Andy_Witmyer

@HenHiro I mean, it technically is an RPG from Japan. Of course, that's only if one would want to get semantical about it. But, debatable as what constitutes a genre may be (I mean, have you ever seen Nintendo Life's top "Switch RPG" games, wherein at least a quarter of the entries are probably not what most people would consider RPGs??), I think @nhSnork 's broader assessment is clear and irrefutable. Def one of the best games on Switch this year, and - imo - probably deserving to be somewhere among the very best, LTD

If they decide to keep the Switch moniker in the successor, I think Super Switch would be fairly decent - it evokes the Super Nintendo, while keeping the Switch branding intact, and - unlike Wii U and 3DS - it's just different enough to imply that that's a new console.

That said, keeping the word "Switch" would probably only be a good idea if the successor is backwards compatible. To suggest that the console is a massive new console in the Switch series while not allowing customers to play its predecessor's games would likely only need to confusion or anger from the more casual market. We on Nintendo Life might be aware of the next consoles level of backwards compatibility, but the average consumer wouldn't.

Basically, Nintendo billing their next gen console as a brand new system in the Switch series (let's say by naming it Switch 2) but at the same time, not allow older Switch 1 games to run on it, would be akin to Apple, at the height of the mid-late 2000s iPod craze, releasing a brand new "next gen" iPod model that would no longer recognize m4a song file format that all previous models used, as the new iPod can only read a brand new proprietary format. Consumers would not have been pleased - especially those who are not into tech and would therefore be out of the loop in hearing about changed like that. Doing this would have caused a great deal confusion and righteous frustration - which is why that never happened. Hopefully Nintendo avoids that trap.

@agrazioli Not really true in this case. Perhaps the NA version won't get very many updates, but there were several during the time it was out in Japan which were baked into the game by the time it was released overseas, with a MAJOR update being that of adding gay marriage. That change alone represented a very large story and gameplay modification, and - while it doesn't exactly effect me, personally, more options are good, and I'm happy for those fans who've been hoping for that kind of option for the entirety of the series.

There were also a number of smaller tweaks. And even though the game still isn't optimized very well, it def runs better than it did when it launched in Japan, at which time the frame rate issues were even worse. And there is datamined code that suggests that there may be a future update that would include two more marriage candidates, as there are files with their marriage outfits and other relationship type text.

As for the performance issue - while some people need huge stable frame rates to enjoy a game, the occasional drops when you first go outside and before entering buildings hasn't at all effected my enjoyment of the game.

Do I wish the game looked and performed better? Sure. But the developer was not given a huge budget, and it was the first game in the series that they've worked on in over a decade. I think the fully 3D environments, the fairly large overworld and the varied dungeons are all a step up from RF4 while the core game play loop from that treasured entry is maintained and in some cases, improved. If RF6 is optimized to run more smoothly, and includes some improved visuals, and a wider array of daily dialog from the townsfolk (that there is less than what there is in RF4, where it feels like they say something different every day was admittedly disappointing), it would be amazing. And hopefully next time around, the strong sales of 5 will afford the devopers a larger budget to work with.

And if it wasn't obvious, I would def recommend the game.

This is really great to hear! I've played through every game in the series and RF5 - despite some graphical shortcomings - is probably my favorite, and I definitely think it represents a big step up from RF4 (which I still loved - I guess I'm more into the console entries). I mean, I've already sunk close 200 hours into it and I'm still playing.

For a series that was dead for 10 full years, 500k sales actually IS kind of impressive. I hope it'll be enough to warrant a RF6 <3

Reggie is like that popular chick you used to date in high school who left you for one of your friends, but despite things being amiable enough, she still comes out and talks about your relationship to everyone who will listen. And she just keeps talking on and on and on and on because for some reason, people just hang on her every word.

