AtlanteanMan

@Expa0 When an RPG or SRPG has you deliberately skipping cutscenes or dialogue, it means the writers flat out didn't do their jobs. I've seen RPGs like LUNAR, Suikoden, and Tales of Arise and SRPGs like FE: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn and Valkyria Chronicles (among many others) tell some of the most epic stories, have some of the greatest heroes and villain characters, and have some of the most genuinely moving and memorable scenes I've ever had the pleasure to experience. Apparently filling Engage with, well, "filler activities" took priority over telling a great story or having dialogue that isn't banal to the point you want to just skip it.

FE is a SRPG franchise, not a relationship simulator, a cooking sim, or whatever other irrelevant fluff the developer decides to pad it with. Nintendo has lost sight of what this franchise was supposed to be about in their efforts to further "mainstream" it, and the danger is that it could easily end up making NO ONE happy.

@Bahamut_GR Engage is not closer to the older FEs; that was a key factor I was personally looking forward to after reading the same remarks, but honestly I have no idea why they claim that. The Somniel is just another Monastery with different trappings and different busywork.

I'm going to be brutally honest here: having played through Chapter 6 so far, I'm not all that impressed.

The Somniel is just another iteration of Three Houses' Monastery; it's too spread out and full of time-consuming padding that instantly kills the pacing of the storyline. The support conversations seem even more nonsensical than Three Houses (by comparison, look at FE: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, whose support conversations actually added context and hints that were useful). The Ring system just feels overly complex, fiddly, and random, like opening another pack of cards in a sports game. I have no interest at all in items with short-term boosts or in aesthetics like outfits. The Suikoden series made your army's hub something I actually enjoyed exploring and engaging in its activities (like the card game Potch or sending your Detective to learn more about the characters in your army); in the Somniel there just don't seem to be any truly meaningful dialogues, and I find myself advancing through them as fast as I can. Lifting teacups as strength training? Guess I've grown out of that particular phase of in-game humor. But the kicker is that unlike Suikoden's hubs, FE's hub activities feel more mandatory to build/strengthen characters, relationships, and so on; in other words, I feel obligated, and obligations can quickly come to feel like chores.
The whole experience just feels overstuffed with padding that's there for the sole purpose of extending play time.

Sometimes "less" is actually more. Right now I would pick Shining Force III for the Sega Saturn over FE: Engage in an instant, because the former stuck to the (EXCELLENT) storyline, the battlefields were so much more varied and imaginative, and the affinity you (you PERSONALLY) built with your characters was tied to their performance in battle, not to some artificial and awkwardly silly hub conversations. SF's "gimmick" was coming in three separate Scenarios, each on its own disc, with interlocking choices and consequences, including which characters would be recruitable by a given army. 190 hours in total culminating in a truly grand-scale final battle involving all three of your armies against the Big Bad (and believe it or not, he isn't even the most interesting or most devious or manipulative villain). That's 190 hours' worth of PURE BATTLES AND STORYLINE, by the way, NOT padding spent having tea parties at some hub, cooking, or mashing buttons in "strength training". Sure, FE Engage may blow SF III out of the water visually by now, but SF III is the better, pure SRPG.

As SRPGs go, modern Fire Emblem makes for a great social interaction simulator and dress-up game. And no, that wasn't a compliment, it highlights the core problem I'm having with the series anymore.

I wonder if anyone reading this got a Legendary weapon only to have it break on them after so many uses, an investment of so many hours of effort gone forever. No, it didn't happen to me personally (mine all ended up hanging uselessly at Link's house), but a lot of people played BotW and I'd assume many did so without strategy guides. But I wonder, if you were to pose this question to such a person what their response would be? I'd imagine they don't think too highly of it.

Short answer: NO. But if they're going to do it, at least don't make things like the Legendary weapons breakable, because mine ended up hanging at Link's house, useless because I'd spent WAY too much time and effort acquiring something to have it just "break" after X number of uses.

It may sound cool or "realistic" on paper, but in practice it was one of BotW's biggest flaws. Finding a treasure chest in previous Zeldas used to mean something; BotW cheapened them and literally almost everything you found inside to becoming throwaway, disposable items.

Would the ability to repair help? Yes...but ask yourself whether you'd rather constantly find yourself doing that or actually be out exploring and doing stuff that's meaningful to the story. Mechanics like this are pure, time-consuming fluff.

