AstroTheGamosian

@Wisestfool And in Japan, 3/14 is also known as White Day, a followup to Valentine's Day. So on Valentine's Day, girls will give boys chocolate, and a month later, boys will reciprocate by giving the girls white chocolate; hence the name White Day. Just an interesting little tidbit.

@Notsoavid When I was still playing it on the Wii U (although I never did beat it on that console), I would have to recruit other players avatars who were at a high level to help me fight enemies far more powerful than I was in order to grind for the EXP. But I am trying to avoid doing that this time around. Even though it's a feature of the game, it does kind of feel like cheating.

I was also not aware that I had to upgrade the Battle Arts for my characters until recently. In that sense, it's just like how I have to upgrade the Talents for my characters in Genshin Impact. I'm so used to how other RPGs do it (such as Pokémon), where the attack power of my characters automatically levels up with my character.

I'm telling you, Nintendo revealed the Switch 2 in January because of Genki jumping the gun and teasing the accessories and mockup before Nintendo was ready to lift the lid, essentially stealing Nintendo's thunder. I bet you anything that's why the reveal trailer for the Switch 2 was so barebones compared to the original Switch's reveal trailer. They had to get something out fast in order to set the record straight.

Other than doing my dailies in Genshin Impact, my plan is to keep grinding along in Xenoblade Chronicles X. Finished Chapter 6 the other day and finally got my first Skell, so I've been using it to reach certain places that I was not able to reach while on-foot. It's still going to be a while before I get to Chapter 9, though, after which I can unlock the flight module.

I just find it tedious trying to level up by fighting enemies; I've found that discovering locations, finding treasure, and completing quests gives you more EXP. But even then, there's only so many locations and pieces of treasure to find and only so many missions to complete, some of which are in regions that are well beyond my characters' capabilities to explore at the moment, due to how high the enemy's levels are.

It's news like this that makes me think of the Latin phrase "panem et circenses," or "bread and circuses." Basically, people will forgive many things as long as they have their food and entertainment.

But with both food and entertainment now becoming unaffordable to many people (with some now having to take out loans to pay for groceries), I shudder to think what the future holds for modern society.

@SillyG Agreed, at least for Under the Knife and Under the Knife 2, given the Wii U GamePad's touchscreen. But in terms of the Wii games (Second Opinion, New Blood, and Trauma Team), you could just use the feature built into the Wii U where you could play Wii titles and pop the disc into the system, so there would have been no need for ports of those games.

While I would personally not mind ports of the older games for the Switch 2, I would much rather have a brand new entry in the series, especially since it's been 15 years since the last one. In my opinion, Atlus has focused too much on Shin Megami Tensei and Persona in the last decade or so. Not knocking those games, but Trauma Center is overdue for a new entry, especially one that sees the relationship between Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson deepen into something more than just work colleagues and friends.

@Anakin Not only that, but if the game focuses on Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson again, have the two of them finally become a romantic couple.

As a side note, if you go on Fanfiction.net, there are a bunch of Trauma Center fanfics written by a person who goes by the name TCGeek, which largely made me want to see a new game where Derek and Angie become a couple. Some of them are very funny, some are also sad or dramatic, but many are wholesome and romantic. She used to be on DeviantArt, but sadly deactivated her account years ago. But her work is still on Fanfiction.net, as well as Archive of Our Own (but not as extensive of a library as Fanfiction.net).

And here I am, still waiting for a port of the Trauma Center games. Maybe even a brand new one, with full-motion video anime cutscenes, animated by the studio that made the Persona 4 anime. Really hoping that Atlus will not drop the ball with the Switch 2 when it comes to Trauma Center, especially since you can use the mouse feature for the Switch 2 Joy-Cons to perform surgeries.

@Coalescence And let's not forget, Nintendo was even stricter back in the 1980s, in an attempt to avoid the mistakes that Atari made (which ultimately caused consumers to no longer trust the company, resulting in Atari's collapse), but the NES also had its wealth of poor-quality games, especially those published by LJN. That's why the Angry Video Game Nerd has a tendency to review NES games over games from any other console platform: there's so many bad ones on the system, it's mind-boggling.

