Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

welp, been a while since one of these arguments got yeeted.

@Anti-Matter What are you doing in ACNH lately?

It's just a shame they decided to leave the one post that was actually argumentative and offensive. At least they haven't yet modded out the second line in my signature. Maybe I'll update it so it's slightly more obvious what the sentiment is

Anyways, I look forward to the future of gaming reviews where no external factors are ever discussed. Not poor early sales trajectories for early titles on a platform. Not awkward control schemes or hardware limitations. Not the existence or soon-to-be existence of platforms that could deliver a better experience. Wrong to mention that the Wii was SD for Endless Ocean 2 in 2010, wrong to mention the Switch is not 4K for Endless Ocean Luminous in 2024

Got the message. Reviews aren't allowed to talk about anything other than the platform the game is releasing on. Between the opening and closing statements no other hardware exists or could possibly exists. And we have to respect this future because someone has an opinion that you can't offend 10 year old pieces of silicon. And here in 2024 we respect people's opinions, not their intellect

@FishyS
Well, usually I sell the fruits / seashell / fish / bugs, maintain the relationship with my villagers, taking photo shoot at Harv island, making the vacation houses at Happy Home Paradise Island.

I wonder why Endless Ocean didn't get a demo; after Another Code, Mario vs DK and Peach all got demos, I was expecting one. It seems like a perfect game for a short demo, considering the reviews are kind of all over the place and since the point of the game seems like 90% vibe which should be easy to decide if you like with a short demo.

@FishyS
I'd question whether a title like that really needs a demo. I haven't played it or any of the games in the series but I think the trailers are pretty self explanatory. It's like if you took Abzu and took out all the charm replacing it with a more realistic style. Same vibe as dropping in a UHD BluRay of Blue Planet and zoning out except, you know, as a game on the Switch

I think if you were into that sort of thing you'd already know it without needing a demo. It wouldn't hurt obviously but I don't think it's like Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon tier of this desperately needs a demo for people to get an idea of what this is about

@skywake I know I like games like that in theory, I just don't know if I like that particular game anywhere near $50 worth. For me, things like movement control and how natural the UI and goals feel while playing massively effects enjoyment and those things are hard to really get a feel for without playing. I might feel differently if I had played the previous games, but I didn't.

I do agree with you though that games like Cereza and Peach Showtime really needed demos. This game really only needs a demo if it wants a chance to get money from indecisive people like me. 😛 But also they have been having demos for other games which don't desperately need a demo lately so I was just hoping the trend would continue so I could try this game.

@Novamii I can easily imagine I might really like it or be somewhat indifferent to it, I just can't actually tell without playing. For any game with movement in it, the particulars of the movement really effect my experience. And for more artistic or pretty games, really small little things in the experience can make me absolutely fall in love with it or not at all.

Has anyone had issues downloading demos? Sometimes they don't download the first time I try, but I've tried downloading the Chants of Sennaar demo about 10-15 times in the past week (directly on the Switch and from the UK eShop). I'm sure I tried a while ago but then forgot about it.

I tried downloading another game demo today and it downloaded immediately.

@FishyS I think it didn't get a demo because the nature of the game makes it hard to have a demo. You can't just have a bunch of story chapters considering the story chapters (at least what I've played so far) are mostly a brief tutorial and some cutscenes. Meanwhile a solo dive can last you a long time (the maps are very big such that you can even discover around half the game's creatures from that one dive).

I can't say about shared dives as I haven't tried it yet.

Fun fact: there have been over 800 new Switch games so far this year, averaging around 48 games a week.

@FishyS and the majority aren't that great unfortunately lol. Still pretty crazy though.

It's weird to think Switch 2 is pretty much inevitably coming out next year. Feel like I've barely started with Switch, partially because its the first Nintendo system I got late this century, partially because I've been focused on retro games and a handful of incredibly long games. I still have two Xenoblade releases to play, and several other first party and/or JRPGs, not to mention 15+ backlog games.

I haven't played Shared Dives yet but my early impressions (based on 13 hours of gameplay) on the rest of Endless Ocean Luminous so far.

The atmosphere is very relaxing between the visuals and music, I really like the general feel of the game. Scanning to find out more facts about the creatures is interesting though I wish it extended to the surroundings like being able to scan a plant and it would tell you more. The photo mode is nice and got me some good photos for my Switch album.

The story is structured poorly. Rather than a typical story mode where you play through the whole thing and then you can play other modes as extras, this has you unlock story segments based on what you've achieved in the other modes like scanning a total number of creatures.

I'm mostly satisfied with map traversal though I do wish there was some way to display on the map where you found creatures so you could return to them. There are riddles you find that you solve but considering you don't know the riddle until you reach it, you likely won't remember where you found the solution so it may take a long time to find it again.

I've been in 2 solo dives so far and the variety has been enough that the 2nd one was still enjoyable (the dives are completely random). I did experience some sizable frame drops in that 2nd solo dive which slightly took away from the immersion, namely when there was a large group of about 30 Ocellated Eagle Rays and when there were a load of fish hiding in greenery heavy areas.

Overall, I like it despite its flaws. I'm also excited to see what music they pick for the Tetris 99 theme.

Good to hear from others that are playing. I’m gonna get Endless Ocean in the next two months but I just started Showtime and work is ramping up in a way that I know my free time is gonna be nil. So I won’t get a new game until Showtime is done. But EO sounds like it is about what I was expecting.

@NeonPizza ah thanks for confirming! It’s so strange how that one in particular was the only one of the bunch that didn’t. Rev 1, Rev 2, 5, and 6 all got gyro aiming.

I do have other ways to play it (I have the original on Wii and the remake on Xbox), but I enjoy the portability of the Switch Lite.

I might still get it… but I’m really bad at aiming with joysticks.

@NeonPizza on the remakes, I make do with the aim assist, and as I unlock infinite ammo and special weapons, then it’s not so much of a trouble if I miss a shot.

Though in 4R, aim assist might be a bit too eager to assist at times, when I played that one, I had to fight it more than once.

I think perhaps Revelations 1 tried to handle gyro aiming like it’s on a 3DS, so it didn’t translate too well to separate controllers.

IT'S HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the frick! So happy I chose today to stay up till 3 AM rofl

At least now we can avoid the whole “is there a June direct or not” fiasco for the next month. Crazy they just said all this in a random tweet tho

This smells similar to the last year of the Wii U. June Direct (in the case of the Wii U E3) where they explicitly don't talk about the next hardware. And annouced ahead of time as such

In the case of the Wii U -> Switch transition what we then got was an proper Switch reveal in October. Followed by a transition in messaging, full presentation in early 2017, release in March

It was interestingly vague, like @Magician said in the Direct thread it's possible this could mean that the announcement is in March 2025 rather than the release. There's a lot of flexibility present here, they could go the strategy of proper reveal in Fall/Holiday 2024 and release in March 2025 or they could go proper reveal in Early 2025 and release in Fall/Holiday 2025 (or even March 2026).

In any case, the confirmation of a June general Direct pretty much guarantees we're getting a repeat of last year where the lineup for the 2nd half of 2024 is packed for the current Switch which is very exciting news.