Looks great, but that name reminds me of a particular joke for some reason:

What do you call a vegetarian with diarrhea?

A salad shooter.

I'll show myself out, thank you.

Almost every Nintendo console has had at least one key area of weakness. With the N64 it was its cartridge format when their competitors had already moved on to more versatile disc-based media. With the Wii it was a mountain of shovelware created by third-parties' inability to adapt to the Wiimote's motion controls as well as its plethora of peripherals. In recent years most folks are quick to point out their comparative lack of power compared to contemporary hardware from Sony and Microsoft, but that doesn't tell the whole story. To be frank, the art style of Nintendo's first-party games doesn't require the same horsepower as "AAA" titles that place an emphasis on photo realism and eye candy, and cross-platform titles have never been a key incentive for any platform, but rather first-party, of which Nintendo without a doubt currently has the biggest and most varied selection. People say they want to be able to play this or that third-party "AAA" game on a Nintendo system, but even if the Switch's successor manages to be say, as powerful as a PS4 or XBox One (and since historically price point has been a core influence in Nintendo's approach to console design, it's unrealistic to expect them to try to mimic the power of Sony or Microsoft's current-gen systems), they'll typically buy it for the more powerful competing consoles or the PC anyway.

4K and high frame rates are nice things to have, and they'll certainly be a bonus if Nintendo can implement them on their next generation of hardware. But they're smart enough to play to their own strengths...primarily their unrivaled catalog of first-party IPs...and most of those have proven they don't really need all of that high-def power in order to be some of the very best games the industry is currently producing.

The real question is whether there will be backwards-compatibility, period. With digital downloads rapidly increasing in popularity, ensuring continuity in a similar manner to XBox's BC program would not only be a huge attractor for potential buyers, but it would also both guarantee a full and established games catalog right out of the gate as well as free Nintendo's in-house developers to work on a higher ratio of original projects as opposed to remakes.

Do I expect Nintendo to do this common sense favor for their longtime supporters? Of course not; their business model of forcing users to repurchase old games via remakes has been profitable for them for too long. But I would love to be pleasantly surprised for a change.

The last time I literally quit playing a Nintendo game out of frustration was with Metroid Dread. I loved the exploration and the atmosphere, but having to simultaneously press/hold so many buttons during boss/EMMI encounters (while Samus was forced to stand still, no less) felt like trying to play Twister with my fingers. Aiming, firing rockets, pretty much every mechanic left you unnecessarily vulnerable and felt overly awkward. It's really frustrating when you have to walk away from a game you'd be enjoying otherwise because you realize you're getting so enraged over fighting the controls.

I actually like Waluigi, but yeah, a Peach knock-off is a bridge too far.

No, I have to disagree. Even the 2D, top-down Zeldas offer a lot of multi-level depth to their puzzles. It would REALLY be stretching things to incorporate Zelda in a Paper Mario style.
The only way I see a turn-based iteration working be in a tactical sense, such as what would have been if Ubisoft had included Link and his world (along with Samus/Metroid and other Nintendo IPs) in a Mario & Rabbids game.

I won't miss the social bonding aspect one bit; the monastery in Three Houses was so spread out that it became a time sink just to go around between missions to make sure I had fulfilled all my obligations for a given month, and frankly it killed the pacing and detracted from not just the missions themselves but the main storyline. Glad to see a return to a more mission and combat-centered focus.

I'll just wait to hear them in-game, thank you kindly. Music is one of those things your memory associates with specific times, places, and what you were doing (this is why old school songs are all the rage in movie soundtracks). I'll always remember "Kingdom of Ixa'taca" as the amazing ambient soundtrack when Vyse and his crew disembarked at Horteka for the first time in Skies of Arcadia. Or "Valkyria's Awakening" as the spine-tingling choral number that accompanied Alicia's revelation as a Valkyria in Valkyria Chronicles. Or the first time I heard what sounded like an actual orchestra on a console (thanks to that Sony sound board) during the intro of Final Fantasy II on the SNES. So many great memories indelibly etched into my mind and heart as a hobbyist through the decades, where the music and the games combined for experiences that simply wouldn't have been the same without one or the other.

I realize that some folks like to listen to songs or "spoil" details of a game prior to release, and that's their choice. But I really believe they're risking diminishing the impact of something that could be truly special. Again though, to each their own.

