Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

That's why I've been enjoying Color Splash so much: I can reasonably get one paint star each day, because the game moves at a quick pace. The 3DS port of Dragon Quest 8 is also a lot more fun, because the encounters don't bog it down. I personally think all RPGs should do things the "Earthbound" style, where they appear on the overworld and allow you to get first strikes.

I dislike XC2 art direction too. I don't like this genre so it does not bother me that much but in my opinion it looks really bad and I really don't understand all the people that love it so much.

I'm thinking that XC2 would be getting a much better reception if XCX had never happened. The latter game obviously has its flaws, but it showed so much potential that it's like a slap in the face to see it all rolled back for the latest game.

It's almost like if the next Zelda game comes out and plays more like Skyward Sword. Sure, SS was a great game in its own right, but to not pick up where BotW left off would leave a lot of people feeling let down.

I was mentioning it because it's an example of a JRPG that DOESN'T take forever to beat.

@CreamyDream Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has a good balance between gameplay/story focus. It sets a consistent and enjoyable pace for the game, but also has a decent amount of side content, actually useful exploration, and an engaging, very hands-on combat system.

Unless Xenoblade 2 also is filled with scenes that feel the need to explain what we have already been told, all the time, while filled with characters whose personality is slightly above bland instead of focusing on the interesting story established early on, I'm not sure I will agree with this.

i will never get over how much Ni No Kuni wastes its amazing first few hours to waste your time with less interesting stories in the middle of it, I'm sorry. It really does.

Ni no Kuni doesnt look better than Xeno does, it has a better art style (Ghibli) but it doesnt look better overall. Thats like saying Windwaker has better graphics than BoTW

http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/screenshots/NiNoKuni...
vs
https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Xenoblade...

@CreamyDream I think it's an improvement on XCX in almost every way. Better music, better character models (even if there is a slight stiffness to them, they're still a million times more natural than the doll people in XCX), much less unwieldy UI (it looks involved, but the whole system is pretty simple in practice, and I'm so happy the terrible arts bar is gone, replaced with simple timed button presses like in a Paper Mario game), more interesting characters, funnier humor, etc. XCX has more compelling landscape design and "better" exploration (dashing, tons of platforming, lack of fall damage, more rewards for finding new areas, more opportunities to find things to interact with in the open world, etc.), and, of course, it has the awesome skells, but it's a much more tedious and less well-rounded experience.

I'm still relatively early in the game, but, so far, it's my favorite of the Xenoblade games, and perhaps my second favorite Xeno- game overall (I still really like Xenogears, even if it is deeply flawed).

That's fair. How did you feel about the first Xenoblade, though?

The battle system is simple enough once you get the hang of it, although, being a Xenoblade game, it does indeed throw a lot of stuff at you outside of battles. Still far less complex overall than XCX, though. You don't have to worry about and manage dozens of different systems at a time like in that game.

Agree to disagree. Trying to scroll to a particular command on a cluttered arts bar is much less elegant and fun than just pushing a button that is mapped to a particular command. It's such a small change, but it makes battles feel much less tedious than in previous games.

Skill bars are fine in MMOs on PC, where you can click on what you want or, more efficiently, just hotkey every command you use with any regularity. Which ends up making them more like XC2's system in practice anyway.

Also, it's way easier to heal early on in XC2 than in XCX. The soul voice system was senseless and annoying.

Totally disagree there. XCX explains itself more poorly than almost any other game I've played in the last decade. There are so many things the game doesn't explain at all, forcing you to read the digital manual or ask about online. It's the game's single biggest flaw, imo.

Xenoblade 2 doesn't have a menu to look up past tutorials, which is stupid, but I'm really happy that it takes its time to actually properly explain its mechanics and gradually introduce them to the player.

XCX drops you in the deep end and tells you to sink or swim, pretty much. XC2 tutoralizes more, but it does a much better job of gradually adjusting the player to the game's complexities.

Of course, if you're a "deep end" sort of guy, then I get prefer XCX.

@Arminillo this makes sense, but at the same time I think it is a bad thing to care if graphics are good or not when it's not pleasant to look at anyway. I don't think we should expect to have a game that is actually pleasant to look at only when studio Ghibli works on it. The worst thing is that many people actually appreciate this kind (XC2) graphics so there is no reason for developers to try something better since they have a big audience anyway. I will never understand how people can like "bare CG cartoon graphics" style. Now we have the technology to create 3D graphics that look like hand drawn illustration and we at least could try to get as much close to it as it is possible but many games and many cartoons still are made with this cheap and uninspired look.

