Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Listen to this acapella group doing a bunch of Zelda themes and jingles

@JaxonH Geez, that looks insanely sharp for a K-T game. Those usually suffer from lots of aliasing. I'm guessing that's the mClassic at work?

How do P5 Strikers and Three Houses look on your OLED set-up?

@Ralizah
P5S is the worst of the three. That game is jaggie city. That said, it does look much better docked than handheld, thanks to mClassic.

Three Houses is in between P5S and Three Hopes. It has some jaggies, but the mClassic does make them less noticeable. I remember a bunch of ppl complaining about it and thinking huh? It doesn't look that bad to me? But then when I'd undock it I'd be like oh, ok. Ya I see it's kinda rough now.

But Three Hopes is just crisp and clean for a Switch game (especially a KT Switch game). I think they also just did a better job with this game than Three Houses. Perhaps all the years of experience doing other Warriors titles and the experience shared from Three Houses itself.

@JaxonH WOW this look amazing and sharp, does this game run at 60fps 720p? Koie Tecmo is getting better with it Warriors games on Switch.

@Giancarlothomaz
No, it's not 60fps. But it does look higher than 720p.

@JaxonH It's interesting seeing Nintendo work this closely and consistently with a third-party developer. Between the four (!) Switch Warriors crossover games and the degree to which they helped with the development of Three Houses, you'd be mistaken for thinking they were an in-house studio.

It's also interesting how good the Nintendo crossovers seem to be compared to the very mixed results from their own mainline Warriors titles. I wonder if that's due to oversight from Nintendo...

Also, aside from Nioh and Dead or Alive, almost all of their major properties seem to be all in on Switch now.

@JaxonH intereting

@Ralizah
Ya they've really gone all in on Switch, which is much appreciated.

Koei Tecmo Warriors games don't usually interest me. They're too samey, gameplay feels too clunky, and the characters and story just aren't interesting. They have Dynasty Warriors for China history, Samurai Warriors for Japan history, and Warriors Orachi which I know little about. But none of them grab me.

Yet you take a look at the first Hyrule Warriors and it was super fun by comparison. Still wasn't enough to keep me playing but it was definitely an improvement. Then FE Warriors released, and had the best Warriors gameplay to date. The story sucked, the character classes weren't balanced so the weapon triangle felt out of wack, and the maps felt bland, but mechanically speaking Warriors had never played better. I got farther in that one than any other Warriors to date. Then Age of Calamity and Persona 5 Strikers released and showed us how much better Warriors games can be when they adopt one specific game and build around it.

I feel like Three Hopes is the pinnacle of the series, of the dozens and dozens of various Warriors releases over the last couple decades. It's gotta be Nintendo's involvement and holding the game to a higher standard. But also the fact they're using a beloved franchise and game to tie in with, that already has great characters and intriguing story.

If this was just a Dynasty Warriors reskin with Three Houses characters, I don't think that would cut it. What makes the game so good is the complete integration of Three Houses mechanics and story into Three Hopes. It feels closer to Three Houses than it does a Warriors game, by far. In fact, if not for the combat this could actually be Three Houses, just with a different storyline.

What also impresses me is the fact the game has 3 distinct and unique branching paths, complete with totally different maps, objectives and storyline. They didn't have to do that. But they did. They went above and beyond for this game, and it shows.

I'm curious to learn what the next Fire Emblem will be like. I feel like it's almost a certainty we'll be playing the next core entry in 2023. Will it be another collaboration with KT? Or will it be ground up in a new engine built by IS? As good as their collaborative efforts have been, I kinda want to see where they go on their own next time. Let KT do what they do best and give us another Warriors tie in for it.

@JaxonH Whatever happens, I just hope they don't backtrack on the RPG and explorative aspects. Being able to run around a large hub in 3D, engage in side activities, and pursue relationships with characters at your whim has been awesome. I also thought the Persona-esque calendar system was well-integrated, although I don't necessarily think they need to keep it for the next entry.

