Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@FishyS I usually only pick up a Nintendo console if/when a Pokemon game comes out for it (that's how I ended up grabbing my original Switch funnily enough) though if the launch lineup is strong enough this time round (MP4 perhaps?), I might forgo my usual habits and grab it the day it comes out (though waiting is also not a terrible idea given how launch-day consoles are infamous for having an insane amount of quirks/kinks to iron out in later revisions XD).

check out Pikimin 4 overview trailer and will be the second Nintendo game to use Unreal Engine 4(the first was Yoshi Crafted World)

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/pikmin-4-will-seemin...

@JaxonH I think it'll come down to whether the Activision acquisition goes through. If it does I think Sony will acquire Square Enix and at that point, future Square Enix support on Nintendo consoles will die off. But if it doesn't go through, I think it'll just be business as usual and Sony's focus ends up continuing being making sure PS is the definitive place to play CoD.

@JONOFTHEJONS the download card confirmed Pikimin 4 use Unreal Engine 4

Time is a flat circle.

"We bought Rare, but the creatives left and setup Playtonic, so why don't we buy Playtonic?"

Genius level move that would've been.

@Grumblevolcano
I don't think for a second Sony would acquire SE. For what? Orders of magnitude cheaper to just pay bribes for the games they want. What strategic benefit would owning them grant? Absolutely nothing. And the one key franchise SE does have (Final Fantasy) has been in consistent decline ever since Sony started paying for exclusivity. There's also DQ, but it sounds like that's about to follow Final Fantasy's lead, which if sales are any indication, means franchise decline as well. Ok, they'd stop some smaller JRPGs from hitting Switch. But those aren't moving the needle for most people. I care greatly about those games- those are the SE games I value most. But the fact is, they're not important enough to warrant that kind of cash, and it would do nothing to counter Xbox. You'd think a response to the Xbox acquisition would, ya know, actually be a play for the gamers they're fighting over. Not some random JRPG studio. If they wanted SE, they would have bought the actual AAA studios like Eidos Montreal when they were selling. The ones that can make the big flashy blockbuster games they traffic in. Yet they didn't even try.

If the deal goes through, I don't think that'll change anything for Sony. They're gonna buy whatever studios they can regardless. But even if they decided to strategically retaliate, Square Enix ain't it. Remember, they're fighting for dudebro AAA gamers, not JRPG fans. Bungie is a perfect indication of what they value.

Also keep in mind, PS likely wouldn't even be able to get that kind of money approved in the first place. They'd need full backing of Sony as a whole. And would have to explain to them how spending double digit percentage of their net worth on a JRPG studio with ONE franchise that can top 5 million can provide a 3x ROI. Press F to doubt.

Forced walking even made its way into XC3: Future Redeemed. It's a plague.

But yes, silly plot additions and gap squeezing aside, FFVII Remake is what I want a modern FF game to look and play like. It's an amazing evolution, since the combat is fast and action-feeling, but still allows for party control. Best game in the series since FFXII.

Great ending to a good post. I lol'd, and smashed my F key to bits in my relative ignorance on the topic.

@Ralizah
Ya, it sure did. I noticed that too. Idk what it is about forced slow walks that devs are like, "yes, that's the stuff- more of that". At least they didn't last nearly as long, but they were most certainly there.

To be fair, I wouldnt really mind if it just happened like... once. And not that long of a stretch. A one-off like that wouldn't even be noticed. But when it becomes a core identity of the experience, with huge stretches of sidewalk, it's another thing entirely.

What makes it the 1-2 punch of intolerability is the convolution of both forced slow walks and in-game cut scenes that are designed to randomly take control away from the player, then randomly give it back. Either one on its own is an aggravation, but together they've become the symbol of everything I hate about modern gaming trends.

Let's hope XC doesn't adopt that approach too.

