Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Pizzamorg it depends. Lttp is a classic Zelda style game and BotW is more of an open world and do whatever you want kind of game

@Pizzamorg BotW is an amazing game, but it's also not really representative of the rest of the series to date.

ALttP is pretty much classic Zelda in a nutshell.

Which is to say: I think you could 'start' with either game, as they're wildly different experiences. ALttP is going to more of an intro to the property as a whole.

I'd just play Zelda BotW. But that's me.

Weird? I thought I replied to this thread but my reply isn’t here!

I just said thanks - said I was going to pick it up via NSO Vouchers because it seems like BF won’t be a better deal and even if it is, not by any significant margin - although I am probably jinxing the universe in saying that.

I will try and play both games, but deffo have more interest in BOTW as I have more interest in open world games than I do in the actual Zelda franchise.

Not a criticism, but I don't understand why anyone unsure about a game would buy digital when you could buy used and then re-sell used if you don't want to keep it and lose very little, maybe break even.

But if any game justifies it's asking price, it's BotW.

That's what I used to do before COVID. I had a shop in town called CEX and I'd basically use that like a rental shop. Every weekend trade in a game for another, didn't spend actually any money on games for years.

But with COVID I just don't feel comfortable doing that anymore, especially for those who know about CEXs infamous reputation. Plus, while it's more expensive, buying a game digitally and having it on your device almost instantly is just a convenience that's worth it to me. Never needing to leave the house is the Wall-E end game.

@Pizzamorg Fair play to you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have 🍻

I just finished my second playthrough of BOTW. It's hands-down my favorite all-time game (I could gush about it like Jax gushes about DKC:TF). Granted, I'd played all of the console Zeldas before that, and there's a few nods to the previous Zeldas to trigger nostalgia for us old folks, but it's a fantastic game on its own. My favorite part of the expansion pass in that game was that it gave me reason to go back into its world and enjoy it a little more.

While for many, this may be a water is wet style declaration, Breath of the Wild might be one of the most polished games I have ever played. I am not a Nintendo guy, I don’t have much interest in their first party lineups - I dislike platforming in general - and so while I am aware of the acclaim of many of their titles, many of them simply existed outside of my world view. I am not really sure what made me suddenly decide I wanted to give BOTW a chance, but if the game can keep up the level of joy it delivered in those opening few hours, then I will be glad I made the choice.

I am not sure how long I played today, the hours just melted away in a way I haven’t really found from a game in a while. It is difficult to know really where to start - especially as I appreciate I will simply be repeating years old opinions held by many. But man - just so impressed by like all of this.

The opening is a little frustrating/slow, my stick broke during my first encounter and I just had nothing to fight with. But when I realised how generous the auto save is and the fact there seems to be no punishment for dying, I realised how much the game just wanted me to experiment and really enjoy being in this world. True, pure, roleplaying in a sense.

While I do enjoy that in an Ubisoft game I can just plonk a dot on the map and the game will just drive me there, I really like how BOTW really leans into the actual mechanics of the world to find points of interest, mark them and then solve how exactly you’ll reach them. This is probably the best balance I’ve found for this sort of game. It isn’t like one of those survival games where it just leaves you in the dark to scramble around and try and figure out wtf you are meant to be doing, but it isn’t so handholdy that it feels like it is on rails either, just a real healthy point in the middle. I hope this remains true for the whole experience.

I also felt a remarkable sense of progression in those opening hours, despite the fact this isn’t one of those looter games where you’re being showered in bits of clothing with ever increasing numbers on them. I am still in the rags you find in the place you wake up in, but I have one hell of an arsenal of weapons now and so many learnt skills/mechanics, I feel like a completely different person from who I was when I started playing. I didn’t realise you could really create such satisfying progression without giving me some kind of bar or something I could physically see filling up.

So often in Nocturne I was so frustrated because each step was an obtuse vaguery, I’d bumble around and make no progress, get frustrated and go to a guide. But here, each time I bumble around, it seems to result in a eureka moment. And just the details of the animations, the physics and all the other bits of programming that just make everything so dynamic and fascinating.

Like Nocturne, this is how you do puzzle dungeons. They aren’t hours long, teleporting gimmicky, endurance slogs. Each one is just right the length, gives you just enough guidance through learned mechanics of the flow of the game to figure out what you need to do but with just enough experimentation that it feels earned and rewarding before it becomes frustrating. I dunno, maybe the later dungeons will become more like Nocturnes gauntlets of frustration, but so far I have been going off the beaten path to find more of these dungeons in BOTW as so far they have just been fun.

I am currently away, so I am playing in handheld, I dunno what the game looks/runs like when blown up on a TV, but at least docked, it is beautiful and feels buttery smooth. Combat is simple, but fun with just enough variety in the weapons. The little touches like the gyro aiming for the bow/abilities are appreciated.

It just shows a game can be stimulating and engaging, without needing to be brutal and gruelling. I hope I will still say that come the end.

I am also sure there are so many more things I wish I had said, but I have only played the opening few hours. As I am currently away I am not sure when I will get to sit down with it again, but after I’ve spent more hours with it I’ll probably log more feelings.

@Pizzamorg
I still remember the feeling I had when I played BotW, and ya, I was gushing about it too. We all were (well, almost all, anyways).

The thing is, many Nintendo games are really good at making ppl enjoy them even when they’re not previously fans of the genre. Arlo does a review on DKC Tropical Freeze, for example, where he claims he just doesn’t like 2D platformers. They’re not intellectually stimulating enough, they just don’t hold his attention… until DKC TF. It’s a 2D platformer for ppl who say they don’t like 2D platformers.

