Andy_Witmyer

@Znake There's virtually no chance that it would be on a physical cartridge, considering just how notoriously bad and ineffficient (or, more uncharitably, lazy) modern Square Enix is when it comes to file compression and optimization. I have no doubt FF15 comes to S2, it would clock in at least 80-100 GB, if not more, which is well above what could fit on even the largest S2 cart. That said, I'd love for SE to prove me wrong.

As for your comment on the split-up FF7:R situation, I agree whole-heartedly. I'm also just not a fan of the direction they took the game in, in terms of vibe and general pacing.

So, in other words, Square Enix remains eithed completely unwilling or unable to attempt proper compression and optimization techniques.

I'm sold. Demon Blade was one of my all-time favorite games on Wii. The artstyle and music were captivating. Since my Wii no longer works, I haven't played the original in many years, so I've been lowkey praying for a Switch or Switch 2 re-release, despite thinking it would probably never happen. That this game was actually announced was basically a dream come true.

@Unit_DTH – Very much the same thing happened on my end! Maybe it was our combined hopium that made the universe bend to our will, or something lol

To not have an upgrade path from the Switch 1 version is honestly criminal. There's no way I'm paying $50 for slightly higher resolution.

I absolutely loved Dragon's Dogma 1 on Switch, even with its compromises. This one looks much more visually on par with its counterpart ports - though how it holds up with regards to performance will remain to be seen. I'm pretty stoked about it, though, based on the trailer.

Tbh, I've never even heard of Onimusha, but its graphical style is impressive to say the least.

I'm confused - I thought the newest Kingdom Hearts games were already on Switch 2, released as "Final Fantasy 7: Remake and Rebirth"? 😉

Finally, a Final Fantasy game I'm actually excited about. It's been about 25 years since that's last happened.

@Jack_Goetz Agreed. XC2 is my favorite in the series. Is it objectively the best or most competently developed XC game? No. But, it's got some genuinely great characters, beautiful and otherworldly regions, easily the best antagonists in the series, and - to top it off - probably the single greatest OST I've ever heard in any game. The combat is also the most fun I've had - though it's quite unfortunate that the game doesn't actually do a good job at explaining its intricacies. But, man, once it clicks, it feels so good to master.

That said, I would be put XC1 very close to it, just for the quality of its opening chapter and the twists in the last few chapters alone. Plus, its VA is 10/10. I liked XC3, but honestly didn't love it. It peaks at Chapter 6 but, man, I kinda think it goes completely downhill after that. Still a fun game, overall, though.

Nate the Hate is sleeping well tonight! This capped off one of the best Directs I've seen in awhile, tbh.

@somnambulance I agree to an extentz though perhaps with Nintendo's rumored General Direct strongly rumored to be next week and filled with huge first party reveals, FS just wanted to get the date out before getting buried by Nintendo's own headliners. That it seems like a fairly hasty announcement would suggest this could very well have been the case.

After getting burned on the heavily censored,vDisney-fied slop that was FF7 Remake, I think I'll pass.

Honestly, a bit disappointing, if not surprising. I greatly prefer homemade, unique game engines, in general.

Or he's just making it up because it makes for a good (and, sadly, believable) story. Is there a scan of the letter? It would be interesting to read and would also validate his claim.

@stuntz0rZ Trump is building data centers and causing massive RAM shortages for every manufacturer? Who knew?

Well, it looks like my gambit to get a Switch 2 in March instead of waiting a bit longer - mostly out of concerns for an inevitable future price hike due to continued RAM shortages - was a good one.

Sadly, it looks as though AI data centers are almost single-handedly driving the gaming industry towards a possible major crash. It is, at the very least, going to set it back in a big way for a good while yet.

It is a texhnically very impressive port for the Switch 2. It's too bad SE absolutely butchered OG FF7's story, atmosphere and pacing in all versions.

I love the mature Twilight Princess-era design paired with the cape and the aesthetic it creates – whether concept art or not, I hope that Link wears it semi-routinely in the movie. Or even in the next proper Zelda game, for that matter.

Unless Xeno is followed by gears, blade, or saga, I'm probably not interested. But good news for those that care!

