@WhiteUmbrella Yes, I played BotW on WiiU at a friend’s house, and it ran noticeably worse than on my Switch. Not sure about the details of WHY it does, and frankly, that’s not what we are discussing here - if you’re still disappointed that Nintendo jumped ship on a flawed, failing console with a great library and terrible marketing and third party support, that’s not my problem, and that’s not what we are discussing here.
For the second time, yes, MK8D is the biggest seller on Switch and it’s a port, we had already agreed on that. But after crunching some numbers, ports still only make up a fraction of software sales, as mentioned in my previous comment.
Since the Switch launched in 2017, Nintendo published 47 games on it, with 13 of these being Wii or WiiU ports. In total, the 13 ports sold around 75 million, while the remaining 34 ‘original’ games sold a whopping 239.5 million. This means that ports only make up around 24% of all Nintendo-published software sales so far, thus disproving your argument that ports are what has been carrying the company this console cycle.
You say I’m a fangirl immune to logic, and yet here are nice, hard numbers tallied up from sales charts across a number of sites, neatly proving my point. If that is not enough in your eyes, then I rest my case - your determination to see the Switch as a commercial failure at all costs regardless of proof has made logic useless with you.
Feel free to keep telling everyone that the Switch is a failing console carried by low-effort ports; I’ll be here, snug and comfy, enjoying my lovely console and all its lovely games. 👋
@WhiteUmbrella Considering that Breath of the Wild’s performance is awful on the WiiU, I’d argue that it’s more of a Switch game ported to WiiU than the other way around. It’s anything BUT a low-effort port. Besides, it was a simultaneous release - would you say that Fire Emblem Warriors is a port of a 3DS game just because it released on both systems day 1?
And if you read my comment, you’ll see that I had already mentioned MK8D as an outlier among the ports.
Edit: Nintendo’s latest sales report shows that their top-10 games alone have sold 185.19 million copies. BotW and MK8D sales only account for around 30% of that, and none of the other games on that list are ports. Just saying.
@WhiteUmbrella I don’t really agree with the statement that it’s just because of ‘all the WiiU and Wii ports’, though. If I’m counting right, we’ve had only 2 Wii ports (Xenoblade, Skyward Sword) and like 10-12 WiiU ones (most of which are really niche, like Tokyo Mirage Sessions or Pikmin 3), which really isn’t that many when you look at the number of first- and second-party games released for the console so far. Most of these also had extra content developed especially for the Switch version (i.e. Bowser’s Fury for 3D World, new story chapters for Xenoblade, etc.), meaning that some considerable development time (and therefore, expense) was needed before release.
On top of that, even though pretty much all these ports sold better on Switch than on the original platform, they still only sold a fraction of the numbers achieved by the top-sellers made exclusively for the new console (with the exception of Mario Kart 8, which is a beast).
I’m sorry, but justifying profits of this magnitude with a handful of lower-effort ports just doesn’t hold up.
@WhiteUmbrella The flaw in your argument is that you are using total handheld + home console hardware sales as a measure of success. It isn’t that clear-cut - when considering the success of a console, one must consider both hardware and software sales (with digital software sales generating much higher profit margins than physical sales, and software in general being far more profitable than the console it is played on), and costs such as distribution, R&D, marketing, manufacturing, development costs, and many other factors. Operating profit, for example, is a far more reliable metric in this case.
For reference, in the fiscal year ending in March 2021, Nintendo recorded its highest ever operating profit with ¥640.63 billion/£4.21 billion. Previously, their highest operating profit had been recorded in 2009 (which was the very peak of the Wii/DS era) for a total of ¥555.26 billion/£3.65 billion.
Now, not every fiscal year during the Switch’s lifespan is going to be as profitable, but those numbers should give you an idea of just how much revenue this console generation is bringing in for Nintendo, regardless of the total number of Switch consoles currently out in the wild.
Honestly, I’d love to see some significant new content for the game. I’ve played over 1,000 hours since it came out, and still pop in for 15-20 minutes most days just to keep my island tidy, walk around and do some seasonal decoration adjustments, but as relaxing as it is, I’m not anywhere near as motivated to keep playing as I once was.
I’d LOVE to see stuff like the Roost, a couple more Nook’s Cranny upgrades, gyroids, some returning furniture sets from the older games (or, even better, some furniture from Pocket Camp, which somehow keeps getting a lot of lovely content), Zelda-themed items and villagers for the anniversary, fence customisation, and other stuff like that. Nothing ground-breaking, but I bet it would definitely pull a ton of players back.
@BenAV Me too! I’m currently 70 hours in and almost through the story, and aside from Rutoh I didn’t see any noticeable framerate drops. The issue is being massively overblown IMO.
Not sure if it qualifies, but the monster card battling minigame in Littlewood is also really entertaining and took up a surprisingly large portion of my time with the game!
@BenAV Hats off for the strategy! I’m meandering a lot more, doing all sidequests and getting eggs for all available monsters in one area before moving on, so that would explain why I’m still so far behind even though I’ve played longer than you have! 😂
Very much looking forward to playing this! I got the original on Wii, but never played much of it - mostly because of the waggle controls and Fi popping up every five seconds. The new QoL improvements fix all my gripes with the 2012 version, so I’m sure I’m going to have a great time with it.
As a side note, ShopTo said my copy was dispatched this morning, so there’s a chance I might get my copy one day early! 🤞 This weekend is going to be great!