@Azuris Did you play XC2? No? If you would ever give the game a chance (which it doesn't sound like you will), I woiuld say that the combat in the second game is - imho - arguably the deepest, most satisfying combat system that I've ever played in any RPG, on any console, period. The number of recurring things that are happening all at once is honestly almost unreal at times and - sadly - the game doesn't do a good job of explaining the intricacies of it. But once you get a grasp on what blades do, the differences there are between blade combos, driver combos, party combos, elemental bursts, and other various concurrent effects, passives and positions, everything begins to open up.

I would also watch some combat videos on youtube, of which there are many (I would recommend Enel's content), as they provide a glimpse into just how deep the combat really is. And once you learn the full scope of what is possible, the possibility of truly mastering it becomes something worth doing - it just feels amazing to be pulling off ridiculous amounts of damage to overpowered enemies that may have otherwise been impossible. Some might be put off by the entire scope and complexity of it, but I think it's amazing.

While I do think the first game has, perhaps, the better story arc and direction compared to two, I would agree that thethe combat is definitely so-so. But the game was built on aging Wii hardware and - even with the remastering it received - the gameplay mechanics themselves are dated to the time of its original release. Not much is going to change that.

I think it's kind of ridiculous to pan the entire series, though, just because the first game's decade old combat mechanics didn't suit you.

I, too, am prescribed to Adderall. In all seriousness, I love the A button, but have a soft spot for Y. I abhor the B button, and any game which uses B as its main action / interaction / select button.

Wait, Konami is still a developer? I laughed at their concern about what to do with the site. How about instead of getting butthurt about obvious jokes, they...I dunno...work on making decent console games?

I radically dream of the day when Square bothers with a legit, full 3D remake of Chrono Trigger and/or Final Fantasy 6.

@Krambo42 Wow. That really sucks. Thanks for the insight, depressing / anger inducing though it is.

I mean, the harsh reaction is somewhat justified...but perhaps their strategy is to put out a smaller budget game with broad, casual appeal so as to direct some of the revenue from it into finishing games like Hatch on time.

I mean, if I was in a situation where a very important game began to take a much longer time to finish, but I still needed to put food on the table, I'd probably be more than tempted to put something out there in the meantime. Just because a developer is crowd sourced, that doesn't mean that unforeseen delays won't happen, or that they're somehow immune to unanticipated spikes in development costs.

If such problems arise during development, then - unless you're a AAA company like Nintendo, that can afford to delay games for as long as necessary - for everyone else - and especially for crowdfunded devs - things get super tricky. I mean, aside from scrapping the developmentally challenged game entirely, a small developer basically has maybe one of two realistic options:

1 ) beg for more donations - a seemingly simple option, however repeated drives tend to draw rapidly diminishing returns and worse still, devs who do this can spook their backers who may suddenly demand their money back, or...

2) work on a game that you don't really feel very passionate about but it's one that has a shot at selling well enough despite a very short development and release schedule. The returns on releasing such a cheap but broadly appealing game could theoretically generate enough money to not only put food on the table, but also enough for the dev to finish their long awaited main projects, while at the same time, not outwardly begging for more cash.

The intensely negative drawbacks to option two can be seen here in the comments section haha. The developer may gain a new revenue stream to fuel their main passion project and a cheap game might keep food on the table, but it can have the effects of angering those who have long supported the developer and who might now see them as hacks, frauds, and sellouts, and it makes backers rightfully want to know where the hell their game is and why their money seems to be directed in some way to questionable shovelware games instead of whatever game it is that the backers want.

Perhaps in the developer's mind, the latter option would will appear to be the better solution right now and that the hope is their credibility will be restored once the game everyone is backing actually arrives - late, but in a quality state.

Obviously the best solution is to release the game everyone wants, but as stated earlier, things in life are rarely so simple.

And who knows, maybe they really are scammers and con artists and deserve the extreme backlash that they're getting atm, however... I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, even if sometimes my optimism ends up looking like naivety. Either way, I do hope that - regardless of what's going on with them - that the developer can achieve its goals and that their backers get the game they've put their faith in.

