Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Diantha has the best theme of any Pokémon champion.

After finishing Sly 2 PS3 and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time PS3, i felt Sly Cooper games was better than Super Mario Odyssey.

Nice joke.

@JokerCK
No joking.
I felt from my experince after playing both of them.
Also, from narative plot aspect, following the story about a thief who stole the things from another thief and the drama after beating final boss for me sounds more interesting than watching Damsell in distress plot all over the time.
Super Mario Odyssey was good but i think Sly Cooper games was better.

@Anti-Matter I find myself enjoying linear 2D platformers with a somewhat higher emphasis on story more engaging and enjoyable than open world 3d collectathon style games. Never played sly cooper but from what I've seen it's probably pretty good.

For me, I think Death Stranding is an absolute masterpiece, and a harrowing commentary on the disconnected state of the world. The gameplay is extremely fun and engaging, and micromanaging all of your tools and cargo is one of the most fun parts about it. The world is lush, and has an empty quality like BotW's Hyrule, though there's less memorable landmarks. Avoiding the invisible BTs makes my pulse jump three-fold but the adrenaline rush I get after escaping is insane. Fending off lawless bandits (MULEs) with tasers, and. electric wires is satisfying. And the story is deep and hits all the right notes. I like seeing Sam Porter Bridges slowly warm up to his employers, like Die-Hardman, Heartman, Deadman, and even the residents of various cities (still hope to find Geoff Keighley's likeness).

I've finished Chapter 3, so don't spoil me yet, please. And if you agree or disagree, let me know why!

Ooo, time for my unpopular opinion on Odyssey:

Mario Odyssey is really good, but it has one critical flaw that heavily affects its staying power: the famous "jump>throw cappy>dive>bounce off cappy>throw cappy>dive" combo. It was really fun to discover, learn, and master, and it feels good to pull off, at first. I'd say for my whole play through the end of the game and even a fair bit of post-game, it never bothered me. But after a while, it became apparent that this one combination is... well, OP.

Moves being OP are usually reserved for fighting games, but move balance is important in 3D Mario games too, I think. This combination is useful in clearing every kind of gap in every situation, with no need to set it up and available to you in any direction, with throw-cappy giving you full 360 direction change, so there's no need to approach a gap in a certain way. It becomes a little more interesting when you combine it with a wall, so you can throw a wall-jump in there, but that it. You can't chain momentum with it. You can improve it slightly by doing some higher version of the jump in the beginning, and timing an A press with grabbing cappy, but the only reason you wouldn't do this every single time is because its easier and lazier not to if you don't need to.

Compare this to Super Mario 64. A regular jump is easiest. Then you have a side-ways cartwheel for basic height but needs a bit of an off-course set-up, so you have crouch jump if you need extra precision but less distance. Then triple jump is even higher but you need a big running start. You have long jump for maximum distance but less height. Then you can dive, which has little utilitarian function but is stylish yet more dangerous as a trade-off. With this, every gap or ledge feels different and I'm always trying new things. With Odyssey, I'm getting almost everywhere with the same cappy combo.

Not to mention Super Mario 64 is the only game to have a "ricochet-style" wall jump, allowing you to bounce off walls like trick shots in billiards, whereas every subsequent Mario game's wall jump just has you launching off the wall perpendicular to it, leaving no room for nuance. That's sort-of unrelated and I don't think any Mario game is ever going to have 64's wall jump ever again. I don't want this to become a SM64 rant; Odyssey doesn't have to do exactly what SM64 did. But for me, the redundancy of the big cappy combo I mentioned earlier really does kill the feeling of improvisatory gameplay in Odyssey once you've really mastered it. I hope we don't see that same move-set in future games outside of maybe one direct sequel.

Plot twist, turn the Mario into secret agent and have to sneak around the maze with a lot of traps, requires ninjitsu jumping tricks, silent attack, smoke bombs, camouflage and hacking knowledge to outsmart the security system.
Super Mario Agent.

I think Nintendo has been coasting with the Switch and hasn't been as creative with game production since 2017.

@Losermagnet I agree, at least in terms of video games that don't require extra peripherals. We did get a lot of unique out-of-the-box stuff like Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, and Mario Kart Home Circuit, but its not the same as the landmark 2017 games we got. We haven't had a real new IP since ARMS. Since Odyssey there've been only a couple titles that have really done something different with its existing formula, namely Animal Crossing and Age of Calamity, neither of which interest me. Indies have been carrying my interest in the Switch these past 3 years.

To be fair, its hard to compete with 2017. 2017 was an anomaly of incredible games.

@Nicolai exactly. Ninty nailed the 2017 rollout and, while they've done a good job since, I feel like they haven't pushed the game development. Since Odyssey their games have been of good quality, but very safe.

