The 26 greatest Nintendo Swap video games in 2025

Multiplayer: Y | Yr launched: 2019

I used to be on the fence about Astral Chain from the day the primary trailer got here out till an excellent few hours into my playthrough. All of it felt a bit of too generic, virtually a paint-by-numbers rendition of an motion recreation. I needn’t have been so apprehensive, because it’s one of many extra authentic titles to come back from PlatinumGames, the developer behind the Bayonetta collection, lately.

In a future the place the world is beneath fixed assault from creatures that exist on one other airplane of existence, you play as an officer in a particular drive that offers with this menace. The sport’s gimmick is which you could tame these creatures to grow to be Legions that you just use in fight. Encounters play out with you controlling each your character and the Legion concurrently to take care of waves of mobs and bigger, more difficult enemies. In addition to for fight, you may use your Legion(s) to resolve crimes and traverse environments.

Astral Chain sticks intently to a loop of detective work, platforming puzzles and fight — a bit of too intently, if I am being essential — with the sport break up into circumstances that function chapters. The story begins off nicely sufficient however shortly devolves right into a mashup of varied anime tropes, together with twists and arcs ripped straight from some very well-known exhibits and movies. Nevertheless, the minute-to-minute gameplay is sufficient to hold you engaged by the 20-hour or so foremost marketing campaign and into the pretty important end-game content material.

Does Astral Chain attain the heights of Nier: Automata? No, by no means, however its fight and environments can typically surpass that recreation, which all-told might be my favourite of this era. Typically obtainable for beneath $50 nowadays, it is nicely price your time.