Comments 653

Re: Review: WrestleQuest - A Wholesome RPG That Struggles In The Ring

JakedaArbok

I picked this up myself, and the review is pretty accurate. The story’s alright, the cameos from wrestling personalities are good, but you kind of have to know a lot about wrestling going in to appreciate that aspect. If you’re a wrestling fan or the concept sounds interesting, it probably shoots up to a 7 or 8, but otherwise, it’s a bit too finicky for its own good.

Wrestling Empire remains the best wrestling game on Switch.

Re: Pokémon World Championships Disqualifies Scarlet And Violet Pros Using Hacked Monsters

JakedaArbok

Pokémon battling should ideally be about skill and strategy. Imagine a game of chess where if you did 100 pushups before every game, your pawns could move two spaces all the time. It wouldn't kill them to let you adjust your mon's move pool and EV's (? I don't even know anymore) when you start competitive play. It essentially barriers entry to those who are willing to spend hundreds of hours grinding, which, if you consider time an equal to money, makes it no different than a mobile game tournament.
Edit: The visceral response to me saying, "maybe grinding in order to compete in a game that doesn't at all improve your skills at it is kinda dumb" is pretty crazy. Gonna make a mental note to leave this hornet's nest alone in the future.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC Is A Chance To Win Back Disenchanted Fans

JakedaArbok

I'm on the exact opposite boat as a lot of people in the comments on this one. The base game was so fun once I got past the technical stuff that it sold me on the DLC itself, and I hardly ever buy DLC for a game unless I'm extremely sold. The amount of agency the game gives you to just explore and do what you want, while still being quickly and easily able to do story content (my pet peeve with a lot of open-world games, honestly), the difficulty being pretty good if you take the challenges in the right order, and the story content genuinely being fun and even emotional at points has me feeling far more optimistic for the future of the series than Sword/Shield or even Legends Arceus did (while I liked it, it just didn't feel like Pokémon to me). Sign me up for the DLC. If the technical issues are too big a hurdle for you to climb, I understand you, but don't act like they make the games unplayable and everyone that likes it is a shill.

Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Pikmin 4

JakedaArbok

I’m pretty excited for the game to come out. Pikmin hasn’t been a series that’s necessarily hooked me so far, but I’m excited to give it another shot. I had a great time with the demo, and I hope that fun will carry over into the main game. I am kind of worried this game won’t sell particularly well, though. Nintendo’s done basically nothing to advertise this game, and it’s always been a pretty niche franchise, but I hope I’m wrong.

Re: Review: Everybody 1-2-Switch! - Family-Friendly Fun That Lacks Longevity

JakedaArbok

I bought this game expecting shovelware, but for 30 bucks, it’s a solid time, and the phone compatibility is quite solid. I’ve played for a few hours and haven’t gotten tired of it yet, and I think it would be good to bust out at parties.
Not a masterpiece, but you could do a lot worse than this if you have a bunch of people over for a party.

Re: Poll: What's Your Game Of The Year Of 2023 So Far?

JakedaArbok

TOTK for now, a big improvement to me on Breath of the Wild, but I don’t know if it’ll make it through the rest of the year unscathed, as I much prefer 2D platformers to open-world games, and Mario Wonder looks quite magnificent, and the Pikmin 4 demo has convinced me to pick that game up too. FE: Engage was alright enough for my first ever Fire Emblem game in the series, it’s not a masterpiece in the genre, but it’s a solid time-waster. I also really liked the Metroid Prime remaster, even though I haven’t gotten too far into it.

Re: Sonic Superstars Sees The Return Of Classic-Style Sonic With New Visuals

JakedaArbok

I don’t know how many good games it’s going to take for me to get out of my cautiously-optimistic shell whenever a new Sonic game comes out, but considering the frankly abysmal 2D controls in Forces and even the few sections in Frontiers, even if it was a little better, it’s all going to hinge on that, but I really hope it’s good because co-op Sonic that works sounds awesome.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

JakedaArbok

I have the exact opposite opinion. Breath of
the Wild just never hooked me because the simple gameplay of climbing, walking, and fighting scattered camps just never really did it for me. When something big happened, it was fun, but it was few and far between. TOTK, on the other hand, has enough big activities that the little ones, which are great, can be supplemented by something actually happening, so for me, it’s just the right balance. However, I respect other people’s opinions if this ruins or dampers TOTK for them, although many did not respect the people who said that the lack of things to do in BOTW hurts that game.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (June 3rd)

JakedaArbok

More TOTK. This might just become one of my favorite games ever, and I never really cared for BOTW all that much, I don’t know what’s different.
Elsewhere, I started a playthrough of New Super Mario Bros. Wii with my brother, and he enjoys it. It’s always a treat to play childhood games with him. We’re also playing Lego Star Wars:The Complete Saga and Yoshi’s Crafted World.

