@ThanosReXXX Looks like cj80 has left the building at least for now, but I was at the Apollo last Sunday so I'm qualified to answer your questions. I agree with you about the negative Nancys and moaning Minnies on here and elsewhere. I've noticed that none of them appear to have seen a Switch irl or have any hands on experience of it, they just bash it based on videos and what other people (none of whom seem to have met a Switch irl either) are saying.
Build quality - great. Solid but not heavy, finish on the JoyCons is quality, feels and looks like a premium bit of kit. Every piece of Switch hardware I saw looked amazing, and every piece I touched felt like premium quality.
Screen - the screen is about the same size as a closed 3DS XL but much, much thinner. I'd say maybe about half as thick. It's bright and crisp and just as lovely as Alex says it is. I have no idea how it will perform in brighter ambient light, since the Apollo was dimly lit, but what I saw looked amazing.
JoyCons - have that lovely feel that premium tech often has (matte, not shiny), feel great in the hands, don't feel like they would be too small even for fairly extended periods of play (depending on hand size - I can see someone with really big hands struggling after a while but there are grips available for that).
HD Rumble - amazing. Really. Obviously they can't actually make a JoyCon get heavier or lighter or pull away from you (you can't add/take away weight from a sealed unit and since the JoyCons aren't attached to anything external there can be no actual "pull", but somehow they can fool your hands and brain into believing they can. It was subtle, for the games I tried, but it was there. I am very much looking forward to seeing (feeling?) what the devs do with it and I anticipate that the other manufacturers will add their own take on HD Rumble to their future consoles, just like they did with the D pad and motion controls.
Speaking of motion controls - they have moved (haha) on. Motion controls in the Switch seem to be a lot crisper and more responsive in a more "natural" way than the Wii (can't judge by the Wii U, don't have one). ARMS in particular really almost felt like I imagine VR would feel, it was so accurate. Every punch on the screen was a perfect extension of my hand movement. I have read some negatives about this, people saying that it wasn't as responsive as maybe it should have been, but mine was perfectly responsive and my guess is the problem for those people was too many (dozens) of JoyCon signals everywhere in a small-ish space. Perhaps I was just lucky.
Price - I actually think it's not expensive. I was never expecting it to be the sub £200 price tag that was being touted before the presentation, that seemed way too low for what I was hoping the Switch would be. Yeah, take out the HD Rumble, replace that beautiful screen with something less beautiful and remove some other stuff and you'll get a sub £200 price, but lose everything that makes this thing so exciting. And yes the peripherals may be a little pricey - but honestly they aren't that much more than a first party peripheral for any of the other consoles, especially bearing in mind the tech that's in them.
Launch games - there are 2 I'm extremely interested in, for different reasons, and since I have no Wii U I can't play Zelda on that (and I'm not paying the equivalent of the Switch for a Wii U and BotW for it when there are other games coming for the Switch that I also want). There are plenty of games coming up that I'm interested in. I really don't see the problem with the launch games (I remember what we got for 3DS for heaven's sake) - and for those that don't want any of them, nobody is forcing you to buy a Switch at launch. Switch consoles will be available on days other than day 1. Wait for a game you want. I bought my first 3DS for OoT, because that was the first game I actually wanted to play enough to pay out for a new console.
And a final note about 12Switch being a pack-in. I don't think it should be. Because it's a two player game, not solo. Yes, it's the showcase for what the Switch can do, but there's little point in forcing people to pay for something they may never use. I fully expect there to be something on the Switch, an equivalent of the 3DS AR games maybe, or the Streetpass games. It may not be something hugely exciting, but I do expect there to be something. And if not, well there's always Zelda.
I'll stop there because I'm probably typing into the void, this thread being a bit old now. But if you or anyone else has any questions, please do ask.
I'll go for Japanese with English subs, like I always do, if it's possible. Most English voice acting in games is American anyway, which grates on these British ears. If the VA was done in a similar way to DQ7's dialogue text, which was written in different dialects/accents depending on which island you were on (including Yorkshire!), then that would be great. But it's usually a generic (to my ears) variety of American. If I can't have Japanese I'll probably go for either Spanish or Russian.
Sunday morning. 300 mile round trip and a hotel necessary the night before (I can't do 4am starts anymore). And it was worth every minute on the road and every penny spent on getting there. Switch and Zelda both pre-ordered (as is Lego City, missed it the first time because by the time I was ready to buy a Wii U it was obvious the system was dying). Snipperclips a day 1 purchase. The whole event was wonderful.
I am glad I wasn't there on Saturday though. Seems the entire world was there in the morning and it was a bit of a shambles. For us on Sunday morning, it was marvellous.
The Switch is amazing. It feels great, the Joy Cons fit my hands just right and are very comfortable to use, almost like an extension of my own hands. Especially for ARMS, which was great, great fun to play, MUCH more fun than it maybe looks on a video. The HD Rumble is fantastic, the feedback it gives you can vary from barely-there to full on jack hammer. And yes, you really can tell how many marbles there are. Pro controller won't be necessary for most, possibly all games, the Joy Cons in the grip are great for pretty much everything.
The whole package feels and looks like a quality bit of kit, it's solid without being heavy and the finish is really tactile. The screen is lovely, good depth of colour and nice and bright (at least in low-light environments, I wasn't able to see it in sunlight).
I'm a little sad that 1 2 Switch isn't a pack-in, because it's such an obvious choice for that. And some of the mini games (at least the ones I tried) are again a heck of a lot more fun than they seemed from the Treehouse presentation.
3-6 hours of battery life may seem a little low - but honestly, how much battery life do you get from a tablet doing anything at all graphics intensive? And a bigger battery = more weight and more cost. I'm quite happy with 3-6 hours and I'll use my £7 power pack to recharge it if I'm on the go for longer than that.
Memory again seems a little low, and perhaps they could (and should) have doubled the onboard memory for the same package price. But a 64 GB micro SD costs about £15 if you don't shop around, and I've seen 256 GB for less than £50, so that's not a deal breaker either. If I'm buying extra memory, at least I get to choose how much I spend. And Nintendo use standard micro SD cards, they don't gouge their customers with stupidly expensive proprietary cards. It might even be possible to get a cheap 32 GB card or even smaller, fill that up over time, get another one and fill that up, and swap them out depending on what game I want to play. Less convenient, maybe, but carrying two or three micro SD cards around isn't going to be difficult.
I think if they'd beefed up the battery life (more expensive + heavier kit) and the memory (more expensive) it might cost them less per console than it would cost me to get an SD card and a power pack, but it would still make the console more expensive and would maybe have tipped it over to "can't afford" for more people. As it is, I will be getting one at launch, even though it will almost certainly be £30-£50 cheaper in 2 years or so, because I want it NOW and I think it's worth it.
ETA - Launch games. There are two launch games I want right out of the blocks. Then there will be Lego City (no Wii U for me, so I missed it first time round). RiME. I am Setsuna. Disgaea 5. Project Octopath. Mario. Maybe Rayman. Dragon Quest. Notice how many of those are 3rd party? Yes, many are ports. But 3rd parties make games for other people's consoles, that's the point. You want 3rd party AAA exclusives? Won't happen, or at least won't happen often. That's not how this business works. But 3rd party multi-platform, I do believe that is coming. I do really believe that 3rd parties are going to add a Switch release to most, if not every, Xbone/PS4 game they make now. They won't use the amazing tech the Switch has, because none of the other consoles has that tech. But the games are coming, and will continue to come.
Oh for goodness' sake. So much negativity. Everything I have seen about the hardware tells me it's amazing. Even the negative articles have said the hardware itself is impressive. But everyone is whinging about lack of games.
I missed out on the Wii U, so I'm happy paying for Wii U ports/remasters on a new system I intend to buy at launch. There are plenty of games that interest me coming to the Switch, both at launch and later on in the year. Zelda will keep me busy (along with DQ 7&8 and Ever Oasis on 3DS), as will Lego City Undercover later on. Then there will be Rime, I am Setsuna, probably Project Octopath, maybe Mario Odyssey and a bunch of other games. And that's all before Christmas.