@RupeeClock As someone who began to purchase SD cards for the Wii and DS Lite, the degree to which the the price and size of SD storage has improved since those days really is incredible. Unless there was a super black Friday sale or something, just getting a 64 or 128 GB card was definitely far outside of my budget at that time.

I do wonder if tech's very long, almost entirely unimpeded decades of trend of increased value of things like memory, TVs, video games, and the like will be able to keep pace with the global rate of inflation. Even if price/value would remain stagnant, the higher cost of living could still diminish a lot of people's ability to indulge in these items (and the ongoing chips shortages across the entire industry probably aren't helping).

I guess all we can do is hope that the long trajectory of constant-innovation-at-lower-costs-to-the-consumer the market isn't too disrupted too, too much.

The game looks about as graphically unimpressive and low budget as it could possibly get, but...when considering the circumstances and the fact that the developer is clawing back from oblivion, I would expect some concessions.

As a longtime fan of the series (I've played and beaten every game), I want this game to be a major success so that the series can continue - and hopefully with a larger budget next time around. For that reason, it is a day one purchase, warts and all.

The game is a gem. I might even go so far as to that Triangle Strategy is quite possibly my favorite Square game since the 90s.

Pro-Tip: Play the game with Japanese VA and a sub.

Though I'm hardly one those purist snobs who hates every single dub, in this particular case, I found the VA (at least the English one) in this game is so abysmal, I almost had no other choice but to play it with Japanese VA.

I loved the demo so much - glad to see that the entire game is just as good. While I imagine that there are many who won't really enjoy the lengthy segments of dialogue, I found them to be surprisingly well written and - with all of the fleshed out characters and depth of political intrigue - the story was likewise highly engrossing. (In that respect, it kinda reminded me of the intensely political and criminally underrated Ogre Battle 64).

And that's not even touching upon the battles, which - if you're a fan of tactical RPGs such as Ogre Battle, FFTactics, Fire Emblem and the like - is a treat.

My only major gripe (from the demo, anyway) was just finicky the camera and the drunken map controls were. Through practice, both of these problems can be mitigated to some extent (e.g. pressing the d pad will automatically jump to a location, and moving the analogy gently for the camera can mitigate some of these issues, but it's still annoying. I also had, at times, a bit of trouble figuring out which direction an enemy was facing, as many characters stand in a sideways stance that, because of the nature of sprites, can be ambiguous.

Other than those issues, the demo was amazing and I can't wait to dive in to the rest of the game.

That Earthbound isn't in the top 5 makes me seriously question the tastes of NintendoLife's readers. (J/k) (though maybe also slightly serious)

I'm not gonna lie, when this dropped, I busted a nut. The game looks SO good.

@Atariboy Good point. I failed to account for the fact that a majority of Wii owners likely also owned a DS, so - with that in mind - it could be that the Switch has achieved the same number of unique owners as Wii+DS, or possibly even more. I tend to not that think that the latter is likely, seeing as how there were a lot of folks who bought a Wii for Wii Sports and literally nothing else, however it could be pretty close.

It is an extremely impressive number...however, when you consider the fact that, in previous generations, Nintendo was selling consoles and handhelds at the same time, the number 103 million units seems just ever so slightly less so.

The Wii+DS combo ended up with 255 million units sold - a number which absolutely dwarfs the Switch and will likely remain forever out of reach.

That having been said, 103 million units is still impressive, as it already strongly exceeds the Wii U+3DS 90 million combo and it will very soon surpass the GCN+GBA's 104.5 combined units. It could also eventually outsell N64+GB/C (but that one is a toss-up, as the different versions of the GB line make it more difficult to quantify).

That said, the Switch is still selling and while I don't think it'll sniff the total sales of Wii+DS, it'll probably end up coming close to or exceeding PS2 which, of course, would be a hugely impressive feat.