I was working all day today, so there was no way for me to preorder the system. And checking both Best Buy's and GameStop's websites right now, neither retailer is showing them available for preorder.

So unless I get an e-mail from Nintendo to pre-order directly through them (and even then, I don't know exactly how that works, both in terms of registering, as well as the exact details of the criteria to be eligible), I might have to wait until after the console launches altogether to purchase one.

@Smithicus Of course, they're only still images, and there's only a few of them. If it was possible, and I knew how, I'd be more than willing to share them here in the comments. But they do present an interesting concept for a game, especially for one that stars the titular princess herself.

@Smithicus I agree. I felt that this was basically just Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, albeit with a Wind Waker art style. I would have loved to have seen something a bit more original with the gameplay.

For example, I once saw something on Facebook from a Zelda fan page where someone created concept renders for a 3D Zelda game where you played as Zelda herself (this being well before Echoes of Wisdom was announced); it appeared to be done in the Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom art style.

And that one appeared to have a maritime theme like you mentioned, where Zelda would be riding around the ocean on dolphins, could explore underwater ruins, fight pirates and giant sea creatures, and the like. Ganondorf would be a pirate captain, and Link would be a fully-grown adult (and judging by his sullen facial expression, harbors deep regrets about something).

In case you were wondering, the concept was called Voyage of the Goddess. I'd rather see that become an official game rather than what we saw above. It was far more original, and it starred Zelda as the playable protagonist (something that we need more of, if you ask me).

This was cute. Always nice to see Nintendo honoring their past by bringing in actors that starred in their older commercials. Now we just need a new Pitfall game (or even a Pitfall movie) and have Jack Black star in it!

This was THE game that got me into the Soulcalibur series. Even with the absence of future entries on a Nintendo console (the spinoff Wii game Soulcalibur Legends not included), it rapidly became one of my favorite fighting game franchises due to the world it built; it almost felt like The Lord of the Rings, where, much like how the good guys had to destroy the One Ring in LOTR, the good guys in Soulcalibur had to destroy Soul Edge, an evil sword with a mind of its own. It is among my Top 3 favorite fighting game series, along with Super Smash Bros. and Dead or Alive.

@TimelessJubilee I don't disagree with you, but sadly, Bandai Namco has focused more on Tekken than it has Soulcalibur in the last few years. I remember once reading an article a couple years ago about how they basically gutted the dev team that worked on Soulcalibur while giving more resources and manpower to the dev team that made Tekken. It is frankly a shame, as I feel that Soulcalibur was more unique, whereas Tekken feels more generic. After all, what other fighting games are out there where you fight with swords, staves, polearms, and nunchaku, amongst other weapons?

The good news is that the price increases were nowhere near as bad as I thought they were going to be; some were speculating that the whole tariff situation would make the Switch 2 over $650 here in the U.S. so the price for the console and the games remaining unchanged and only a $5-10 price increase on accessories is not as bad as we were expecting.

The bad news is that preorders will open on a day that I happen to be working. The previous date of April 2, plus the rumored revised dates of April 21 and April 30 were both my days off, and I cannot justify taking time off from work for this. Assuming that the rumor that preorders will sell out very quickly is true, I might end up missing out on snagging mine.

I have a 65" Samsung DU7200D 4K UHD LED LCD Smart TV; ended up winning it in a prize drawing at work last year (a year after I won my PS5 in a similar prize drawing at work). Hopefully that will be pretty decent to make my Switch 2 games look pretty and run well. Can anyone who knows TV tech better than I do corroborate that for me?

@Indielink I mean, the game was made with Unreal Engine 4, and the original Switch can run games made with that game engine. I figure that, with the Switch 2 apparently more powerful than a PS4, it should be more than powerful enough to run a game like Stellar Blade.