@gcunit
I got nothing but 😃

@Professor_Plumber
Most times I've encountered the forced slow walk, nobody's saying anything. Or if they are, it's just petty dialog that doesn't mean much. When story is present, I can't help but wonder why a cutscene or in game cutscene wouldn't be a better choice.

I feel like, when the player is in control, the gameplay should be fun and open. When you keep the player in control but restrict everything they can do except holding the analog stick up for minutes on end, it just results in tedious frustration.

@JaxonH It's the Naughty Dog-ification of gaming. This need to make games cinematic 'experiences' where gameplay and story are integrated. The upside of this, if you're into that sort of thing, is that a lot of modern games feel very cohesive in terms of how they're designed. But if you just want to play a fun game, it almost always comes at the expense of user control. Since the game relies less on cinematics, it forces you to experience it at a pre-set pace by physically slowing down your character. And as the focus is on presentation and pacing instead of gameplay, you're taken on a very strictly controlled tour of beautifully designed setpieces instead of being given a world to explore and interact with.

It's why I hate the influence of Naughty Dog on the industry, and why I maintain a strong preference for Japanese gaming in general, which tends to prioritize the user-avatar connection. So seeing it crop up in stuff like FF7 and Xenoblade is frustrating, to say the least.

@JaxonH Sony's said that live service is their strategy and the failure to redact properly showcased their strategy even more as AAA is becoming unsustainable:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/06/the-last-of-us-2-cost...

Considering who own the biggest live service games, Bungie (Destiny) and Square Enix (FFXIV) are the ones within Sony's reach and Sony acquired the former. They'd also use the acquisition as a defensive purchase as Microsoft were considering buying Square Enix in 2019.

@Grumblevolcano
I think people are trying to will this thing into existence rather than concluding it based off any actual evidence.

What actual evidence is there that, of the literal hundreds of studios and publishers, Square Enix specifically is one they want?

To me, it feels like this whole thing started when diehard Sony fans fighting console wars on Twitter needed something to "get back at Xbox fans" with. And gaming Twitter doesn't know jack about business. The studios gaming Twitter values are not the same as the ones a company like Sony values. Gaming Twitter just decided they wanted SE because they paid for some exclusives. There was never any actual evidence or a viable business case for it. It was all bragging rights, and in the console wars, for some reason, ppl seem to hold SE in higher regard than they actually deserve.

I would need to see an actual business case justifying it before I would even remotely entertain the possibility. How much revenue is SE taking in annually, on the whole? How much of that is specifically on the PS ecosystem (since you'd lose Xbox/Nintendo sales if they were acquired). How much is the company valued at? How many DECADES, or CENTURIES, would it take to make their money back 3x over? Does SE even want to sell? People just assume literally every company has a for sale sign. Not all companies even want to sell.

None of these things have been considered. All I've see is, "well Sony probably gonna buy SE for... reasons". Sure, they've got FF that can sell around 5 mil, and they've got a decade old MMO, albeit a successful one. And they've got a bunch of tiny IP that do anywhere from 100k to 2m. Let someone make a business case to me for why that financially justifies 8 BILLION DOLLARS. When their annual profit is closer to 350 million. It would take 20-25 years just to break even, and that's ASSUMING profits didn't drop from not releasing on other platforms.

You'd then have to show me the business case for at least 50 other alternatives and explain why, specifically, Square Enix is a better strategic choice that will yield greater ROI than any of the others.

This whole thing is baseless. Microsoft looked at buying practically every company in the industry. Are they gonna defensively buy the whole industry? Fact is MS didn't buy them, so there's nothing to defend against. Again, it's baseless speculation.

And furthermore, this ignores opportunity cost. Their MMO is already on their platform. It's already not on Xbox. They're gonna pay 8 BILLION dollars for something they've already got?

Nobody here is even remotely knowledgeable enough to even have the slightest inkling of what Sony is going to do. It's literally just picking random companies and saying, "well they've got this so obviously Sony will buy them". Lol no. That's not a real argument. There's no merit.

