Nice! I tried one of the old games on PS3 12 years ago but couldn’t get into it (most likely because of the dreadful Italian translation and the fact that I was not into JRPGs at the time, silly little girl that I was), and ended up returning it to GameStop after a couple of days. I’ve been meaning to give the series a second chance for ages, and with all the praise Ryza and Ryza 2 have been getting, I finally took the plunge and got the first game (I wasn’t sure if I would be confused jumping straight into the sequel without knowing the characters/story from the original). Really looking forward to it!
I just finished Age of Calamity the other day, so for a change of pace this weekend I’m going to try and finish Mario Galaxy and perhaps finally get through the Bravely Default 2 and Monster Hunter Rise demos, which have been sitting unopened on my home screen for ages.
The crazy cat lady in me is squealing with glee at this! Can’t wait to play this while snuggling up on the sofa with our cat...It’s going to be total cuteness overload in our household. 😂
This is so cool! Makes me wish Nintendo went the distance with the Animal Crossing special edition system last year, as well - I would have loved to have an off-white Switch body and grip!
Excited for this! I played the game ages ago, and never got back to it since my Wii U is packed up in the loft, even though I have been itching for a replay of this (and the Zelda remasters). In spite of all the comments complaining about yet another port, I’m sure this is going to sell like gangbusters - it’s an awesome game that only sold around 5.8 million originally, and considering how much larger the Switch install base is compared to the Wii U (>70M vs. 13.6M), there is a huge number of gamers out there who have not yet played it.
I might simply be lucky because of the type of games I like, but with this, Bravely Default 2, Story of Seasons, Pokemon Snap, Monster Hunter Rise, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Rune Factory 5 and Ys IX (not to mention all the cool indies and big first-party Nintendo games releasing this year yet to be announced) all releasing in the next 11 months, 2021 is already shaping up to be a fantastic year for Switch gamers!
Nice! Haven’t bought the game yet (though I really want it) since a little bird told me my fiancé is planning to get me a copy for Christmas...so glad to know it’s doing well, though! I loved what I’ve seen of the demo, so I expect I’ll really enjoy the game once I get to it.
I’m not fussed about 64 - I’ve played the DS remake several times, and still have the cartridge - but the other two games make the collection a must-own for me. I’ve never played Sunshine, so I’m excited to finally get to sink my teeth into it, and Galaxy is a favourite of mine that I never actually completed, since I was rubbish at platformers and at finishing games in general when I was a kid, so it’ll be great to finally go for that 100%!
Besides, I’m really excited to finally introduce my fiancé - who only became a Nintendo fan very recently after getting a Switch of his own to play with me - to the masterpiece that is Galaxy. So all in all, Galaxy and Sunshine provide more than enough value for me.
@Razer You do realise we also got Monster Hunter Rise - a new entry in the main series - announced for March 2021, right? We aren't just getting Stories 2.
The fact that this Partner Showcase was announced in advance and is going to be streamed instead of shadow-dropped makes me think we might see some bigger titles compared to the other two. Not really hoping for much - I mostly play first-party titles on my Switch, anyway - but it would be nice to see Bravely Default 2, among other things. I guess we’ll see!
I almost preordered with Base myself - I’ve used them a lot in the past for preorders since they usually sell games for £5-£10 cheaper than Amazon - but I ended up going with Nintendo UK instead to make sure my order did not get cancelled because of stock issues (which I figured were likely to happen because of the limited release thing). Sure glad I paid that extra fiver now.
@kingeo There is one difference though - Twilight Princess and Wind Waker already are HD ports of GameCube titles, while all other WiiU titles ported to Switch (Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad, DK Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Mario Bros U and Mario 3D World) were brand new games built from the ground up. Being a port of a port of a mid-noughties game might make them a good fit for a Switch Zelda collection (if that makes sense).
