@Jucemar Very late, but after 10 hours of playing, I wanted to mention an issue I encountered in the current version.
During the mission "Shields Up" the map marker initially took me to Kiezel Fragment and as much as I tried to "land" where the marker was, I kept ending up in Kiezel Camp over and over. The marker appeared to be right below Kiezel Camp but not reachable due to cloud barriers.
I had to watch another player's walkthrough video to figure out the marker was just completely wrong.
Once I left Kiezel Fragment, the marker seemed to point to the correct location (completely across the map), but I just wanted to mention it in case it helps.
@Jucemar Thank you for letting us know, good timing
@Lebest heads up, new patch!
I just downloaded the new patch and immediately noticed the performance and texture issues I mentioned have been resolved.
-Character faces, other 2D graphics and portraits look much better now, which was my biggest drawback visually.
-Flying and movement in general is also much less stuttery and easier to control, and framerate issues seems to have been resolved as well, at least in the areas I tested.
I'm sure there's more to the patch than just what I noticed so far, but I'm happy I held off playing until the patch - I'm excited to get back into it.
Anyway, NL very likely won't revisit this title to update the score for all the peformance/texture issues being resolved, especially because it's an indie title. I hope people check the other Switch reviews besides this one, which are more reasonable and more detailed in comparison.
Having said all that, I do want to thank you and your team again for addressing the texture/performance issues so quickly and thanks for bringing this game to Switch!
@Lebest I agree with all this feedback, and have some points to add.
1. For some conversations, I could tap to progress dialogue but many of them seemed tied to a cutscene or animation and could not be controlled - it would be nice to have consistency across all text boxes so they include auto advance and the ability to manually progress at our own pace.
2. The most irritating graphical issue right now is the low res faces, I think all other textures are decent enough, but the faces make the biggest impact. Also for performance, movement with ships is fine but turning the camera while steering has a slight jutter to it and doesn't feel smooth.
3. On this point, I have to say the inclusion of a compass with waypoints (similar to games like Skyrim) is much better than Skies of Arcadia's original simple compass that just pointed directions and hidden treasure, but the flying overworld of Sky Oceans is bit more complex and requires us to "find paths" around the invisible walls that aren't a direct shot. I think this could be remedied if the world map was actually detailed with paths and invisible wall passages rather than just the general direction of major locations in the world.
@Jucemar I appreciate the work you and your team have done to make this game available on Switch and I'm especially looking forward to the patch you mentioned, hoping it drops on Switch soon.
Is it a bit janky? You bet. Good thing it's turn-based lol
Is it a 3/10 "nearly unplayable" game? Absolutely not.
Some other things this review completely failed to mention:
The music is actually pretty good (mix of high energy beats similar to Arcadia and some exploration music similar to Dark Cloud) and this review glossed right over that and sound in general.
The story so far is a bit darker than I would have expected, even by JRPG standards, but it definitely reminds me of the beginning of SoA's challenges and starting your own chapter of sky pirates by commanding your own ship.
There are some visually satisfying things in combat about it like graphics and camera angles and some of the sounds involved give the attacks and other actions an extra satisfying feel that was more popular in older JRPGS, which is fitting. Bonus points for making the MC's special attack vocals sound almost identical to Vyse from Skies of Arcadia!
The flying is not nearly as difficult as this review makes it seem. For example, it took me 2-3 minutes to complete the "beacon" section and I was baffled trying to understand how this took 30 entire minutes "due to poor controls". While the controls are not traditional (left stick accelerate/brake and right stick steer/aim), the game also gave a helpful pop up right before flying that explains exactly how to fly and I had no issues after reading these instructions. Maybe if they were using their feet or elbows to hold the controller it's possible that's why it took them 30 minutes. I suppose we'll never truly know.
Lastly, this comment about the beginning area is just false: "got turned around, flipped upside down, and lost." - bro how lol The area is small, too small to get lost in and the beacons point the exact path to take. I also couldn't find a way to flip my ship upside down, even intentionally.
@Lebest This is the norm unfortunately, and it's not just one reviewer in particular either.
It's almost as if indie games get a bad faith take while more popular ones get away with the exact same criticisms, despite the popular ones having way more money and resources. They can also be a bit unfair and overly negative with their points against an indie game.
Like this review starts by saying this game "makes plenty of promises" that it is "promising" as if the reviewer was super hyped about this relatively unknown indie title, but they seem to only phrase it that way so they can double down on the negative points immediately after. There is nothing in this review that tells me they have even played Skies of Arcadia before, which seems kind of important considering it is this indie game's entire inspiration and its fans are the target audience. The game description and marketing never boasts about realistic NPCs or cutting edge visuals, so these mentions of "failed promises" just comes off as manufactured and negative for the sake of being negative in my opinion (ragebait, basically).
This game's only "promise" that I could find is to be a retro-inspired, by-the-numbers JRPG that is very reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia and this review appears to be bashing it for being exactly what it claims to be.
They literally state even if the bugs are fixed that "Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire would still just be a basic, by-the-numbers JRPG." and as someone who is a fan of classic by-the-numbers JRPGs that remind me of Skies of Arcadia, I don't understand where the animosity is coming from. Whether or not it's intentional ragebait is not clear. What is clear is that this game is not the reviewer's cup of tea, and I do feel bad this person (or people) had to force themselves to play a game they clearly didn't enjoy to make the short release date review deadline.
Anyway - I picked this game up anyway because I'm a hardcore Skies of Arcadia fan and other reviews I read said it was about average and that's good enough for me.
I'm glad I started listening to other reviewers because this game was made for fans of Skies of Arcadia like me, not someone who is unrealistically expecting Octopath Traveler levels of quality from a small team indie dev.
@betterthanvegas Anyone that makes a habit of reading reviews before buying would know to never buy a game with a 5/10 review unless you know something the reviewer doesn't or if you got a personal recommendation.
I'll try not to belabor this point any longer, there is a clear difference of effort in reviewing/covering indie games versus full-blown budget games.
That point has only been made clearer with regard to how they're covering this indie game's constant updates with new articles, but they can't be bothered to revisit their low score review with an "Updated" section, something I have seen them do countless times for bigger budget games.
The point is clear to me: I shouldn't rely on this site for indie reviews.
I should point out that I'm not some "stan" for Sandrock or Pathea, I enjoy their game quite a bit, but I haven't even played this for longer than 10 hours. I would argue this point with any other indie game that I know is good but isn't being treated fairly compared to full budget games.
