So- I'm interested in getting into a new handheld. My primary interest is traditional JRPGs along the lines of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. I know that the DS family has a long back catalog of games that fits that bill, and I understand the Switch has a decent library of them as well.
I don't have a great deal of experience with either system. I'm primarily a Sony gamer, but I have owned some older Nintendo systems in the past. I have only demo'd a standard Switch before and that only let me play Mario (and I think the stick was busted). I'm not really 100 percent sold on the Switch as a home console, but I am seriously considering the Switch Lite. There's not a huge gap in price between the 2DS XL and the Switch Lite, so if we're going on power and new stuff coming out, the Switch Lite would win.
But I feel like I know what I'm getting with the 2DS whereas I don't understand much about the Switch or Switch Lite at all.
@Magitek_Knight
Since you are a Sony gamer, i think you will impressed by more Action or Serious looking games.
To understand what kind of suitable games from you either from Switch or 3DS, i will explain.
3DS & NDS games are dominated by Cute, Girlie, Cartoonish, Quirky games such as Nintendogs, Cooking Mama, Style Savvy, Miitopia, Pokemon games, etc. While PS VITA was the opposite of 3DS , with more Mature JRPG, Western Action games, Realistic racing, Sports, Almost no cute games at all, something that only attract typical mainstream adult male gamers. In contrast with Switch, still deliver something from 3DS & NDS (Cartoonish, Cute, Girlie, Quirky, etc) and something serious like Sony games type.
If you prefer cute games, go for New 2DS XL and Switch.
But if you don't like cute games, go for Switch and choose serious games.
@Anti-Matter To amend that, I've been a Playstation player for a very long time (since the very first PS1), and honestly don't like Sony's first-party push of "gritty" cable TV-style stories strung together with mediocre gameplay like The Last of Us or the God of War reboot.
On the other hand, I'd never played a game in either series and they're at opposite ends of the silly/serious spectrum before this year but I've really enjoyed getting into both the Kingdom Hearts remaster and Bloodborne on the PS4, so I'm not sold on one end of the spectrum or the other.
I know that the DS has some games that are exclusively on that system that interest me like the Bravely games and The World Ends with You and also a few Shin Megami Tensei titles, but I also know the Switch has things like Collection of Mana and Dragon Quest VIII (my favorite game in that series) and I'm sure both have many things new to discover.
2ds probably has a bigger library of JRPG's at the moment. Their more retro looking, switch is more full 3d based but can play some older looking games like octopath traveler. it's hard to say, depends what you feeling atm.
Well, the 3DS does have a lot of those games, @Magitek_Knight .... I'm hoping the Bravely ones come to Switch If you get a 2 or 3DS now, couldn't you get a Lite sometime in the future as well?
yeah you are better off with the 2DS it ha smore of what you want
and it also has the stellar remakes of ocarina of time and majora's mask
those should be your first stop
@BruceCM I definitely could, I was just kind of wondering if anyone had experience with the Lite to see if it might be worth it since the price difference between the 2DS XL and Switch Lite is pretty neglible.
@KitsuneNight I um...don't know how to say this without risking massive flaming on a Nintendo-centered forum but I'm really not a big fan of the N64 Zelda games. I like the top down ones more, and still, I'm kind of lukewarm on them. I don't think I've finished any games in the series, though I've owned all of them at various times from the NES to Ocarina of Time.
I would be willing to try Majora's Mask at some point, not sure if I'd re-try Ocarina, though.
I am guessing that the best of the 2DS RPGs will eventually find their way on the Switch. You mention Bravely Default, and if I am not mistaken they are either working on a new Switch game or an HD rerelease of it for Swith right now?
Anyways, I would go for Switch if I were you. Already a lot of re-releases, plenty of new titles too, and still going strong.
ps. Also not a fan of 3D Zeldas. So don't worry about being flamed.
I love my Lite, @Magitek_Knight .... It certainly has quite a few jrpgs on, too BTW, The World Emds With You is on Switch! & you know about all the Final Fantasy games on it?
@Magitek_Knight The 2DS is cheaper, and has a massive library of games, including a few exclusives. However, if it's mainly JRPGs you want, the Switch is rapidly becoming an ideal platform.
Dragon Quest I, II, III and XI
Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, XV Pocket Edition
Octopath Traveler
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 + XC2 Torna
Romancing SaGa 2 and 3
The World Ends with You (one of my all-time favourite games)
Breath of Fire
Cosmic Star Heroine
Ys VIII
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Disgaea series
Mercenaries Saga series
Alliance Alive HD
Then you can throw in a load of action RPGs and WRPGS, from Dark Souls to The Witcher 3, plus three outstanding Zelda titles (Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, Link to the Past ... and the original).
The bonus of the Switch is that it's being really well supported, and that library is only going to get bigger. Shin Megami Tensei V, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE are all on their way.
