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Astral Chain review embargo lifts on Monday, August 26 @ 6 AM PT
- Thread starter vestan
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Only a short first look by Digital Foundry. It was pretty stable there:
It's not an all out action game like Bayonetta etc.
Well it looks like this game in going to get the exclusive treatment when it comes to the review thread...it's already started here.
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Good—maybe it'll get a performance boost once the Super Switch comes out.
He said he loved Nier and likes Bayonetta, Vanquish, and the like.
You're thinking of Jett Gerstmann.
I'm just reporting what I heard. Has me worried is all.
First time he discussed it, he said he thought it was sub Nier. Second episode he had spent a lot more time with the game, and said they introduced a lot more mechanics.
That's when he started in on how the game was just too easy. And again, he's not like some action game God, I don't think.
I'm not going to judge too harshly on the standard difficulty, Platinum's titles only truly come into their own on their highest settings, which for here look solid (and you don't have to beat the game to start playing on the higher difficulty, you just beat the mission and it unlocks the difficulty for that mission). The gamespot gameplay of the highest difficulty looked really great, enemies were aggressive enough and damaging enough to be threatening, you really have to manage both the legion and your character since both take damage and there were a lot of options used to get around just two enemies.
The standard dodge into big attack or special ability platinum's games have used here is weaker too it looks (not nearly as good as Nier A for example), closer to something like metal gear rising, which if you also take into account the lack of a jump button, places an emphasis on 2D spacing for your main guy, with the legion being your "third dimension".
The standard dodge into big attack or special ability platinum's games have used here is weaker too it looks (not nearly as good as Nier A for example), closer to something like metal gear rising, which if you also take into account the lack of a jump button, places an emphasis on 2D spacing for your main guy, with the legion being your "third dimension".
People are going to post hot takes, focus on one low review score and people will console war. It happens with every exclusive review thread.
Rational me will say 85-86.
But there's no time for rational thought anymore. What I understand from the previews it will not have the moving story of Nier Automata, but it will have better gameplay, and looking at Bayonetta 2, I think that is valued more in this type of game. (Though reviewers are always more easily inclined to give higher scores to sequels, and some people may now expect a moving story like in Nier)
So I'm thinking maybe a 90. Since that's the end of a cohort in the poll that seems focused more on high 80s, I chose 91-95, because fuck logic.
But there's no time for rational thought anymore. What I understand from the previews it will not have the moving story of Nier Automata, but it will have better gameplay, and looking at Bayonetta 2, I think that is valued more in this type of game. (Though reviewers are always more easily inclined to give higher scores to sequels, and some people may now expect a moving story like in Nier)
So I'm thinking maybe a 90. Since that's the end of a cohort in the poll that seems focused more on high 80s, I chose 91-95, because fuck logic.
Any criticism or negative responses will be perceived as console war fanboyism. I would like to get more involved in discussion of exclusives, but threads about them are fraught with that paranoia.
NieR isn't a hard game either. I would expect a similar difficulty here. Both games even share the same Platinum director. And both games aren't purely character-action experiences.
Unless an exclusive game's reviews are uniformly good it'll be a war zone, basically. Happens almost every time and even the few top-tier games get the usual 'bias', 'nostalgia' rubbish before too long.
Edit: beaten.
I think it's been pretty well established here that this isn't a typical Platinum action game. I am sure they didn't make the choice to go 30fps without some serious consideration for everything else in the game.
The notion that somebody would skip this game because it's not 60fps kind of worries me
My guess is 86 or 87. That would be in line with Platinum's better work, but not quite Bayonetta 2 tier, which seems in line with current impressions.
I don't really understand all the back-and-forth about frames per second in a review prediction thread. I definitely get that FPS are a major factor in how some players assess the quality of games (especially action games), but framerate almost never seems to factor into critics' reviews in a major way unless the framerate is wildly unstable and indicative of major performance issues.
I don't really understand all the back-and-forth about frames per second in a review prediction thread. I definitely get that FPS are a major factor in how some players assess the quality of games (especially action games), but framerate almost never seems to factor into critics' reviews in a major way unless the framerate is wildly unstable and indicative of major performance issues.
I'll frankly never get refusing to play a game because it 30 fps.
Especially when people say it's "literally unplayable."
Wonderful 101 sitting at 78 tells me that score means nothing when it comes to a hardcore action game.
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absolutely
these threads are still pretty entertaining to read though
so many great games have been 30fps. If these people are for real, it's a real shame they've missed out on so many greats.
Well, I agree :pabsolutely
these threads are still pretty entertaining to read though
Anyone know Austin's thoughts on The Wonderful 101?
Just curious. It's not like his opinion isn't valid either way.
Just curious. It's not like his opinion isn't valid either way.
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Iirc he was more positive on the combat in the second episode, but did eventually get a Legion that allowed him to basically just button mash. I don't remember if he actually played on the hardest available difficulty, or if he just thought the difficulty he played on was too easy. But aside from that that sounds about right from what i remember from his impressions.
I'm still excited for the game, but I am expecting like, lower 80s from reviewers since it sounds like the world and story might not be as interesting as I hope. That is unless the game gets more interesting a few hours in.
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Yeah because personally I love PG and I didn't really grasp W101 like that. This game looks much easier to wrap my head around so, it could be one of those type of things? I smell a 7/10 from them because of those early impressions.
The only opinion I've heard about the investigation was from Eurogamer Spain, and it was really positive. They were more worried about the imprecise platforming and the lack of visual variety in the astral plane.
I know, I was only contrasting the opinion with the best video we have of combat gameplay. We will see really soon.
He said he played on the highest difficulty that was available from the start. I think he mentioned 2 extra levels of difficulty being unlockable.
Dont think Waypoint's reviews count towards the MC score because they dont give out numerical grades. At least they didn't give one to FE3H.
They must be confident about this one. Even earlier than my GOTY also known as Three Houses, which was only a day before release.
Correct, Waypoint doesn't give out scores. They publish great reviews worth reading though.
The people not happy about 30fps should just ignore this game and move on to something else. We live in an era where there's no shortage of games to play.
It's also amusing seeing people complain about it while previously playing / being excited for other future 30fps games 😂
I much prefer 60 myself especially for this genre but the game is what it is so I'll take it.
It's also amusing seeing people complain about it while previously playing / being excited for other future 30fps games 😂
I much prefer 60 myself especially for this genre but the game is what it is so I'll take it.
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