DJDM

@fenlix I mean, I have not played Banjo Kazooie, but from the videos I've seen, it sounds like most of the dialog is accompanied by fairly simple sound effects, rather than a "fictional language." I'm generally fine with sound effects accompanying text - they tend to be used to suggest a particular mood or tone, but aren't so complex or affected that they distract from reading. I don't think I've ever played a game with a fully developed fictional language, so I can't comment on whether that would be similarly annoying.

@NovaCam yeah, that's possible, though I think at least a few will be available to swap in whenever (or at least will be with the party for most of the game, once they join), since it seems Riku/Manana and Valdi will be needed to gemcrafting/cooking and weapon augmentation respectively. It definitely doesn't seem like you'll be able to directly control the seventh party member, regardless.

@KryptoniteKrunch Unfortunately, from what I'm seeing, it looks like you can only swap out the seventh party slot - but it does look like you will be able to assign classes from non-core party members to the main six.

My criticism of the lack of localization aside, I'm still tentatively excited for this game - at the very least it's the first Digimon game in a long while that looks like it will stick to the core fantasy of the TV shows - Cybersleuth was a massive disappointment on this front. As someone who grew up watching the original three seasons, Digimon is about kids getting transported to a strange world and partnering up with Digimon to survive/save the world(s), not bumming around a bland metaverse with their ever-rotating/expanding collection of Digimon.

@Fizza given that it being "mostly a visual novel" has been emphasized repeatedly over the last several months, I'd say you at least haven't been paying much attention.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'm really bummed this isn't getting English voice acting. I hope there is at least an option to toggle off the voices, as I find it distracting hearing one language and reading another.

Having a stealth-focused class in a Xenoblade game is interesting. We've had characters with an aggro-reduction art (and iirc, Noah's swordfighter class is getting shadow eye in this game), but the description for Phantom Archer seems to suggest that it will be a more focused archetype.

Am I missing something? As much of this game touches on many pirate fiction-associated tropes, it doesn't seem to involve any actual pirates (or piracy, for that matter). The Obra Dinn isn't a pirate ship, it's an East Indiaman. Why are these articles describing this as a pirate game?

To be fair, loads of games look like Stardew Valley now... seems like every other indie game that gets announced is some form of farming or management sim.

Where is Lechonk??? I could go for some Lechonk kawali.

Somehow, the battle animations feel like a step back from Arceus.

That said, I'll probably end up picking it up, though I'm still not entirely sold. Want to see more details on 1) new mons, 2) the "gimmick" (and whether any past gimmicks will make a return), 3) what mechanics (if any) they're bringing in from Arceus (pretty much the more the better)

Also, regarding the next month's game, Celeste would probably be best for my backlog, since I haven't finished the main game for that one. Hollow Knight is a phenomenal game, but if it's chosen, I'll just spend all month practicing so I can finally beat the true final boss... I managed to get the "bad" ending ages, and complete the various tasks needed to unlock the true ending, but now I'm so out of practice I can't even beat the pre-true final boss.

Ori I already completed (maybe 100%ed?), and I was really underwhelmed. I do not get why people like that game as much as they do...

Obra Dinn has a "high priority" backlog game for a bit for me, so happy to get that last little push to boot it up.

Generally enjoying it so far, though the controls have some rough edges (finding the right spot to stand to trigger the watch or "ID-vision" can be finicky and sometimes I end up interacting with something in the environment that I'm not even looking at; also, I wish it had toggle-able gyro controls)

Also, I've already run into a situation where the game seems to assume I have some real-world knowledge. This shouldn't really be an issue, though in this case I needed to do some real-world research to shore up a lack of my own knowledge, and a very generally worded Google searched that did not mention Obra Dinn had a picture from the game as one of its top results!

Just finished this, and gotta say... what a weird game. Not just in good ways either. It feels like a game that, at least played for the first time in 2022, gets by almost exclusive on the strength of its... idk, "vibes." The blend of Americana pulp sci-fi pastiche with classic RPG trope parody still hits right, at least for me. I think it would hit better if I had any sort of hands on familiarity with the Dragon Quest series, though even without that, the "vibes" (for lack of a better term) are still really excellent. And the game is graphically very pretty, which is another plus.

