@ZionWario Yeah, I didn't understand any of that stuff while I was actually playing Yokai Watch 1 & 2. I don't want more command inputs to make it more complex, I just want it to be more intuitive, so I stop feeling like I have no control whatsoever over the outcome of any given battle. Its battle system is just a chaotic, sensory-bombarding mess, IMO. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way, and Yokai Watch 3 featured a radically different system that, at least looking at gameplay footage, seemed a lot easier to understand. At the very least, I felt like I knew what was going on in the battles I saw, something I could never say about any of the battles in the previous entries. I like a complex game, but far moreso I need a game to be intuitive, so I can utilize all of the options it offers. I love Xenoblade Chronicle's battle system, since I find it to be easy and intuitive, while still offering enough depth to pull off some interesting combinations.
Like I was trying to say earlier, Diablo-style combat tends to be the opposite situation in my eyes - it removes the strategic options offered by turn-based gameplay, yet also making the action combat hyper-simplistic, often narrowing it down to a single attack button and magic hotkeys (in this case, two special attacks). While that can be good for streamlining an RPG experience, I find that it, along with the frequent quantity-over-quality style of progression, tend to utterly devalue any interest I could have in a dungeon or encounter from a gameplay standpoint, requiring good writing, artstyle, and atmosphere to hold my interest. Yokai Watch Blaster at least has the art, but I'm not convinced the writing will hold up enough to motivate me through a repetitive grindfest when there are more interesting games I could easily be playing instead, especially on the 3DS.
@Magrane Why would I do that? That's $60 that could go towards saving up for a Switch system, and playing it sooner. Plus, I'd be able to buy it at a reduced price, since it'll probably be 6-12 months before I plan to get a Switch. Not to mention I'm tired of Bamco locking major content behind pre-order bonuses to strong-arm customers into buying games they're on the fence about. It's a really scuzzy tactic that has led me to quite a bit of buyer's remorse, personally. There's just no good reason for me to pre-order a game for a console I don't own just so I can get a download code for a Super Famicom game that they could've easily released as a standalone product twice now, but instead they keep holding it for ransom.
...................I mean, I pre-ordered it anyways, but I'm just saying, I'm probably gonna regret it.
Balls! I don't even have a Nintendo Switch yet! I was going to get the Nintendo Switch version when I finally got one some time next year, but now I have to miss out on Super Butoden again? C'mon...
@Agramonte I'm pretty sure 700 series and up would work just fine. I have a GTX 635 and I can run pretty much anything my PS4 can, and certainly anything a Nintendo Swtch could, and yet those consoles offer far more incentives over gaming on my PC. It really just baffles me how Microsoft can be so dense sometimes. I certainly hope this convinces them to undo that policy, I sure as hell wouldn't pay for Xbox Live Gold just to play some free games...then again, I don't think there's a game Microsoft has that could ever convince me to pay for their subscription services again...
@Agramonte Wait, Microsoft actually requires Gold to play games that are freely available anywhere else? Are they just absolutely intent on making their consoles seem inferior to any half-decent PC? For Pete's sake...
I'm probably the only one looking forward to Warlock on Firetop Mountain, but well...how many other Fighting Fantasy-style gamebook adaptions do we see? Not nearly enough. It is expensive, though...
Plus, I have everything else exciting this week on other platforms, so that helps my decision here.
@Ralek85 It was a clunky mess with terrible level design, cheap difficulty that relied heavily on the player being blindsided, and overall just felt like a game that purposely wastes your time, in that old-school kind of way when developers were worried about people finishing their games within a rental period more than actually making their games fun enough to be worth more than a rental. At the very least, I wouldn't call it unique, just outdated. It was the successor to King's Field, and while I never got to try that series, I went in having been told it was a good game, and that it was difficult but fair. A unique and fun experience for those looking for a challenge.
It was none of those things. It was cheap, it was unfair, it wasn't difficult once you learned its tricks, but it's never rewarding - only slow, meticulous, clunky, and dreary to look at. Did I mention it was so dark I had to turn the lighting up to max just so I see where I was going? Yeah, sure, what a challenge, having to fight enemies I can't even see. What a load of crap that game was. I had my issues with Dark Souls as well, but it was nowhere near as bad as Demon's Souls.
I mean it when I say that it was a lesson to be learned when it comes to 'Low Key Hype' - at the time I heard about Demon's Souls, I was into Etrian Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei, The Dark Spire, and Retro Game Challenge. All of these had been propped up more by their fans than their publishers, and it was clear that there was an audience primed and ready for a game like Demon's Souls. And since it was on consoles, that gave it an even bigger audience outside Japan than any of those DS games. It was even one of the main reasons I bought a PS3 back in 2011, along with Tales of Graces f, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls, and 3D Dot Game Heroes.
Maybe for you, it was something unexpected, but for me, it was just the next step in a sequence of events I had been watching unfold since the mid 2000's. I tried going back and giving Demon's Souls numerous chances to impress me, and instead I was always left feeling defeated. It's no Castlevania, no Wizardry, it's not even Dark Souls. It's just a depressing monument to how rough the transition to HD gaming had been on the market since 2006, how many studios struggled to keep up, gaming was becoming oversaturated with me-too experiences literally aimed at the lowest common denominator - a fact publishers flaunted during press conferences, even as they were stripping down experiences millions of people enjoyed just to try to appeal to "them young folk"...we had seen better days, and Demon's Souls promised to bring us back to those glory days.
I just don't think that's what we got in the end. Others had to pick up the torch to reach that goal.
I'd say that's a nice segway into Dead Cells, but I'm actually not a fan of Random Level Generation in any game, period. Hence why I didn't bring up the Mystery Dungeon games earlier. They're just not my bag. I mean, if it's not clear enough already, I demand thoughtful level design in my games. Can't get that with RNG.
