It was February 2019. I was waiting for livestream of a Nintendo Direct. In the livestream, I saw [a trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brmmV3g4qqo) for an action game with some very familiar gameplay. This is some time after I finished Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising, and NieR: Automata. Then I saw some familiar names: Takahisa Taura (director) and Hideki Kamiya (supervisor), followed by the PlatinumGames logo.
I practically exploded with hype. It’s an unexpected new IP, since PlatinumGames was also developing Bayonetta 3, which was announced back in 2017 (released in 2022). AC was a surprise since there was no prior announcement whatsoever (at least from what I know).
When Astral Chain was announced, the game is likely already in its final stages of development, as it was released in August 30th of the same year. In E3 2019, they showed a [live gameplay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX5V9uOVD4k) with the game’s director. I was practically sold even before that.
The game still has that familiar “Platinum” feeling, especially in terms of movement, dodging, and comboing. It’s one of those cases where it feels overwhelming at first, but once you master it, you’ll feel like a God. I ended up playing through the campaign and took a break to play other games. Turns out, the game still has quite a lot of content, and I ended up finishing the game 100% around 2021, and took me around 180 hours of play time, mostly spent on hidden item hunting, side quests, and training for the postgame fights.
However, the game lacked any kind of DLC or post-launch content. Instead, there was only a single update to address some bugs, and that’s about it. It’s nice to see a game released in a polished, complete state these days, no?
Still, I’m hoping PlatinumGames (or Nintendo, since they published the game) expands this IP one day. After a strong start, this IP shouldn’t be left with just one game. In one interview, director Takahisa Taura mentioned that there are no plans for a sequel for now, but [it’s still a possibility](https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/27/astral-chain-planned-as-first-part-of-a-trilogy-no-post-launch-content-planned), should the game be successful, which I think it is.