Astral Chain: Dodge Mechanic Game
So one of my favorite, if not favorite designers is Takahisa Taura, and one of my favorite studios is PlatinumGames. To me, playing and analyzing a new Platinum Title is like a dream come true! It’s no surprise then that Astral Chain was one of my favorite games of 2019. I did nothing but play that game and scrutinize it’s combat system when it released. Part of how I think the game keeps the player so engaged in its free form combat. Rather than just button mashing, its system makes the player actively react to enemy attacks. It’s a wonderful balance of, “Oh I should be patient and wait to react to the enemy”, and “I’ve got the upper hand, it’s time to capitalize”. There are many ways that it does this, but one simple way is the perfect dodge (as I’ve coined it). When the player dodges within a frame window of the enemy’s attack, they do a perfect dodge and can counter attack with a devastating super cool looking corkscrew attack.
This project has me trying to do something similar, except I wanted to take that concept further- what if I added the ninja’s real-time spellcasting instead of that super cool corkscrew attack! And so there we go!
I normally try to write my blog posts after I’ve completed the project (or at least in Cypher’s case, certain parts of it). This time, however, since this is a project that requires quite a bit of polish to even resemble something that feels good (and I’ve got nothing better to be doing in these dark times), I’ve decided to take a far more incremental approach to update the blog. Expect updates frequently!
This folder will hold the latest build! Download it to see where I’m at!