Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Oh my gosh. Pokémon looks insane!

I’m flabbergasted... truly. This is legitimate as they come- the “Breath of the Wild” of Pokémon. They weren’t exaggerating.

Apparently there was a leak that this Direct confirms as being correct, and there was quite a bit of information in that leak that hasn’t been shown yet. So if anyone’s interested in some more details, take a look.

• Sword and Shield’s enemy team will be called Team Yell.
• There will be an “evil” legendary Pokemon named Eternatus.
• In addition to Dynamaxing, there will also be the similar Gigantimaxing, which changes a Pokemon’s appearance in addition to growing its size. Three examples given are Meowth looking like “long cat,” Lapras getting “layers like musical bars to its shell and musical notes,” and Pikachu looking like “retro fat Pikachu.”
• “Regional evolutions” will be a thing, with Farfetch’d turning into Sirfetch’d, and Meowth looking like “a ball of spiky grey fur.” It’s unclear if this literally means evolutions or if it actually refers to regional variants like Alola.
• Chipmunk Pokemon potentially named “Skwovet and Greedunt” will hide in berry trees, attacking players if they shake them too many times, which will cause you to lose half the berries that fell.
• To challenge a gym leader, you need to get an endorsement (not explained), which will then let you take on a gym challenge that needs to be completed before fighting them.
• Three gym challenges are described, including one where you have to herd Wooloo while avoiding a new Electric corgi Pokemon called Pamper, one where you navigate a maze with water blocking your path, and one where you have to catch Pokemon and “get 5 points” while in a team battle with another trainer who is also trying to catch them at the same time.
• While in the Wild Area, you will “randomly see nearby players and interact with them to get their league cards and items.”
• Camping will be a mechanic, and is where you will play with Pokemon. It will also let you make curry to raise stats and use toys to raise friendship.
• Grookey’s final evolution is a giant gorilla that uses a wood drum to attack.
• Sobble’s evolutions are called Sizzile and then Intelleon, and will have a spy-theme to them.
• “Scorbunny will have fighting moves, but is pure fighter.” (There could be a typo in here, it reads as if it meant to say “but is pure fire” or “but isn’t pure fighter.”) Its second evolution is called Raboot, and its final evolution looks like a humanoid fighter.
• A blue seagull Pokemon was described that will get either a “barracuda or a Pikachu” in its mouth when it dives, which it then throws at the enemy.

@JaxonH if that’s true, the first one is pretty...lame. i expected something at least a little creative, or in line with past tradition?

I'm just here appreciating the reference of something everyone forgot about. Good times.

@Arbor
Um? I guess I have no feelings on that matter, one way or the other. As someone who isn’t really a fan of the series, I guess I just have no emotional investment in team names.

But, there’s some exciting stuff in there!

These two are especially of note to me. Sounds like they took some Breath of the Wild and sprinkled it in there, and then took some classic Monster Hunter guild card exchanging and socializing and sprinkled that in there too.

I wouldn't go that far. It's not going to be a BotW-tier experience.

It does look great, though. Legitimately the most exciting Pokemon game in generations. I'm glad this Direct is finally getting people excited for it.

Pokemon looks great. Fire Emblem looks great. Dragon Quest XI S looks great. Astral Chain looks great. Even if Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion disappointed (I don't expect they will), this is going to be a fantastic year for Nintendo.

Oh, and Super Mario Maker 2 is a thing as well, I guess. And Link's Awakening. And that superhero game.

@JaxonH wow, all that would get me back into playing, honestly.

@Ralizah
I don’t know what “tier” experience it will be. I don’t think it’s going to rake 10/10’s across the board and be hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time, for example. But it doesn’t have to see a verbatim reception or reach that “tier of experience” to fit the comparison. Breath of the Wild breathed new life into a dated formula and brought the franchise into the modern generation with a gorgeous game representing a proper forward leap, and that’s exactly what I see happening here. I don’t think any game is going to match the “tier” of experience of Zelda.

I’m excited for all the above, and was stacking up on vouchers with eShop credit from Raise, until they told me I had too many vouchers and I couldn’t buy anymore (I have 7, so I’m guessing eight is the limit and another set would have put me at 9). As soon as Fire Emblem goes up for preorder, I’m gonna squeeze in one last set, provided that happens before they stop selling the vouchers of course.

