Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Tsurii you know, i caved and got hollow Knight in the sale instead of waiting for physical, but I'm struggling to get into it. Maybe it's a little more super Metroid then i expected, but i think the dreary theme is what's putting me if off. Coming off the food vibes of xc2 and octopath i was losing attention span for it.

@NEStalgia The progression is less Super Metroid and more Dark Souls 1. There aren't that much places locked behind movement upgrades, but it's more that you can go nearly anywhere you want in a lot of different orders like in Dark Souls. It's more open than Super Metroid without sequence breaking (as Super Metroid is actually pretty linear if you're not sequence breaking), as Hollow Knight isn't as "linear" in progression as Metroid.

Anyways, as for JRPGs Ys VIII took me 40 hours to beat for the true ending. If you can fit in that much time before Torna, go for it. I don't know how long Shining Resonance Refrain lasts though, as I don't have it yet. Planning to nab that on Steam when that goes on sale tbh.

Victor Vran, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate and De Blob 2 all release the day after tomorrow.

Perhaps one of those would be a good choice. MH would be great because it's a game you can play in spurts, one quest at a time, for years if need be. I know I'll be coming back to it for the rest of this generation, or until a new one on Switch releases.

@bluemage1989 Depends on the scale of the paid online service and how cloud saves will work. The absolute minimum changes I think would be an updated Data Management section to deal with the cloud saves, a bunch of game updates to support the mobile app and an update to the mobile app.

@Grumblevolcano sorry should have been more clear. I think some sort of firmware update will be necessary of course to set everything for the new service what I mean though is surely there wouldn't be a better time to offer a substantial UI update then right now.

@NEStalgia I feel the same. Got hollow knight and have been playing it most of the weekend and just an not motivated too much to continue. The universal praise of it made me get it but is just not clicking for me unfortunately.

Let's be fair: an update preventing you from hacking your device, will actually increase stability by preventing irreversibly bricking your Switch

@gcunit did you just sticky this thread? I was super confused when I couldn't find it.

@Therad Yeh. About 2 years overdue and less need now, but while I was in sticky mode earlier, I thought 'why not?'. A sticky/unsticky costs nothing, so if it turns out the universe implodes because of it, I'll try and unsticky it before I meet the maker.

@EvilLucario That's interesting...maybe that's what's not grabbing me. I'm not a "metroidvania" obsessive like some are, but I tend to enjoy them. Soulsborne as a 2D platformer is interesting. I have yet to play Souls actually....been waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) for the Switch release. I have 2 & 3 on X1 (couldn't resist $9 each), played 3 a little to get the feel of the series, but not enough to really feel it. Gameplay feels nothing similar of course as that's a combo-driven slow combat game versus a platformer, and I haven't delved enough to understand exploration/progression. I loathe Bloodborne (passionately) but find Nioh highly addictive (if brutal and often cheap.) I'll get my Souls fix soon enough on Switch. Maybe I'll appreciate Hollow more afterward. Though I'm not sure the sombre theme and layers of purple will ever really feel inviting to me.

Hmm, Ys I 'll save. I think I'll want to slow burn that game (I'm 130hours into XC2...lv79, still only 8 rares , only half their quests completed, I'll probably shelve it forever at this point, depressing to do, but I feel like I'm grinding just because, to try it more. I did go back and beat that lv80 ape in Gormott first. I've been waiting 100 hours to murder that piece of garbage. It's therapeutic. Also trashed some of the Lv80 hordes in Mor Ardain as payback. Can't take the T-Rex things in the game down still. And now that I can take them, the game refuses to give me squids in Tantal. First time through I could never get rid of them....
I'm slow burning Octopath too....XC2 is a better story, a better journey, a better memory, a better work of art to cherish. Octopath is a better video game, better RPG by a factor of 4.

@redd214 I'm glad I'm not the only one! It feels like this happens often where the internet goes crazy for one indie darling or another, where it seems like this game is an instant classic that will be immortalized and catapult the developer to AAA stardom within a few years....and then 6 months later the game is never mentioned again anywhere and when it is, people start talking about all the flaws. Shovel Knight remains the lone exception that endured.

Not to knock the quality of the game, just the internet reaction to it. The polish and quality is top notch, it'll be a retail game, level design is excellent for the genre, can't really complain about anything production quality. Gameplay feels good, mostly...the "ears ringing" effect when getting hit is a little unnerving, which is probably the point, but it's unnerving in an annoying way....I think the somber theme and the fact that the whole game is in shades of purple (in the same way PS3 era shooters were in shades of brown) is just preventing me from wanting to explore the world. There's no gameplay hook that's addicting me and the theme and style makes me wish I were doing pretty much anything else. Even Steamworld Dig 2, a very similar style (in terms of gameplay if not progression as Lucario said) game feels far more inviting to me. It's purple...it's stunning....but it's only purple.