@NinjaSyao The very next sentence of the paragraph you were quoting mentioned that the version was halted in order to complete the rest of the versions. See @RR529's post for the rest of the details. They needed more funds to finish the port, and Bamco wasn't gonna give unless they felt it would have an audience. Xenoverse 2 game sales happened to prove that. It's not like Nintendo systems have had a good track record with 3rd party fighting games, or even 3rd party home console sales in general, so I don't think it's hard to believe Bamco would need a precedent to justify a budget increase.
Their explanation just makes it worse...there are plenty of online games on PC and PS4/Xbox One that support cloud saves, and they don't effect the online components, that's supposed to be handled separately. Hopefully this is just an oversight in how those games were made, and it won't be a problem going forward.
Housework. The heatwave finally ended, so I'm gonna do some well-overdue vacuuming.
I'm also gonna try to fit in some Dragon Quest XI, Warframe, Paladins, and the Battlefield V Beta. Possibly Tekken 7 as well, now that the DLC finally went on sale, so I can get the Bowling Mode that they ripped out to sell back later as DLC...I am a consumer...
@Ralek85 You had me until you brought up Demon's Souls. That game was proof that a game whose popularity spreads through word of mouth can still be overhyped. I'll never forget Demon Souls, either, no matter how much I want to.
Oh hey, the Switch version of Dust: An Elysian Tail released today. Kind of a crowded week to throw that out on, but beng as old as it is, I doubt it would've gotten much attention either way, being a re-release of a 6 year old indie game. Still nice to see it kicking, though.
If the DLC changes the battle sprites to the old school versions in addition to the character prtraits, it would either be the best bang-for-your-buck DLC ever, or it would make the game as a whole the most expensive re-release ever made, depending on how you look at it...
...I wonder how much Der Langrisser goes for these days...
I voted "no" because scores don't actually mean anything in the grand sceme of thing. I do, however, understand why the majority have voted yes: Most reviews are not well-written, and a lot of people don't actually care about the content of said reviews - they just want an anonymous source to confirm what they already want to believe. Scores tend to fit that criteria.
I'm sure I will simultaneously be enamoured and infuriated by this game. Sign me up.
@Ralizah It's clealy not meant to be a Front Mission-style game, though. It's more of a puzzle grame from what I've seen, with strong strategic elements. Either way, it seems to be more focused on being addictive and replayable, much like FTL was.
@MetalKingShield Wow, isn't that the opposite of how that story usually goes? It would certainly explain some of my problems, and if they changed any of the animations or sprites, that'd explain why the feel always seems off. Yeah, now I want to try Bare Knuckle 3 as well.
@impurekind Considering once you zoom it out that much, the problem is just in the shading/color-blending, you don't necessarily need pixel art to fix that. Yes, the new art looks a little flat - it wasn't a problem in Dragon's Trap because the original sprites were just that cartoony, but Streets of Rage was going for a more textured look. I certainly hope they work on that while the game is in development.
All I need to know to avoid this one. I like Yo-kai Watch, but not enough to put up with a repetitive loot grind. Am I the only who thought Diablo's gameplay was only serviceable at best, and its strengths were in its story and atmosphere? Torchlight's the only clone I've seen that got that right, and even Diablo III felt off (though the expansion content was a little better, IMO. Unless I just acclimated?).
I dunno, I wanted the gameplay to be improved in Yo-Kai Watch, but more in the sense of giving you more control in your turn-based combat ('cuz that's usually important in turn-based combat). Pretty sure Yokai Watch 3 already addresses that, so I'll just wait...
I have many a fond memory of the first game from when I was a kid, and Streets of Rage 2 is still one of my favorites in the genre. Seriously, I'm not much for beat 'em ups - I find them too repetitive for my tastes, "classic" games often feel clunky and dated, and they tend to be either too long or too short.
None of that really stuck out in SoR2, though. It hit the right balance in so many areas, and I had a blast with it, even in singleplayer (which I realize isn't the strongest part of the genre, but everyone I've tried to get to play these types of games are always turned off by the blatant repetition, and rightly so).
SoR3's always felt "off" to me, in terms of enemy design (as in their attack patterns) and controls. It would've been fine with some tweaks, but overall it just felt unresponsive and I found myself suffering a lot more cheap deaths than I did in the previous entries in the series.
Been meaning to try this one. I think I have it on Steam, though. If not, I'll holod out for the Switch version, though, since I have Diablo III and all of its expansions on PS4 already.
Aw man, I actually was curious about this when I saw it show up in the eShop update on Thursday. I don't care for anything Multiplayer-focused, though, so I'll be skipping it.
@aznable Okay, that was it. I don't have a Switch yet, so it's hard for me to tell when I'm looking at a rack of games what's new and what isn't, especially at my local Gamestops where they can barely keep things in alphabetical order, and new releases rarely seem to get much exposure unless it's from a platform holder or one of the 4 big corporate giants (even if the game is 4+ months old and those same platform holders have newer stuff out, too).
I already bought it PS4 with all the DLC at around 40% off the total price, so I'm not interested in double dipping. Still surprised its taken this long to release on the Switch, though...hopefully its not too little, too late...I'm pretty sure I've seen another Anti-Grav racer floating around on the Switch recently...
@saintayu It's free. They just won't be ready upon release.
Actually, why am I singling you out? Everyone here seems confused. It doesn't help that they haven't even bothered to anounce the rest of the games on cart, but still...
I remember this and a bunch of other promising sci-fi exploration-focused games were announced, this looked like yet another thing to be excited for.
Flash-forward about 4 years or so, and now it's just yet another early access farce - an "ambitious" game that didn't have much direction in the first place, and squandered whatever potential it could've had...
I'm not sure if I'll double dip, but this was definitely an interesting game when I played it on the PS4. I guess it helps that I love games that focus on visual storytelling over tons of dialogue, especially when its done as well as it was in this game.