Seems to me that some people want everything, they want it now, and if what they want isn't available at launch then not only will they not buy at launch, they insist they will not buy at all. Really, if there isn't a game you want at launch, then wait until there is a game you want. The console will be available on days other than launch day, you know.
Funny. I haven't seen a single Pokemon since the day before yesterday. And normally we are swamped with the usual Pidgeys, Spearows and Rattattas, along with the occasional Mr Mime. Not a thing has shown up in 48 hours.
I came to the series as an adult, just as Silver came out. Pokemon kept me going through some of the worst and most difficult times of my life. And there have been more than enough of those. Silver and Pearl in particular gave me a reason to get up in the morning some days. I kind of wish I had the childhood memories of it as so many here do, but I was 26 when the first games came out, so far too old for that. What I do have though are the memories of my son's childhood - he was about 3 when I got Silver, and 6 when I got him his first GBC and a second-hand copy of Yellow. He played that thing to death, and it was something great that we shared. And now my daughter, who was 6 when she got her 2DS and Omega Ruby, wants Moon for Christmas. I will get Sun, and we will play together and trade just like I did with her big brother. So yeah, the ad did make me tear up, just a little.
Mine also arrived this morning. I've attached it to a lanyard round my neck - I don't trust the clip to stay on and I don't want to wear it round my wrist. I can confirm it works in that you don't need your phone's screen awake for it to let you know there's a Pokemon nearby. In fact, if my screen is on I can't see any Pokemon on it at all, even though the Go+ is buzzing like mad. However, I have tried to catch at least a dozen Pokemon so far using it, and all I get is the red light of "darn".
I got this on launch day. More than 1,000 in-game hours later, I still play nearly every day. I've found/bought/caught pretty much everything, made a killing in the turnip market, won all the trophies (but not all the badges yet) and it's still my happy place to visit at the end of the day. Apart from when some random villager has moved in and ruined my beautiful path or my patch of hybrids or my hedges, that is!
@Aryon But the game doesn't actually require 2GB, whatever the requirements say. My phone only has 1.5GB and PoGo works just fine on it. My worry is that PGo+ will increase the RAM requirements and my phone won't be able to cope. Ah well, I guess I can always sell it on ebay if that happens.
I've had this pre-ordered since the first wave. And I'm not sure if I should cancel it now, due to it apparently needing 2GB RAM. The game itself is listed as needing that, but my phone (Samsung J3) only has 1.5GB and it works just fine. Bluetooth and Android versions on my phone are above the requirements. But will the Plus really need that 2GB of RAM when the game itself doesn't? I really don't want to shell out £35 on something I won't be able to use.
@Oubie You'll definitely enjoy it then. It's a lovely story with some great characters and it's not too taxing to progress. I too found Bravely just a bit too deep (and I don't have the time, sadly, to sink hours into it at one sitting, which is how I'd want to play it to do it justice), but Popolocrois was just at the right level for me and the time I had available. That said, I'm nearly at the end of ZTD and work is quiet, so maybe I'll be able to do Bravely justice at last. I do hope you enjoy Popolocrois.
@LandOfZeldtir You don't need to play 999 to get the best out of VLR and ZTD, but if you think you will want to play it, play it first. Otherwise VLR will spoil a lot of the plot. Likewise, but less so, with ZTD - you can play ZTD without playing 999 and VLR first (although I wouldn't recommend it), but then you'll spoil the previous games. To get the best out of all of them, play them all and play them in order.
Edit: I see you've followed above advice and have 999 on the way - be prepared to lose a lot of sleep, because you will want to find out just one more thing, and then the next, and then the next.... Enjoy!
@Oubie Yes. It's not a complicated RPG, much simpler than Bravely Default, for example, with less awesome graphics than Bravely and others, but it's a very nice game with a fairly intuitive grid battle system. I really enjoyed it.
@Alobeidt No. I think maybe she could, in law (somebody will correct me if I'm wrong about that) but she won't. Her reign (as her father's was before her) has always been about allowing the British people to decide for themselves. There has been a referendum, the British people have voted, she won't act to go back on that vote.
Would be good, in a way, to have something like a cooling off period - except that instead of things staying the same as they are, they become what they are going to be. Let the people experience living with what this decision really means for them, good or bad, for about 6 months or so and then have a final referendum.
@gcunit Well then, we'll see what that "independence" gets us. For me, I feel worse about this than about last year's election. And that's saying a lot.
@Bsham People still believed it though. And some people (including my own parents) voted Leave at least partly because they believed that particular lie. It wasn't pointed out, unless you actively looked for it (or knew already) that Farage was in no position to make that promise.
@gcunit Also with respect, I think it wise to look at what a "Leave" vote was supposed to mean, according to all the Leave campaign's propaganda. A large swathe of that propaganda has now been exposed as lies - or, at the very least, stretching the truth - by their own politicians. Therefore, it is not presumptuous in the slightest to assume that some people were taken in by those lies and voted the way they did because they believed them.
Edited to add the word "some" - I do not intend to imply that everyone who voted Leave believed one thing or another. Merely that, since some of the statements made by the Leave campaign have now been exposed as lies, it would not be surprising that some people voted on the basis of believing those lies.
@BLPs I think you'll need to join the queue regarding the sniper sight. Best not to say more here though - some parties reading this may not have a sense of humour.
@BLPs Farage this morning... I don't think I've ever seen anyone so loathsome. As soon as the result was in he was backtracking on the extra money for the NHS - which anyone who had read the article referenced above (among others) would have known was a lie from the start. And great that he and the rest of the "Leave"ers were accusing the "Remain"ers of fear mongering - until this morning, when the country discovered that was the pot calling the kettle black. The man is disgusting.
I am sorry for your fiancee that she believed the crap she was fed by people like him. I'm glad the two of you have each other to lean on.
@BLPs The moral of this is "never believe a politician". The BBC had a very, very good and in-depth analysis of the arguments for and against. It's been available for anyone who wanted to know the reality for a long time. Google BBC Reality Check. Too late now, of course - but I think if the Leave voters had actually educated themselves and not just listened to the rhetoric the vote would have been different.
@WinterWarm You're right about the common sentiment being that we pay too much into the EU without getting much back. Problem is, that sentiment was and is wrong. We don't get as much back from the EU as we pay in, that is true - but the amount we get from being in the EU more than compensates.
Some of us also think that it's not a bad thing to give others a helping hand if they need it.
@ThanosReXXX The only good thing that I can see coming out of this farce is the possibility of a happily reunited Ireland. I just hope "happily" is the operative word there. I lived through the English side of the Troubles - sacks over post boxes, department store bombings (lost a classmate in one of those) and all that. I'll be praying none of that ever happens again.
I am genuinely terrified for my family's financial security and my children's futures. My whole family, including my son (who had his first vote yesterday) voted to stay. Seriously considering moving to Scotland (assuming they vote to leave the UK). Or possibly Canada.
I wonder how many people voted to Leave because "Call me Dave" wanted them to vote Remain?
I am so ashamed to be British today. As a country we have just proved ourselves to be small minded, selfish, petty, racist and downright stupid.
Looks great to me. I loved Fantasy Life and this looks like it'll be a similar experience but with story, mechanics and gameplay different enough to make it not just a clone. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
So Zelda's going from sukiyaki, sushi and kaiseki ryori to what? Cheeseburger & fries? Beef stew? Chicken hotpot? Delicate, tasty and beautifully presented to stodgy, fattening, tasteless.... How very depressing.
Want!!! But why not 3DS? It would be a perfect game for the handheld, even if the 3D wasn't utilised. I much prefer playing games like this on a portable (which is the only reason I haven't got it for PC yet).
I'm actually just about to buy my first ever amiibo (KK Slider). I do think they are over-priced, and I do think the market is over-saturated, and I hope that they begin to fade away at least a bit very soon. However, I also think that, of all the Toys2Life companies out there, at least for me, the best value for money is Lego, closely followed by amiibo. If I had the money, I'd have the entire Lego Dimensions collection, plus the amiibo that interest me. Skylanders never interested me and always seemed like a cash-grab from the off, even though they were first. And Disney was a total cash-in. Amiibo and Lego are cash-ins as well, of course, just done a bit more elegantly and with a bit more on offer.