I think Nintendo should maybe take the opposite approach and invest in indie companies who show a great deal of promise - if not purchase them outright, give them the opportunity to become a second party developer with the freedom to still make their own company decisions.

I think "drafting" various up and coming, talented indie companies would be of a huge benefit to Nintendo longterm. There is little financial risk as investing in indie and gaining some degree of exclusivity would cost a great deal less than it would trying to purchase a massive third party company.

@Jayesbe Hahaha. It's okay. You got your post count up +1, tho. So at least there's that.

@Shambo I honestly agree with pretty much everything you wrote. And that sucks that you jilted in that way by the dentist's office. It is pretty awful that so many companies - from every field and industry - seem to work in at least one or more ways to screw over the customer via some sort of legal jujitsu. It's just become a very common practice and obviously, it's not one that I condone.

Seems pretty clear to me at this point that Metroid Prime 4 is more than likely being developed as a launch title for the as yet unveiled (and with chip shortages, likely delayed) Switch 2.

Although it would remain to be seen if such a game would also be released on the original Switch as it's last hurrah (see also: BOTW and Twilight Princess) - unless Switch 2 end up being a graphical juggernaut or its architecture is radically different from its predecessor, it would seem likely.

Those are my thoughts on it anyway.

Interesting. I always thought Ocarina of Time had some of the most well thought out and - in some cases - the most complex series of dungeons in the series - at least to that point (the infamous Water Temple, anyone?) I mean, I guess the 3D aspect could have made OoT's dungeons seem more complicated than they actually were - but at the same time, I still find it very hard to believe that dungeons weren't really much of a focus in the game.

Maybe Miyamoto is just trying to be humble or something - or mayhap he's eaten one too many edibles? The mystery deepens.

Imagine being a publisher and being so devoid of scruples that you would shamelessly releasing a game in such a poor state - so poor, in fact, that they felt that it necessary to include a crash warning at boot-up.

I mean, how the hell as a devoper do you make a game that is so clearly broken that you need to do that? Where is their pride?

I get that it's free-to-play, but I don't think that justifies releasing a game that is guaranteed to crash. And if that would be the publisher's defense, then - imo - it's not a very good one. It's embarrassing.

Since they definitely know about the problem, it be true that the game really will run better in time, though their "we're looking into it" part of the warning message doesn't exactly inspire much in the way of confidence.

@Jayesbe You know, it's never too late to press edit and add some paragraphs 😉

I honestly think Switch 2 would have already been announced - probably with a 2023 release date - had there not been any chip shortages.

Hopefully the extra time means that Nintendo can add better specs without inflating the console price too, too much...but then again, this is Nintendo we're talking about.

Although this doesn't entirely meet the requirement of having never been on any Nintendo console, it's always bugged me that Etrian Odyssey games never came to Wii U - the gamepad would have been perfect for it. (And I'm furthermore super disappointed that series has never even come back to Switch either).

I'm guessing that the series is dead at this point...which is just incredibly sad to me.

Since the first time it happened on AC: Wild World, I always took it to mean...something else entirely 🤣

Very awesome list with a lot of older games on it that I'd not expected to see. I'm kinda surprised by the lack of LoZ: ALttP...but the again, it wasn't until after that game that Japan was really into Zelda - if I'm remembering correctly, the series was usually far more popular in the West. Judging by the placement of BotW, it would appear as though that's entirely a thing of the past now.

@Yosher I agree that it's a sucky practice, but at the same time, it's hard for me hard to feel bad for people who just can't be bothered to read the fine print.

The review failed to mwntion the game's excellent soundtrack, which was composed by Matt Uelmen aka the composer for Diablo 1 and 2, and some of the tracks in the World of Warcraft expansions. Some of the tracks give off a strong Diablo 2 vibe which is something that I would describe as being a huge positive.

Otherwise, the review is boss.

Nintendo Week (with Gary and Alison, on Wii) >>>>>>>>>>> Nintendo Minute - and it's not even close.