I'm also not mentioning this for the benefit of the game itself, it's for the benefit of NL to improve - there are countless other reviews that cover the game more accurately, and Pathea will be just as successful/unsuccessful with or without the NL review.
@betterthanvegas All good points, but in this case, the reviewer has quite a record of reviewing farm sim games and I believe they're pretty experienced in the genre.
Unfortunately they just did not like this one in particular, which is fine, but if you're going to land on 5/10, you have to have more substantial reasoning than what was provided.
5/10 is a "don't even touch this" kind of sentiment, which I feel is just not appropriate considering its popularity among the farm sim community and the "reasoning" comes off as arbitrary and personal rather than an objective view all gamers can appreciate.
It's just an opportunity for Nintendo Life to right a wrong, that's all. They don't have to do a thing if they don't want to.
If nothing else, that review made me pay attention to how they review indie games versus how they review games from established devs with more money, and how they sometimes hold a different set of standards for each.
Edit: Welp, they're not going to do anything about the review score, as indicated by the note below.
See note at the top of the Sandrock Review: "Since this review was published, an update has reportedly improved one or more of the issues cited. Unfortunately, we cannot revisit games on an individual basis, but it should be noted that the patched game currently available may offer an improved experience over the one detailed below."
I should point out, nearly all the game I bought on Switch at launch last year had performance issues, so if this is their standard protocol for all games, not just indie games, that's a pretty bad protocol.
This is great, and the game is great! Pathea has a reputation of long time patches and support, so this aligns with their previous updates to Portia, and I think their attentiveness comparable to CDPR and Hello Games regarding constant care and attention after a game is released, especially on Switch.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but this game still has a 5/10 from Nintendo Life for the reasons "Dull Graphics, Terrible Performance, and Doesn't do anything you haven't seen before"
Launch performance issues aside, My Time at Sandrock is a steampunk/post apocalyptic farming game where you don't just farm, but you mine parts and resources and build loads of vehicles, furniture, and all sorts of other things I've never seen in other farming games. The graphic style is also pretty comparable to most other farming games - cartoon/pixar style.
Were the performance issues really the reason for such a low score? Why did the reviewer expect this indie farming game to be so wildly different from other farming games, even though they don't hold more popular games like Story of Seasons to the same standard?
It's disappointing NL gave a 5/10 review to this indie game for mostly arbitrary reasons, but I hope they revisit that review and score.
I wish porting developers would focus more on size reduction in games, especially for Switch.
For example, The Witcher 3: Complete Edition is 57.23GB on Steam/PC and the Switch version is now at almost 40GB. It didn't used to be this way.
When it originally dropped, the Switch port was around 18-20GB, but after tons of updates, it's almost the same size as the PC version that includes massive HD textures and likely better quality audio. I don't like this trend and it's hard to understand why there's so much bloat on Switch games.
Meanwhile, the Switch version of Kingdom Come is only about 14GB and the PC version is a whopping 68.05GB. This can be a selling point as you're getting the same game and experience (arguably) for way less file space, and unless you have a Steam Deck or similar, the portability is also a selling factor for this version of the game.
I really hope the Switch version of Kingdom Come doesn't bloat over time like the Witcher 3 did ... I own the Cartridge version of The Witcher 3, but it's still unplayable unless you download an additional 11GB of update files.
And don't even get me started on the Physical version of LA Noire's ridiculous mandatory update file size ...
@ScalenePowers I first discovered the franchise on the PSP (Trails in the Sky I believe), and what charmed me into it was the 2D sprites in a 3D environment type graphical style, but the more recent titles have been fully 3D and I think they go back to the PS3 era of consoles.
I'm no expert on the franchise, more of an admirer really, but I know all the games in the franchise take place in the same world, and each "series" has completely separate storylines that typically dip into the other games storylines. What I mean is there are "series" of the game such as "Trails of Cold Steel", which is different from "Trails in the Sky" but so long as you begin with the first game of whatever "series" strikes your fancy, you should be good to start from there.
If you play other games in the franchise, you will benefit from knowing the history of certain characters and events that may not be fully detailed in that game, but their chronicles are usually expanded further in another game (sometimes with them as the main character). This basically means the more of these games you play, the more tuned into the lore you will be and you can therefore appreciate the writing a lot more because once some things get revealed, you look at characters very differently than if you didn't already know their history.
I've waffled this answer enough, back to your question: I'd say the best and most accessible legal way to play these games is on PC or, if you already have an older console like a PSP, PS Vita, PS3, or even PS4, I think Sony has the entire library across their systems, but I could be wrong.
Edit: I totally mis-read your question, sorry!
For Switch-only users: it's tough because Trails of Cold Steel is amazing, but we only have 3 and 4. You can still fully enjoy these games by either watching a quick youtube recap video, but each game also has an impressive encyclopedia right on the main menu and you can read up on each event and character that took place before the game. I'm glad they did this, but it's admittedly boring to read about it rather than play it.
I can't speak much to the many other games of this franchise on Switch since I'm still digesting Cold Stall 3 and 4, but Trails from Zero looks really good, especially if you prefer the 2D sprites over 3D environments visual style.
I very was surprised to learn Yuzu was either considering or had already implemented a paid subscription model. This whole time I thought the things was free like all other emulators.
In all honesty, I'm not completely against all forms of piracy, I think there are some cases to be made, especially about older games that fetch crazy prices and no option for non-collectors who just want to play the software.
With that said, I'm pretty happy Yuzu, or any other company, won't be profiting off other people's hard work.
Be warned, these games are chock full of conversations, events, and content, and they're not the kind of games you can just speed run to completion. There's plenty of combat and action, but also quite a lot of focus on dialogue and character development. Oh, and waifus. Can't forget them.
This is very much a "Take your time" kind of game, and that's the primary reason I forbid myself from buying any more games from this franchise until I complete Cold Steel 3 and 4.
And with that, I'll take this as my reminder to get back on that ol' horse again.
@Truegamer79 I definitely hear you there. My only console was Switch for a few years, so I got used to some choppiness and jaggies now and again.
The problems began when I got an Xbox SX and a Steam Deck, now I suddenly notice things like frame drops and jagged edges bother me more than they used to. I'm sure a lot of people here complaining about Switch or Switch ports can't help but compare to more powerful machines (console/PC).
I think people have a right to be upset if a company launches a bundle that includes a poorly performing game while making it impossible to purchase the other better performing games separately.
