Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Oh my gosh, the string of excellent Switch releases continues!

God Eater 3 isn’t the only impressive surprise from a visual and performance standpoint (and just outright fun), but Dragon Quest Builders 2 looks WAAAAAAAAYYYY better than the first one did on Switch. Like, WAAAAAAAAYYYY better. If I wasn’t any wiser I’d think I had turned my PS4 on by accident.

Seriously, the lines are so sharp, all those jaggies from the original DQ Builders game... gone. Super crisp and high res, handheld too. I’m flabbergasted. I’m honestly not used to this level of quality with 3rd party Switch titles.

We all know that as time progresses, graphics and performance improves on any given platform as developers better learn the hardware and accumulate experience. Mark this day. The release of Mario Maker 2 time frame will go down as a hallmark turning point in the quality of 3rd party Switch releases. Today is the day we start noticing games looking better.

Agreed I enjoyed the dlc more as well, better design of levels and simpely more fun

Managed to complete Persona Q2 just in time for Mario Maker 2 arriving via Amazon delivery It took me 80 hours! I remember why I enjoyed the first Persona Q so much.

I'm about five hours into Super Neptunia RPG, I've really enjoyed my time so far. The script for the VO is really quite hilarious. The combat system is similar to Fallen Legion although a bit more simplified. The music is wonderful and the game is gorgeous.

The only downside is the game's engine, Unity. There are moments where load times between zones can seem slightly long and frames can drop during combat due to what I assume is a memory budget issue. But it's not unplayable. After first impressions, I like Super Neptunia RPG as much as I did Battlechasers: Nightwar.

@Magician
Just got the game myself. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite do it for me. And I can’t really say why. It just... didn’t grab my interest that much. But no regrets. My biggest joy in video games is experiencing new things. I absolutely love buying games from series I’ve never played before and just diving in. Some I like, some I hate, but it’s the thrill of finding out that’s so addicting.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 and God Eater 3 are perfect examples of games I’m now enamored with from series I don’t traditionally play. Unravel 2. Trials Rising. Darksiders Warmastered. Valiant Hearts: The Great War. So many excellent games I’ve discovered from branching out into various genres.

But Battle Chaser’s Nightwar is on my list to play. I hear it’s from the creator of Darksiders, and as I just mentioned that’s one of my top titles released on the Switch this year (and there’s been a lot).

@JaxonH
I Bought Battle Chaser’s Nightwar in the sale last week, did play it a little and from what I played Its good.
Good style of graphics interessting story and a Nice and fun approche to a RPG..

Check this video out.

It’s crazy how much Sony is now censoring (even going so far as to censor the art books that come with a collector edition) and how Nintendo has gone 100% hands off. Both companies have done a complete 180 in the last few years. I swear if you told me this five years ago I wouldn’t have believed you. Nintendo was a straight up Nanny State last generation. Now? The exact opposite...

@JaxonH At least Nintendo had the decency not to censor third parties last gen. I HATED what they did with Fatal Frame/TMS/Fire Emblem/etc., but at least those were games THEY were publishing, y'know? I've never seen anything quite as infuriating as Sony forcing PQube to swallow the costs associated with localizing Omega Labyrinth by not allowing them to distribute the game in the West. It was such a crappy thing to do. And now they're kicking dirt at smaller devs and indies with their public statements, legitimizing concerns NIS voiced a while back about Sony not caring about smaller games or developers. As if smaller games and experiences didn't help to carry the PS4 early on.

Yeah, I mostly find people angry about self-censoring games to be at the very least, hyperbolic and weird. BUT, there's a world of difference between doing that for games you make during the localization process and FORCING it on other devs and companies. Doubly so, when quite frankly, the games Sony is forcing that on are often actively sold on their fanservice, and only for a niche audience. And they will conveniently ignore games already on their console, especially western ones. It just looks really bad and is a dumb decision that helps no one at all (except maybe Nintendo).

@kkslider5552000
I think there’s a difference between a developer as a creator deciding to remove content out of their artistic vision, and Nintendo as a publisher and localizer blurring out cleavage, changing dialog or axing entire subplots.

It does seem contradictory when speaking about self censorship, but what we observed wasn’t really “self” censorship. It was Treehouse forcing censorship on Intelligent Systems and Monolith Soft for their western releases, against the vision of the creator. And I do think that distinction should be clarified.