I don't want the whole market to disappear, because there are some interesting things being done with Toys2Life, but I do think the companies are going to have to up their game if they want to give those plastic figures any kind of real longevity.
@Barbiegurl777 Thing is though, as much as you will buy it and hopefully enjoy it, it's not going to work that well for the target demographic. Nintendo's marketing is, as we know, appallingly bad - so small kids will never hear of this anyway unless they have a gaming parent. If Nintendo wants to get kids hooked on their products, they are going to have to market them in places other than the eShop and gaming sites. What 3 year old looks at gaming sites? What non-gaming parent will ever see the eShop? Ads on the Disney channel wouldn't go amiss, for example.
There is space for games for 3 year olds, and older kids, and teens and all of those are also available to any adult who wants to play them. Nintendo making/publishing one game (or even a dozen games) for toddlers really shouldn't be offputting to adult gamers, even if those adult gamers don't want to play the toddler game. One game does not define the whole company.
Teddy Together is aimed at 3 year olds. And there's the problem. How many parents would be willing to shell out £100 for a dedicated console for a 3 year old? Giving the kids your old mobile phone when you upgrade costs you nothing, so you don't much care when they get it covered in jam/bury it in the kitty litter/chuck it in loo. So if this game is going to reach its target demographic, said demographic is going to need a parent or other family member with the £££s to buy them a new console, or an old console as a hand-me-down.
And then you have the same problems I've had with small kids and tech gear, beyond the jam covering/kitty litter issues - they are often just too young to be able to use the system, and therefore play the game, by themselves, even with a lot of help from mum. By the time they have the necessary fine motor skills, the game is too young for them. Both my kids have had those educational laptop toys that are meant to help them with reading, spelling and maths, both of them were unable to use the system with any success until the games were far too easy.
Nintendo would do better to bring Club Pokemon to Android - my 6 year old daughter would love this, but it's still only available for iOS.
I didn't grow up with Pokemon. I was about 28 or so when it finally reached UK shores, so older than you are now. But I loved it, and I still do. Never knew irl anyone else who did so never got into the competitive scene, and I'm not sad about that. I even dragged my husband and small daughter to the UK champs a few years back, just to hang out with Pokenerds like me and experience the fun (and lots of Streetpasses). It didn't make me want to play competitively, but it was a lot of fun watching others battle, I learned a few things too. Nowadays I breed for IVs and shinies and trade with my kids, and I still love it. Play it how you want to play it, it's such a versatile game. I'd second the nuzlocke suggestion as well, a great way to get more mileage out of the game.
My daughter is 6. She used to play a ton of crap ftp games on an android tablet, plus a few games on my old DS Lite (which she broke, sigh) until she got her own 2DS for her birthday. Now she's addicted to Pokemon and Yokai Watch and Tomodachi Life and she only uses the tablet for Netflix. She isn't, however, the child that Nintendo needs to focus their marketing on. She has the bonus of having gaming parents who fondly remember Pong and Space Invaders and, later, Beneath a Steel Sky and other games of that era. Most kids don't have that. We as parents know the value of games and gaming, from giving the incentive to learn to read up to spatial awareness skills and reflexes. Again, most kids don't have that (see the poster above whose sister won't let them buy a 3DS for her child because gaming "rots the brain").
Nintendo is a total marketing fail, at least in the UK. They have no advertising presence at all that I can see, outside of short-lived Pokemon promotions in Game stores, where only gamers go anyway. With the demise of ONM a few years back, they have no presence on the tech mag shelves at the supermarket either, indeed no presence at all in supermarkets (we now have to buy all our Nintendo stuff online, 5 years ago or so we could pick up the odd game or accessory with the weekly shop).
If nobody knows your products exist, nobody will buy them. Parents who are willing to let their kids game see XBone/PS4 and Clash of Clans and Candy Crush ads on TV and think the choice is between home console (expensive, plus another £50-60 for the game) or tablet/phone. So they go for the phone, which at least means they can also keep in touch. They have no idea that the ftp games are crap, no idea that a much deeper, more satisfying, entertaining and educational (in many ways) experience can be had, because they never hear about it. And they have no experience of the differences between crap games and immersive games themselves.
And then there's the fact that little Johnny and little Jenny want what everyone else has got - ie an iPhone. If nobody their age that they know has a 3DS, or admits to having a 3DS, they're not going to want one - unless they are shown how brilliant the 3DS is. And nobody is showing them that.
Right now, I'm really not sure that there is any way back for Nintendo, at least in the UK. Yes, it has many fans, but those fans can't do the job the marketing department should be doing. More small, bite-sized games like Pokemon Shuffle might help, getting Nintendo IP onto mobile might help, advertising and maybe some strategic product placement certainly would help. But honestly, I can see gaming becoming either console (expensive dedicated hardware, expensive games, mostly CoD, FIFA, Madden type games) or mobile (expensive but versatile hardware, cheap throwaway games, lots of advertising). I'm planning on getting a couple of spare 3DSs at the end of its lifecycle, because this isn't a future I want - but it's the future I think we're gonna get.
If my daughter (aged 6) is anything to go by, Yokai Watch could enjoy at least part of the domination that Pokemon has seen over the years. She is totally obsessed with it, as she also is with Pokemon. Good thing the game has 3 save slots so I can play it too.
@aaronsullivan I've been gaming since 1982. My favourites were always adventure games, like Beneath a Steel Sky and Simon the Sorcerer. Only one adventure game that I can recall had a female protagonist, and that was The Perils of Rosella. There have been more since, of course, but during my formative gaming years I was never able to play a female character apart from that one game. Even Manny the skeleton was male. The thing about all those characters though was that they had backstory, personality, they were part of the plot. Every "choose your own character" character I've played wasn't really part of the plot, certainly not part of any backstory, and had no personality. I personally would love to see more games where the protagonist is female, but not at the expense of having the character I am playing be so characterless as to not need an assigned gender.
I don't think it is right or fair to use an established male character for some kind of experiment in "getting more women into gaming" either. Let's have a LoZ game with Linkle as the protagonist, yes, I'd be all over that. Linkle is her own character, even if she is a Link spin-off. But is it possible to write a satisfying LoZ game story and dialogue where the player character can be either male or female and still have their own personality? I don't think so.
I will predict that, if Nintendo goes this route for Link, the story won't be as satisfying, the interactions with NPCs will be dull, and the ones who shout loudest about how much they hate the changes will be blaming "wimmin" for "ruining their game". We don't need a "choose your own Link" any more than we need a "choose your own Lara Croft" or "choose your own Jill Valentine". What we do need are more games with female protagonists who don't have to wear sexy outfits to save the world.
ETA I really like your Link and Zelda team up idea above. That would work for me too. They kind of did that, very slightly, in Spirit Tracks, and having that expanded would be good plot wise and gameplay wise, I think.
@Haiassai I think maybe my issue with VA is that is is nearly always American. I am English. Some characters speak in Yorkshire in my head, some in Zummerzet or Deb'n, some in Norf Lahnden innit. Swapping any of those for any other of those wouldn't be as big a disconnect as having them all be American (and they all seem to me to be generic "American" - I can tell the difference between, for example, a New Jersey accent and an Alabama one, but no VA I can recall has ever really used the rich variety of American accents, just this generic non-accent that any American will safely understand). I don't know why I have such an issue with this when I don't have an issue with Japanese VA, which I can't understand a word of apart from arigato. So just make it an option I can switch off and we'll all be happy.
@Haiassai I like the idea of Irish, or even Appalachian - so long as it's not over-the-top stereotyped. But really, I'd rather not have VA at all. It takes far longer to listen than to read, for one thing, and you also end up with the voice colouring how you feel about the character. In VLA, Clover's voice was so annoying that within a few minutes I hated hearing her. And I was playing with the Japanese VA! I tried the American/English VA and that was even worse.
I'd be fine with VA for LoZ so long as it's an option, not a requisite.
@LUIGITORNADO Not offended. Read my post #116 as to why I think a female Link option is a bad idea. In short, "choose your own character" characters in games, especially RPGs, generally have very little link (haha) to the story and no personality. This is fine for games like AC, where there is no plot, but if the playable character is going to be part of the actual story then it needs personality. So having the option of a female Link is a bad idea. I would be happy enough if the new game had a female Link as-written, with no option for male, because this would also fulfill that criteria - although I do think Nintendo would be shooting themselves in the foot of they did that.