It's a tough call, you could make a case for purchasing either a 2DS or a Switch. I love my 3DS, but more of that platform's library is coming to Switch with each passing day. However, some excellent rpg games like Fantasy Life, Shin Megami Tensei IV & Apocalypse, Persona Q1 & Q2, Etrian Odyssey Untold 1 & 2, and others may never be ported to the Switch. But by the same account, the Switch is home to Octopath Traveler, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and a slew of multiplatform rpg games that the Switch would allow you to play portably.
The Switch feels like the natural step up from a PS Vita, which was an underappreciated portable platform.
Switch Physical Collection - 1,251 games (as of April 24th, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay
Although the 3DS has more of a history and a terrific selection of RPGs, the Switch library has built up rapidly and will likely get even better in the future. I would argue that the Switch library is also more diverse with a mix of modern and classic games, including:
@Magitek_Knight Well, are you mainly looking at exclusives? Because, while it has some great exclusive games, a lot of the Switch's library is third party stuff you could also play on your PS4.
If you mainly want exclusives, then the 3DS is a better option, as it has a ton of JRPG support, and the vast majority of the games are exclusive to the platform. Whereas the vast majority of Switch games are available elsewhere as well.
It's also worth mentioning that the 3DS has significantly touched up ports of DQVII and VIII on it.
Don't get me wrong: I love my Switch, and I think it has a lot to offer people. But I also know some people who are disappointed by it because they only want to play exclusives on it, and pretty much any platform is going to be a bit deficient in that area until late in life.
Although it probably helps if you never owned a Wii U, as the Switch is getting a lot of that system's big games as well. And it has Breath of the Wild. I know you mentioned that you don't like 3D Zelda games, but BotW is utterly unlike anything else in the series. It's a Zelda game for people who often find they don't like the game design of Ocarina of Time/A Link to the Past.
I guess:
For exclusives --> 3DS
If you plan on buying multiplats or ports as well --> Switch
@Krull@Buizel I'm not sure if I'd recommend Xenoblade 2 to someone with a Switch Lite. If he's not playing that game on a TV...
@Ralizah Ha, fair enough. But I played about half of Xenoblade 2 in handheld mode, and despite the slow texture pop-in, I never really had any complaints about the performance. Everyone's tolerance is different, though. I suspect I'm just not very sensitive to these things.
For Future Proof sake get the Switch or Switch Lite. Sure there are 2DS/3DS titles but if you going to compare graphics to Vita the Switch is the way to go. And JPRPG are coming to Switch or in process of being Ported to Switch with the retirement of 2DS/3DS consoles. So the question in itself is akin to a "Red Hearing" as both Vita(Killed by Sony themselves and no one else) and 2DS/3DS(while this was still has support of games and hardware is still out there to get.) So this is comparing Apples to Oranges question that both irrelevant are not competitive with each other.
oh no ! get the flaming torches !
nah if you dont like the zelda games thats entirely your prerogative
( i dont care much for metroid for example )
but the 3DS remakes arent just graphical overhauls they improve the games in innumerable ways
down to updating the somewhat creaky gameplay and cumbersome controls
in the end its your time and money
but a used 2DS is a lot cheaper and so is the library now the 3DS line is honestly on its way out
the NX lite is a terrific console with an equally great line up but for sheer quality and budget minded gamers the 3DS line should be considered
which ever you pick i am sure you will have a great time either way
DOCKED vs HANDHELD comparison here. Not every area looks significantly worse, but enough do that I have a hard time recommending this to someone who physically won't able to play it on their TV.
It's playable, for sure, but I think it's worth warning people about.
3DS games are lower res, but they generally look better because they're native res on the system.
For the sake of clarity, most major multiplatform relases I would prefer to play on PS, just out of personal preference. I'd like to get a normal home version of the Switch at some point in the future, but due to wanting to get one with a Pro Controller because big hands. I was hoping for a price drop somewhere down the line.
I'll be the first to admit, I'm pretty much completely ignorant of the docked vs handheld thing, I thought that the handheld for the standard switch was just the controller with an extra screen like on the 3DS.
@BruceCM I'm not too worried about Final Fantasy, I've got that base covered on the PS4.
@Magician Octopath Traveler is the only one of those I'm really aware of, I'll look into the others, though.
@Buizel That is an impressive library to start with. I guess I got DQVIII mixed up in there. I think I had seen the 3DS version on the shelf and somehow moved that to the Switch. See, I started off completely confused and wrong.
@Ralizah If you're referring to first party stuff, then honestly I'm not concerned either way. While I respect Nintendo's first party titles I don't have the interest in them many others do.
For third party exclusives I'm definitely a bit more interested, in fact it's the third party support that interested me in the Switch at all (and looks like the best Nintendo has had since the SNES).
I'm sure the series has changed in the 20+ years since OoT released, but (probably its own topic) what is Breath of the Wild like, or what can it be compared to?
I feel like with Zelda there are a lot of things I do like about them, but they never really reached the sum of those parts for me and I didn't love them like I thought I should. With OoT I just got exhausted and burnt out at some point. I think the last thing I did was get the big greatsword.
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Topic: Switch Lite vs 2DS XL: Looking for advice
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