I guess my biggest wish is for them to re-evaluate these games in terms of mechanics and map design. Of their games since Awakening, only Fates: Conquest has had decent map design, and that was marred by some of the dumbest writing I've ever seen in a video game. Mostly eliminating the weapon triangle in Three Houses was a mistake. And, frankly, there need to be gimmicks and features that set individual maps apart from one-another.

I'm starting to worry Triangle Strategy has ruined me for other tactical RPGs.

@Ralizah
Triangle Strategy is the best srpg on merit of strategy. Fire Emblem just isn't as good in that regard (at least, not anymore- Conquest had immaculate maps and special gimmicks, like the wind that blows you each turn or the dungeon with caltrops and trap lever) but it's so good in every other regard I don't think I'll ever lose my love for the series.

What was particularly disappointing about Fates is, Conquest had such great gameplay, and the premise of the plot was exceptional, but the characters and writing was hogwash. They hired a special writer for that game which was clearly a mistake. One I think they learned to never repeat.

Fire Emblem is just super fun and addictive, even if it's not the pinnacle of strategy design (though they definitely have the potential, as was evidenced by Fates, and even Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn).

@JaxonH I still absolutely love Three Houses, and liked Awakening quite a bit, so I'm with you there. I just... they CAN do better. They have. If they can create amazing maps and mechanics for a game with crap writing, they can do it for an otherwise immaculate experience like Three Houses.

I need to go back and finish my NG+ run of Triangle Strategy. But I've already got stuff going, and then there's the Three Hopes demo, and then The Delicious Last Course for Cuphead, and then Sunbreak, and then AI: The Somnium Files 2, and then Xenoblade 3... Switch is too active, man!

Kinda off-topic, but it's interesting to me how some people dismiss the sheer flood of quality content releasing on Switch atm because of their preconceptions about Nintendo. Because I'm fairly certain PS and Xbox fans would be freaking out (in a good way) if high-quality exclusives were dropping, on average, literally every month on those ecosystems as is happening with Switch right now. But it's not an uncommon thing to stumble across people who argue that Nintendo hasn't had a good year since 2017.

Very weird to me.

@Ralizah It's about people clinging to AAA blockbusters, Switch has had very few games comparable to Horizon, GoW, TLoU, Spider-Man, etc. after 2017. BotW and Mario Odyssey were everywhere back in 2017, they were even both nominated for GotY at TGA with BotW winning. Metroid Prime 4 was thought to be the next but that ended up in development hell and BotW 2 was announced at E3 2019 but isn't launching until Spring 2023.

Look outside the AAA bubble and you see an extremely packed Switch lineup for a lot of its lifespan meanwhile the other systems have noticeable droughts at times (very noticeable a lot of the time in the case of Xbox).

@Ralizah
I don't hear much of that anymore, as I've purposely isolated myself from that segment of the gaming community by sticking to NintendoLife forums and keeping the bulk of trolls blocked. But I know it's out there. I heard similar nonsense for years.

It's aggravating, and I know many times it's just ignorance- they haven't played any Switch games so they don't know what they're missing. Or they played Zelda 5 years ago and claim "nothing else interests me". But often times I think it's willful ignorance. They don't want to play Nintendo games because of loyalties elsewhere, and when you have that kind of bias out the gate, you'll find every reason in the world to justify it after the fact. So they just ignore everything and pretend it's because the games aren't good. Other times it's just borderline trolling.

The sheer volume and quality of Switch exclusives releasing on a regular basis is astounding. I mean, look at PS5 and Xbox Series. What notable quality exclusives has PS5 gotten in its first 18 months? Demons Souls remake, Spiderman DLC, Uncharted port, Returnal and Ratchet and Clank. Maybe I'm forgetting some, but those are the notable ones I can think of. Two of them were ports/DLC and one a remake. Only two were actual new games (not that ports/DLC are bad in my view- some of my favorite Switch games are exactly that, but everyone else seems to judge them as lesser than when it comes to Switch, so let's keep it consistent). It also got a couple timed console exclusives from 3rd parties they paid for, like Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo.

Now, I'm not saying thats bad for an 18 month span, but it doesn't seem great.

Then there's Xbox, which has seen even less. Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, and... that's pretty much it? There's a few others but they're not really worth mentioning. Absolutely abysmal.