Before you get too anxious to trade in your Switch for some shiny new successor you'd better ask yourself if you're willing to do so if Nintendo once again ignores backwards compatibility and expects you to repurchase new versions of the same games yet again. Let me tell you, THAT is a Nintendo business practice that's truly gotten OLD with me and I'm certain many other consumers.

Let's put it another way: how much "newer" do the current-gen consoles REALLY look compared to the PS4 and XBOX One? What about their glacial pace of major first-party releases (when they're not rushed, half-baked, filled with glitches and bugs, and/or employ intrusive business models that detract from the core focus...say like Halo Infinite)?

I'm not saying the Switch couldn't use an upgrade at this point, but we've reached a point of diminishing returns in what we can expect from even the largest developers; the demands of modern hardware and an overt focus on eye candy are proving to be detrimental to both the pace and quality of new releases.

I've had both a PS5 and an XBOX Series X for over a year now. My Switch sees several times more actual gameplay. In the end, it always comes down to the GAMES.

By the way, I'm not saying all Nindie titles are bad (there are quite a few very good Indie games on the eShop), but there's such an obscene glut of trash stuff to navigate through that it makes the Wii's "mountain of shovelware" look tiny by comparison. It's really a huge blight on Nintendo's approach to digital sales on the Switch.

A more appropriate and challenging quiz would be "Which of these not-ready-for-mobile garbage "Nindie" games aren't among the thousands on the eShop (with dozens more added every week)?".

I personally see Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn (my introduction to the franchise) as one cohesive, overarching storyline. And yes, absolutely it is overdue for a remaster compilation ASAP.

At first I thought that the additions of "hubs" and social bonding would improve upon the static presentation of those two, but honestly Three Houses' monastery was just too spread out and time-consuming to hold my interest (even though I did finish one campaign to the tune of around 150 hours, maxing all of Byleth's classes). It killed the pacing and detracted from the real draw for me, the turn-based battles and the main story. It was a lesson on how you can have too much of a good thing.

I don't know how much it affected the sales figures, but Mario & Rabbids: Sparks of Hope just didn't "click" for me the way the original did on multiple levels. The encounter (non-story-based) maps were overly simple to the point of being an afterthought; many could be cleared within a single turn. The combo of Luigi (range, Steely Stare), Peach (Shield, wide-field weapon), and Rabbid Peach (Healing) was so OPed that frankly the rest of the characters were ignored most of the game. The worlds and secondary characters were, as previous posters have mentioned, far too Rabbids-centric; much of the humor fell flat and, unlike the first game, I found myself ignoring the "back stories" of the murals and other "points of interest" because they were neither funny nor interesting.

That's not to say Sparks of Hope is a bad game; it has a lengthy campaign and some clever puzzles along with some good battle maps...albeit fewer in number and with far less tactical or aesthetic variety than its predecessor. While the upcoming Rayman DLC should add some value, overall I think Ubisoft missed a big opportunity here by an overt focus on their own IPs instead of Nintendo's. If Sparks of Hope had visited, say, the worlds of Zelda, Metroid, or other major Nintendo franchises and had their principal characters as allies and antagonists, I imagine its sales figures would have been far greater.

Alas, due to how things turned out, that's a dream we may never get to see become a reality.

Sega needs to do a remaster of Shining Force III or Skies of Arcadia to remind everyone just what they used to be capable of when they had genuine passion for a project. I would include Valkyria Chronicles as well but fortunately it and VC4 are already available on every platform. They might not generate the sales numbers of Sonic games, but Sega's catalog of RPGs include some of the very best in the genre and have provided me with some of my most cherished memories as a gamer. Sega never seems to run out of hype for Sonic, but the end products haven't reflected that passion and quality the company was renowned for in a long time.

@emptydesk I admit the quote is often misattributed to Voltaire (Evelyn Hall published it in "Friends of Voltaire"), but the principle is still sound regardless. "Cancel culture" and demonizing those of conflicting viewpoints and beliefs would be something he and others who championed free thought and expression would have firmly declared we as a society have a duty to put a stop to.

@philwhite I didn't see the M rating before purchase, either; like you, I was lured in by the promise of a nice-looking RPG that was being compared to a lot of older JRPGs I played and loved back in the day.