@PtM Sadly, that's basically what I assumed. I'd love for that to not be the case, but I can't really think of any other reasonable explanation for why NL would have ignored it - specially considering the game – and by extension, the franchise's – immense clout, sales, and cultural reach. Disappointing, if true. Especially when the Switch 2 version represented a substantial improvement over the (borderline miraculous) Switch port, imho.

The New Normal™️ continues.

The lack of a review for Hogwarts Legacy for Switch and its subsequent Switch 2 Edition upgrade is truly baffling. The game is a really, really top tier AAA experience, imo, which makes the absence of a review for either quite conspicuous.

I ended up absolutely loving Diablo 3 on Switch, so I'll almost assuredly pick this one up.

One would have to be high to be already speculating about Switch 3, to be fair.

No one wants to play that game, as the less than impressive post-launch sales numbers would indicate. They should have released it across all platforms much sooner - you know, like, before everyone realized it was slop. But, I guess they hope they can recoup some revenue with Switch 2, given Skyrim's success on the previous platform. I'm pretty skeptical, though. I guess we'll see.

I have no opinion on the game, price, or game key card, but calling a product "Tarnished" just seems like a really bad marketing blunder.

Zelda II – I feel like it was rushed and deserved more time to really cook to begin with, but its gameplay would translate really well into modern game design, possibly more so than many other games of its time. I'm imagining Zelda II, but with a large Eldin Ring-esque world to explore, with an effort to seemlessly convert Link's unique (and, imo, surprisingly deep combat moveset, bevy of spells, and action RPG level up elements) from 2D to 3D. I think the potential is definitely there. I doubt we'll ever see it, though.

This is literally the first time I've ever even heard of this theory, and I've been a fan of the series since its SNES debut. Not surprising, though - given enough time, fandoms can think up just about anything, no matter how far-fetched.

Leaks are practically unavoidable in today's world. It's a far cry from the 90s and even 00s, where messaging could be tightly controlled with little effort and these sorts of leaks could be reasonably relegated to very niche message boards, reaching only a few thousand fans at most. Those days are over. I'm sure Nintendo knows it. They may or may not be happy about it – and they may even try to employ stricter methods to clamp down on these sorts of things – but, I think it's mostly a lost cause, at this point, and rather than fighting it, they should simply accept and expect leaks, and utilize them as an aspect of their marketing.

Just watched a couple of direct comparison videos and I gotta say, the DLSS update is huge – like, the graphical improvements aren't even subtle. 60 fps mode went from "looks like I forgot to put my glasses on" to more decently serviceable and clear.

I'm still waiting until they add gyro and/or mouse controls, though, as I can't just do stick aiming in these types of games anymore. I was really hoping added control options would have been added along with DLSS, but I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer yet.

I'm an American gamer who picked up a Switch 2 a couple weeks ago and I think it's fantastic – catching up on my huge backlog on a much faster, more capable console, with much better load times and performance, has been great – and some of the bigger 3rd party games have genuinely impressed me.

That said, I think the selection of 1st and 2nd party AAA games is really pretty slim and the lack of any major announcements on that front – particularly with regards to franchises such as Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Xenoblade Chronicles – makes the Switch 2 a difficult proposition for many. I do think the US sales will probably pick back up once these and other titles are properly unveiled and released, but until then, there really isn't much the Switch 2 offers right now that casual Nintendo fans and other potential would-be customers would find that may justify its somewhat premium asking price.

I see nothing wrong with this honestly. Seems like a pretty benign and useful application. Lots of fear mongering, though, which I'm sure NL was counting on when publishing, since it's guaranteed to increase engagement.

I bought Octopath Traveler 0 as my first Switch 2 game - and first Octopath game, as well - and haven't regretted it, at all. Quite the opposite, actually. I would easily consider its story and gameplay loop to be the best and most satisfying of any classic turn-based style JRPG I've played in long, long time. The narrative is quite a bit darker, grimmer and more somber than I was anticipating, but it's also quite poignant and well crafted. I'm definitely try out Octopath Traveler 2 once I've completed 0.