If Link is just the player's avatar, then why not make him playable as black? Or Bangladeshi? Or a middle-aged, slightly overweight, mum of two? I don't need the characters in the games I play to look like me. Yes, I would like more strong female characters out there saving the world from the Forces of Darkness while wearing clothes that wouldn't trip them up or get caught in their sword, but I want them written as their own character, not a swappable, characterless, devoid-of-personality character designed to pander to the patronising and erroneous idea that to get more women into gaming you need to make established male characters playable as female.
@BensonUii Totally agree with your point here. A lot of "choose your hero/ine" RPGs have playable characters that are totally devoid of personality (looking at you, DQ9). Some of my recent favourites have been where I've played as a boy with a long back story (Return to Popolocrois) or as several people of differing genders and backgrounds (Bravely Default). A character, or set of characters, with... character. If the purpose of the game is to tell a story, as in LoZ, and the playable character is to be a genuine part of the story, then that character needs personality. I don't want or need every characer I play to look exactly like me and be exactly like me - games are an escape. I have to be me all damn day, let me be Agnes or Link or Pietro for a bit.
That said though, there still needs to be more female hero characters around. Some racial differences, preferably without stereotyping, wouldn't go amiss either. This is the 21st century, after all.
Oh God, please no voice acting. Or if you have to (I know some people prefer VA), at least make one of the options a Japanese audio track and keep the text in English. I cannot bear English (American) voice acting in games.
And no female Link either. Link's a boy, always has been - doesn't stop this woman wanting to play the games (although I know, sadly, that forcing a female Link with no male Link option would almost certainly cause the game to fail badly).
Put those resources into making a fun game with a female hero instead. Create a new IP with women saving the world while wearing reasonably sensible clothes. Probably nobody would buy it but me (and then only if the story and gameplay were good enough - but then again, Metroid sold pretty well with a female hero wearing sensible-ish clothes) but do something different, don't just repeat everything that's gone before with the only difference being the hero's gender. It's lazy.
The production values aren't as good as Zero Escape, for sure. As has already been mentioned, there are plenty of spelling and grammatical errors and some odd sentence construction in places. The localised text could have done with a once-over by a native English speaker. I'm not too bothered by that myself, despite the fact that, as a professional proof-reader, spelling and grammatical errors usually really annoy me. Don't get me started on the non-existence of English-English (as opposed to American-English) in the UK version of AC:NL - every time I get a letter from "mom" it makes me grind my teeth.
The puzzles so far have been of the "find the key" type, not really Hidden Object, more "what's that under the table?". The Telekinesis puzzle I've done is what you'd get if you crossed Kim's Game with a parking puzzle - you get to see where the obstacles are using Clairvoyance, but have to remember their locations and your route in Telekinesis mode. I expect the puzzles will increase in difficulty as I progress through the game. The screens are clean and well presented.
The characters are likeable and interesting, and the conversation options well laid out. I really like the Hints system, which allows you to play in chunks of time with a long break between if you want to without needing to remember what you need to do next.
For a £4 game, of a type that's rather rare in the West and very Japanese in setting and characters, I'm very happy with this game. You'd pay roughly the same amount on the App Store for a couple of generic Escape the Room games with no characters, no real story and at most a couple of hours of gameplay. This is a bargain, and a bit of a gem. It's not Zero Escape, but it is a similar experience - just a little rough around the edges in terms of text. If you enjoyed 999, VLR, Escape the Room puzzles or Visual Novels with a bit more to do than just read the text, you'll enjoy this game. I really hope the sequels come to the West as well, and do well enough that Intense makes more games like this.
@Yorumi, but the Hero mode + Ganondorf Zelda = extra super hard mode Zelda proves that giving different modes for games will be good for gamers like you, who want difficult, while still keeping them accessible to people like me, who want a challenge without the frustration caused by failing to beat the first boss a million times and giving up, and also to people like my daughter, who just doesn't have the motor skills yet. Thus expanding the customer base and keeping everybody happy.
If easy mode became the only mode available, that would be awful for nearly all of us, and also, I think, for the people who design the games in the first place.
I do see what you're getting at here, and to a point I agree with you. We know that smartphone games sell (or not, since the vast majority of them are at least FTP) the most copies, hence shareholders screaming for Mario Kart for Android. We the gamers don't want smartphone games, in the main. So it would be worrying if the games companies went down that route of only having easy, easier and movie-watching difficulty levels, because they know that easier games sell more. But if difficulty modes were available from VN-style difficulty up to Hero mode, and Hero mode was a challenge for even dedicated, experienced and skilled gamers, wouldn't that be a good thing? Especially if the game gave different rewards, similar to 999 and VLR, as an example, where you got more information for playing on Hard. I purposely went with that mode, on my first play, to get those rewards, so I know from experience that rewarding harder modes does give the gamer an incentive to take up the challenge.
If Nintendo can do this for Star Fox, maybe it will eventually be possible for Etrian Odyssey and Fire Emblem to have extra-hard modes for people who want them as well as easier modes for newer or more casual players. Let's hope so - and let's also hope that you don't have to play through the whole thing on Normal to get to those modes.
@Yorumi, for the record I don't subscribe to the "I paid for it, therefore I must have it all with no effort" mentality. I do play games for a challenge, but I also play them for the experience and the story. I do not expect all games to cater to my particular tastes - I am glad that there are so many available that I am likely to enjoy, I just don't buy the ones I probably won't enjoy.
I understand about the measuring game-time in years thing (I know it's hardly the same, but I'm over 2.5 years and 900 hours into AC:NL), but that isn't what's going to make money for Nintendo in the long run, short of massive amounts of paid for DLC. They want us to buy the game, play it, have fun with it, eventually (hopefully) beat it - and buy the next game. Time is not an infinite resource for most players, so those playing MMOs are not going to have a huge amount of time available for other games, and therefore won't be buying them.
Everybody should be able to have games that suit them - from Angry Birds for the only-have-time-for-one-level-at-the-bus-stop gamers to in-depth years-long MMOs and all points in between. MMOs don't suit me personally, and neither does Candy Crush, so I'm not going to be buying/downloading those. Being able to tailor my own personal experience with a game is a great thing, and I really don't see how having the option of playing on easy mode, so long as harder modes are available, can possibly hurt anyone who only wants the hard modes.
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Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Looks like cj80 has left the building at least for now, but I was at the Apollo last Sunday so I'm qualified to answer your questions. I agree with you about the negative Nancys and moaning Minnies on here and elsewhere. I've noticed that none of them appear to have seen a Switch irl or have any hands on experience of it, they just bash it based on videos and what other people (none of whom seem to have met a Switch irl either) are saying.
Build quality - great. Solid but not heavy, finish on the JoyCons is quality, feels and looks like a premium bit of kit. Every piece of Switch hardware I saw looked amazing, and every piece I touched felt like premium quality.
Screen - the screen is about the same size as a closed 3DS XL but much, much thinner. I'd say maybe about half as thick. It's bright and crisp and just as lovely as Alex says it is. I have no idea how it will perform in brighter ambient light, since the Apollo was dimly lit, but what I saw looked amazing.
JoyCons - have that lovely feel that premium tech often has (matte, not shiny), feel great in the hands, don't feel like they would be too small even for fairly extended periods of play (depending on hand size - I can see someone with really big hands struggling after a while but there are grips available for that).
HD Rumble - amazing. Really. Obviously they can't actually make a JoyCon get heavier or lighter or pull away from you (you can't add/take away weight from a sealed unit and since the JoyCons aren't attached to anything external there can be no actual "pull", but somehow they can fool your hands and brain into believing they can. It was subtle, for the games I tried, but it was there. I am very much looking forward to seeing (feeling?) what the devs do with it and I anticipate that the other manufacturers will add their own take on HD Rumble to their future consoles, just like they did with the D pad and motion controls.
