Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

They're going to want a decent January game to keep the momentum up after Xenoblade bombs.

@gcunit SNES VC on Switch

@gcunit
What makes you think it'll bomb? There's a dedicated fan base for the series. I'm hoping it does better than XCX. If it could hit a solid million again like the first game I think it would be a success.

There's a lot of people excited for Xenoblade 2, myself included. I wish more people would pay attention to it but, at least it's coming.

Xenoblade isn't anymore niche than the type of game Mario + Rabbids is.

@IceClimbers
Than the type of game Mario Rabbids is. But it's most definitely far more niche than Mario + Rabbids, by virtue of the fact Mario is the game.

Xenoblade is a JRPG which, for the last 2 entries, has hovered around the 1 million mark. XCX did slightly less on Wii U, but not by much when you consider the install base was only 13% as large. That's the key sign of a niche game- one that doesn't really sell much more despite having 100 million or 13 million potential customers, whereas Mario Rabbids will sell more as more people buy the system.

It deserves to at least match the ballpark of Fire Emblem (2 million, give or take). As does Metroid. We need more core fans who buy and play these core titles.

@IceClimbers Mario makes it not so niche.

@JaxonH I was being mostly tongue in cheek, though I think there's an element of potential in it too.

I can't speak with much authority on this, as I still haven't unsealed my copy of XCX, but that game had more hype going for it than XC2 does, primarily because of the wilderness the Wii U was in. Wii U owners looking for a reason to stay interested in the thing had slim pickings.

As much as I've seen people excited by XC2, I've seen people who have bought one or both of the XC games, (like me, though admittedly I only bought XC when it released cheap on the Wii U eshop) and have decided not to buy another one.

The shame of it is the game could be so much more appealing if they changed two aspects - get rid of levelling-up by picking on wild animals minding their own business, and make the combat full action based like Monster Hunter.

@gcunit

I don't know, I don't really think there's anything wrong with fighting the wildlife. It's pretty common in games. And I think the battle system is its greatest asset. This is a JRPG after all. It's just a different type of experience and a different type of battling. I don't doubt full action combat would be more popular- it always is and that's why you see more and more JRPG's turning to real-time combat like Final Fantasy... but the game already does have real-time combat, so it's not like it's turn-based or anything.

I thought Xenoblade X was the best JRPG I've ever played. Or at least one of the best. I never played more than a few hours of the first game. But the combat is definitely what made me love the game- it's something different and I love that because so many single player RPG games use the same approach.

@Late well if you can do that, why can't you transfer saves that way?

"the game would be more appealing if you fundamentally changed what people liked about these games"
bold strategy, Cotton

I like Xenoblade 2 up to the art, where it loses me. I can't even believe I'd avoid a great game over the aesthetics, but there it is.

@Caldorosso-E

I implore you to look past whatever it is that is causing you to dislike a character design so much that you would miss out on one of the best JRPG's of this generation as a result.

I notice a lot of gamers will immediately write off any game that looks Japanese. But I overcame those prejudices and now I love Japanese games and I love Japanese style. And the reason I love it is because I played so many fantastic games in that style but now my mind equates that style to quality. Not only that but I just think it looks cool. Different. And it's not like Xenoblade 2 is all out anime. It's more of a hybrid style.

Karak (ACG reviews) makes a good point about fun games and looking past certain things that you might not like about a game, yet still enjoying it. He's also speaking to people who enjoy games that aren't perfect 10's, but the fun factor is there.

@JaxonH I really don't understand it myself. I enjoy Japanese art styles and all, but it's this style that gets me. IDK, I really liked Xenoblade's aesthetics, so such a departure may have shaken me. It's not that I think it's a bad game or anything, I just would rather play something else.

It's like a mental glitch or something.

It's a weird reason but you do you. Or whatever.

Not me.

If a game is this good, nothing will stand between me and it. It's like if they announced a new Metroid game using that crap art style Next Level Games came up with- I thought it was horrible, but I'd still get the game. Because it's Metroid, and Metroid's awesome.

Mario, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Zelda, Monster Hunter... they can do whatever art style, setting, theme, whatever... but at the end of the day I'll always buy every one of them because they're just that good. The rest is fine print

It's like the people whohate the sound of styrofoam or ice. Not rational.

But I have no doubt it'll do well. It's launching early in the console's life, which means more potential adopters.

I'm not a fan of the art style either, but I wouldn't be buying the game even if I did like it. JRPGs just aren't for me, outside of a select few games that are technically JRPGs but don't seem like them at all.

I can't say I've ever avoided a game purely based on things like art style or setting. For example, I'm really not a big fan of Oblivion's art style or pretty generic setting compared to games like Skyrim or Morrowind, both of which have art styles and settings that I quite enjoy (outside of how dated looking the games are, especially Morrowind and unmodded/non-Special Edition Skyrim), but that wasn't a factor in my decision to buy the game.

To each their own, though. We all have our reasons for not buying games.

@Caldorosso-E go see a doctor, you're going blind and insane.

Fallout will come. Hines says they've got more in the oven.

Fallout is for sure a lock. The question is do they have anything beyond that... and will enough Nintendo fans go out there and support these games, or will they let them fall by the wayside and send a message that this is not what we want to play.

@Inertiacreep Switch saves are stored into system memory. Unfortunately, there's no way to move them to SD card.