I feel that the to the Battle and Support Skill equips is deeper than the reviewer notes in the review – perhaps he didn't get that far into the town building part of game. Once the Training Ground is built, Skill Mastery unlocks, which allows all playable characters who learned all of their base skills to essentially create copies of most of their abilities, which can then be transferred to other characters.

In other words, it's not just skills that NPCs give you these skills, as the reveiwer seems to suggest. Would I have preferred multiclassing options? Probably – but, it's still a fun system and the Skill Mastery mechanic really adds a lot of strategic depth with regards to planning out various busted party builds.

I would also argue that, while technically optional, just getting the Shop built in the village makes town building an extremely beneficial and worthwhile proposition, as you can effectively gain access to all other towns' wares in one place, while also unlocking a rotating inventory of very rare equipment.

Still a good review, but I feel like those aspects should have been detailed a bit more in it. Given how long the game is and how much there is to do, spanning multiple simultaneous chapters, I'm not going to fault to reviewer for not necessarily unlocking everything before the publication deadline, which I suspect may be have been the culprit with these omissions. In any case, this game is addictive af and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves classic JRPGs. This was also my first Octopath Traveler – that I didn't feel like I was missing anything means this is probably also a great game to jump into the series with.

Definitely more interested in the sequel's more modern visual appearance. I think I've kind of had my fill with pixel art-based indie games, for now. I just hope the shop management part actually is more than just window dressing. Looks good so far, though.

Actually looked suprisingly good.

The industry is quickly heading towards a major crash.

It's actually pretty sad how overused AI slop is making everyone see ghosts. Now, people just automatically assume AI is being utilized, with absolutely zero corroborating evidence. Sign of the times, I guess.

This reads like an undisclosed ad.

This, alone, of it's actually a good update, might be nearly worth giving in and buying a Switch 2 – I've been holding off until an announced release date for Xenoblade 4, but Divinity is awesome.

I dig the obscure casting and look of the setting. So long as they turn Zelda into a domineering girl boss, and Link her bumbling, fumbling lackey who could "learn a thing or two" from Zelda, I think the movie will be fine.

Give me at least the release date of the next 3D Mario, Zelda or Xenoblade title, and I'll purchase. I definitely want to get the system, but the launch year games are not enough to warrant getting one. I'm sure there are millions like myself that are just waiting for the right games to be shown, which would imply that the Switch 2 will have legs when it comes to sales. And while I still can't imagine it selling better than Switch 1, due to the many bad economic headwinds in the industry as a whole, it should definitely sell more than the SNES when all is said and done, imo.

Looks like I'll be in for yet another 250 hour playthrough, as has been the case after every other major Stardew update. It's rare to see a game that is inexpensive get so much continued attention, but I ain't complainin'

@N00BiSH Honestly, I thought Kevin sounded a lot better in these shorts than he did in Wonder. He sounds more both more relaxed, and yet also more confident. I say this as an open critic of his work on Wonder. We're all gonna miss Charles Martinet, but nothing lasts forever, and they could have done a lot worse than Kevin as his replacement.

Sony is so out of touch, they actually think Nintendo is in touch with their fan base.

Not sure why they ever promoted Dom to Editor to when it's clear that during his time at NL, he was never all that keen on Nintendo products, having started as a PS editor. Now that he's gone, Nintendo Life should honestly go back and re-review all of the games he was assigned to and maybe try to undo the damage his reviews did to games like this one, which deserved much better than a 5.

@Willo567 God forbid the US stops getting ripped off by numerous foreign trade parters. The massive trade imbalances should have been addressed decades ago. Heck, the bad orange man should have done this in his first term, but better late than never, I suppose.

I'm not sure why everyone seems so obsessed with the OG Switch passing PS2 numbers. I honestly highly doubt Nintendo is concerned about it in the slightest.

I really wish Square-Enix would kinda ditch the HD-2D engine and go back to designing RPGs with fully pre-rendered, hand drawn backgrounds and sprite work. At this point, all of HD-2D games just kinda look samey, bordering on Unreal Engine slop.

Etrian Odyssey 6 and Rune Factory 6 would be both quite excellent to see - the latter is far more likely to have at least a teaser than the former, but I'd love, love, love to see both.