Same is true for Fire Emblem. I hated all turn based games until I played Fire Emblem. Not only did that game change my mind about the grid based strategy genre, it single-handedly made me reconsider my stance on turn based games.

Same is true for Splatoon 2. I usually don’t like competitive shooters. They’re just not my thing. And yet… Splatoon 2 is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. I sunk hundreds of hours into it.

Same thing is true for Pikmin 3. Normally I would never play a game like that. But Pikmin 3 is just so incredible, I can’t help but love it.

I think if you broaden your taste a little bit and dip your toe in the water here in there with a few highly acclaimed Nintendo games that maybe aren’t normally your style, you may find a good many of them changing your mind. This is why I like Nintendo games so much, because they can make me love games in genres that I absolutely hate. Not always- there’s a few here and there that just don’t do it for me. But if you stick to the cult classics and the universally praised titles, I think you’ll find there’s a whole new world out there yet to be explored.

@mjharper
At the time I played Zelda BotW, I felt the same way. Over the years your memories of how much you enjoy a game start to fade. But I do remember back in 2017 I was saying it was one of the best I had ever played. There’s a lot of Nintendo games on Switch I could gush about:

Zelda Breath of the Wild
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
Metroid Dread
Splatoon 2
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Xenoblade Chronicles DE
Pikmin 3
Super Mario Odyssey

Some more than others, but all these games were so good I remember being in awe of how much I was in love with them.

BotW is unquestionably enchanting in that first playthrough. Nintendo absolutely nailed their unique approach to open world design and game progression.

@Pizzamorg lol one of the big complaints from people who don't like BotW is that it doesn't have the lengthy, high-concept puzzle dungeons of previous games. Some of them were infamous slogs, though.

Also, in most previous 3D Zelda games, the overworld itself wasn't freely explorable, and you often had to go to specific locations to trigger dialogue or accomplish tasks that the games were often coy about hinting at before you could make any progress in the story.

Some people really, really like the sort of late-90s/early-00s game design exemplified by titles like SMT Nocturne and Ocarina of Time.

I like em both. I’m definitely not a “mutually exclusive” kinda guy when it comes to modern vs vintage design. BotW is amazing, but honestly, Skyward Sword is amazing too. I don’t think it’s nearly as good as BotW, but I do think there’s a place for the older approach. And they give us both with remakes and remasters (Skyward Sword HD, Link’s Awakening) and new, open world entries (BotW, BotW 2). So you really can have your cake and eat it too.

@Pizzamorg
I was PlayStation gamer too during year 2000's. I played Nintendo games as well but not every 1st party games from Nintendo are interesting for me.
I have expanded my gaming experiences from playing never before played games, never before have interest with the games, i dared myself to get into never played before games in different genre but still suitable with my gaming rules.

For those who don’t know or aren’t familiar, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is releasing on Nintendo Switch this Thursday. It’s the highest rated Star Wars game of all time, of all the Star Wars games ever released spanning the last 30 years.

It’s developed by BioWare and released in their glory days (after Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights but before Jade Empire, and of course before the more modern Dragon Age and Mass Effect) in 2003 for the Xbox and PC. It’s an RPG where, in typical BioWare fashion, conversation and dialog is a focus and your choices matter.

The game is certainly a little dated at this point but it cleans up nice in HD, plus, it was originally developed for Xbox and PC which were much more powerful for their time, so it doesn’t actually seem as old as it is. It also looks really good on the handheld screen, which you can check for yourself by loading the eShop page screenshots on your Switch.

If you’re a fan of Star Wars, RPGs, or just great games in general, you may want to look into this one. It’s the very definition of a classic.

Some of the dungeons here are slogs, you mean? Or some in the previous games.

But either way, sounds about right, there is always someone moaning the game isn’t miserable enough for them. I will never understand that. To me, games should be fun and to me, there is nothing fun about being stuck and frustrated.

I know people love that late 90s/early 00s game design, but as a grown man, I just don’t have time for that approach. If you don’t tell me where to go or give me enough information organically to know what to do, I’m just going to look at a guide. I am not going to waste a gaming session figuring out what you have failed to properly tutorialise in the name of some weird, insular, niche crowd.

That was just the sort of way it was, @Pizzamorg .... Probably for various reasons! But yeah, I certainly appreciate games at least giving options to make navigation easier Which quite a few do nowadays, so if someone really wants to turn minimaps off or icons on maps off, etc, they can ...,.. While I can have all the navigation aids on the way I prefer

Yeah, that is my entire thing - choice. And in both directions. Everyone should be able to make as any game as easy or as difficult as they want, to suit their tastes. Games like Control or State of Decay really show this can be done, as did AC Odyssey to an extent with it’s map tailoring.

Yeah, I understand older games being the ways they were, though, @Pizzamorg .... Technical limitations & 30 years ago, gaming wasn't as mainstream by a long shot
Then, over the years of games becoming more popular, I'm sure the devs have learned a lot of general things that help to make better experiences, including navigation stuff

@Pizzamorg Previous games. None of the ones in this game last long enough or have developed enough concepts to be even close to slogs. Although there is still at least one widely hated shrine in this game. I'm curious to see what you think of it.

Just gonna drop this here. Another statement from the president claiming Switch is mid-life-cycle. Which is what I've been saying- it's gonna be a long generation.

“the system is at the mid-point of its lifecycle” and “a foundation for growth has been laid that exceeds what we previously considered to be a conventional hardware lifecycle.”

Sorry 2022 hopefuls. Switch is gonna be around 7-9 years at this rate. Whether they extend that with a Pro Model, who knows. All I know is they're making it abundantly clear the Switch is gonna be around a while.