Comments 436

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (31st January)

Dark_Isatari

Same as last week:
1. Brigandine: Legend of Runersia this is a fun tactics game where you can choose between 6 different nations to lead. I revisit this one every 2 years or so. Now on my third nation and it's been a bit more challenging than the previous outings.
2. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a great little adventure platformer type which I've always wanted to replay some time and after Silksong felt right.
3. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. This will be my 6th mainline FF game and it definitely shows its age but I'm intrigued so far.

Re: Talking Point: Metroid Prime 4 And The Burden Of Being 'Good Enough'

Dark_Isatari

I enjoy the 2D Metroids, but probably not as much as most. My first was Fusion, which remains my favorite by a significant margin. Was excited to try the Switch remake of the lauded Metroid Prime and found it pretty dull. Thus I haven't been interested in this game, but maybe I would enjoy it if it doesn't resonate with whatever makes people like the original.

Re: Nintendo Switch 2025 'Year In Review' Is Available Now

Dark_Isatari

I absolutely love seeing this kind of data! Being able to look back on all 9 years was great too.
My top 10:
1. TotK
2. BotW
3. Tactics Ogre: Reborn
4. Hollow Knight
5. Xenoblade Chronicles, DQ XI
7. Animal Crossing NH
8. HK:Silksong
9. Unicorn Overlord
10. Brigandine: Legend of Runesia

Re: Poll: Which Call Of Duty Do You Want To See On Switch 2?

Dark_Isatari

@JR150 I’ll give my two cents as one of the offending parties you reference. I think it’s mostly that the appeal of CoD is, generally speaking, not very similar to the appeal of Nintendo and their IP, and is more in the vein of what sends people to Xbox/PS. Could be wrong but I’ve always seen it that way. Focusing on grey realism rather than colorful magic.
That doesn’t mean I’m opposed to anyone’s enjoyment of CoD; but I do feel like “why put that on a Nintendo console?”

Re: Best Zelda Games Of All Time

Dark_Isatari

I would like to nominate Link's Awakening (any version) for the best game to start the series with. It is one of the easier games with a mix of puzzles, exploration, combat; has memorable characters but not too many to keep track of, great memorable story, and it's fairly short. A perfect entry point imo.

Re: Surprise! The Next Shantae Game Is Now Officially In Development

Dark_Isatari

Fun series; I feel it’s never quite topped Pirate’s Curse. Half-Genie Hero is my second-favorite but it’s a little disappointing that it departed from the freer exploration. Seven Sirens was a real “vania” game but a little shallow imo, though I haven’t tried it after the rebalance.
I have hopes that this new one will top them all.

Re: Opinion: One Year On, Every Positive 'Pokémon TCG Pocket' Update Still Comes With A Catch

Dark_Isatari

I think it would be a huge improvement if they added more specialized solo battles that force you to use all different cards. Like if you could only use cards from a certain region, or something like that. The battle missions often have things like "use only this type" or "use a deck without trainer cards" but they could do a lot more with it. I also think they could do solo boss battles where you have to knock out 6 pokemon like in the games. Because solo battles can be paused any time (unlike the online) it could work and ultimately it's fun to use more things than just your regular standbys.

Re: Opinion: One Year On, Every Positive 'Pokémon TCG Pocket' Update Still Comes With A Catch

Dark_Isatari

@Yoshi3 I agree with your points, especially about wonderpick becoming almost useless.
However I am approaching 1250 pack points for the Dialga / Palkia decks thanks to several months of stubbornly picking from that in hopes of getting (or buying) the Cyrus or Cynthia 2-star cards. I got Cyrus by luck so if I don't pull Cynthia the same way I'll spend my pack points there.

Re: Nintendo Of America President Doug Bowser Announces Retirement

Dark_Isatari

@SpaceboyScreams lol good call on the condescending tone.
While they're at it could they please stop showing a trailer and then immediately showing it again while a developer describes everything?

Bowser always seemed less interesting and more “corporate” than Reggie. Hopefully this new woman can express a little more personality.

Re: Team Cherry Explains Hollow Knight: Silksong's "Steep Difficulty"

Dark_Isatari

It’s difficult but rarely in an unfair kind of way. I think everyone needs to chill out on their complaints because I don’t want Team Cherry feeling like they failed to deliver.
No one entitled to reach the end of a game and challenge is rewarding (though would be more so if the bosses dropped money or something).

Re: Nintendo Life Reader Survey 2025

Dark_Isatari

I will buy a Switch 2 when there’s an exclusive mainline Zelda or Hollow Knight for it 😅 unless my Launch Switch bites the dust for some reason.

@antdickens nice to hear what these surveys are actually for!
I answered everything and my game news only comes from NL and YouTube.

Re: Review: Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution (Switch) - A Cool Time Capsule Of A Game

Dark_Isatari

I do not like the layered maps feature.

A lot of reviews complain about “tedious dialogue” that drags on too long (thinking of Golden Sun too) but I think this is overblown in game review culture. If you aren’t in to the story of a game, aren’t you missing a major aspect of the game’s appeal? Like “level design, mechanics & gameplay, combat, puzzles, story, etc?”
I kind of think these criticisms are just a genre preference, or else a result of reviewers being on a time limit.