I assume a lot of the anger from some people is due to them being initially excited to play one or all of the Arkham games on Switch, and then finding out the port for Knight just wasn't good or the original game just wasn't ideal for porting, but the company wanted to make money, so that's what they did.
We definitely don't need to get the pitchforks out for one bad port, all we need to do is stop buying products from companies that make consistently bad or greedy decisions.
@Truegamer79 I appreciate your view because it's a bit different from the others - they mean well, but isn't there something to be said about adding 13GB of file size to a game and only making it slightly better?
I'd also like to hear your take on the issues on launch and present - do you think they're a bit overhyped?
I played all the way through The Outer Worlds on Switch, and despite the muddy graphics and choppy performance, I still had a good time and played all the content available, so I think I understand where you're coming from.
For 27.636 GB of your Switch's file space, you can play the choppiest and stutteriest mess of a version of Arkham Knight, a game that lets you traverse an open world city, like many other Switch games and ports.
Or, for only 5.251 GB of your Switch's file space, you can play a surprisingly crisp and fluid portable version of No Man's Sky, a game that lets you traverse a whole universe with infinite planets and nearly endless gameplay.
I understand file size isn't the issue, that's usually due to audio files or textures, but after adding 13GB of updates on a console with pretty limited file space (and competing with better games at smaller file sizes), this is the kind of move that drop your game from "Wow, this is kind of bad" to "That port was a shameless cash grab and I won't trust this company again".
I'm late to the party, but if they don't release this as DLC for the original release, I'll be pretty disappointed.
I have SMTV as a physical cart and I barely have 6 hours under my belt, I just didn't expect to be "left behind" so quickly. Same goes for Persona 3, I have the portable version still to beat but there's also another version of the same game that obviously looks much better.
They're "remastering" these games way too quickly these days ... I can't keep up.
I like Portia and Sandrock. They got a nice post-apoc/western/steampunk setting and it all takes place in an interesting world with (mostly) interesting characters. It's a world I want to explore.
Pathea seem like good people, but a bit of a slow burn when it comes to polishing their game. It's probably a poor comparison but they remind me of CDPR a little bit.
Not many people talk about it today, but The Witcher 3 originally released with it's own criticisms and bugs, but over time they patched it and added tons and tons of features, just like they did with Cyberpunk 2077. I picked up the Switch version of the game and played for the first time and had no idea they made so many changes because people stopped talking about it after they patched and added content.
My point is, franchises like this are for patient gamers. Ones who either enjoy seeing progress and improvements over time or one who can set a game aside for half a year or so and come back to hopefully find a well-polished game.
I think Pathea did well polishing Portia to be the best game it could be, and signs look good they will do the same with Sandrock.
Now I gotta re-download it on Steam and see what's changed.
Hopefully this means giving attention to long list of established franchises rather than trying to create new ones every year. Star Ocean, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy - they have soooooo many established franchises to dip into.
Harvestella and Various Daylife aren't the worst games ever, but they're basically experimental farm/life sim games, and it definitely shows.
Those games kind of just felt like they said "life sims are trending right now, we should do this next" but didn't actually understand what makes games like Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, or Story of Seasons actually fun.
They didn't do anything new for the genre, they just did what was already done with a new coat of Square Enix paint.
I hope they return to their JRPG roots, it's what they do best.
@Godzil This is a good point about Ubi games on Switch.
Even though Ubi's policy is usually very anti-consumer for PC and other consoles (Must connect to internet and/or create uPlay account), the Switch versions of the Assassin's Creed games are thankfully free of all that nonsense and you can play offline with no issues.
We probably have Nintendo to thank for that more than Ubi, but it's still a nice loophole.
No, that's just what the company wants to happen. We as consumers don't "need" to do anything and we don't owe these companies anything.
This is the kind of stupid company-brained logic you run into when each company is expected to make record profits every single year while simultaneously not giving their employees yearly raises.
This would be a big deal if it came from CDPR, Bethesda, or Larian, but Ubi only produces bargain bin games as of late, so who cares.
I guess the newly added "powers" act as cheat codes more than anything. Good that you can turn them off though.
Good point though, the levels in Bloody Money are definitely small enough to easily memorize where everyone is after one play through.
In my opinion, that's like most of the fun of playing through it for the first time - watching people and seeing their patterns. I think having Batman mode on would ruin that fun, but to each their own.
The game that both made me fall in love with gaming while subsequently ruining my expectations for all future games is: The Elder Scrolls Oblivion.
The journey to get this game was tough and earned. I babysat my little brother and sister all through summer break and, in exchange, my parents bought me a Playstation 3 for my birthday, along with Oblivion as my first game for the system. This costed over $600 at the time, so it was a big deal in my life and I had never received such an expensive gift.
Prior to this, I spent weeks perusing gaming websites, scraping every detail I could about the game and what I could do. I never played Morrowind and could hardly believe a game like this even existed. I obsessed over screenshots and even planned for months on my character's name and class. I was literally counting down the days to my birthday. I figured all this research and hype would prepare me for what was to come, but nothing could prepare me for such unbridled freedom that is found in Oblivion.
It's difficult to say if I would want to experience this all over again, as my standards for gaming have become wayyyy too high after playing this game, and they've barely come down since then. I love Oblivion with all my heart, but part of me wishes I had lower standards so I could be more open to other games.
@Summer235 These are good points, and I'm sure what these people are saying is totally valid from their perspectives.
However, if their goal is to get this person to stop talking about a certain subject, they should realize poking and prodding them about this subject repeatedly and from multiple users is not the way to get them to stop. The best way is having self control and not giving it more attention.
I don't know Anti-Matter's previous activity/history, but also, it shouldn't matter. If their activity was a problem, they would be banned by now, right?
From my perspective in just these comments, it looks a lot like harassment from multiple people, hence my reason for nosing in.
@Steel76 Perhaps if people stopped harassing Anti-Matter for their unique game preferences, they would stop elaborating on their unique game preferences, or at least do it less often.
The thing you and others are complaining about is also something you're actively provoking.
@Yeet333 Yes, Skies of Arcadia is very much a classic turn-based JRPG, but it's got some elements not found in other games.
I'll try to sell you on it real quick: -Turn-based Airship Combat and Airship customization! -A unique world filled with floating islands of all different people and cultures, including an evil empire. -Hunt for treasure/discoveries all across the overworld. -In the mid-late game, you will establish, build, and customize your own floating island base of operations. -Recruit dozens of crew members to your pirate gang, and get benefits for doing so. -Walk around your ship and just chill out whenever you want to stop exploring and fighting.
