Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

An absolute bombshell of an announcement just came out of IGN Fan Fest of all sources: Ninja Five-O is coming back!

Nintendo switch sucessor might be anounced this june and how it launch line up could be

Nice, I've been wanting to play that for ages!

@JaxonH I'm just gonna echo Ralizah and say that you are comparing a mod to an officially released 2023 HD remaster that people mistake for a remake, and the difference is exactly like you'd expect a mod vs. an officially released 2023 HD remaster that people mistake for a remake.

also as someone who isn't super into how most mainline FF games look, I definitely prefer the original game's look

check out the first Nintendo Direct of 2024

Wow. I wasn't expecting anything from that Direct.

And yet they brought home the bacon!

I'd pretty much accepted the final year of Switch wouldn't see any releases worthwhile, and I'd planned to spend the final year enjoying the 7 years worth of backlog on my Switch Pro.

But it seems there will still be some new releases worth playing this year on day one. New Monkey Ball is for sure hype. MH Stories can finally join its sequel in HD. Grounded has always looked excellent to me, even though I'm not usually into survival games. Contra remake is hype. SMTV expanded version is hype (and perfect timing with a system that can run it perfectly now), and Fantasy Life i got an October release date.

Heck, I'll even take Pocket Card Jockey and Endless Ocean.

@Ralizah
Ya it's actually a very in depth project that took years, done by super-fans of FFVII to create a product that other super fans would love. I don't actually think the music was changed though, to be clear, and environments may still be the same now that I'm reading up on it.

I don't mean to say the amount of rework is on par with Metroid, Im saying it's a remaster in that vein aka "modernize the graphics to make it more palatable but keep the core gameplay the same".

Whether or not it's less or more rework done than some other game is arbitrary to me. What matters is that they took a game I could barely stand to look at and remade it into something more desirable to play than the actual Remake for me (namely because this is on a hybrid system, and because it's the actual original game unchanged, and I want to experience that first and foremost, otherwise the subtleties of the remakes changes are completely lost on me)

• New HD graphics for all Enemies, NPC's, Main Characters, Weapons, Battle backgrounds, World Map models and Summons.
• New HD Cutscene Videos.
• New Battle Sound Effects.
• New HD Avatars/Menu.

Closing thanks:
I just wanted to thank everyone for downloading and supporting this project! FF7 Project Omnislash is the true FF7 dream remaster all OG fans have wanted! Created by the fans for the fans! So hit download, go grab your Switch, then sit back and prepare to enjoy your favorite childhood game in beautiful HD like you've never done before! I'll see you all in Midgar soon my friends!

That's actually a substantial chunk of rework. Given it's a graphical remaster, that covers most of the dated aspects. It's not replacing everything (environments aren't changed as you pointed out), but it does change battle backgrounds, world map models, and all characters (main characters, enemies, NPCs, summons, even their avatars). Menus are redone and cutscenes are HD, and has new battle sound effects.

That's a lot more than just swapping out some HD models for the main characters. And its not just HD models, but modernized models more in line with Crisis Core and Remake. Which I think looks superb and offers more visual continuity with Crisis Core.

Obviously everything is subject to personal taste but I think the avatars look great and match up perfectly with the updated character models used.

Btw, here's a statement on why backgrounds weren't changed:

The only reason I’ve not replaced the backgrounds is because the base version of FF7 has a max file size cap on the LGP’s correlating to the exe. With aali’s drivers on PC that’s been by passed, but currently on the Switch version nobody has yet converted over the drivers to work, or created something that can do the same thing. Leaving me with this massive project to fit into that little 2gb per LGP limit. So the backgrounds and such will stay vanilla. but honestly, on the Switch version especially in handheld mode like we all will most likely prefer to play this project, the vanilla backgrounds don’t look bad at all. But that’s the only reason that hasn’t been done yet. If someone breaks that cap I’ll then add upscaled backgrounds field and battle to the project.