I’ve been wanting to play this game for years, but adult life means I don’t have the time for long play sessions on the TV, so my poor ol’ PS4 is gathering dust in the entertainment unit while my Switch gets 99% of my gaming time in-between work, chores, cooking, and the like. I’d love to be able to play this on the go!
@erikharrison I’m sure they just did it to highlight the feature - I doubt the game actually stops every few minutes to allow for the autosave, while the ‘saving’ icon gets magnified and surrounded by a ring-like pattern. It’s just a marketing gimmick added to the video to make sure people notice the feature is there.
It’s going to be Monster Hunter Stories 2 for me this weekend (and most likely all week, as well). That and Skyward Sword will make up the bulk of my gaming for the rest of the summer.
@Ludovsky Exactly! It is not an issue of the Switch not being able to run the game properly - it’s an issue of the uncapped framerate allowing unusually wide, very noticeable fluctuations ranging from the mid-20s to 60. It doesn’t bother me, but then again, I don’t usually care about framerate unless it’s so terrible the game is borderline unplayable.
Fingers crossed they do cap it to 30FPS like Rise in a day-one patch!
Well, a bit of grind is pretty much synonym with JRPGs, so I don’t really mind it at all. I had a ton of fun with the demo, and honestly was not bothered at all by the framerate/performance during the 8 hours I squeezed out of it, so I’m still just as excited for the game as I was two weeks ago. Very happy I preordered it digitally, so I can get to playing as soon as I clock off work on Friday. ✌️
I might eventually upgrade my current Switch to this, since I play either handheld or tabletop 90% of the time, but I’m in no hurry. Had the OLED model been more powerful, or had built-in Bluetooth audio support, this would have been an instant preorder; as things stand, I can wait (and maybe nab some sort of BotW 2 special edition).
@JaxonH I also thought it strange, especially since MH Rise was 9.3GB and - if I’m not mistaken, though I don’t own the game myself - that did not require any additional downloads out of the box aside from patches and free DLC later down the line. But it also seems strange to have such a misprint on the game box. 🤔 Perhaps they used a 4GB cartridge and the 15GB accounts for the 8.5GB of additional download + a few GB of DLC?
Either way, we’ll know in a few days, I imagine; we may even get an official statement from Capcom now that the photo of the game box is all over game news sites. I’ll definitely be curious to see what happens when my fiancé pops his copy of the game into his Switch on Friday, though.
If Capcom cheaped out and used 1GB cartridges, this may actually be real and not just a misprint. Whenever a game requires additional downloads on day one to work, they always round the necessary space up to the closest multiple of 5 on the box (for example, the Spyro trilogy needed an 8.something GB download, and the warning on the cover said it needed 10GB of free space). Since MHS2 is 13.5GB on the eShop, physical buyers may very well need a 12.5GB download to play (hence the rounded up 15GB mentioned on the back of the box).
This doesn’t affect me personally - I loved the demo, and after playing around 8 hours of it I decided to take the plunge and preorder a digital copy since I have a feeling this is going to be something I’m going to play for 300+ hours over a long period of time. Sucks for physical adopters (like my fiancé), though.
Edit: as for in-game purchases, it may be referring to the deluxe edition item pack, which (judging from the fact that it has its own listing on the eShop) looks like it may be available for separate purchase after the game releases.
Very much looking forward to the new Mario + Rabbids, Mario Party Superstars, Skyward Sword HD, and Monster Hunter Stories 2. Between these, Ace Attorney Chronicles and the Diamond/Pearl remakes, my wallet is already crying! 😂
The presentation was objectively a B+, but subjectively a C- for me - I am not into Metroid, SMT, WarioWare, Smash or Advance Wars unfortunately, so the only things that interested me were the new BotW 2 information and the new Mario Party announcement. Still, great to see so many fans happy.
A pretty great presentation - though unfortunately the only thing that interested me was the new Mario Party, mostly to play with family once the pandemic restrictions are (hopefully) over and we can host gatherings again.
Still, I have Monster Hunter Stories 2, Skyward Sword, Ace Attorney Chronicles and Pokemon BD/SP to look forward to in the next five months, on top of several upcoming indies, so I’ll have plenty to keep myself entertained. Still hoping for a big Animal Crossing update soon, though, as well as a Wind Waker/Twilight Princess HD bundle announced after Skyward Sword releases…
Yay for the demo! I’m already sold on the game (though I’m not a mainline MH fan, I loved the first MHS on 3DS), but I’m very much looking forward to trying it out before release anyway.
I was hoping it was going to come out this year, but honestly, I’m not that surprised about the delay. It took seven months for Rune Factory 4S to be localised for the West, in spite of the fact that the game was pretty much a 1-to-1 port of the 3DS game and therefore already had the entirety of the text available in English.
With this being an entirely new game, I guess it’s an improvement to get it in the West 8-9 months after the Japanese release…still, Marvelous could have admitted they were running behind a bit earlier than mid-2021. 😝
I’m definitely going to keep an eye on this one - I loved Yonder, and this looks like just the thing to play before bed or in-between bouts of more stressful games.
If the rumoured Pro does end up being a significant upgrade in terms of power and graphics, I’m probably going to pre-order one for launch day. Fingers crossed it is fully compatible with current joy-cons, though! I got really into controller mods over lockdown - I have made myself a sakura pink pair with white buttons and am currently working on making a set of metallic gold Zelda joy-cons with white buttons and Hylian decals (in the style of the Skyward Sword 25th anniversary WiiMote that came out 10 years ago). I’d be so bummed if I could only use them in docked mode after all that work!