I forgot what Into the Breach was. Yeah, I watched some extensive gameplay footage, and it looks like it'd be as addicting and challenging as FTL was, if not moreso, so I'm excited for that now. Still looking forward to The Messenger more, though, and I'm curious as to whether or not Claws of Furry is any good...
That was unexpected, but very exciting news! The first one was a bit rough, but I still had fun with it. A remaster so it's less blurry to look at would be welcome...how much is it, though? It's gonna be a tough sell if it's over $20, since who, outside of hardcore fans, would even consider paying a premium for a stealthier Devil May Cry 1?
@Mr_Pepperami That's my worry as well. I get it, good sprite art takes a lot of time, and we don't know how long the game will be either way, but Streets of Rage has always had at least 3 characters, so if you don't like one of the stereotypes/playstyles a character offers, you aren't stuck with it just because your buddy picked the other one. Only having two to choose from out of the gate is kind of a bummer.
I'm still excited that Streets of Rage is coming out, and there's a good chance it could still be enjoyable, but I'd probably hold off of trying co-op until they add a third down the line if there's not already one planned in the pipeline, but wasn't ready for the reveal trailer. And if it IS DLC, then I'll be treating the overall price accordingly. It better be a beefy game if they're planning to charge over $20 for the Base game, and at least a third of the total price for a third character.
@Yorumi There's more to it, I just don't explaining it, because I don't know how to explain my thoughts on game design in less than a paragraph. and without thorough, side-by-side comparisons that would take longer than would possibly be worthwhile.
I know it's not helping my case, but I also stopped caring by the time this article fell off the front page, so...I think I'm done here.
@Yorumi I only listed Super Metroid because I literally had the choice of continuing my second playthrough of Super Metroid - I only played through it once back in 2008. I took a lot of it for granted back then, but now I can see why it's the greatest 2D platformer of all time. I could literally write a book on how well designed it is. So yeah, I think wasted my night. Warframe doesn't have anything left to offer me, while a great game designed with forethought and consideration for the players as a means to alleviate frustration rather aggrevate them further so they spend more money is an experience I can treasure over the long term. I'd much rather play games like this - Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Kirby 64, Star Fox, F-Zero, Monster Hunter, Mega Man, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, Dragon Quest - all the good stuff that parasitic time-sponges that these so-called "live services" (I mean both F2P and the increasingly prevelant AAA varients that have been plaguing the industry as of late) could never hold a candle to in terms of memorablity, gameplay experience, and true long-term value - they're what's actually worth my time. I'm happy to see that someone big at Nintendo still understands that, and I hope we'll still see more and more excellent games from them and other studios still remember how to make a good game, provided their publishers even let them just make games anymore.
So to answer your question: Yes. Yes I would rather play through Super Metroid a 1000 times, because every time I play a Metroid game, I find new things to appreciate. Every time I play through Warframe, I find new junk that I might use to sell to another player so I can afford to get that component I really need, until I give up and just spend $30.
Forget that, Million Arther has Iori as a playable guest character! I mean, it also looks like a fun game, but now I actually wish King of Fighters XV would look like this:
@Yorumi Since this news post is getting buried, I'll just clear up one misconception that you seems to be a sticking point:
Grinding is not THE problem. It's all intent and excecution - what does this gameplay element accomplish? I don't have time to explain my full thoughts on it...in fact, the more time I spent trying to flesh it out over the 4 hours or so, the more I felt like I was putting together a thesis on game design, and that'd just be wasted here. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I mean, if I haven't made it clear yet, the only thing my F2P "journey" has led me to was a greater appreciation for my own time.
@Yorumi I had another rant that I was writing up, but TL;DR - I don't mean to say that F2P games are incapable of being good, I just don't think Patchwork Game design, timers, deliberately poor pacing, excessive grinding that's only there to stall player's progress, etc. could ever be considered great design, and considering how many compromises F2P games have to make in order to be profitable, I don't think they're ever capable of being great games. At this stage, why should I settle for anything less?
I've put hundreds of hours into Warframe, which is still the best I've experienced by far. Yet I don't feel that it's a game that respects my time. It has a lot of problems that might be fixed eventually. It's hard to say, since it's the very definition of "making it up as we go" in terms of design philosophy. In the hours I spent trying to obtain a single mod that might make my pet kubrow useful in terms of damage output, I could've spent that time on another playthrough of Super Metroid instead. I think I'm done.
@Yorumi I'm aware that it can make a lot of money, because it's unmitigated, potentially endless revenue. The problem comes with how it's implemented into the design, and how obtrusive it is. Honestly, even the best free-to-play games are still designed to where you down in some way, because they want your money. They're the junk food of gaming, and I find they can be most enjoyable when treated as such. I honestly could be here for quite a while talking about examples, since I spent the past few days researching different F2P games, watching reviews, and reading how the various communities were had to say about this. Games like Mechwarriors Online and Planetside 2, which had a ton of great ideas and mechanics that were rolled back, or buried under systems that deeply incentivize spending as much money as possible. And I don't just mean grinding, I mean they broke core ideas or any potential those mechanics had to be good, simply to get people to spend more money.
Then there are games like Warframe and Paladins, where the grind is either not that bad, or are mostly for cosmetic items that you don't need in order to play. Even still, I find myself feeling the pressure to spend a lot of money in an obtrusive way. Paladins especially deserves mention because of how ludicrous its Battle Pass is, at least when I looked into it, as well as how the game always seems to make the newest characters the most broken, at least within the first few weeks of release. I know balancing is always difficult, and a few of these characters still feel kind of unfair (no really, there's a melee tank whose ult revives him and kills everyone around him, especially if he just backs his enemies into the cramped spots that a couple maps have way too many of? Uuuugh!!!).