The closest thing I can think of to this game is maybe Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but flying and fighting in airships is probably my favorite part of SoA, the airship combat is quite unique.
@Yeet333 Sure, anyone could argue there's no game "just like" any other game, only games that play very similar and/or look very similar, right?
Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio were release over two decades ago.
-In this 20+ years, many games were released that let you drive around doing frantic and wacky challenges, like Crazy Taxi.
-In this 20+ years, many games were released that allow fun traversal through an artistically impressive world, like Jet Set Radio.
Aside from these genres being heavily explored over the years, the Jet Set Radio franchise has had two entries and an HD re-release, while Crazy Taxi got 3 console titles and 3 portable/mobile titles.
Skies of Arcadia got a Dreamcast release, a Gamecube release (with some added content), and they "mercifully" added cameo characters into Valkyria Chronicles 1, but that is literally all they've done this entire time.
I'm just rooting for my underdog here, it's okay if you disagree.
To be fair, the taxi-like games I see on steam are mostly bad in my experience and they veer more towards simulator/realism rather than a fast paced arcade type of gameplay, which prominent in Crazy Taxi and Simpsons: Hit and Run.
Though it's not identical to Crazy Taxi, you should check out Snakeybus (if you haven't already).
@kkslider5552000 I think you misunderstood, I have no delusions about a brand new Skies of Arcadia title. I personally think that would risk ruining the franchise. Nothing can beat the original, and they shouldn't even try in my opinion.
I'm only referring to an official HD re-release of SoA, which only requires HD textures and widescreen support. If you're not familiar, it's a very simple looking game with fixed camera angles in most areas, there's no need for fancy graphical techniques unless they wanted to push for a full blown remaster, which would be very surprising.
There's also the fact that anyone can play this game today on PC with very little effort. Fans like me are just asking for the ability to pay Sega for an official re-release on consoles.
When I play a game that demands a lot of my time, I like to know that my progress will not suddenly be erased later down the road, which is basically guaranteed with all MMOs.
Unless there is an offline mode I'm not aware of, I will have to pass on this game, though that is the only reason.
Ever since playing Starfield, I'm trying to avoid games that deliberately waste my time, and unfortunately, all MMOs fall into this category.
@Serpenterror I mean, Crazy Taxi is a cool franchise, but there are like 20 indie games just like it. Same goes for Jet Set Radio and Streets of Rage.
Didn't they consider that the sales may not be as amazing as they hope because of all this competition? Wouldn't it be terrible for some of these games to be outshined by indie games doing a better job already?
Meanwhile, no game can compete with the world of Skies of Arcadia, and yet this game will continue to rot on the Dreamcast/Gamecube.
This reminds me of when a certain author declared a well established character was secretly gay all along ... and this was declared after the multi-title series was already concluded. It also had no bearing on the plot.
There should be a name for this lazy after-the-fact insertion of "lore", but I guess we'll have to settle for just referring to this as "bad writing".
Someone needs to save these works of art from their creators. I blame George Lucas for starting this trend.
@iLikeUrAttitude Framerate is almost impossible to debate because it's always subjective. They're not saying an issue doesn't exist, they're just saying they didn't notice it and they don't want to stop enjoying something just because someone else isn't enjoying it.
Some games, like Pokemon Scarlet/Violet are almost unanimous in that most people agree the framerates are terrible, but not everyone agrees to what is "playable" and "not playable".
A game like TOTK struggles to keep 30 FPS, and even though that game is real-time and not turn-based, choppy frames never hindered my ability to play the game well, and I think the same is true for Dark Prince.
A patch to improve frames would be very much appreciated, but I don't think the framerate is hurting this game nearly as much as other recent entries.
Though, to be fair, this is coming from someone who played Rune Factory 5 and Deadly Premonition 2 on Switch and still had a good time, so take it with a grain of salt as you would any opinion.
Comments 948
Re: Review: Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire (Switch) - A Pale Imitation Of The JRPG Classics That Inspired It
@Jucemar Very late, but after 10 hours of playing, I wanted to mention an issue I encountered in the current version.
During the mission "Shields Up" the map marker initially took me to Kiezel Fragment and as much as I tried to "land" where the marker was, I kept ending up in Kiezel Camp over and over. The marker appeared to be right below Kiezel Camp but not reachable due to cloud barriers.
I had to watch another player's walkthrough video to figure out the marker was just completely wrong.
Once I left Kiezel Fragment, the marker seemed to point to the correct location (completely across the map), but I just wanted to mention it in case it helps.
This happened on 1.0.2 for Switch.
Re: Review: Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire (Switch) - A Pale Imitation Of The JRPG Classics That Inspired It
@Jucemar Thank you for letting us know, good timing
@Lebest heads up, new patch!
I just downloaded the new patch and immediately noticed the performance and texture issues I mentioned have been resolved.
-Character faces, other 2D graphics and portraits look much better now, which was my biggest drawback visually.
-Flying and movement in general is also much less stuttery and easier to control, and framerate issues seems to have been resolved as well, at least in the areas I tested.
I'm sure there's more to the patch than just what I noticed so far, but I'm happy I held off playing until the patch - I'm excited to get back into it.
Anyway, NL very likely won't revisit this title to update the score for all the peformance/texture issues being resolved, especially because it's an indie title. I hope people check the other Switch reviews besides this one, which are more reasonable and more detailed in comparison.
Having said all that, I do want to thank you and your team again for addressing the texture/performance issues so quickly and thanks for bringing this game to Switch!
Re: Review: Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire (Switch) - A Pale Imitation Of The JRPG Classics That Inspired It
@Lebest I agree with all this feedback, and have some points to add.
1. For some conversations, I could tap to progress dialogue but many of them seemed tied to a cutscene or animation and could not be controlled - it would be nice to have consistency across all text boxes so they include auto advance and the ability to manually progress at our own pace.
2. The most irritating graphical issue right now is the low res faces, I think all other textures are decent enough, but the faces make the biggest impact. Also for performance, movement with ships is fine but turning the camera while steering has a slight jutter to it and doesn't feel smooth.
3. On this point, I have to say the inclusion of a compass with waypoints (similar to games like Skyrim) is much better than Skies of Arcadia's original simple compass that just pointed directions and hidden treasure, but the flying overworld of Sky Oceans is bit more complex and requires us to "find paths" around the invisible walls that aren't a direct shot. I think this could be remedied if the world map was actually detailed with paths and invisible wall passages rather than just the general direction of major locations in the world.