I’ve always been a Nintendo and Sony gamer (my dad got a PS1 in good ol’ 1999, and got me a GBA for my birthday a couple of years later), but between the stock issues and the fact that the games I’m excited for are still quite a way away, I’ve decided to wait until 2022 to get a PS5. By then, severa games I want to play will be out, the console will - hopefully - be more readily available, and we may even see a small price drop. My Switch will be more than enough to tide me over until then, with some of my PS4 backlog sprinkled in-between.
Niiiice! Honestly, for me this year is looking great in terms of releases already even when just considering the current - and most likely quite incomplete - lineup (SoS Pioneers of Olive Town, New Pokemon Snap, Skyward Sword, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Rune Factory 5 and Pokemon BD/SP). If Nintendo throws in the rumoured 3D DK game, a new 2D Metroid and Wind Waker/Twilight princess collection - and perhaps even BotW 2 - 2021 is going to end up absolutely AMAZING!
I love how everyone is complaining about the lack of games…first of all, this list only includes Nintendo-published titles, which leaves out big 3rd party games like SMT V, Monster Hunter Stories 2 or Rune Factory 5, all of which are coming out this year.
Second, Nintendo is very good at keeping its cards close to its chest and has not revealed any games coming out after SS in what is usually the busiest release period of the year, and with E3 coming soon, have no doubt we’ll see several big hitters coming out of nowhere for the period of August-December, including the Breath of the Wild sequel.
Third, I’m a pretty selective gamer, and yet I’ve already bought three games at launch this year (Mario 3D World, SoS Pioneers of Olive Town and Pokemon Snap), plus several indies on sale; my backlog is MASSIVE, and I literally don’t have enough free time to play all the good games I’ve got at the moment - anyone complaining that their Switches are gathering dust/not being used either has some severely niche taste or is lying by over-exaggeration.
And finally, has everyone forgotten that we are still in the middle of a freaking global pandemic that has been going on for nearly 15 months and has severely affected all industries, including gaming development? Every single studio has had to delay games originally planned for 2020-2021 into 2022 and beyond; Nintendo is no exception. Grow up, people.
Yep, my copy of Omega Ruby suddenly kicked the bucket several years ago, for no apparent reason. Luckily my most important ‘mons (the ones I had been transferring from game to game since the original ORAS on GBA) were in the PC boxes rather than in my active team, so I managed to salvage them through Pokemon Home.
@Shambo To be fair, the dev team is based in Italy, and in Italian (my native language) the word ‘baldo’ is a somewhat old-fashioned or archaic term for bold/audacious, so it sort of makes sense in an adventure game. Still, they probably could have picked a slightly better name considering that most of the game’s audience will be international.
Yess! I have a ton of upcoming indies with generic ‘2021’ release dates on my watchlist, so hopefully they’ll show off/date at least one of them during the presentation!
Yep, pretty disappointing. Since they were calling it a ‘collection’, I was expecting at least 4 or more characters (and was rooting for Celeste or one of the Able Sisters to be included). Just Tom Nook and Isabelle is simply...meh.
I went in with super-low expectations after all the negative comments about the game I saw online, but so far I’m really enjoying it! Yes, the frame-rate dips quite a bit when I’m in the farm area, but it doesn’t affect my gameplay at all, and I’m not too fussed about the bland dialogue since I usually spend my first few in-game years focusing on the farm before I branch out into getting friendly with the villagers, which means it’ll have probably been patched by the time I get there. Still not as good as ToT, but a decent farming sim overall!
Very happy about the extra custom design slots, but I’m also sort of bummed about the continued lack of shop upgrades, gyroids and Brewster...fingers crossed we get a nice, packed 2.0 update in April!
Fantastic to see 6 of the top-10 spots filled by Switch exclusives. Man, Animal Crossing and Mario Kart sure have legs...at this rate, they’ll become the Nintendo equivalent of GTA 5 - constantly in the top-10 for years and years after release! 😂
Hopefully ‘Europe and Australia’ also includes the UK! The 25th is actually my birthday, so if it does indeed come out here on the day I’m definitely going to get it as a birthday present to myself. 😂
I saw the thumbnail, and got super-excited because I thought the Layton games were finally coming to Switch...Now I’m sad. 😭 Such a pity that it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen - they are one of my favourite gaming series of all time!
I was not crazy about it when it was first revealed yesterday, but after re-watching the trailer a couple of times it has sort of grown on me. All in all, it looks like a pretty faithful 3D-isation of the original assets and art style, with the top-down view and the squat little chibi-esque sprites of the original 2D games.
Style aside, I’m actually really looking forward to these games. Though Ruby was my very first Pokemon game, Pearl was the first one I really got into (I still remember being like 11 and poring over videogame magazines for any snippet of news on the game before it came out) and is probably still my favourite game in the series, so it’ll be fantastic to get to revisit that region with a new coat of paint and some QOL improvements. And it’ll be double the fun to get to play with my fiancé, who is a very recent Nintendo convert and has only ever experienced Pokemon games through Let’s Go and Sw/Sh (the heathen), so I can finally show him what a more traditional Pokemon game actually feels like, assuming that these are going to be pretty faithful remakes of the originals à la HG/SS or OR/AS.
