Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@EvilLucario The SNES has a lot of peoples' favorite games on it, so I'm pretty certain I'm in "unpopular opinion" territory here. Same as with my dislike of most of their N64 games.

The SNES controller is pretty cool, though. I've been using one of those 8bitdo ones to play Bloodstained, and it feels great playing it with a proper 2D pad. The build quality seems pretty good, too, as it looked and felt very similar to my real SNES controllers when I compared them.

@Ralizah Ok N64 games I can understand as I don't care that much for that era anymore. N64/PS1 games in general have aged extremely poorly, so playing them now feels awful. SNES and even some NES games still feel really good to play though.

@EvilLucario I actually really love the PS1 and its library: it's one of my all-time favorite systems. I just didn't like anything about the N64. I personally found OoT and Mario 64 to be boring. The PS1's library is filled with amazing JRPGs, action games, horror games, and hidden gems, whereas the N64 has a small lineup of decent first-party content and then a lot of trash (outside of Rare's games, some of which were pretty darned good on that system). The DualShock controller was a perfect iteration on the SNES controller's layout, whereas the N64 looks like it was designed to be used by an alien. PS1 games hold up a lot better visually thanks to, as @ReaderRagfish also points out, heavy use of pre-rendered backgrounds and gorgeous FMVs in many of its games, which helps to even out some of the hideous low-poly 3D models in early games from that generation.

It's pretty incredible to think that the Switch will be Nintendo's first "home console" since the SNES to receive good JRPG support.

There's a Wii U system update out now.

A... Wii U system update? What? Why? The systems 100% hacked already anyways, and it's not like it's supported anymore.

@ReaderRagfish I'm aware. But, to me, those things are what help PS1 games not feel nearly as antiquated as they otherwise would. They were clever ways to mask the the shortcomings of 3D technology at the time.

Although it's worth pointing out that later PS1/N64 games could actually look decent. Conker's Bad Fur Day, for example, is gorgeous (for the hardware and the time it released), and looks more like a Dreamcast title. Amazing to think it was on the same system as hideous-looking titles like Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time.

Same with PS1 games. Compare the detailed character models in FFIX to the horrifying lego monsters in FFVII. Huge difference.

Although, again, at least there's nice-looking backdrops and FMVs in FFVII. Early N64 games had no similar crutches to lean on, and they're just irredeemably ugly nowadays.

It also doesn't help how OoT ran at, like, 20 fps. Funny to think the "greatest game of all time" would be considered unplayable today.

@ReaderRagfish Well, Nintendo has pretty much done just that with the handheld re-releases of those games. Although I think that Mario 64 would need a lot of TLC to make it good today: the levels are small and barren. The camera is one of the worst I've ever seen in a 3D game. The controls are overly sensitive. And so on.

Resident Evil 2 and FFVII certainly didn't need to change their gameplay styles to the degree they have. REmake plays brilliantly today, and its functionally pretty similar to the original gameplay-wise. And the changes to FFVII more reflect S-E's continuing desire to reinvent the wheel with Final Fantasy more than anything else. It would be relatively easy to give FFVII a newer coat of paint and call it a new game.

I would say the style of Mario 64, in particular, hurts more than helps it. It's easier to hide the blemishes in a dark game like Metal Gear Solid, but everything is brightly lit and primary-colored in Mario 64, so there's no hiding how primitive it looks.

NEWEST TRAILER FOR TWEWY! I'm so hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyype for this gaaaaaaame. I missed it so much XD

The current XB1 situation is another reason why how the cloud saves work on Switch is important, concept of what happens when you can't access your cloud saves. With XB1 what happens is all games are pretty much unplayable, given Switch has handheld functionality I'd hope Switch's situation is better than that.

@DarthNocturnal It tells you to try again or enter offline mode and if you choose offline mode the message to try again keeps reappearing.

Been playing a whole bunch of Dead Cells on handheld mode. It's actually the most I've ever played on handheld mode and let me say that it is the most painful/uncomfortable way to play for extended periods of time. I love the -feel- of the buttons of the joycon, but playing that rectangle for long periods of time is a fast track to carpel tunnel for me.