Then look at Switch. What has Switch gotten in the same relative timeframe? [Big breath]... Pikmin 3, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity, Bravely Default 2, Mario 3D World, Monster Hunter Rise, New Pokémon Snap, Shin Megami Tensei V, Mario Golf Super Rush, Disgaea 6, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Zelda Skyward Sword, No More Heroes 3, WarioWare Get It Together, Cruis'n Blast, Metroid Dread, Mario Party Superstars, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, Pokémon Legends Arceus, Triangle Strategy, Rune Factory 5, Kirby Forgotten Land, House of the Dead Remake, Nintendo Switch Sports, Mario Strikers Battle League, Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes, Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, Live A Live and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The gap only continues to grow as you extend the timeframe out toward year's end.

And that's leaving off games like Famicom Detective Club, Brain Age, Chocobo GP, etc. and just focusing on notable releases. It's also not mentioning games like KOTOR and KOTOR II, which arent exclusive per se, but aren't being released anywhere else. Only the old Xbox version is playable via BC on Series X, and there's the PC version, neither of which have all the improvements these do (nor the hybrid advantage). And sure, I'm not gonna say every game is a belter. Stuff like No More Heroes 3 and Rune Factory 5 had performance issues, for example. But by and large, most of those games are quality.

Even if half those games don't appeal to you, the fact is there's just so many, of all types, of all genres, there's always something to play that's good, that isn't available on other competing consoles. It's a non-stop onslaught of top shelf exclusives compared to other systems. This is the advantage of a system that doesn't require every game to showcase individual hair strands with 100 million dollar budgets.

The cherry on top though, is that you could randomly select any game from that list and there's probably a 50% chance I enjoyed it more than any exclusive released on any other console this generation. MH Rise, for example- better than any PS5/XSX exclusive to date. Sunbreak will be the same. Likewise for Triangle Strategy. And Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes. And SMTV. And Metroid Dread. And on, and on, and on. Granted, that comes down to my personal preference, but still. I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way about a lot of those games. Though I must say- much of my enjoyment has come from multiplats via the gyro + hybrid advantage. The exclusives rock, but multiplats on Switch are exciting in a way they simply aren't elsewhere. That's also worth mentioning.

But even if you're a diehard AAA gamer and none of those games are as good in your view as the exclusives offered elsewhere, they don't have to be as good to still be good. And there's so many- how could you not be having fun?

This is why I don't care at all whether or not there is a Nintendo Direct. They are always fun and I enjoy watching them, but anything that could be announced in one I probably won't play for at least a couple of years because I have so much else to play right now. Of course, I also always had more than enough to play during the Wii U days, too, when everyone but me was complaining about droughts. I guess sometimes being a grown up with more to do than play video games can be a good thing.

@JaxonH
Or maybe, some peoples have mindset "I'm too cool to play unpopular games / baby games because I will look like a moron."
Maybe because of that they refuse to try other games and keep trolling other peoples with their mindset.

@Anti-Matter
Thats more of a mindset immature children have. Most adults grow out of obsessing about their image and how they're perceived, and don't feel the need to curate their entertainment for fear of how they may be viewed by peers.

I think anyone dismissing Switch's lineup has consistently been very short-sighted and had limited tastes in gaming. Or at least limited understanding of almost any game that doesn't have a huge marketing budget or exploded in popularity from word of mouth. Personally even if I ignore any future games or ports of 15+ year old games, I'll still never get even close to all the stuff I currently, actively want to on the Switch.

As a long time Nintendo fan, Switch has been a joy. While I've not played enough games on it to have an opinion on even a fraction of its library, the highlights have been obvious, and the issues of both past Nintendo and current gaming have usually been irrelevant.

@Anti-Matter
That is literally the argument of a kid in middle school and to a lesser extent high school. Then people mature and stop trying to be an edgy teen and just play the games they find fun.

@Grumblevolcano I do think there is a lot of truth to this, and it tracks with my observations about the way many vocal hardcore fans in other ecosystems fetishize "AAA" game development. Of course, this is largely just used in a way that's synonymous with the word 'blockbuster.' Most of these people have no idea what sort of budget goes into a 3D Mario game. Would they even technically qualify as "AAA?"