I’m actually really looking forward to playing this properly for kind of the first time! I got Skyward Sword shortly after release as a Christmas present, expecting to love it - unfortunately, though, I also received a PS3 with Skyrim that same Christmas, which meant Zelda ended up taking a back seat. So, partly because of the weird waggle controls and partly because all other games paled in the eyes of a 15-year-old when presented with the open-world behemoth that is Skyrim for the first time, I only ended up playing SS for a short while before putting it away, even though I do remember enjoying my time with it quite a bit (aside for the anxiety-inducing Silent Realm bits...). I’m fully expecting to love this once I get my hands on it this summer - though perhaps not as much as WW or TP, which are some of my favourite games of all time.
Overall I’m satisfied, if not blown away. There wasn’t much I was interested in, but the games that did catch my attention - namely Project Triangle Strategy, Splatoon 3 and Skyward Sword HD - have me REALLY hyped. Frankly, I’m only disappointed because we didn’t see Rune Factory 5 or Monster Hunter Stories 2 (which are major 2021 releases for me), a Wind Waker + Twilight Princess collection (which was a bit of a leap but could still happen in the future), or a big 1st anniversary New Horizons update, but that’s my own damn fault for getting overly ambitious with my expectations pre-Direct. 😂
Woo-hoo! Finally! I’m going to go in with relatively low expectations, just so I’m not disappointed, but with a 50-minute run-time there should be plenty of announcements to make a good number of fans happy! Honestly, if we get a teensy bit on Story of Seasons, release dates for Rune Factory 5 and Monster Hunter Stories 2, and perhaps some info on a more meaty 2.0 New Horizons update to celebrate one year from release and/or a reveal of whatever they want to do for the Zelda anniversary, I’d be through the roof. Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Since I’m lucky enough to be engaged to a fellow gamer, our Valentine’s Day traditions include a whole lot of snuggling on the sofa while playing games together, so there’ll be plenty of Overcooked 2, Snipperclips, Trine and Mario Kart 8 for me this weekend - as well as a few bouts of Mario 3D World, since my other half has never owned a WiiU, and therefore never tried out what I think is one of the finest Mario games to date.
On top of that, I might dip into a bit of Bowser’s Fury, play through the very last portion of the story in Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin (honestly, that game is INCREDIBLE, give it a shot if you haven’t yet!), and finish decorating my town for Festivale in New Horizons. I’ve also been meaning to dip back into Dragon Quest XI S to grind my party up to a decent level and play through the remainder of Act 3 (I keep getting obliterated by one of the quest bosses no matter how hard I try), but that might have to wait for next weekend.
Nice! I bought the game on sale a while back, but haven’t gotten round to it yet - given the news, I’ll wait a little longer and dive in once the first couple of updates have landed!
I played it on the WiiU shortly after it came out, absolutely loved it, and have been meaning to play through it again for ages, but never came round to it. Considering how much I enjoyed the game the first time around, the addition of Bowser’s Fury, and how much of a hassle it would be to find my WiiU and the game in the loft and shuffle things around our entertainment unit to set it up, double-dipping was a no-brainer for me.
For me it will be mostly Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin and a bit of Xenoblade Chronicles DE (the game is HUGE, but I’m slowly making progress and have reached the start of Chapter 9). And, of course, my daily half-hour of New Horizons to unwind after dinner.
I actually thought it was still going to be playable as long as you downloaded it before it was pulled on Feb 1...silly me. 🤦♀️ I’m absolutely going to have to try it this afternoon!
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Re: Switch Hardware Sales Reach 89 Million Despite Facing A Year-On-Year Slump
@WhiteUmbrella Yes, I played BotW on WiiU at a friend’s house, and it ran noticeably worse than on my Switch. Not sure about the details of WHY it does, and frankly, that’s not what we are discussing here - if you’re still disappointed that Nintendo jumped ship on a flawed, failing console with a great library and terrible marketing and third party support, that’s not my problem, and that’s not what we are discussing here.
For the second time, yes, MK8D is the biggest seller on Switch and it’s a port, we had already agreed on that. But after crunching some numbers, ports still only make up a fraction of software sales, as mentioned in my previous comment.
Since the Switch launched in 2017, Nintendo published 47 games on it, with 13 of these being Wii or WiiU ports. In total, the 13 ports sold around 75 million, while the remaining 34 ‘original’ games sold a whopping 239.5 million. This means that ports only make up around 24% of all Nintendo-published software sales so far, thus disproving your argument that ports are what has been carrying the company this console cycle.
You say I’m a fangirl immune to logic, and yet here are nice, hard numbers tallied up from sales charts across a number of sites, neatly proving my point. If that is not enough in your eyes, then I rest my case - your determination to see the Switch as a commercial failure at all costs regardless of proof has made logic useless with you.
Feel free to keep telling everyone that the Switch is a failing console carried by low-effort ports; I’ll be here, snug and comfy, enjoying my lovely console and all its lovely games. 👋
Re: Switch Hardware Sales Reach 89 Million Despite Facing A Year-On-Year Slump
@WhiteUmbrella Considering that Breath of the Wild’s performance is awful on the WiiU, I’d argue that it’s more of a Switch game ported to WiiU than the other way around. It’s anything BUT a low-effort port. Besides, it was a simultaneous release - would you say that Fire Emblem Warriors is a port of a 3DS game just because it released on both systems day 1?
And if you read my comment, you’ll see that I had already mentioned MK8D as an outlier among the ports.
Edit: Nintendo’s latest sales report shows that their top-10 games alone have sold 185.19 million copies. BotW and MK8D sales only account for around 30% of that, and none of the other games on that list are ports. Just saying.
