The menu has its own background music, so every time you have to fast travel or change equipment, it interrupts the amazing overworld music and plays the same seven-note piano riff over and over again. If you’ve played the game you know.
The Chain Attack music does the same thing during boss fights, but that song is straight Fire so it doesn’t bother me as much.
Honestly I don’t know how I feel about the game so far. I haven’t made much progress and only have uncovered a small part of the map, but right now it just feels like BotW with more stuff. But in my opinion, “more” doesn’t necessarily mean better. Like the ultrahand and fuse mechanics are cool and everything, but what do they really add to the story, or the investment into the world? There are too many options for things to do that it feels distracting, especially because I’m the kind of player who just wants to run around and fight things. Personally I would have preferred if Nintendo used the same mechanics as BotW and made a new map to explore, rather than the other way around.
I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but I still think BotW is better tbh. It just felt more fresh and satisfying to explore. Maybe I will feel better once I wrap my head around vehicle building, as I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what the game has to offer, but so far TotK hasn’t given me the same “wow” factor as BotW or the older Zelda games I grew up with.
I loved Scarlet and Violet, not gonna lie. But fixing Tera Raids would really help with the postgame content. Not only is 50 Tera Shards way too much farming for just one Pokémon, but it takes forever to join raids and they can be buggy as hell. I had one raid where we knocked out the Pokémon just in time, only for the game to not count it and unceremoniously boot everyone back to the overworld. I feel the frustration of Tera Raid farming is the main reason people have been turned off competitive battling in this gen, so a patch to fix these issues would breathe a lot more life into the scene.
I grew up with Tales of Symphonia and have a ton of nostalgia for it, so I’m a bit disappointed this remaster isn’t up to par on the technical front. While I disagree with some of the opinions of this review (I love the art style and the 2D Tales combat!) I still respect it for being a solid take. I’ll probably wait until the game goes on sale, as all Namco games do eventually.
Hot take: I loved the weapon durability system. It changes the flow of combat and forces you to experiment with different play styles. I normally hate using slow, heavy weapons in games, but the game forcing me to use claymores made me appreciate them way more (especially during the dreaded Lynel fights!)
I find it weird that this is so controversial tbh. Breakable equipment isn’t new to Zelda, even if it wasn’t as prominent before BotW. Ocarina had Deku Sticks and the Giant’s Knife. Majora had the Razor Sword. Every shield in Skyward Sword can break, except for the Hylian Shield. Sure, these were temporary items you had while on your way to getting stuff that didn’t break, but the concept is the same.
Most of my picks have been discussed already, but the one that immediately came to mind for me was the Yunalesca boss fight from Final Fantasy X.
Without spoiling too much, this story boss appears about 3/4 of the way through the game, and took me more retries than the final boss. It starts by infecting your party with Zombie, making healing spells hurt you, and then sends a barrage of healing spells your way. Your first instinct would be to heal your status, but nope: Yunalesca will usually follow up with Mega Death (hm), which insta-kills anyone NOT zombiefied. It’s a battle of attrition, where you have to slowly chip away at the boss, heal only when you’re just about to die anyway, and hope to RNGesus that the boss doesn’t spam its most annoying attacks. In true JRPG fashion there are abilities you can use to cheese the fight, but unlocking them is a tedious grind and you wouldn’t think to go that far on your first playthrough. The worst part was, that I played on the original PS2 version, and I had to watch an hour long unskippable cutscene before each attempt!
Most of FFX is very easy, but the Yunalesca fight is an enormous difficulty spike that can ruin the entire game. I eventually beat it, but by then I was just relieved I never had to do that nonsense again.
I’m so hype for this. Xenoblade is the most underrated JRPG series in my opinion. Both 1 and 2 are in my top 5 games of all time. Now the third one will combine the worlds of both games into one, and you can fight with 7 party members at once, and it’s going to have an epic story, AND it has mechs?! Instant GOTY for me
Okay, I know Chrono Cross is an older game, but why do so many people say turn based combat is antiquated? Persona, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, and heck, Pokemon all have turn based combat, and they’re all quite popular. Do these reviewers just not like having to strategize and plan ahead?
Never used the 3D slider much but the 3DS’ library was great. They had definitive remakes of older games (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64), and brought back franchises that hadn’t had a new game in forever (Kid Icarus, Luigi’s Mansion). Heck, the Fire Emblem games alone were worth the price of admission for me. I hope Nintendo ports some of the better 3DS games onto Switch, even if they have to change things a bit to compensate for the lack of dual screens. But it’s too good of a system to be left behind and forgotten.
Double Dash is the best because of one particular element that both Nintendo and the writers of this article seem to have forgotten about: Birdo. (Seriously, what’s up with the Birdo erasure Nintendo?)
