Dizavid

The Switch pretty much proves what I've been saying since the late 90s: with good enough story and/or gameplay, graphics will ALWAYS take the farthest seat back in terms of importance to a game. The graphics bros just can't seem to comprehend a beautiful game isn't ***** if it's boring to play, and the more time a dev team spends worrying about the graphics and making them work, the less time they have for, you know, the actual game part. This is why I'm in no hurry for a Switch 2: let them keep on showing you don't need a system powerful enough to run a city (or ruin a planet) to make blockbusting games. I'm actually replaying Arceus rn. On all other Pokemon games, I had zero issues deleting my old save just so I could replay the full game. Arceus is first Pokemon game ever that I went out of my way to preserve my original file and monsters: I created an entirely new profile and just played it on that 😅😇

This really sounds like somebody had an extra large buzzword salad for lunch then vomited it up during a pitch meeting.

Sorry but to me, Fenix was the superior experience. Despite having zero towns, the game had way more personality. Between the narration of Zeus and Prometheus (a match made in Hades usually), the fact FENIX CAN AND ACTUALLY CHOOSES TO SPEAK, and the gods themselves. The humor ran from campy to "you may need to look up some Greek mythology to get this one", meaning it had laughs for any crowd (some didn't land well, sure, but name any fiction whose every joke does land well).

I DO enjoy BotW, but it took a second playthrough, and it still feels just devoid of personality or one simple and frustrating reason: Nintendo is absolutely terrified of actually TELLING a story. No, they just like to hint at it and let us do the work (then like the split timelines from Ocarina, plagiarise fan theories and claim it was the true story all along). Look at their lineup: Kirby, Samus, Mario, Link, DK. All silent or mostly silent enough to be called silent protags. Other M doesn't count, nor does the paper Mario games, bc they outsourced those: afraid to try to tell a story. Think that's also why the Champions in BotW had to remain dead: Leaving even one in might require a bit more story than, "Oh thank you for saving me. Don't mind me while I just sit here doing nothing more." (Hyrule Warriors/Calamity was also outsourced, so doesn't count either!) Everytime they try to introduce story to their characters, they outsource it. It ends up leaving games like BotW just...feeling empty and dead w no personality. The villagers from town to town felt like a theater troupe that changed clothes and ran quickly to whatever town you visited. Meanwhile everyone is turned to stone in Fenix, but it never felt dead.

I've said for years it was the best. I'll gladly trade back the long jump for the ability to chain belly flop to jump to belly flop etc back. But the true reason is the setting. No hub since had the personality of Delfino. There are secrets everywhere, from one ups to blue coins (used to get shines/stars), to hidden shines, to entire hidden levels. It's why I still to this day grumble over Galaxy. The hub is boring as ***** and the only real secret are one ups which....woo? Game over hasn't meant jack since 64. The island had character, and rewarded you for exploring or figuring out how to get something you could see but wasn't evident how to obtain. The stages are no slouch either; I can't think of one I dread, which I can't say of any of the others. Odysee somewhat recaptured that feel but no Mario before or since has sucked me in the way Sunshine did. It was a ginormous step forward from 64 (which unlike Galaxy, I do love. Again see: hub had personality). With Galaxy they took a big backwards long jump and haven't really yet recovered their footing, in my eye. The controls aren't intuitive...at first. But as article pointed out, if you give it a short amount of time (or better yet, play around a bit once the game turns you loose on the island) it becomes a quicker study. Then, once you've got them down they're the best controls I've had in a Mario game. Now if I could just ever get 120 (one shine has always eluded me: that damn 8 red coins on poisoned, insta-death rapids obtained by carrying Yoshi on a roundabout trip on Isle Delfino itself. That's literally the only thing I hate in the game: one single, solitary shine)

I'd love to see either a rereleased version or a new one. Golden Sun was too amazing of a game and system to just let wither on the vine. Use Growth on it and get it back into play!