Re: Switch Hardware Sales Reach 89 Million Despite Facing A Year-On-Year Slump
@WhiteUmbrella I don’t really agree with the statement that it’s just because of ‘all the WiiU and Wii ports’, though. If I’m counting right, we’ve had only 2 Wii ports (Xenoblade, Skyward Sword) and like 10-12 WiiU ones (most of which are really niche, like Tokyo Mirage Sessions or Pikmin 3), which really isn’t that many when you look at the number of first- and second-party games released for the console so far. Most of these also had extra content developed especially for the Switch version (i.e. Bowser’s Fury for 3D World, new story chapters for Xenoblade, etc.), meaning that some considerable development time (and therefore, expense) was needed before release.
On top of that, even though pretty much all these ports sold better on Switch than on the original platform, they still only sold a fraction of the numbers achieved by the top-sellers made exclusively for the new console (with the exception of Mario Kart 8, which is a beast).
I’m sorry, but justifying profits of this magnitude with a handful of lower-effort ports just doesn’t hold up.
Re: Switch Hardware Sales Reach 89 Million Despite Facing A Year-On-Year Slump
@WhiteUmbrella The flaw in your argument is that you are using total handheld + home console hardware sales as a measure of success. It isn’t that clear-cut - when considering the success of a console, one must consider both hardware and software sales (with digital software sales generating much higher profit margins than physical sales, and software in general being far more profitable than the console it is played on), and costs such as distribution, R&D, marketing, manufacturing, development costs, and many other factors. Operating profit, for example, is a far more reliable metric in this case.
For reference, in the fiscal year ending in March 2021, Nintendo recorded its highest ever operating profit with ¥640.63 billion/£4.21 billion. Previously, their highest operating profit had been recorded in 2009 (which was the very peak of the Wii/DS era) for a total of ¥555.26 billion/£3.65 billion.
Now, not every fiscal year during the Switch’s lifespan is going to be as profitable, but those numbers should give you an idea of just how much revenue this console generation is bringing in for Nintendo, regardless of the total number of Switch consoles currently out in the wild.
Re: New Pokémon Snap's First Major Update Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Nice! I’m definitely going to dive back into this game once I’m done with Skyward Sword!
Re: Nintendo Says More Animal Crossing: New Horizons Content Is In Development, Next Update Drops This Week
Honestly, I’d love to see some significant new content for the game. I’ve played over 1,000 hours since it came out, and still pop in for 15-20 minutes most days just to keep my island tidy, walk around and do some seasonal decoration adjustments, but as relaxing as it is, I’m not anywhere near as motivated to keep playing as I once was.
I’d LOVE to see stuff like the Roost, a couple more Nook’s Cranny upgrades, gyroids, some returning furniture sets from the older games (or, even better, some furniture from Pocket Camp, which somehow keeps getting a lot of lovely content), Zelda-themed items and villagers for the anniversary, fence customisation, and other stuff like that. Nothing ground-breaking, but I bet it would definitely pull a ton of players back.
Re: Capcom Promises To Fix "Known Issues" With Monster Hunter Stories 2 In A Future Update
@BenAV Me too! I’m currently 70 hours in and almost through the story, and aside from Rutoh I didn’t see any noticeable framerate drops. The issue is being massively overblown IMO.
Re: Games Within Games - The Best Video Games In Other Video Games
Not sure if it qualifies, but the monster card battling minigame in Littlewood is also really entertaining and took up a surprisingly large portion of my time with the game!
Re: Monster Hunter Stories 2 Version 1.1.0 Update Adds A Free Palamute Monstie
@BenAV Hats off for the strategy! I’m meandering a lot more, doing all sidequests and getting eggs for all available monsters in one area before moving on, so that would explain why I’m still so far behind even though I’ve played longer than you have! 😂
Re: Monster Hunter Stories 2 Version 1.1.0 Update Adds A Free Palamute Monstie
@BenAV How did you reach the credits already? 😱 I’ve already played for like 45 hours and am not even done with the third village yet!
Re: Round Up: The Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Reviews Are In
Very much looking forward to playing this! I got the original on Wii, but never played much of it - mostly because of the waggle controls and Fi popping up every five seconds. The new QoL improvements fix all my gripes with the 2012 version, so I’m sure I’m going to have a great time with it.
As a side note, ShopTo said my copy was dispatched this morning, so there’s a chance I might get my copy one day early! 🤞 This weekend is going to be great!
Re: Atlus Has Seven "Project" Reveals Planned For Persona's 25th Anniversary
Come ooooooon, Persona 5 Switch port… 🤞
I’ve been wanting to play this game for years, but adult life means I don’t have the time for long play sessions on the TV, so my poor ol’ PS4 is gathering dust in the entertainment unit while my Switch gets 99% of my gaming time in-between work, chores, cooking, and the like. I’d love to be able to play this on the go!
Re: New Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Footage Shows Off The Game's Autosave Feature
@erikharrison I’m sure they just did it to highlight the feature - I doubt the game actually stops every few minutes to allow for the autosave, while the ‘saving’ icon gets magnified and surrounded by a ring-like pattern. It’s just a marketing gimmick added to the video to make sure people notice the feature is there.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 10th)
It’s going to be Monster Hunter Stories 2 for me this weekend (and most likely all week, as well). That and Skyward Sword will make up the bulk of my gaming for the rest of the summer.
Re: Review: Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin - A Franchise Riding High
@Ludovsky Exactly! It is not an issue of the Switch not being able to run the game properly - it’s an issue of the uncapped framerate allowing unusually wide, very noticeable fluctuations ranging from the mid-20s to 60. It doesn’t bother me, but then again, I don’t usually care about framerate unless it’s so terrible the game is borderline unplayable.