Speaking of motion controls - they have moved (haha) on. Motion controls in the Switch seem to be a lot crisper and more responsive in a more "natural" way than the Wii (can't judge by the Wii U, don't have one). ARMS in particular really almost felt like I imagine VR would feel, it was so accurate. Every punch on the screen was a perfect extension of my hand movement. I have read some negatives about this, people saying that it wasn't as responsive as maybe it should have been, but mine was perfectly responsive and my guess is the problem for those people was too many (dozens) of JoyCon signals everywhere in a small-ish space. Perhaps I was just lucky.
Price - I actually think it's not expensive. I was never expecting it to be the sub £200 price tag that was being touted before the presentation, that seemed way too low for what I was hoping the Switch would be. Yeah, take out the HD Rumble, replace that beautiful screen with something less beautiful and remove some other stuff and you'll get a sub £200 price, but lose everything that makes this thing so exciting. And yes the peripherals may be a little pricey - but honestly they aren't that much more than a first party peripheral for any of the other consoles, especially bearing in mind the tech that's in them.
Launch games - there are 2 I'm extremely interested in, for different reasons, and since I have no Wii U I can't play Zelda on that (and I'm not paying the equivalent of the Switch for a Wii U and BotW for it when there are other games coming for the Switch that I also want). There are plenty of games coming up that I'm interested in. I really don't see the problem with the launch games (I remember what we got for 3DS for heaven's sake) - and for those that don't want any of them, nobody is forcing you to buy a Switch at launch. Switch consoles will be available on days other than day 1. Wait for a game you want. I bought my first 3DS for OoT, because that was the first game I actually wanted to play enough to pay out for a new console.
And a final note about 12Switch being a pack-in. I don't think it should be. Because it's a two player game, not solo. Yes, it's the showcase for what the Switch can do, but there's little point in forcing people to pay for something they may never use. I fully expect there to be something on the Switch, an equivalent of the 3DS AR games maybe, or the Streetpass games. It may not be something hugely exciting, but I do expect there to be something. And if not, well there's always Zelda.
I'll stop there because I'm probably typing into the void, this thread being a bit old now. But if you or anyone else has any questions, please do ask.
Re: Video: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's Localised Voice Acting is Pretty Darn Varied
I'll go for Japanese with English subs, like I always do, if it's possible. Most English voice acting in games is American anyway, which grates on these British ears. If the VA was done in a similar way to DQ7's dialogue text, which was written in different dialects/accents depending on which island you were on (including Yorkshire!), then that would be great. But it's usually a generic (to my ears) variety of American. If I can't have Japanese I'll probably go for either Spanish or Russian.
Re: Feature: Thoughts on the Nintendo Switch Preview Event in London
Sunday morning. 300 mile round trip and a hotel necessary the night before (I can't do 4am starts anymore). And it was worth every minute on the road and every penny spent on getting there. Switch and Zelda both pre-ordered (as is Lego City, missed it the first time because by the time I was ready to buy a Wii U it was obvious the system was dying). Snipperclips a day 1 purchase. The whole event was wonderful.
I am glad I wasn't there on Saturday though. Seems the entire world was there in the morning and it was a bit of a shambles. For us on Sunday morning, it was marvellous.
Re: Video: Alex Shares His First Impressions Of The Nintendo Switch With Nintendo UK
The Switch is amazing. It feels great, the Joy Cons fit my hands just right and are very comfortable to use, almost like an extension of my own hands. Especially for ARMS, which was great, great fun to play, MUCH more fun than it maybe looks on a video. The HD Rumble is fantastic, the feedback it gives you can vary from barely-there to full on jack hammer. And yes, you really can tell how many marbles there are. Pro controller won't be necessary for most, possibly all games, the Joy Cons in the grip are great for pretty much everything.
The whole package feels and looks like a quality bit of kit, it's solid without being heavy and the finish is really tactile. The screen is lovely, good depth of colour and nice and bright (at least in low-light environments, I wasn't able to see it in sunlight).
I'm a little sad that 1 2 Switch isn't a pack-in, because it's such an obvious choice for that. And some of the mini games (at least the ones I tried) are again a heck of a lot more fun than they seemed from the Treehouse presentation.
3-6 hours of battery life may seem a little low - but honestly, how much battery life do you get from a tablet doing anything at all graphics intensive? And a bigger battery = more weight and more cost. I'm quite happy with 3-6 hours and I'll use my £7 power pack to recharge it if I'm on the go for longer than that.
Memory again seems a little low, and perhaps they could (and should) have doubled the onboard memory for the same package price. But a 64 GB micro SD costs about £15 if you don't shop around, and I've seen 256 GB for less than £50, so that's not a deal breaker either. If I'm buying extra memory, at least I get to choose how much I spend. And Nintendo use standard micro SD cards, they don't gouge their customers with stupidly expensive proprietary cards. It might even be possible to get a cheap 32 GB card or even smaller, fill that up over time, get another one and fill that up, and swap them out depending on what game I want to play. Less convenient, maybe, but carrying two or three micro SD cards around isn't going to be difficult.
I think if they'd beefed up the battery life (more expensive + heavier kit) and the memory (more expensive) it might cost them less per console than it would cost me to get an SD card and a power pack, but it would still make the console more expensive and would maybe have tipped it over to "can't afford" for more people. As it is, I will be getting one at launch, even though it will almost certainly be £30-£50 cheaper in 2 years or so, because I want it NOW and I think it's worth it.
ETA - Launch games. There are two launch games I want right out of the blocks. Then there will be Lego City (no Wii U for me, so I missed it first time round). RiME. I am Setsuna. Disgaea 5. Project Octopath. Mario. Maybe Rayman. Dragon Quest. Notice how many of those are 3rd party? Yes, many are ports. But 3rd parties make games for other people's consoles, that's the point. You want 3rd party AAA exclusives? Won't happen, or at least won't happen often. That's not how this business works. But 3rd party multi-platform, I do believe that is coming. I do really believe that 3rd parties are going to add a Switch release to most, if not every, Xbone/PS4 game they make now. They won't use the amazing tech the Switch has, because none of the other consoles has that tech. But the games are coming, and will continue to come.
Re: Reggie Fils-Aime Offers Hope for Those Dreaming of Mother 3, Metroid and More on Switch
Oh for goodness' sake. So much negativity. Everything I have seen about the hardware tells me it's amazing. Even the negative articles have said the hardware itself is impressive. But everyone is whinging about lack of games.
I missed out on the Wii U, so I'm happy paying for Wii U ports/remasters on a new system I intend to buy at launch. There are plenty of games that interest me coming to the Switch, both at launch and later on in the year. Zelda will keep me busy (along with DQ 7&8 and Ever Oasis on 3DS), as will Lego City Undercover later on. Then there will be Rime, I am Setsuna, probably Project Octopath, maybe Mario Odyssey and a bunch of other games. And that's all before Christmas.
Seems to me that some people want everything, they want it now, and if what they want isn't available at launch then not only will they not buy at launch, they insist they will not buy at all. Really, if there isn't a game you want at launch, then wait until there is a game you want. The console will be available on days other than launch day, you know.
Re: Pokémon GO Bonuses Increased For Limited Period
Funny. I haven't seen a single Pokemon since the day before yesterday. And normally we are swamped with the usual Pidgeys, Spearows and Rattattas, along with the occasional Mr Mime. Not a thing has shown up in 48 hours.
Re: Video: This Unofficial Pokémon Advert Has a Beautiful Message for Older Sun and Moon Trainers
I came to the series as an adult, just as Silver came out. Pokemon kept me going through some of the worst and most difficult times of my life. And there have been more than enough of those. Silver and Pearl in particular gave me a reason to get up in the morning some days. I kind of wish I had the childhood memories of it as so many here do, but I was 26 when the first games came out, so far too old for that. What I do have though are the memories of my son's childhood - he was about 3 when I got Silver, and 6 when I got him his first GBC and a second-hand copy of Yellow. He played that thing to death, and it was something great that we shared. And now my daughter, who was 6 when she got her 2DS and Omega Ruby, wants Moon for Christmas. I will get Sun, and we will play together and trade just like I did with her big brother. So yeah, the ad did make me tear up, just a little.
