Operation Backlog Completion 2024

Astral Chain is Meant to be a Trilogy

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 262019
 

I’ve been interested in Astral Chain from PlatinumGames since it was announced, but the gameplay during this year’s Nintendo Treehouse segment of E3 is what really sold me on the game.

Astral Chain looks fantastic, and it’s just a little over two months away. And now, thanks to a new interview translated here by Nintendo Everything, we know there might be even more Astral Chain to look forward to.

According to the game’s director, Takahisa Taura, Astral Chain will not have DLC, but they hope to make it into a trilogy:

Currently, there are no plans to publish extra content for Astral Chain. That is different for the game’s story. We’re making the game as a trilogy, and this is the first part of that trilogy. If this game sells well, we might see how the story of the series continues.”

It sounds as though they’ve written Astral Chain with a trilogy in mind. Hopefully that means the first game’s story still stands on its own, since they could never end up making the next two.

Update: It turns out the statement in the interview was a mistranslation; they did not plan it as a trilogy, but rather are thinking about ways they could expand it into a trilogy.

Nevertheless, it’s exciting to know that if Astral Chain does well, they want to make not just one, but two sequels.

Astral Chain will be out on August 30 for the Nintendo Switch. Are you planning to pick it up?

Astral Chain, Dragon Quest XI S, and More!

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Feb 152019
 

The recent Nintendo Direct had some great announcements, and one of the biggest surprises was Astral Chain from PlatinumGames.

When the trailer started up, I wasn’t too interested at first. It just struck me as another action mech sort of thing.

Then as it went on, I realized there was more of a focus on the story than I expected. It started to look like a game I might enjoy. I even wondered at one point if it was some sort of Xenoblade Chronicles X thing, except the combat and buildings didn’t seem quite right.

Then the credits showed Kamiya’s name and PlatinumGames, and I was in.

Astral Chain is a new action game for the Nintendo Switch from PlatinumGames, set in a near-future world where a special police force is set up to fight mysterious creatures attacking the world.

It’s also coming out on August 30, so most likely before both Bayonetta 3 and Babylon’s Fall.

(PlatinumGames had also been working on Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but they’ve departed from that project under unclear circumstances.)

I’m a little disappointed that we still haven’t seen anything more from Bayonetta 3, and I keep expecting them to announce a Wonderful 101 port/sequel, but Astral Chain looks really cool and I can’t wait until they reveal more details about it.

The Nintendo Direct also included the official reveal of Dragon Quest XI S… or its full title, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition, which will have the ability to switch between the HD graphics and the 16-bit style, as well as new content.

I have Dragon Quest XI for the PS4 and planned to start it as soon as I finished God of War, but I held off because I didn’t want to have it in progress when Kingdom Hearts III came out. Now I’m conflicted over whether I should wait for the Switch version or not.

It also turns out that the Rune Factory series isn’t dead! Rune Factory 4 is being remastered for the Switch, and Rune Factory 5 is in development. I’ve never played a Rune Factory game before. Should I?

And Tokyo RPG Factory is trying its hand at an action RPG with Oninaki. I’m a little disappointed they moved away from turn-based, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

What did you think about these games, and the Nintendo Direct overall? What are you looking forward to the most? And when will we learn more about Bayonetta 3?