I compare to Ori that I was playing for an hour or two a week or two ago....also a very somber game, also a platformer....maybe less Soulsborne, more Metroidvania than this, but it somehow did it in a a way that's engaging and inviting with addictive loops that I'm not feeling here.

I'm curious what @Ralizah thinks of it? A fellow Soulsborne malcontent, but obsessive 2D retro otaku in so deep even the DualShock seems desirable.

@NEStalgia Don't forget that physical Torna is not just the Torna cartridge but also a download code for the expansion pass (I honestly wish Nintendo did that approach for NSLU physical back in the Wii U era but oh well, the rumours suggest NSMBU + NSLU is coming to Switch anyway ). It'll be worthwhile revisiting the game with the expansion pass content.

@NEStalgia To be fair Hollow Knight taps into the Metroid scale a bit more than the Dark Souls 1 scale. Dark Souls is much more open and there aren't that much movement upgrades. The only gates are pretty much bosses or keys you just find in the area. Hollow Knight is still gated off by things like the wall jump, double jump, a not-Shinespark, etc, so it's not as open as Dark Souls 1 but still much more open than any Metroid or Castlevania game. But Hollow Knight does indeed feel less like Metroid and more of a combination of Zelda II and Dark Souls 1.

Ralizah actually does love Hollow Knight though. Go through the Hollow Knight thread and you'll see his comments about it.

So Streets of Rage 4 just got announced, $100 dollars that's in the direct tomorrow!

@Spoony_Tech Windjammers 2...Streets of Rage 4...what is going on!

If Bubsy can come back all these other things best be showing up too.

Party like it's 1999 I guess lol.

@NEStalgia I really liked Hollow Knight. It's the best Metroidvania-esque game I've played since Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

It solves most of the issues I have with Souls games while keeping things I like about them.

Souls games don't really have anything in the way of maps, so I get lost frequently in their complex level designs, for example. Hollow Knight not only features a map, but map updating is one of the central progression mechanics in the game. It only does this after you find the mapmaker first, though, so you still get your blind exploration for a bit. It's a nice balance. You can also mark points of interest on the map, which means I quite frequently have interesting locations to come back to later.

Souls games are drab and dark, and I find so many areas just look the same to me. Hollow Knight has that same sort of atmospheric darkness, but married to a much cleaner and more vibrant art style. There's a weird balance of cute and dark to this game that I really like.

Souls games are always so obscurantist about their own mechanics. I open up a menu and look at a dozen stats that the game doesn't care to explain, and it puts me off. Hollow Knight, on the other hand, explained almost everything I wanted to know about its mechanics.

Souls games have clunky menus and interfaces. Hollow Knight doesn't.

Souls games have methodical combat that's reliant on techniques like parrying. Hollow Knight's combat is wonderfully simple.

Hollow Knight also maintains the atmosphere and cryptic, lore-heavy nature of Souls games, for people who care about that sort of thing.

@Ralizah I've only played Dark Souls 1 so far (Remastered on PC) so I'll only be speaking in context to that game, but the only thing I disagree with is the lack of a map and maybe the obtrusiveness of mechanics. The lack of a map may indeed feel very overwhelming, but the individual level design actually isn't that complex. Areas are small and linear, and there are clear landmarks across the places so if you explore the areas well enough, you'll be able to remember where everything is. If you want to link everything together though, then yeah I can see where you're coming from. But I haven't really found myself getting lost in Dark Souls 1 at all.

You mention the stats being unexplained, but when I press - (Switch controller on PC) over a stat, it tells me what Resistance is, Dexterity, Strength, Vitality, etc. Weapons and armor you obtain can also tell you what they do in the menus. Dark Souls is pretty simple in that it's intuitive to figure out what things do, or at least for me. It can feel very dense and overwhelming at first though, that's true.

@ReaderRagfish Xenogears and Vagrant Story are those Square Enix IPs that are probably going to remain in the grave though... rip.

I just saw Jim Sterling heap praise on Nintendo for how they handle Smash Bros.

Basically reaffirming the meme: "Hi, I'm Masahiro Sakurai, and I'm here to make every other fighting game look like ****"

Has hell frozen over?

@Knuckles-Fajita "Thank ****ing God for me."