Comments 2,605

Re: Round Table: Let's Talk About Palworld - Comparisons, Controversy, 'Copying'

Bolt_Strike

@HeadPirate I'm not familiar with most of those, but Fairy Tail, The Seven Deadly Sins, and The Rising of the Shield Hero are definitely not magic SCHOOL series. They're medieval fantasies, but they're all slightly different in execution. Fairy Tail is a magic guild. Shield Hero is an isekai. Seven Deadly Sins is pretty much a typical adventure series. There's some similarities yes, but you most definitely cannot throw them all in the bucket of "magic school" like Harry Potter. Magic is the only common thread in all 4 of those and that's about as vague a connection as they come.

Re: Round Table: Let's Talk About Palworld - Comparisons, Controversy, 'Copying'

Bolt_Strike

@JokerCK They pretty much admitted the reason. "but with its aesthetic parallels to Pokémon, it's been the main talking point for many of us as we await the first Nintendo Direct of the year and the inevitable Pokémon Presents showcase at the end of February."

It's because there's not much we know about for Nintendo games coming this year. We've pretty much got nothing until we see a Direct, Pokemon Present, or Switch 2 announcement of some kind.

Re: Best Nintendo Switch DLC & Expansions

Bolt_Strike

@cmbaum I was actually disappointed with Nyakuza Metro. They marketed it like it was a GTA clone with that cat costume, but it was mainly just more platforming. Also, the ending was very anticlimactic, you don't really fight The Empress in a true boss battle, you just escape on an elevator and she can't fight you because of the policemen there. It's... fine, but I wouldn't put it in the category of "best DLC" for sure.

Re: E3 Has Been Cancelled, Permanently

Bolt_Strike

Well, we knew this was coming eventually. The introduction of livestream events like Nintendo Directs made E3 obsolete. Still though, it kind of hurts regardless since E3 had some great announcements. F.

Re: Talking Point: What's Next For The Super Smash Bros. Series?

Bolt_Strike

I suspect Smash will get the MK8D treatment next gen. No main game on Switch 2, just Ultimate Deluxe with DLC included and even MORE Fighters Passes and that's all we get for the entire generation. I think they might need an entire generation to figure out what's next for Smash and we won't see Smash 6 until Switch 3/whatever's after Switch 2, it does seem like in situations where they're struggling to figure out what's next for an IP, they tend to skip a gen.

Re: Xbox Acknowledges Fan Requests For New Banjo-Kazooie Game

Bolt_Strike

@Sherlock- That would be great if we actually freaking saw said game. We haven't had a Yooka-Laylee game since 2019 and that was a 2.5D side entry (not to say it wasn't great but it's not a direct sequel, it's something different), the first game was in 2017 and 6 years later no sequel. One spiritual successor 20 years later and nothing else doesn't exactly fill the void that well.

Re: Xbox Acknowledges Fan Requests For New Banjo-Kazooie Game

Bolt_Strike

@norwichred False equivalency. Nintendo has so many IPs that it just can't give them all attention and most of the ones they left behind just haven't sold that well. Banjo-Kazooie meanwhile, sold 3.6 million on the N64 and has the potential to reach 5-10 million on a far more popular console. The reason that IP isn't getting made is much different and far more insidious, because Microsoft bought up companies like Rare to pad out their library (because they can't seem to make their own IPs so they just buy them), but Microsoft is a culture clash so they ended up driving away Rare's talent so they have no one left to make the IP. So basically the IP is rotting away because Microsoft wanted to buy up all of the square pegs to fit in their round holes.

Re: Soapbox: Ocarina Of Time's Water Temple Was Tough, But It Doesn't Deserve Its Reputation

Bolt_Strike

Honestly, the ENTIRETY of ALttP/OoT style Zelda games are Metroidvanias, just an action/adventure flavor of Metroidvania. You explore the maps finding items that help you explore even more of the map, the dungeon items open up more of the overworld in the same way that Samus' abilities might.

Anyway, the Water Temple was challenging, but a good type of challenging. It was a puzzle that you really need to use your head to figure out. And yeah, there's some QoL issues fixed in the 3DS remake that make it even better (and people wonder why some of us want dual screens back for the Switch 2).

Re: Talking Point: Does Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Need A Full Remake?

Bolt_Strike

@WaffleRaptor01 I don't think they really need to do much. Mainly just adding extra events to the story (for example, the end of the Child Arc/beginning of the Adult Arc feels really rushed). I'm not expecting Pulitzer Prize material from Nintendo. Technically that might fall more under content than story (what I really want is more dungeons/questlines at that point in the game), but it does require storyline changes.

Re: Talking Point: Does Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Need A Full Remake?

Bolt_Strike

It's passable as is, but it really could stand out more with a remake. The map could stand to be bigger and the story could use much more fleshing out. I would very much like to see a FFVII-esque reimagining for it, otherwise just stick with porting the original and 3DS remakes, they'll do if they don't want to get ambitious.

Re: Soapbox: Lavender Town Isn’t Pokémon’s Scariest Location, It’s Someplace Far More Sinister

Bolt_Strike

@Lizuka The music played a part in Area Zero's atmosphere for sure, but there was more to it than that. The story helped make it feel unsettling and unnatural too (not quite scary to the degree of Lavender and Old Chateau, but you definitely felt like there was something off about it). It being a forbidden location locked off until the end of the story, the teaser of having to fight an escaped Donphan Paradox that escaped Area Zero as one of the Titan Pokemon, and the gradual descent as you encounter the Paradox Pokemon, learn what they are, and learned what happened in this place, really makes the area feel off in a good way.