I'm playing it now for the first time and I'm absolutely loving it. It's aged remarkably well - maybe better than any N64 game I've played.

I really hate the art style in the remasters. Like...I don't usually care all that about that sort of thing...but in this case, the aesthetic is so bad that I literally don't think I'll buy it specifically for that reason.

Chi-com Stability Confirmed.

@Specter_of-the_OLED I'm not sure if I would include PS3 in that category. It had an abysmally slow start, true...but by the end of its lifespan, it ended up selling 87 million units - only about 14 million less than the Wii. I'd say that was pretty dang good, all things considering.

I certainly wouldn't put it in the category of "Most Powerful Systems of That Flopped In Its Generation". I mean, I would have more or less agreed with your assessment had the list given was made up of most powerful consoles that didn't take first place.

As for the rest of what you wrote...

• I know the caveat was hardware that attempted to be the most powerful while also innovating, but I wouldn't consider most of those consoles to be hugely innovative. Just my opinion, tho.
• Dreamcast doesn't belong on that list, as it was, by far, the weakest console of its generation.
• Where is Vita? It is the poster child of immensely powerful consoles that flopped.
• GameCube and N64 were arguably the most powerful consoles of their generation and both were eclipsed by their competition (especially the former).

So, I know this is an old article and I doubt many people are reading the comments, but I wanted to add something interesting...

I started having a really bad Left Stick drift problem on my Pro Controller that kind just abruptly came out of nowhere. I tried calibrating. No dice.

I tried de-syncing then re-syncing. Nothing.

So then I looked up how to fix it and found this article. Not having all of the necessary stuff to clean the insides of the stick right now, a simple (if slightly strange) idea randomly popped into my head:

HOW I FIXED THE ISSUE

1. Instead of putting the console into sleep mode, I decided to turn the system off completely, manually - pressing the power button until the "Turn off" option appears.

2. I let the Switch sit powered off for a minute. I also set the Pro Controller aside and didn't touch it.

3. I turned the Switch back on - again, manually, pressing down on the power button on the console itself.

4. Once it powered on and it was at the screen lock (where you have to press a button three times to get in), I picked up the Pro Controller and tapped the buttons until it synced/connected.

5. I booted up the game I was playing (Diablo 2) and lo and behold, the drift was entirely gone!

My thought was that maybe during a reboot (like when the system updated), the control stick was moved and it stayed like that, ever so slightly - but who knows.

It worked for me, maybe it'll work for someone else, too

"it doesn't quite manage to avoid falling into the trap of having its protagonists come across as rather spoiled white folk intruding where they simply don't belong."

Why is sort of casual racism acceptable in the media today? It's honestly very unnecessary and legitimately racist. Please leave skin color-based generalizations out of your reviews.

Aside from that, the review was really detailed and informative.

@Anti-Matter In your response to me, you referred to yourself in the first person 15 times.

The number of times that you used 2nd person pronouns (ie "you", "your", "you all", etc): 0

The number of times to you referred to anyone else in the comments section using 3rd person pronouns (ie "he/her","they", "them", "their", etc): 0.

I suppose that in one small line, your did use the (somewhat vague and detached) "someone" to refer to the people you've rubbed the wrong way, so I suppose the argument could be made for 1. Of course, it was one word in a sea of repetitive "me, me, me" "I, I, I" nonsense, so...it seems pretty inconsequential.

I'm not going to spend time addressing anything else you wrote bc you've literally written the nearly the same exact things about 20 times already. I honestly can't tell if you're maybe just a child, or if you're just an uber fanboy /apologist for Nintendo, or both. You could also be a troll, or all three of those things.

@snatcher Directly? Yeah. I've been noticing his comments for awhile, this is just the first time I decided to wade into it (mostly out of boredom, admittedly).

@savage_joe Thanks - I appreciate the endorsement haha.

Anyway, carry on!

