Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Pizzamorg I 100% agree with you on the postgame, it really felt off to me too.

As for the first DLC? I really enjoyed it. Storywise there's barely anything there, but as someone who really likes the exploration and collecting aspects of Pokemon I was very pleased. It helped that I had completed the Galar dex at this point, so hunting down all of the new Pokemon was a priority for me. I also quite enjoyed the Diglett hunt and how the island essentially felt like an expanded and more diverse wild area. Maybe a break from the game would help you enjoy the DLC a bit more? That said, if you don't get any enjoyment out of the area itself / the Pokemon, there's probably not much that can be done.

Oh boy, hearing you complain about a game being too easy is a bit eerie! Just how badly did they mess up the balancing in the DLC?

I don’t necessarily disagree with what you’re saying, it was certainly a bit more interesting navigating the wild area in the first DLC than it was the wild area in the core game, and like I said, some of the new Pokemon have terrific designs. I just don’t think it offered enough new stuff to justify being a full blown, paid, DLC.

Well what makes it even more baffling is this isn’t DLC, this is just the post game of the core campaign and so I just haven’t a clue why they balanced it in this way.

@Pizzamorg Woops, meant to say post-game, not DLC. But yeah, that's... bad.

I'm like you in that regard. I don't necessarily want hard, but something can only be so easy before it feels kinda pointless. Maybe it gets better throughout the core campaign, but the time I spent with SwSh felt that way to me.

While I do agree it was on the easier side, I had no real issues with the curve of the core campaign. Many JRPGs force grinding as an artificial pacing mechanism, however, I felt like each time I went to a new location with S/S, we were all basically near enough on the same level. As a result, most of my gym leader battles were pretty close and I lost a couple of times. There were a couple I absolutely blew out due to type advantages, however, I kinda hate this whole conversation.

People are so critical of the Rock Paper Scissors foundation of Pokemon, yet so many games use exactly the same system but get praise for it. I think it’s just cool to rag on Pokemon, because it isn’t perceived as being as trendy as some of the other similar games. (That isn’t aimed at you, by the way, just speaking generally). I just like that Pokemon uses a streamlined turn based system still. I am so tired of every turn based JRPG having some kind of added novelty or twist, which just spoils the experience for me. I like traditional turn based gameplay.

I will say there were a couple of times where I was a little under levelled, but the game makes it fairly painless to close small level gaps. However, that is also possibly because I don’t go out of my way to catch every Pokemon and scour every inch of map etc So it might be more me, than the game.

However, I believe Leon’s strongest Pokemon is 66 if memory is serving me well. So why going into the post game is everything level 61 to 63? After beating Leon you have to be around level 70, so you are massively over levelled by this point. And like, I am glad it doesn’t do the opposite of suddenly making everything level 100 or something for the post game, so you have to grind out like 30 levels to engage with it, but they showed in the core campaign they could create a naturally flowing curve, so why did they just abandon that at the end? I guess we’ll never know.

So, I want to try out the new Shantae and the Seven Sirens Definitive Mode changes. The game is sitting on my Switch Phat, ready to be played. The Split Pad Pro attached to the console makes it, for me, objectively the most comfortable way to enjoy games in handheld mode.

Yet I went out of my way to redownload it on my Lite, and am now waiting for the download to finish.

Sometimes I question why I even own a Lite, but, for whatever reason, it really does feel like a different system to me, and some games just feel far more natural when played on it, even compared to the bigger model in handheld mode.

OLED Lite when, Nintendo?

@Pizzamorg Pokemon's combat is actually quite deep once you start looking at skills, natures, etc., which become important in multiplayer. If the games made you engage with their mechanics in the single-player mode and had better xp gain scaling/level balancing, they'd be super satisfying to play.

But there's no real benefit to laying into GF about the way they make the games. They're very Nintendo-like insofar as they tend to do whatever they want, and the games sell well regardless, so the bellyaching online tends to be a bit pointless.

SwSh going on to become one of the best-selling generations in the entire franchise is still the funniest thing ever to me, coming as it did off a months-long hate campaign from multiple Pokemon communities. It really just cements how little online consensus about a thing really matters.