@kennykenny,

I don't hate anyone. Saying you disagree with something or believe it's morally wrong doesn't mean you hate those who do it or feel differently; in fact I have friends, relatives, and coworkers, who I've actively prayed for regularly who have very different beliefs and yes, some of them are gay. Yes, you can actually respect and genuinely care about those you don't see eye to eye with, even hold a civil dialogue with them...even when both of you get frustrated and hot under the collar...and for the most part our society used to be able to. The fact so many folks have been brainwashed to believe otherwise is why we can't have a civil discourse on sensitive topics anymore that doesn't devolve into name-calling and baseless accusations.

But part of discretion with regard to civil discourse is to know when to walk away, when minds and ears are closed to what you have to say. So I will indeed take my leave here; you can believe what you will about me.

@Phostachio You neglected to mention the cutscene where a skivvies-clad Kylan gets out of bed next to the Bishop after becoming part of his "male harem" (or maybe you didn't). What part of that do you not consider worthy of a heads up for potential buyers? If it had just been the Sienna dialogue I wouldn't even have said anything, but that was a bridge too far for me.

This isn't about me judging other people (although it's always the go-to accusation nowadays); I'm not judging anyone; that's God's province alone. But His Word makes it crystal clear that He considers certain behaviors sin, and warns believers not to commit them or associate themselves with those who do. Not because Christians are better than anyone else, but because God wants His people to be separate from the world and its influences. Naming sin is NOT judging those who commit it; any person, myself included, who ever received Jesus as our Savior and Lord had to first come to the point where we realized we were sinners and needed God's grace. Salvation is free, but the Jesus Himself said that receiving it will make the world hate you as it hated Him, because you no longer fit in.

I gave my personal opinion regarding certain content in this game, and Iike it or not a lot of others feel similarly even if they're afraid of being "called out" for saying it. LGBTQ content should have a warning label just like any mature content currently does, because there are people who don't agree with it, even if we're in the minority. In a culture where people are routinely "cancelled" for "offending" the "wrong" people/groups, even you shouldn't think that's asking too much.

@Phostachio There's a lot of content that I personally choose to not read or watch, for a wide variety of reasons. Ultra violence, excessive and extreme profanity, drug use, and yes, sex out of wedlock are all things I try to avoid as much as possible, and as a result there are entire genres of film and television as well as videogames and books that I stay away from. I don't try to tell anyone else what to do or force my beliefs on them, but as a consumer and a citizen I believe I have a right to speak my viewpoint, even if I'm the only one who holds it.

I'll be honest; I was a bit afraid to post the last part of my comment here out of the fear that it might incur attacks like yours. It's easy to tear into someone with your virtue signaling when you're confident you have others backing you and accuse them of bigotry or "bogus morality" (it's also ironic in the extreme). And I've seen many of my own posts as well as other people's here and elsewhere disappear and our voices silenced not because we attacked anyone, used profanity or vulgarity, or violated any "policy", but because we offered a viewpoint that isn't part of "the program" being promoted and proselytized in the media 24/7/365.

You and so many others have been conditioned by decades of social engineering that you don't even see or care how "tolerance" has become a one-way street. You see someone disagreeing with you as equivalent to them attacking you on a personal level. Such reactions are borne of easily manipulated emotions, not rational thinking and objective consideration. In such societies, the minority inevitably tend to be silenced, censored, and demonized until outright persecution inevitably starts. Those are the hallmarks of how every oppressive regime from the 20th Century managed the takeover of their respective countries, and whether you see it or not (you almost certainly don't if you're not old enough to remember 911, because you haven't lived long enough to remember anything being different than it is now), that's exactly what has been happening across the USA, Europe, and the rest of the (formerly) free world.

A reminder from none other than a famous liberal and agnostic who understood freedom in ways that far too many citizens of Western Civilization no longer do:

"I may not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." — Voltaire

Just beat the game with an almost complete Board a few days ago. It's a solid RPG overall with a lengthy story and some good musical pieces, and though I understand the praise it's been getting, it's not perfect.

1) While the Skill Slots are meant to provide you with customization options, in reality by the end of the game it's become a tiresome, bloated mechanic. You can't even fit a quarter of the available Skills into the available slots for each character, so most will remain untouched for the entire game as you stick with your favorites. What's the purpose of "learning" new skills that you'll either never use or force you to "forget" others?

2) Ditto the characters. Some are frankly just less useful than others, so by the time you have more characters than active and secondary slots (8 total), you'll have them permanently riding the bench.