@Jucemar I appreciate the work you and your team have done to make this game available on Switch and I'm especially looking forward to the patch you mentioned, hoping it drops on Switch soon.
Re: Review: Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire (Switch) - A Pale Imitation Of The JRPG Classics That Inspired It
@completo88 You know, it's pretty pointless to try and convince someone a game is bad when I've already mentioned I'm playing it and enjoying it.
Too bad for you.
Did you notice there are about 12 Steam reviews at this time and all of them recommend the game?
Re: Review: Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire (Switch) - A Pale Imitation Of The JRPG Classics That Inspired It
@Lebest Right on, I'm just getting started also.
Is it a bit janky? You bet. Good thing it's turn-based lol
Is it a 3/10 "nearly unplayable" game? Absolutely not.
Some other things this review completely failed to mention:
This is not a serious review.
Re: Review: Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire (Switch) - A Pale Imitation Of The JRPG Classics That Inspired It
@Lebest This is the norm unfortunately, and it's not just one reviewer in particular either.
It's almost as if indie games get a bad faith take while more popular ones get away with the exact same criticisms, despite the popular ones having way more money and resources. They can also be a bit unfair and overly negative with their points against an indie game.
Like this review starts by saying this game "makes plenty of promises" that it is "promising" as if the reviewer was super hyped about this relatively unknown indie title, but they seem to only phrase it that way so they can double down on the negative points immediately after. There is nothing in this review that tells me they have even played Skies of Arcadia before, which seems kind of important considering it is this indie game's entire inspiration and its fans are the target audience. The game description and marketing never boasts about realistic NPCs or cutting edge visuals, so these mentions of "failed promises" just comes off as manufactured and negative for the sake of being negative in my opinion (ragebait, basically).
This game's only "promise" that I could find is to be a retro-inspired, by-the-numbers JRPG that is very reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia and this review appears to be bashing it for being exactly what it claims to be.
They literally state even if the bugs are fixed that "Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire would still just be a basic, by-the-numbers JRPG." and as someone who is a fan of classic by-the-numbers JRPGs that remind me of Skies of Arcadia, I don't understand where the animosity is coming from. Whether or not it's intentional ragebait is not clear. What is clear is that this game is not the reviewer's cup of tea, and I do feel bad this person (or people) had to force themselves to play a game they clearly didn't enjoy to make the short release date review deadline.
Anyway - I picked this game up anyway because I'm a hardcore Skies of Arcadia fan and other reviews I read said it was about average and that's good enough for me.
I'm glad I started listening to other reviewers because this game was made for fans of Skies of Arcadia like me, not someone who is unrealistically expecting Octopath Traveler levels of quality from a small team indie dev.
Re: My Time At Sandrock Lands Enhanced Visuals And New Content In Latest Update
@Solomon_Rambling Yeah, I'm not going to spend any more time talking about this issue.
I already said my piece in the original review and the reviewer responded with answers that had the same "warmth" as a typical AI generated response.
I just realized it's pretty stupid of me or anyone else to constantly complain about something we don't actually have to partake in.
So off I go - one less thorn in NL's side.
Re: My Time At Sandrock Lands Enhanced Visuals And New Content In Latest Update
@betterthanvegas Anyone that makes a habit of reading reviews before buying would know to never buy a game with a 5/10 review unless you know something the reviewer doesn't or if you got a personal recommendation.
I'll try not to belabor this point any longer, there is a clear difference of effort in reviewing/covering indie games versus full-blown budget games.
That point has only been made clearer with regard to how they're covering this indie game's constant updates with new articles, but they can't be bothered to revisit their low score review with an "Updated" section, something I have seen them do countless times for bigger budget games.
The point is clear to me: I shouldn't rely on this site for indie reviews.
I should point out that I'm not some "stan" for Sandrock or Pathea, I enjoy their game quite a bit, but I haven't even played this for longer than 10 hours. I would argue this point with any other indie game that I know is good but isn't being treated fairly compared to full budget games.
I'm also not mentioning this for the benefit of the game itself, it's for the benefit of NL to improve - there are countless other reviews that cover the game more accurately, and Pathea will be just as successful/unsuccessful with or without the NL review.
Re: My Time At Sandrock Lands Enhanced Visuals And New Content In Latest Update
@betterthanvegas All good points, but in this case, the reviewer has quite a record of reviewing farm sim games and I believe they're pretty experienced in the genre.
Unfortunately they just did not like this one in particular, which is fine, but if you're going to land on 5/10, you have to have more substantial reasoning than what was provided.
5/10 is a "don't even touch this" kind of sentiment, which I feel is just not appropriate considering its popularity among the farm sim community and the "reasoning" comes off as arbitrary and personal rather than an objective view all gamers can appreciate.
It's just an opportunity for Nintendo Life to right a wrong, that's all. They don't have to do a thing if they don't want to.
If nothing else, that review made me pay attention to how they review indie games versus how they review games from established devs with more money, and how they sometimes hold a different set of standards for each.
Edit: Welp, they're not going to do anything about the review score, as indicated by the note below.
See note at the top of the Sandrock Review: "Since this review was published, an update has reportedly improved one or more of the issues cited. Unfortunately, we cannot revisit games on an individual basis, but it should be noted that the patched game currently available may offer an improved experience over the one detailed below."
I should point out, nearly all the game I bought on Switch at launch last year had performance issues, so if this is their standard protocol for all games, not just indie games, that's a pretty bad protocol.
Re: My Time At Sandrock Lands Enhanced Visuals And New Content In Latest Update
This is great, and the game is great! Pathea has a reputation of long time patches and support, so this aligns with their previous updates to Portia, and I think their attentiveness comparable to CDPR and Hello Games regarding constant care and attention after a game is released, especially on Switch.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but this game still has a 5/10 from Nintendo Life for the reasons "Dull Graphics, Terrible Performance, and Doesn't do anything you haven't seen before"
Launch performance issues aside, My Time at Sandrock is a steampunk/post apocalyptic farming game where you don't just farm, but you mine parts and resources and build loads of vehicles, furniture, and all sorts of other things I've never seen in other farming games. The graphic style is also pretty comparable to most other farming games - cartoon/pixar style.
Were the performance issues really the reason for such a low score? Why did the reviewer expect this indie farming game to be so wildly different from other farming games, even though they don't hold more popular games like Story of Seasons to the same standard?
It's disappointing NL gave a 5/10 review to this indie game for mostly arbitrary reasons, but I hope they revisit that review and score.
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Kingdom Come Deliverance On Switch
@Dm9982 LA Noire is a whole other level of stupid.
