EvilLucario

Lmao, this will be my third Pro Controller.

@DavidMac Yes and no. The outfits are even more ridiculous than 2's and there's arguably way more fanservice in X. It's mostly optional, but it's still a big reward from doing sidequests.

@Pod No. We have nothing from Xenogears, and that's because Square Enix are a bunch of weird idiots that have no idea how to handle their old IP.

That said, one of Zeke's costumes in Challenge Mode references Bart's clothes in Xenogears, and as with every Xeno game (Xenosaga and Xenoblade 1 and X) most story elements are ripped straight from Xenogears.

Too much games to play, so I have to pass sadly.

Meanwhile 10 years later, I'm still wondering why they put what amounted to advertisement for Metal Gear Solid 4 in Smash Brawl.

@westman98 Oh, damn, I'm sorry. I completely missed that. Then I don't remember on that note.

@westman98 No, Octopath sold more than Xenoblade 2. Xenoblade 2 sold 97k while Octopath definitely sold more than 100k, and both released on Fridays.

Which annoys me because Octopath has been uplifted in popularity primarily due to its visuals and it launching at the right place and time. It's still a great game, but it's pretty standard as far as JRPGs go that doesn't do much to differentiate itself.

He's not wrong. Working on an MMO is soul-draining.

And let's face it, MMOs are just skinner box games designed to pour thousands of hours into. Not my style anymore.

I have never heard of this series before ever. Might take a look though.

Yeah, don't have much to dispute here. At the same time though, some things become trends because they're good. So you have to do a balancing act between the two if you want to look elsewhere for inspiration.

I don't have much interest in multiplayer games anymore since I have way too many to juggle at once. Hopefully this game gets good post-launch support though.

I really hope this game's development is going well. I would hate for this game to suck.

I hear Prison Architect is really good.

@edgedino Just in general. Reddit as a whole is filled with ultra-pessimistic, narrow-minded, and dumb people that generally don't think about the bigger picture and always complain and complain. They rail against everything and slap the "anti-consumer" buzzword on everything, and demand way more for less.

@Rafke With the power of flex tape!

But Reddit told me that the Switch FINALLY has no games! They told me that Nintendo is doomed and can't even hope to break 15 million!!!!

@boop22 I mean, mouse + keyboard is the best, but gyro aiming is still really solid and would be a very nice way of playing Overwatch on a console/handheld. I'd prefer that over PS4/Xbox, even if the Switch version was 30fps.

Eh, doesn't bother me. But Godmaster sounds a bit snappier than Gods & Glory. Just a tad though, it's no biggie.

Not sure if it'll top Xenoblade X as the best mech game, but I can't wait to see more.

@LegendOfPokemon Then check out Treehouse gameplay of it. There's way more to the game than what the trailer showed.

Probably going to double-dip on both PC and Switch.

@DavidMac Bad news for you then, because Takahashi wants to make a game that's quote-on-quote "erotic and violent". Trust me, they're going to go further from here on with certain games.

Xenogears already lives on in Xenoblade anyway, pretty much every idea Xenoblade/Xenosaga uses comes from there. Jin = Krelian, Poppi = Emeralda, World Tree = Eldridge, etc.

If you're at a point where you're going to not recommend a game simply because of character designs, I'm going to say that's dumb.

@BensonUii It does.

Now that I have an actual job, I can afford to double dip for the physical version even though I have the DLC already lel.

I think this expansion will be suitably meaty though. At the very least if people are scared off at how big Xenoblade can be, they can start with this first.

@Blizzia Because there are no available buttons for anything. L is for controlling the camera, R is for switching targets, running away, and activating Coffee with Milk. ZL/ZR is used for combos. So they went with the autoattack system they've been using for the past two games.

Coffee with Milk sucks postgame compared to the crap you can pull off with other characters. With Morag and Brighid, I've built an unstoppable evasion tank by controlling her with two common Blades (in different elements as well) with Pentagon Chips, so I stacked Agility up to mad levels so I'm literally untouchable while I draw everyone's aggro.

Nia has the highest Ether stat of the five party members, so you can slap her with Ether Cannons and watch her do some pretty good damage, and as an AI healer you're going to be fine at all times.

Zeke hits like a truck with Greataxes and Ether Cannons with stupid high DPS there. Pretty straightforward.

Tora and Poppi literally speak for themselves as the best party members in the game.