I mean, if you can name examples that are good games that don't compromise good design, sure. And I'm very aware that other fixed price games can be just as bad. Why do you think I ended my previous post the way I did? There's enough crap out there, while I'm fine with certain games trying to fix what was wrong with it, I dislike that F2P is by design a creature that can't be trusted. You can try it for free, but if you're hooked, you could find yourself out a lot of money if you're not careful, and that's not fine. I've always been cynical of media designed to be exploitative, from trading cards, to cartoons designed to sell toys, to social media that seems geared towards making consumers do the advertiser's jobs without compensation or accountability. That isn't to say I can't enjoy them, but they're never preferable to something more straight-forward - something where I know what I'm getting, and once I have it, I'm expected to enjoy it as a self-contained entity. A tie-in toy was cool, but a toy I have to buy just so I can use a character in a video game is a lot less cool. A game I can play for free is a nice idea, but we all know there's no such thing as a free lunch.
IMO, a great game isn't just fairly priced and balanced, with unique and memorable concepts, characters, worlds, mechanics and ideas – a great game also feels like a worthy investment of your time. And in the free-to-play market, time is the real currency. I'd gladly spend $60, or even $100 just to have the best F2P games I've played be re-purposed into a traditional purchase model, with gameplay that's balanced towards a reasonable growth rate, and maybe experienced in a way that makes them more compelling than just, "sure, I'll play for a few hours to let off some steam, before I move onto more substantial games."
I mean, if it leads to quality gaming experiences, free-to-play gaming is fine...it almost never does, and really is only sustainable if its a smash hit, and even a lot of those smash hits have questionable practices that beat the players over the head to try to convince them to spend as much as possible for their "free" game....I mean, a lot of retail games will do the same thing, but...
Maybe I should get off this train before it goes careening into a pitch black abyss?
It's an open-world game that was dull as dirt, poorly supported, and squandered most of its potential. I didn't even know it left early access. Honestly, my initial reaction was, "wow, so even vaporware can get on the Switch eShop now?"
FYI, PS+ and I believe even Xbox Live Gold aren't required for Free-to-play online connectivity, so this really should be par for the course, if true. Really, it'd just screw over all these F2P publishers and fans if they did, causing quite $#!+show. Not to mention there's no business sense behind adding a paywall to games whose main appeal is that they're free games. "Pay us X amount of money to play games that are available for free on other devices, including PC and/or mobile devices" is not a good incentive for most buyers. "We have a bunch of games you can play on our device(s) right out of the box" is a good incentive for potential Switch buyers.
So, yeah, I certainly hope Nintendo still knows how to run a good business.
"...and new elements not included in the original games will be added."
I'm most curious about what this will be. I'm not saying the original Langrisser games were perfect, but the last time they tried to innovate the design resulted in utter crap.
I'm also disappointed that they still couldn't keep the old artist, especially since the new one is just...boring. I looked him up (Nagiryo), and I see that his work is in a lot of stuff, with the most noteable being his contributions to the Ar Tonelico franchise...honestly, IMO, he's a good illustrator, in terms of composition and posing, and I really love his technical and monster designs...but even his characters tend to look like robots. Very unexpressive and just boring to look at on there own. Same with his costume designs nowadays, but we'll see if he changes that up this time around.
I dunno, it's rare enough that I get distinctive art styles that stand out anymore, so it's a shame that one of the games that I used to be so quick to identify is now just going to look like every other game out there.
I really hope this gets localized at some point. I loved the original game, but I'm not gonna lie, I had to look up a lot of stuff, particularly maps, to get through it.
Comments 5,974
Re: Yo-Kai Watch Blasters - A Spin-Off Done Right, Even If We've Had To Wait A While
@ZionWario Yeah, I didn't understand any of that stuff while I was actually playing Yokai Watch 1 & 2. I don't want more command inputs to make it more complex, I just want it to be more intuitive, so I stop feeling like I have no control whatsoever over the outcome of any given battle. Its battle system is just a chaotic, sensory-bombarding mess, IMO. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way, and Yokai Watch 3 featured a radically different system that, at least looking at gameplay footage, seemed a lot easier to understand. At the very least, I felt like I knew what was going on in the battles I saw, something I could never say about any of the battles in the previous entries. I like a complex game, but far moreso I need a game to be intuitive, so I can utilize all of the options it offers. I love Xenoblade Chronicle's battle system, since I find it to be easy and intuitive, while still offering enough depth to pull off some interesting combinations.
Like I was trying to say earlier, Diablo-style combat tends to be the opposite situation in my eyes - it removes the strategic options offered by turn-based gameplay, yet also making the action combat hyper-simplistic, often narrowing it down to a single attack button and magic hotkeys (in this case, two special attacks). While that can be good for streamlining an RPG experience, I find that it, along with the frequent quantity-over-quality style of progression, tend to utterly devalue any interest I could have in a dungeon or encounter from a gameplay standpoint, requiring good writing, artstyle, and atmosphere to hold my interest. Yokai Watch Blaster at least has the art, but I'm not convinced the writing will hold up enough to motivate me through a repetitive grindfest when there are more interesting games I could easily be playing instead, especially on the 3DS.
Re: Super Butoden Will Remain Exclusive To Dragon Ball FighterZ Pre-Orders
@Magrane Why would I do that? That's $60 that could go towards saving up for a Switch system, and playing it sooner. Plus, I'd be able to buy it at a reduced price, since it'll probably be 6-12 months before I plan to get a Switch. Not to mention I'm tired of Bamco locking major content behind pre-order bonuses to strong-arm customers into buying games they're on the fence about. It's a really scuzzy tactic that has led me to quite a bit of buyer's remorse, personally. There's just no good reason for me to pre-order a game for a console I don't own just so I can get a download code for a Super Famicom game that they could've easily released as a standalone product twice now, but instead they keep holding it for ransom.
...................I mean, I pre-ordered it anyways, but I'm just saying, I'm probably gonna regret it.