3) Combining crystals and upgrading weapons got to be such a chore that I stopped bothering after awhile (can I get a witness?). Having to scroll ALL THE WAY through dozens of materials to get to the specific one you want (and there's no way to reselect or back up if you make a mistake without having to restart the entire process) could take literally half an hour or more just to get everyone's weapons and armor upgraded. It killed the pace, and honestly it just wasn't fun.

I personally didn't care for the LGBTQ stuff either that involves not one but two of your party's characters in separate relationships...both of which involve the story's "church" with high-ranking church officials/enforcers (including a scene in a bedroom). I realize that other readers' viewpoints may vary on the subject (and this is NOT an attack on them or anyone; you can have differing convictions and beliefs and still be civil), but this one issue is enough that I wouldn't have bought the game had I known about it beforehand, and whether or not they're in the minority, I suspect that others will feel the same way.

Again, I enjoyed this game for its merits, but it isn't perfect. And I doubt that I'll ever revisit it.

There are, of course, still plenty of omissions and potential for further compilations. Just a few examples:

1) Ms. Pac-Man I realize the licensing issues, but seriously, this one needs to get done somehow.

2) Midway has been conspicuously silent after having excellent collections of its Arcade classics on previous console generations.

3) Sega's Arcade catalog alone could make for a truly epic compilation, let alone the ones for the Saturn and Dreamcast. Sega obviously doesn't look on that part of their history nearly as fondly as fans do; it's just one of many frustrating disconnects they've had with consumers since they left from making consoles.

4) A more comprehensive Namco collection (including titles such as Pole Position) would be more than welcome, although fortunately Hamster has been bringing a sizable number of their games to Arcade Archives.

5) Other coin-ops like San Francisco Rush and Hard Drivin' could still use a port or to be included in a collection.

6) Just imagine how many copies of a Nintendo legacy compilation of NES, SNES, or N64 games they could sell as a package with optional DLC additional games rather than locking them all behind subscription drip-feeds.
The file sizes for those games are tiny by today's standards, and it would be no problem from a technical standpoint.

7) An Atari 2600/5200, ColecoVision, and Intellivision compilation of Activision titles like Pitfall, Pitfall II, River Raid , etc. is overdue this console generation.

@WildApple No, I meant what I said. I have probably over 100 games downloaded onto my Switch from the eShop, many of them ports from previous systems (especially the Wii U), and I would have happily invested in legacy VC titles had Nintendo made them available instead of locking them behind an overpriced subscription model (I subscribe to the base Switch Online for the cloud saves and will never bother with the "premium" category). But this is where I draw the final line; I've been an avid hobbyist for nearly four decades now, invested thousands upon thousands of dollars into the hobby, and everywhere I look now I see console manufacturers and publishers using online functionality not to better the options and experiences for gamers, but to gate, control, and exploit them at every possible turn, and those priorities have seriously begun to affect even flagship AAA IPs (example: Halo Infinite). I have a history of voting with my wallet and if necessary I will simply hold onto my Switch rather than continue the vicious cycle of repurchasing older titles that Nintendo seems hellbent on forcing their consumers to do.

So don't presume to speak for me or tell me what I will or won't do; there are actually some of us who follow through on a declaration instead of rolling over and submitting to Big Corporate just to maintain our addiction to entertainment.

The biggest argument for a Switch Pro isn't merely that it would allow for fewer compromises when porting games, but that by and large the visual aspect of videogames has plateaued with the current generation anyway. Frankly there isn't much benefit from trying to increase resolutions and frame rates from where they are now (4K and 60 fps+), so even if it doesn't quite match the specs of the PS5 or the XBOX Series X/S, the Switch's successor should be easily able to close the technical gap enough to run current titles with minimal performance differences. Lastly, look at the glacial pace at which truly AAA games have been releasing on the PS5 and Series X/S (and how many of those, such as Halo Infinite, have been rushed out the door in woefully incomplete, glitch-laden conditions), and you realize we've reached the point of diminishing returns. Bigger and more complex technical specs doesn't necessarily equate to better games or experiences.

In any case, Nintendo's going to do what they're going to do. I just hope that when their next console materializes that it will be fully backwards-compatible with Switch games including eShop purchases. There's absolutely no way I'm double-dipping yet again with as many Switch games as I've purchased, but there's also only so many HDMI inputs behind the TV.