PC/Steam version is 13.8GB.
Switch version is somehow 27.5GB.
I can't help but conclude the Switch version has to have about 14 GB of 100% bloat.
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Kingdom Come Deliverance On Switch
I wish porting developers would focus more on size reduction in games, especially for Switch.
For example, The Witcher 3: Complete Edition is 57.23GB on Steam/PC and the Switch version is now at almost 40GB. It didn't used to be this way.
When it originally dropped, the Switch port was around 18-20GB, but after tons of updates, it's almost the same size as the PC version that includes massive HD textures and likely better quality audio. I don't like this trend and it's hard to understand why there's so much bloat on Switch games.
Meanwhile, the Switch version of Kingdom Come is only about 14GB and the PC version is a whopping 68.05GB. This can be a selling point as you're getting the same game and experience (arguably) for way less file space, and unless you have a Steam Deck or similar, the portability is also a selling factor for this version of the game.
I really hope the Switch version of Kingdom Come doesn't bloat over time like the Witcher 3 did ... I own the Cartridge version of The Witcher 3, but it's still unplayable unless you download an additional 11GB of update files.
And don't even get me started on the Physical version of LA Noire's ridiculous mandatory update file size ...
Re: Video: Solid Snake Himself Dives Into A Brief History Of Metal Gear Solid
Hayters gonna Hayt
Not a fan of Konami as of late, but get your bag, dude - I'll always be a fan of the OG Snake.
Re: Trails Through Daybreak Storms Onto Switch This July
@ScalenePowers I first discovered the franchise on the PSP (Trails in the Sky I believe), and what charmed me into it was the 2D sprites in a 3D environment type graphical style, but the more recent titles have been fully 3D and I think they go back to the PS3 era of consoles.
I'm no expert on the franchise, more of an admirer really, but I know all the games in the franchise take place in the same world, and each "series" has completely separate storylines that typically dip into the other games storylines. What I mean is there are "series" of the game such as "Trails of Cold Steel", which is different from "Trails in the Sky" but so long as you begin with the first game of whatever "series" strikes your fancy, you should be good to start from there.
If you play other games in the franchise, you will benefit from knowing the history of certain characters and events that may not be fully detailed in that game, but their chronicles are usually expanded further in another game (sometimes with them as the main character). This basically means the more of these games you play, the more tuned into the lore you will be and you can therefore appreciate the writing a lot more because once some things get revealed, you look at characters very differently than if you didn't already know their history.
I've waffled this answer enough, back to your question: I'd say the best and most accessible legal way to play these games is on PC or, if you already have an older console like a PSP, PS Vita, PS3, or even PS4, I think Sony has the entire library across their systems, but I could be wrong.
Edit: I totally mis-read your question, sorry!
For Switch-only users: it's tough because Trails of Cold Steel is amazing, but we only have 3 and 4. You can still fully enjoy these games by either watching a quick youtube recap video, but each game also has an impressive encyclopedia right on the main menu and you can read up on each event and character that took place before the game. I'm glad they did this, but it's admittedly boring to read about it rather than play it.
I can't speak much to the many other games of this franchise on Switch since I'm still digesting Cold Stall 3 and 4, but Trails from Zero looks really good, especially if you prefer the 2D sprites over 3D environments visual style.
Re: Reaction: Nintendo's Switch Emulator Fallout Is Shocking Only Because It Took This Long
@SpaceboyScreams
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine"
Couldn't resist.
Re: Reaction: Nintendo's Switch Emulator Fallout Is Shocking Only Because It Took This Long
I very was surprised to learn Yuzu was either considering or had already implemented a paid subscription model. This whole time I thought the things was free like all other emulators.
In all honesty, I'm not completely against all forms of piracy, I think there are some cases to be made, especially about older games that fetch crazy prices and no option for non-collectors who just want to play the software.
With that said, I'm pretty happy Yuzu, or any other company, won't be profiting off other people's hard work.
Re: Trails Through Daybreak Storms Onto Switch This July
@JohnnyMind Welcome to the franchise!
Be warned, these games are chock full of conversations, events, and content, and they're not the kind of games you can just speed run to completion. There's plenty of combat and action, but also quite a lot of focus on dialogue and character development. Oh, and waifus. Can't forget them.
This is very much a "Take your time" kind of game, and that's the primary reason I forbid myself from buying any more games from this franchise until I complete Cold Steel 3 and 4.
And with that, I'll take this as my reminder to get back on that ol' horse again.
Re: Batman: Arkham Knight Still Runs Poorly On Switch Despite Massive Update
@Truegamer79 I definitely hear you there. My only console was Switch for a few years, so I got used to some choppiness and jaggies now and again.
The problems began when I got an Xbox SX and a Steam Deck, now I suddenly notice things like frame drops and jagged edges bother me more than they used to. I'm sure a lot of people here complaining about Switch or Switch ports can't help but compare to more powerful machines (console/PC).
I think people have a right to be upset if a company launches a bundle that includes a poorly performing game while making it impossible to purchase the other better performing games separately.
I assume a lot of the anger from some people is due to them being initially excited to play one or all of the Arkham games on Switch, and then finding out the port for Knight just wasn't good or the original game just wasn't ideal for porting, but the company wanted to make money, so that's what they did.
We definitely don't need to get the pitchforks out for one bad port, all we need to do is stop buying products from companies that make consistently bad or greedy decisions.
Re: Batman: Arkham Knight Still Runs Poorly On Switch Despite Massive Update
@Truegamer79 I appreciate your view because it's a bit different from the others - they mean well, but isn't there something to be said about adding 13GB of file size to a game and only making it slightly better?
I'd also like to hear your take on the issues on launch and present - do you think they're a bit overhyped?
I played all the way through The Outer Worlds on Switch, and despite the muddy graphics and choppy performance, I still had a good time and played all the content available, so I think I understand where you're coming from.
Re: Batman: Arkham Knight Still Runs Poorly On Switch Despite Massive Update
I'm having trouble understanding.
For 27.636 GB of your Switch's file space, you can play the choppiest and stutteriest mess of a version of Arkham Knight, a game that lets you traverse an open world city, like many other Switch games and ports.
Or, for only 5.251 GB of your Switch's file space, you can play a surprisingly crisp and fluid portable version of No Man's Sky, a game that lets you traverse a whole universe with infinite planets and nearly endless gameplay.