Besides, we know that the game is coming to Windows PC in a couple of months, so it's not much of a stretch to think that it could also come to platforms like the Switch 2 and Xbox. I know I would be very happy to see it come to the Switch 2, maybe with some outfits based on Nintendo characters (especially Samus Aran in her Zero Suit and/or her Justin Bailey outfit from the original Metroid). That's one game I would love to play on the go.

@Indielink Personally, the two “PlayStation” games that I want to see come to the Switch 2 are Genshin Impact and Stellar Blade. If the Switch 2 is capable of running games like Elden Ring and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, why not Genshin Impact and Stellar Blade?

@Indielink From what I was reading, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is the enhanced version of Final Fantasy VII Remake (including the DLC) that was released for the PS5 and Windows PC. Intermission is the name of the DLC itself. And even then, said DLC is exclusive to the PS5 and Windows (and most likely Switch 2, when both the system and the game launch).

@Jester676 Yeah, it's kind of what I am thinking, too. Unfortunately. I mean, why announce the game for the original Switch, continue saying over the years that it's in development for the console, and then not release it after all without any announcement?

I get that with the Version 5.0 update, the game required beefier hardware (as it is, it does seem to run a bit slower on my gaming PC now than it used to, but I haven't upgraded the CPU, RAM, or motherboard since I bought it in 2018), but you don't say that it's in development for the Switch and then pull the rug out from under those of us who were looking forward to this.

So my guess is that the reason behind why it hasn't come to the system yet is due to legal reasons. It's possible that HoYoverse wanted to include a Nintendo character in the game (much like they did with Aloy in 2021, although she was only available to get for a limited time), and Nintendo most likely said no, because they didn't want their characters on any other platforms that do run the game.

After all, Nintendo has proven themselves to be strict to the point of overzealousness with their IP. So it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if that was the case here. I mean, I would hope that it was truly due to technical issues, but a big part of me thinks that the real reason is due to Nintendo refusing to let one of their characters be available for rival platforms.

Makes me wonder who that anonymous developer is. My money is on miHoYo/HoYoverse, given that their games are currently being struck against by the English voice actors for said games as part of the larger SAG-AFTRA strike currently going on. As it is, the Switch 2 should be powerful enough to run a game like Genshin Impact.

The words "kettle," "black," "calling," and "pot" come to mind here. Each new generation of the PlayStation was just a more powerful version of the last one. As it is, many PS5 games can also be found on the PS4. At most, there are a dozen so-called "exclusives" for the PS5, and even then, some of them are now going to be ported to other consoles (such as Stellar Blade for the PC and Final Fantasy VII Intergrade for the Switch 2).

I don't want to necessarily say that the Switch 2 will be as wildfire of a success as the original Switch was, but Nintendo might have finally found the winning formula for their business. And as they say, don't fix what isn't broken. If a company like Apple could find their winning formula with the iPhone and iPad and still maintain their unique identity, Nintendo can do the same with the Switch line.

Look, I've never been a big fan of sports games to begin with, but EA has been far and away the laziest company when it came to sports games on the Switch. About the only EA Sports game that I remotely tolerated on any Nintendo system was Freekstyle (a motocross racing game) for the GameCube; I would not mind seeing that come to the GameCube Switch Online app, or even a remastered version. My preferred EA games were more fantastical in nature, such as Mirror's Edge, The Lord of the Rings, and the like. I want to see more of those instead of another sports game.

It's not listed, but one game I want to see come to Switch 2 the most is Genshin Impact. I hate playing it on my phone, as I fight more with the touchscreen controls than I do any enemies in-game. While I normally play on PC with a mouse and keyboard, I would much rather play with joysticks and buttons than with a touchscreen.

On the Nintendo side of things, I'd love to see Star Fox: Assault come to the GameCube Switch Online app, and have the multiplayer mode be online. Heck, I'd love to see a remake of the game with better graphics, tighter controls, and more levels (especially making use of the multiplayer-only levels of Titania, Zoness, and the Great Fox); there could even be a level where you infiltrate the ruins of Andross' base on Venom to acquire the schematics for the computer virus weapon that was used to defeat the Aparoids.