Re: Guide: Everything You Need To Know About The Pokémon GO Plus
Mine also arrived this morning. I've attached it to a lanyard round my neck - I don't trust the clip to stay on and I don't want to wear it round my wrist. I can confirm it works in that you don't need your phone's screen awake for it to let you know there's a Pokemon nearby. In fact, if my screen is on I can't see any Pokemon on it at all, even though the Go+ is buzzing like mad. However, I have tried to catch at least a dozen Pokemon so far using it, and all I get is the red light of "darn".
Re: Animal Crossing: New Leaf's Fall Update Will Handle The Weeding So You Don't Have To
I got this on launch day. More than 1,000 in-game hours later, I still play nearly every day. I've found/bought/caught pretty much everything, made a killing in the turnip market, won all the trophies (but not all the badges yet) and it's still my happy place to visit at the end of the day. Apart from when some random villager has moved in and ruined my beautiful path or my patch of hybrids or my hedges, that is!
Re: Pokémon GO Plus Launches On September 16th
@Aryon But the game doesn't actually require 2GB, whatever the requirements say. My phone only has 1.5GB and PoGo works just fine on it. My worry is that PGo+ will increase the RAM requirements and my phone won't be able to cope. Ah well, I guess I can always sell it on ebay if that happens.
Re: Pokémon GO Plus Launches On September 16th
I've had this pre-ordered since the first wave. And I'm not sure if I should cancel it now, due to it apparently needing 2GB RAM. The game itself is listed as needing that, but my phone (Samsung J3) only has 1.5GB and it works just fine. Bluetooth and Android versions on my phone are above the requirements. But will the Plus really need that 2GB of RAM when the game itself doesn't? I really don't want to shell out £35 on something I won't be able to use.
Re: Nintendo Download: 11th August (Europe)
@Oubie You'll definitely enjoy it then. It's a lovely story with some great characters and it's not too taxing to progress. I too found Bravely just a bit too deep (and I don't have the time, sadly, to sink hours into it at one sitting, which is how I'd want to play it to do it justice), but Popolocrois was just at the right level for me and the time I had available. That said, I'm nearly at the end of ZTD and work is quiet, so maybe I'll be able to do Bravely justice at last. I do hope you enjoy Popolocrois.
Re: Nintendo Download: 11th August (Europe)
@LandOfZeldtir You don't need to play 999 to get the best out of VLR and ZTD, but if you think you will want to play it, play it first. Otherwise VLR will spoil a lot of the plot. Likewise, but less so, with ZTD - you can play ZTD without playing 999 and VLR first (although I wouldn't recommend it), but then you'll spoil the previous games. To get the best out of all of them, play them all and play them in order.
Edit: I see you've followed above advice and have 999 on the way - be prepared to lose a lot of sleep, because you will want to find out just one more thing, and then the next, and then the next.... Enjoy!
Re: Nintendo Download: 11th August (Europe)
@Oubie Yes. It's not a complicated RPG, much simpler than Bravely Default, for example, with less awesome graphics than Bravely and others, but it's a very nice game with a fairly intuitive grid battle system. I really enjoyed it.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@MrYuzhai I hold out hope that Boris won't get the job. Otherwise, I fear your last paragraph may very well come to pass.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@Alobeidt No. I think maybe she could, in law (somebody will correct me if I'm wrong about that) but she won't. Her reign (as her father's was before her) has always been about allowing the British people to decide for themselves. There has been a referendum, the British people have voted, she won't act to go back on that vote.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@abe_hikura Really? Now that is interesting...
Would be good, in a way, to have something like a cooling off period - except that instead of things staying the same as they are, they become what they are going to be. Let the people experience living with what this decision really means for them, good or bad, for about 6 months or so and then have a final referendum.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@gcunit Well then, we'll see what that "independence" gets us. For me, I feel worse about this than about last year's election. And that's saying a lot.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@Bsham People still believed it though. And some people (including my own parents) voted Leave at least partly because they believed that particular lie. It wasn't pointed out, unless you actively looked for it (or knew already) that Farage was in no position to make that promise.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@gcunit Also with respect, I think it wise to look at what a "Leave" vote was supposed to mean, according to all the Leave campaign's propaganda. A large swathe of that propaganda has now been exposed as lies - or, at the very least, stretching the truth - by their own politicians. Therefore, it is not presumptuous in the slightest to assume that some people were taken in by those lies and voted the way they did because they believed them.
Edited to add the word "some" - I do not intend to imply that everyone who voted Leave believed one thing or another. Merely that, since some of the statements made by the Leave campaign have now been exposed as lies, it would not be surprising that some people voted on the basis of believing those lies.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@BLPs I think you'll need to join the queue regarding the sniper sight. Best not to say more here though - some parties reading this may not have a sense of humour.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@gcunit A democratic majority? That wasn't a democratic majority. That was a lot of people who believed a lot of lies.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@BLPs Farage this morning... I don't think I've ever seen anyone so loathsome. As soon as the result was in he was backtracking on the extra money for the NHS - which anyone who had read the article referenced above (among others) would have known was a lie from the start. And great that he and the rest of the "Leave"ers were accusing the "Remain"ers of fear mongering - until this morning, when the country discovered that was the pot calling the kettle black. The man is disgusting.
I am sorry for your fiancee that she believed the crap she was fed by people like him. I'm glad the two of you have each other to lean on.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@BLPs The moral of this is "never believe a politician". The BBC had a very, very good and in-depth analysis of the arguments for and against. It's been available for anyone who wanted to know the reality for a long time. Google BBC Reality Check. Too late now, of course - but I think if the Leave voters had actually educated themselves and not just listened to the rhetoric the vote would have been different.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@WinterWarm You're right about the common sentiment being that we pay too much into the EU without getting much back. Problem is, that sentiment was and is wrong. We don't get as much back from the EU as we pay in, that is true - but the amount we get from being in the EU more than compensates.
Some of us also think that it's not a bad thing to give others a helping hand if they need it.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
@ThanosReXXX The only good thing that I can see coming out of this farce is the possibility of a happily reunited Ireland. I just hope "happily" is the operative word there. I lived through the English side of the Troubles - sacks over post boxes, department store bombings (lost a classmate in one of those) and all that. I'll be praying none of that ever happens again.
Re: Nintendo Share Price Falls to Lowest Point in Over a Year as Global Markets React to 'Brexit'
I am genuinely terrified for my family's financial security and my children's futures. My whole family, including my son (who had his first vote yesterday) voted to stay. Seriously considering moving to Scotland (assuming they vote to leave the UK). Or possibly Canada.
I wonder how many people voted to Leave because "Call me Dave" wanted them to vote Remain?
I am so ashamed to be British today. As a country we have just proved ourselves to be small minded, selfish, petty, racist and downright stupid.
Re: E3 2016: Nintendo Reveals Ever Oasis for the 3DS
Looks great to me. I loved Fantasy Life and this looks like it'll be a similar experience but with story, mechanics and gameplay different enough to make it not just a clone. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
Re: Talking Point: Our Hopes For Nintendo's E3 2016 Legend of Zelda (and Pokémon) Bonanza
@felix330 Great. It'll be the gaming equivalent of PB&J sandwiches, biscuits & gravy and burgers. Ick.
Re: Talking Point: Our Hopes For Nintendo's E3 2016 Legend of Zelda (and Pokémon) Bonanza
So Zelda's going from sukiyaki, sushi and kaiseki ryori to what? Cheeseburger & fries? Beef stew? Chicken hotpot? Delicate, tasty and beautifully presented to stodgy, fattening, tasteless.... How very depressing.
Re: Stardew Valley is Digging Its Way to Wii U
Want!!! But why not 3DS? It would be a perfect game for the handheld, even if the 3D wasn't utilised. I much prefer playing games like this on a portable (which is the only reason I haven't got it for PC yet).
Re: UK Toys-To-Life Market Slumps 12 Percent Year-On-Year
I'm actually just about to buy my first ever amiibo (KK Slider). I do think they are over-priced, and I do think the market is over-saturated, and I hope that they begin to fade away at least a bit very soon. However, I also think that, of all the Toys2Life companies out there, at least for me, the best value for money is Lego, closely followed by amiibo. If I had the money, I'd have the entire Lego Dimensions collection, plus the amiibo that interest me. Skylanders never interested me and always seemed like a cash-grab from the off, even though they were first. And Disney was a total cash-in. Amiibo and Lego are cash-ins as well, of course, just done a bit more elegantly and with a bit more on offer.