I understand file size isn't the issue, that's usually due to audio files or textures, but after adding 13GB of updates on a console with pretty limited file space (and competing with better games at smaller file sizes), this is the kind of move that drop your game from "Wow, this is kind of bad" to "That port was a shameless cash grab and I won't trust this company again".
Make better decisions in the future, please.
Re: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Confirmed For Switch, Adds New Chapter & Storyline
I'm late to the party, but if they don't release this as DLC for the original release, I'll be pretty disappointed.
I have SMTV as a physical cart and I barely have 6 hours under my belt, I just didn't expect to be "left behind" so quickly. Same goes for Persona 3, I have the portable version still to beat but there's also another version of the same game that obviously looks much better.
They're "remastering" these games way too quickly these days ... I can't keep up.
Re: My Time At Sandrock's Latest Update Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Glad those bald NPCs were able to grow their hair back.
I just recently re-downloaded Sandrock on Steam Deck and sure enough, it's looking and performing much better.
I was even able to run the game on High settings, I just had to cap the FPS to 30. I don't think it ran this smoothly a year ago so good work, Pathea.
Re: My Time At Sandrock Receives Huge Update On Switch, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Well done, Pathea.
I'm re-downloading this on my Steam Deck.
Re: Exclusive: "This Game Is Not Going Away" - My Time At Sandrock Devs Talk Making Good, And 'Switch 2' Hopes
I like Portia and Sandrock. They got a nice post-apoc/western/steampunk setting and it all takes place in an interesting world with (mostly) interesting characters. It's a world I want to explore.
Pathea seem like good people, but a bit of a slow burn when it comes to polishing their game. It's probably a poor comparison but they remind me of CDPR a little bit.
Not many people talk about it today, but The Witcher 3 originally released with it's own criticisms and bugs, but over time they patched it and added tons and tons of features, just like they did with Cyberpunk 2077. I picked up the Switch version of the game and played for the first time and had no idea they made so many changes because people stopped talking about it after they patched and added content.
My point is, franchises like this are for patient gamers. Ones who either enjoy seeing progress and improvements over time or one who can set a game aside for half a year or so and come back to hopefully find a well-polished game.
I think Pathea did well polishing Portia to be the best game it could be, and signs look good they will do the same with Sandrock.
Now I gotta re-download it on Steam and see what's changed.
Re: Square Enix To Slim Down Its Gaming Lineup To Ensure Higher Quality
Hopefully this means giving attention to long list of established franchises rather than trying to create new ones every year. Star Ocean, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy - they have soooooo many established franchises to dip into.
Harvestella and Various Daylife aren't the worst games ever, but they're basically experimental farm/life sim games, and it definitely shows.
Those games kind of just felt like they said "life sims are trending right now, we should do this next" but didn't actually understand what makes games like Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, or Story of Seasons actually fun.
They didn't do anything new for the genre, they just did what was already done with a new coat of Square Enix paint.
I hope they return to their JRPG roots, it's what they do best.
Re: Take-Two Has Filed A Trademark Dispute Over Remedy's Awesome New Logo
Looks like we need develop a new language and alphabet that hasn't been bought out by the rich yet.
Late Stage Capitalism is really pulling out all the stops.
Thank goodness for these Copyright laws, or else these poor companies may have to actually compete for business legitimately. Can't have that.
Re: Players Need To Start "Feeling Comfortable" With Not Owning Games, Says Ubisoft Subs Boss
@Godzil This is a good point about Ubi games on Switch.
Even though Ubi's policy is usually very anti-consumer for PC and other consoles (Must connect to internet and/or create uPlay account), the Switch versions of the Assassin's Creed games are thankfully free of all that nonsense and you can play offline with no issues.
We probably have Nintendo to thank for that more than Ubi, but it's still a nice loophole.
Re: Players Need To Start "Feeling Comfortable" With Not Owning Games, Says Ubisoft Subs Boss
"That's the consumer shift that needs to happen"
No, that's just what the company wants to happen. We as consumers don't "need" to do anything and we don't owe these companies anything.
This is the kind of stupid company-brained logic you run into when each company is expected to make record profits every single year while simultaneously not giving their employees yearly raises.
This would be a big deal if it came from CDPR, Bethesda, or Larian, but Ubi only produces bargain bin games as of late, so who cares.
Re: Fibre Wire At The Ready, Hitman: Blood Money Launches On Switch This Month
@PKDuckman Welp, that's too bad.
I guess the newly added "powers" act as cheat codes more than anything. Good that you can turn them off though.
Good point though, the levels in Bloody Money are definitely small enough to easily memorize where everyone is after one play through.
In my opinion, that's like most of the fun of playing through it for the first time - watching people and seeing their patterns. I think having Batman mode on would ruin that fun, but to each their own.
Re: Fibre Wire At The Ready, Hitman: Blood Money Launches On Switch This Month
I hope the new enhancements don't make the game too easy since the levels weren't originally built with them in mind.
I've easily put 100+ hours into this game in just my teens alone, it's probably the best classic Hitman game, not counting the newer Trilogy.
Re: Unity To Axe 25% Of Its Workforce As Part Of "Company Reset"
Unity?
Maybe they should change their name to "Separation", AMIRITE?
Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week.
Re: Talking Point: What Game Do You Wish You Could Forget?
The game that both made me fall in love with gaming while subsequently ruining my expectations for all future games is: The Elder Scrolls Oblivion.
The journey to get this game was tough and earned. I babysat my little brother and sister all through summer break and, in exchange, my parents bought me a Playstation 3 for my birthday, along with Oblivion as my first game for the system. This costed over $600 at the time, so it was a big deal in my life and I had never received such an expensive gift.
Prior to this, I spent weeks perusing gaming websites, scraping every detail I could about the game and what I could do. I never played Morrowind and could hardly believe a game like this even existed. I obsessed over screenshots and even planned for months on my character's name and class. I was literally counting down the days to my birthday. I figured all this research and hype would prepare me for what was to come, but nothing could prepare me for such unbridled freedom that is found in Oblivion.
It's difficult to say if I would want to experience this all over again, as my standards for gaming have become wayyyy too high after playing this game, and they've barely come down since then. I love Oblivion with all my heart, but part of me wishes I had lower standards so I could be more open to other games.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
Re: Talking Point: What Game Do You Wish You Could Forget?
Articles titled "Games you wish you could play for the first time again" has been done to death, so what's the solution?
Use slightly different words to cover the exact same topic.
You clever devil.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@NatiaAdamo Well, there being so many of you bothered by this one person is a statement in itself, isn't it?
I'll yield.