Re: Wireless NES Controllers Won't Work With Other Games On Nintendo Switch
I could buy a working NES with controllers for that price.
No.
I have bought an NES with working controllers for that price.
Re: Super Butoden Will Remain Exclusive To Dragon Ball FighterZ Pre-Orders
Balls! I don't even have a Nintendo Switch yet! I was going to get the Nintendo Switch version when I finally got one some time next year, but now I have to miss out on Super Butoden again? C'mon...
Re: Nintendo Confirms Free-To-Play Games Can Be Played Without Switch Online Membership
@Agramonte I'm pretty sure 700 series and up would work just fine. I have a GTX 635 and I can run pretty much anything my PS4 can, and certainly anything a Nintendo Swtch could, and yet those consoles offer far more incentives over gaming on my PC. It really just baffles me how Microsoft can be so dense sometimes. I certainly hope this convinces them to undo that policy, I sure as hell wouldn't pay for Xbox Live Gold just to play some free games...then again, I don't think there's a game Microsoft has that could ever convince me to pay for their subscription services again...
Re: Nintendo Confirms Free-To-Play Games Can Be Played Without Switch Online Membership
@Agramonte Wait, Microsoft actually requires Gold to play games that are freely available anywhere else? Are they just absolutely intent on making their consoles seem inferior to any half-decent PC? For Pete's sake...
Re: Wasteland 2: Director's Cut - A Less-Than-Perfect Port Of A Turn-Based Tactical Classic
@Aven Yeah, comparing it to any Elder Scrolls at launch isn't doing them any favors. I think I'll stick with the PC version. At least it's patched up.
Re: Senran Kagura Reflexions - Cheap Titillation Masquerading As A Love Story
There are minigames in other games that do what this whole does as its schtick. What. A. Waste!
Re: Nintendo Download: 13th September (North America)
I'm probably the only one looking forward to Warlock on Firetop Mountain, but well...how many other Fighting Fantasy-style gamebook adaptions do we see? Not nearly enough. It is expensive, though...
Plus, I have everything else exciting this week on other platforms, so that helps my decision here.
Re: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition Announced For Nintendo Switch
Finally, online co-op! At least I can play it as intended now.
Re: Ex-Motion Twin Marketing Manager Reveals The Tactics Behind Dead Cells' Huge Success
@Ralek85 It was a clunky mess with terrible level design, cheap difficulty that relied heavily on the player being blindsided, and overall just felt like a game that purposely wastes your time, in that old-school kind of way when developers were worried about people finishing their games within a rental period more than actually making their games fun enough to be worth more than a rental. At the very least, I wouldn't call it unique, just outdated. It was the successor to King's Field, and while I never got to try that series, I went in having been told it was a good game, and that it was difficult but fair. A unique and fun experience for those looking for a challenge.
It was none of those things. It was cheap, it was unfair, it wasn't difficult once you learned its tricks, but it's never rewarding - only slow, meticulous, clunky, and dreary to look at. Did I mention it was so dark I had to turn the lighting up to max just so I see where I was going? Yeah, sure, what a challenge, having to fight enemies I can't even see. What a load of crap that game was. I had my issues with Dark Souls as well, but it was nowhere near as bad as Demon's Souls.
I mean it when I say that it was a lesson to be learned when it comes to 'Low Key Hype' - at the time I heard about Demon's Souls, I was into Etrian Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei, The Dark Spire, and Retro Game Challenge. All of these had been propped up more by their fans than their publishers, and it was clear that there was an audience primed and ready for a game like Demon's Souls. And since it was on consoles, that gave it an even bigger audience outside Japan than any of those DS games. It was even one of the main reasons I bought a PS3 back in 2011, along with Tales of Graces f, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls, and 3D Dot Game Heroes.
Maybe for you, it was something unexpected, but for me, it was just the next step in a sequence of events I had been watching unfold since the mid 2000's. I tried going back and giving Demon's Souls numerous chances to impress me, and instead I was always left feeling defeated. It's no Castlevania, no Wizardry, it's not even Dark Souls. It's just a depressing monument to how rough the transition to HD gaming had been on the market since 2006, how many studios struggled to keep up, gaming was becoming oversaturated with me-too experiences literally aimed at the lowest common denominator - a fact publishers flaunted during press conferences, even as they were stripping down experiences millions of people enjoyed just to try to appeal to "them young folk"...we had seen better days, and Demon's Souls promised to bring us back to those glory days.
I just don't think that's what we got in the end. Others had to pick up the torch to reach that goal.
I'd say that's a nice segway into Dead Cells, but I'm actually not a fan of Random Level Generation in any game, period. Hence why I didn't bring up the Mystery Dungeon games earlier. They're just not my bag. I mean, if it's not clear enough already, I demand thoughtful level design in my games. Can't get that with RNG.
Re: Dragon Ball FighterZ Producer Thanks Fans For Requesting Game On Nintendo Switch
@NinjaSyao The very next sentence of the paragraph you were quoting mentioned that the version was halted in order to complete the rest of the versions. See @RR529's post for the rest of the details. They needed more funds to finish the port, and Bamco wasn't gonna give unless they felt it would have an audience. Xenoverse 2 game sales happened to prove that. It's not like Nintendo systems have had a good track record with 3rd party fighting games, or even 3rd party home console sales in general, so I don't think it's hard to believe Bamco would need a precedent to justify a budget increase.
Re: Nintendo Website Suggests Multiple Switch Games Will Not Support Cloud Saves
Their explanation just makes it worse...there are plenty of online games on PC and PS4/Xbox One that support cloud saves, and they don't effect the online components, that's supposed to be handled separately. Hopefully this is just an oversight in how those games were made, and it won't be a problem going forward.
Re: Surfing Pikachu Is A New Mode Of Transport In Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! And Let's Go, Eevee!
Okay, this might actually get me to consider playing thi- Remembers every other news announcement about this game
...well, it was a nice idea, at least...
