Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@GrailUK
I've never been one for subscription gaming, but my brother loves it, and it seems to be quite popular. This generation doesn't care about collecting, they just wanna play a game once and move on. As long as it's not impacting my ability to buy, I'm all for it.

@JaxonH Yeah, I find it depressing myself. And this same generation in 12 years time will be slouched in a sofa complaining about having so many games and nothing to play.

@JaxonH That's honestly my biggest concern with Game Pass. On a base level Game Pass is a really cool idea, not my thing but it gives people more options. Looking longer term, it feels like the service has the potential to kill off the ability to actually buy games which really bothers me much like how NSO killed off VC.

@Grumblevolcano although it may be true in the future so far the numbers say games are selling well regardless of release on game pass (even getting boosts when released on it)

@Grumblevolcano
I don't think that'll happen due to the fact they're never going to refuse someone who wants to pay $60 to own a single game. And the dual release nature on PC also works against that.

VC is re-releases for games that have been sold a dozen times before to the point people complained about rebuying them over and over each generation. That's not really applicable for new releases.

Except Nintendo clearly chose to do NSO instead of VC, @Grumblevolcano .... As Jaxon says, GamePass isn't a replacement for selling the games. As often as people play things on there instead of buying them, there's probably as many times where they try something they weren't sure about & buy it

All of my friends use GamePass, and they don't really buy games anymore because of it, only stuff that you can't get on it.

Yeah, I don't even have an Xbox (outside of an old 360), and I subscribed to Game Pass just so I could play their exclusives on my tablet (it works with a DS4) through the cloud, which I'll admit works a LOT better than I was expecting it to.

I don't think I'd ever buy a cloud based game, but it works great in a subscription model & is a nice supplement to my Switch & PS4.

Couple new SMTV screenshots...

Hey look, an overgrown fusion accident

I'm digging those screenshots! November really can't get here soon enough lol

I can't believe how well the game is holding up in the charts. I mean, SMT has always been pretty niche. 400k was considered a massive success on the 3DS. But SMTV has been holding it down in the Amazon Best Sellers list since it went live. Very strong results thus far. Special editions selling out before they even put the listings up, and launch editions still near the top..

Usually games like this shoot up for a day and then drop off into obscurity until just before release (see Neo: TWEWY, a demo just dropped and it's still several hundred places down the list). But something about SMTV is drawing a lot of eyes. Maybe it's the success of Persona, maybe its the SMT fanbase from 3DS in full force combined with new fans from the Nocturne remaster, maybe its just the Switch effect, where new games do better, maybe its just the fact the game looks really impressive- especially on Switch, or maybe its all the above.

Whatever the case, I'm happy to see it. It's about time SMT breaks through.

@JaxonH The fact that SMT V is the first of the long rumored trio to release (SMT V, Bayo 3, and Metroid Prime 4) certainly isn't hurting either. It's been a discussion point for literally half a decade now. Plus, Nintendo is doing work to actually advertise it, far more than any precious release had.

Not to say that they didn't somewhat for 4, but this feels different. It probably helps that it's also one of the biggest game to release this year, with no 10mil+ seller other than Pokemon to go up against.

^ Wasn't really excited for SMT but those screenshots look great; I wasn't aware this game was so colorful.

Regarding the Microsoft/game pass thingy, I think it's great. As long as Fromsoft doesn't make exclusive games for Sony I might have to consider getting an Xbox with game pass, since I found out I'm not all that fond of most the AAA games, and Microsoft seems to be willing to spend quite a bit to get some of the more interesting japanese games.

Here's a pretty good take on Cruis'n Blast from a guy who grew up with the series.

@link3710
Ya, they had that promotion with... what was it... Fire Emblem Awakening? For buying both you got like $30 back. Which, FE:A blew up so that was a very good promotion for SMT. We know the game sold 600,000 copies as of 2015. Which was pretty good given the popularity at the time.

This one looks so incredible though. The leap is insane. Rarely do we see lower budget handheld titles get a proper AAA quality glow up- Monster Hunter World did it followed by Rise for portable entries, and people were in awe. You look at SMTIV and SMTIV Apocalypse, and ya, it's a pretty massive leap forward. The game looks better than I imagined it would, that's for sure.

But I do think Persona's success is a contributing factor as well, and being on Switch, a hybrid handheld console, just boosts the hype that much more.

Turn based RPGs have also seen somewhat of a renaissance these past few years. People are thirsty for high quality games in the genre that don't follow the same cookie cutter template we see so often.

@JaxonH It's status in the Direct was probably a factor. There were 4 long segments of the Direct:

• Smash Ultimate (opener)
• Metroid Dread (spotlight 1)
• SMTV (spotlight 2)
• Zelda 35th anniversary (closer)

Given lots of people were expecting BotW 2 news at E3 they will have had to watch both Metroid Dread and SMTV to get to the news they wanted.

I wonder if the demons following Nahobino in the overworld are story important or significant in some way, or if the first demon in your party just appears behind you. It's a fantastic touch either way, and will probably resonate with Nintendo and Pokemon fans who have been hungry for a properly ambitious demon-collecting JRPG for years now.

I'm leaning a bit the former interpretation, since Amanozako appears to be following the player in two of those screenshots, and she seems to be a story-important demon.

@JaxonH When it comes down to it, it's just a perfect storm for SMT V. There's so so so many factors to cause this game to have record breaking sales, that this basically has to be the moment where the series goes mainstream or it probably won't happen.

Luckily, it seems that's well on its way to happening.

@Ralizah
Astute observation. I completely missed that.

The middle shot seems to be an in-engine cutscene, but in both the other shots there are two behind the player. Could more than one follow? Or are the others enemies? Hard to tell. I took Colgate Smiles for an enemy but maybe he's just happy to be in your party.

@link3710
It's happening. I'm sure of it. It's charting as high if not higher than Metroid, and Metroid has been blowing the lid off this sucker. Crazy to see. I actually feared the game would be overlooked and Atlus would reconsider their decision to build for Switch ground up. Turns out that fear was completely unfounded.

@Grumblevolcano
It was well placed in an e3 Direct where a lot of gamers were looking to Nintendo. That had to have boosted visibility, for sure.

I gotta say I am enjoying Sky:Children of Light. Absolutely gorgeous and very lovely music. Will spend some time with this, this weekend.