Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown
Where to even begin with this one? Astral Chain is a game whose qualities feel near-impossible to describe accurately to those who don't know it. It has a super cool cyberpunk setting with tons of wasted potential because of its cliché storyline. It looks great, certainly impressive for being on the Switch, but still held back by its system, far outmatched by many other games that go for either the cyberpunk look or the anime look, even if it does both well. The soundtrack is very good, but outside of one breathtaking piece, is not one of the best. The gameplay is... well, the combat can have a serious learning curve, but the non-combat stuff could certainly be described as boring busywork.
To be honest, though, I think this game's biggest flaw is the Casual difficulty setting. Or to be more accurate, how it incites players to choose that as their first option. There's these post-game missions with pre-determined difficulty, and when getting to those at the end of my first playthrough, I was overwhelmed by how hard they were, stumbling my way through 3 or 4 until giving up when I read there were 70 of them. Yet, when I played through the game again, this time on Pt Standard difficulty, the transition into the challenging post-game missions was seamless, and I fully appreciated the continuously increased level of challenge as it made me use every tool the game gives me to its fullest - and the game gives you a lot to work with. All these tools, the game slowly gives you throughout the campaign, but in Casual, you never really need to use more than one at a time, so you never actually learn how to use them properly; on Pt Standard, though, the learning curve feels natural and easy to understand, if still rather difficult.
Anyways. For all my criticisms up there, I do really like this game's story, I love its setting, and I think it looks amazing. But the real reason why I continue to appreciate it so much all these years on, for sure is the combat. When you get the hang of it it feels incredible, there's nothing like it. The way the movements and attacks of both yourself and your legion combine into one another, alongside the special powers you can use every now and then, everything feels so seamless and free-form, it's easily the most fun I've ever had in combat in any game, by far. Now if only we got a sequel that expanded on the other aspects of it...
