Comments 2,220

Re: The Critically Acclaimed Gone Home Is Headed To Nintendo Switch Next Week

DarkKirby

@brandonbwii

Do you not know the story? Some of the people on sites like Kotaku giving this game it's glowing reviews that earned it it's critical acclaim were personal friends of the developer. They wrote these reviews without disclosing that there was conflict of interest involved. That was where the collusion was.

Only after they were called out on it did they add a footnote to the reviews to mentioned they were personal friends of the developer.

Re: Nintendo Didn’t Want Yakuza Series, According To Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi

DarkKirby

Everybody should play Yakuza.

Untitled

I get that Sega thinks they can't justify another Yakuza release on a Nintendo system after their games failed on the Wii U, but that was also the Wii U, where pretty much every game except AAA Nintendo IP games failed.

That said, I would rather they port the rest of the Yakuza games on PC, they only started releasing some of them on PC recently.

Re: Nintendo Clamps Down On Risqué Imagery By Censoring Taisen Hot Gimmick Switch Port

DarkKirby

Similarly, titles such as Gal*Gun 2 and Senran Kagura Reflexions have made it onto the platform with no issues, so Nintendo's stance on what is or isn't acceptable seems to be a little on the blurry side.

The stance for Nintendo, and many other companies, is you can do whatever you want if you're well known and profitable, but not if you're a niche title.

Like how Valve attempted to remove all the already censored visual novels and similar styled games from Steam a little while ago, but left games like Witcher 3 which straight has sex scenes in it alone (which they backtracked on after unexpected backlash).

So essentially, when you're bigger, you have more rights, and when you're smaller, you have less rights.

Re: Masahiro Sakurai Isn't Concerned About Competitive Aspect Of Super Smash Bros.

DarkKirby

People don't play fighting games competitively because they enjoy difficult inputs though.

And as Dragon Ball FighterZ shows clearly, you can easily have a game that appeals to casuals as well as competitive players.

This only changes when you do things to intentionally make a game not fun to play competitively, like tripping, not having enough hit or block stun, etc.

I've said this before, but it's a complete misconception that casual players enjoy slower games, it's the opposite, casuals usually like to aggressively run in and press buttons, and they want that to be effective, making a game slow and defensive gives the edge to competitive players who understand how to exploit that.

And if you're really concerned about appealing to casuals, you have to have an at least decent and well produced story mode and good single player content for people who don't plan to pour hours into multiplayer. And no, "unlocking characters", isn't good single player content.

Re: Review: Fortnite (Switch eShop)

DarkKirby

At least it's good to see Nintendo isn't requiring 3rd parties to use their convoluted 3 way with a smartphone to achieve standard voice chat for the Switch.

Hopefully it's the standard rule and they didn't make a special exception for Fortnite just because of its popularity.

Re: Soapbox: The Best Changes For Smash Bros. Ultimate Are The Ones We Didn’t Ask For

DarkKirby

People have actually been asking for the game to be faster and the game to be less defense oriented since it was intentionally slowed down and made more defense oriented in Brawl, and didn't change much in Smash 4.

The logic that slower games are more fun for casuals (presumably because it's assumed casuals have poorer reactions) is actually backwards, casuals like to play aggressively regardless of if the mechanics promote that behavior, competitive players are far more likely to be able to exploit the mechanics of a game that is slow and defense focused and don't feel the need to play aggressively if that's not the ideal way to play based on the mechanics of the game.

Although something I did ask for is for Lucina's move set to be made unique and that didn't happen.

According to ZeRo, for all it's other changes to decrease the effectiveness of defensive options and promote aggression, the hit stun in the game is still rather low and doesn't allow for much combos.

Re: Review: Fallout Shelter (Switch eShop)

DarkKirby

It's not that it's bad this is on the Switch, but I'm not sure why you would choose to play such a simple game on anything but your smartphone.

Also, as someone who played this game on their smartphone a while back, at some point your vault either becomes too hard to run without the robot that automatically collects resources for you, or self sufficient because you have enough robots that automatically collects resources for you.

Re: Review: Fortnite (Switch eShop)

DarkKirby

@zip

Even if you are really skilled Battle Royale games are inherently very luck based, the probability of winning is very low even if you are skilled based on the format of the game. To some that is part of the fun and a reason to not get upset when you lose, to others it's very annoying that luck plays such a heavy role in success.

