Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

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."

@EvilLucario He basically said the way Smash 4 handled DLC was either fighters who were totally new, and thus additional content, or fighters who aren't exactly series mainstays/were cut out initially due to redundancy.

And then Ultimate happened. Because, as he said, Nintendo is in this weird bubble where games are still good.

@Spoony_Tech I doubt it. Tomorrow’s direct is focused on indie games, whereas Streets of Rage is a Sega IP, so even if not developed by them, it’ll be published by them.

@Knuckles-Fajita I remember Smash 4's DLC being a bit egregious though. It was mostly extra stuff, but it wasn't exactly good either.

@Grumblevolcano What does it really add to the game if you've already finished it though? Seems like it would enhance the experience for a full play through, or for "catch 'em all" blade collectors, but I'm not sure it adds much to make it fun to just wander around the post-game?

@EvilLucario More and more I think the "feel" rather than the gameplay is what's keeping me from getting into it.

@Ralizah Yeah I found the map maker....I can't afford a compass yet though. In some ways the mix of cute and dreary is worse The whole game feels like a funeral for itself. I think it's mood makes me cyncial when I start There's nothing really flawed with the gameplay yet I find it kind of uninteresting overall....but I'm betting if it were an exciting (or curiosity inducing) atmosphere I'd find it fun. Instead the Knight feels kind of hopeless and despairing rather than a treasure hunter or survivalist. I want to love it. It's quality and everyone seems to love it...but...so far, no dice. Steamworld Dig 2 will be played sooner than later now that my physical arrived last week. Was going to hold off for the HK phenomenon.

@EvilLucario Dark Souls 1's world is very interconnected, and it's extremely easy to go from the starting area to areas that you would normally stumble into much later in the game. In the context of this interconnected world, yes, the lack of a map means I frequently get lost. I frequently got lost in Bloodborne as well. I NEED some sort of reference to place myself.

Being able to maintain a sense of location in a smaller area, btw, is partially why I enjoyed the Nioh beta more as well. The areas were split off into discreet zones. I didn't have to worry about getting lost and stumbling into some other area entirely.

Pretty much every other game of this type has some sort of map or reference to help the player, but Soulsborne games just let you stumble around blindly.

@EvilLucario The actual fighters were fine. The other stuff wasn't. He was referring to the act of offering fighters as DLC.

@NEStalgia Hollow Knight is indeed fairly dreary and dark, but I promise that it does indeed get better. It is a slow-burn game compared to every other Metroidvania I've played, but once you get the dash it becomes so good.

@Ralizah Hmm. Normally I am the same way with a lot of other games where I stop to look at the map all the time, but with Dark Souls 1 I haven't felt the need to do that all too much. Might just be me though, since I felt the game was perfectly balanced to accommodate for the lack of a map.

@EvilLucario Fair enough on the stats. There are definitely cursory descriptions, but I still wasn't sure what to do with them outside of the usual ones. Some of them are apparently pretty useless, like resistance, and I'm still not sure what the point of "Humanity" is. It tells you something about increasing item discovery and increasing resistance to curses, but I don't remember the game talking about curses when I played it.

I found this was more of a problem with Bloodborne. I'm still not sure what "insight" or "arcane" are supposed to do.

More than that, though, there are a lot of crucial factors to in-game builds that I... just don't recall the game explaining at all.

I'm sure it's just a problem with me, but it affected my enjoyment of these games.

@Ralizah Yeah Resistance sucks lol. Barely does anything considering you (and enemies) still die quickly.

Humanity, from what I understand, heals you when consumed, and you can kindle bonfires to get more Ectus Flasks from that bonfire. I don't know much of anything else aside from that though, and perhaps there are more examples of that too that I just glossed over. But Dark Souls does a much better job easing players into mechanics than even Xenoblade X, which I love to death (third-favorite game of all time after all) but I'll be frank has a crap-ton of problems.

I am planning to play Bloodborne when I get my PS4 too, that'll be the first game I play. That'll be fun I bet.

@EvilLucario Bloodborne is one of the most popular exclusives on the system, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Especially if you're not into turtling into Dark Souls, because Bloodborne forces the player to adopt an extremely aggressive play-style.

@Ralizah Sounds right up my alley. In every game I love playing aggressively because hitting things real hard is always my jam. It works very well for me in Dark Souls since most enemies stagger when I hit them if they don't die in one hit, and playing Bayonetta as aggressively as possible for pure platinums is so satisfying. Hollow Knight also benefits from an aggressive playstyle for me so I can kill things before they kill me.

@EvilLucario Yeah, you'll love Bloodborne. From its speed, to the mechanic where you regain health by quickly attacking an enemy after they hit you, to the sheer fact that bosses will overwhelm you if you try to play defensively... everything rewards constant aggression. Not really my thing. But then, I don't care for Bayonetta, either.

If you like horror, you should also know it has a very strong Lovecraftian vibe to its world and monster designs.