That said, despite its strengths, the game still felt lacking in some key areas, even (oddly enough) in comparison to its overall far inferior NES predecessor. The battle system felt a bit undercooked; and, for some strange reason, the buff/debuff effects felt much less impactful than they were in Beginnings. Additionally, even for its time, the inventory management, equipment, and environment-interaction systems feel dated.

And then the story... I've got some big issues with the story. The meat of the narrative--the various sub-quests that make up most of the gameplay--are all very solid; no real complaints there. But the bones--the overarching structure, the motivations/goals/mcguffins/etc. that would ideally give the significance to the meat--is severely lacking. Specifically (spoilers for both Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings):

@BrazillianCara StarTropics is on NSO already - it's sequel is still notably absent though

This is a good reminder that I need to get back to this game. I may restart from the beginning, since there are a couple of mistakes I made early on in terms of prioritization, and it's been a while anyway, so I don't really remember what I needed to do.

Also, I tend to agree that non-sidescrollers aren't really metroidvanias, but I get the comparison here. The story progression/exploration cycle feels a bit more akin to a metroidvania than a Zelda-like. Perhaps Unsighted is a (cursed nouveau-neologism incoming) metroidvani-lite

I wish I could vote for more than one, but with only one vote, it's gotta to go Okami. Viewtiful Joe would be second.

thematically, sure, this is a bit like an FE game (which is to say, it's thematically similar to the vast majority of tactics games... FE doesn't own that type of story)

but mechanically, this looks nothing like an FE game... mindboggling that there are so many people here comparing it to that

@Matt-e-r "Live band" for both "Live"s

@Bobb Yeah, mostly different designers. XC2 had a bunch of different character designers involved (including Tetsuya Nomura, randomly), though it doesn't look like Kazama did any work on XC2.

This looks fantastic. I don't personally mind the use of white (it's very in keeping with early Pokemon art, which is cool), but I do wish it had a skybox, even just a very minimal one.

So I finally finished* Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and I'm taking the Backlog Club as a sign I should dig back into Earthbound. I played through Earthbound Beginnings right after it dropped on NSO. Once I finished that I started up Earthbound and made it to Twoson, and which point I got retro-RPG fatigue and put it down for a few months. Thankfully, I wasn't too far into it that I was lost picking it back up, and the last several hours have been quite refreshing (I'm currently in Belch's Factory).

Earthbound feels so far less like a sequel to Earthbound Beginnings and more like a very loose remake/reimagining. Very similar overall structure so far, but with the set-pieces rearranged a bit, and a lot of the kinks smoothed out. The game is visually fantastic (especially in handheld), and I'm even not too bothered by the first-person battles (though I'd much rather see my characters). I am a little bummed that I haven't gotten to fight a truck, car, or bag lady yet, though...

The one big quality of life drawback is the super slow movement speed. The lack of a run option, and the fact that you get the option to get bicycle early on only to have it become completely useless just a little later, is pretty infuriating.

*meaning, I caught Arceus and did about half of the Daybreak content

I'm hoping the nopons in this game lean more towards the nopons from XC1 than those in XC2. I played XC1 (DE) after XC2, and Riki was a breath of fresh air after sitting through hours upon hours of Tora's cringe, and his children in FC were great.

And the NPC nopons were also better in XC1 - they seemed to have more varied speech patterns overall, which made them feel more like a real group than a very played out joke.

On the one hand, this is not even slightly a surprise, since the tiered delivery system was communicated up front regarding the Japanese collector's edition.

That being said, it's really frustrating how far behind the Japanese promotion English language promotion is lagging for XC2... feels almost like an afterthought

@Ralizah I mean, that is an understandable opinion that I do not share. For me, having to stop and click and listen to the same canned phrases over and over again took me out of the experience much more that just being able to cruise through a collectable and keep exploring.

