Frenean

@NF6429

1.) Spirits is a buffed up event mode that you can absolutely approach like a buffed up event mode if you want. You can do one event at a time just like you could before. Don't really understand your point here.

2.) I'm fairly certain we're still going to get full Amiibo customization like in the last game, and all of the extra modes (like Home Run) are still going to be there. I don't think it was worth dedicating time to in the Directs because we've had these modes in every Smash game since their debut.

3.) Online is a definite improvement over the last game, I don't know what you were watching. We now have GSP, we can go into matchmaking with our own preferred settings, and the For Glory mode has turned into something even more competitive. You have to unlock it and that's where you'll be doing your ranked matches. We have factually more options and modes in online than ever before.

@FNL

They had to have that crazy left field character. Piranha Plant is the next in line after R.O.B, Game and Watch, and Wii Fit Trainer. His intro was funny and his moveset looks like a lot of fun.

I'm going to make a lot of people angry here, but I personally don't think we need Isaac. It's cool to see him as an assist trophy, and I love Golden Sun, but the last thing Smash needs is yet another sword wielding anime guy. We already have over representation with Fire Emblem and as much as I love the series, I think having too many of them has always been the weak link in the roster. Geno or Banjo though? Please please PLEASE be DLC.

@LordGeovanni

There are plenty of JRPGS that do difficulty better. Persona 5 has difficulty settings. Pokemon should have had a system like this from the beginning. I don't play Pokemon for complexity or difficulty because Pokemon has always been baby's first RPG. I play Pokemon to collect Pokemon, evolve them, and journey through a world with them with mostly good enough stories and great music/art design. The biggest draw to Pokemon, at least from the developer side, is catching them all. It's in the tagline. It's usually the ultimate challenge in the game. I actually like all of the traditional things in Pokemon, and I'll admit that they have streamlined the games but I wouldn't say they made them easier. They just took out a lot of the fluff. The enemy AI in Pokemon has always been as dumb as a bag of bricks and I'd say they need to work on that more than anything.

@LordGeovanni

Catch a Mankey - Brock beaten.
Fighting type moves on a decently leveled Pokemon - Miltank beaten.

I'm not going to comment on the shiny thing aside from saying that a 3/8192 chance to catch a Pokemon with a different skin color is ridiculous and why I never hunted for shiny Pokemon.

Talking about poor Pokemon design choices is rich when generation 1 had three different goo Pokemon with faces, a Pokeball Pokemon, magnets that evolve into more magnets, and a blocky rocking horse. Let's not let nostalgia blind us here, Pokemon Blue was my first Pokemon game and G/S/C is my favorite but there are a few bad designs in every generation.

Dedication is fine, but being dedicated to spending hours doing the same thing over and over does not make the game anymore complex than it is now, in fact some people might just see it as a waste of their time because the content isn't really engaging. One shotting the same Pokemon over and over again with a super effective move to level up, only stopping to go to the Pokecenter to refresh PP and resume this tired process is not engaging and you aren't somehow more skilled because you raised your Pokemon's numbers.

I really hope Let's Go is the last traditional Pokemon game and they change it up drastically like BotW.

@eSocrates

It's a bit of both, we're getting a more traditional, hardcore (if you can call it that) Pokemon game next year and this is its own thing.

@LordGeovanni

The JRPGs I've beaten were worth my time. Outside of Pokemon, the latest one I played and finished was Persona 5 and it was glorious. I love Pokemon, I've been playing and enjoying every single generation since the beginning. I even enjoy breeding, but this idea that grinding somehow adds depth to Pokemon is crazy to me. The games have always been easy. I won't argue with you that spending a large amount of time grinding and hoping RNG is in your side takes patience, but that's all it takes. Literally the only difference is that before you had to tell yourself that sinking hours into a mindless grind was going to be worth it. I'll agree that you feel better about your "accomplishment" once you finally get to where you want after hours of grinding, but I don't necessarily think that's a good thing. You were forced to spend so much time and for what, knowing that you spent hours doing the same thing over and over with no challenge?