Fingers crossed they do cap it to 30FPS like Rise in a day-one patch!
Re: Review: Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin - A Franchise Riding High
Well, a bit of grind is pretty much synonym with JRPGs, so I don’t really mind it at all. I had a ton of fun with the demo, and honestly was not bothered at all by the framerate/performance during the 8 hours I squeezed out of it, so I’m still just as excited for the game as I was two weeks ago. Very happy I preordered it digitally, so I can get to playing as soon as I clock off work on Friday. ✌️
Re: Finally, Nintendo Officially Unveils The Switch OLED Model, The 'Switch Pro' We've Been Expecting
I might eventually upgrade my current Switch to this, since I play either handheld or tabletop 90% of the time, but I’m in no hurry. Had the OLED model been more powerful, or had built-in Bluetooth audio support, this would have been an instant preorder; as things stand, I can wait (and maybe nab some sort of BotW 2 special edition).
Re: Eek! The Physical Copy Of Monster Hunter Stories 2 Might Require A Download
@JaxonH I also thought it strange, especially since MH Rise was 9.3GB and - if I’m not mistaken, though I don’t own the game myself - that did not require any additional downloads out of the box aside from patches and free DLC later down the line. But it also seems strange to have such a misprint on the game box. 🤔 Perhaps they used a 4GB cartridge and the 15GB accounts for the 8.5GB of additional download + a few GB of DLC?
Either way, we’ll know in a few days, I imagine; we may even get an official statement from Capcom now that the photo of the game box is all over game news sites. I’ll definitely be curious to see what happens when my fiancé pops his copy of the game into his Switch on Friday, though.
Re: Eek! The Physical Copy Of Monster Hunter Stories 2 Might Require A Download
If Capcom cheaped out and used 1GB cartridges, this may actually be real and not just a misprint. Whenever a game requires additional downloads on day one to work, they always round the necessary space up to the closest multiple of 5 on the box (for example, the Spyro trilogy needed an 8.something GB download, and the warning on the cover said it needed 10GB of free space). Since MHS2 is 13.5GB on the eShop, physical buyers may very well need a 12.5GB download to play (hence the rounded up 15GB mentioned on the back of the box).
This doesn’t affect me personally - I loved the demo, and after playing around 8 hours of it I decided to take the plunge and preorder a digital copy since I have a feeling this is going to be something I’m going to play for 300+ hours over a long period of time. Sucks for physical adopters (like my fiancé), though.
Edit: as for in-game purchases, it may be referring to the deluxe edition item pack, which (judging from the fact that it has its own listing on the eShop) looks like it may be available for separate purchase after the game releases.
Re: Capcom Outlines Plans For Monster Hunter Stories 2 Post-Launch Content
Niiiiice! Will give me an excuse to dip back into the game regularly!
Re: New Nintendo Infographic Shows Every Game Featured During The E3 Direct
Very much looking forward to the new Mario + Rabbids, Mario Party Superstars, Skyward Sword HD, and Monster Hunter Stories 2. Between these, Ace Attorney Chronicles and the Diamond/Pearl remakes, my wallet is already crying! 😂
Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of Nintendo Direct At E3 2021?
The presentation was objectively a B+, but subjectively a C- for me - I am not into Metroid, SMT, WarioWare, Smash or Advance Wars unfortunately, so the only things that interested me were the new BotW 2 information and the new Mario Party announcement. Still, great to see so many fans happy.
Re: Roundup: Here's What Was Revealed In Nintendo Direct E3 2021
A pretty great presentation - though unfortunately the only thing that interested me was the new Mario Party, mostly to play with family once the pandemic restrictions are (hopefully) over and we can host gatherings again.
Still, I have Monster Hunter Stories 2, Skyward Sword, Ace Attorney Chronicles and Pokemon BD/SP to look forward to in the next five months, on top of several upcoming indies, so I’ll have plenty to keep myself entertained. Still hoping for a big Animal Crossing update soon, though, as well as a Wind Waker/Twilight Princess HD bundle announced after Skyward Sword releases…
Re: Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings Of Ruin Demo Lands Soon On Switch
Yay for the demo! I’m already sold on the game (though I’m not a mainline MH fan, I loved the first MHS on 3DS), but I’m very much looking forward to trying it out before release anyway.
Re: Rune Factory 5's Local Switch Release Arrives "Early" In 2022
I was hoping it was going to come out this year, but honestly, I’m not that surprised about the delay. It took seven months for Rune Factory 4S to be localised for the West, in spite of the fact that the game was pretty much a 1-to-1 port of the 3DS game and therefore already had the entirety of the text available in English.
With this being an entirely new game, I guess it’s an improvement to get it in the West 8-9 months after the Japanese release…still, Marvelous could have admitted they were running behind a bit earlier than mid-2021. 😝
Re: Grow: Song Of The Evertree Is A "Cosy" Life-Management Sim Headed To Switch
I’m definitely going to keep an eye on this one - I loved Yonder, and this looks like just the thing to play before bed or in-between bouts of more stressful games.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Switch 'Pro' Reveal Expected Before E3, Out This Year
If the rumoured Pro does end up being a significant upgrade in terms of power and graphics, I’m probably going to pre-order one for launch day. Fingers crossed it is fully compatible with current joy-cons, though! I got really into controller mods over lockdown - I have made myself a sakura pink pair with white buttons and am currently working on making a set of metallic gold Zelda joy-cons with white buttons and Hylian decals (in the style of the Skyward Sword 25th anniversary WiiMote that came out 10 years ago). I’d be so bummed if I could only use them in docked mode after all that work!