@kingeo If BotW 2 is coming late next year (which I have a feeling it will), it would actually make sense for Nintendo to release a Zelda collection in the spring/summer, especially since 2021 will be Zelda’s 35th anniversary. Perhaps they could do something similar to what they’re doing with Mario 3D All-Stars - for example, putting Twilight Princess HD, Wind Waker HD and a straight Wii port of Skyward Sword in a collection with a £50 price tag. So don’t give up hope!
I really enjoyed the first Hyrule Warriors on Switch, so I’ll definitely be picking this up day one (or perhaps ask my fiancé to get it for me as a Christmas present if I can muster a bit of patience and self-control, though it is not a very likely scenario 😂).
@Octane Same! I grew up in Italy in the early 2000s, and I owned very few PS1/PS2 games that were not bought off a vendor on a street corner. It didn’t help that legit copies of games cost an arm and a leg back then, at least in my country - I still remember my parents buying me a copy of Croc 2 for my birthday in 2001 for 99 thousand Lire (which back then used to be the equivalent of around €90), while pirated copies went for around 10 thousand. 😂
Those sales numbers are insane, but I’m honestly not surprised considering how wide the appeal of this game is. Look at my family alone as an example: I’m a non-casual Nintendo and PS4 gamer, and I’ve clocked almost 500 hours into ACNH, playing every day since launch. My fiancé - a hardcore PC and Xbox gamer who originally only got a Switch to play Pokemon with me - has played almost 200 hours in the past couple of months alone. My mum, a very casual gamer who bought a Lite because it was ‘cute’, has played over 500 hours of AC since launch, and my dad - a non-gamer who has only dabbled on Farmville and a few mobile games before - has bought his own Switch and surpassed the 600 hours mark.
This game resonates with so many different audiences, I wouldn’t be surprised if it became the top-selling Switch game by the time the console’s life cycle is over.
I love SoS games, but the price seems a bit steep for a fairly basic remake, so I think I’ll wait for it to drop to around £30 or less before I take the plunge. My gaming backlog is way too full to fit another game, anyway - I’m still playing AC daily, have just started Xenoblade Chronicles, and I have a Golden Deer FE run I need to finish. On top of that, I’ve been meaning to do another run on Breath of the Wild for ages, and I have a copy of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon my partner got me for my birthday (almost four months ago) that I’ve barely touched, so I’m probably set for the next six months as it is. 😅
I’m not a big fan of EA games (or practices) so I doubt I’ll be buying any of their upcoming releases on Switch anyway. That said, should they make another MySims, I’d probably buy it - I loved the two games they released on the Wii, I spent an insane amount of hours on them when I was a kid!
This was...not what I expected, to be sure. Big letdown for me, since I'm very much not a MOBA person (or a free-to-play-game-riddled-with-microtransactions person).
I knew that chances of a new mainline game were slim considering that we're getting the Crown Tundra DLC this autumn, but from the hype level they were trying to drum up with a separate presentation, I was expecting either another Let's Go game or a remake of a spin-off like Pokemon Ranger or Pokemon Colosseum (which made sense to me since they had all those gen 2 plushies in the back of the first presentation, along with that gigantic black Pikachu). I DEFINITELY won't be getting this, that's for sure.
@PhhhCough This is not actually a continuation of the original series, just so you know. The games known as Harvest Moon in the west were developed by Marvelous (under the Bokujo Monogatari name in Japan) and localised by Natsume under the HM trademark. In 2014, the original developer ‘split’ from Natsume because the quality of the localisation was becoming horrendous, but Natsume got to keep the ‘Harvest Moon’ name, since it was their own trademark. The series has continued in Japan under its original name, and is now known in the West as Story of Season. Natsume is now developing its own Harvest Moon games to capitalise on the popularity and reputation of the name, but they tend to be really bad and have nothing to do with the old games. I’d definitely recommend going for the latest entry in the original series over this - it’s called Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town and comes out sometime in July if I’m not mistaken. Sorry for the wall of text - lots of people don’t know about this, so I just wanted to warn you!