@Ralizah I'm really happy it looks like they scrapped the stop-and-click (and-sometimes-wait-for-field-skills-to-proc) collection mechanic from XC2 - vastly preferred the smoother pickup-as-you-run system from the original.

Edit: Also, based on some other footage, it looks like as you approach collection orbs, they turn into a symbol representing what type of collectible they are, so they've retained the only advantage of XC2's system.

Oh man, no one does environment/world design quite like Monolith Soft - super excited to explore these new areas.

@shoeses I mean, I gave up any hope of BDSP being a remotely interesting remake (on the level of ORAS or HGSS) long before it came out. I did not get it, and won't be picking it up. PLA, otoh, has already pushed some fun boundaries, and given the precedent set with the free Daybreak update, I would be pretty surprised if we don't get full DLC within the next year.

Kind of hoping that they release another Arceus update (or DLC) in conjunction with this update, though I doubt that'll happen. I wonder if you'll be able to transfer non-Hisuian versions of Pokemon with Hisuian versions into Arceus though - probably not, but would be neat to see.

Really excited for this one - will wait for reviews, but definitely on my radar. Bummed it didn't get a spot in the English showcase though - hopefully they drop a translated version of this trailer in the coming weeks.

Earthbound Continuings

This is the first time I have ever even considered the question... I suppose the original box art does look a bit better, and if given the choice between the two, with no other trade-offs, I'd pick the original... But I definitely wouldn't pay more.

I'm thinking a gritty reboot, Shadow the Hedgehog style!

But really, they should involve more players and do any one of the other three options.

@Tyranexx I will throw my vote in for giving NEO TWEWY a shot - I very much enjoyed the combat overall, especially at higher difficulties and with late/postgame enemies and bosses (though 100%ing the Noisepedia can get a bit grindy).

As for the story and writing, I thought it was really good. The story and character development takes a bit longer to get going than in the original game, but I don't think that's strictly a bad thing, and I found the payoff for most of the cast highly rewarding. By comparison, I recently started replaying TWEWY, and it's still a fantastic game, but early game Neku is absurd. In retrospect, TWEWY leaned hard into the JRPG trope of forcing character development by making the protagonist start off as an insufferable little s**t. NEO TWEWY doesn't rely on this trope quite as heavily, and as a result character development is more subtle, but I don't think the overall experience is necessarily less enjoyable.

Of course, not everyone is going to enjoy the combat or the story/writing in NEO TWEWY. All I'm saying is that the game is doing things on both fronts that can be enjoyed.

Earthbound has been on my NSO priority list ever since it dropped. I forced myself to play Earthbound: Beginnings first though, and that kind of burned me out for a bit, so this is a great opportunity to return and finally play Earthbound!

I didn't participate in Backlog Club last month, as I have already played a crap ton of StS (and beaten the heart with at least the first three characters - I can't recall if I ever beat it with the Watcher), but I'm happy to report that I successfully completed three backlog games! Super Mario Galaxy, Axiom Verge 2, and (most importantly) Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

I'm currently working my way through Pokemon Legends: Arceus (and having a grand old time), but I should definitely have time/space for Earthbound too!

Also, super excited that Return of the Obra Din is an option for next month - that game has also been a high-priority backlog game of mine for a while now...

@shinesprites Yggdra Union is my number 1 pick. Maybe a bit of a waste, since it's already out on a Nintendo system, but I'd love to play it again on Switch.

Honestly, XC3 seems like it's improving on XC1 and XC2 in some really key ways. I preferred XC1 in almost every way, including combat, though the original game's Art Pallet was definitely a less streamlined control scheme than XC2's arts mapped to face buttons. I like that they're taking some of the combat controls from XC2 here.

XC2's combat system, while theoretically quite deep and interesting, was incredibly hard to parse without fairly extensive external resources. Really essential mechanics were not explained anywhere in game, and even for the parts that explained, it was often unclear what optimization would look like. This, combined with the vast customization options, meant it was very tough for me to feel like I was able to make interesting or smart build decisions in that game.