The People: 1
Devil's Advocate: 0
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@Summer235 These are good points, and I'm sure what these people are saying is totally valid from their perspectives.
However, if their goal is to get this person to stop talking about a certain subject, they should realize poking and prodding them about this subject repeatedly and from multiple users is not the way to get them to stop. The best way is having self control and not giving it more attention.
I don't know Anti-Matter's previous activity/history, but also, it shouldn't matter. If their activity was a problem, they would be banned by now, right?
From my perspective in just these comments, it looks a lot like harassment from multiple people, hence my reason for nosing in.
Re: Metacritic Reveals "The Worst Video Games Of 2023"
I'm stubbornly convinced Loop8 is just misunderstood, but I get it.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@Steel76 Perhaps if people stopped harassing Anti-Matter for their unique game preferences, they would stop elaborating on their unique game preferences, or at least do it less often.
The thing you and others are complaining about is also something you're actively provoking.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@Yeet333 Yes, Skies of Arcadia is very much a classic turn-based JRPG, but it's got some elements not found in other games.
I'll try to sell you on it real quick:
-Turn-based Airship Combat and Airship customization!
-A unique world filled with floating islands of all different people and cultures, including an evil empire.
-Hunt for treasure/discoveries all across the overworld.
-In the mid-late game, you will establish, build, and customize your own floating island base of operations.
-Recruit dozens of crew members to your pirate gang, and get benefits for doing so.
-Walk around your ship and just chill out whenever you want to stop exploring and fighting.
The closest thing I can think of to this game is maybe Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but flying and fighting in airships is probably my favorite part of SoA, the airship combat is quite unique.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@Yeet333 Sure, anyone could argue there's no game "just like" any other game, only games that play very similar and/or look very similar, right?
Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio were release over two decades ago.
-In this 20+ years, many games were released that let you drive around doing frantic and wacky challenges, like Crazy Taxi.
-In this 20+ years, many games were released that allow fun traversal through an artistically impressive world, like Jet Set Radio.
Aside from these genres being heavily explored over the years, the Jet Set Radio franchise has had two entries and an HD re-release, while Crazy Taxi got 3 console titles and 3 portable/mobile titles.
Skies of Arcadia got a Dreamcast release, a Gamecube release (with some added content), and they "mercifully" added cameo characters into Valkyria Chronicles 1, but that is literally all they've done this entire time.
I'm just rooting for my underdog here, it's okay if you disagree.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@MightyDemon82 You've made your point regarding how you feel about Anti-Matter, you don't need to keep repeating yourself.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@ArcadianLegend99 I love the image of this, that must be what happened!
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@JeongersGaming This is a good point.
To be fair, the taxi-like games I see on steam are mostly bad in my experience and they veer more towards simulator/realism rather than a fast paced arcade type of gameplay, which prominent in Crazy Taxi and Simpsons: Hit and Run.
Though it's not identical to Crazy Taxi, you should check out Snakeybus (if you haven't already).
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@kkslider5552000 I think you misunderstood, I have no delusions about a brand new Skies of Arcadia title. I personally think that would risk ruining the franchise. Nothing can beat the original, and they shouldn't even try in my opinion.
I'm only referring to an official HD re-release of SoA, which only requires HD textures and widescreen support. If you're not familiar, it's a very simple looking game with fixed camera angles in most areas, there's no need for fancy graphical techniques unless they wanted to push for a full blown remaster, which would be very surprising.
There's also the fact that anyone can play this game today on PC with very little effort. Fans like me are just asking for the ability to pay Sega for an official re-release on consoles.
I think the bar is quite low at this point.
Re: Review In Progress: Palia (Switch) - Is It Worth Playing At Launch?
When I play a game that demands a lot of my time, I like to know that my progress will not suddenly be erased later down the road, which is basically guaranteed with all MMOs.
Unless there is an offline mode I'm not aware of, I will have to pass on this game, though that is the only reason.
Ever since playing Starfield, I'm trying to avoid games that deliberately waste my time, and unfortunately, all MMOs fall into this category.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
@Serpenterror I mean, Crazy Taxi is a cool franchise, but there are like 20 indie games just like it. Same goes for Jet Set Radio and Streets of Rage.
Didn't they consider that the sales may not be as amazing as they hope because of all this competition? Wouldn't it be terrible for some of these games to be outshined by indie games doing a better job already?
Meanwhile, no game can compete with the world of Skies of Arcadia, and yet this game will continue to rot on the Dreamcast/Gamecube.
Re: Sega Reveals New Details For Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage Revivals
skies of arcadia
SKIES of arcadia
SKIES OF BLOODY ARCADIA, why don't they love you?
Re: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC To Get A Free Epilogue Next Month
@martynstuff Were you going to say "fix the Fraxure"?
Sure, some people think it's an ugly Pokemon, but I think they're quite cute and not in need of any fixing in this game.
The framerate, however ...
Re: Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Update Announced For Switch
@iLikeUrAttitude
When you see someone enjoying fishing, is it your duty to remind them how dirty and gross you think it is, despite their enjoyment?
Is it your goal to accuse others of "pretending" simply because they enjoy something you don't enjoy?
Just let the people fish. It's not your job to question why they enjoy it.
Re: Random: Hyrule's Shrines Serve A Secret Peace-Keeping Purpose, Says TOTK Director
This reminds me of when a certain author declared a well established character was secretly gay all along ... and this was declared after the multi-title series was already concluded. It also had no bearing on the plot.
There should be a name for this lazy after-the-fact insertion of "lore", but I guess we'll have to settle for just referring to this as "bad writing".
Someone needs to save these works of art from their creators. I blame George Lucas for starting this trend.
Re: Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Update Announced For Switch
@iLikeUrAttitude Framerate is almost impossible to debate because it's always subjective. They're not saying an issue doesn't exist, they're just saying they didn't notice it and they don't want to stop enjoying something just because someone else isn't enjoying it.
Some games, like Pokemon Scarlet/Violet are almost unanimous in that most people agree the framerates are terrible, but not everyone agrees to what is "playable" and "not playable".
A game like TOTK struggles to keep 30 FPS, and even though that game is real-time and not turn-based, choppy frames never hindered my ability to play the game well, and I think the same is true for Dark Prince.
A patch to improve frames would be very much appreciated, but I don't think the framerate is hurting this game nearly as much as other recent entries.
Though, to be fair, this is coming from someone who played Rune Factory 5 and Deadly Premonition 2 on Switch and still had a good time, so take it with a grain of salt as you would any opinion.