Re: Switch Hardware Sales Beat Xbox Series X|S And PS5 Combined, Unsurprisingly
I’ve always been a Nintendo and Sony gamer (my dad got a PS1 in good ol’ 1999, and got me a GBA for my birthday a couple of years later), but between the stock issues and the fact that the games I’m excited for are still quite a way away, I’ve decided to wait until 2022 to get a PS5. By then, severa games I want to play will be out, the console will - hopefully - be more readily available, and we may even see a small price drop. My Switch will be more than enough to tide me over until then, with some of my PS4 backlog sprinkled in-between.
Re: Story Of Seasons: Mobile Has Its First Trailer, And It Puts Pioneers Of Olive Town In The Shade
Maaaaan, this looks better than Olive Town by a mile! 😱 Why can’t we have this lovely art style on Switch? 😭
Re: Surprise! Nintendo Confirms That "Many" New Games Are Coming This Year
Niiiice! Honestly, for me this year is looking great in terms of releases already even when just considering the current - and most likely quite incomplete - lineup (SoS Pioneers of Olive Town, New Pokemon Snap, Skyward Sword, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Rune Factory 5 and Pokemon BD/SP). If Nintendo throws in the rumoured 3D DK game, a new 2D Metroid and Wind Waker/Twilight princess collection - and perhaps even BotW 2 - 2021 is going to end up absolutely AMAZING!
Re: Nintendo's Upcoming Release Schedule For 2021 Looks Positive, With Room For More
I love how everyone is complaining about the lack of games…first of all, this list only includes Nintendo-published titles, which leaves out big 3rd party games like SMT V, Monster Hunter Stories 2 or Rune Factory 5, all of which are coming out this year.
Second, Nintendo is very good at keeping its cards close to its chest and has not revealed any games coming out after SS in what is usually the busiest release period of the year, and with E3 coming soon, have no doubt we’ll see several big hitters coming out of nowhere for the period of August-December, including the Breath of the Wild sequel.
Third, I’m a pretty selective gamer, and yet I’ve already bought three games at launch this year (Mario 3D World, SoS Pioneers of Olive Town and Pokemon Snap), plus several indies on sale; my backlog is MASSIVE, and I literally don’t have enough free time to play all the good games I’ve got at the moment - anyone complaining that their Switches are gathering dust/not being used either has some severely niche taste or is lying by over-exaggeration.
And finally, has everyone forgotten that we are still in the middle of a freaking global pandemic that has been going on for nearly 15 months and has severely affected all industries, including gaming development? Every single studio has had to delay games originally planned for 2020-2021 into 2022 and beyond; Nintendo is no exception. Grow up, people.
Re: Does Your Copy Of Pokémon Omega Ruby And Alpha Sapphire Still Work?
Yep, my copy of Omega Ruby suddenly kicked the bucket several years ago, for no apparent reason. Luckily my most important ‘mons (the ones I had been transferring from game to game since the original ORAS on GBA) were in the PC boxes rather than in my active team, so I managed to salvage them through Pokemon Home.
Re: Baldo: The Guardian Owls Gets Gorgeous New Footage, Still Slated For Switch 'Soon'
@Shambo To be fair, the dev team is based in Italy, and in Italian (my native language) the word ‘baldo’ is a somewhat old-fashioned or archaic term for bold/audacious, so it sort of makes sense in an adventure game. Still, they probably could have picked a slightly better name considering that most of the game’s audience will be international.
Re: Nintendo Indie World Showcase To Air Tomorrow, 14th April
Yess! I have a ton of upcoming indies with generic ‘2021’ release dates on my watchlist, so hopefully they’ll show off/date at least one of them during the presentation!
Re: Talking Point: The Build-A-Bear Animal Crossing Collection Is A Bit Rubbish
Yep, pretty disappointing. Since they were calling it a ‘collection’, I was expecting at least 4 or more characters (and was rooting for Celeste or one of the Able Sisters to be included). Just Tom Nook and Isabelle is simply...meh.
Re: Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town Has Sold Over 700k Worldwide
I went in with super-low expectations after all the negative comments about the game I saw online, but so far I’m really enjoying it! Yes, the frame-rate dips quite a bit when I’m in the farm area, but it doesn’t affect my gameplay at all, and I’m not too fussed about the bland dialogue since I usually spend my first few in-game years focusing on the farm before I branch out into getting friendly with the villagers, which means it’ll have probably been patched by the time I get there. Still not as good as ToT, but a decent farming sim overall!
Re: Nintendo Details Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Big First Anniversary Update
Very happy about the extra custom design slots, but I’m also sort of bummed about the continued lack of shop upgrades, gyroids and Brewster...fingers crossed we get a nice, packed 2.0 update in April!
Re: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Players, Get Ready: Bunny. Day. Is. Back.