Rex has Mythra who is incredibly fast with building up Specials using Lightspeed Flurry, and the Chapter 7 Blade to really make everyone immortal and literally AFK a few superbosses if you build them right.

In contrast, Coffee with Milk has no passive effects on their Specials and barely any skills compared to Mythra, you can't buff their damage at all, and they only last for a short amount of time. You get party-wide crits, you hold permanent aggro, you have all the Blade Arts, you can do Chain Attacks a bit easier... and that's it. My Chain Attacks will be doing just fine without Coffee with Milk.

What I'm saying is that Coffee with Milk is fine, but there are generally much better options elsewhere.

Hope Sega will be fine. I admittedly don't know their current status so I don't know if they're doing fine or not, but I hope I would get to know them better than the guys that publish Sonic and Yakuza... and that's it.

Iconoclasts came out of nowhere lol. I literally just added it on my Steam wishlist two weeks ago, but it coming out on Switch is gonna make me buy it on Switch compared to my PC.

Sony already does this, although Microsoft doesn't. Paying to play F2P games doesn't sound fine though (even if paying for online period is absolutely bullocks).

@Blizzia That description of the combat is pretty misguided.

1) The reason why they lock you out of autoattacks while moving was to put more stock on the autoattack cancel system, where autoattack combos then using Arts boosted the power. Positioning then becomes pre-planned, then you plant your feet and attack. It becomes less "use this Art immediately" to "time the Art better to get more damage". Moving while autoattacking does not flow well with that. I prefer that than Xenoblade 1 mindless Slit Edge -> Shadow Eye -> Back Slash -> Monado Buster over and over and over again, which Xenoblade 2 punishes by doing the same Blade Combo multiple times completely pointless, so you have to mix up your attacks much more.

2) Postgame is literally whatever you want it to be. Rex actually falls off hard postgame where Coffee with Milk is much less powerful compared to even Mythra, and you can play without a healer. In fact, I created a team of controlling Morag with Zeke and Tora as my party members, and I could beat every Challenge Mode boss easily.

@gaby_gabito Docked is fine, looks really good. Handheld DOES suffer a lot with low resolution, but the art direction more than makes up for it. To me it still looks better than Octopath or Ys VIII due to the scale of everything and the quality of the art itself, even if it's not as clear.

In terms of framerate it can sometimes tank in both docked or handheld. It's more stable than Xenoblade 1's framerate, but not as much as Xenoblade X's.

Heck yeah dude. This will probably be the best DLC Nintendo will ever release, above Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 2, I absolutely cannot wait. The fact that it's getting a standalone box like New Super Luigi U did is also really sweet.

Hey, if you enjoy this stuff, knock yourself out.

Duh. The last games that released outside of holidays were Black/White and Black/White 2, in the west and Japan respectively. From X/Y onwards, they've all been released simultaneously in holidays.

@Denoloco I see. Though, Xenoblade isn't turn-based, it's action with broad turn-based gameplay feelings, but it's still an action game. It's not quite as freeform as something like Ys VIII which is completely real-time with active dodging/blocking, but Xenoblade is not a turn-based RPG. Look into that if that interests you.

@Denoloco Nintendo just published Octopath (at least outside of Japan) so that counts I guess. But there's Super Mario Party in October, which you know is going to sell. If Mario Party 10 can sell, so can Super Mario Party.

And in September there's Xenoblade 2: Torna, the Golden Country expansion that's standalone and can be bought on its own for $40. You don't need the base game for the expansion, so if you weren't sold on the main game you might be on the expansion depending on what interests you.

August is the only deadzone, but there's still substantial stuff to play until Pokemon. Especially third-parties right about now with Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate and the like.

Wonder why people say E3 2018 sucked and then turn around and say E3 2016 was great when that literally only had Zelda. E3 2018 had more games revealed than E3 2016 lmao.

Who cares even, Nintendo will be fine. They're really good at defying expectations, for better or worse.

@CCore28 I'm very willing to bet that the casual consumer doesn't care much. It's really only people without Wii Us (like most of us here) that have a bit of a drought. If you didn't have a Wii U, all the ports to the system are effectively new games with some minor enhancements.

And even then, when you have a big enough game collection, just go back and replay a game in your collection.

I guess you could say the situation has Switched around.