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably going to be Gen 4 remakes or a Let’s Go-style Gen 2 game coming out this holiday season. Though I’d love to be surprised by something completely different and unexpected...
@tzahn I’m actually planning to get my hands on the entire series in English in the near future, since my beloved Italian language paperbacks mistakenly got donated when we moved to the UK almost a decade ago. 😭 They are such great books, I’ve been itching for a re-read for ages.
@tzahn That was the first thing I thought when I saw it! 😂 On a side note, you are one of the only people I’ve ever seen mention those books! I loved them growing up (they’re what got me into reading and I was OBSESSED with them from age 8 to 13, lol), but not many people seem to have read them, which is such a shame!
That...actually looks really good. Very happy my SO got us both the expansion passes a while back - we had a lot of fun with Sw/Sh last year, and this looks like a sizeable addition to the base game. Looking forward to going down the Pokemon rabbit-hole again!
@Zeldafan79 I completely agree. I sort of feel bad for people who are so hung-up on graphics and framerate - they must miss out on so many great games (especially on ‘vintage’ consoles)!
It makes me wonder, though: could these complaints stem from the fact that BotW set a ridiculously high bar for games of this type on the console? It runs at 1080p docked and 720p handheld, and is pretty much locked at 30fps in most areas (infamous Korok forest aside), which is really impressive for an open-world game on what is essentially a handheld console running a mobile chip. I feel like people now expect that to be the standard for this genre, while ignoring the fact that BotW is a first-party game with a huge budget and that, while it looks AMAZING, it has very little happening on the screen at any one time compared to things like Xenoblade.
Considering that I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for 200 hours (as a mix of handheld and docked) and LOVED it, this doesn’t bother me one bit. I’m far more interested in story and gameplay than graphics (not to say that a stable framerate and HD visuals don’t make a great game even better; it just isn’t a deal-breaker for me), and from what I know of this game, I already know I’m going to very much enjoy it.
As for the people expecting it to run at 720p handheld and 1080p docked, with a stable 30fps...you do realise that the Switch is mostly used as a handheld and is not even close to the power levels of the PS4/XB1, right? The devs probably decided to use lower graphical specs to make sure that the game did not drain the battery from a full charge in less than two hours (especially with so many Switch Lites in the wild). If you don’t like it, don’t buy it, but don’t whine about the devs being lazy or the Switch being underpowered ‘for 2020’.
@MichaelHarvey Agreed! The 3DS is still tied with the Switch for me (thanks to the Story of Seasons games, the Zelda OoT and MM remakes, Fantasy Life and the Layton series), but I have no doubt the Switch will be my #1 favourite console by the time it reaches the end of its life cycle. Especially if one or more of the aforementioned games end up getting ported over eventually...
@Ryu_Niiyama Sorry, I meant the Doraemon x Story of Seasons one! That’s the one I’ve played and is grindy as heck. I can’t wait for this one, I haven’t preordered yet but I’ve been heavily hinting at my SO that I would like the game, since it comes out a week before our anniversary. 😂
@Ryu_Niiyama I’d recommend getting it on sale - although the watercolour graphics are adorable and the game is very reminiscent of the older HM games, it has some balancing issues and requires WAY too much mining to progress. For reference, I played the game for about 60 hours, and I spent about half of that time mining for ore; it got so tedious, it eventually made me stop playing.
I actually laughed at this...I was born and raised in Rome, where we start going on museum field trips with our schools when we are 6 - and where, of course, the art is shown in all its uncensored glory. I have also never seen any censure of the statues’ bits in art history textbooks - even the illustrated, kiddy ones we had in primary school in the early 2000s. And just to clarify, I went to a religious school run by Roman catholic nuns until I was 10; if the nuns weren’t bothered to hide the use of nudity in art from a bunch of 7-year-olds, I don’t see why accurate reproductions in AC should be a cause for worry. 😂
I’m totally behind this - I’d 100% buy an HD port/remaster of Mario 64 (even better if it’s based in the DS version), an HD Mario Galaxy collection and a port of 3D World, even as separate games. Fingers crossed this is true!