@Losermagnet Definite agree. The Switch practically peaked during its launch window and most of the years following have kind of been really average following that time

2018 was basically just Octopath and Smash for me, while 2019 had some solid ones with Link's Awakening, Luigi's Mansion and Astral Chain, but I could not care less for most of the lineup that year and I was extremely let down by Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and literally the only new Switch games I picked up in 2020 were Catherine (which I already played on PS4 to begin with) and Xenoblade. I heard mixed things about Paper Mario and honestly Age of Calamity is currently being drowned out by both me hunting down a PS5 and Persona 5 Strikers just looking that much more interesting

By contrast Sony was literally out for blood as early as 2018. 2018-2020 were some of the PS4's best years in a long time, and two of my top GOTYs are both PS4 exclusives (Ghost of Tsushima and FFVII)

@Nicolai
If you count Sushi Striker, and Fitness Boxing, we technically had new IP's in 2018 and 2019 as well.
2017 was pretty crazy games wise, and it seems like this year will be pretty crazy as well.
Also, we did get a new president in mid-2018, so that did affect things for a while, and we should start seeing any changes that Mr. Furkawa made to start showing up. Nintendo did state that Mr. Furkawa pushes the devs to their hardest (in a good way), so hopefully, we'll start seeing more and more of that happening sooner rather than later.

@Losermagnet
I'm kind of confused with your statement as @Nicolai said we got LABO, RFA, and MK: HC, and I also stated of couple new IPs above.

I agree that the Switch hasn't been as great on the first-party front since 2017...but really, how do you improve on a new Zelda and 3D Mario (especially titles as ambitious as Odyssey and BotW)? (plus Splatoon 2 and Xenoblade, among others)

I'd say we've had some ambitious titles in Smash Bros for 2018 (although arguably "safe") and Fire Emblem Three Houses for 2019. And I think the third party provision was definitely much better in 2018-2020 than in 2017.

But yeah, I suppose the development cycle has just worked out such that we got a lot more ambitious titles in the first year, and we'll probably get another wave (BotW 2, next Mario, Metroid Prime 4, etc.) in the coming years. I agree that Sony did a good job pacing out their hard hitters in recent years - although they did get to a slow start with the PS4.

@SM3DASislit It's true that there are games that are peripheral-related that are innovative, but not much new outside of Arms to cultivate the same core audience they garnered in 2017. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Smash Ultimate, and Animal Crossing are great too, but they're kind of.....predictable?

@TheFrenchiestFry @timleon Sony's why I made that post actually. I've been loving my PS4 lately and finding a ton of great games (at great prices no less. Something else Nintendo doesnt really do).

@Nicolai wiill start by saying 64 is my favourite 3d Mario but the Joy of mastering that combo is ine of the best feelings in odyssey and I would compare it a bit with Celeste as if you play though B-sides you will learn advanced mechanics that you did not know you could use and make the normal game way easier but are so good to do anyways

@Losermagnet valid points but it's a tad harsh on Fire Emblem: Three Houses imo, they added a few things to the established formula.

As a publisher Nintendo have been stepping out of their comfort zone even if it does seem one foot forward and two steps backwards. Something like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 whilst not the most thrilling in terms of gameplay is odd as licensed IP is not really their thing, released Daemon X Machina & Astral Chain which is them recognizing their shortcoming with action games plus have been publishing some European indie games like Good Job! and The Stretchers which is nice to see them working with western developers on all levels.

@jump thats fair. Three Houses did take some risks with a change in tone (more political intrigue, less waifu rubbing) and the monastery bits (although that got tedious fast). I guess for me it lacks the polish of BotW or Odyssey. And maybe it's too niche to be considered "must have". Personally, as strategy games go, I had more fun with Mario + Rabbids (also 2017).

Edit - I forgot about Astral Chain. While I didn't care much for it myself (I dont really like fast paced action games) it's definately a quality title that I would recommend.

@Losermagnet
Oh okay, I think I understand what you're saying now.
Even though you've liked the post-2017 Switch games, you wish they were more ambitious like BOTW or Odyssey. I can understand that.
I'm also confused about how you think that Smash Ultimate is safe, and not ambitious. 🤔

While I could understand being disappointed in 2018 due to all the ports (though as someone who never owned a Wii U, I was never short of things to play), and 2020 for fairly obvious reasons, I thought 2019 was great.

True, it was a bit backloaded, but Astral Chain, Luigi's Mansion 3, & Link's Awakening (though a remake) were all fantastic releases (Fire Emblem: Three Houses too from what I've heard, but admittedly haven't played it). Plus, there was a range of smaller tier stuff like Yoshi's Crafted World, Daemon X Machina, & Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and while they may not be top tier, were all solid releases & some showed Nintendo trying out different things.