then you start another stupid quest-chore that will take 30-60 minutes and then start another loop of silly quest, gathering clues and other stuff that really takes away the fun, to the point that it makes you regret the purchase. This game is freaking $59.99! I wouldn't even pay $5 to "play" this so called "gem"
    - I'm OK with linear games, but this one is linear and BORING, don't expect to have freedom at all.
    - Characters are not mesmerising not memorable at all, in fact, many of them are annoying, predictable and scripted.
    - You get to have limited customization but most of the items are useless, I completed perhaps half of the game, gotten all the legions and got a lot of items stored that really are not essential to fight battles like you did in Nier Automata or great games like The Witcher series. Besides the methods to use/equip items is very irritating.
    - It gets old VERY FAST, you may feel it is cool the first few days but you will get bored fast.
    - Oh boy the story is utterly predictable not memorable and 0% exciting.
    - NO REPLAYIBILITY - I came to the conclusion that I'm playing this crap just because, but definitely wouldn't play it again nor getting any expansion if there will be any.

    All in all, do yourself a favour and save $59.99, you can get like 5 better games in the Nintendo's Great Deals library. By the way, this is my first review here, to give you an idea of how much I hated it, maybe it helps someone save money and most importantly YOUR TIME. I still do not understand why and how this game gained such good scores, I would give it a generous 2 out of 10.

    Cheers!    … Expand
  10. TempoTheMan
    Aug 12, 2021
    4
    cool gameplay at first, and after 6 hours just boring, story that didnt click with me and ended in an anticlimactic and very open way, and **** endgame, just grinding 50 boring missions with an already boring spammy combat to get to the true boss, which also was anticlimactic, I hope you listen to me and dont waste your money on this game unless you adore spamming moves
  11. jlittrell03
    Jul 30, 2021
    3
    The only positive I can give this game is the developers ambition as well as there style. Everything else is either subpar or just straight up awful. This game is severely overhyped. Combat is interesting for about an hour then gets increasingly dull by the time you’ve finished. The story is just straight up bad. It’s the most generic rip off of a bad Shonen with a dash of Evangelion atThe only positive I can give this game is the developers ambition as well as there style. Everything else is either subpar or just straight up awful. This game is severely overhyped. Combat is interesting for about an hour then gets increasingly dull by the time you’ve finished. The story is just straight up bad. It’s the most generic rip off of a bad Shonen with a dash of Evangelion at the end and it handles it extremely poorly. Everything about it is extremely predictable and there really aren’t any likeable characters. Your protagonist that you pick doesn’t say a word the whole time and that severely holds it back. Some games like Zelda know how to do this right, but this is an option where it’s done poorly. On top of all that, the English voice dub acting is just not good. All the supposedly emotional moments are laughable. All of the detective files, which is about 40% of the game, all feel like filler just to pad the runtime and make it unnecessary long. Overall, terrible game and completely overhyped, don’t waste your money.… Expand
  12. cemzan5
    Jul 10, 2021
    0
    I have no idea why or how this game is highly rated. I can't find a single good thing to write about the game.

    Story progression is so painfully slow that there is barely any story. Worse it feels completely disconnected. One character almost dies and gets hospitalized, when he returns there is barely any mention of him almost dying. We continue like nothing happened. Oh he also gets a    I have no idea why or how this game is highly rated. I can't find a single good thing to write about the game.

