Nintendo is continuing an interesting and unpredictable relationship with Platinum Games, introducing a brand new intellectual property for the Switch during the most recent Direct presentation. Astral Chain is another character action game from the studio, featuring futuristic vibes and a large citadel environment.

The trailer features a pair of law enforcement officers, utilizing a "humanoid special weapon" called Legion in combat. Like with most Platinum titles, Astral Chain looks like it contains numerous combat options, such as different combos and weapons to utilize. Characters have very anime-like proportions and designs, but the actual art presentation looks like it features thick comic book-like lines to punctuate the characters.

It could just be the illusion presented in the trailer, but the actual futuristic city, which Nintendo says to be "multi-cultural," looks wide and expansive from a distance, with plenty of civilians to populate it. Of course, the game may just funnel players into streets and corridors to fight in, but it's an impressive look regardless.

Astral Chain is bringing in the big guns from the studio, with the trailer highlighting the participation of several familiar names from the studio. Hideki Kamiya of Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101 fame is supervising production, with director Takahisa Taura (NieR: Automata, Anarchy Reigns) acting as director. Additionally, character design comes from manga artist Masakazu Katsura.

The "synthetic action system" that the game touts could be interesting to play around with—it is unclear as of yet just how that will control. Will players have to switch between different characters, or control both simultaneously? What different abilities can players switch in and out? And how will the game take advantage of the Switch hardware, if at all?

This may have to keep fans of Platinum titles at bay while they wait for any word of Bayonetta 3, which still has a number of unknowns surrounding it. At the very least, followers of Kamiya might be excited to see his next title after Scalebound failed to materialize. My personal hope is that the game's story doesn't bungle anything narratively given how sensitive a story with cop protagonists in a multi-cultural city could go.

Expect Astral Chain to land on Switch on August 30.