Astral Chain - Batonetta? - The Bear and Badger

dynamiteReady

Having spent a bit of time with this game, it's solid, certainly, but I find the control system somewhat oppugnant to the intent to present a free flowing action game.

For a start, I find the default controls unusual (the trigger button for attacks), and undoubtedly felt more comfortable after changing the scheme.

Also, while the legion conceit is extremely inventive, the free attacking AI subverts and dilutes your intent in a way Bayonetta never could with it's rather explicit controls.

But this game is thematically brilliant. Near genius.
Like a highly rated anime feature...

And certainly, the story fucks with Evangelion a fair piece. Though I suspect I have a great deal more to see.

I'm certainly intrigued enough to put the time in. :]

Kow

I bought this, it's really good. I thought I was doing ok even though it was hard until I realised I was still in the tutorial more or less.

dynamiteReady

P.S. The control system invokes a fleeting memory of Treasure's Freak Out on PS2, which I liked a lot...

Kow

Ooh, I remember that. Boss battle wavy arm madness.

Kow

Really fucking annoying that when you shoot you start moving backwards. I'm trying to shoot stuff but I keep falling backwards off a platform. I don't see the point of it .

SLEdge

I like this game a lot, but I found that the legion can also go wonky sometimes which was a frustrating experience earlier when I was fighting

Spoiler:

afgavinstan

Game crashed on me last night as I was really getting into it. Annoying.

Never had a switch game crash on me before which made it extra weird

b0r1s

Slay The Spire crashed quite a bit before the first update.

hylian_elf

Mine never crashed. Hmmm.

afgavinstan

Okay so during File 03 "Link" I'm at a part where

Spoiler:

Halp

Dogfingers

When the combat clicks this is very very good. You get so overwhelmed at first you just end up hammering R2 and B to dodge, then when you start learning stuff it becomes great. For the first 5 missions I got consistent D ranks, rarely get less than B now. Though I've missed every fucking toilet fairy there is somehow.

Curtis

I just finished File 02, and yes it can feel semi-removed when you're used to instant-Bayonetta-type-gratification, but having seen the unlockable Legions and the combos they're capable of, it reminds me of W101, which i adore!!

Its my holiday Switch game, so i'll be playing it all month. And hopefully laughing in the face of D Rank.

afgavinstan

afgavinstan wrote:

Okay so during File 03 "Link" I'm at a part where

Spoiler:

I've to question the locals and I've spoke to everyone and seen all the convos and done the two quizzes with the kids and nothing is triggering anything happening

Halp

Got it. Stupid game/me.

AndCallMeCharlie

afgavinstan wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

Okay so during File 03 "Link" I'm at a part where

Spoiler:

I've to question the locals and I've spoke to everyone and seen all the convos and done the two quizzes with the kids and nothing is triggering anything happening
Halp

Got it. Stupid game/me.

Was it the graffiti kid?

afgavinstan

Nah the couple in the scaffolding above

dynamiteReady

It's a small detail, but I really like how the game penalises the player for unnecessary collateral damage.

It took a while to get the memory of that manic first file out of my system, but now that the game's simmered down, it's really drawn me into it's world.

I'm not that far in though, tbh.

[Deleted User]

Curtis wrote:

Its my holiday Switch game, so i'll be playing it all month. And hopefully laughing in the face of D Rank.

Is it bad that I’m playing in Casual mode? No rankings to make me feel bad.

afgavinstan

Me too. o/

[Deleted User]

\o

The answer is no, btw. It’s not bad.

cosmicjellybean

I stuck it on normal straight away, had to use a few health items on the first real boss...

Spoiler:

SLEdge

cosmicjellybean wrote:

I stuck it on normal straight away, had to use a few health items on the first real boss...

Spoiler:

Cerberus

Same here, but I don't think it was necessarily the difficulty, but rather that the camera was a bit too close, making it a hard to read attacks and dodge.

tin_robot

Andy wrote:

Curtis wrote:

Its my holiday Switch game, so i'll be playing it all month. And hopefully laughing in the face of D Rank.

Is it bad that I’m playing in Casual mode? No rankings to make me feel bad.

I played it on casual for the first couple of chapters, but the constant prompts to change play style led me to switch to normal, and I actually felt the game was better for it. It’s still fairly easy (I’m yet to get a game over, and I’m rubbish) but the feedback on challenges has made me have more fun with it, and move away from mashing.

I still have some frustrations with the game itself - I don’t think I’ve ever played anything with so many invisible walls for instance, and the camera is a bastard at times. None the less, I’m on chapter 10, and I’m having a blast...

AndCallMeCharlie

On file 5, it’s good but find the changes of game styles a bit annoyin.
Not feeling the love somehow

dynamiteReady

It's a really interesting game. Exceptionally well crafted and difficult to fault,
but it does draw an occasional 'eh?' out of you more than once, and for a variety of different reasons.

I'm still flaked out by the confusing start, for example.

But it's so fucking cool it's impossible to stay in anyway angry about anything in there.

I'm predicting an Edge 9, but this could so easily end up with a 7, or an 8, or even a 10.
I think a 10 would be extremely generous though.

Never lower than a 7, I'm, sure.

dynamiteReady

Bercow... Talk about enjoying your last day at work...

edit - LOL! Wrong thread! Keeping this here.

SLEdge

Beast Legion is a pain in the arse to drive.

JonB

Picked this up again after File 2 and just learned a load of new stuff. The chain jump and attack seems like a game changer. But damn there's a lot to remember and it just keeps piling on more info. I hope it all falls into place at some point, because it seems like a fantastic system.

afgavinstan

I'm at a point where I'm unsure as to whether Casual is of detriment to my enjoyment. I'll keep going.

Also, checkpointing could be better. Still really enjoying it though.

dynamiteReady

JonB wrote:

Picked this up again after File 2 and just learned a load of new stuff. The chain jump and attack seems like a game changer. But damn there's a lot to remember and it just keeps piling on more info. I hope it all falls into place at some point, because it seems like a fantastic system.

I've gone from finding combat limiting, to putting it on par with Bayonetta.
But the controls are still intense.

Are people still using the default controls? I've switched to D, I think. Which puts the attack button on the face of the controller instead of the trigger, and it's felt much better.

But it's still extremely complicated. Even the scheme for sprinting and crouching is very different.

It's successful, sure, but I always worry about the thumbstick giving way.

...

This game go HAM though. It really is like playing a slick anime.

tin_robot

dynamiteReady wrote:

JonB wrote:

Picked this up again after File 2 and just learned a load of new stuff. The chain jump and attack seems like a game changer. But damn there's a lot to remember and it just keeps piling on more info. I hope it all falls into place at some point, because it seems like a fantastic system.

I've gone from finding combat limiting, to putting it on par with Bayonetta.
But the controls are still intense.

Are people still using the default controls? I've switched to D, I think. Which puts the attack button on the face of the controller instead of the trigger, and it's felt much better.

But it's still extremely complicated. Even the scheme for sprinting and crouching is very different.

It's successful, sure, but I always worry about the thumbstick giving way.

...

This game go HAM though. It's really is like playing a slick anime.

I’m fine with the basic controls now, which have clicked quite nicely. (My reaction times remain terrible, but the game offers some ways round that for creaking old farts like me.)

However there’s one bit that I’ve not really mastered...

Spoiler:

As for worrying about breaking your thumb sticks, there was a moment where I was convinced I was going to destroy them...

Spoiler:

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