It's because the game is so luck based that there is a meme about how "nobody cares about your PUBG/Fortnite wins".

@EverythingAmiibo

It's not that Battle Royale is inherently bad, it's just that people are tired of seeing it everywhere and it being shoved into everything because of how successful it is. They are annoyed by the Battle Royale bandwagon itself. It's like how people were annoyed by the motion control and appeal to the non gaming casuals bandwagon after the success of the Wii.

Given, Fortnite is an original Battle Royale game and not someone converting or adding Battle Royale to another series.

Re: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee Director Explains Why Motion Controls Are Mandatory

DarkKirby

Let me clarify this.

They didn't want a scenario where someone is able to throw Pokeballs more efficiently without the motion controls, or make fun of the people who are using the motion controls, so they made it the only way to do it.

This game is meant to appeal to non gaming casuals, and the last thing they need is hardcore Pokemon fans telling the non gaming casuals "they are playing the game wrong" or "look silly swinging their arms around using the motions controls"..

Re: Nintendo Takes A Swipe At Sony Over Fortnite's Cross-Platform Issues On Switch

DarkKirby

@ekwcll

Microsoft changed their ways because they screwed up badly with the Xbone and lost a huge majority of their users to the PS4.

It's because Sony is currently definitively winning the console war that Microsoft and Nintendo teaming up against them is basically no risk and all reward. This would not be the case if Microsoft was winning the console war, or at the very least was about even with Sony.

Re: Masahiro Sakurai Notes That Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Could Be The Last In The Series

DarkKirby

Unless Nintendo starts hating money I don't see why they would stop having Smash games made.

And regardless of Sakurai saying "this is his last Smash game" after every single Smash game, he's returned to direct it every single time.

Given, I would not be against another person directing the Smash series to bring some fresh ideas and direction to the game. So if Sakurai actually refuses to direct another Smash game I would be totally fine with that.

I don't think he's going to, for multiple reasons, including how Sakurai, despite technically being an independent developer, has been contracted out to Nintendo full time since leaving HAL anyway and nobody else has ever hired him, so unless he finds employment elsewhere I don't think he'll turn down the job Nintendo gives him even if he doesn't want it (which I think he does anyway because he likes having control over the games he's created).

Re: Nintendo's Share Price Plummets In Response To E3 Direct

DarkKirby

There was no big wow factor's to Nintendo's E3 Direct (arguably, not much this E3 in general). Most of what was shown was what people already knew was going to be shown or expected.

As much as many people are excited for Smash Ultimate, many other people looked at it and said "this kind of just looks like Smash 4" (whether you agree with it or not that's what happened).

The biggest reveal was the the new Fire Emblem game, and while nice, it also wasn't much of a surprise either. If anything, there wasn't anything shown that was a big selling factor of previous Fire Emblem games, that is, a player avatar, building relationships between the characters.

Many people have already mentioned things Nintendo should be fixing that aren't fixing, like the voice chat.

Re: Nintendo Takes A Swipe At Sony Over Fortnite's Cross-Platform Issues On Switch

DarkKirby

Refusing Cross Play is absolutely anti-consumer and Sony should allow cross play, but it's also expected of the company that's currently winning the console war to not.

Having the largest multiplayer player base is a huge selling point for the PS4, and people pay a subscription fee to be part of it. Sharing it for free doesn't make any sense business wise.

Microsoft sure as heck wasn't sharing their user baser when the 360 was at the top either.

Re: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu And Eevee Need A Switch Online Sub For Core Gameplay Features

DarkKirby

I'm pretty sure the Switch Online Service is the reason they're releasing Let's Go and Smash Switch when they are, to try and get everybody to subscribe to it when they're hyped up about the new games without worrying if it's really worth the cost or not.

The trick to subscription services is getting people to subscribe for the first time, after that they are much more likely to keep renewing.

Re: Your New Pokéball Plus Will Take Three Hours To Charge

DarkKirby

I know they specifically want to profit off of selling this toy, but it would be a lot more convenient and make a lot more sense if this was just a smartphone app, since Let's Go is meant to appeal to Pokemon GO players, and almost everybody has a smartphone anyway, especially of you're playing Pokemon GO.