I don't want the whole market to disappear, because there are some interesting things being done with Toys2Life, but I do think the companies are going to have to up their game if they want to give those plastic figures any kind of real longevity.
Re: Talking Point: The Online Reaction to Teddy Together Shows Why Nintendo Needs To Target Kids More Directly
@Barbiegurl777
Thing is though, as much as you will buy it and hopefully enjoy it, it's not going to work that well for the target demographic. Nintendo's marketing is, as we know, appallingly bad - so small kids will never hear of this anyway unless they have a gaming parent. If Nintendo wants to get kids hooked on their products, they are going to have to market them in places other than the eShop and gaming sites. What 3 year old looks at gaming sites? What non-gaming parent will ever see the eShop? Ads on the Disney channel wouldn't go amiss, for example.
There is space for games for 3 year olds, and older kids, and teens and all of those are also available to any adult who wants to play them. Nintendo making/publishing one game (or even a dozen games) for toddlers really shouldn't be offputting to adult gamers, even if those adult gamers don't want to play the toddler game. One game does not define the whole company.
Re: Talking Point: The Online Reaction to Teddy Together Shows Why Nintendo Needs To Target Kids More Directly
Teddy Together is aimed at 3 year olds. And there's the problem. How many parents would be willing to shell out £100 for a dedicated console for a 3 year old? Giving the kids your old mobile phone when you upgrade costs you nothing, so you don't much care when they get it covered in jam/bury it in the kitty litter/chuck it in loo. So if this game is going to reach its target demographic, said demographic is going to need a parent or other family member with the £££s to buy them a new console, or an old console as a hand-me-down.
And then you have the same problems I've had with small kids and tech gear, beyond the jam covering/kitty litter issues - they are often just too young to be able to use the system, and therefore play the game, by themselves, even with a lot of help from mum. By the time they have the necessary fine motor skills, the game is too young for them. Both my kids have had those educational laptop toys that are meant to help them with reading, spelling and maths, both of them were unable to use the system with any success until the games were far too easy.
Nintendo would do better to bring Club Pokemon to Android - my 6 year old daughter would love this, but it's still only available for iOS.
Re: Nintendo Download: 26th May (North America)
Are the Dragon Fantasy games ever going to come to Europe?
Re: Soapbox: How The Evolution Of Pokémon Can Unexpectedly Influence Play-Through Experiences
I didn't grow up with Pokemon. I was about 28 or so when it finally reached UK shores, so older than you are now. But I loved it, and I still do. Never knew irl anyone else who did so never got into the competitive scene, and I'm not sad about that. I even dragged my husband and small daughter to the UK champs a few years back, just to hang out with Pokenerds like me and experience the fun (and lots of Streetpasses). It didn't make me want to play competitively, but it was a lot of fun watching others battle, I learned a few things too. Nowadays I breed for IVs and shinies and trade with my kids, and I still love it. Play it how you want to play it, it's such a versatile game. I'd second the nuzlocke suggestion as well, a great way to get more mileage out of the game.
Re: Study Suggests Rising Smartphone Ownership Among Kids Is Hitting Nintendo Hard
@FcsevenXIII
They don't. But mummy got a new one when she upgraded, and it seemed a waste to throw away the old one.
Smart phones have a 2 year max life span before they are upgraded. Most parents will then give the old one to the oldest kid who hasn't got one yet.
Re: Study Suggests Rising Smartphone Ownership Among Kids Is Hitting Nintendo Hard
My daughter is 6. She used to play a ton of crap ftp games on an android tablet, plus a few games on my old DS Lite (which she broke, sigh) until she got her own 2DS for her birthday. Now she's addicted to Pokemon and Yokai Watch and Tomodachi Life and she only uses the tablet for Netflix. She isn't, however, the child that Nintendo needs to focus their marketing on. She has the bonus of having gaming parents who fondly remember Pong and Space Invaders and, later, Beneath a Steel Sky and other games of that era. Most kids don't have that. We as parents know the value of games and gaming, from giving the incentive to learn to read up to spatial awareness skills and reflexes. Again, most kids don't have that (see the poster above whose sister won't let them buy a 3DS for her child because gaming "rots the brain").
Nintendo is a total marketing fail, at least in the UK. They have no advertising presence at all that I can see, outside of short-lived Pokemon promotions in Game stores, where only gamers go anyway. With the demise of ONM a few years back, they have no presence on the tech mag shelves at the supermarket either, indeed no presence at all in supermarkets (we now have to buy all our Nintendo stuff online, 5 years ago or so we could pick up the odd game or accessory with the weekly shop).
If nobody knows your products exist, nobody will buy them. Parents who are willing to let their kids game see XBone/PS4 and Clash of Clans and Candy Crush ads on TV and think the choice is between home console (expensive, plus another £50-60 for the game) or tablet/phone. So they go for the phone, which at least means they can also keep in touch. They have no idea that the ftp games are crap, no idea that a much deeper, more satisfying, entertaining and educational (in many ways) experience can be had, because they never hear about it. And they have no experience of the differences between crap games and immersive games themselves.
And then there's the fact that little Johnny and little Jenny want what everyone else has got - ie an iPhone. If nobody their age that they know has a 3DS, or admits to having a 3DS, they're not going to want one - unless they are shown how brilliant the 3DS is. And nobody is showing them that.
Right now, I'm really not sure that there is any way back for Nintendo, at least in the UK. Yes, it has many fans, but those fans can't do the job the marketing department should be doing. More small, bite-sized games like Pokemon Shuffle might help, getting Nintendo IP onto mobile might help, advertising and maybe some strategic product placement certainly would help. But honestly, I can see gaming becoming either console (expensive dedicated hardware, expensive games, mostly CoD, FIFA, Madden type games) or mobile (expensive but versatile hardware, cheap throwaway games, lots of advertising). I'm planning on getting a couple of spare 3DSs at the end of its lifecycle, because this isn't a future I want - but it's the future I think we're gonna get.
Re: Yo-kai Watch Makes Its UK Chart Debut as Star Fox Zero Holds Top 40 Place
If my daughter (aged 6) is anything to go by, Yokai Watch could enjoy at least part of the domination that Pokemon has seen over the years. She is totally obsessed with it, as she also is with Pokemon. Good thing the game has 3 save slots so I can play it too.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
@aaronsullivan I've been gaming since 1982. My favourites were always adventure games, like Beneath a Steel Sky and Simon the Sorcerer. Only one adventure game that I can recall had a female protagonist, and that was The Perils of Rosella. There have been more since, of course, but during my formative gaming years I was never able to play a female character apart from that one game. Even Manny the skeleton was male. The thing about all those characters though was that they had backstory, personality, they were part of the plot. Every "choose your own character" character I've played wasn't really part of the plot, certainly not part of any backstory, and had no personality. I personally would love to see more games where the protagonist is female, but not at the expense of having the character I am playing be so characterless as to not need an assigned gender.
I don't think it is right or fair to use an established male character for some kind of experiment in "getting more women into gaming" either. Let's have a LoZ game with Linkle as the protagonist, yes, I'd be all over that. Linkle is her own character, even if she is a Link spin-off. But is it possible to write a satisfying LoZ game story and dialogue where the player character can be either male or female and still have their own personality? I don't think so.
I will predict that, if Nintendo goes this route for Link, the story won't be as satisfying, the interactions with NPCs will be dull, and the ones who shout loudest about how much they hate the changes will be blaming "wimmin" for "ruining their game". We don't need a "choose your own Link" any more than we need a "choose your own Lara Croft" or "choose your own Jill Valentine". What we do need are more games with female protagonists who don't have to wear sexy outfits to save the world.