@Ralizah
Oh, one thing I didn't mention is a number of animations were also updated. For example, Cloud's block pose now more closely matches that of Remake. That's just one example I could find pics for to show a comparison. But ya, animations have also been updated which is rad.

I prefer playing FF VIII and FF IX rather than FF VII.

That's cool. Everyone has their preferences. I'd rather play FFX.

But just because I prefer one game over another doesn't mean the other game has to be disregarded entirely. Its a common mindset I've noticed among gamers where, rather than appreciating something good, they instead myopically focus on the one bad thing they can find about it, or emphasize how they prefer XYZ more.

Like, there's nothing wrong with preferring XYZ more, or not liking a particular aspect of something, but why is that always the first thing ppl care to mention? There's all this game to talk about and appreciate, and the first thing that comes to mind to speak on is, "I don't like the music in the menus". Or, "I like the 23rd entry that released 31 years ago more", or "XYZ is better"

None of which are inherently bad opinions to have, it's just odd how that's always the first thing mentioned. Nevermind the 99 good things you see. Let's focus on emphasizing the 1 bad thing, then disregard everything else about it.

If you like FFVIII and IX more, cool. I may very well like them more also if I ever played all of them and had a chance to assess. But even if that's the case, so what? Doesn't mean this still isn't a great game, and doesn't mean I can't also enjoy this.

Naturally there's always going to be games you enjoy more. Something inevitably has to end up at the top of the pile. But the majority of the fun in gaming is digging in to everything beneath it.

@JaxonH I played Fenyx docked and it was fine; it's a fun game.

So I'm playing the Unicorn Overlord demo and...

Graphics are beautiful. But something felt weird and I just couldn't put my finger on it until I realized... I didn't feel like I was actually doing anything lol

Maybe it's weird because I'm just coming off beating Tactics Ogre Reborn? This just feels weird because you don't actually tell your units what actions to take in the battle, you just... move them on the big map, and when they meet an enemy, they just auto battle and perform their actions and spells on their own.

Maybe it's just more of a "meta" strategy rpg? I guess I haven't played one like this before, but yea, I just kind of felt like I wasn't playing a game but moreso watching a game lol

@rallydefault I haven't played the Unicorn Overlord demo but that was something that confused me when I first played Fire Emblem, that you have no control over the actual battles. But once I got into it I realised the strategy comes from choosing who to attack at what time, and positioning your units so that they're not in range of dangerous enemies. UO might be completely different but with a lot of these games it takes a while to get into the right mindset and work out what the game wants you to do.

@Dogorilla
Yea, it’s more like a Fire Emblem game than a Tactics Ogre or Triangle Strategy game.

I much prefer the individual unit management kind of strategy rpg, but I’m gonna put a few more hours into the demo to give it a fair shake.

It really seems to be a beautiful game, though, and some strategy rpg people on YouTube were saying they love it.

@rallydefault I found it weird at first too but I sorta think of it like fire emblem in that if i tell a unit to attack the actual fighting is automated. However the strategy in UO comes from unit combinations and placement as well as who is the leader of the unit as it impacts mobility. You can purchase more units to make things easier or harder but then there is planning for XP distribution when sending units out and type advantage. Once I got that I realized it is more a real time version of FE except all units are hybrids. Started to gel at that point. Feels like a combo of FE, diofield, and tactics ogre with a sprinkle of advanced wars to me.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Yea, I get what you're saying. I think it was super jarring for me because I just beat Tactics Ogre Reborn a couple of games ago, and boy oh boy are these two very different strategy games lol

Ah...

https://insider-gaming.com/hi-fi-rush-playstation-5-announcem...

Sources tell them Hi-Fi Rush is coming to Switch 2 rather than Switch. I guess this is it. This is the point where the 3rd party ports officially stop for the most part, as they queue up for a busy 2025 gold rush on the Switch 2.