Re: Nintendo Accounts To "Help Ease" Next-Gen Transition, According To Doug Bowser

Bolt_Strike

@gcunit Regardless of what they have or haven't promised us, if that's all they'd use it for I'd be thinking that's a waste of an account system (and probably many others would too). Automated emails saying "Hey, we have a new system out!" probably isn't going to move the needle much in terms of getting the ball rolling, because of social media those kinds of announcements travel fast and far. What they're actually offering is more likely to affect how smooth the transition is to next gen. What the console does. What kinds of features it has. What kinds of games it plays. At the end of the day, that's what's going to get people coming out of the woodwork to buy the next gen device. And if they carry over the Switch's account framework but it's not going to carry over any of its features... that's a big yikes that's going to put people off to investing in a new console or a Nintendo account. Why are they going to bother paying for a similar console to the Switch that can't play Switch games? Why would they buy digital games if they're just going to be dead after ~7 years when the next gen console comes out? Why would they pay for NSO if they're just going to give us the same meager collections of systems we've seen recycled multiple times like NES, SNES, and N64? It becomes a tougher ask and makes the "unified account system" look not so unified and fairly pointless. You're kind of giving the game away if you're not carrying something over from past systems.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon X & Y - The Series' Greatest Paradoxes

Bolt_Strike

@Dark_Isatari You skipped the DS games? Pity, because the DS games were some of the best IMO, and the 3 third versions/remakes (Platinum, HGSS, and BW2) are among my Top 5 favorite Pokemon games and were the Top 3 for a very long time. If you ever have the opportunity to play those 3, do so because it feels like Game Freak actually tried with those games.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon X & Y - The Series' Greatest Paradoxes

Bolt_Strike

@AndyMcDonald USUM also feels like a retelling with different features TBH. USUM's problem is that few of its changes feel significant other than the storyline which felt like it was changed for the worse. Most of what USUM added were new areas that took all of 5 seconds to explore and felt nearly pointless and new features and sidequests that barely added anything to the game. It felt like most of what they did barely moved the needle to the point where it almost felt like the same game, in a way that a 3rd version hadn't felt in a VERY long time (the last 3rd version to feel that similar to the original was Crystal).

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon X & Y - The Series' Greatest Paradoxes

Bolt_Strike

@Savage_Joe The changes they made to the Magma/Aqua storyline were very important actually, because they showed up in areas that actually made sense. As opposed to RS and ORAS, where you have nonsense such as the sea based team trying to blow up a volcano or the land based team stealing a submarine to visit an underwater cavern.

As for Rayquaza, its role in Emerald actually brought it into the main conflict and lore with Groudon and Kyogre. Meanwhile the Delta Episode, while a neat storyline, completely separates itself from the main plot and does its own thing. So it's hardly "above and beyond" when the Emerald stuff is missing. Above and beyond would be if they had the Delta Episode AND the Emerald storyline, not the Delta Episode INSTEAD OF the Emerald storyline.

The Battle Frontier was the only major other feature missing from Emerald, but there's also a bunch of other smaller things they omitted too. None of the Emerald exclusive areas (such as the Safari Zone Expansion, Desert Underpass, Mirage Tower, Terra/Marine Cave) made it in, you couldn't get the second fossil, there were several Pokemon you could catch in Emerald's post game that weren't in ORAS at all. Individually that stuff isn't much, but when you add it all up it's kind of a lot missing.

So yeah, excluding so much of that stuff just makes ORAS feel far from the definitive Hoenn entry. Honestly I feel like there IS no definitive Hoenn entry and you need to play both Emerald and ORAS to get the full experience. And if you have a situation like that, it means the remake has failed its purpose.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon X & Y - The Series' Greatest Paradoxes

Bolt_Strike

@Rayquaza2510 Here's the problem with the mentality of "remakes are only remakes of the first versions, not the third version". The point of a remake is to take an old game and re-release it into circulation for people that might not have had the opportunity to play the original (primarily because they were too young). But... Emerald is almost as old as RS and equally inaccessible. So if someone wants the opportunity to play Emerald in this day and age, how do you do that? They didn't re-release Emerald content alongside ORAS in any way, so it's just gone (aside from paying an exorbitant price to get an original copy of the GBA on Ebay). That strategy would be acceptable if they were going to make a Delta Emerald or something, but if they only want one pair of remakes, it would only be fair to throw in third version content.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon X & Y - The Series' Greatest Paradoxes

Bolt_Strike

@betterthanvegas ORAS had almost nothing from Emerald. In fact, like with XY, there's some Emerald content teased but never actually included. Instead of the Battle Frontier, we got the Battle Maison copy/pasted from XY onto a rather empty tropical island with references of "the Battle Frontier is in development" but never included. Likewise, we see hints of Match Call post game but we never get to use it, just regular old Trainer Eyes (and while the Match Call itself is a bit more annoying, there is one feature of it that is sorely missed: the ability to rematch Gym Leaders). The story is almost completely ignored, and the Delta Episode is a poor substitute that has almost nothing in common with Emerald's story other than Rayquaza being a focus. Then there's other assorted things from Emerald that just didn't make it, the expanded Safari Zone, Mirage Tower, Desert Underpass, Terra and Marine Cave (granted Terra/Marine Cave would be difficult to work in to the game because that only really works with a single version, but it's still missing content).