@Ralizah
I preordered Omega Labyrinth [Switch] from PlayAsia just to support the censorship policies of Nintendo. Plus I’m just curious if it’s a good game or not. I play everything no matter how niche, no matter how big. Love trying new games I’ve never played before

Not really. Because you don't know that anyone involved cares that it was changed. So there's no distinction to be made until anyone involved has an opinion. Or the only distinction to be made is "it is kinda stupid that this had to be changed because the ESRB might stupidly make a game M rated because it acknowledges boobs exist", I guess. The fact that they are in Japan making the game for Japan probably adds to them not caring how its localized, unless it makes a gigantic difference to the game as a whole. So even if sexy characters were their goal and something they actively cared about, that's how it is where they live and in their language, so they've already gotten what they want.

And my point is less that these changes are somehow INHERENTLY not bad and more that it is very rare that the things they changed are for anything that means anything. At worst, their dumb meaningless change was for dumb meaningless fanservice, that has no relevance to any of why even a small part of the game was good or interesting (though I am against the times where it did have a negative effect on a thing, that TMS change missed the point and made that part dumb and not worth any thought in the localized version). The whole thing of artistic intent is a dumb excuse, that doesn't actually understand the artist's intent. And I don't think their intent would be for minor changes that they likely don't care about to overshadow the game they worked on for 3 years. shrugs

I understand the concerns, but more often than not, the people involved in all likelihood care even less than I do.

@kkslider5552000
If they wanted it changed, they would have designed it that way from the start. The fact they didn’t create it that way means they wanted it how they created it. That’s why they created it that way, because that’s how they wanted it.

You can’t just go change a creators work and justify it by saying “well you don’t know if they care”. Any interference or modification post creation by an outside party, or do to pressures from an outside party, is censorship.

Now, it may not be that big of a deal. Nuance in all things, as each situation is unique and calls for discernment. But it is indeed censorship when you change something a creator created, after they created it. Even if they’re OK with it, it’s still censorship. They might be OK with it but that doesn’t mean it’s their ideal choice. Their ideal choice is what they chose in the first place.

So I’m not arguing it’s a big deal in most cases, but let’s still call a spade a spade. Whether they’re OK with it or not, it wasn’t their first ideal choice, and it was a change made due to an outside party’s decision or pressure.

This is not to be confused with localization which requires some changes being made so that references are better understood, and in some cases age ratings are complied with. But a lot of instances and examples we have observed were pertaining to changes made that did not affect the rating.

I mean that's true I guess. Maybe. I mean most of it is true enough anyway. I just think on top of everything, I find it such a minor part of Nintendo games, so I really don't think it should be such a major talking point about them. And even the changes that do bother me, I can't comprehend the anger some people have. It's like you're trying to have a reasonable discussion and debate, and then an angry cat starts shrieking at you. And I would be offended as a dev if that discussion overshadowed the work I did, especially angry...non-discussion, let's be honest. Like I'm actively for people calling out Pokemon with the recent news, and that still isn't something I'd be apart of because of internet misery and anger.

I'm also sympathetic to the localization teams, because Xenoblade 2 got THE EXACT AMOUNT of backlash X got, but for not censoring anything instead of X that did censor a few things. In both cases, I personally thought the team did a good job in terms of changing or not changing it with one notable exception each tbh. But it is the clearest sign that you can't actually win, no matter what you do or don't do. It is War Games, the only way to win is to not play the game. ...I mean to play the game but not play the metaphorical game of internet debates and pandering to different yet equally volatile groups.

Nintendo is on fire.
Dont know what is going on in sony camp

@DenDen With PS4 dominating this gen and Microsoft abandoning Xbox exclusives in favour of taking PC gaming seriously, arrogant Sony has returned.

@DenDen Sony made an incredibly mean spirited statement about how theyve dialed back on indies.

The comment that people will put games on PS5 just because its PS5 shocks me.

Like goodness me. Thats some familiar hubris on a new scale. Thats 2013 Xbox levels of "Youll do it anyway".

But thing is even with PS4, some developers arent putting games on there willingly. And adding in their new censoring policies, and stated future lack of interest in indies and smaller publishers like say, NIS, they really are making a lot of enemies very quickly.

They need a good, firm slap to take them down a few notches. I hope the launch of their console is as rough as it was for Xbox last gen.

Yeah, the expectation that indies and small publishers will simply be on PS5 because they have no other option reeked on arrogance to me. It would be a nice opportunity for either Nintendo and/or Microsoft to jump in, and offer help with publishing costs (maybe with other things like marketing and localization) to see other titles coming to the console.
Plus, if Sony is going for the big AAA players, good luck... if development times were long enough this gen, I don’t want to imagine how they’ll be for the next one, and those same indies they are snubbing are the ones that are great at letting a console avoid droughts.

@Luna_110 I gues its kinda the community's fault. Everytime they focus on indies and VR we as a whole complain. Peoole liked the 2nd state of play more than the first.