I beat Astral Chain! My thoughts or more or less the same
as before. Though once I got used to its peculiarities, I started to adapt and get better at spotting things. ....by that I mean I kept some guides nearby at basically every stage to minimize the number of times I had to travel to previous chapters. But doing that did make things less frustrating for me, since I could just skim the guides and be like, oh, I need to look for this, not read the spoilers, and then find it and experience it fresh. A lot better than missing it outright and having to come back later!
But yea, no-spoiling TL;DR, Astral Chain one of those games that could have been fantastic, but it's frustratingly only very good. It's a game of transition from a studio in transition. With Astral Chain, Platinum was trying to take what they are good at and expand it with new concepts and ideas, and that's something I can get behind. But it never quite works. Like, they nail the combat, absolutely amazing. But the "old platinum" gameplay structures (spectacle fighting, discreet stages, rankings, etc) clashes with the RPG like elements (collectibles, side quests, and open environments) that they are experimenting with, creating a game that feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. Astral Chain good, it's really really good, but that also makes its bad parts all the more frustrating. It's such a weird game.
EDIT: Also I really like that Astral Chain is longer than a typical Platinum game. In typical platinum fashion, you have to play through a game a second time before you *really* master it, but Astral Chain is long enough that I was REALLY good at the game by the end. I don't really care for playing through a game multiple times, so having new content to engage with while at my peak is perfect for me! That and I just really enjoyed its systems and I'm pretty happy spending 50 hours in it.
Honestly though, I hope Astral Chain sells well and we get a sequel. Astral Chain had its problems, but it is an established studio taking risks and trying new things. Plus it was a very enjoyable game for me overall. I really want to see them have another go at this, I want to see what lessons they learn and where they go from here!
So, after playing through this, I definitely want to play through more platinum games. Maybe I'll give vanquished a try? I'm not really one for shooty games, cause well, most I've tried are really boring, but since it's platinum... if anyone can make a shooty game mechanically interesting, it's them.