I’m not a huge fan of the art style, to be honest, but I love Story of Seasons games and MFoMT is the one that got me into the genre, so think I’ll pick it up anyway once it comes out.
Nice! I have a Japanese account set up exclusively to download demos, so I’ll have to grab this tomorrow. If the servers are up again by then, that is...
@Investor9872 Isn’t that usually only things like norovirus (stomach bug) that live so long on hard surfaces, though? As far as I know (at least, as far as I was taught studying microbiology at uni) most flu-like viruses only survive on surfaces for 24 hours or less. The exception for Coronavirus seems to be metal surfaces, where it looks like it can survive for up to 9 days, but plastics should be safe fairly quickly afaik.
@Investor9872 I’m pretty sure Nintendo consoles and games for the Western market are not made in China anymore, but in Vietnam (iirc). Anyway, the virus only lives a few days on most surfaces, so the game and box should be fine since they’re probably already packaged and shrink-wrapped and en-route to the retailers by now.
I won’t be getting it day-one, but only because my birthday is in a few weeks and I needed to leave something for my poor SO to get me as a present. I loved the original on DS and really enjoyed the demo, so I’m very much looking forward to this!
I loved the original in DS, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this, as well. I won’t be preordering though - I currently have more than enough to play with Rune Factory 4 and my Golden Deer play-through on Three Houses, and with Animal Crossing coming out in a couple of weeks (15 days, 7 hours and 57 minutes, but who’s counting, lol), that’ll be me sorted for ages. Besides, my birthday’s at the end of the month, so I need to leave something for my poor SO to get me as a present. ;P
@Zuljaras You’re sort of taking my words out of context there, mate. Some women may abuse the system in the way you described (though it’s extremely uncommon, partly because women make only a fraction of their wage while on maternity leave, and because many countries, including the US, only guarantee 6 weeks of maternity leave, or none at all), but I have also had a number of male colleagues who waited for their probationary period to end and then started calling in sick every other week, offloading their deadlines onto the rest of the team. Just because a small percentage of a group is dishonest, it doesn’t mean it’s fair to generalise and penalise the entire category by paying them less for their labour. By that reasoning, employers should also start asking men whether they smoke before they hire them, and pay them less if they do, since that would potentially mean they’d get cancer or respiratory problems Down the line and need extended periods off sick from work. Ah, but that is discrimination, and it wouldn’t be fair, now, wouldn’t it? You see where I’m going?
@Zuljaras I don’t usually like to get into politics here on NL, but I have to correct you there, since we do NOT have equality in the vast majority of developed countries. The gender pay gap in UK workplaces averages at 17%; women are considered less reliable/desirable employees because of the possibility that they might one day get pregnant and are frequently lobbied by their managers to quit their jobs once they do have a child, and around 20% of us (versus 4% of the men) face dealing with a sexual assault during our lifetime, and are often blamed for it. What, of all this, sounds fair or equal to you?
On a separate note, while I have not watched Captain Marvel and do not keep up with celebrity news - and thus cannot comment on her acting skills or political agenda - it’s really cool to see someone famous getting excited for AC. Only 17 days to go!
@Ryu_Niiyama cough Fantasy Life cough and cough the Professor Layton series cough. Just those two things, and I’d be the happiest gamer on Earth. What is Level 5 waiting for?!
Can’t wait! I already have this pre-downloaded on my Switch (I had a lot of gold points saved up, so I snagged the game for less than £20), and I’m very much looking forward to diving into the game again after sinking 200 hours into the original five years ago. This will be the perfect thing to tide me over until Animal Crossing comes out!