You know what made me feel satisfied after a couple of hours of trying? Defeating Ornstein and Smough for the first time in Dark Souls solo. Yeah I was fighting them over and over again, but it was a challenge the entire time. I had to think about what I was doing and had to stay focused and concentrate. When I breed battle ready Pokemon? I'm just lying in bed barely paying attention while I bike up and down a set path while watching Netflix. One of these scenarios was an actual challenge, the other was padding.

@Ryu_Niiyama

Yeah, I'd definitely be interested in seeing what he does outside of Pokemon now.

@LordGeovanni

Again, grinding isn't complex or difficult. Just because you value the idea of spending your time doing the same thing over and over doesn't mean you're being challenged. The only thing being challenged is your patience. I'm sorry, but this idea that a game has to be 40 or more hours long to get your money's worth makes no sense to me. If you aren't really progressing through content, what's the point? If they incorporated a cool way to get the natures from Pokemon that you wanted that'd be one thing, but repeatedly catching the same Pokemon and hoping RNG is in your favor and you get the nature/etc. you want, or one-two shotting the same couple of Pokemon in an area to level up your Pokemon for hours, only to have to switch your lead Pokemon out and do the same thing over again isn't what I call engaging or fun. It's mindless busywork and it's why, outside of Pokemon, I've only beaten maybe 6 or 7 JRPGs in my life. It isn't difficult. It isn't stimulating.

I'll take a 20 hour game that keeps the gameplay/story fresh and exciting over a 40+ hour game where I spent over twice the amount of time it took to get through the campaign mindlessly grinding just so that I could hit some arbitrary numbers and artificially pad out the game.

@LordGeovanni

Grinding doesn't add complexity to a game, it's nothing but padding to artificially lengthen the time you spend in a game. I can agree that he seems to be losing his touch, but he's already stated that 2019's game will give hardcore fans what they want. Let's Go still looks fun.

@MsJubilee

Yeesh lmao, that's all I have to say

@MsJubilee

OR the games will stray further from their roots and become even more simplified like Pokemon GO. I like how the guy has directed so many Pokemon games but because of one spin off, you think he's suddenly bad at what he does.

Also, go ahead and assume the Let's Go games are bad before you even play them. I and many other longtime Pokemon fans are still excited for this.

@OctoInk20

I've gotta disagree, Piranha Plant totally came out of left field and I love it. Even if I agreed with your opinion, I sure don't agree with yo attitude guuuuuuuurl

@NEStalgia

That's true, Mortal Kombat and Injustice had pretty cool story modes too. Idk, when I buy a fighting game it's mostly just for the fighting so it's nice to get something meaty like this aha

@NEStalgia

Yeah, that's what it seemed like. It looks like you traverse the map, get into battles with all of these crazy modifiers and use your spirits, level them up, unlock new ones, learn skills, etc. There looks to be puzzles on the world map and different things going on in each section, and you can see the big bosses like Rathalos flying around. Oh, and cutscenes. It's looking excellent, and far more than I'd expect a fighting game to have for a singleplayer mode.

@MrJuancho

My Switch library is a mixture of physical and digital games. I'm going digital with Smash since this is going to be one of my most played Switch games alongside Pokemon and Animal Crossing, and I'm always going to want easy access to Smash for online and local multiplayer. It's up to you though, games always look nice on your shelf.

I'm enjoying it so far, though I've only just started season 2. This is by far the best thing Konami has produced in a while.

@Piritiup

The evidence is already there to disprove your theory, so I don't think a debate will change your mind.

GOTY GOTY GOTY

@retro_player_22

Maybe the leak simply wasn't true? There's no reason for him to axe a playable character. None. Not because of a leak.

@retro_player_22

You're joking, right? I don't mean to insult you, but that's honestly one of the dumbest comments I've ever read on this site. Do you think Sakurai is so petty that he'd take a playable character out of the game, when fighting game characters are hard to develop and probably take a while, especially when the roster is so big and they have to balance it that much, just because some basement-dwelling neckbeard fabricated a leak on the internet? You insult the man.

It looks like it'll be like Miiverse, and that's pretty cool. I don't know how much use I'll get out of it, but it's neat for the people who care.

@Bunkerneath

Yeah that's a good question, hopefully they let us know soon

@BensonUii

You probably will get him with the Fighter Pass, but I don't think he counts as the 5 upcoming DLC characters.