Re: Switch Android Emulator Skyline Halts Development Due To "Potential Legal Risks"

JakedaArbok

I can’t understand how people defend this. I can understand emulation of older software, particularly games Nintendo does not see a dime on. But outright modding a Switch and providing a way to do so to the public is very close to outright piracy, and once you let them in, they will not leave. Nintendo is within their legal right to enforce their IP law, and if you disagree with that, you need to get off your moral high horse and look at things from a logical perspective.
Sorry that was a bit ranty, I just hate the “Nintendo bad because DMCA” argument when you’re dealing with such a subjective system as IP law.

Re: Review: Super Dungeon Maker - A Promising 'Zelda Maker' That Needs More Time In The Oven

JakedaArbok

I’m a sucker for level makers, so if this improves, I may give this a shot down the line. But still, that’s a pretty scummy practice for a game to throw. If you, say, got a discount for early adopting or got some sort of reward for buying an unfinished game, that would be one thing, but the fact that you are not informed AT ALL before you buy the game feels very dirty.

Re: Random: Sakurai's Latest Video Implores Publishers Not To Mislead Players

JakedaArbok

I think it’s important to think, if you’re subverting expectations, why are you doing so? If it’s to surprise the player with a neat detail that they didn’t see coming, it’s good, as long as it’s not too drastic. If it’s to mask the poor quality of your game, then that’s not good, and neither is attempting to be an “art house” story where you attempt a crazy subversion unless you give ample warning of that in other parts of the game’s advertising, and have the age rating and description on the back of the box reflect the change. Not every subversion is good just because it’s a subversion.

Re: Random: Anti-Smoking Campaign Is Part Animal Crossing, Part Creature Horror

JakedaArbok

If you support people quietly hurting their own quality of life so much that anti-smoking ads offend you, than maybe you should reconsider your priorities. Smoking should be considered taboo for the same reason that suicide, drug usage, and robbery are because all of them hurt the quality of both your life and the lives of others. It just happens to be legal. The fact that people put time and effort into appealing to something that teens and others are familiar with in order to oppose a serious threat should only be a good thing, and I do not understand why anyone would be against it.

Re: Talking Point: What Is A 'Traditional' Zelda Game, Anyway?

JakedaArbok

I’m not crazy into Zelda, but I’ve been playing Skyward Sword, and it just clicks for me more than BOTW did, and I think it’s all down to what I am doing in a set gaming session.

In Skyward Sword, I am doing things. I can say that I beat this dungeon, or made it to this point in the overworked, or got this heart piece. In BOTW, if I wasn’t beating one of the divine beast quests or doing something crazy important, which is few and far-between when you’re not going for the mammoth task of 100 percent completion, I wasn’t really having fun.

I think it’s something that’s just in me as a gamer, I need to be told what to do somewhat in order to have fun. It’s why no other open-world games stick out to me, and why I can’t get into most nonlinear Metroidvanias such as Hollow Knight, which has an amazing world of characters.

All I know is that one style of game hooks me and makes me happy to play more, while the other only makes me happy when I get to the points where the game pulls out all the stops. A similar thing happened to Pokémon for me, but to a much lesser extent as there is a bit more of a constant structure that keeps me going. I also know that I am in the minority here, but games should appeal to all types of gamers, not just the ones that enjoy roughing it alone.

Re: Talking Point: With One Month 'Til TOTK, What's Left For You To Do In Zelda: Breath Of The Wild?

JakedaArbok

I don’t have a desire to replay the game, I finished it once, and I think I’ve had just about every secret I could find in the game spoiled for me already. What I do need to do, however, is to finish Age of Calamity. I did enjoy it, but I kinda fell of a little past halfway. I’ve heard there’s some cool plot stuff, so I’ll press on for that. I also just happen to be playing Skyward Sword for the first time, which lines up I suppose.