@-wc- Off-topic, but I just wanted to say that your mentioning Gameplayer was kinda cool to see. It was totally my favorite gaming magazine during that era. The absurd surrealist / irreverent humor in it was genuinely entertaining and kind of ahead of its time, imo. It was sort of like the Adult Swim of videogame mags (long before Adult Swim was even a popular thing).

Anyway, I think it was very underrated then and is rarely mentioned now (imo), so it was a pleasant surprise to see you name drop it. Those were some good times.

@Anti-Matter I think the reason why you're annoying everyone is the fact that everything you say is "me, me, me". It's what you want and it seems like you could care less about anyone else's experiences.

Is basic empathy, understanding and the acknowledgement of others' concerns really that difficult? Like, literally everyone is happy that you enjoy the game, but - if you can't understand or acknowledge the reasons for why others wouldn't - then why even bother having a conversation?

We get it that you like Permanent EXP Share and believe that everyone should be like you and just enjoy the game as it is and accept all of developer's decisions - like, we got it the first 25 times you said it.

It's the fact that you keep repeating yourself in an incredibly self-centered sort way that is rubbing people the wrong way. It's just really strange (but - then again - maybe you really are just doing it on purpose. I dunno.)

Anyway - shifting gears now - I obviously believe that more options are never a bad thing. It is pretty much always a net positive. And as for the topic of random battles - I actually prefer the surprise aspect of pokemon being concealed until a battle begins over seeing them in the overworld. But maybe that's because I'm a 38 year old, old school gamer who's overly set in his ways haha.

It makes sense. You can't put small miscellaneous items inside of it - seems like there's an invisible barrier to all but the player. Good find, though.

Now as for the update itself?

After my kinda-sorta hugely impressive yet incredibly time consuming feat of breeding all but one of every single rare-type flower in the game (which as anyone who's ever gone down the flower breeding rabbit hole could attest, is an insanely complicated task), I eventually found the game tiresome and needed to "take a break".

That break ended up being several months long. Prior to this October, I'd probably played the game only 2 or 3 times during that span of time. But then after seeing just how massive of an update 2.0 would be, I felt strangely compelled to return to the game and to prep my island for all of the new things.

The first thing on my agenda? Finally breed the stupid purple windflower I needed and convert land into a full-fledged farm. I put a 120% into that task and by November 1, I finally succeeded! <3 And, not to brag, but the farm area looks fantastic - especially with all the veggies.

As for Happy Home Paradise? What can I say about it - except that it's amazing. The miniature sandboxes have totally helped me to try out new ideas with my island. It's really re-fueled my creativity. In fact, the projects that I've been working on now are probably among the most impressive I've ever done, both in scale and in technical detail. The replayability for it is unreal. I don't usually like paid DLC, but this was worth every penny.

The combination of that and base game 2.0 feels more like a sequel than it does an update. The wait for it was excruciating, but I'm kinda glad we got one huge update VS what might have been a more constant trickle of stuff ad nauseum. The payoff has been huge - and it made all of the waiting worth it!

"combined with the quick-travel warp pipe"

WHAT?? I didn't know the Warp Pipes are actually functional! I've actually skipped on most of the Mario stuff due to the items not really working with my island's aesthetic...but if what you said is true, then I'll def find a way to work in the Warp Pipes!

Thank you Kate Gray for filling me in on that very awesome detail! And I'm totally glad I read the article, start to finish!

OVER NINE THOUSAND!

• meme

Good lord, what a whiny, cynical lot some of you lot at the top of the thread are. I can't wait to give the expansion a go. Is AC:NH perfect? No. Is Nintendo the most business savvy company ever? No. But, I generally love the game and I more often than not love what Nintendo creates, even in spite of its occasional shortcomings. As proven above, though - you mileages clearly vary.

I can't blame them for getting the heck out of Commiefornia. Good lord, what a peak embarrassment to the union. Aside from that though, the tax rate and cost of rent there is crippling to any business, or human making less than 6 digits.