Astral Chain: How Long Does It Take To Beat Platinum's New Game?

Astral Chain is the latest from developer Platinum Games and it brings a fresh take on stylish action exclusively to the Nintendo Switch. Now that some of us have played through the entire game, we can share just how long it takes to finish. Of course, your mileage may vary since time to completion depends on your playstyle and the amount of optional content you engage with, but here we can give a general range.

As the reviewer of Astral Chain for GameSpot, I spent a total of 35 hours with the game to roll credits. This included a full playthrough on the Platinum Standard difficulty, an earnest effort to find and finish every side quest possible, and plenty of time spent exploring for leftover hidden missions--side quests also factor into your overall mission grade. I spent an extra five hours in an attempt to find the remaining content within the story chapters, and try out the hardest difficulty (Platinum Ultimate).

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Astral Chain features an achievement list called "Orders" which act as challenges to complete throughout the game. There are 185 of them, and while they're not essential, they grant you rewards like upgrade materials, items, or new cosmetic options for your character. Clearing out that list will add an inordinate amount of time to your playtime as some challenges require story completion on the hardest difficulty, S+ ranks on everything, among other things.

The game would be much shorter if you simply go through the main story questline without looking at anything else, to which I would estimate to around 15 hours--you would be doing the bare minimum, however.

As for install size, Astral Chain requires 9.8 GB of storage space on your Switch or SD card if you plan on purchasing the digital version of the game.

Astral Chain launches this Friday, August 30 exclusively on Nintendo Switch. To get up to speed on it, be sure to read my Astral Chain review in which I say, "Astral Chain's shortcomings don't overshadow what it does best. It's an incredible execution of a fresh take on Platinum Games' foundation, standing among the stylish-action greats. And its own anime-inspired swagger makes fights all the more exhilarating."