Seems you’re not too interested in Mario Maker 2, Zelda and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. I’m excited for all three of those nearly as much as the rest though. Had a blast with Mario Maker, and made some truly awesome levels a lot of people liked. With just the right amount of challenge. I look forward to making some high-quality levels for people to enjoy. And Zelda, well... it’s perfect. Loved Link Between Worlds, and this has that same kind of style. I’ve never played this game either so I’m really looking forward to it. And Marvel, my brother is excited for it so naturally I want to play some co-op with him. That’s just a game where it’s fun to play as all your favorite characters with a friend in co-op.

But ya, the ones that are really hype, I’d say, are Fire Emblem, Astral Chain, Dragon Quest XI, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Pokémon, Zelda. The splendid six. With Mario Maker 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Town, Daemon X Machina, Dragon Quest Builders 2 and Animal Crossing (yes I have a secret adoration of this game- sometimes you just need a relaxing game where you do nothing) as the secondary six.

That Pokémon though. That game looks fire. It really puts the cherry on top of the 2019 exclusive lineup

I'll be probably the only 1 here not getting Sword or Shield.... Pre-ordered FE: 3 Houses before it even had a name, though Been waiting for DQ S for ages & also looking forward to Astral Chain

Nah, I am not getting it. The direct didn't excite me enough to want it.

Fe is more up my alley though, but I want some more info on gameplay before buying.

@JaxonH @Ralizah there's a lot of comparison going on between S/S and BOTW. In a way that makes sense. There's one thing not a lot of people are mentioning when they're 'complaining' there's not enough BOTW in the new pokemon: all the stuff that -is- in pokemon but -isn't- in BOTW (e.g. lots of different pokemon you can catch 😉). Not saying you're the ones complaining or anything, just mentioning that I notice it's a one way comparison most of the time.

I don't think it's anywhere near BOTW, and that's coming from me

This games will sell 15 million guaranteed, and being the first "big" Pokemon game on the telly, probably 20 million. On top of that, there's going to be a third and fourth version probably. This franchise makes so much money, but it's a shame that it still feels like a B-tier game in terms of budget. It pales in comparison to something like Mario Odyssey, Zelda or even Splatoon imo. I'm not saying that it looks like a 3DS game, but at the same time it doesn't feel like a big budget game either.

At least the new Pokemon look good though.

I'm a bit underwhelmed by Nintendo 2nd half of 2019 but getting more info at E3 about the announced games may change that. Right now I'd guess my top 5 GotY 2019 list will end up being:
1. Super Mario Maker 2
2. Halo Reach
3. Astral Chain
4. Team Sonic Racing (while very fun SEGA would need to fix the online issues for this to be higher, getting disconnected and/or system crashing often is not fun)
5. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe/Crash Team Racing

I'm hoping for an interesting E3, cos 2019 isn't doing it for me.

Mario Maker 2 - I'd like to have it but can't justify a full price going by the limited amount (c.20 hours) I've played the original.

Fire Emblem - I'm open to more graphical styles than ever, but I need a game to appeal to me visually one way or another, and this one looks like dog ****.

Luigi's Mansion 3 - give me a reason to expect something different about it.

Astral Chain - just on the fence - looks a bit of a mish-mash of ideas, wondering if there'll be anything defining about it.

Pokemon S&S - still looks like a 3DS game, needs to stretch itself more to get me hyped.

Animal Crossing - not been given any reason to expect much different to New Leaf, which I've struggled to appreciate. Potential's there but the gameplay is too limited from what I've seen.

Dragon Quest is what I'm most hyped about, but I've got most of DQB still to play and a huge backlog of main series games to play before I should be allowing myself to invest further.

Yikes. Fire Emblem may not be a visual spectacle given the type of game it is, but it’s perfectly adequate and still the best looking game in the series to date. To say it looks like **** seems to be either wild hyperbole or an impossible standard has been set. I think the game looks fantastic. Excellent art style with snazzy new redesigned menus and ground level grid lines. This one has a bit of the Tecmo Koei environment textures which, ok, they’re not the best. But as a whole the game does actually look pretty good, especially when you compare to previous entries like Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn.

