Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Pfft, I was complaining about Pokemon long before it was cool and everyone is just jumping on the bandwagon.

@jump
Practically everyone complains about Pokemon. Not a single game has gone without controversy.

Difference now is, the game allows open world exploring and the framerate is unacceptable, so it's a massive hindrance to the experience. That crosses a line that past issues have not.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
I think it's important to compare to other games built ground up for Switch, to demonstrate its not a hardware issue and absolutely has been done by other developers.

I'm not a fan of the franchise, but can objectively appreciate it & respect why it has the fanbase it does.

I feel deeply sorry for the fans out there, as the recent output seems pretty lacklustre... especially in an age of 'miracle ports' eg. W3 / No Man's Sky / Nier Autonoma / Doom Eternal.

I know that the Switch is not the 'ideal' platform for the aforementioned games, but it blows my mind that we live in a world where Witcher 3 and NMS can function pretty well on the Switch.... but in 2022 we are getting a Pokemon game with Cyberpunk levels of day#1 bugginess.

I'm sure most of the issues will get patched out eventually, but like I say - I feel very sorry for the fans, and especially those who would have pre-ordered and wanted to play from release-day (And why shouldn't they have this right, of course you would want to play from day 1!)

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Have you ever liked Pokemon?

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika What's the last one u played?

After the terribly, awfully, dreadfully boring Pokemon Scarlet I am playing Ultra Street Fighter 2. Man, this remake oozes with quality and love, its so good. Hope people still play this online.

So do we think Pokemon might take more time on the next one seeing how people are blowing this one up.

They buy cardboard for hundreds of dollars... Honestly only time will tell what the next games look like.

I've played janky games, and I grew up on N64 so I have a tolerance for these sort of things, and also I have no interest in most mainline Pokemon games anymore, for good or bad. Certain spinoffs might interest me, but its largely a series that I enjoyed once and have now moved on, regardless of quality. I was not betrayed by the series, I just moved on. But the business side of things and how Pokemon is rewarded for blatantly obviously not putting out games of the quality they should be at has been a recurring annoyance to me as a Nintendo fan.

And I hate it, for the exact same reason the disastrous launch of N64 NSO annoyed me. Nintendo, especially in an increasingly questionable AAA gaming industry, are the go to company if you reliably want some quality games, no bs. Miyamoto's face has been seen 8 billion times just from posting the "a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad" quote. So Game Freak slowly delving into Bethesda levels without games ambitious enough to justify the glitches feels like it betrays a lot of what makes Nintendo good. Now because I'm not into Pokemon so much anymore, I'm not as passionate as I was at Nintendo failing to give its employees time to put out quality emulation for N64 (especially since I was both passionately for and against the service, at the same time somehow). But it does remind me of the other thing where as a Nintendo fan I got annoyed to no end, back in 2009 when a bunch of cool game devs put out awesome games that practically NO ONE bought, while NSMBWii made eleven billion dollars. Its better now because niche games can regularly thrive on Switch, and at least most of these Pokemon games have some creativity and ideas despite their failings (which I guess I'd take over turning Mario into a bland, boring series), but it does feel like Pokemon fans are increasingly being disrespected, because they make too much money to care.

It's also just profoundly stupid that anyone felt they HAD to put out gen 9 this year, when this is the THIRD Pokemon RPG in the past year. Like even with any excuses...you couldn't have made merchandise and anime based off of Arceus? The most exciting and acclaimed Pokemon game this gen? Would that have been impossible? I have my doubts.

@Kermit1Pineapple
I don't think Switch HOME with non portable feature is a good idea as the games that designed for Switch is different with the games designed for PlayStation / XBOX from the game size, engine, machine specs.
I don't think it will make Switch games easily to get distributed by larger than 32 GB size cartridge like PS5 with Ultra HD Blu Ray with size until 100 GB as I still see some developers cheated by store their games on smaller size cartridge and let us download the partial game from internet.
I would pick PS5 over than Switch HOME for more power and better specs to play the games by tethered on TV.

@Anti-Matter
I think you're attaching some assumptions to the concept that don't necessarily apply. A non-portable Switch wouldn't necessarily be more capable than a non-portable variant and, almost by definition, it wouldn't have larger games. If you were to release bigger games and games on discs you would at that point be making two different versions of the game. Which defeats the point.