Not again. Please, NOT AGAIN! 😭
Re: UK Charts: Super Mario 3D World Knocked Out Of First Place For The First Time Since Launch
Fantastic to see 6 of the top-10 spots filled by Switch exclusives. Man, Animal Crossing and Mario Kart sure have legs...at this rate, they’ll become the Nintendo equivalent of GTA 5 - constantly in the top-10 for years and years after release! 😂
Re: "Relaxing" RPG Littlewood Launches In Australia And Europe Next Week
Hopefully ‘Europe and Australia’ also includes the UK! The 25th is actually my birthday, so if it does indeed come out here on the day I’m definitely going to get it as a birthday present to myself. 😂
Re: Level-5 CEO Reveals The Inspiration For Professor Layton And The Risks Of Self-Publishing
I saw the thumbnail, and got super-excited because I thought the Layton games were finally coming to Switch...Now I’m sad. 😭 Such a pity that it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen - they are one of my favourite gaming series of all time!
Re: Poll: Do You Like The Chibi Art Style In Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl?
I was not crazy about it when it was first revealed yesterday, but after re-watching the trailer a couple of times it has sort of grown on me. All in all, it looks like a pretty faithful 3D-isation of the original assets and art style, with the top-down view and the squat little chibi-esque sprites of the original 2D games.
Style aside, I’m actually really looking forward to these games. Though Ruby was my very first Pokemon game, Pearl was the first one I really got into (I still remember being like 11 and poring over videogame magazines for any snippet of news on the game before it came out) and is probably still my favourite game in the series, so it’ll be fantastic to get to revisit that region with a new coat of paint and some QOL improvements. And it’ll be double the fun to get to play with my fiancé, who is a very recent Nintendo convert and has only ever experienced Pokemon games through Let’s Go and Sw/Sh (the heathen), so I can finally show him what a more traditional Pokemon game actually feels like, assuming that these are going to be pretty faithful remakes of the originals à la HG/SS or OR/AS.
Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Skyward Sword Is Good, Actually
I’m actually really looking forward to playing this properly for kind of the first time! I got Skyward Sword shortly after release as a Christmas present, expecting to love it - unfortunately, though, I also received a PS3 with Skyrim that same Christmas, which meant Zelda ended up taking a back seat. So, partly because of the weird waggle controls and partly because all other games paled in the eyes of a 15-year-old when presented with the open-world behemoth that is Skyrim for the first time, I only ended up playing SS for a short while before putting it away, even though I do remember enjoying my time with it quite a bit (aside for the anxiety-inducing Silent Realm bits...). I’m fully expecting to love this once I get my hands on it this summer - though perhaps not as much as WW or TP, which are some of my favourite games of all time.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The February 2021 Nintendo Direct, Then?
Overall I’m satisfied, if not blown away. There wasn’t much I was interested in, but the games that did catch my attention - namely Project Triangle Strategy, Splatoon 3 and Skyward Sword HD - have me REALLY hyped. Frankly, I’m only disappointed because we didn’t see Rune Factory 5 or Monster Hunter Stories 2 (which are major 2021 releases for me), a Wind Waker + Twilight Princess collection (which was a bit of a leap but could still happen in the future), or a big 1st anniversary New Horizons update, but that’s my own damn fault for getting overly ambitious with my expectations pre-Direct. 😂
Re: Nintendo Direct To Air Tomorrow, Wednesday 17th February
Woo-hoo! Finally! I’m going to go in with relatively low expectations, just so I’m not disappointed, but with a 50-minute run-time there should be plenty of announcements to make a good number of fans happy! Honestly, if we get a teensy bit on Story of Seasons, release dates for Rune Factory 5 and Monster Hunter Stories 2, and perhaps some info on a more meaty 2.0 New Horizons update to celebrate one year from release and/or a reveal of whatever they want to do for the Zelda anniversary, I’d be through the roof. Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 13th)
Since I’m lucky enough to be engaged to a fellow gamer, our Valentine’s Day traditions include a whole lot of snuggling on the sofa while playing games together, so there’ll be plenty of Overcooked 2, Snipperclips, Trine and Mario Kart 8 for me this weekend - as well as a few bouts of Mario 3D World, since my other half has never owned a WiiU, and therefore never tried out what I think is one of the finest Mario games to date.
On top of that, I might dip into a bit of Bowser’s Fury, play through the very last portion of the story in Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin (honestly, that game is INCREDIBLE, give it a shot if you haven’t yet!), and finish decorating my town for Festivale in New Horizons. I’ve also been meaning to dip back into Dragon Quest XI S to grind my party up to a decent level and play through the remainder of Act 3 (I keep getting obliterated by one of the quest bosses no matter how hard I try), but that might have to wait for next weekend.
Happy gaming, everyone!
Re: Indie Hit Spiritfarer Will Receive Three Major Updates This Year, All For Free
Nice! I bought the game on sale a while back, but haven’t gotten round to it yet - given the news, I’ll wait a little longer and dive in once the first couple of updates have landed!
Re: Poll: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Is Out Today On Switch, Are You Getting It?
I played it on the WiiU shortly after it came out, absolutely loved it, and have been meaning to play through it again for ages, but never came round to it. Considering how much I enjoyed the game the first time around, the addition of Bowser’s Fury, and how much of a hassle it would be to find my WiiU and the game in the loft and shuffle things around our entertainment unit to set it up, double-dipping was a no-brainer for me.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 6th)
For me it will be mostly Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin and a bit of Xenoblade Chronicles DE (the game is HUGE, but I’m slowly making progress and have reached the start of Chapter 9). And, of course, my daily half-hour of New Horizons to unwind after dinner.
Re: Reminder: Enjoy Capcom's "Limited Time" Monster Hunter Rise Demo While You Still Can
I actually thought it was still going to be playable as long as you downloaded it before it was pulled on Feb 1...silly me. 🤦♀️ I’m absolutely going to have to try it this afternoon!