I love the 80’s song titles on this list. This is what makes Nintendolife so fun to read: all the neat little personal touches you don’t see on other gaming news sites.
I love rooting for the underdog, so I usually go with grass types for my team haha. That being said, I sometimes swap out my starters after a certain point in the game. I like having a lot of variety in my team, and it’s more fun to me to experiment with different mons than using the same ones for the entire adventure.
Never played the game personally, but the show is a riot. The characters are incredibly charming, and they nailed the spirit of those classic 1930’s/1940’s cartoons. I kinda hope this starts a trend in animation and we can see more retro-styled series like this in the future.
I like the strong representation of Double Dash and MK7 tracks. Those games get overlooked too much in the fandom!
Aside from the ones already mentioned, I’d love to see Sherbet Land (N64), Peach Beach (GCN) and Moonview Highway (Wii) rendered in HD. But if I had to pick one, it has to be Dino Jungle. It’s objectively the best Mario Kart track because, dinosaurs. haha
American here, but I love the British cast in Xenoblade. I’m a big Doctor Who fan so I love Jenna Coleman’s performance as Melia in the first game. And I love how Xenoblade 2 uses regional accents to show the differences between cultures in the game’s world (Gormotti is Welsh, Ardanians are Scottish, etc.) These touches add a lot of charm to the game’s story and presentation. I wish more games and anime had localizations like Xenoblade; having everyone be American all the time is boring!
Comments 17
Re: Talking Point: What Are The Worst Parts Of Your Favourite Games?
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
The menu has its own background music, so every time you have to fast travel or change equipment, it interrupts the amazing overworld music and plays the same seven-note piano riff over and over again. If you’ve played the game you know.
The Chain Attack music does the same thing during boss fights, but that song is straight Fire so it doesn’t bother me as much.
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
Honestly I don’t know how I feel about the game so far. I haven’t made much progress and only have uncovered a small part of the map, but right now it just feels like BotW with more stuff. But in my opinion, “more” doesn’t necessarily mean better. Like the ultrahand and fuse mechanics are cool and everything, but what do they really add to the story, or the investment into the world? There are too many options for things to do that it feels distracting, especially because I’m the kind of player who just wants to run around and fight things. Personally I would have preferred if Nintendo used the same mechanics as BotW and made a new map to explore, rather than the other way around.
I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but I still think BotW is better tbh. It just felt more fresh and satisfying to explore. Maybe I will feel better once I wrap my head around vehicle building, as I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what the game has to offer, but so far TotK hasn’t given me the same “wow” factor as BotW or the older Zelda games I grew up with.
Re: Feature: 5 Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Quality Of Life Updates We Still Want To See
I loved Scarlet and Violet, not gonna lie. But fixing Tera Raids would really help with the postgame content. Not only is 50 Tera Shards way too much farming for just one Pokémon, but it takes forever to join raids and they can be buggy as hell. I had one raid where we knocked out the Pokémon just in time, only for the game to not count it and unceremoniously boot everyone back to the overworld. I feel the frustration of Tera Raid farming is the main reason people have been turned off competitive battling in this gen, so a patch to fix these issues would breathe a lot more life into the scene.
Re: Review: Tales of Symphonia Remastered - A GameCube Classic That Shows Its Age On Switch
I grew up with Tales of Symphonia and have a ton of nostalgia for it, so I’m a bit disappointed this remaster isn’t up to par on the technical front. While I disagree with some of the opinions of this review (I love the art style and the 2D Tales combat!) I still respect it for being a solid take. I’ll probably wait until the game goes on sale, as all Namco games do eventually.
Re: Talking Point: Who Did You Marry In Fire Emblem: Awakening?
I picked the most basic option imaginable and married Chrom… Only because I was playing female Robin, and the game wouldn’t let me marry Maribelle.
I mean it worked out, because Robin/Chrom S-rank pair up is like an automatic win button, but I just wanted to be a lesbian damn it
Re: Poll: Do You Want Weapon Degradation To Return In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
Hot take: I loved the weapon durability system. It changes the flow of combat and forces you to experiment with different play styles. I normally hate using slow, heavy weapons in games, but the game forcing me to use claymores made me appreciate them way more (especially during the dreaded Lynel fights!)
I find it weird that this is so controversial tbh. Breakable equipment isn’t new to Zelda, even if it wasn’t as prominent before BotW. Ocarina had Deku Sticks and the Giant’s Knife. Majora had the Razor Sword. Every shield in Skyward Sword can break, except for the Hylian Shield. Sure, these were temporary items you had while on your way to getting stuff that didn’t break, but the concept is the same.