@Samalik Sega literally just released Frontiers, and that "last mainline Sonic" argument doesn't fly when you consider how many remakes, compilations, tie-ins (Racing), and so on have occurred over the past few years alone. And go back over the Sega-related articles and promotions on gaming websites (ESPECIALLY here at NL) and see how many of them don't involve Sonic.

Yes, they HAVE. Even the industry media has played its own role.

It wasn't my intention to offend anyone who likes Puyo Puyo, but my point was that the Sega brand was once synonymous with the highest, most AAA-quality experiences in videogames, from their dominance of Arcades to RPGs that were easily on par with (in some cases better than) Square Enix's offerings, to a catalog that was more diverse and cutting edge than arguably even Nintendo's at the time. I'm talking about games that got players EXCITED, that hooked them immediately and held on. When was the last time you could honestly say that about this company?

Lastly, my remarks aren't borne out of hatred for Sega; just the opposite. I know what they used to be and how important they were to me as a hobbyist for more than a decade during their heyday, and I believe that with the right direction and risk-taking, they can be that way again. Maybe the sales will reward such risks and maybe they won't, but you can bet it won't be for lack of support on my part (I showed no less than four friends Valkyria Chronicles after I purchased the PS3 version; every one of them bought their own copies!). And they may just find a happy middle ground where not every game is a platinum seller, but finds enough new fans to make it profitable; just imagine if Nintendo had never given Fire Emblem that chance, for example.

But as it stands Sega's in genuine danger of running the one "safe" cash cow they have into the ground with middling, mediocre entries. If that happens then we ALL lose, for good.

@MalkynRei78 A sizable number of the games you listed were outsourced to third parties to middling results. Shenmue 3 required a Kickstarter to even exist. Every "Shining" iteration since Sega abandoned the core Shining Force franchise is the same mediocre-to-awful ARPG bastardization of the original turn-based strategy formula they tried to get away with in Valkyria Chronicles Azure. As for the Puyo Puyos and the Monkey Balls, let's be honest; they don't exactly evoke the excitement and nostalgia of, say, Afterburner, Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi, and countless others.

Yes, Valkyria Chronicles and the Virtua Fighter games are incredible and more than welcome, but even VC4 is getting a bit long in the tooth by now. Sega's a big enough company even now to give a bunch more franchises remaster or new installments besides just Sonic. I give credit where it's due, but it requires a lot of denial to claim that Sega hasn't had a hugely myopic focus on Sonic for many years now that's been directly detrimental to the rest of their catalog and its fans.

Hey Sega, remember that survey you sent out in early 2022 asking gamers to request which legacy IPs NOT named "Sonic" we wanted to see? Then you made the entirety of 2022 all about Sonic anyway and now you're already hyping up more Sonic plans for 2023.

I personally will NEVER buy another Sonic product again until Sega starts giving more of their other legacy IPs some love...particularly their RPGs and Arcade titles. If you're not going to bother giving any of them a chance yourselves, Sega, then at least sell or license the rights to a capable developer who will.

Frankly, I think it's way past time for Sega to acknowledge that even the Sonic titles they've been releasing are middling quality at best, and realize that their company's long decline is the direct fault of its leadership. Give them a permanent vacation, and they can take Sonic with them too where I'm concerned.

Regarding Sega's "concerns" about the poor sales figures of their legacy RPGs, I offer a bit of context. It's easy for any game...even the very best...to suffer dismal or less-than-stellar sales figures when things like the following happen:

1) You outsource localizations to a third-party (Working Designs) who were limited to specialty stores like Toys R Us and GameStop instead of being allowed to share shelf space at the Big Box stores with mega-publishers like EA, Activision, etc. This kept a bunch of incredible games out of sight and out of mind for an entire generation of gamers, not just RPGs like Magic Knight RayEarth and Dragon Force but also pioneering turn-based Strategy titles like Iron Storm and excellent shooters like Silpheed and ThunderForce V.

2) Manufacturing only 3000 copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga for the entire North American market. 'Nuff said.

3) Releasing only the first of three interlocking Scenarios (and one-third of the storyline as a result) of Shining Force III. Sega was very much a Japan market-first company during the 80s and 90s, something most gamers were blissfully unaware of, and it showed not just with their often combative relations with their Western branches and third-parties (this is why Working Designs jumped ship for the PlayStation), but in how they handled their RPGs and other text-heavy games for the Western market.

