Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Pizzamorg Screw the catch rates LMAO, Absol is not even a legendary and he's hell!

So I now have the three legendary birds, I thought the puzzle to solve the king/horse legendary was mostly intuitive so I cleared that first and then finally it is the four temples, which are completely unintuitive so I’m just going to use a guide.

I know this is kinda “he said the thing” thing, but man… I am not enjoying Crown Tundra.

I know online people talk about Crown Tundra being the Pokemon game they always wanted etc and I know people seem to love the stuff I am about to be critical of in all sorts of different games, but this stuff just isn’t fun to me. It spoils my experience, not enhances it.

When I game, I want to make constant progression, make every session feel like a meaningful achievement. This can’t be done when I am aimlessly chasing birds around the world or trying to solve obtuse puzzles to get through doors.

People always pretend these are great mechanics when any game does these, but can’t you see the cheap pacing mechanisms these things are? They are just filler. They don’t enhance your experience in any way. If they just gave you the locations of the birds and told you to go there to face them, how is that worse than just aimlessly running around the map?

And I know there’ll be the “actushuallllly” replies, yes they say “go to the Wild Area” or whatever, but then you just run around that one location until the bird spawns, then have to chase the bird around and it’s just crap. I am sorry, you aren’t going to convince me this is fun.

The best part about this was when I realised it was on rails, so once you see the path once, you don’t need to engage with this anymore you just stand where you know it will go by eventually and eventually you’ll end up battling it. Beating the game at it’s own game.

The only one that makes this a little harder is Articuno which doesn’t spawn consistently or reliably and is it’s own mini puzzle, so be ready to save scum the crap out of this or be ready to get frustrated as hell. For some reason though Arti captured after like two or three ultra balls, whereas I probably used about a 1000 on Moltres before that captured (after I saved scummed over and over again trying to capture it).

For the first time in the couple of weeks of playing Shield, I feel like I have had a wasted session. I did maybe an hours worth of meaningful progress and the game stretched it into a dozen hour slog, with naff filler content.

@Ralizah @NintendoByNature @Eel
I played all the Paper Mario games except for Color Splash, only because I didn't like Sticker Star. The original game still holds up really well - I'd say I like it almost as much as TTYD.

...knowing the Pokemon community, I have a hard time believing people are saying this about anything related to SwSh.

The Pokemon game they've always wanted is a BotW-tier AAA game that they'll never get.

@MarioLover92 @Eel @NintendoByNature I'm expecting to like it, but the footage I've seen seems much less... creative than other games in the series. So also keeping my expectations in check.

@Ralizah well it is the start of the series, when the Paper aspect was just the presentation and not a gameplay feature. So it treats its own world a bit more “seriously”, as opposed being constantly self aware like future games in the series.

But it has the benefit of being a pre “No OCs, use Toad”-era game. So there’s that.

Since it is all about Paper mario right now in this thread, did anyone play Bugfables and would say that it plays like a Paper mario? I have seen a review about it, comparing the two

@Solaine My understanding is that Bug Fables' gameplay and tone are heavily reminiscent of early Paper Mario.

@Ralizah Which Paper Mario are considered early paper Mario? Everything before Color splash?

@Solaine The N64 game and TTYD.

@Grumblevolcano Oh, alright only those two then. Thanks

@Ralizah it's a good time. Definitely no harm in sitting down and giving it 20 hours of your gaming time.

Nobody has OLEDS except GameStop, but they are bundled with junk - $488 USD. Kind of a sleazy move, no? (I say junk because I don't want any of those things. the sd card is fine.)

Why force an unneccessary third party ac adapter with a new Switch OLED? Who does this?
I don't want headphones.
I'd never pick that case.
(the game is fine, but we don't want that game)

So disappointing.

https://www.gamestop.com/consoles-hardware/nintendo-switch/co...

Dang. Paper Mario... I think they finally got me for NSO+ or whatever it's called.

@rallydefault come on at least call it correctly.
It’s the Nintendo switch online plus 2 alpha championship edition expansion pak turbo wii

@Ralizah Yeah, I think it's partly because it's the first in the series. The chapters/worlds in TTYD were more creative I think, but I still enjoyed the N64 original. And that's coming from someone who played TTYD first. I think the first one is more whimsical in terms of its presentation, but its gameplay is generally identical.

I will say, as arguably the biggest fan of the original Paper Mario here, I don't have time for it right now. Too many new games.

I'll certainly get to it soon enough, because its been a while. Despite playing it nearly every year through the 2000s, when I did a Let's Play like 6+ years ago was my last time touching this game. (speaking of which, I did do all the Chuck Quizmo questions for it, I don't recommend doing this)

So after 70ish hours, my Pokemon Shield journey has effectively come to an end. I have cleared the main game and both of the DLCs as far as I understand. This is my most played game on my Switch so far and by far the more enjoyable experience I have had on the Switch overall, even if I thought Isle was fairly mediocre DLC content and I really disliked Crown Tundra, although collecting a whole suite of new Leggos was cool when it was all over. I also think CT has a much better end game than the main game has, I will likely be coming back to do the Adventures/Endless Adventures from time to time with my Sister just because they are fun. I guess I also maybe need to look into doing some online battles to make some use out of all these Legendaries I am getting from the Adventures.

I am sad it is over and feel like I have a bit of a void in my life now. I am not sure whether I should jump into either Diamond or Pearl, or whether I should give my Switch a break from Pokemon for a bit and play something else entirely.

@Pizzamorg Given your comment about the birds in Crown Tundra, taking a break from Pokemon would probably work more in your favour. I saw in the BDSP thread that the Legendary trio in that game is just as annoying to catch.

I think it just came as a shock, more than anything else, as Shield had been mostly free from this kind of BS entirely, which is part of why I enjoyed it as much as I did. So when CT came along it was like… oh no, here we go.

@DarthNocturnal Better than Platinum. That had 5 that ran.

Though XY was the worst offender. Had to encounter the bird 12 times at which point it immediately flees before you can even choose a move, then fight it for proper later.