@Bunkerneath

I'm not sure. It's free right now but if you don't pre-order within the time limit they'll probably sell him for like $3

Piranha Plant was a big surprise, and something these fake leaks couldn't ruin for me. I'm delighted.

The Spirits Mode looked disappointing initially, but that beautiful hand-drawn world map, the cutscenes, and the big bosses more than made up for it. Is it Subspace Emissary? No, but it's the best single player content we've had since and I can't wait. As for the Grinch leaked, I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get Banjo, but ultimately happy that I was genuinely surprised with this Direct. The DLC characters will give me something to look forward to months after release.

@Bizzyb stickers we can actually use in-game! I dunno, I think that helps make up for it aha

@roboshort

Well they're getting my favorite one now, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

@Devlind

I love Pokemon, I'm going to love this game, and I love you and everyone here!

Going physical for this, so it won't be an issue regardless. Pokemon Let's Go is bigger than Dark Souls and I'm assuming they're using the 8 GB cards for it, so Bamco really doesn't have an excuse for the audio issues in Dark Souls besides wanting to cheap out.

@3rdParty

Yeah I mean, the only PS4 exclusive games I've really loved were Transistor, Bloodborne, and Persona 5. Transistor is now multi plat though, and I don't ever see myself replaying Persona because of how lengthy it was and all of the dialogue. Bloodborne? Easily one of my top five favorite games ever, and I can see myself coming back to it repeatedly like Link to the Past, Castlevania, and Mario Galaxy 2.

@LegendOfStewart

Golf Story is excellent. Rarely do I put a game on such a high pedestal for its humour alone, but the writing really is that good.

@DTfeartheBEARD

I have to agree. Yooka is a really underrated game but $50 is too high a price for me right now when my money is going towards Pokemon, Smash, Civilization, and holiday shopping.

@3rdParty

Let's not forget that Nintendo first party games are the biggest first party games in the industry. Nintendo games are the only games that can stay $60 years after release and still sell well. I agree with all of your points, but let's try not to be so passive aggressive towards NES, he's cool people. 😎

I have 65 Switch games, and I have enjoyed and enjoy them all. I still have like 20 more games on my wishlist that are out right now that I want to get (Shantae, Wonder Boy, Hyper Light Drifter etc.). The Switch has games. If people bought one to play this year's Call of Duty, I don't think they did their research.

This is looking better and better. I would never have thought Civilization would work well on a console, but this looks promising. Civ is one of my favorite PC franchises and I can't wait to play it on the go.

@NEStalgia

Man you're one of my favorite people on N Life, but I can't for the life of me see why you think indie games are automatically inferior to AAA games. I just can't. Having a bigger budget and an established publisher to back you does NOT make a better game. Oftentimes the more money a publisher spends on a game, the more soulless and safe it has to be because they can't risk losing the investment. If the game diverges too much from the usual crap and drones don't go out and buy it to make them half a billion dollars in the first week, it's deemed a failure and I've seen a lot of cool developers get their studios shut down for trying to be too ambitious.

I've spent over 60 hours in Hollow Knight and nearly 100 on Stardew Valley. These are $15 games that a real small team put their love into. Not because they had a rich publisher, not because they had to pump another game out year after year, but because they were passionate and these were the games they wanted to make. They're indie darlings and big successes because you can feel the love while playing them. I rarely ever feel the love while playing a AAA game these days. Kind of hard to when they're slapping you with micro transaction advertisements and have product placements for Doritos everywhere you look.

I've played a lot of games in my 25 years, and have been gaming since I was 5. I've come to a point in my gaming life where indies are actually my favorite games to play, at least the good ones. AAA games are a side dish to me, and I'm very picky on which ones I'll play. Of course there's Nintendo games which haven't YET gotten as bad as Ubisoft or EA, and I'll probably play through Red Dead Redemption 2.

As for the eShop, it's suffering from the same flood of games that Steam and the PSN Store has. Tons of great games getting buried by some not so up to snuff stuff.

@BensonUii

Right, and the thing is that I haven't seen him actually attack or insult anyone specifically, but plenty of people go after him. They won't ignore him because they WANT to make fun of him, and they're childish for it.