Also, remember when Pokewalker just came with Heart Gold/SoulSilver?

Re: Pokémon Director Junichi Masuda Talks Uniting All Fans, Future Of The Core Series

DarkKirby

I get it, they want to clam down people who are upset about Let's Go, upset that the Pokemon game fans have been anticipating that they announced months ago that was coming to the Switch in 2018 is an upscaled 3DS Kanto remake meant to appeal to casual gamers who only play games in smartphones.

But this is just PR Nonsense, there is no substance to it.

He just says he wants everybody to be happy.

Re: Arc System Works Lays Down The Law With Streaming Guidelines For BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

DarkKirby

This has always been Arc System Works policy for their fighters, as many of their fighters have a visual novel or cinematic story mode which they want people to have to buy to see.

But I believe this is the first time they made such a big deal out of making it a public policy.

I don't think it's going to do much good, mind you. If people want to watch the story without buying the fighter you'll be able to find it on youtube or twitch somewhere.

Also, crossover stories are rarely actually good, they're mostly about just seeing the unique character interactions, usually played for laughs.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon GO’s ‘Casual’ Influence On The Mainline Series Is A Good Thing, At Least For Now

DarkKirby

@EvrgrnCmln

The "it's more realistic" argument has always been stupid, because Pokemon is a game, not a real life simulator.

If a mechanic is not fun on purpose, it doesn't belong in a game.

Fact of the matter is IVs and other intentional inconveniences straight make the game less fun, and are not fun to get correct, which leads many, many people to straight cheat if they plan to play multiplayer.

If you're worried about variety in stats, Nature already does that, and is less asinine because they serve a purpose in customization instead of just being optimal or not optimal, but even than there should be an easy way to adjust that.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon GO’s ‘Casual’ Influence On The Mainline Series Is A Good Thing, At Least For Now

DarkKirby

I posted this yesterday but it's still relevant so I'll post it again.

There are some people saying Let's Go is meant to appeal to the Pokemon GO fan base, or the "casuals", people who mainly game on smartphones, not the "normal" Pokemon fans, or gamers, " but do you think casuals who mainly play games on smartphones, are interested in getting back into console gaming? The Wii eventually died, and the Wii U failed, because the casual market that made the Wii a success moved on to smartphone games, <em>where they remain today.

Sounds like another futile attempt to recapture the lost casual market to me.

I'm not saying Let's Go won't sell, but if it sells it's Pokemon fans who buy anything Pokemon related or anything being called a main series game, not smartphone gamers who decided to give console gaming another chance.

To add to that though...

There are 100%, lots of completely unnecessary complications, intentional inconveniences, and hoop jumping in Pokemon games. I think these are stupid and should straight be removed. IVs are unnecessary. Pokemon shouldn't have 3 abilities in which once is obviously good and the other 2 are useless or actively detrimental, etc. There is no evidence Game Freak is going to fix this problem. Even Pokemon GO has this problem.

But the actual base mechanics of the game have been basically the same since Gen 1, and are actually quite simple. The only thing complex about it, is that there are now a lot of Pokemon, but even than, most Pokemon are too weak to be something you have to really think about when facing them in the game. I'm not against making the game feel fresh, I'm all for it in fact, but Let's Go isn't trying to "make the game fresh", it's trying to casualize it in the wrong areas in an attempt to leech off of the Pokemon GO market.

I've also said this before, if you're trying to give the game a fresh start, making it a Kanto remake is the worst thing you can do. It makes the whole thing feel half donkeyed.

Re: Talking Point: What Do You Make Of The Three Big Pokémon Games Coming To Nintendo Switch?

DarkKirby

There are some people saying Let's Go is meant to appeal to the Pokemon GO fan base, or the "casuals", people who mainly game on smartphones, not the "normal" Pokemon fans, or gamers, " but do you think casuals who mainly play games on smartphones, are interested in getting back into console gaming? The Wii eventually died, and the Wii U failed, because the casual market that made the Wii a success moved on to smartphone games, where they remain today.

Sounds like another futile attempt to recapture the lost casual market to me.

I'm not saying Let's Go won't sell, but if it sells it's Pokemon fans who buy anything Pokemon related or anything being called a main series game, not smartphone gamers who decided to give console gaming another chance.