Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I think BOTW 2 could be Nintendo's 2023 summer game. I have nothing to back this up, but I have a feeling it won't be spring 2023.

@Ralizah I'm just joking about quitting. I'm enjoying the game and I'm definitely going to keep at it. And yes @BruceCM I think you of all people would know what it is. I'd never owned a PlayStation and never cared for the series, so I guess I never ran into any spoilers. I knew pretty much nothing about it other than the names of the main protagonist and antagonist, despite how famous and popular it is.

Yeah, I thought it must be Aerith, @Xyphon22 .... That has to be the best known example of that & I certainly can't think of many others! Glad you're going to carry on with the game, though, it's definitely still well worth it for plenty of reasons

Just a heads up, the below post includes massive spoilers for Live A Live. I tried to wrap spoiler tags around it and they wouldn't show up for some reason, so I am just gonna put this disclaimer on the front. If Mods want to edit Spoiler tags in if you can get them to work, be my guest.

So I had no idea that when you clear the seven chapters in Live A Live you unlock a bonus chapter, and then completing that unlocks a further chapter. And then does that unlock another chapter again? Dunno, haven't got that far yet.

I have some mixed feelings about this first bonus chapter, though. At first I was so excited as I genuinely had no idea this was a thing. But honestly in practice this first bonus chapter is kind of a massive slog.

Like don't get me wrong, visually, it is again an absolute stunner. The use of light and colour, just truly scrummy and some of animations for abilities in this chapter are wild. Sadly, underneath all of that, is just a generic JRPG of the time, with basically no gimmicks whatsoever.

I think if this was just a full game just in isolation, I would have probably enjoyed this more for what it was, but in the context of the wider game around it, with so many chapters trying to do interesting things, being given probably the blandest segment in the whole game as a bonus for finishing the other chapters just feels... odd.

Oh and the endless random battles, my God, the utter tedium of it.

Finally dragged myself from MK8 Deluxe to return to XC3, don't want too long of a gap. Long gaps are fine with story light games like MH but not for story heavy games like Xenoblade.

@Ralizah
So. Having owned your OLED for a bit now, what are your final thoughts? Glad you bought it? Regretful you bought it? Has it met 100% of your expectations? Exceeded expectations, or fell short? And if it has fallen short, are you still glad you got it regardless? I'm asking with regard to everything- the screen quality, the improved battery life, the kickstand, the extra storage and slightly fuller audio, the larger screen size, the smaller bezels, etc.

And do you recommend it to others? If so, who?

You already know where I stand on these issues. But I'm curious where you stand now.

@Grumblevolcano
So true. Gotta make an active commitment to keep playing and not let any long gaps fizzle you out on a good JRPG.

Oooft, Live A Live's final chapter is both exactly what I hoped it would be, and also a punishing reminder this is still a game from the early 90s.

I lost like maybe an hour, hour a halfs (?) worth of progress. I followed the map marker with minimal exploration (as they reuse environments) and ended up right in front of the final boss about a thousand years too early.

After he curb stomped my partly formed, under levelled, team, I thought I would just reload in front of the boss room as we have been conditioned to expect from modern games. But no, in reality, there was no escape and I was now soft locked. I had to load my latest save, which was very early into the chapter.

I ended up looking up a guide and basically the entire contents of this chapter is never once explained to the audience, you just have to go out of your way and hope you stumble across things. I have had to play basically this whole chapter with a guide open because it is so obtuse.

How did people beat these games without internet?

That being said, while I know that sounds very negative, that frustration aside, Live A Live basically being an MCU Phase, about two decades earlier, only captured as a gorgeous JRPG.... Just take all of my money.

It is crazy to me just how ambitious this game is. Like you play games inspired by games of this era, or other 2.5HD remakes of games and they still feel old. But you could have told me this was made this year, and was just given a retro style and I would believe you.

I think when I am done with Live a Live, it'll be another one of those select few games, where you feel like you are chasing a comparable experience like it for the rest of your life, and never coming close.

@JaxonH Other than actually being more powerful or coming with better joycons, I think the SWOLED is pretty much everything I could have ever wanted in a console revision. The metal frame and glass screen may add the slightest bit of heft to it, but they also make it feel significantly more premium than the plastic-y original model. It's like comparing an iPad to a cheap Chinese knock-off. The large, vivid screen makes even the game icons shine with a sort of luminescence that they previously lacked. The increase in storage size is nice, although it doesn't take too many games to eat that up. Still, the added bit of wiggle room helps, and I find myself fairly satisfied with the amount of space available on my system.