Idk dude. Does the general casual gaming audience care about the admittedly pretty slow first-half of the year if you already had a Wii U? It feels like people didn't care about Nintendo during the Wii U era, so they see some games being on the system and just buy it because hey, new games to play. There's still at least one game to play per month, they're just not system sellers.

Time will tell how the Switch will fare this second year, but I'm still feeling optimistic.

Nice. Seems like a good list of games. Hopefully you guys all enjoy it while us Americans are probably gonna get a different and/or later one.

I wonder how they're going to bolster their subscription service, if at all.

@Jayenkai No doubt, Christian's proof of concept for CD on mobile did turn heads. But after that, Christian and team got to where they are now mostly due to merit, not just from being massive Sonic fans.

But yes, it is unprecedented for fans to essentially helm a mainline game for a series. But that's going to be commonplace eventually as original creators retire and new blood is introduced to keep the spirit alive. And besides, Sonic hasn't had the best track record since Generations, so making fans work on one game for such a mishandled franchise isn't anything too crazy compared to the stuff they tried with Sonic.

It's a damn great game and it deserves the accolades, but people tend to overhype the 'fan made project' thing. Christian Whitehead in particular worked on Sega projects in the past before Mania with CD, 1, and 2 remasters that perfected the games while adding his own spin on things like Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic 2. These guys aren't random fans, these are guys that worked with Sega in the past before so they had some relevancy to them.

"Turn-based games don't sell"

> Bravely Default and Octopath selling well

"No, turn-based games REALLY don't sell"

Nonsense. When can the industry finally stop trying to force the death of classic turn-based RPGs? I guess the same day the industry stops the narrative of "single-player games are dead".

Good on Octopath though, we need more and more third-party success stories like with Mario + Rabbids and Octopath.

Ehhhh... maybe? Hey, it could work if given the proper translation from game to film.

I'd personally see something for Metroid first though. I think out of anything Nintendo has, Metroid is by far the best candidate for the best possible quality possible.

@LuckyLand Hmph, I personally hated the card system and controls of Circle of the Moon. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin may feel a bit stale and bland, but what Circle of the Moon did actively annoyed me.

Anyway, I recommend you at least play Order of Ecclesia, it's my favorite Castlevania. It's harder than both of the other DS games and Aria of Sorrow/Symphony of the Night, so combat is a lot more fun as a result. The world is more linear, but it still works pretty well for exploration, and the OST is fantastic.

Honestly though, in terms of favorite Castlevanias I go Order of Ecclesia > Symphony of the Night > Rondo of Blood > Super Castlevania IV > Aria of Sorrow.

@LuckyLand Wait what, the DS Castlevanias are fantastic. Certainly beats Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance on GBA which are bad/average respectively. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin may be worse than Aria of Sorrow (which was indeed a fantastic game), but Order of Ecclesia is phenomenal, rivaling the classic greats like Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood.

I'm a bit conflicted here. On one hand, a new game is almost always more preferable. New items, new tracks, new gameplay mechanic that can't be introduced to Mario Kart 8 as DLC (like how gliders and underwater sections were core aspects to Mario Kart 7).

On the other hand, I can't think of what a new game can offer that can't be done with paid DLC to Mario Kart 8. We already have antigravity, underwater, and gliding sections. What next aside from that?

So really my answer can go two ways: if a Mario Kart 9 wants to introduce something new to mix up the formula, then go for it. If it's just another refinement of Mario Kart 8, then I'll prefer DLC.

That's good. I did still win my fair share of games against Bowser Jr., but he is a monster lol.

Rosalina is the best though. She's the best character of the Mario universe (not gameplay-wise in Aces before anyone gets the wrong idea).

Nintendo's always good about keeping file sizes low. Their biggest game in terms of sheer size was Xenoblade Chronicles X at ~23 GB, which was compressed down to a more manageable 13 GB for Xenoblade 2.

BotW is also less than 16 GB and that's yet another huge as hell game.

DKC Tropical Freeze went from 11.4 GB to 6.6 GB AND sports faster load times on the Switch.

ARMS and Mario Tennis Aces are also like 2 GB each, which is hilarious if you think about it.

Nintendo and small file sizes go hand-and-hand even more than Nintendo and "gimmicks".

I'm still so conflicted whether if I should get Ultimate physical because of cheaper prices with Amazon Prime and for the beautiful box art, or if I should get it digital because I'd want to have it on me at all times (which I love a ton). Storage isn't an issue for me.