@Ralizah you’re telling me! My sister is into the competitive side of things, so when she starts rattling through natures and the right items to hold, use and moves to sequence to get the most out of a Pokemon I am just like… holy *****! Was Pokemon always this complicated?! She must play next to an Excel Spreadsheet! lol.

But yeah, I don’t really know what the right answer is. I do also prefer a game push you to really engage with the depths of it’s mechanics, but push too much in that direction and I think a lot of the joy of the streamlined Pokemon experience would be lost. It is the same thing with the difficulty, too. If the game was even a little bit harder, there is a chance for frustration to creep in, which I don’t want. Likewise, if I actually had to worry about all the stuff my sister does in her competitive circles just to get through the regular campaign, personally I just don’t think it would be very fun.

And like I say, I think S/S has some objective problems, some subjective ones and some that are blown all out of proportion. I would never try and convince anyone it is a masterpiece or even necessarily a great game by conventional metrics, but it is the only game on my Switch that hasn’t traded soaring highs with infuriating lows. It just exists in this happy place in between and I can get why that disappoints some, especially hardened fans who have been there all the way, but it isn’t a position I have.

@Pizzamorg @Ralizah Personally I think the core gameplay mechanics of Pokemon are the last thing anyone should criticize about the series. While simplistic ("rock paper scissors") on the surface, there's a lot of hidden depth that has kept the competitive scene strong through all of these years. However the single player content within the games is usually easy enough that a casual player could think of the gameplay as "simplistic".

Obviously the gameplay mechanics need to evolve over time to keep things fresh, but I feel like this should be a slow and steady evolution rather than revolution (Pokemon has already had relatively major gameplay changes in Special stat split, weather/terrains, natures and Physical/Special split).

I think anyone who is interested in Pokemon as a concept but has no interest in the core battle mechanics should consider the many Pokemon spin-offs out there.

@Pizzamorg Is just Newer pokemon games suck at showing it.

Preach

@Pizzamorg
I just play Pokemon games on 3DS and Switch casually.
Don't think too much.

It is my Birthday today, which meant I got to start my Ringfit Adventure… and holy *****, lol. I am not a sporty person, but I am decently fit/active. I thought this would be targeted more at older people/really unfit people, so I set it to the hardest difficulty and it killed me in under 15 minutes. In the good way! The whole session in total was about 45 minutes, but they give little cut scenes and stuff which mask cooldowns I suppose, plus there are like warm ups and cool downs etc. Honestly so happy with this, I didn’t expect to come away feeling like I got a proper work out and especially not that quickly. Once I start sweating from the shins I know my workout is legit. Especially when fighting the monsters, the sets of exercises you need to do to take the monsters down were brutal. In the good way! Although bit of a nightmare as my dogs think I am playing, so they get around my feet and try to give me kisses when I did the exercises that put you lower or on the floor. Plus, all the data it collates and the way it gamifies all the exercise, plus giving fun little tips and factoids and stuff, I just think this is a great package. It is also surprising it is the same price as a regular Switch game but you get the ring/leg strap etc too. I can’t often say this, but on this occasion… Good guy Nintendo.

Ring Fit is brutal. I set it to Hard and played 45 minutes, and I was aching for days afterwards.

It's definitely a legit workout, and much more entertaining than Wii Fit ever was

We should start a Ring Fitness club on the forum!

If you do it right, Ring Fit can be a good work out routine. I played Ring Fit quite a bit during the pandemic times when the gym wasn't open. Overhead squats are brutal.

Metroid Dread amazing animations.

@Giancarlothomaz
That's... actually a really good video. High quality post 👍

@Pizzamorg Ring Fit is a surprisingly excellent workout.

BTW, happy birthday!

Happy birthday.

Thanks all!

I am very sore this morning from the Ring Fit! Haha.

Oh and I made a start on Crown Tundra, so far… so good! The rogue like twist on the Dynamax Raids is really cool, it looks like you’re guaranteed the Legendary from the end of Crystal when you do your first one. Crystal holds a really special place in my heart, so this was so ***** cool to me.

It also feels much less like it was just some cut content from the main game slapped into a DLC package. However, I have really only just begun, so I will touch base when I get to the end of the DLC.