The impact of the new screen definitely differs from game-to-game. A few subnative ones actually look a little more noticeably blurry, and, with some games, the more vivid colors aren't terribly noticeable, but most games enjoy some baseline level of improvement that makes them more enjoyable to play in handheld mode, and some, like Tetris Effect, are borderline magical on the new screen.

The increased battery life has taken a while to get adjusted to, because I've spent years babying the battery life of my launch model, so the temptation to run and put it back on a charger when I'm not using it is pretty strong still. But it's nice. I remember so many times where I'd get into a game, and there'd be a long string of events that'd occur without allowing me to save, and the dreaded low battery icon would flash on the screen before I was able to put it away for the night, forcing me to play it docked or sitting next to a wall charger. Now I can just play my games without worrying about the battery life as long as it charged semi-recently. It's nice.

The only downside I can think of is that it has made my docked play experience worse by comparison, since the colors just sort of look washed out now. I won't be able to upgrade my monitor any time soon, but nabbing a cheap OLED screen for docked play seems to be in order at some point.

I just feel kind of... satisfied with my Switch now. Not even terribly interested in the Steam Deck any more, since I'd rather just play games on this. We'll see if that feeling changes when the new console smell wears off. If a revised model launches with an LCD screen, I'm not sure I'll even bother upgrading.

BTW, the thing seems to have shipped in perfect condition. And while I'm not exactly sure how to test for it, I've played dark games and videos in a variety of brightness conditions and haven't noticed any sort of "green tint," so hopefully I've won the lottery there.

I wouldn't go back to a non-OLED unit, frankly. I'd be semi-tempted to sell off my Lite, but I like having a spare around, and I don't think the thing will fetch enough to make a listing worth losing out on having it.

Oh, the new kickstand is perfect as well. No complaints.

@Pizzamorg I appreciate you detailing your extended impressions of Live-A-Live, as you've definitely made me more interested in the game.

So I'm on a couple of weeks of leave ATM and find myself playing a fair bit more Switch lately. More than I have in a long while, particularly in portable mode. Lots of Hades, fair bit of the new Mario Kart tracks. And I think with this console being well 5 years old now I'm starting to see a bit of battery degradation. Doesn't quite last as long as it used to.....

I'm finding myself slightly regretting my decision to not pick up the Switch OLED now. Just a bit. But I'm also stubborn enough to not actually buy the Switch OLED because I still think something new isn't that far off. Also other than battery life, my Switch is in FAR better nick than my OG 3DS or even my 3DS XL was in the end. 5 years is a long time for a portable gaming device. By far one of the most "durable" and good value Nintendo purchases, or gaming purchases in general, I have ever made. I don't think I would regret getting an OLED if I did for some reason I did fold and pick one up, because I do regret not picking up a New 2DS late in 3DS' dying days

On the other side of the equation, I find myself buying games I would have once got on Switch on Steam. And the main reason being that I don't know what Nintendo is going to do with those purchases. They have a track record here and I'm not particularly fond of it.

As an example, occasionally I have a bunch of people over and we play party games, usually once every couple of months. I was considering picking up one of the newer Jackbox games when we last did this a few days ago but then I stopped and thought about it. They're charging almost $50AU for this (not on sale). What if that purchase doesn't carry? How many more times are we going to catch up before I unplug my Switch dock and put new hardware in its place?

........ so I put it on my Steam Wishlist

@Fizza tell me when you start playing Skyward Sword again. I need a reason to start playing it again lol, the Xenoblade 3 bug is eating my time up.

So I want to ask about Kirby Star Allies.
From YouTube video I watched, there are some another modes after the storyline.
What are they and what are the rewards by finishing them?

@NeonPizza I think it's most likely that the Mega Man GB games, Mega Man & Bass (GBA) and Battle Chip Challenge will be NSO games. As for Legends and Powered Up, probably additions to PS+ Premium.

@NeonPizza FPS games are always going to be best on PC, where you can use mouse & keyboard controls freely and usually customize the performance and resolution to your liking. Gyro is useful for console exclusives and games that I'd like to play on an OLED handheld, though, so I'm glad to hear those games do it well, since I'd kinda prefer to play basic shooters like that on my Switch. I'll probably never willingly buy a shooter on an Xbox or Playstation console, though.

@Ralizah
That was something I noticed too- the OLED reinvigorated my interest in handheld play. I still enjoy docked (as I have an OLED TV now) but, I find myself playing handheld and tabletop twice as much as before.

Even owning the Steamdeck, I haven't touched the thing since the first week I got it. Been playing nothing but Switch. But that's more because I'm utterly addicted to Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I'm sure I'll use it more whenever a drought comes (IF a drought ever comes- at this rate it feels like that's never going to happen).

@JaxonH I think it'll come down to whether October/November cancels out December/January. December and January are usually light for releases but October and November are so insanely packed that by the time you clear that lineup there's a chance it would be late January/early February already in time for the next release.