4) By the time Skies of Arcadia debuted, the Dreamcast was already on its way to Sega's dustbin. It was scarcely promoted despite universally glowing reviews, and thus was largely overlooked.

The bottom line here is that the sales figures of those games didn't reflect any issue with their quality but rather Sega's own lack of interest and investment in the Western market. Time has allowed word of mouth to spread about many titles, but despite literally decades of fan requests at this point, Sega has largely turned a deaf ear. But given a fair chance, I firmly believe that remasters/remakes and/or sequels to several of those IPs would find an entirely new and eager audience for whom they would provide an entirely new experience. Some might even see a Renaissance comparable to what Fire Emblem did here in the West once Nintendo finally started localizing its entries. They deserve that chance, Sega.

First off, THANK YOU for doing this article; I know I'm vocal about how little love Sega gives their non-Sonic legacy titles (especially RPGs), but I also give credit where and when it's due.

This article hit on the exploration and amazing story, characters, and locations that make Skies of Arcadia truly special (and those strategic and varied ship-to-ship/monster battles certainly deserve a mention!!!), but I also wish to mention its incredible music. From the sweeping orchestral score of the title screen to some of the most perfectly immersive area soundtracks ever, from Kingdom of Ixa Taca's acoustic guitar and whooping native howls to Yafutoma Dawn's soothing Asian motif (Kingdom of Ixa Taka is my favorite song in any videogame EVER; listen to it with headphones or surround and you'll immediately understand why), it shows just what Sega's development teams were capable of when there was actual passion behind the project.

Again, thanks for doing this write-up; this game sorely needs a remaster and/or sequel, and media attention never hurts those chances. I know it may be a stretch to ask, but if you could do a similar article on Shining Force III, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Dragon Force for the Saturn, I would hugely appreciate it. All of these are incredible games more than deserving of a new audience to experience them.

@NCChris I was under the impression that they were playable via a similar mechanic to the ones in Awakening, only through the ring in this instance. For the record, I watched the announcement trailer but typically don't watch trailers or read articles regarding pre-release titles in order to avoid spoilers; I was basing my statement on the prevalence of legacy character-related headlines since the initial announcement.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, but given the emphasis on legacy characters in articles to date I hope you can understand why one could get the impression they're playable. Not trying to be a troll, in fact I have the game pre-ordered. But I have doubts about why the developers feel the game needs the old characters, playable or not, and I am definitely am not a fan of the protagonist's character design in any case.

Why don't they just call this game "Fire Emblem All-Stars" and be done with it? Since the original announcement it seems the primary promotion angle is all the previous protagonists being playable. As if maybe having a story centered around a protagonist with toothpaste for hair couldn't stand on its own...

Grandia is cool and all, but I'd really love to see a remastered LUNAR series compilation...and even an entirely new entry. LUNAR: The Silver Star was my first CD-based RPG experience (Sega CD and later the PSX and PSP versions); it was also the first RPG I had friends come over to play through the entire game with thanks to its incredible soundtrack. Great memories.

I'm about 10 hours in and have really enjoyed it so far. I could personally do without some of the language (contemporary profanity in particular, such as "s---" or the "f-word", instantly pulls me out of any sense of immersion, especially in a fantasy RPG, but honestly I'd rather not have it at all regardless...at least the option to not have it would be great), but fortunately it hasn't been too pervasive thus far. The story itself is solid and the mechanics are very deep (PRO-TIP: there's NO WAY to go back and review tutorials regarding mechanics after they're introduced, so be sure to READ CAREFULLY; I've read some great tips online including making screen captures or recording the video of the tutorial sequences). A nice, solid, and seemingly sizable RPG to round out 2022 with.

Manufacturing Sonic articles any which way you can, eh, Nintendo Life?

I really wish you guys would at least devote an op-ed or two for some other Sega IPs. Half your readers probably weren't born the last time most of Sega's catalog saw a release. Believe it or not, there are some fans of those franchises still around who would be thrilled to have an industry media site in our corner to a fraction of the degree you promote Sonic.

"We could make nine of them"? The last thing the hobby needs is another Japanese developer with a case of Sonic the Hedgehog syndrome (an overt focus on a single IP). They used to dominate videogame consoles for a reason, and they lost that position for a reason, too.

