During today’s Nintendo Direct, Bayonetta, Nier Automata, and Vanquish developer Platinum Games debuted its latest Switch game: a mecha-powered cyberpunk action game called Astral Chain.
The trailer depicts stylish anime police battling monsters alongside mecha partners and pulling up what seem to be predictive holographic interfaces to see what’ll happen to people and environments around them. Nier Automata designer Takahisa Taura is directing, and Bayonetta and original Devil May Cry director Hideki Kamiya is supervising. It looks cool as hell.
In Astral Chain, you’ll fight and investigate alongside a “special living weapon” called Legion, which can switch into multiple combat styles that involve some kind of astral-ish chain-like object. A ghost rope, I bet, is what they’ll call it. “You could both attack the same enemy simultaneously, target different opponents, or send your Legion on the offensive while you support it with items,” says the game’s description.
It goes on to say that you’re fighting aliens. Or maybe monsters? It’s unclear.
“In the Ark, a multi-cultural city in the near future, disaster strikes when gates to another dimension suddenly appear! Dangerous creatures begin to emerge, attacking the people and polluting the land, and normal police forces are unable to compete with them. To stand up against these threats, a brand new, special police unit known as Neuron is formed.”
Also, you can choose between two characters—one male and one female—and whichever you don’t pick will still appear in the game as your younger twin. That’s neat.
It’ll be out on August 30. Oh, and according to Nier Automata director Yoko Taro, Astral Chain director Takahisa Taura’s nickname is “USB” or “Ultimate Sex Beast.” No, I’m not making this up. So that’s important, too.