I think this is also an element. The industry has become homogeneous since 7th gen in terms of how large studios would center their development efforts around expensive blockbusters. There were, of course, still blockbusters in older generations, but there wasn't this weird caste system where only the most expensive and mainstream products were considered worthy of attention. Nintendo massively bucks against this model with their development efforts, insofar as they don't rely primarily on giant blockbusters to drive sales, instead preferring to cover a wide variety of genres and niches with their releases. Not everyone is happy with this approach, of course, but it leads to a consistent stream of diverse content that, nevertheless, isn't generally the sort of ultra-hyped prestige content that the competition traffics in. This is especially true now that they're not splitting their development resources between multiple platforms at once.

@JaxonH Heh, I've become much looser with the ignore button this last year or so. I used to feel like I was doing someone a disservice by shutting their voice out from my (digital) ears without giving them a chance to explain themselves, but I've learned, over time, that I can predict with extreme accuracy whether I'll ever be able to get along with them just from the tone of their posts. Also, as my faith in the human race has absolutely cratered these last few years, I've just found myself becoming increasingly intolerant of thoughtless nonsense.

It really is remarkable when you sit down and compare the sheer gulf in exclusive content between platforms, isn't it? Not every one on Switch is the biggest release ever, but at some point, you're right, even when accounting for (reasonable) pickiness, there's still a wealth of content to explore on the platform, and that seems to be snowballing more and more as time goes on, which is actually VERY weird for a Nintendo console, which have historically been much more front-heavy in terms of how support worked on their systems. This seemed like it was initially going to be true of Switch as well with the flood of awesome first-party content they used to drive interest in the platform in 2017, but the system just keeps selling well, keeps getting great exclusives, year after year, rarely slowing down. It'll be interesting to see how long Nintendo keeps riding the Switch train, since, even though sales have clearly peaked, there seems to be a long, gradual, and very profitable ride down to the base in the future. The chip shortage also means Nintendo will have more of an incentive to keep riding out this current generation for as long as possible.

Either way, as a fan of portable gaming systems and Japanese game development styles, I've never been more fully satisfied as a gamer than I am now. And the Switch is at least 80% responsible for that.

@kkslider5552000 It's nice being sheltered from the apparent storm of issues hitting Western AAA game development lately, isn't it? I hear so much crying about incomplete games at launch, about lootboxes and predatory monetization schemes, about games not being able to be played offline, etc. and it all just feels like reports from a troubled foreign culture that I have no connection to.

A big part of that is that Nintendo and its fanbase kind of exist in their own little bubble reality thanks to the lack of AAA third-party support and reliance on first-and-third-party exclusives, indies, and older content to fill in the holes in the library left by the usual blockbusters.

Really seems like Odyssey is starting to influence the design of other modern 3D platformers.

Recently started playing LEGO Star Wars: the Skywalker Saga, & realized the structure is very similar. Many smaller open world areas with a lot of challenges scattered about (Kyber Bricks = Moons, and this has 1,200 of the things!), although a lot of them are a bit more puzzle oriented naturally. With the story missions largely taking place in these environments instead of bespoke levels (some events, like the Pod Race, are segmented off into their own area, but even Odyssey had moments like this).

Even Sonic Frontiers seems to be taking this approach, albeit in a single open world with a more BotW inspired aesthetic. Otherwise yeah, it's an open world with a bunch of platforming challenges scattered about (which will probably reward you with some sort of important collectable).

EDIT: As for the current conversation yeah, it's weird how people ignore all the great exclusive content that's released on Switch since 2017. I remember not too long ago there was a user (with a Banjo avatar, if you remember) who would absolutely insist games like Metroid Dread, Astral Chain, SMTV, etc. don't count as they weren't internally developed by Nintendo themselves and thus the Wii U had a better exclusive lineup. Even insisted that despite the fact that it released day & date on both systems, that Wii U gets the credit for BotW & you can't count it for Switch's exclusive content, and that XC2 didn't count until someone pointed out to him that Nintendo owns the majority of Monolith & only then did he concede that it should count.