@Paddle1 @MongolRaider

Here's the thing, I agree with you guys that it's kind of pointless to just hate on the game and say it sucks. It's a really well made game for the genre, and it's free. That's great and I respect Epic for making a monetization system that's as good as it is for a free to play game.

However, some people here haven't downloaded the game because they're not into the kind of game that it is. People don't have to be. For instance I grew out of multiplayer shooters a long time ago. I still downloaded the game even though I knew I wasn't going to play it much, and I didn't. It isn't because the game is bad, I'm just not into that type of game.

Also, Switch owners aren't the only people who needlessly badmouth the game because they don't like the genre. I've seen PLENTY of PlayStation owners do the same thing. I agree that people shouldn't dislike it because it's popular, but you shouldn't assume that people who don't like it don't like it to try and be cool or hip or something.

@roadrunner343

Ignore him. That's all that needs to be done. Either that, or have some kind of discussion to try and turn his opinion around. I don't care what the guy says, if you are just going to poke fun at him, you're just as bad in my opinion. I'll take him off my ignore list and try and talk to him.

@roadrunner343

If I struggled to deal with other people's opinions, I'd resort to calling them unhinged instead of actually coming up with a decent counter argument to said opinion. Why you can't see where these guys went wrong isn't really my problem. If you aren't going to bother engaging someone in a polite debate, especially if their frequent comments on the same subject are disagreeable, you might as well put them on your ignore list because you aren't adding anything to the discussion.

Also, again I put the guy on my ignore list a while ago because he posts the same stuff over and over again. It was that easy. I didn't feel like arguing with him about his opinion, so I simply ignored him. That's a much better alternative than looking just as bad and petty by making fun of him.

@WinterIceFox

And not playing mainstream games doesn't mean we're trying to be cool or elitist. I don't hate Fortnite or anything, I just grew bored of it pretty quickly.

@roadrunner343

Calling him unhinged isn't exactly challenging his opinion, but go ahead and keep ignoring that little comment to fit your narrative. There is nothing intelligent or constructive in insulting and mocking the person you disagree with.

@roadrunner343

He isn't targeting anyone though, you just disagree with him. I just ignore him, why can't you? I see people calling him unhinged and other names all the time, and that's even more sad than his over the top opinions. It's funny that you think I'm defending him as if I agree with him or like him or anything. He's on my ignore list so I don't even see what he posts anymore, but I see plenty of people tagging him and mocking him.

I have well over 60 games on my Switch, from puzzle games to first person shooters, to JRPGs, platformers, and action adventure games. I don't regret a single purchase. If you aren't into indie games, not only do I question why you own a Nintendo console, but I question why you even play games nowadays. AAA games are getting so soulless and money hungry that making 500 MILLION dollars in three days with Call of Duty Black Ops 4 was enough for shareholders to call it a disappointment.

@Stocksy @1UP_MARIO

If you guys are just going to bully Anti Matter all the time, you're better off putting him on your ignore list and moving on. You guys aren't funny and just look sad at this point.

@Supadav03

Haha, there's definitely a gap in quality film directing between the two!

This and Bloodborne are my favorite PS4 games, I'm really glad to see Transistor go multiplatform because I really can't recommend it enough. Gorgeous, beautiful soundtrack, an interesting story and characters and a cool combat system. It's a 10/10 for me.

@Bunkerneath

Sh-shut your mouth! 😆

@clvr

Couldn't agree more! Watch out though, someone's going to call us a couple of hipsters lol

I've already played the tar out of this on PC, but I'll probably bite when it goes on sale. To newcomers, you're in for a treat! Diablo 3 is the most polished, well-made co-op loot focused action RPG I've ever played.

@clvr

I don't know, there are still great jazz musicians that I follow to this day, and there are still quality movies/etc. being made. Just as it was before, you really have to pick the stuff out. For every great Wes Anderson film, there are ten samey superhero movies. There are definitely things that I think have gotten worse with time (Cartoon Network), but I was mostly just complaining about memes. I don't want to be one of those old guys who complains about everything modern haha

@Dang69

Same, I made it all the way to the Artorias of the Abyss and am taking a few days off from it.