    Story progression is so painfully slow that there is barely any story. Worse it feels completely disconnected. One character almost dies and gets hospitalized, when he returns there is barely any mention of him almost dying. We continue like nothing happened. Oh he also gets a power up but we don't talk about how or why either.
    Graphics might be the only thing half good but then IRIS mode turns everything gray and destroys it.
    Game-play is very repetitive, you go to town, clear streets find chests to get items that most of which will disappear at the end of level. Do side quests that are completely pointless and boring like carrying boxes without dropping them(Hello I have a few Legions that can help with it). Find the dungeon entrance go into it to fight monsters and kill the boss . This will progress the story by mostly saying new monster gets sighted we should go check it out and repeat the process. If there was any character or combat progression it might not have been that bad but combat wise there is barely any difference between chapter 3 and chapter 8. You get a couple of more legions that you barely use, that is pretty much it.
    I must be around %75 of the game I wanted to push it to the end but it feels more like a torture at this point and I am not even curious about the ending so I gave up.    … Expand
  13. Virgin420
    Apr 8, 2021
    0
    `This game and I mean this with my heart, blows more than my ex wife when her boyfriend was over! Some Dicc named Nicc said this game was I dunno and I was like **** it's dumb anime stuff you weeb!" and he was like "I'll give you a copy dumb jewish human" and I was like "fine" then he came and kept his copy and then made a baby with my dog. Weird day but yk not bad still DNF was better.
  14. Ingleberg
    Feb 1, 2021
    3
    boring, combat is a joke, music is awful and repetitive, designed to put you to sleep, just like the rest of the game. couldn't care less about any of the characters or their motivations, this just feels really half @$$ed honestly. i'm done after a couple hours. I can't believe how much money they're asking for this. unbelievable. I've never had a more boring gaming experience in my life.
  15. Mozart2000
    Jul 6, 2020
    0
    Poor story and boring game play. The game is too short. I don't know why the review score is too overate
  16. bingbang
    Jun 22, 2020
    4
    Definitely a case of game that's not for me. I thought this was the one to convert me to stylish, button combo action, and gave it a solid 15 hours before I had to quit. Frustrating, headache inducing combat. I later switched to Unchained but that only replaced the frustrating combat with boredom. So, yeah. Not for me. Also, playing as a cop. Yuck.
  17. DanielNS87
    Apr 21, 2020
    1
    Awfull game, like all games of platinum, this Japanesse games like a manga or anime are boreed and so fuc...and annoying, the music make a headache, the gameplay its simply bad and the palet of colors are sooooo fu... ugly, this colors have can to provoke a epiletical attack.
  18. dredpiratejaymo
    Apr 15, 2020
    3
    I thought it was mediocre at best. I couldn't get into it. The story was lame, the battle system was clunky, the art was unimpressive, and the levels were too linear. 3/10 is a charitable score.

    I feel like some of these 10/10 reviews may not be legit...
  19. NegativeFifteen
    Mar 2, 2020
    1
    There's a **** ton of reasons why this game is terrible, but the main issue is that the dodging and camera systems are absolute **** Targeting happens automatically, whether or not I want it to, even if I turn off the target marker. Switching between multiple targets makes me want to put my head through a **** wall with how absolutely terrible the function is.The hitboxes and dodging feelThere's a **** ton of reasons why this game is terrible, but the main issue is that the dodging and camera systems are absolute **** Targeting happens automatically, whether or not I want it to, even if I turn off the target marker. Switching between multiple targets makes me want to put my head through a **** wall with how absolutely terrible the function is.The hitboxes and dodging feel like they asked a toddler to draw a bunch of circles in crayon around the character and then they set the hitboxes to be identical to it. It feels like they TRIED to make the hitboxes bad. On top of all this, even if you manage to acclimate to a terrible camera and a god awful dodging system, even if you manage to get "good" at the game, it still gives you that sweet, sweet C ranking because you didn't use moves and abilities that they haven't even given to you yet. It's like ranking a 2nd grader based on their college algebra skills. So now if you want to make it so that your game file isn't riddled with Cs and Ds, you get to go back and play through each individual mission with your new abilities so that it's actually possible to get a better score. Why can't I just get a good score the first time through with what I have? It's like I progress through the game just so I can go backwards. All in all, ****ty combat, uninteresting dialogue and story, and unremarkable characters that I forget almost instantly, 1/10. Also the female character model looks like someone slapped the face of a crab onto a Hershey's Kiss.… Expand
  20. Superman_94
    Dec 7, 2019
    0
    Switch devs need to do better. I know the hardware isn’t great to be working with and god knows how much it limits them, but this title is unacceptable.
  21. Kelvingame
    Dec 5, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Es un juego penoso muy aburrido la dificultad es muy fácil en fin un juego recomendable cuando cueste 2 dólares… Expand
  22. Neatqt
    Nov 10, 2019
    3
    Cast: 2/10
    Story: 2/10
    Fun: 2/10
    Gameplay: 4/10