So, I used The Forgotten City as a litmus test for cloud gaming on Switch. It ran so perfect I often forgot I was playing a game on cloud and would get logged out bc I'd wandered off and left it on. So I MISTAKENLY assumed something way less graphically demanding like Kingdom Hearts 1 would run at least competently. Not even remotely. KH1 ran the way cloud gaming would have back in the 56k modem days: slow and sloppy. I've had scratched music discs be more comprehensible than this game. Seeing "congestion" is a ***** clutch maneuver: the congestion isn't the problem, it's this crappy, low value port. I absolutely encourage anyone and everyone to just pretend these games do not exist on the Switch, bc they really don't. There's at least one good example for cloud gaming on Switch, but it's far from the KH series. They're the opposite analogue to Forgotten City: a stained example of how bad it can be when you try to port on the cheap and on the fly.

Me hoping it was Zero Escape trilogy: .....I hope all these games fail so badly it gives Daikatana a renaissance period.

As someone who has missed over the past decade of PC (and most console) gaming due a physical pain disability, it's always a joy to see one of my old favorites come to the console that I both could afford and can toss and turn with me in bed. Gods I hope I can save up to afford a Steam Deck next. Gaming is pretty much my only escape from a body filled with angry bees ***** acidic honey, and I so so SO badly want to escape into some of the worlds PC gaming has had in the last decade.

Always appreciate your body working correctly, people. Always. 😔

Is it the Musou that will draw in someone who always felt Musou was kinda bland? To be fair I played the first couple dynasty warriors and quickly said, "Nah not my cup." But reading about either of Hyrules attempts never made me think more than yawn. This....actually has piqued my curiosity but idk. The heavier and more useful/fulfilling RPG elements is what's selling me. But I kinda need to know how....hmm..."gud" of "git gud" fame, I need to be? I have baaad neuropathy so really difficult things you gotta be quick and precise and make every movement on the controller count...just aren't for me anymore. If they ever were. Don't wanna drop 60 on a game I literally can't play.

Also wish they'd hurry up and let us flip between casual and classic on a whim (it could change color of save file if you didn't stick to classic for the "I NEED MAD BRAGS!!!" group). I just don't like the image of say, a main character dying during a not even that serious battle, but then nobody ever dies during high stakes conflicts. I'd like to be able to turn the option on for those moments.

I love how in that photo everyone is carrying a weapon except Poo, suggesting that party also said, "***** this Starman Super nonsense. It's super *****."

Of course they did; Activision and its shareholders care about money first, and absolutely nothing second.

Go with N¹E³. Drive people who name drop it too much wild having to alternate to superscripts every other letter every single time they mention it.

Ubisoft ***** up building an entire show around one "major" release? Quick, alert the media before people find out the hard way!

@HollowSpectre "So in a year's time we'll be hearing about this "game" shut down or make record profits."

and one of those news items will always speak the truth, and the other one always lies.

Why is everyone surprised....? Mobile games have been calling y'all whales for years while y'all gobble down all their scammy goodness. This fits right the ***** in w their entire purpose. Crypto found a relative is all this is.

@Anti-Matter tbh? I didn't even know it was a known game; I thought it was some throwaway title I got for a buck or two. And it felt like it. Well, I'd pay five to ten for the experience, but that's about it. Just felt like it took those mobile "omg just like Pokemon!" games, and made their level/evolve system more similar to those. Wouldn't be at all against a different approach, but everything about it felt...."phoned in w/ a +5 bonus".

I'd be excited, but we're talking about Konami in the full grips of cryptorgasm. They're gonna ***** this harder than rabbits on rabies.

Oh look, more scandal and scammery going on in the crypto circles. If only a larger group of people would warn them repeatedly....

@Tasuki been on a train lately?

Final Fantasy XIII. I've never participated in pre-ordering or launch events since. It just had bad acting, hardly any worthwhile side quests and the one big one has most of it locked behind beating the game once, and then the linearity. Holy *****. All FF games are linear, but you usually don't notice it or see it as bad bc you're invested in the story and journey. Without that investment (bad writing plus a story that just....felt phoned in entirely), FFXIII came off feeling like a slow walk down a long hallway with co-workers: just enough familiarity to toss some words around, not enough to stay interested past that. XIII-2 was AMAZING, but then Lightning had to return for 3 and ruin it all over again. Idk why she's found any post game popularity....Lightning ruined XIII and XIII-3, in my eyes. Fang was much more interesting, at the very minimum. (And she didn't end up shilling Prada bags like Lightning did 🙄)

Considering they've pretty much sold their gaming cred and company itself to the barely decorated scam genre of gacha games, I'm glad they're rebranding. They don't deserve the name that owns that much good history. I wish Hideo Kojima would turn around and open up a company named Konami right after. After all, they're not using the name anymore.