Seriously, can't Sega get ANYTHING besides Sonic on their brains anymore? I guess that "survey" they sent out early this year about what other "legacy IPs" we wanted to see was all just another farse, wasn't it?

Sega used to be arguably the most prolific and genre-diverse publisher in the entire industry, including their dominance of the Arcades. Now they're a has-been that hasn't been what they used to be for so long that most readers here (you don't even have to be that young anymore) probably always will only ever associate their brand with Sonic, and that's a travesty.

Xenoblade Chronicles X hooked me where the mainstream series never has been able to. I've purchased all three mainline entries, but the (unbelievably repetitive and annoying) battle cries, the frustration of babysitting a group of suicidal AI-controlled party members (this is why I've always preferred turn-based RPGs; you can micromanage every character) and lack of connection with the characters and their worlds resulted in me putting them down, and I'm unsure of when or if I'll ever get back to them.

X was actually my personal introduction to the franchise, and when its reveal trailer first appeared at E3 I thought we were seeing a new Phantasy Star. In truth, it's exactly what PSO should have been in every respect, right down to the side quests. But the thing is, it hooked me because right from the get-go it gave me the freedom to go anywhere and try anything (which resulted in a lot of trial, error, and deaths). But the world was so MASSIVE (unlike anything I'd ever played up to that point), and that music was so incredible (Cauldros, anyone?), that it really elevated the experience to a whole new level. The mainline games feel like they're on rails by comparison; I realize the storylines are much more important there, but then again, what's there so far hasn't been enough to hold my interest.

I'd absolutely be down for a Switch version of X to complete the set. Ironically, it might be the only entry I ever complete.

More like the Sega "Meh" anymore.

Why is it that every time I look at the protagonist I can't help but think of some cross-promotional tie-in involving Pepsi or some sort of toothpaste?

File that character design under "seemed like a good idea at the time".

Great Wave. This one checked a few more off my personal wish list. Keep 'em coming, Nintendo!

If only it was Sonic going "into the vault" for a few years so we could finally get Sega to attend to some other long-ignored franchises like Shining Force, Skies of Arcadia, etc..

Wonder if a Japanese judge would accept such a plea bargain? Maybe if they were an avid, longtime gamer...

My personal wish list for Tears of the Kingdom:

1) Actual dungeons
2) Greater enemy variety drawing from the entire Zelda series
3) Address the breakable weapons, PLEASE. At the very least let them last longer before breaking, and DON'T make any Legendary weapons breakable, for crying out loud (what was the point of finally getting them in BotW when they had to be mounted at Link's house in order not to risk losing them forever!??)!
4) Bring back meaningful, iconic items (example: Hookshot). Make finding treasure chests something to actually get excited about again.

I pre-ordered this because it's Fire Emblem, but I'm not sold on the character designs, the voice work, or what we've seen of the plot. I played well over 100 hours in Three Houses but have to admit that between the dark, dreary aesthetics and the pace-destroying and overly sprawling monastery, I didn't enjoy that initial playthrough enough to have gone back for the rest thus far.

I try to pin down why recent Fire Emblems haven't clicked with me, because turn-based SRPGs are one of my most favorite genres, and my thoughts go back to what I fell in love with regarding my introduction to the franchise: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn (these two could really use a remastered compilation by the way, Nintendo!). First, the storyline was comparatively grounded and the sub-themes (racism, slavery, and genocide) were mature, relatable to the real world yet tastefully handled without resorting to graphic onscreen representation. The writing and plot twists were top notch, as were both the protagonists and the villains. And even though the largely static cutscenes left something to be desired, they were kept relatively brief, conveyed what information was necessary to figure out how to recruit and develop characters, and moved the plot along. They struck that perfect balance where you looked forward both to the next battle as well as the next cutscene and plot revelation without rendering either tedious or overstaying its welcome.

Again, I'm buying Engage and plan to give it a fair chance, but I can't help but wonder if all these florid character designs and "fan service" legacy character inclusions aren't actually getting in the way of my being able to take it seriously. Sometimes simpler is better.

I can't think of any one person who has played such a pivotal role in the creation and development of so many iconic franchises or had as much of an impact on the hobby and so many fond memories for those of us who've loved videogames across the decades.

Happy birthday, Mr. Miyamoto, and I wish you many more.