On the other hand, Dead Cells is extremely addicting, and yet I've probably made very little progress in it overall.

@MisterPi Get a handheld mode grip from Amazon or something. I did and I just... can't go back to playing it without one. It's just so much more comfortable in handheld mode with the grip attached.

@ReaderRagfish REmake HD was quite successful on modern home consoles/PC, and all they did with that was give it an alternative control method. The tank controls are still available, though, as are the fixed camera viewpoints.

It's also worth mentioning that the PS1 original, like SM64, was re-released with minimal core gameplay changes on the NDS. Actually, it was significantly less visually touched up than SM64 DS as well: presumably because the early PS1 aesthetic holds up better than early N64.

I don't mind what Capcom is doing with Resident Evil 2, though. It feels like they're trying to re-capture what made people love RE2 in the first place with modern game design, which is fine. They want it to be more of an original experience and less of one that just hearkens back to the original.

FF7... I don't know what S-E is going to do with that. If it ever comes out, I wouldn't be surprised if it barely resembles the original game. It's amazing how they've taken the most legendary JRPG series in history and slowly destroyed it through continual re-invention.

@ReaderRagfish FFVII Remake is coming out? News to me.

@EvilLucario It was announced 3 years ago, and probably won't come out for another 5+. It's the new KH3 / Vs. XIII in terms of never coming out. It's still only partially being worked on until KH3 is completed, so that should tell you how long it'll take.

@ReaderRagfish So how's FFXIII: Versus working out for you?

@Grumblevolcano That's weird. Saves are definitely local + cloud just like on PS. You have to manage them seperately too, if you try to delete saves it will prompt you whether you want to just delete it locally or delete it everywhere (meaning cloud.) I wonder if that was a game specific problem or "Patch Tuesday"?

@MisterPi Weird, I have wrist issues at times from bad grips. 3DS did it to me sometimes. Dualshocks can do it to me. Switch really doesn't...you may want to just try different hand positions/angles to make it work though. I use my switch constantly in handheld, but I probably have adjusted my grip. Also, don't listen to anything @Ralizah says about good controller ergonomics....anybody that has anything but zero tolerance for the carpal-tunneler that is the DualShock 4 should just be ignored and told off for trolling.

@Ralizah They wisely refused to remake FF7 for ages specifically because they knew they would just end up disappointing the nostalgia of the game and fans would be upset no matter what they did. I can't imagine why they finally caved and turned it presumably into a modern Fabula Nova Crystalis, moody brooding emo dumpster fire. IF you're going to remake it why not just remake it? Update the assets and keep the game? I can't even stand Crisis Core let alone this one. Maybe they'll retool it and it will take place in Reno.

@link3710 Yeah I'm aware, I was joking because that game may as well not exist with its multiple revisions and vaporware status at this point.

You look at a studio like Monolith Soft who can pump out three games (Xenoblade X, Xenoblade 2, and Xenoblade 2's DLC) within 3-4 years WHILE having half of its studio stripped to help with BotW, then compare it to Square Enix and I'm sitting here wondering what the hell they're doing.

@link3710 " It's still only partially being worked on until KH3 is completed, "

ROFL. 'Member when this was a reason to buy a PS4 back in 2014? And PushSquare was going all crazy? Yeah, I 'member.

"Tired of awaiting greatness? Buy a Switch."

@EvilLucario Well, they made Octopath out of thin air, so there's that! I do wonder how their teams are divided. They have a huge catalog. DQXI, FFXV (loading....85%), the endless remasters of things, Octopath, TWEWY HD, Tomb Raider, Just Cause, KH3, and others I'm forgetting about..... there's too much at once, and I wonder how much Sony paid them to mention FFVII-R at all considering it clearly wasn't even in development yet.

@NEStalgia I don't understand why Square Enix owns Deus Ex and used to own Hitman (from what I heard). Like they're not even made by Japanese people, it seems so out of place.

Square Enix is fine as long as you're not talking about their AAA in-house teams. I swear their management is packed with a bajillion monkeys running the show.

@NEStalgia They'll get to the end of the announced FFXV DLC and then announce another year of DLC for it