There could even be a bit of a lore drop in such a level where it was revealed that Andross' military buildup and experimentation with bioweapons was intended to fight the Aparoids, but after the lab accident that resulted in his exile, he started to experiment on himself and went mad, becoming the power-hungry megalomaniac we know him as in Star Fox 64. So it kind of redeems his image in a sense.

Ah, I see we're starting me off early today. I couldn't tell you how many times I have seen instances of 666 in the last year or so, but it's happened to often, it's been driving me nuts. I'm not even religious, but even I'm beginning to wonder if it's an omen.

Sadly gonna have to skip this one. I work both Friday and Saturday, meaning I'll be too tired to play when I get home, and then I'll be spending most of Sunday with my girlfriend.

And frankly, these Splatfests feel more like a chore than anything else. Especially when the teams I keep picking keep on losing (and mainly due to the Clout score alone). I get that you win some and lose some, but they just don't feel all that fun anymore.

@Erigen Well, since the GameCube controller adapter that was released during the Wii U era will also be compatible with the Switch 2, my guess is it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

Of course, none of my GBAs necessarily work anymore: the D-Pad on my original model GBA is busted, and the L-R buttons on my SP are also borked. I may end up having to find one in decent condition online, especially once Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution comes out; I preordered the GBA version so I could play it in the form it was originally intended to be.

I've been accumulating these points at work (which I receive as thanks from coworkers for a job well done) that I can redeem towards some sort of reward, so I was planning on redeeming them towards a prepaid Visa gift card to help me pay for the Switch 2.

Of course, speaking as an American, with these new tariffs threatening to potentially raise the price of the Switch 2 in the U.S. to over $650 (and that's 3DO territory, which almost no one bought partly due to its $700 price), that means that it will be that much more expensive for me to purchase, even with the gift card.

While I normally like to get the new console Day 1, it might end up being that I will also have to hold off, especially if Switch 2s are in short supply here in America, if that one U.S.-based retailer is to be believed.

They'd have to include a lot more than just a graphical overhaul and a sail that automatically changes the wind direction to make me want to buy The Wind Waker HD for the Switch 2.

As others have said, I'd much prefer Twilight Princess HD on Switch 2. Especially if they rerelease the Wolf Link amiibo. That's a game that would really benefit from the upscaled resolution for the console.

For me, the one game I would want other than what is listed here is Genshin Impact. I figure the system should be powerful enough to support the game, and I would much prefer to play it on the go using control sticks and buttons instead of a touchscreen (i.e., using my phone).

Sounds to me like it will be powerful enough to support Genshin Impact after all. Those specs do make it seem like it is just as powerful, if not more so, than the PS4, which can run the game just fine. So here's hoping HoYoverse will announce a Switch 2 port soon enough!

So it sounds like it could be like the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993: not necessarily a good film, or even a great one, but a fun film nonetheless and a cult classic.

Sadly, I have to go back to work tomorrow, and I will be working when this Direct goes live. Plus, my area is expected to be hit by bad storms tomorrow as well, so there's always the possibility that my Internet will go out if we lose power. I'll try to watch the VOD of it, but until then, I'll just have to tide myself over with the headlines when I'm on my lunch break.

Well, assuming that the rumors are true that the Switch 2 will be slightly more powerful than the PS4, I have to wonder if this means that we'll finally be getting Genshin Impact onto the Switch. Granted, my preferred method of playing that game is with a mouse and keyboard, but if I am ever on the go, I would prefer to play with a controller and not a touchscreen.

And since it will no doubt support Unreal Engine 4, I can't help but wonder if we will get some PlayStation games, such as Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, Stellar Blade, and others. All of which would be perfect to take on the go.