"Drifting has more stability, now..."

@HalBailman this. I've never understood WHY people want folders so badly. I can maybe sorta see it as a meh, distant desire, but the way ppl are...were...so adamantly vocal about it made me wonder just how these people play games exactly. It's not like they're all installed in different hidden places and gotta easter egg your new and old titles. I can't even really find any reason to use this feature, now that it's here and I considered using it...it felt like a blah task and waste of time.

@KryptoniteKrunch I can never consider 4 a Silent Hill. In fact, it wasn't supposed to be; they transitioned it to a Silent Hill game over halfway through development. Even as a standalone game it would've been kinda bland but...this is a case where adding an already beloved franchise to the mix managed to make it even more bland, just bc you knew what you should be getting and absolutely aren't. Like a dildo that goes flaccid the moment anything makes noise.

@Thaliard well, they have Castlevania but they seem pretty goddamn deadset on never making a new entry in that franchise unless one of the startup ads involves the word "Netflix".

The last real thing Konami did with SH was a slot machine game. They have made a pretty open move towards the billions whales spend on "Free" to play games, and are making a move in that direction. This is just 1. As said, no way they'd let their trademark go on such a huge franchise and 2. They wanna keep it for any 100% fail casino games (that's basically what they are).

I don't think this is NL being optimistic; I think this is someone who didn't wanna scrounge for something more substantial to write about so they said, "***** it, with Silent Hill in the headline it'll generate clicks. Time to get drunk."

The getting drunk part is my own personal add on bc I like to imagine the entire NL crew secretly live together and just slam shots anytime someone accuses them of clickturbaiting.

@NotSoCryptic I would love some FF9 voice work, just to see my favorite scene played out in vocals:
When Quina gets so hungry it wonders if its reflection in the water is edible and jumps off a high ledge in order to go find out. Then some old dude just wanders over and, showing he has clearly seen some ***** in his life, just casually goes, "Suicide, eh?" That one sentence is why nobody has any ***** to give; that old ***** ate them all. XD

@locky-mavo or he's doing mocap to be a cameo/easter egg appearance as himself in something.

He's like the unofficial amazing dad of gaming.

Laughs in the note of "like ***** am I paying 40 bucks for that garbage"

@BLD to be fair, Blizzard was doing the whole, "Big news soon; in about eight years!" move long before Overwatch was a twinkle in the devs eyes. It's just now they've dropped any pretense of liking or even acknowledging the customers.

In other words, "Our QA people are abandoning ship like it's full of fire and rats. Won't you fans please do some of our testing for us?"

They look like "we only know how to draw bereaved and depressed children" Studio Ghibli characters, and that just does NOT translate well into bright, happy, "nobody dies they just faint!" world of Pokemon. Maybe that's the issue? Those children look HIGHLY disturbed; I mean some real "he who walks among the rows" creep vibes.

An open world where I can see them all moving around, in real time, is just gonna make the lack of stealth catching options feel weird. So many opportunities will present themselves for what would appear to be obviously easy/awesome stealth catches just for.... Boop Turn 1, please?

"We'll make one game have the awesome new catch mechanic, and put TRUE open world in the other game without the new mechanichs! Release the one with the fun catching in it first just so they KNOW the other could've done it too. It'll drive those kids *****' nuts! Ahahahahahahaha!!!"

Meh, Kirby lost me a long time ago. If this is just Kirby done up in a following way behind Mario's footsteps, I'll pass. Sure the game will be great for those a fan of the series, looks like it will be. Series just never captured me after Superstar showed how different an approach the games could take, then never ever glanced back at it. Every Kirby since has felt like regression inside progression, and this is an extension of that. It's not a "won't buy", it's a, "buy in a few years when Nintendo finally gives it its first sale" situation.