I shouldn't need to spell it out but, what is being talked about here is more Playstation TV/Vita, not PS4/Vita. Literally a Switch built into the dock itself and with no screen/battery. At most maybe it has space for a small HDD or M.2 SSD and maybe it has a bit better cooling due to the form factor. Maybe that allows it to boost upto a higher clock for marginally improved performance. But for it to work it'd more-or-less have to be not novel and a relatively boring product that doesn't change the equation at all

TBH.... I'd probably buy it and a Switch Lite if it was a thing

@kkslider5552000
TBH I think the fans are a large part of the problem. How many pages on this forum have been spent on people begging for sequels to one game or another? I remember Reggie saying once, and getting people a bit worked up, that Nintendo fans are never satisfied. That we always want the next thing before the current thing is even out the door

If Nintendo announced Mario Kart 9 tomorrow someone would create a thread asking for Mario Kart 10. And people would buy both even if the only difference between the two was the font on the box. We get what we deserve here I'm afraid

Well no one should be making business decisions based on people that inpatient and stupid. And based on nearly every other Nintendo series this gen...they have not.

Gosh, I agree. We are very greedy, we want Mario 6 before Mario 5!

I don't blame fans. I've never felt that's a fair argument. Ppl like what they like, and if there's tens of millions of ppl who aren't deterred by the state of the game, who am I to tell them otherwise. And if that means the series continues on with status quo, I blame the devs, not the fans. Because nomatter how many fans buy it, far more would have if the game met expectations.

Not only that but Gamefreak should feel pride in their work and not want to tarnish their reputation. And Nintendo for that matter, their reputation gets tarnished as a byproduct because they share partial ownership.

If I were Nintendo, as a significant shareholder, I'd have a chat with top brass and say look, this is embarrassing, it's turning gamers off from our system, and we cannot operate like this any more. We're going to lay out an initiative to improve quality moving forward. We're going to assign a team that oversees what steps need to be taken (be it training, new hires and positions, change of leadership, whatever) to ensure the next game not only performs well, but meets expectations on par with any mainstay 1st party IP.

Regardless, if they want my money, they'll need to do better. In the meantime I'm just not interested in the series anymore. It's a shame because I see a good game in there- I see what it could be. Something like Arceus but fleshed out more similar to Scarlet/Violet, with acceptable performance and reasonable visual standard. It could be a really fun game. I know I'd be into it because of how much I love Monster Hunter Stories 2. Until that day comes, I'll be over here enjoying Bayonetta 3, Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, Fire Emblem Engage, Zelda TotK, Pikmin 4, etc. Quality games.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
Confidently.

Keep in mind, I'm a big Monster Hunter fan with thousands of hours poured into the series across MH3U on Wii U, MH4U and MHGen on 3DS, MHGU on Switch, MHWI on PS4/PC and MHRS on Switch. So I already know all the monsters, and that gives me a certain attachment to them a new player won't have.

However.

The monsters are legitimately amazing, so well designed and absolutely lovable. There's a reason Monster Hunter is praised so much. The entire series revolves around the monsters. They're the star of the show. And to me, they're far more endearing than any Pokemon. They're living, breathing, realistic creatures with their own habitats and behavioral patterns. They never feel like some fantasy creation hobbled together like so many other games. That helps connecting with them.

I think Monster Hunter Stories 2 is not only the best game of its genre to date, I think it's a perfect gateway into the world of Monster Hunter for those who have yet to get into the mainline series.

And just an aside, you can literally ride every monster you have in your party. Every single one. It's not like Pokemon where there's 2 weird bicycle looking mon for traversing the world. No no no. In MH Stories 2, you can ride all your monsters, and with 6 in your party at any time, you can instantly switch among them. It's great.

Oh, and the music is great, the gear and crafting is top notch, and I mean, TOP NOTCH, and it actually has a decent story.