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 8th)
Housework. The heatwave finally ended, so I'm gonna do some well-overdue vacuuming.
I'm also gonna try to fit in some Dragon Quest XI, Warframe, Paladins, and the Battlefield V Beta. Possibly Tekken 7 as well, now that the DLC finally went on sale, so I can get the Bowling Mode that they ripped out to sell back later as DLC...I am a consumer...
Re: Ex-Motion Twin Marketing Manager Reveals The Tactics Behind Dead Cells' Huge Success
@Ralek85 You had me until you brought up Demon's Souls. That game was proof that a game whose popularity spreads through word of mouth can still be overhyped. I'll never forget Demon Souls, either, no matter how much I want to.
Re: Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition HD For Nintendo Switch
Please no, I like my eyesight, thank you.
Re: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy - A Sexy Street Fighter That's Perfect For Beginners
@Fuz I loved Gal Fighters!
Nothing about this game really appeals to me, though. I'd honestly rather just dig out my Neo Geo Pocket Color instead...
Re: Nintendo Download: 6th September (North America)
Oh hey, the Switch version of Dust: An Elysian Tail released today. Kind of a crowded week to throw that out on, but beng as old as it is, I doubt it would've gotten much attention either way, being a re-release of a 6 year old indie game. Still nice to see it kicking, though.
Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 Design Director Laughs Off Question About Switch Release
This requires context. Like, the exact quote...too bad it's locked behind Game Informer's paywall...
Re: Video: Watch The Debut Trailer For The Remakes Of Langrisser I & II
If the DLC changes the battle sprites to the old school versions in addition to the character prtraits, it would either be the best bang-for-your-buck DLC ever, or it would make the game as a whole the most expensive re-release ever made, depending on how you look at it...
...I wonder how much Der Langrisser goes for these days...
Re: Talking Point: Do We Still Need Review Scores?
I voted "no" because scores don't actually mean anything in the grand sceme of thing. I do, however, understand why the majority have voted yes: Most reviews are not well-written, and a lot of people don't actually care about the content of said reviews - they just want an anonymous source to confirm what they already want to believe. Scores tend to fit that criteria.
Re: Into The Breach - The Turn-Based Pacific Rim Simulator You've Always Wanted
I'm sure I will simultaneously be enamoured and infuriated by this game. Sign me up.
@Ralizah It's clealy not meant to be a Front Mission-style game, though. It's more of a puzzle grame from what I've seen, with strong strategic elements. Either way, it seems to be more focused on being addictive and replayable, much like FTL was.
Re: Video: It's The Perfect Time To Remember How Amazing Streets Of Rage Was, And Still Is
@MetalKingShield Wow, isn't that the opposite of how that story usually goes? It would certainly explain some of my problems, and if they changed any of the animations or sprites, that'd explain why the feel always seems off. Yeah, now I want to try Bare Knuckle 3 as well.
@impurekind Considering once you zoom it out that much, the problem is just in the shading/color-blending, you don't necessarily need pixel art to fix that. Yes, the new art looks a little flat - it wasn't a problem in Dragon's Trap because the original sprites were just that cartoony, but Streets of Rage was going for a more textured look. I certainly hope they work on that while the game is in development.
Re: Yo-Kai Watch Blasters - A Spin-Off Done Right, Even If We've Had To Wait A While
'Diablo for kids' "it’s more akin to Skylanders"
All I need to know to avoid this one. I like Yo-kai Watch, but not enough to put up with a repetitive loot grind. Am I the only who thought Diablo's gameplay was only serviceable at best, and its strengths were in its story and atmosphere? Torchlight's the only clone I've seen that got that right, and even Diablo III felt off (though the expansion content was a little better, IMO. Unless I just acclimated?).
I dunno, I wanted the gameplay to be improved in Yo-Kai Watch, but more in the sense of giving you more control in your turn-based combat ('cuz that's usually important in turn-based combat). Pretty sure Yokai Watch 3 already addresses that, so I'll just wait...
Re: Video: It's The Perfect Time To Remember How Amazing Streets Of Rage Was, And Still Is
I have many a fond memory of the first game from when I was a kid, and Streets of Rage 2 is still one of my favorites in the genre. Seriously, I'm not much for beat 'em ups - I find them too repetitive for my tastes, "classic" games often feel clunky and dated, and they tend to be either too long or too short.
None of that really stuck out in SoR2, though. It hit the right balance in so many areas, and I had a blast with it, even in singleplayer (which I realize isn't the strongest part of the genre, but everyone I've tried to get to play these types of games are always turned off by the blatant repetition, and rightly so).
SoR3's always felt "off" to me, in terms of enemy design (as in their attack patterns) and controls. It would've been fine with some tweaks, but overall it just felt unresponsive and I found myself suffering a lot more cheap deaths than I did in the previous entries in the series.
Re: Victor Vran: Overkill Edition Is The Perfect Diablo III Appetiser On Switch
Been meaning to try this one. I think I have it on Steam, though. If not, I'll holod out for the Switch version, though, since I have Diablo III and all of its expansions on PS4 already.
Re: Review: Claws of Furry Is Yet Another Couch-Play Classic, But Solo Players Should Beware
Aw man, I actually was curious about this when I saw it show up in the eShop update on Thursday. I don't care for anything Multiplayer-focused, though, so I'll be skipping it.
Re: Switch Anti-Grav Racer Redout Has Finally Been Rated By ESRB, One Step Closer To Launch?
@aznable Okay, that was it. I don't have a Switch yet, so it's hard for me to tell when I'm looking at a rack of games what's new and what isn't, especially at my local Gamestops where they can barely keep things in alphabetical order, and new releases rarely seem to get much exposure unless it's from a platform holder or one of the 4 big corporate giants (even if the game is 4+ months old and those same platform holders have newer stuff out, too).
