Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@JaxonH Strange that ACNH can hit 22 mil in 3 months, and the RPGs barely break 2-3 mil. I mean I realize a "general audience" game is going to sell more than an RPG, but still...that's pretty extreme. It makes me wonder if the ACNH crowd on Switch is basically the Wii Sports (or for that matter, FIFA/CoD) crowd in disguise. Buy a console for one game.

@TheFrenchiestFry Weeb bait anime high school sim being less niche than a post-apocalyptic survival RPG seems so strange for the West, the land of torture porn like TLou2 and Cyberpunk, where nearly every game that sells is a post-apocalyptic survival game.

@NEStalgia Atlus just doesn't market SMT nearly as hard as Persona which is why it's generally less mainstream. It doesn't help that starting with Persona 4 Golden they even took off the Shin Megami Tensei moniker thus causing newcomers to think it was its own thing

I think a lot of people did buy a Switch just for ACNH. All the internet hype around it combined with people not having much to do due to lockdown made it a popular impulse buy. I saw several people on Twitter discussing it who don't normally post about gaming much (even Stephen Fry!)

Damn, even though DQXIS has been fun (currently getting the missing orbs) it can't keep my attention away from how barren the future of gaming is. It's not like how XC2 helped distract from the 2018 info droughts.

@Grumblevolcano

Baldo
Crash Bandicoot 4
Cyberpunk 2077
Horizon Forbidden West
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
SMT III: Nocturne HD
SMT V
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

And, while we have no idea when it's coming, Breath of the Wild 2 is also a thing.

If anything, I have the opposite problem. Too much stuff coming out soon that I'm excited to play. I can't keep up with it all.

Granted, I've never been one of those people who only buys stuff published by Nintendo. I imagine the droughts ARE pretty rough, in that case.

@NEStalgia Well, in general, even though it's more mainstream than it used to be, Persona is probably still selling primarily to anime nerd types.

What gets me is all the irritation from the Nintendo community about Tokyo Mirage Sessions being a happy, colorful, excessively anime-esque affair, and then, when it's revealed that Switch IS getting the hardcore, dark, complex Atlus game this time, a lot of people ignore it and whine about not getting Persona 5, a game that, stylistically, is far closer to TMS than SMT will ever be (ironically enough).

Part of the issue is the fact that Atlus hasn't really told people what to expect from it. That, and the (sorry) long, very Japanese name probably puts a lot of people off.

@Octane That could be because the battle system (at least the original wheel-based one) had a mixed reception. It's a bit gimmicky IMO as it require playing mini-games in the touch screen (though you can get by without using a stylus), but it does shine a little in boss battles. In normal fights there isn't really much point to it unless your Yo-kai are grossly underleveled or need to be purified long before the fight ends. Normally I'd mow through most battles fast enough to where it wouldn't be an issue.

Part of the reason I want to try the third game is because they did change the battle system there. It doesn't use the wheel but is still turn-based IIRC.

@Ralizah I was on about the rest of 2020. Right now the game I'm most excited for out of the rest of the year so far is Gears Tactics (Pikmin 3 is 2nd). May end up get Crash 4 on XB1 rather than waiting for Switch though given waiting for Switch versions of 3rd party games this year has been more trouble than its worth (especially DOOM Eternal).

I pretty much only got FF crystal chronicles, shantae games next month, Oceanhorn 2, and pikmin 3 for 2020. Gleamlights nearly day 1 but I really want to see reviews first.

You do realize that 'The Nintendo community' is not one single entity with one shared opinion right? There's different groups of people with different sets of opinions.

I liked TMS, @Ralizah .... & I'm looking forward to SMT III Nocturne, as well as V! While I never quite got on with Persona on Vita, so I'm not bothered about those games for myself

I'm still waiting on news of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (I really think they're holding off until the date their conference at Celebration was meant to be at this point in time). It really has been too long since we last got any sort of news about it, but I'm sure the info blowout we do get will be worth it.

There's already a lot lining up for October that the month will be a busy one even without anything from Nintendo.

Shin Megami Tensei needs to either do something amazing, or rebrand itself if it ever wants to go more mainstream. A Japanese name and a convoluted history of previous titles in the series makes it feel inaccessible to newcomers.