But saying Pokémon still looks like a 3DS game almost seems like intentional trolling at this point. As if Breath of the Wild still looks like Ocarina of Time 3D. The biggest leap forward the series has ever seen in 20 years, with a release that visually takes even the most beautiful Switch games to task (even Zelda, which I think is probably the only Switch game that might surpass this one in terms of beauty). Visible Pokémon in the Wild with huge, open areas, full camera control, multiplayer raids online... that’s already stretching the game about as far as it can feasibly go.

What Pokémon on 3DS looks like

Not what Pokémon on 3DS looks like

The final of the ARMS Party Crash Bash tournament starts next week (June 14th). Alongside Splatfests ending potentially meaning Splatoon 3, I wonder if the end of this tournament means ARMS 2.

@JaxonH I don't know if it's ever possible for any one Pokemon game to be as polished or make as big of a splash as something like BotW or SMO, just because the series is so vested in gradual change. Which is fine. An annual series with a huge, established metagame doesn't have the luxury of taking five years between entries, or putting out something radically different. People who want some majorly ambitious new Pokemon game, I hate to say, don't understand the type of game it is. I'm impressed with what I've seen so far, though. I was expecting less, so I'm very, very happy with what I've seen. And yeah, saying Pokemon Sw/Sh look like 3DS games is openly ridiculous. I'll even go so far as to say that they're one of the better looking sets of games on the system. The clean, anime-esque character models, vibrant environments, and gorgeous shading really make the world of Sw/Shi pop in a way that previous entries just didn't.

And yeah, Fire Emblem: Three Houses might not be Uncharted 4 visually (and honestly, I wouldn't want it to be: ultra realism is overrated and too resource-intensive), but its look is very much in line with what I imagine a modern successor to the Gamecube and Wii games would look like. More importantly, I'm really happy with the free roaming around the campus. Getting a huge, to-scale environment like that in a Fire Emblem game is a big advancement for the series.

Assuming Animal Crossing looks good, my BIG games the rest of the year will be: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Pokemon Sw/Sh, Dragon Quest XI S, Animal Crossing, and Shantae 5. There's also a lot of games I'm interested in, but not sure how much I'll end up loving: Astral Chain, Luigi's Mansion 3, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Death Stranding, AI: The Somnium Files, etc. They're ALL interesting to me, though. It's rare to get a year with this many big releases I'm interested in.

Mario Maker 2 is... well, I'm sure it'll be fantastic for what it is. I'm sure I'll pick it up eventually, too. But it's nothing I'm excited for. Community-built levels are no substitute for actual Mario levels in a real Mario game. When I played the Wii U original, it seemed like the majority of them were troll levels, overly difficult, gimmicks, or else just poorly-made, and I don't expect that to change with this entry. And I've discovered that good level design isn't one of my strengths, so the creativity engine aspect of the game isn't hugely interesting for me, either.

Link's Awakening on Switch is adorable looking, but I'm not excited about paying full price for a short Game Boy game. It's also one of my least favorite games in the series, and several aspects of the game design openly irritated me when I played it. Given that it was my first Zelda game, it might explain why it took me such a long time to play the rest of the series (I didn't REALLY try another game in the series until Ocarina of Time 3D in 2011).

The Marvel game... yeah, I'm probably never playing that. Not a huge superhero fan to begin with, and this one looks like a game I'd play on my Android phone. I just don't see the appeal. At all.

@JaxonH This looks way better...

than this:

I just think there's so much potential, but it feels like they're playing it safe. I thought BOTW was kinda empty and sparse, but this takes the cake. Again, there's a ton of untapped potential, but I don't think Game Freak will ever go that far. It's alright, but I don't think it looks amazing or anything like that. And I don't know why it needs to be so low budget at times, this is going to make its money back guaranteed; even if they throw a 50 million at it.

@Octane I agree. Pokémon fans like us will throw money at it whether we like it or not, but still we have to point the flaws when we see them.
The world looks empty. Especially this zone with the free camera.

The world being empty is very standard for open world games, one of the reasons why everything shouldn't be striving for open world.

@Grumblevolcano They could at least put some decoration like more trees etc. But not even that.