Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I found someone selling 'damaged' special editions on eBay. I bought Odin Sphere Leifthrasir and SNK Heroines special editions at knockdown prices. They both turned up sealed and totally undamaged. I guess that means they're stolen or they're being sold off without the publicity of a big price cut to save face.

@Ryu_Niiyama "Fates"
Meh, not sure Fates was worth that much cash. It's not like it was Awakening.

@Grumblevolcano That's now the Gold edition. Special Edition is like $180, includes the steelbook, pass, and 3 whole days of early access....

@NEStalgia The absolute best thing about Fates is that I made twice the money I originally spent on it selling the SE after I finished up with Conquest. Sometimes I kind of miss it in a "Oh, I like rare gaming-related items" sort of way, but I feel confident that I would never actually play the games again.

@gcunit odin sphere is a real hidden gem

@Ralizah lol, yeah... I put it on full casual/easy just to blast through it and it still felt like a tedious chore. Definitely the weakest FE I can think of.

I've not played any Fates yet, but in general blasting through a game on casual is not really giving it a fair crack, is it? Less likely to feel tedious if you are pushed to thinking strategically, I'd have thought.

@DenDen Bought it on a whim. I'd heard it's good and saw the special edition going cheaply. It's not the fanciest of editions, but I'm a sucka for an obscure t-shirt and art book.

@NEStalgia Like all Emblems with the option, I played Birthright/Conqest on Classic/Hard. One thing I'll say about Conquest is that it almost killed me on that difficulty. That is a BRUTAL game if you dial up the difficulty, whereas Birthright is somehow easier than Awakening.

Birthright still managed to be the better experience, though, because the writing in Conquest is just the dumbest thing ever, man. It's so, so bad.

Astral Chain got a 37 (I say several pages later)? That just confirms my suspicions that it's looking like a runner for game of the year. Nintendo's going strong this year, SMM2 + Fire Emblem + Astral Chain + Luigi's Mansion 3 is looking like one of their top annual lineups, even if nothing will quite match Splatoon 2 + BotW, +Odyssey + XC2

So I checked out the DQXI S demo because of the exclusive Smash Ultimate spirit and it's reminding me a lot of Pokemon Sword/Shield. The Heliodor region looks a lot like the Wild Area shown in Directs.

@Dev893 its on the 4th

@NEStalgia (I like Fates...mostly...y'all act like FE stories are Pulitzer winning or something.) I never got on the Fates hatewagon. Do I think they might have stretched a little too much trying to keep the stories separate? Yes, however I feel like that was in part because they spent WAY too much time trying to make Kamui's heritage THE REVEAL than needed. Otherwise it wasn't better or worse than any other FE imo. I'm sure I'ma get shot for saying that but I've played all of them and beaten all of them except Thracia 766 at least once. So that is just how I feel about it personally.

@Ryu_Niiyama I agree, I liked Fates too. It wasn't nearly as good as Awakening, and certainly not as good as older FE titles, but I had fun with it. There hasn't been a Fire Emblem title I've thought was bad - though I've only played the ones with official English localization, and FE6. There are things I don't like in various games but it's that way with almost any game.

@link3710 Yeah Splatoon 2 + BotW, +Odyssey + XC2 was kinda mind blowing to get all in the same time frame.

Warming up to the new Yooka-Laylee game more and more every time I see it. Reminds me of NSMBU (mainly because of the world map), but with level design more reminiscent of DKC: Tropical Freeze. And, hell, let's throw in a dash of BotW as well, because apparently you can go challenge the final level you spend the whole game preparing the face and just beat the game right off if you're skilled enough.

Aside from Fates story being dull in Birthright, it’s one of my favorites (under Awakening and Three Houses, of course). Everything else about the game was spectacular. The maps and strategy in particular. Gameplay was the pinnacle of the handheld series. And dare I say even rivaled Three Houses, though it was pretty different. Both great in their own way. Conquest is where all the good maps were though. Some of the best maps in the series were in Conquest.

I treasure my 3-in-1 cartridge. Still sealed on display, and an open one on the shelf for actual use with all my save files copied over to it (since it had 9 save files- 3 per game).

And I’m loving the new Yooka-Laylee. It reminds me of DKC Tropical Freeze Top. Classic Rare platforming built for speedrunning. Love the idea of challenging the Impossible Lair right away.

I seriously hope not. My wallet begs for mercy.

September directs are inevitable, so if the SKUs are for anything else I'd be hugely surprised. I'd expect most of them to be mostly for December to March though at least, since that period is currently empty and we won't get another full direct til next year most likely. Please no more September / October releases, this is way out of hand already.

And since we're on the topic of Yooka-Laylee, I'm so glad to see the IP might manage to turn things around. It had a lot of potential with the first game (though it really needs to tighten up it's identity), so a top notch game for the series would be great.

DKC was always the masterpiece, not 64. The 2D classics hold up much better than the 3D ones

With that in mind, this new Yooka-Laylee looks like it could achieve masterpiece status. It has the potential to chase DKC Tropical Freeze. The original 3D Yooka-Laylee was just a decent nastolgia trip, but never came close to masterpiece status.

2D platformers is where their focus should remain going forward.

edit
Kotaku has a really high quality review of Oninaki. The first video on the page is a video review of what’s written on the page, and I do recommend it.

https://kotaku.com/oninaki-the-kotaku-review-1837427492

Pretty pumped for yooka 2 myself. Might choose that over a hat in time if they both drop around the same time

On the subject of Fates, yes I'm enjoying Awakening a lot more than Fates, which was the first FE I played (and never finished).

Then again, I'm also starting to realize I didn't actually know how to play back then.