I notice that quite a lot of people who are into SMT are surprised that it doesn't appeal to a broader audience. Well, I'm probably part of this 'broader audience'. First after the initial announcement came to my attention and more recently with the direct I've checked some videos and read some articles on the franchise, and there is absolutely nothing that compells me into trying any of the games in the series. The dark themes, gameplay, slow plot... I can't see myself ever getting close to giving this a shot. I'm not at all saying this is a bad game, I'm just saying I can very well imagine that this game doesn't appeal to a broader audience.

@Grumblevolcano Ah, yeah, 2020 is looking a bit thin until November or so, isn't it? At least DQXI S will last you a while. Even after you "beat" the game, it has a long-ish post-game to it with actual story content.

@gcunit Well, it could be amazing, and people could still ignore it. I definitely see the title being an issue. Atlus needs to do a massive amount of advertising for it to get some traction, although Word of Mouth will be what really drives interest in the property, I think. I feel like the new Nocturne safety mode is probably a sign that they're going to try and tone down concern over the series' fearsome difficulty, but I still think they should lean into the hardness of baseline SMT. Dark Souls forged an identity for itself as a hardcore experience that would make you fall in love with its brutality: why not SMT? They also went that opposite direction of toning down the potential difficulty to appeal to newcomers with Etrian Odyssey as well, which also had a "hard as hell" reputation back on the NDS.

@BruceCM Nice. Did you play the series on 3DS or PS2 previously, or will Nocturne HD be your first proper go at it?

@toiletduck That's true, of course, but generalizations can't really account for social nuances like that by their very nature. TMS got some buzz from some Nintendo and Atlus fans, but, IN GENERAL, I think a lot of the reaction to it was automatically negative once it didn't meet the idealized image many people had of the upcoming game in their head (not that Atlus helped out by advertising it as the crossover of two historically hardcore and dark-ish franchises and then turning out a game about teenage pop idols).

EDIT: I wouldn't say I'm surprised SMT doesn't have broader appeal, personally. It's kind of niche and hardcore by design. And I think that's a good thing: it would have to loose too much of its identity to truly become a product that appealed to a wide variety of people. What I WOULD like to see happen is for the people who it would appeal to to become aware of it.

A lot of people talk about wanting ambitious exclusive experiences that are deep and fulfilling. And there's not too many series out there with more mechanical and thematic depth than SMT.

Sadly missed it before but definitely looking forward to the upcoming Switch ones, @Ralizah .... Fortunately, I hardly had any ideas about TMS going in & had been 'warned' by some people about it! If it was a series, it'd probably get too much quite quickly but as a one off, I thought it was good

I think once Switch owners realize that SMT is just a mature iteration of Pokémon, SMT V has the potential to be the best selling entry in the mainline series. If you enjoy the rpg genre in the slightest...do not ignore SMT V.

@Magician I remember some hardcore Pokemon fans were trying to prop up certain indie monster collecting games as a ploy to stick it to GameFreak and their success with Pokemon SwSh. Let's convince them to prop up SMT V. I mean, if a deep, challenging single-player-focused game is what a lot of them want, it's what they're going to get.

Although several SMT games released on the 3DS, which is where every Pokemon fan was until the Switch came out, so I have my doubts.

@Ralizah I mean, Pokemon is literally based on SMT.....you wouldn't think that would be a difficult challenge.

I think it's good they're adding accessibility. "Hard as nails RPG" really isn't going to move that many copies outside a niche, and that's not how to grow the brand. Especially not on a "niche" console. Dark Souls did it, but honestly I think that's something that works for Souls and only for Souls, and it works primarily because the difficulty is the absolute only thing the game has to offer. If not for that there's really not much there, and no reason to progress for the sake of progression because....there's still nothing there except more hard battles. SMT has a reason to progress because it's an actual game instead of an empty shell best left for eating quarters in an arcade.

Plus Dark Souls did what it did at a time when all games were trending easier and easier in the PS3/Wii era and there was a backlash and demand among fans to bring back the "Nintendo hard" difficulty. So DS gave people the oasis the were seeking in the desert, and that word of mouth caught on big and built a name for From. SMT may be the original but it never rode that wave of demand, and I don't think that wave really works for much more than From, having struck while the iron was hot at just the right time. I'm kind of surprised it's continued as long as it has, though, because mostly what they sell is chest beating bragging rights. There's a niche for that, but it's not a huge niche.

A difficult action game is one thing, you practice the skill/timing/controls to get better.

A difficult turn based RPG... I don't have much heavy RPG experience, but I'm guessing getting better can be harder work.