Re: Switch Anti-Grav Racer Redout Has Finally Been Rated By ESRB, One Step Closer To Launch?
I already bought it PS4 with all the DLC at around 40% off the total price, so I'm not interested in double dipping. Still surprised its taken this long to release on the Switch, though...hopefully its not too little, too late...I'm pretty sure I've seen another Anti-Grav racer floating around on the Switch recently...
Re: SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Gives You More Bang For Your Buck With DLC Games
@saintayu It's free. They just won't be ready upon release.
Actually, why am I singling you out? Everyone here seems confused. It doesn't help that they haven't even bothered to anounce the rest of the games on cart, but still...
Re: Review: Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition (Switch eShop)
I remember this and a bunch of other promising sci-fi exploration-focused games were announced, this looked like yet another thing to be excited for.
Flash-forward about 4 years or so, and now it's just yet another early access farce - an "ambitious" game that didn't have much direction in the first place, and squandered whatever potential it could've had...
Re: Review: Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition (Switch eShop)
I'm not sure if I'll double dip, but this was definitely an interesting game when I played it on the PS4. I guess it helps that I love games that focus on visual storytelling over tons of dialogue, especially when its done as well as it was in this game.
Re: Nintendo Download: 30th August (North America)
I forgot what Into the Breach was. Yeah, I watched some extensive gameplay footage, and it looks like it'd be as addicting and challenging as FTL was, if not moreso, so I'm excited for that now. Still looking forward to The Messenger more, though, and I'm curious as to whether or not Claws of Furry is any good...
Re: Inti Creates Is Bringing Dragon: Marked For Death To Switch eShop On 13th December
This might be the first Inti Creates game I skip. I don't care about multiplayer grind-a-thons anymore.
Re: Review: God Wars: The Complete Legend (Switch)
I keep thinking this is some port of a really bad PS2 NIS game...
Re: Capcom Has Announced An Onimusha: Warlords Remaster For Nintendo Switch
That was unexpected, but very exciting news! The first one was a bit rough, but I still had fun with it. A remaster so it's less blurry to look at would be welcome...how much is it, though? It's gonna be a tough sell if it's over $20, since who, outside of hardcore fans, would even consider paying a premium for a stealthier Devil May Cry 1?
Re: Streets Of Rage 4 Is Really Happening, Thanks To The Team Behind The Wonder Boy Reboot
@Mr_Pepperami That's my worry as well. I get it, good sprite art takes a lot of time, and we don't know how long the game will be either way, but Streets of Rage has always had at least 3 characters, so if you don't like one of the stereotypes/playstyles a character offers, you aren't stuck with it just because your buddy picked the other one. Only having two to choose from out of the gate is kind of a bummer.
I'm still excited that Streets of Rage is coming out, and there's a good chance it could still be enjoyable, but I'd probably hold off of trying co-op until they add a third down the line if there's not already one planned in the pipeline, but wasn't ready for the reveal trailer. And if it IS DLC, then I'll be treating the overall price accordingly. It better be a beefy game if they're planning to charge over $20 for the Base game, and at least a third of the total price for a third character.
Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices
@Yorumi There's more to it, I just don't explaining it, because I don't know how to explain my thoughts on game design in less than a paragraph. and without thorough, side-by-side comparisons that would take longer than would possibly be worthwhile.
I know it's not helping my case, but I also stopped caring by the time this article fell off the front page, so...I think I'm done here.
Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices
@Yorumi I only listed Super Metroid because I literally had the choice of continuing my second playthrough of Super Metroid - I only played through it once back in 2008. I took a lot of it for granted back then, but now I can see why it's the greatest 2D platformer of all time. I could literally write a book on how well designed it is. So yeah, I think wasted my night. Warframe doesn't have anything left to offer me, while a great game designed with forethought and consideration for the players as a means to alleviate frustration rather aggrevate them further so they spend more money is an experience I can treasure over the long term. I'd much rather play games like this - Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Kirby 64, Star Fox, F-Zero, Monster Hunter, Mega Man, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, Dragon Quest - all the good stuff that parasitic time-sponges that these so-called "live services" (I mean both F2P and the increasingly prevelant AAA varients that have been plaguing the industry as of late) could never hold a candle to in terms of memorablity, gameplay experience, and true long-term value - they're what's actually worth my time. I'm happy to see that someone big at Nintendo still understands that, and I hope we'll still see more and more excellent games from them and other studios still remember how to make a good game, provided their publishers even let them just make games anymore.
So to answer your question: Yes. Yes I would rather play through Super Metroid a 1000 times, because every time I play a Metroid game, I find new things to appreciate. Every time I play through Warframe, I find new junk that I might use to sell to another player so I can afford to get that component I really need, until I give up and just spend $30.
Re: Square Enix's Thief Arthur Joins SNK Heroines Cast As DLC Fighter
Forget that, Million Arther has Iori as a playable guest character! I mean, it also looks like a fun game, but now I actually wish King of Fighters XV would look like this:
https://youtu.be/gtXVE4exF-E?t=1m27s
Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices
@Yorumi Since this news post is getting buried, I'll just clear up one misconception that you seems to be a sticking point:
Grinding is not THE problem. It's all intent and excecution - what does this gameplay element accomplish? I don't have time to explain my full thoughts on it...in fact, the more time I spent trying to flesh it out over the 4 hours or so, the more I felt like I was putting together a thesis on game design, and that'd just be wasted here. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I mean, if I haven't made it clear yet, the only thing my F2P "journey" has led me to was a greater appreciation for my own time.
Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices
@Yorumi I had another rant that I was writing up, but TL;DR - I don't mean to say that F2P games are incapable of being good, I just don't think Patchwork Game design, timers, deliberately poor pacing, excessive grinding that's only there to stall player's progress, etc. could ever be considered great design, and considering how many compromises F2P games have to make in order to be profitable, I don't think they're ever capable of being great games. At this stage, why should I settle for anything less?
