Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Started playing .hack//G.U. Last Recode, which is only 11GB but includes FOUR full games in the collection- the 3 games from PS2 remastered and a 4th new game that provides more closure to the story.

It's actually pretty fun. Really nice cutscenes too- extremely high quality for the PS2 era. The combat is a bit dated (I started with the first game of the 4, obviously) but its not that bad. Action RPG combat is pretty solid given the age of the games, actually.

Overall, it's better than I expected.

Man that early April stretch is packed even with Advance Wars getting delayed. The Show, House of the Dead Remake, Lego Star Wars, and Chrono Cross? Plus Kirby the week before? Yeah that's a packed stretch right there.

Praying that the Switch version of Lego Star Wars runs well or I'll probably have to get the PS5 version.

April's rather empty for me but I have lots of backlog and the chances of me finishing Triangle Strategy before Kirby launches is pretty much 0 given the MK8 Deluxe DLC on Friday. Hoping the MH presentation on Wednesday reveals Sunbreak's release date so I can plan clearing backlog better. MH Rise release date was announced 6 months before launch and MH Stories 2 release date was announced 4 months before launch so it feels like there's a decent chance.

Zombie Army 4 preorder on Amazon has an apparent price mistake for just $19.99 (supposed to be $49.99). Includes Season 1 DLC

https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Army-4-Dead-Nintendo-Switch/dp/...

Credit to Magician for finding this deal

Nice thanks for the tip. Didn't play the first 3 but at that price I'll take a flyer.

@NintendoByNature
I played Zombie Army Trilogy and it was a fun game and a great Switch port. Of course, Zombie Army is a spinoff from the Sniper Elite series, which focuses on World War II snipers in the fight against Axis powers and eventually taking out Hitler.

A lot of the trademark mechanics from Sniper Elite transfer over to Zombie Army. It's kind of like, Call of Duty Black Ops has Zombies mode? Sniper Elite has Zombie Army. Except its way more fleshed out as its own game, and is much more action focused.

I also love that they always include gyro aiming, HD rumble, and Sniper Elite 4 is legitimately one of the finest looking handheld games I've ever seen. What a stunner! Even Zombie Army Trilogy was a good looking game on Switch, despite being older.

It's crazy that Rebellion brought Sniper Elite v2 and 3, and ppl said, "they'll never bring Sniper Elite 4, it's just too demanding", but then they proved everyone wrong.

Then Rebellion brought Zombie Army Trilogy and ppl said, "they'll never bring Zombie Army 4 though, it's their most ambitious game to date" and yet here they are, proving everyone wrong again lol.

Rebellion is in beast mode.

@JaxonH good stuff. Sounds worthy of a 20 spot.

Triangle Strategy

Best srpg I've ever played. This story and the serious choices with branching paths hits so gosh dang hard.

Sorry, can't help myself. This game has taken over my life.

@NintendoByNature
Mos def.

Even the PS/Xbox/Steam versions are selling for more than that and they've been out well over a year. And, don't have gyro aiming, HD rumble or hybrid play.

@JaxonH
There are two Triangle Strategy Pinsets as MyNintendo rewards. At least in Europe. Hope in NA as well. I don't know how to few other regions, because it always takes me to my region whatever I do.

@Budda
I saw the character card sets and the journal- I ordered the character card set that was a Gamestop preorder bonus, but the journal was kind of pointless. It was all blank pages inside. Nice if you actually want to map out grids and strategies, I suppose.

Pins never really appealed to me. A lot of the tat just feels like filler. Steelbook cases, artbooks and collectible figures/statues- that's my jam. And the collector box itself, of course.

Heh, they sent me a journal & character cards just for pre-ordering ..... I'll take them back in when I trade the game in eventually! I like my keyrings that came with one of the XBC games & Skyward Sword but I certainly wouldn't pay any extra just for those

Do you think discord will come to switch? Also, I have a friend on discord who dissapeared off my list and his profile says deleted user followed by random numbers. Any idea what's going on?

@DannyBoi
Probably not. Nintendo seems adamant about separating chat on Switch. They've always been overprotective and worried about lawsuits if ppl get harassed or sexually assaulted (like with Flipnote Studio on 3DS).

Maybe their app will add messaging on day, but Im not expecting Discord integration (even though it would be a very smart way to allow chatting while ensuring the responsibility fell on Discord rather than Nintendo).

Sounds like they (or someone in their family) deleted their Discord account.

@Link-Hero
just accept anything that Nintendo throws at them

I don't think that's completely true. Plenty of ppl have not signed up for the expansion pack (and of those who have many have leveraged the family plan to do so), many refused to buy games like Star Fox Zero and Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival- there's lots of examples that show ppl dont accept anything thrown at them. They buy the things they deem worthwhile and skip what they deem isnt.

Many ppl have the base online service and would love to see messaging or other features, but since it's needed to play online, and needed to have cloud saves, and needed to play SNES games, and only $20/yr, they still get it. But that doesn't mean everyone who does has no criticisms or desire for more features.