Could it happen? I mean, sure. Anything's possible. But it would be in spite of these so called "reasons" given in internet analysis claims, not because of them.

@JaxonH Personally I think so long as Yuji Horii is involved DQ will be ok. I've been saying for decades that DQ has some very dark/adult content that gets glazed over due to the "anime ghetto" effect. Now when Hori ups and quits...I'm out (granted that may be soon given that he is 69...lucky for the world the Japanese of his generation seem less obsessed with retirement and more on meaningful work for as long as possible). Because Squeenix is gonna keep going but will lose what makes the franchise work. I do hope they milk a bunch of remakes before that happens though. Would love to get 1-6 in HD-2D.

@Ralizah
If you're into it, you're winning big. Unfortunately I feel like fewer and fewer gamers actually value video games as a unique, gameplay-focused experience separate from other forms of media, and more and more want their games to be interactive movies. And the market is responding accordingly.

If you're not into that sort of thing, you're losing ever more of your favorite series, watching them slip through your fingers one by one as modern gaming trends corrupt their purity, funneling them toward the homogenization of realism + grit + sex + profanity + cinematic experiences.

Nintendo is largely a haven from such things. And Japanese games that aren't targeting that coveted Hollywood-loving audience. But even then, more and more JP developers are pursuing current trends. Square Enix specifically. Capcom has been much better- though they do chase realism and cinematics, they don't typically cross that line into Naughty-Dog territory. At least, not yet anyways.

Until now though, there wasn't any resistance in the market against these trends. With Wii U in the gutter and X1 stumbling as hard as it did, it allowed Sony's style to largely dictate the direction of modern gaming trends as PS4 was the only viable platform, barring PC. But PC wasn't as much of a focus then either. But now, with Switch closing in on 130 million units sold and marching ever closer to crack the PS2 crown, the market has finally provided an alternative direction. Xbox is doing better, Steam is more relevant than ever before... it's at least served as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding in that direction.

@Ryu_Niiyama
HD-2D remakes would be the best thing ever. The Final Fantasy Pixel Collection honestly should have been an HD-2D collection. Even if they were sold individually full price. I'd have paid it to have the classics preserved in a modern container. That way, even if they did FFXVI them with figure remakes, we'd have all we ever need.

I hope you're right, btw. Guess it comes down to interpretation of adult. Your definition is the correct one and what it should mean- you can have adult themes without going the down the same, tired old, "gritty cinematic realism with sex and profanity" route. Unfortunately, I struggle to recall many instances of developers actively claiming to pursue an "adult audience" where the experience wasn't worse as a result. But... maybe this game will buck that trend. We shall see!

At least we have DQXIS, and DQ3 HD-2D coming. And I can't see their spinoffs veering too much off course of the whimsical. So there's much to be grateful for.

@JaxonH Yeah, the success of The Last of Us and, to a lesser extent, Uncharted has influenced the modern market WAYYYY too much, and has pretty much permeated almost all of Sony's 1st party studios.

The forced slow walking segments in order to focus on presentation of overly intricate (albeit often beautiful) setpieces worked for TLOU, but it doesn't need to be in every AAA single player game.

There's a Buy 2 Get 1 sale for ALL SWITCH GAMES INCLUDING PREORDERS at BestBuy, if you're a My BestBuy Plus member (1 yr membership costs $49.99).

If you buy the membership, and preorder Super Mario Bros Wonder, Mario RPG and Pikmin 4 for $120 total, you've already saved $10.

Then if you preorder Pikmin 1+2, WarioWare Move It and Detective Pikachu, you've saved another $50.

Then with Prince of Persia, Persona 5 Tactica and Sonic Superstars, another $60. And on and on and on.

The games listed in the offer is not the complete list. Shop by department, select video games, Switch games, preorders for the full list of upcoming games, or select Switch games for all releases.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/offerbuilder/584281?irclickid=Vk...

@Ryu_Niiyama true Dragon Quest 8/11 have some very dark mess up stuff