On the subject of MH, I'd argue Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is one of the greatest video games of all time, on the level of Zelda Breath of the Wild. It's even better than Monster Hunter World, and thats saying something. One of those rare gems that comes along once every 5 years or so- a game so special its in a league of its own, forever immortalized as transcending greatness.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 isn't that good. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend it's on that plane of existence. But I'll be darned if it doesn't hold its own against the mainline series. When I play MH Stories 2, I never feel like it's a "lesser form" of the main series. Just a different take- one that complements it perfectly.

Has anyone here played ruined king: a league of legends story? It is on sale for half its regular price, and is made by the same studio that made battle chasers, nightwar, a game that I really enjoyed! However, I have seen several people mentioning frequent crashes, and I couldn't find anywhere if any patch has been released to fix them.

@kkslider5552000 @JaxonH @Kermit1Pineapple
At the end of the day all of this stuff is pretty transactional. I mean you can argue for reputational damage and devaluing the brand etc and that's a legitimate point. But even if they lost half of their sales, which they're very far from doing, they'd still end up ahead if they're pushing out a game every year rather than every 2-3 years.

Also they've basically released a Pokemon game on Switch every year since 2018, so far they've all moved >10mill units. I expect these new games to land within that range also given they're firmly in the top spots of all the sales charts. I don't see how "far more" would have brought these games if the publisher cared more. It's pretty clear they're making a LOT of money out of these games regardless of quality or novelty

I mean we can sit here all we want and say we demand better. We can all say we're voting with our wallets and not getting them. The problem is, enough people are buying them regardless. So there's little to no incentive for them to do better. These are companies, their motivations are not virtuous unless the profit incentive aligns. Fans are ensuring they don't align in this case

And it's not just a GameFreak or Pokemon Company problem. I think Nintendo has generally been better at this than most due to their obsession with maintaining their IP's value. Which fans are very vocally against, generally. But they're not immune from it. And certainly, it's a problem across the entire industry as we move towards an industry that demands more consistent revenue streams

Just did some currency conversion on this to get some context. I think you're overestimating how much demand there would be but I think the sad thing about it is I'm not sure you're THAT far off. Excuse the currency conversion from the AU end, there may be some funkyness. But this is what we have:

Current lineup is:
Switch OLED: $350USD
Switch v2: $300USD
Switch Lite: $220USD

I could see a theoretical future lineup might be something like:
Switch Home Pro - 4K DLSS etc: $300USD
Switch Home - X1 SoC: $200USD
Switch Pro - 4K DLSS docked, OLED: $370USD
Switch Lite OLED - X1 SoC, no docking: $250USD

And if they did that? I don't know. Maybe I get the "Switch Home Pro", taking advantage of USB storage and recognising that the Switch as it is is generally fine for portable play. Maybe I use my day 1 Switch for portable play exclusively. Maybe I do that then down the track "upgrade" my portable Switch to an OLED Lite

But maybe other consumers behave differently. Maybe more casual players get pulled into the mix with that lower price point of the "Switch Home". Maybe that product makes sense as a "second TV" or "second console" Switch. Maybe people on forums like this think bugger all the other options and go for the most expensive SKU

Regardless, the more options you have and the broader your price range? The more people you can sell to. Which is good for both consumers and Nintendo themselves. Even if that kinda runs a bit counter to my post immediately above this one ......

A quick Google search reveals that Chocobo GP Season 4 ends on December 19th so we're probably seeing MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 3 around then. Nintendo likes to release MK8 Deluxe DLC around the same time as odd numbered Chocobo GP seasons begin (MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 1 released close to Chocobo GP Season 1, MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 2 released close to Chocobo GP Season 3).

@skywake e @JaxonH i don't think a powerful hardware could have helped Game Freak on Pokémon Scarlet e Violet, they are incompetent on Nintendo hardware since the begining of the franchise, in the final stages development of Pokémon Gold e Silver, Satoru Iwata has to interveen and put Kanto in the game, due to Game Freak messing with the game code, even if Switch sucessor have a techinal/graphical power equivalent to a PS4 Pro or more, gen 10 will still have this techinal isseus we are seeying in Pokémon Scarlet e Violet, due to Game Freak incompetence in Nintendo hardware, let Skywave have stated theres a clearly but subtle difference when a game push a hardware to it limit like Bayonetta 3, or have isseus in this case, is due to shoddy programing, a fact Game Freak is know.