I bought the first part of it the one with part 1, CoM, etc. It is exactly as horrid as people claim. Sora continues walking in directions I'm no longer pressing is the most damning thing. Cloud gaming, even on Switch, IS possible. The Forgotten City proved that for me; I felt like I was playing a hard copy, for the most part. This was just lazy implementation with the increasingly common, "We'll patch it and finish working on it after release." In short, skip this, revisit reviews in a year and see if they at least followed through. With Squenix it's a mixed bag. Sometimes they knock it out of the park for fans, others it almost seems like they hate us lol

@Royalblues or maybe you should do some growing up. Let's begin! Step 1: Before speaking in such absolutes, ask yourself "Is there any possibly other reasons I'm not thinking of bc it doesn't immediately apply to my wants? Let me spend an actual moment thinking about it before immediately saying nah, zero reasons" Some of us, like me, play for the dex. I love catching them and awaiting that moment an interesting, world building tidbit comes forth. It isn't unreasonable to know those exist and want them inside the game they belong to. Not everyone plays for competitive or even story reasons. In fact that's supposed to be the essence of Pokemon; different trainers for different reasons. If people were calling for boycotts or gods forbid, violence (it's a gaming fandom; I could see it), your response would be right. But as is? People are just disappointed; and it's understandable. If not understandable to you, again remember not everyone is you, so naturally what satisfies for you wouldn't for others.

Finally, this is just a money making gimmick. When the series first began perhaps I could see it; but a singular Pokemon entry can stand on its own two legs as we've seen. So we should never settle for a company intentionally watering down their product to try to get you to purchase a near identical copy, OR have friends who play (not around here, and definitely not for someone in a bed ridden condition) OR go seeking strangers online to help you complete the game. May be super strange I know, but not all of us enjoy having to involve other players to play our single player experience. If I wanna share something w other gamers I'll play Smash or similar. When I want to play a single player game, I REALLY don't want a shameless money grab forcing me to go HEY CAN SOMEONE HELP ME EVOLVE THIS GODDAMN KADABRA???)

In short, there's lots of reasons for people to be disappointed. If you're not, rejoice! You dodged a gaming disappointment. Nothing more/less.

sigh Game Freak falls right off the wagon before both feet even left terra firma.

@Neoicelord if we're adding in games not only from N64, I'd really love to see Lost Kingdoms and ESP Lost Kingdoms 2 from the GC era. So much underratedness.

Sony would be profiting off Nintendo's IP. If Nintendo weren't trying to enter this space, I'd see all the venom as at least understandable. However, they are trying to so this seems like an expected and good idea. People complaining are just the same tired old "Nintendo sucks and hates their fans but I am unable to stay away from their lovely games or articles" voices. They didn't say NO SMASH IN ANY TOURNAMENT!!!!! Instead, they're using their own IP to launch their own thing in a business where exclusives can make or break. This is just a wise move in general.

I can't even pretend I see a real difference besides in Leena's face in the text box. The rest is so minor it falls into "why even bother calling it a remaster" territory.

A quarter-hearted attempt to upgrade something with the word Chrono on it only for it to end up tasting bland? Sounds like they wanna go retro and recreate the original release: too bland to even produce wet fart noises in lieu of a game review.

@botao123 i heard the damn battle music start up in my head.

I've been playing since it released. I'll never not replay Mother 2. I smell the scratch n sniff stickers that came with the included by game strat guide everytime I load it up and pick a flavor (almost always mint).

@Troll_Decimator some people can handle their entertainment in larger than bite sized portions.

@NinChocolate apparently they left so well, it demanded an encore presentation.

Pokemon fans are the gaming equivalent of Karens; they will bitch and moan about something the size of a pixel TO a pixel.

@Kieroni I hope that's the case. I've pretty much kept my expectations as neutral as possible for someone who's been begging for a true deviation from the same game with new paint on it. However, it's not what happens in the years or even months leading up to a release; it's what happens in that final month. And their marketing just... isn't what I'd expect for "completely new form of a Pokemon journey". Really hope it's leak squashing, but even in the name of that, I don't know many companies who willingly forego positive press prior to a games release; when you know you have a hit you want word out ASAP. Still, little details like this article at least give me hope it'll be a strong enough offering that they aren't afraid to keep trying new things within the main franchise. Fingers crossed, eh? lol

A week before full reviews are posted? That matches up nicely w it's release date. I'm starting to worry about the words "review embargo". By now we'd usually have at LEAST one full review to get those who were on the fence to preorder.