PlatinumGames shoots down Astral Chain/Scalebound comparisons, explains why they work so well with Nintendo, and talks about Switch's success

The gang at VGC had the chance to talk with PlatinumGames' Atsushi Inaba about all sorts of things, including the upcoming Astral Chain. First up, Mr. Inaba shared the company's ambitions for the game.

For ASTRAL CHAIN there are two things that we really wanted to focus on. We’re used to doing single-player character action games, but in this particular game you as the player also control a monster at the same time, so you have to split focus between control of two characters. That is really an evolution of some of the action games that we’ve built in the past.

To get from where this project initially started several years ago to now, we have had to face many different pitfalls and challenges along the way. But now it’s finally at the point where it’s a very unique, original experience and exactly what we wanted it to be with the core idea of ‘Synergetic Action’. Separate from that, we really wanted this project to push Taura-san as one of our new, up-and-coming directors and get him recognition. Because Platinum isn’t a studio with just one or two directors:it needs to be a studio of multiple directors who all have their own flavour.

Astral Chain's focus on dual-character gameplay has lead to some comparisons to the canceled Xbox One project, Scalebound. Do the two games share any ties?

I can’t go in to detail about how the different gameplay systems of ASTRAL CHAIN and Scalebound work, but they’re both very different. Any feeling of similarity between the two projects is not true. It’s all in your imagination! (laughs)

Astral Chain may be the next game Platinum is bringing to Switch, but it's not the last. Over the years, Platinum has built up quite a relationship with Nintendo. Mr. Inaba discussed how that partnership has grown.

Nintendo is a company that respects creators. From that perspective, it is a strong, organic fit for us. However, please understand that I personally have known them for over 20 years and Platinum has been talking with them for a long time, so this is a relationship that has been forged over the past 20 years.

It’s not like in the last two years they came knocking at our door saying, ‘let’s do all these games!’ We’ve been friends for a long time and through that cycle we’ve built up a lot of trust, got to know who that other company is and that opens the door to a lot of new opportunities as time goes on. So, it’s simply that both companies have a lot of trust.

Platinum stuck with Nintendo during the hard times on the Wii U and saw their projects through. Now Platinum is putting out games for Switch, which is enjoying a lot of success and a much larger install base. Inaba discussed what it's like creating games for such a successful platform.

It makes both sides happy because if you make a game and unfortunately it’s for a platform that doesn’t do very well, then neither side is happy. To be able to make games for hardware that is doing very well makes both sides happy.

Without a doubt the Switch plays a huge part in the growth of the Japanese market right now. But also, there are more PC games in Japan than there were, and the Japanese audience is starting to play more Western-themed genres than they were: things like FPS and battle royale. There’s not so much of a resistance in young gamers in Japan for new things.