Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

There's nothing wrong or unusual with hiding character motivations if there's a narrative reason to do so. That's not bad storytelling if it's played right. Although you do have to reveal SOMETHING to the player, otherwise the characters just feel abstract and disconnected.

In my opinion, XC2's narrative pacing is far more consistent and compelling than XC1 early on, at least.

@Heavyarms55 FFXII: The Zodiac Age was not a port of a very old FF game, it was a port of a PS4 remaster that drastically improved the game. And, until the last couple of months, the Switch version even enjoyed improvements over the PS4 release.

We also got the modern-gen Dragon Quest XI, which essentially had to be rebuilt for the system, and features so many new features and improvements that it makes the other versions of the game feel irrelevant in comparison.

World of Final Fantasy is another modern gen port. Not as demanding, but still good to have.

And, while I'm not thrilled with them, we're also getting the Tokyo RPG Factory games.

Square-Enix's support has NOT been bad.

@Anti-Matter Parents probably do not want their kids to pick up a sport that requires 2 people hitting each other in the head until one is unable to stand. Too violent/aggressive don't you think?

@Ralizah
I still nervous to play FF XII once again after played the original version on PS2.
I almost finish the storyline of FF XII TZA, just one step closer to Bahamut and finish the game.
But before that, to consider All the Espers as optional quests, i was really nervous to face with them as the Esper battles are really really hard especially Ultima and Zodiark.

Question: How to not barf during playing World of Final Fantasy Maxima?

@Wargoose
I never thought theyd make a new one. Figured it was doomed to be one of those games like F Zero or Waverace or 1080 Snowboarding everyone asks for but never gets (at least all those got at least one sequel).

And it looks magnificent! This is one game where graphics really, truly do impact the experience, too. You're taking pics of Pokemon. If it doesnt look beautiful, that's a huge downside. But it looks gorgeous! And I gotta be honest, it does kinda make me rethink my position on how good Sword and Shield looked. Funny how perspective can change one's mind about something. Not that I think the games dont look beautiful with the art style, but this here is on another level.

That's... an interesting issue you have. I've not heard that one before.

Lols, @NEStalgia, I think you're selling me on the games .... Keep going!

@Anti-Matter Kickboxing is effectively non-existent in the US. It sounds, from what you've said, like it's popular in Asia, so I don't know why no regional games exist, but it's obvious why nobody makes a large global game from it: Sales would be in single digits here. It's just as sport without any actual mainstream presence, and what little there is is lumped with MMA and the like.

Regular boxing....It exists, it has its fans, but it's probably not "mainstream" popular here these days. Everybody knows its there, but there's just not a ton of general interest in it, and the audience that is interested in watching it isn't really the same people that buy video games, really. So in both cases there's just not a ton of popularity, so not a log of financial incentive for it.

Sports games have generally always catered to the "mass market" of where couch potato TV watchers intersect with couch potato video gamers Sports games, largely, sell to non-gamers, and to do that they sell in big numbers. The less popular sports do get games every so often, it's just not frequent.

I agree, team sports don't interest me as much as individual sports. But most of the world seems to love their franchised club sports with merchandised clothing, and they wave money around to recreate it in games...so that's the games that get made. Eventually someone will make your boxing game...probably.

And @Zuljaras has a point. Boxing and kickboxing are perceived as dangerous sports, because they are dangerous sports that tend to leave permanent scars. Not many schools or parents are going to encourage that. The origins of boxing, the worlds oldest sport, are among the poor, basically fighting each other for entertainment/prize money. It's a violent sport for a rough crowd. Bar brawaling for profit. and not very aspirational. The opposite of what people want to raise kids to want.

Then again everyone wants their kids to be an American Football pro, where the sport is proven to turn your brain into the metal capacity of a sea sponge.

"Question: How to not barf during playing World of Final Fantasy Maxima?"
Wait, wut?

@Zuljaras Surprisingly ( to me, anyway), kickboxing has been getting mainstream, here in the states, as a fitness trend. I know two girls that never did anything in sports, but got into it for fitness, and surprisingly went on to competing. Though, it looks more Olympic style, and doesn't resemble a bloodsport stereotype - they use padded head gear. And one guy friend does it too, I knew him from biking. I'm not saying it's not violent, but it seems it's been gaining some mainstream appeal as a fitness outlet these days. (Being around bmx, though, I have no desire to get my head knocked around. CTE injuries can be bad. That's how we lost super-nice-guy Dave Mirra (bmx rider))

@Anti-Matter

@Zuljaras @NEStalgia Funny thing is, he basically already answered his own question:

I'd argue that Square Enix's support of the Switch has been pretty stellar.

You can't look at Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default II and complain that they aren't doing enough.