ETA I really like your Link and Zelda team up idea above. That would work for me too. They kind of did that, very slightly, in Spirit Tracks, and having that expanded would be good plot wise and gameplay wise, I think.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
@Haiassai I think maybe my issue with VA is that is is nearly always American. I am English. Some characters speak in Yorkshire in my head, some in Zummerzet or Deb'n, some in Norf Lahnden innit. Swapping any of those for any other of those wouldn't be as big a disconnect as having them all be American (and they all seem to me to be generic "American" - I can tell the difference between, for example, a New Jersey accent and an Alabama one, but no VA I can recall has ever really used the rich variety of American accents, just this generic non-accent that any American will safely understand). I don't know why I have such an issue with this when I don't have an issue with Japanese VA, which I can't understand a word of apart from arigato. So just make it an option I can switch off and we'll all be happy.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
@Haiassai I like the idea of Irish, or even Appalachian - so long as it's not over-the-top stereotyped. But really, I'd rather not have VA at all. It takes far longer to listen than to read, for one thing, and you also end up with the voice colouring how you feel about the character. In VLA, Clover's voice was so annoying that within a few minutes I hated hearing her. And I was playing with the Japanese VA! I tried the American/English VA and that was even worse.
I'd be fine with VA for LoZ so long as it's an option, not a requisite.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
@LUIGITORNADO Not offended. Read my post #116 as to why I think a female Link option is a bad idea. In short, "choose your own character" characters in games, especially RPGs, generally have very little link (haha) to the story and no personality. This is fine for games like AC, where there is no plot, but if the playable character is going to be part of the actual story then it needs personality. So having the option of a female Link is a bad idea. I would be happy enough if the new game had a female Link as-written, with no option for male, because this would also fulfill that criteria - although I do think Nintendo would be shooting themselves in the foot of they did that.
If Link is just the player's avatar, then why not make him playable as black? Or Bangladeshi? Or a middle-aged, slightly overweight, mum of two? I don't need the characters in the games I play to look like me. Yes, I would like more strong female characters out there saving the world from the Forces of Darkness while wearing clothes that wouldn't trip them up or get caught in their sword, but I want them written as their own character, not a swappable, characterless, devoid-of-personality character designed to pander to the patronising and erroneous idea that to get more women into gaming you need to make established male characters playable as female.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
@BensonUii Totally agree with your point here. A lot of "choose your hero/ine" RPGs have playable characters that are totally devoid of personality (looking at you, DQ9). Some of my recent favourites have been where I've played as a boy with a long back story (Return to Popolocrois) or as several people of differing genders and backgrounds (Bravely Default). A character, or set of characters, with... character. If the purpose of the game is to tell a story, as in LoZ, and the playable character is to be a genuine part of the story, then that character needs personality. I don't want or need every characer I play to look exactly like me and be exactly like me - games are an escape. I have to be me all damn day, let me be Agnes or Link or Pietro for a bit.
That said though, there still needs to be more female hero characters around. Some racial differences, preferably without stereotyping, wouldn't go amiss either. This is the 21st century, after all.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
@NinChocolate That I could go for. Play as Zelda and save Link from the forces of evil, works for me.
Re: Rumour: More Claims Made For New Legend of Zelda on Wii U and NX, Gender Choice For Playable Character
Oh God, please no voice acting. Or if you have to (I know some people prefer VA), at least make one of the options a Japanese audio track and keep the text in English. I cannot bear English (American) voice acting in games.
And no female Link either. Link's a boy, always has been - doesn't stop this woman wanting to play the games (although I know, sadly, that forcing a female Link with no male Link option would almost certainly cause the game to fail badly).
Put those resources into making a fun game with a female hero instead. Create a new IP with women saving the world while wearing reasonably sensible clothes. Probably nobody would buy it but me (and then only if the story and gameplay were good enough - but then again, Metroid sold pretty well with a female hero wearing sensible-ish clothes) but do something different, don't just repeat everything that's gone before with the only difference being the hero's gender. It's lazy.
Re: Review: Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas (3DS eShop)
The production values aren't as good as Zero Escape, for sure. As has already been mentioned, there are plenty of spelling and grammatical errors and some odd sentence construction in places. The localised text could have done with a once-over by a native English speaker. I'm not too bothered by that myself, despite the fact that, as a professional proof-reader, spelling and grammatical errors usually really annoy me. Don't get me started on the non-existence of English-English (as opposed to American-English) in the UK version of AC:NL - every time I get a letter from "mom" it makes me grind my teeth.
The puzzles so far have been of the "find the key" type, not really Hidden Object, more "what's that under the table?". The Telekinesis puzzle I've done is what you'd get if you crossed Kim's Game with a parking puzzle - you get to see where the obstacles are using Clairvoyance, but have to remember their locations and your route in Telekinesis mode. I expect the puzzles will increase in difficulty as I progress through the game. The screens are clean and well presented.
The characters are likeable and interesting, and the conversation options well laid out. I really like the Hints system, which allows you to play in chunks of time with a long break between if you want to without needing to remember what you need to do next.
For a £4 game, of a type that's rather rare in the West and very Japanese in setting and characters, I'm very happy with this game. You'd pay roughly the same amount on the App Store for a couple of generic Escape the Room games with no characters, no real story and at most a couple of hours of gameplay. This is a bargain, and a bit of a gem. It's not Zero Escape, but it is a similar experience - just a little rough around the edges in terms of text. If you enjoyed 999, VLR, Escape the Room puzzles or Visual Novels with a bit more to do than just read the text, you'll enjoy this game. I really hope the sequels come to the West as well, and do well enough that Intense makes more games like this.
Re: Review: Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas (3DS eShop)
Sounds.... familiar. A game to while away the time while we're waiting for Zero Time Dilemma, perhaps?
Re: Editorial: Accessibility Through Optional 'Invincibility' Buffs Can Only Be a Positive for Nintendo
@Yorumi, but the Hero mode + Ganondorf Zelda = extra super hard mode Zelda proves that giving different modes for games will be good for gamers like you, who want difficult, while still keeping them accessible to people like me, who want a challenge without the frustration caused by failing to beat the first boss a million times and giving up, and also to people like my daughter, who just doesn't have the motor skills yet. Thus expanding the customer base and keeping everybody happy.
If easy mode became the only mode available, that would be awful for nearly all of us, and also, I think, for the people who design the games in the first place.
I do see what you're getting at here, and to a point I agree with you. We know that smartphone games sell (or not, since the vast majority of them are at least FTP) the most copies, hence shareholders screaming for Mario Kart for Android. We the gamers don't want smartphone games, in the main. So it would be worrying if the games companies went down that route of only having easy, easier and movie-watching difficulty levels, because they know that easier games sell more. But if difficulty modes were available from VN-style difficulty up to Hero mode, and Hero mode was a challenge for even dedicated, experienced and skilled gamers, wouldn't that be a good thing? Especially if the game gave different rewards, similar to 999 and VLR, as an example, where you got more information for playing on Hard. I purposely went with that mode, on my first play, to get those rewards, so I know from experience that rewarding harder modes does give the gamer an incentive to take up the challenge.
If Nintendo can do this for Star Fox, maybe it will eventually be possible for Etrian Odyssey and Fire Emblem to have extra-hard modes for people who want them as well as easier modes for newer or more casual players. Let's hope so - and let's also hope that you don't have to play through the whole thing on Normal to get to those modes.
Re: Editorial: Accessibility Through Optional 'Invincibility' Buffs Can Only Be a Positive for Nintendo
@Yorumi, for the record I don't subscribe to the "I paid for it, therefore I must have it all with no effort" mentality. I do play games for a challenge, but I also play them for the experience and the story. I do not expect all games to cater to my particular tastes - I am glad that there are so many available that I am likely to enjoy, I just don't buy the ones I probably won't enjoy.
I understand about the measuring game-time in years thing (I know it's hardly the same, but I'm over 2.5 years and 900 hours into AC:NL), but that isn't what's going to make money for Nintendo in the long run, short of massive amounts of paid for DLC. They want us to buy the game, play it, have fun with it, eventually (hopefully) beat it - and buy the next game. Time is not an infinite resource for most players, so those playing MMOs are not going to have a huge amount of time available for other games, and therefore won't be buying them.
Everybody should be able to have games that suit them - from Angry Birds for the only-have-time-for-one-level-at-the-bus-stop gamers to in-depth years-long MMOs and all points in between. MMOs don't suit me personally, and neither does Candy Crush, so I'm not going to be buying/downloading those. Being able to tailor my own personal experience with a game is a great thing, and I really don't see how having the option of playing on easy mode, so long as harder modes are available, can possibly hurt anyone who only wants the hard modes.