I don't think XCX is better though; it's just different, and that affects expectations.

For what it's worth, I'd think XC1 is still the best in the series. The others haven't come close to in terms of characters and storytelling, even if the graphics and gameplay are somewhat more refined.

_{Watch the profanity...-Joey}

Symphonia has it a little, but at least it has one main villain who has a particular arc. The biggest detour you take has to do with Rodyle. The Renegades, the Desians, and Cruxis are all well connected.

Vesperia has like 5 "main villains", and they are barely related to each other. The game ends and restarts every single time. The penultimate villain is finally worth a bit of a damn, then a villain with zero buildup just takes the reins and makes everything bad again. It kind of makes me sad, because there are some really cool skills you can get from the end dungeon weapons.

I think pokemon Sun and Moon is a disappointment and that Ultra Sun and Moon is just a glorified expansion with little added content advertised as a sequel.
I hope pokemon for the Nintendo Switch won't be a let down, Gamefreak needs to take more risks instead of playing it safe all the time.

@CreamyDream Glad to see that the first reply to my comment is someone who agrees with me.

I liked Sun and Moon as well but I got confused when everyone started praising it for taking risks. The only major thing they changed were the gym battles. I thought "great instead of a linear set of gym battles we got... an also set of island challenges?"

I would even go as far to say that Heartgold and Soulsilver's first half alone had more content than both games.

Like you said Alola did have a lot of potential but from my perspective we just got a repeated story, same mechanics aside from Z-moves, same framerate dips, etc.

But what do you think about Pokemon on the Nintendo Switch?

Sorry but I don't see how someone can make that claim. Although HGSS has plenty of content, Johto is the shortest main-series region by a mile, even in HGSS.

I'd also say Sun/Moon innovated a little with the structure of the overworld, and exploration with ride Pokemon (as opposed to the use of HMs). Although, I guess this is generally negated with how linear the region is compared to even the very first region in the series.

I can see why some believe Pokemon is starting to stagnate / lack innovation. But I don't believe Sun/Moon are significantly less innovative than previous entries in the series - moreso, the series has stuck to the status quo for so long that a lack of massive change is becoming more noticeable.

It is time to let the 3DS retire in 2018. It is an excellent system, with many great games. But honestly it looks like what it is. A gaming device designed a decade ago. Going back and playing Pokemon USUM after playing the Switch all year just made me feel like I was using a toy. I had to pick up a burner temporary cell phone, 40 bucks Chinese off brand smartphone right off the shelf, MUCH better screen and image quality. It is frankly a joke that there are YouTube and Netflix apps on 3DS.

I owned 4, and put thousands of hours into 3DS games over the last 7ish years. But it is time for Nintendo to move on.

@Heavyarms55 I dunno...Nintendo needs an 'entry level' system (accessible and cheap) and the 3DS is still covering that base quite nicely - and it's apparently even outsold the Xbox One in 2017, so I doubt they'd be in any rush to kill it off just for killings sake.

I could see them doing what they did with the Wii and WiiU and perhaps pulling support for some of the services (like when they pulled Mario Kart Wii's online, or when they shut down Miiverse on WiiU) to try to not-so-subtly push people on to their newer hardware - but, so long as it's still selling well (and still filling an important niche in the market) there's no real reason to pull production...unless, of course, they effectively replace it with a 'Switch Mini' or something at a similar price point

@NaviAndMii Yeah I don't mean tomorrow announce "we are done with the 3DS" or anything like that. I would just slowly stop making new first party titles and slowly shift the marketing toward the Switch. Let it fade out, rather than cutting it off. My prediction is that in 2019 we will get 2 new Switch, a more powerful version, and a scaled down entry level version, and around that time they will actually start cutting production of the 3DS, down to one model, and then probably finally end that model after holiday 2020, only selling off the remaining stock.

Ultra is such a lazy cash grab that it shocks me people actually bought it. God help any other company pulling this stunt.

@Heavyarms55 Yeah, I could definitely see them phasing it out in favour of a 'Switch Mini' or something like that before too long...because mobile/tablet tech moves at such a pace, the cost of many of the Switch's internal components is likely to come down quite rapidly - so it's likely that they'd be able to make a 'Mini' version, with few compromises, at close to the £150ish price point before too long - and something like that'd be an ideal replacement ..but I can totally see why they're keeping the 3DS around for the time being - it's probably been worth them waiting a little while to phase in a replacement for it and, as we've seen, anything that can call itself 'the home of Pokémon' is going to sell regardless! ..there's (a little bit of) life in the old dog yet!