It'd also be nice if it supported Xbox games. My preferred ones are the aforementioned Halo: Master Chief Collection, along with Hi-Fi Rush. And how about Sea of Thieves and Rare Replay, while we're at it? After all, Rare and Nintendo had a great partnership back in the day.

And while we're at it, how about bringing the rest of the Soulcalibur franchise to the Switch 2? The last entry in the entire series that a Nintendo console ever got was Legends on the Wii. In the main series, only II ever came to a Nintendo console. So it would be nice if the rest of the series made its way to the Switch 2. Stop focusing on Tekken and bring back Soulcalibur!

Speaking of dead franchises that need reviving, bring back Trauma Center, Atlus! Assuming that the Joy-Cons for the Switch 2 have a mouse functionality, I'm certain you can find some way to make a new Trauma Center game that uses that feature. Also make the cutscenes fully animated (possibly using the same studio that made the Persona 4 anime) and fully voiced.

Of course, this is all speculation, in no way shape or form saying that any of this would come to pass. This is just a wishlist of mine based on what I have heard about the internal specs of the console. Here's hoping!

Not bad for an April Fool's Day joke. But nothing will ever top IGN's fake trailer for a live-action Legend of Zelda film. Already pranked my girlfriend with that one a couple days ago since we don't work the same shift today, and I'll be pranking my mother (herself a Zelda fan) with it later today.

@Dm9982 Much of my mother's side of the family is from Central Illinois; specifically, the Decatur/Forsyth area. In fact, a couple of them still live there! But I do have an aunt and uncle who live in Springfield. Small world, indeed.

@Dm9982 Northeastern Illinois for me, about 40 miles northwest of Chicago. We also have immediate care clinics up here (Northwestern Medicine, Advocate, and Mercy), but even then, there's likely nothing they could have done either.

But I am glad I recovered, too. Just wish I could have kept the weight off, though. When I weighed myself recently, I discovered I gained it all back. =(

I think I had the cherry and the orange Pedialytes. I mean, they weren't bad, but it will hopefully be a long while before I ever drink one again.

Now my brother, on the other hand, he ended up with it, too, and he actually did have to go to the ER. Fortunately, they managed to scrounge up some IV fluids for him. So he was lucky. Both of our parents and I, not so much.

I just know that now, I have to basically work all of my shifts at work in full in order to get my sick time back. Again, I estimate I won't hit 40 hours of sick time until September; August, at the earliest. So I really can't afford to take days off unless I absolutely have to.

@Friendly Don't forget:

"An Unexpected Hyahh!"
"The Desolation of Hayahh!!"
"The Battle of the Five Hyaahhhhs!!!"
"The War of the Hayaaaaaahh!!!!"

Assuming it's true, New Zealand makes perfect sense for Zelda. Speaking as a fan of The Lord of the Rings, I believed that the only location where a Zelda film could be made was New Zealand. Personally hoping we might see some of the same locations from LOTR in Zelda! That would be a real treat!

@Dm9982 I must have gone to the bathroom between 20-30 times in a single day. I ended up losing 6.5 pounds of my body weight in the span of 24 hours. The problem was, I couldn't go to the hospital, because they wouldn't have been able to do anything for me. My area got hit hard with it, and the hospitals had a shortage of IV fluids. So they were telling everybody to drink Pedialyte. And let me tell you, that stuff is sickeningly sweet. It kind of reminded me of those Fla-Vor-Ice freeze pops that you would buy in the stores, if you drank the juice inside the tube without freezing it.

And then, just weeks after, I ended up with COVID for the second time in my life. I ended up passing it on to my parents, and they're high-risk patients, so I had to take even more time off to care for them. Where I work, the cap is 80 hours of sick time, and I was capped out; but between the norovirus and COVID, I burned through all of it. And to make matters worse, I only get one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. I calculate that I won't make 40 hours of sick time until around September. So I can't really afford to use vacation days just to watch a Nintendo Direct or preorder a game console.