I've put hundreds of hours into Warframe, which is still the best I've experienced by far. Yet I don't feel that it's a game that respects my time. It has a lot of problems that might be fixed eventually. It's hard to say, since it's the very definition of "making it up as we go" in terms of design philosophy. In the hours I spent trying to obtain a single mod that might make my pet kubrow useful in terms of damage output, I could've spent that time on another playthrough of Super Metroid instead. I think I'm done.
Re: Saints Row: The Third Will Include All DLC On Switch
Is one of those content packs Saints Row IV and/or Gat out of Hell?
Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices
@Yorumi I'm aware that it can make a lot of money, because it's unmitigated, potentially endless revenue. The problem comes with how it's implemented into the design, and how obtrusive it is. Honestly, even the best free-to-play games are still designed to where you down in some way, because they want your money. They're the junk food of gaming, and I find they can be most enjoyable when treated as such. I honestly could be here for quite a while talking about examples, since I spent the past few days researching different F2P games, watching reviews, and reading how the various communities were had to say about this. Games like Mechwarriors Online and Planetside 2, which had a ton of great ideas and mechanics that were rolled back, or buried under systems that deeply incentivize spending as much money as possible. And I don't just mean grinding, I mean they broke core ideas or any potential those mechanics had to be good, simply to get people to spend more money.
Then there are games like Warframe and Paladins, where the grind is either not that bad, or are mostly for cosmetic items that you don't need in order to play. Even still, I find myself feeling the pressure to spend a lot of money in an obtrusive way. Paladins especially deserves mention because of how ludicrous its Battle Pass is, at least when I looked into it, as well as how the game always seems to make the newest characters the most broken, at least within the first few weeks of release. I know balancing is always difficult, and a few of these characters still feel kind of unfair (no really, there's a melee tank whose ult revives him and kills everyone around him, especially if he just backs his enemies into the cramped spots that a couple maps have way too many of? Uuuugh!!!).
I mean, if you can name examples that are good games that don't compromise good design, sure. And I'm very aware that other fixed price games can be just as bad. Why do you think I ended my previous post the way I did? There's enough crap out there, while I'm fine with certain games trying to fix what was wrong with it, I dislike that F2P is by design a creature that can't be trusted. You can try it for free, but if you're hooked, you could find yourself out a lot of money if you're not careful, and that's not fine. I've always been cynical of media designed to be exploitative, from trading cards, to cartoons designed to sell toys, to social media that seems geared towards making consumers do the advertiser's jobs without compensation or accountability. That isn't to say I can't enjoy them, but they're never preferable to something more straight-forward - something where I know what I'm getting, and once I have it, I'm expected to enjoy it as a self-contained entity. A tie-in toy was cool, but a toy I have to buy just so I can use a character in a video game is a lot less cool. A game I can play for free is a nice idea, but we all know there's no such thing as a free lunch.
IMO, a great game isn't just fairly priced and balanced, with unique and memorable concepts, characters, worlds, mechanics and ideas – a great game also feels like a worthy investment of your time. And in the free-to-play market, time is the real currency. I'd gladly spend $60, or even $100 just to have the best F2P games I've played be re-purposed into a traditional purchase model, with gameplay that's balanced towards a reasonable growth rate, and maybe experienced in a way that makes them more compelling than just, "sure, I'll play for a few hours to let off some steam, before I move onto more substantial games."
Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices
I mean, if it leads to quality gaming experiences, free-to-play gaming is fine...it almost never does, and really is only sustainable if its a smash hit, and even a lot of those smash hits have questionable practices that beat the players over the head to try to convince them to spend as much as possible for their "free" game....I mean, a lot of retail games will do the same thing, but...
Maybe I should get off this train before it goes careening into a pitch black abyss?
Re: Lifeless Planet Discovered On Switch eShop, Arrives Next Month
It's an open-world game that was dull as dirt, poorly supported, and squandered most of its potential. I didn't even know it left early access. Honestly, my initial reaction was, "wow, so even vaporware can get on the Switch eShop now?"
Re: Tencent Confirms Free-To-Play Titles Won't Be Impacted By Nintendo Switch Online
FYI, PS+ and I believe even Xbox Live Gold aren't required for Free-to-play online connectivity, so this really should be par for the course, if true. Really, it'd just screw over all these F2P publishers and fans if they did, causing quite $#!+show. Not to mention there's no business sense behind adding a paywall to games whose main appeal is that they're free games. "Pay us X amount of money to play games that are available for free on other devices, including PC and/or mobile devices" is not a good incentive for most buyers. "We have a bunch of games you can play on our device(s) right out of the box" is a good incentive for potential Switch buyers.
So, yeah, I certainly hope Nintendo still knows how to run a good business.
Re: Remakes Of Langrisser I And II Are Switch-Bound
"...and new elements not included in the original games will be added."
I'm most curious about what this will be. I'm not saying the original Langrisser games were perfect, but the last time they tried to innovate the design resulted in utter crap.
I'm also disappointed that they still couldn't keep the old artist, especially since the new one is just...boring. I looked him up (Nagiryo), and I see that his work is in a lot of stuff, with the most noteable being his contributions to the Ar Tonelico franchise...honestly, IMO, he's a good illustrator, in terms of composition and posing, and I really love his technical and monster designs...but even his characters tend to look like robots. Very unexpressive and just boring to look at on there own. Same with his costume designs nowadays, but we'll see if he changes that up this time around.
I dunno, it's rare enough that I get distinctive art styles that stand out anymore, so it's a shame that one of the games that I used to be so quick to identify is now just going to look like every other game out there.
Re: Phantasy Star Joins The Sega AGES Range In Japan Next Month, New Features Revealed
I really hope this gets localized at some point. I loved the original game, but I'm not gonna lie, I had to look up a lot of stuff, particularly maps, to get through it.