Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Ryu_Niiyama ok very good. NL hasn't covered it yet correct? At least preview it? More than likely I'll grab it next month.

@NintendoByNature NL has given their impressions so far.

https://www.nintendolife.com/features/hands-on-strategy-fan-y...

Thoughts On Switch 2 Release Date
If Switch 2 doesn't drop til Q1 2025, it's not that much of a push back. But it will make the wait that much harder. Still, having a Switch Pro now gives me a rejuvenated excitement that will easily last through early 2025. And that can only mean one thing- they're gonna hit us with that Metroid Prime 2/3 Remastered to prime us for Prime 4 (pun intended). Might even drop that F-Zero GX on us. Nintendo had a way of giving fans what they want when filling the final year gap (see Zelda Twilight Princess final year of Wii U, Paper Mario Thousand Year Door final year of Switch).

Conclusions On Overclocking Having Had Time To Ruminate
So, after the initial excitement of having a Switch Pro has worn off a bit, I've come to a few conclusions...

1) Despite the fact you can run Witcher 3, Doom, Doom Eternal, Outer Worlds, Alam Wake and Wolfenstein 2 in a much more playable state with locked framerates and holding close to 720p, I still think it's better to reserve these games for Deck OLED. Reason being, nomatter how much lipstick you slap on a pig, it's still a pig. The ultra low textures and pop-in aren't issues resolved with brute force. And while they're most definitely playable, I feel these games specifically are best played on Deck OLED. Other games, however, like Hogwarts Legacy, Borderlands 3, Darksiders 3, etc are fantastic on Switch once you juice em with some extra GPU and RAM.

2) It's best to utilize the OC not to salvage games on the brink, but rather, perfect games that were already in a fairly good state, with quality textures and decent resolution, but simply had framerate issues. Like Link's Awakening. Just throw a 30fps cap on it and it's flawless. Or Ni No Kuni 2. Just juice it a bit and it's flawless. Or MH Rise and Persona 5 Royal. Just mod it to increase max res to 720p and juice it a bit, and they're flawless. This is where the money is at. Not in transforming the worst cases of demanding Switch games, but in perfecting the best cases of Switch games that simply needed a bit more gas in the tank.

3) Pokemon Scarlet/Violet still isn't worth playing. Sure, you can get the entire game locked at 30, nary a drop in sight. But that pop-in and 2fps animations in the distance cannot be remedied by power alone, and the pop-in kills it for me far more than performance ever did. Arceus Legends, however, is magnificent.

@NintendoByNature
Also have the CE preordered as well as digital. It looks fantastic. Games like this are right up my alley.

@JaxonH heck yea. I'll just grab the Standard. I usually only grab CE if I'm really into the series.

@NintendoByNature
For sure. This will be one of the last CEs I buy. Once Switch 2 is here I'm all digital. So unless we get a Prime 4 CE or Paper Mario TTYD CE, which I doubt, this could be it...

@NeonPizza
Ya. I used to think along those lines, until I realized I never sell my Switch games anyways. A return window would be welcome, even if they limited it to once per quarter or something to stave off abuse. Even so, I usually research my digital purchases beforehand so rarely do I find myself in a situation where I want a refund. Just gotta make sure you buy what you want, and want what you buy. Preorders from shortlist of trusted devs only.

$80... I take it you're in Canada? Even so, here's my technique for getting Day 1 digital around $45 ($50 without vouchers, around $40 with vouchers, average it and call it $45)

1) Buy eShop credit on Raise with 10% back in credit for next eShop credit purchase
2) Use a CC with 2% back making the purchase
3) Load credit and buy digital game, earning 5% back in gold coins
4) Leverage "2 for $100" Vouchers whenever possible.

With the 10% back at Raise, you only get 10% back on the remaining purchase price after credit has been applied, so you're getting 10% back on 90% of the price, or a revolving 9% back. Combined with 2% from CC and 5% gold coins, that's 16% off the price of day 1 digital.

For $59.99 games, that's $9.60 savings, so $50.39 digital day 1. With vouchers, it becomes $42 digital day 1. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Began playing Liberated. It's a mashup of Out of this World and Comix Zone. Monochrome color palette. Running, jumping, shooting, quick-time-events, platforming, puzzles. Good lord, this game is a Polish goulash of genres. Kudos to developer Atomic Wolf.

This is a superior cyberpunk experience over my last one, Mato Anomalies, which was...no bueno.

@ralizah
Did you know about this???! See above. Surely you knew. Why didn't you tell me!!

@JaxonH I've seen mods like that before. Not really my speed tbh. I did make use of a mod that used AI to dramatically upscale the game's pre-rendered backgrounds, though, which makes the game look so much better without altering the original art direction.

It'd be cool if we got Remake on the Switch 2. Fully expecting I'll be able to play Rebirth within a year or so of release on my Steam Deck.

@Ralizah
I'm not usually into mods. But I'd hardly classify this as one. This is a full on remake of the entire game, or at least, Half remake.

It's not changing story, or diffulty, or tweaking gameplay mechanics. It's literally just a complete graphical overhaul of the game using MUCH better, up to date models, new texture, backgrounds, cutscenes, portraits, menus, the works. I mean, if you're gonna play the original FFVII, this is the definitive version by a landslide.

And while I won't go so far as to say I prefer it over the new remake (or what pieces we've received so far), at least this one won't force me to slow walk for 10 minutes at a time or play musical chairs with player control and "seamless cutscenes".

I've always wanted to play the ORIGINAL game, but it's too dated for me. I can't stand PSone polygonal models.

But this? What's not to love? If Square Enix were releasing this like they did Chrono Cross where it's the original game but with new textures and stuff (only 5x better), I'd pay whatever price they slapped on it.

This is no nickel bag cornerstore mod like the Pokemon or Fire Emblem ROM Hacks. This is Final Fantasy VII Remake in the vein of Metroid Prime Remastered, Mario vs DK or Mario RPG, albeit with a budget somewhere between Chrono Cross and Paper Mario TTYD. 100% true to the original, but modernized.

@JaxonH Backgrounds look about the same to me in the screenshots and video. Music sounds the same in the video you posted. New portraits in the menus look... awkward.

I'm sure more was probably altered than is immediately apparent, but it just looks like a mod pack that swaps out the chunky character models of the original game (which I've always found charming, tbh, but I guess it does make VII look a bit weird compared to even the other original PS1 entries). Comparing it something like Metroid Prime Remastered seems... generous, shall we say lol.

Whatever the case may be, if it's sufficient to generate interest in the game for you, then so be it. FF7 is a classic. It's the Star Wars of JRPGs, and absolutely deserves to be fully experienced by anyone who is a fan of the genre.

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.