    Not Recommended
    ----------------------
  23. RpgGuru
    Sep 3, 2019
    1
    Totally dissapointed not an open world, very repetitive, 60 usd very expensive, low resolution and low frame rate on portable mode.on switch
  24. happybear
    Oct 23, 2019
    3
    This game contains a lot of locations in the "parallel world" with extremely poor level design (like "organic levels" in DMC5).
  25. julian111
    Oct 18, 2019
    1
    I am sorry but it is just not a good game. I love Platinum games and for me Nier Automata is the best game i ever played, but this....NO. It has too many mechanics, too much to control
  26. 1011tas
    Sep 20, 2019
    0
    1.畫面太複雜，根本看不到敵人和攻擊，連主角自己的狀態都看不到
    2.背景會擋住主角視線
    3.操作雷基恩移動就不能調視角，失敗 4.按鍵之間有優先順序，動作之間的切換沒有很流暢，常常因為前一個動作沒執行完錯過回避的時機 5.劇情背景很多沒交代，玩完還是一頭霧水 6.錯過小型事件要整節重打 7.一些按鍵設計要按下類比搖桿，但是又沒有很精準 8.對敵人的視角沒有很好調整的機制，打不到想打的敵人，從遊戲很前期就有這個缺陷 9.鎖鍊跳的位置在邊緣的判定有問題，很難完全判斷能不能跳到不會摔落的位置    1.畫面太複雜，根本看不到敵人和攻擊，連主角自己的狀態都看不到
    2.背景會擋住主角視線
    3.操作雷基恩移動就不能調視角，失敗
    4.按鍵之間有優先順序，動作之間的切換沒有很流暢，常常因為前一個動作沒執行完錯過回避的時機
    5.劇情背景很多沒交代，玩完還是一頭霧水
    6.錯過小型事件要整節重打
    7.一些按鍵設計要按下類比搖桿，但是又沒有很精準
    8.對敵人的視角沒有很好調整的機制，打不到想打的敵人，從遊戲很前期就有這個缺陷
    9.鎖鍊跳的位置在邊緣的判定有問題，很難完全判斷能不能跳到不會摔落的位置
  27. LenkaGodEater
    Sep 20, 2019
    4
    The character design is amazing and the game has a nice pace to it. Being mission based rather than open world is the better fit allowing levels to be replayed on higher difficulty while seeming out secrets or side quest at times. Overall a must own for switch
  28. AKtee
    Sep 16, 2019
    0
    i fell for the hype surrounding this game. Combat boring and repetitive. Music cheesy and not suitable to environments. Acting is garbage. Story predictable.
  29. AceAscendus
    Sep 9, 2019
    4
    30fps... lmao, this game is overrated and mediocre, just another cheap and uninspired side project for Nintendo by Platinum Games. Astral Chain, Bayonetta 3, Babylon's Fall are all being worked on at the same time by B-Team members and are small side projects to scam idiots out of their money, that is why Kamiya is not involved with them. Platinum game has 2 MAIN projects that are both30fps... lmao, this game is overrated and mediocre, just another cheap and uninspired side project for Nintendo by Platinum Games. Astral Chain, Bayonetta 3, Babylon's Fall are all being worked on at the same time by B-Team members and are small side projects to scam idiots out of their money, that is why Kamiya is not involved with them. Platinum game has 2 MAIN projects that are both currently secret and being designed for next generation consoles, these are the real GOOD games we will see from Platinum Games and Platinum Games have stated that they will own these IPs and want to become a proper independent studio, similar to From Software and Capcom. We are going to see great things from Platinum Games. So these two next gen titles will be PC/PS5/XboxScarlet multi-platform games.… Expand
  30. s2ada
    Sep 8, 2019
    1
    Franchement l'un des pires jeux de chez Platinium Games, tout dedans est très mauvais voir nul.
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Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best Switch Game of 2019
2
#2 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019
70
#70 Most Shared Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 92 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 89 out of 92
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 92
  3. Negative: 0 out of 92
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 28, 2020
    85
    This one is more of a crowd-pleaser than a game-changer. [Issue #42 – October 2019, p. 68]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 28, 2020
    100
    Astral Chain consists of varied genres, but is mostly an action game, which has great ideas and interesting, relaxed humour, that doesn´t spoil its serious plot. [Issue#298]
  3. ZTGD
    Nov 7, 2019
    85
    Despite the hardware limitations and a handful of odd design choices, Astral Chain is one of the best new IPs to hit in recent years and one deserving the attention of every Switch owner.
    Read full review
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