Re: Talking Point: What Is The Most Frustrated You've Ever Been With A Video Game?
Most of my picks have been discussed already, but the one that immediately came to mind for me was the Yunalesca boss fight from Final Fantasy X.
Without spoiling too much, this story boss appears about 3/4 of the way through the game, and took me more retries than the final boss. It starts by infecting your party with Zombie, making healing spells hurt you, and then sends a barrage of healing spells your way. Your first instinct would be to heal your status, but nope: Yunalesca will usually follow up with Mega Death (hm), which insta-kills anyone NOT zombiefied. It’s a battle of attrition, where you have to slowly chip away at the boss, heal only when you’re just about to die anyway, and hope to RNGesus that the boss doesn’t spam its most annoying attacks. In true JRPG fashion there are abilities you can use to cheese the fight, but unlocking them is a tedious grind and you wouldn’t think to go that far on your first playthrough. The worst part was, that I played on the original PS2 version, and I had to watch an hour long unskippable cutscene before each attempt!
Most of FFX is very easy, but the Yunalesca fight is an enormous difficulty spike that can ruin the entire game. I eventually beat it, but by then I was just relieved I never had to do that nonsense again.
Re: Talking Point: With BOTW2 Slipping, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Launching Early Is Fantastic News
I’m so hype for this. Xenoblade is the most underrated JRPG series in my opinion. Both 1 and 2 are in my top 5 games of all time. Now the third one will combine the worlds of both games into one, and you can fight with 7 party members at once, and it’s going to have an epic story, AND it has mechs?! Instant GOTY for me
Re: New Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Trailer Highlights New Protagonist 'Shez'
I don’t even like Warriors games and I’m hype for this. They made Claude and Hilda even cuter?! Wtf, no fair IS
Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers
Okay, I know Chrono Cross is an older game, but why do so many people say turn based combat is antiquated? Persona, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, and heck, Pokemon all have turn based combat, and they’re all quite popular. Do these reviewers just not like having to strategize and plan ahead?
Re: Talking Point: 3DS Is 11 Years Old, And Our Eyes Still Feel Strange
Never used the 3D slider much but the 3DS’ library was great. They had definitive remakes of older games (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64), and brought back franchises that hadn’t had a new game in forever (Kid Icarus, Luigi’s Mansion). Heck, the Fire Emblem games alone were worth the price of admission for me. I hope Nintendo ports some of the better 3DS games onto Switch, even if they have to change things a bit to compensate for the lack of dual screens. But it’s too good of a system to be left behind and forgotten.
Re: Feature: Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Is The Best Mario Kart, Right? Let's Find Out
Double Dash is the best because of one particular element that both Nintendo and the writers of this article seem to have forgotten about: Birdo. (Seriously, what’s up with the Birdo erasure Nintendo?)
Re: Feature: 7 Reasons For Picking Starter Pokémon, But How Do You Pick Yours?
I love the 80’s song titles on this list. This is what makes Nintendolife so fun to read: all the neat little personal touches you don’t see on other gaming news sites.
I love rooting for the underdog, so I usually go with grass types for my team haha. That being said, I sometimes swap out my starters after a certain point in the game. I like having a lot of variety in my team, and it’s more fun to me to experiment with different mons than using the same ones for the entire adventure.
Re: Netflix's 'The Cuphead Show' Gets A Refill For A Second Season
Never played the game personally, but the show is a riot. The characters are incredibly charming, and they nailed the spirit of those classic 1930’s/1940’s cartoons. I kinda hope this starts a trend in animation and we can see more retro-styled series like this in the future.
Re: Feature: 16 Tracks That Need To Be In The Mario Kart 8 DLC
I like the strong representation of Double Dash and MK7 tracks. Those games get overlooked too much in the fandom!
Aside from the ones already mentioned, I’d love to see Sherbet Land (N64), Peach Beach (GCN) and Moonview Highway (Wii) rendered in HD. But if I had to pick one, it has to be Dino Jungle. It’s objectively the best Mario Kart track because, dinosaurs. haha
Re: It's Official, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is Launching On Nintendo Switch This September
Not gonna lie, I’m more excited for this than any other game this year!
Re: Poll: Do You Have An Issue With Xenoblade Chronicles' Accents?
American here, but I love the British cast in Xenoblade. I’m a big Doctor Who fan so I love Jenna Coleman’s performance as Melia in the first game. And I love how Xenoblade 2 uses regional accents to show the differences between cultures in the game’s world (Gormotti is Welsh, Ardanians are Scottish, etc.) These touches add a lot of charm to the game’s story and presentation. I wish more games and anime had localizations like Xenoblade; having everyone be American all the time is boring!