There's been a tsunami of criticism toward Switch online from day one. The problem is that's not enough to change Nintendo's mind. Because ppl are still subbing. It would take a significant percentage of players unsubbing to make a difference. But that's an unreasonable thing to expect of most ppl- giving up online access, and cloud saves, and VC games, in the hopes that maybe somewhere down the line a few years from now Nintendo adds messaging in their app? Nobody's gonna do that. Especially since there's no guarantee what message will be sent to Nintendo in doing so. Everyone has a different complaint or specific feature they want- there's no united front asking for one specific improvement at a time. All Nintendo would see is, "subs down, let's increase value with more timed trials or DLC". They're not going to understand the specifics of why ppl aren't subbing unless there's a united front and push on social media and customer feedback.

Which is why I have always encouraged ppl to speak up and voice their consumer demand on Twitter (in a respectful manner of course). But again, there's no united front. It's "we want folders, we want themes, we want more icons, we want voice chat, we want messaging, we want add to cart, we want better refunds" etc etc. There's a hundred different issues being bellowed out at any given time.

That said, many ppl are perfectly OK with things as they are because they have no need or desire to use the features we're discussing. While I would appreciate messaging, and many others here as well, I'm willing to bet a large number of ppl just couldn't care less one way or the other. It is what it is.

It's not gamers' fault that Nintendo doesn't include messaging. That's on Nintendo, and Nintendo alone. Ppl have tried to enact change over the years- Operation Rainfall with localizations, the push for Metroid, Star Fox and F-Zero back in the Wii U era (which we've seen 2 of the 3 since), the demand for region free, an online account system, preorder refunds, etc. There's been a lot of positive change which I believe is a direct result of fan feedback. There's just some things Nintendo is unwaveringly stubborn about. Communications is one of them.

Nintendo had the right idea regarding voice chat given the vast majority of games nowadays either block voice chat or default the ability to even hear voice chat to off.

@Rambler
Doubt it. Messaging and voice chat can very easily be limited to friends.

Nonetheless kids are foolish enough to friend anyone they talk to on the internet, and with that comes potential predators. The Swapnote incident spooked them. They immediately pulled the app, which speaks volumes about their sensitivity to such matters.

@JaxonH

You hit the nail on the head as usual. Yes there are a fair amount of people not subscribed to NSO or even boycotting it, but the problem is that number pales in comparison to the overwhelming amount of people subscribing in their place. If I were to unsubscribe from my family plan right now multiple people would've already taken my place.

The success of NSO gives Nintendo no incentive to improve the service and to their eyes probably they probably don't care. Going on twitter and replying to Nintendo's account with complaints isn't helping anyone if anything it's probably giving their social media manager anxiety.
But that doesn't mean that criticism isn't warranted though and they're are still ways to reach Nintendo it's just like you said, they're incredibly stubborn.

And lastly while I would put most of the blame on Nintendo for providing a mediocre online service, the fans are still partially at fault for enabling it by buying it, which I don't blame them since paying is the only way to play online and get cloud saves, but from an objective standpoint we're still technically enabling these anti consumer practices. It would take too significant of an amount of people to unsubscribe from NSO for things to really change, so the NSO is probably going to stay the same.

This is a very specific example that can easily be worked around, for starters for most if not all games that include voice chat, the option is usually turned off. And also you could easily implement parental controls onto voice chat if thats such a concern.

I pretty much fall into this category to be honest. I don't like having to pay for online and cloud saves and having retro games tied to a subscription rather than being able to buy them, but I do want to have access to those things and NSO is so cheap that I'm okay with subscribing to it. More features would be nice but I have no need for voice chat or messaging personally. And even if you don't have a family plan, the annual cost for the standard price tier works out at £1.50 a month, and I have to admit that's pretty good value just for the S/NES games and Tetris/Pac-Man 99.

Edit: By the way, regarding the idea that Nintendo is avoiding adding communication features because they don't want to risk abuse, I do think that's probably true but the voice chat on the NSO app actually does let you talk to strangers by default. It puts you in a call with everyone else in the same game lobby as you. It's not really an issue because no one uses the app but it's weird that Nintendo would allow that.

I think the real problem is that their way to "improve" NSO was to throw random games at people instead of...actually improving the online service that people paid for because it was required to pay for an online service. I don't think some Nintendo fans realize, but I feel pretty confident in saying the majority, maybe even the vast majority, of people paying for NSO do so because they have to if they want to play their favorite Nintendo games online now. And they use it for nothing else. They might not even know about the SNES games. I know about the SNES games and I've played...2 of them.

NSO succeeded because people had no choice (unless you think people didn't want to play their multiplayer games with online going into the 2020s lololololol). If it was optional, even if it had a bare minimum of extra online features that don't even currently exist, it would still not have done remotely as well.