@NEStalgia
About Boxing / Kickboxing, i was surprised to see some kids or parents have very strong interest with that sports on Youtube and Google image. Some kids that joined in Boxing class got taught about Cardio Boxing techniques. If about combat skills I oftenly heard from Muay Thai. Even some of Thai kids already knew about Muay Thai. How could there were some peoples still have that interest on different place while there is no interest at all about Boxing / Kickboxing in my place Indonesia?
I felt envy somehow and that's why i created my own Boxing / Kickboxing creations, frustrated by domination of lame sports. I have created my own Kickboxing creation, inspired by Kickboxing extracurricular on some school and some sports anime with their life to become famous sportsman. It is my Avian Kickboxing. You can check on my deviantart.

Btw, the way i want to portray about Boxing / Kickboxing are very contrary with mainstream peoples thinking. If mainstream peoples thinking about ultra violent or sexy ring girls or serious combat from Boxing / Kickboxing, i want to portray Boxing / Kickboxing as something opposite. Instead of being too serious, i want something quirky yet funny from Boxing / Kickboxing. Even i have thought about Boxing in Rhythm or Jazz Boxer or Ice Skate Boxers (my project for year 2021 currently). Why so serious if i can make it cute and funny?

About World of Final Fantasy Maxima, i meant how do i survive to play the game without starting to feel bored?
The game was quite interesting, kinda like Pokemon but different. The problem was the dialogues were not really funny or interesting to hear and the gameplay was quite stiff and boring for Turn based style. I have the game on Switch but i'm not sure i want to continue after being neglected for more than 1 year.

@JaxonH Bandai Namco is developing instead of Game Freak, that's almost certainly why the environments look better. It'll probably run more consistently too.

I'm super hyped for this though, did not expect this announcement. Between PMD, Snap, and Detective Pikachu all being on it, we're getting back to a period of having good Pokemon Spinoffs again. Now, all we need is something of a Colleseum successor...

@ThanosReXXX You have a point there....

@Magician Unpopular opinion: Octopath and Bravely are disappointing series overall, along with the Tokyo RPG Factory games. I loved Octopath at first, but as soon as it revealed its structure to be similar to Bravely's structure: Clear the checklist quests in the town, do the short dungeon, fight the ridiculously attrition-based overpowered boss fight for 10 hours. Repeat. Their worlds had a lot of potential but that streamlined repetitive structure where the game exists for boss fights and the rest is filler, and is, in fact, very very small, ruins them for me. SE's highlight on Switch is Trials of Mana, honestly.

@Anti-Matter Of course there's some interest in these things, otherwise they wouldn't exist outside history books. But there's not a lot of interest to make a video game recreation of it tremendously interesting. Back when Mike Tyson's Punchout!! (Just Punchout!! outside the us) released on NES it was more mainstream popular with Pay Per View cable making a big deal of fights. That was when Tyson, Foreman (before he was a kitchen appliance salesman), Holyfield, etc were houshold names. Different era, different mainstream interests. The WWII generation was still a market at the time, and they grew up with boxing as a big deal during the Depression.

I mean, boxing is a sport literally about to people punching each other in the head until they can't stand unassisted. It's kinda ultra violent by nature? MMA/UFC etc tries to make it a bit more "modern" but it's still what it is, in the real sports world.

I enjoyed the dialogue in Maxima. Childish, sure, but the banter between the siblings and the fan service to other FF games was charming, I thought. And Seraphie is best character ever. It was filled with a lot of puns and such, though, so if you were listening to the English version, some of the humor might not have been obvious if you're trying to translate colloquial dialect. It's not exactly deep, but it was charming. The gameplay wasn't very sophisticated. Engaging enough, but simplistic, sure. I definitely enjoyed the game, but if if the gameplay and dialog bore you, there's not much else for it to offer.

@link3710
I am too. And that's unexpected because I definitely wasnt one of those people crying out for a new Pokemon Snap. But wow does the game look good!

It better have gyro aiming for taking pics. I will be severely disappointed if it doesnt. Pokemon Sword and Shielf did for viewing Pokemon at camp so, I have hope.

@JaxonH Well, again it's Bamco developing it, so I doubt the choices made in the main series have any bearing on the presence or lack of gyro here. But honestly, I can't imagine a photo taking game not having it.

Yeah, I'd assume gyro is a given. Even if it's Bamco, it's still Pokemon, so I can't imagine Nintendo not providing guidance to use the gyro. Given we're in the Pokemon Go world, though, I can't imagine any dev that can't figure out the gyro is a must would have been handed the contract anyway.

@Ralizah You make a strong argument. I'll give you Square has been a lot better than Atlus or EA. But I still wouldn't call their support great or even very good. But your points do win me up to "not bad".

So with Xenoblade and Isle of Armor DLC story complete, I decided to load up XCOM 2. Very disappointed so far though, keep getting the errors that close the game. The buggiest game I've played on the Switch yet, I'll give it some more time but it's looking more likely that I should pick it up on XB1 next time it goes on sale.

@Grumblevolcano How long did it take you to complete the Isle of Armor?

@Dogorilla Around 5 hours though I did explore the island for a fair amount of time before visiting the dojo so story content is probably closer to 3.