From what we've seen so far, XC3's combat seems like it will be more "legible" than XC2's. It looks like there will be more customization options than in XC1 (though maybe not quite as much as in XC2), but the various character/class roles seem to be more clearly defined, which I hope will make it easier to tell whether a particular setup is good or not.

The Castlevania game I'm waiting for is another Castlevania game in line with the GBA/DS entries - i.e. largely repurposed assets, slightly tweaked combat (maybe an Order of Ecclesia sequel).

@Jamie_R yeah, it's too bad these are the only games on Switch... you would think someone would release something else for the system, but no such luck...

Switching characters on the fly is much more than a QoL improvement - it's game-changing. It gives you more real control over executing multi-character combos and timing buffs.

It's also a massive change that they've made reviving a class exclusive ability. Hopefully this will bump the late/post-game viability of healers somewhat, but we'll see...

@blindsquarel I have sent in controllers for repairs twice, and did not have to pay shipping either time. It may depend on where you are mailing the controllers from though.

@RubyCarbuncle though now that you've bought replacement controllers, I would definitely encourage you to send the drifting ones in to be fixed - that way, once the new ones you bought start drifting, you'll have a backup pair ready to go (and you can rinse and repeat).

Also, as someone who has gotten his drifting joycons repaired very recently, I must say I was very pleasantly surprised by how quickly they were fixed and returned - well under the estimated two-week plus turnaround time I was quoted. I think it took about a week.

@blindsquarel sending them to Nintendo (or rather, the contractor that repairs them on Nintendo's behalf) is free, so I wouldn't really be saving money by fixing them myself.

So I say this as someone who regularly enjoys watching/listening to NLife's YouTube, but this video really should have followed in the footsteps of the Chrono Trigger episodes and brought on someone with a bit more familiarity with the series.

I'm happy to know that Alex and Felix are excited for XC3 (as am I), and its clear that there is a lot of community interest in the impending release (as evidenced by the engagement generated by the recent articles about XC3 on this website); but neither Alex nor Felix seem like they have more than a passing familiarity with the Xenoblade series, and as a result this video doesn't really add much to the overall discourse about XC3

I voted on P3 and Xenogears, since those are the least likely of the ones I want to see on Switch. I'd also be happy to see Chrono Trigger, Mother 3, Golden Sun (and sequels), and FFTA(& 2).

Others that would be cool to get a chance to play: Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Vagrant Story, and the Xenosaga series (that last one preferably as a full remake)

I am tentatively excited for this - it looks like it could capture the core fantasy of Digimon better than the Cyber Sleuth games (which confusingly tossed out the isekai elements entirely in favor of... wandering around a bland "metaverse"???).

That said, release timing could not have been worse - XC3 is dropping on the same exact day...

Will be interesting to see how this game handles character and party customization. Looks like a lot of the complexity budget there is being put on class changes. Based on what we've seen so far, it seems like we might not be getting full weapon and equipment customization, which makes me think the game will probably have something closer to XC2's accessory system.

Hopefully we'll have more flexibility in assigning available arts than in XC2 - I vastly preferred the level of customization XC1 offered on that front. And consumable pouch items need to go - that was such a garbage system.

I guess what I'm saying is a really hope the next trailer we get shows us some menus!

And I just finished Xenoblade Definitive Edition a couple days ago too!

As someone who absolutely loved XC1 and Torna, and mostly hated XC2 (more and more so in retrospect, and especially after playing the vastly superior XC1 and Torna), everything I've seen about XC3 has me excited. I am a little bummed it will be cutting short my time with Live A Live though...

Ohhh, this looks way better than the original. The lack of apparently tedious combat is a plus, but the visuals are also much more appealing. I really didn't enjoy the "everything is a shade of red" aesthetic from the original. I could definitely see picking this up.

I think the Switch2 will probably release in 2024, and I do not think Nintendo is likely to release a second upgraded version of the current generation (though I guess I could see Switch OLED Light or something along those lines).

That said, if I am wrong and they release either the Switch2 or some sort of higher powered Switch1.5 alongside BOTW2, I would almost certainly pick it up (and be happy to upgrade).