Well, the latest version of Genshin Impact dropped the other day, so I want to play through that while doing my laundry. Maybe once I get through the latest Tribal Chronicle Quest and the first stage or two of the flagship event (which dropped yesterday), I'll finally get around to starting Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I bought but haven't played yet.

And if I have time, I'd also like to try out Yars Rising (a game developed by Shantae developer WayForward Technologies as part of the popular Yars series from Atari), which I also bought but haven't gotten around to playing.

Personally hoping it's April 9th for the preorders go live. That's when I get a pre-scheduled day off from work. I don't want to have to use PTO on April 2nd, either to watch the Switch 2 Direct or to go out and preorder the system. I'm trying to not only save my PTO, but build it back up (especially the sick time, which I completely burned through late last year and early this year after coming down with both norovirus and COVID within weeks of each other; and I only get one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked). So April 9th works out for me better.

Personally hoping they'll have pointy ears like elves have as an option. Heck, it would be even neat if they had animal ears, like those for a dog, cat, or fox; that way, you wouldn't have to resort to using the eyebrows to turn them into animal ears and then leave the face eyebrow-less.

And for the record, Miis never really went away. They just weren't given much to do on the Switch compared to the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U. But you could still create Miis and save them to your Switch. What made it even neater was that they had more options for facial features, hairstyles, and even the color of the hair and eyes. So if I wanted to make a Mii of Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion, I finally had the ability to do so.

Is it even a question at this point? We all know that Metroid Prime 4 is going to take the top spot.

Definitely saving that date! In the meantime, I'm gonna dig up that April Fool's Day prank that IGN did back in 2008 and present it to my mother and girlfriend (both fans of the Zelda series) and say that this is the trailer for the movie for this year's April Fool's Day. Just gotta take out the part at the end where it says "Coming April 1st, 2009." Or maybe I can leave it in so they realize that it's just a joke. Which do you guys think is better?

It would be nice to see Twilight Princess HD and The Wind Waker HD come to the Switch. Other than Xenoblade Chronicles X, those two games often are the most-requested to be ported to the Switch. And while we're at it, I would not mind ports of the Star Fox games (namely Adventures, Assault, and Zero; I don't know if Command would work, given that it requires a second screen).

I love the app, but I can’t use it while at work, since they don’t allow us to have our phones on our person while working. It would be really nice if Nintendo would release a browser version or even a version for smartwatches, so I can listen to it while on the clock.

I'm personally hoping that Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush will come to the Switch 2. It would also be neat if the rumored Switch 2 port of the Halo: Master Chief Collection was real. I'd love to play it while on the go! And frankly, it would be real nice if we could get some Rare games.

@Zeebor15 I was not aware that Howard Scott Warshaw was still developing games. Last I heard, he was now a psychotherapist, wrote a couple of books, and made a cameo in the AVGN movie; originally, he was supposed to be the mad scientist that the Nerd encountered earlier in the film, but at his own request, he played himself.

Personally, I would hope that he is okay with Yars Rising, despite having no involvement in the development of the game. The gameplay did look interesting (in fact, it seems to be right up my alley), and I've been a fan of WayForward's games before. I might just end up trying it out myself. Besides, it's not like Yars Rising is the only entry in the Yars series. There were several remakes of the original, such as a 3D rail shooter from 2011, and a 2D-based shooter in 2022.

But it would still be nice to see the Swordquest series be revived in some way. With the advent of more powerful game consoles, maybe they could do a remake of the games, making it more story-driven in-game than the originals were (which relied on comic books that came packaged with the game to tell the story). Just my two cents, though. I'm always down for a good fantasy game, and Swordquest is one that is on my radar. I played it on the Atari Flashback console, but without the instruction manuals or the comic books, I don't know much of what I am doing. So a total remake would be nice.

Frankly, if you want to see a graphical overhaul for Minecraft, check out some of the Let's Play videos that Achievement Hunter made, namely the one where they were all fishing. The water looked VERY realistic there. Of course, that was due to a mod, not an official texture pack. Still, it's worth checking out.