Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Ryu_Niiyama I really wanted to like Stardew Valley, but something about it didn't work for me, despite really liking some of the older Harvest Moon games.

I actually did enjoy Celeste, but the sky-high praise it gets confuses me. It's a competent indie platformer with decent music and an overwrought central metaphor. Not exactly goty material.

@JaxonH yep! As long as it's true it'll be a good time.

@Ralizah I feel very much the same about both games.

Stardew Valley just felt tedious - I hated how short the days were and I simply didn't enjoy anything I was doing. That said I don't have much experience with the genre so maybe it's just not my thing - the closest game I've really got into is Animal Crossing.

Celeste is a pretty good platformer but that's about it IMO. Its narrative is a lot more bare bones than people make it out to be and I agree that it's no GOTY contender.

I think its genuinely one of the best 2d platformers ever and the soundtrack is one of the most memorable I've heard in the last few years.

Though I don't see how its overwrought. I don't think you're using that word correctly. Maybe you meant overly blunt and obvious? Which it ultimately is, but I feel strongly that how it uses gameplay in its story at points elevated it above merely the actual writing (which I think is good but unspectacular (which to be fair still makes it in contention for the best story in a platformer :V )). I'm also a sucker for a climactic long trek up a mountain or some other impossible climb to prove yourself. Like my favorite part of Xenoblade 1 was the journey up the Mechonis, going hours and hours as an unstoppable team, fighting an army of mechon, just to reach the top. The fact that my hands started hurting towards the end of Celeste only enhanced my experience because of that.

The bonus 9th level of the game is also almost certainly the toughest challenge I've ever accomplished in a game, so that adds to the experience to me in a way too (even though I ultimately feel the secret levels of the game are a often bit too much for me to fully appreciate).

@Buizel tbh I think what has put me off Hades (other than not really liking rougelikes in the first place) is the sneaking suspicion that it'll be yet another highly-praised indie that just doesn't blow me away. I'll grab it when it eventually hits $10, like I did with Celeste, but it's usually the less celebrated indies that I end up digging more.

@kkslider5552000 It's a perfectly acceptable Super Meat Boy/Slime-san style game gameplay-wise, but I wasn't hugely impressed with it otherwise. Level design is probably the area where it most consistently shines, but too often I found the rage platformer aspects conflicted with the exploration and nested narrative focus, which, as I pointed out before, was a bit overdone to my liking.

I think what most rubbed me the wrong way about it was the pixel art: there's good use of color throughout, but the actual characters are so low on detail. There's no excuse for it when you have small teams and even single individuals creating gorgeous pixel art in games like Owlboy and Iconoclasts. Or even something more basic like Stardew Valley.

I guess that didn't bother me because it wasn't that difficult? At least the main story. It was difficult enough that it felt like a struggle for the character, but not so much that it overshadowed the story.

Probably also helps that I avoided all the B side levels and the like until I beat the game. So it was a strong like 8 hour story in a game, and then all the rest was a platforming, challenging extra.

@kkslider5552000 I didn't mean it that way. I meant more in the sense that I don't think the sub-genre of platformer this game belongs to necessarily works well with the sort of level design and omnipresent theming this game is going for. I think it detracts from both, tbh, and they from it, so you end up with this sort of mish-mash game that wants to be this holistic metaphor for someone's psychological journey toward self-acceptance, but it ends up feeling like someone stapled pages from a self-help book into Super Meat Boy and opted for level design that felt at odds with the 'line nearly every inch of every surface with spikes' design of this sort of game.

It's not a bad game. I enjoyed it well enough to play it thoroughly.

But I also think its merits are... overstated.

I mean, we'll have to agree to disagree. Which is fine.

I mean, the only thing I will say, is that I'm self-aware enough to realize that of course I was gonna be into this game. "God I can't believe I love a 2d platformer critics also loved?!" This is not a shocking revelation.

@Link-Hero Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately it just doesn't help the fact that I didn't find the game enjoyable tbh. Also - now that you mention it - I think it was running out of energy that was my main problem rather than the in-game time itself. Hits too close to home - I have these constraints on my real life, I don't necessarily want them in a game. Perhaps it just means the genre isn't for me.

@kkslider5552000 Well, OK, I'll admit I probably wasn't being fair to the soundtrack. It's a highly decent soundtrack. One of the best I've heard in an independent game, actually.

On the subject, I can't be the only person who kinda hears the Resident Evil save room theme in this track, right?

@Ralizah hah! Yea totally sounds similar. Especially the very beginning of both.

eShop of Switch add feature of most played games on the console.

@Giancarlothomaz Yes, we know. If you followed the main page instead of trying to increase your post count, you would see it too.

Ugh. Went to eShop thinking Life Is Strange: True Colors had released, then realized it doesn't drop until Thursday.

edit
No wait, it does release today. What gives? It's 10:30am, why isn't it showing up?

edit 2
Danganronpa Collector Edition back in stock at Amazon. Sold out everywhere (even standard version sold out everywhere).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097FQBFJ6

@JaxonH It's now available, I guess we're seeing an increase of non-Nintendo published games moving away from the midnight local time release that was common before. It's becoming the case on other platforms too like Halo Infinite isn't a midnight launch.

That new Most Played section on the eShop is basically the RPGs and simulators section.

Gives some good visibility to games like Disgaea 6

I'm quite surprised to see the Harvest Moons and Story of Seasons there, but not the Farming Simulators, which is generally what I would consider more time consuming. (in the... "Leave it running in the background" way)

@IceClimbers i found strange that Animal Crossing New Horizons is not at the top, considering it massive 2.0 update and DLC.

It's so good.

Life Is Strange: True Colors... it's so good

Anyone who has ever enjoyed a visual novel and wants more of an interactive AAA approach with way better voice acting, animations, dialog and story, investigative gameplay with choices that actually matter and impact the outcome, this is a game you absolutely shouldn't sleep on

Even if you've never played a game like this before- I strongly believe in my very core, every gamer can love every genre, it's just a matter of playing the right game. And at least for me, exploring new types of games and finding new types of experiences is one of the most thrilling aspects of this hobby.

1 hour in and I'm utterly captivated. I can't imagine anyone playing what I just played, and hating it. I think the biggest hurdle this game has, is just convincing people to try it. I know it's very different than the types of games Nintendo fans typically engage with, but it's so good. Highly recommend.

I would say the one problem with True Colors is choices don’t really matter, especially when taken in the context of previous Life is Strange games. TC is a much more muted game, many choices are more like different flavourings or nuances in scenes, rather than dramatically altering the course of the story/characters. That isn’t to say there aren’t big choices, because there are, but it is a lot of small, mostly meaningless, choices in between a few key ones.

But yeah, such a crush on Alex. Some of the later stuff with like the LARPing is so good. The two romances you can explore actually feel quite different and I enjoyed exploring both. Plus, as a portrait of grief, it is one of the better ones I have experienced in media.