Astral Chain is a new Platinum game coming to Switch and it looks anime as hell

The chains of co-op?

While the big Nintendo Direct news that turned heads today was most definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, the Link’s Awakening remake, I was the guy who went “yeah but what’s Astral Chain though,” as I tilted my head in amusement.

The trailer opens up with a police officer duo basically wrecking shit: complete with transformations and a chain-based combat system that Nintendo is slyly hinting will be multiplayer-centric. We get a decent look at the world, the monsters that inhabit it, and a bunch of gameplay: it’s a Good Trailer.

Even more curiously, Masakazu Katsura is on board for the character designs and legendary action developer Hideki Kamiya is a “supervisor” for the project. Takahisa Taura of Nier: Automata fame (and whoa, look at that low key Anarchy Reigns shoutout, may that lovely game never die) is directing.

Astral Chain is set to launch on August 30 on Switch. It’s a PlatinumGames joint: I’m already there.