Recompiled Astral Chain into a native Windows port with AI coding agents

Astral Chain PC translates the Nintendo Switch game’s ARM64 program into C and runs it as a native Windows x64 application. The port replaces the Switch graphics interface with a Vulkan path; it does not emulate the console or use a just-in-time translator.

How it was done

The project README says the code, tooling, reverse engineering and documentation were written by Claude through Claude Code and Codex, with the owner directing, testing and reviewing the work. The setup scripts extract the required game data from the user’s own base game and v1.0.1 update, then run the translation and native build. Third-party tools are pinned and checked by SHA-256.

Results

The author reports that the title, menus, opening cutscene, character creation, highway chase and first on-foot section of File 01 have been tested. Saving works in that section. The project targets 60 fps and includes a guarded launch path that stops on reported GPU errors or hangs. Content after the first on-foot section has not been tested, and the README lists outstanding visual and save-thumbnail issues. The repository contains no game code, assets, shaders, keys or firmware.

Reproduce

On Windows 10 or 11, provide your own base game dump, exact v1.0.1 update and console prod.keys. Run setup.cmd, select those files when prompted, and then launch Play Astral Chain.cmd. The repository does not explain how to obtain or dump game files.