@skywake What do you mean by Nintendo having a track record with games? I just got a Switch OLED last week, my first Nintendo system since the NES, so I'm not really aware of their track record. I've gone all digital so far, but would switch to going physical as much as possible if they have a bad track record. Unless you just mean about backwards compatibility, or a lack thereof with Nintendo.

@NeonPizza I could never get into Wii pointer aiming. I found RE4 on Wii almost unplayable with it. What I like about gyro aiming is that your aiming, via wrist shifting, is relative to changes in the elevation of the controller in your hand, whereas Wii pointer aiming is relative to movements of the controller AND where you put the sensor bar. Even if it's in a good spot for aiming, you've still added a layer of abstraction to the process and removed it just that little bit from being an extension of your own natural reactions, which is what mouse aiming accomplishes in a 1-to-1 fashion, and why all alternatives will always be second best. I'd actually rather aim with just the stick on a gamepad than try and shoot something in a Wii game (which is why, I think, I've sat on my cheap digital copy of the Metroid Prime trilogy for years, despite being actively interested in the games).

@JaxonH I was playing primarily undocked anyway, which is why I bothered to upgrade to begin with, except before I had to swallow I was almost always experiencing the game in an objectively worse sense in terms of image quality. Now there's more of a trade-off, making handheld more of an equal-feeling mode: games are less sharp, but the colors are better! Maybe I won't upgrade my monitor after all.

Eh, being a multiplatform gamer has overwhelmed me with choice and removes the joy of experiencing ports of masterpieces from other ecosystems for the first time on my preferred platform. Even if there are droughts going forward, it's not like I don't have many games ready to fill that space on Switch.

I'll definitely keep playing games I already own on hardware I already own, but I'm not sure I see the point in investing in more gaming hardware when I'm already fully satisfied with the output on Nintendo's hardware.

@KilloWertz Timings about digital store shutdowns are even worse than Sony to some extent (at least Sony backed off after the gigantic backlash last year):

• DSi Shop shut down in March 2017 (DSi launched November 2008)
• Wii Shop Channel shut down in January 2019 (Wii launched in December 2006)
• 3DS and Wii U eshops are shutting down in March 2023 (3DS launched in March 2011, Wii U launched in November 2012)

As of those dates, the digital stores basically become only available to redownload already purchased content and there was a 4 month period earlier this year where you couldn't redownload DSi and Wii content with Nintendo being silent on the matter.

Also while it was possible to get your digital stuff back if your 3DS or Wii U died or got stolen, it was a lot more difficult than just buying a new system and logging into your account. Also you lost everything for DSi and Wii given it was tied to the console, not an account.

Switch seems future proof outside of the awkward situation regarding some games and cloud saves (e.g. all mainline Pokemon games don't support it) but with the track record provided from DSi to Wii U, it's hard to trust Nintendo on the digital front.

@Grumblevolcano Thanks for all the info. At least in the case of the Switch, digital content is tied to your account, so it's not as big of a deal as in the past. Also, I got a 512 GB card, so I should be able to just keep any digital games installed for the most part. Worst case scenario is I buy another, especially since it only cost me $60 (it's a PNY brand card, so I didn't just go for a cheap unknown brand).

I still haven't decided if I'm going all digital or not. I did with my first two games of course, but that's just two games, and I could always rebuy them down the road if I wanted to. I do like the ability to just load up the game without putting anything in, although I do give Nintendo credit that they made it easy to put in and take out cards even docked since the slot is right on the top.

My main complaint would be that Nintendo seems to never put their first party titles on sale on the eShop, while I can get several of them for around $50 right now from Best Buy. I guess it is hard to say being lazy is worth $10 here and $10 there, especially since I will always be playing docked.

@NeonPizza
Advanced makes the bounding box smaller so the camera moves naturally as you aim, where as the other setting forces you to drag the cross hair to the very edge of the screen and winds up feeling clunky as hell

Word of warning- this will be highly subjective. For me, Advanced feels clunky as hell for the very reason you described. It makes the camera move for everything, even when just trying to stand still and aim. BASIC puts that box as far over to the edge of the screen as possible which at least allows aiming without the camera jerking left and right constantly.

Though tbh none of them feel 100% natural. Either you sacrifice aiming for better camera control, or sacrifice camera control for better aiming. It felt fine at the time I played it. But now, after years of gyro aiming it feels archaic by comparison.

This is why I'm anxiously awaiting a Metroid Prime remaster. I need modernized dual analog aiming with gyro. If it doesn't get announced within the next year I'm just gonna install PrimeHack on my Steamdeck and play with dual analog gyro there.