Comments 388
Re: Review: Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & The Secret Fairy - The Best Game In The Series To Date
Nice! I tried one of the old games on PS3 12 years ago but couldn’t get into it (most likely because of the dreadful Italian translation and the fact that I was not into JRPGs at the time, silly little girl that I was), and ended up returning it to GameStop after a couple of days. I’ve been meaning to give the series a second chance for ages, and with all the praise Ryza and Ryza 2 have been getting, I finally took the plunge and got the first game (I wasn’t sure if I would be confused jumping straight into the sequel without knowing the characters/story from the original). Really looking forward to it!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 30th)
I just finished Age of Calamity the other day, so for a change of pace this weekend I’m going to try and finish Mario Galaxy and perhaps finally get through the Bravely Default 2 and Monster Hunter Rise demos, which have been sitting unopened on my home screen for ages.
Re: Get A First Look At The Story Of Seasons Marriage Candidates
Not too keen on any of the guys, to be honest...hopefully RF5 will have a better selection.
Re: Random: Let's Look At All The Things That Are Cats In Bowser's Fury
The crazy cat lady in me is squealing with glee at this! Can’t wait to play this while snuggling up on the sofa with our cat...It’s going to be total cuteness overload in our household. 😂
Re: Nintendo Unveils Brand New 'Mario Red & Blue' Switch Console
This is so cool! Makes me wish Nintendo went the distance with the Animal Crossing special edition system last year, as well - I would have loved to have an off-white Switch body and grip!
Re: A New Trailer For Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Is Airing Later Today
Excited for this! I played the game ages ago, and never got back to it since my Wii U is packed up in the loft, even though I have been itching for a replay of this (and the Zelda remasters). In spite of all the comments complaining about yet another port, I’m sure this is going to sell like gangbusters - it’s an awesome game that only sold around 5.8 million originally, and considering how much larger the Switch install base is compared to the Wii U (>70M vs. 13.6M), there is a huge number of gamers out there who have not yet played it.
I might simply be lucky because of the type of games I like, but with this, Bravely Default 2, Story of Seasons, Pokemon Snap, Monster Hunter Rise, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Rune Factory 5 and Ys IX (not to mention all the cool indies and big first-party Nintendo games releasing this year yet to be announced) all releasing in the next 11 months, 2021 is already shaping up to be a fantastic year for Switch gamers!
Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Is Already The Best-Selling Warriors Game Of All Time
Nice! Haven’t bought the game yet (though I really want it) since a little bird told me my fiancé is planning to get me a copy for Christmas...so glad to know it’s doing well, though! I loved what I’ve seen of the demo, so I expect I’ll really enjoy the game once I get to it.
Re: Poll: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Is Out Today On Switch, Are You Getting It?
I’m not fussed about 64 - I’ve played the DS remake several times, and still have the cartridge - but the other two games make the collection a must-own for me. I’ve never played Sunshine, so I’m excited to finally get to sink my teeth into it, and Galaxy is a favourite of mine that I never actually completed, since I was rubbish at platformers and at finishing games in general when I was a kid, so it’ll be great to finally go for that 100%!
Besides, I’m really excited to finally introduce my fiancé - who only became a Nintendo fan very recently after getting a Switch of his own to play with me - to the masterpiece that is Galaxy. So all in all, Galaxy and Sunshine provide more than enough value for me.
Re: Kitaria Fables Is A Bit Like Rune Factory, But With Cute Animals
This looks adorable! I’ll definitely keep an eye on it, and snag it if it gets a decent review score.
Re: Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings Of Ruin Hits Switch Summer 2021
@Razer You do realise we also got Monster Hunter Rise - a new entry in the main series - announced for March 2021, right? We aren't just getting Stories 2.
Re: Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase To Air Tomorrow
The fact that this Partner Showcase was announced in advance and is going to be streamed instead of shadow-dropped makes me think we might see some bigger titles compared to the other two. Not really hoping for much - I mostly play first-party titles on my Switch, anyway - but it would be nice to see Bravely Default 2, among other things. I guess we’ll see!
Re: Online Retailer Cancels Orders For Super Mario 3D All-Stars Due To "Woefully Short" Supply
I almost preordered with Base myself - I’ve used them a lot in the past for preorders since they usually sell games for £5-£10 cheaper than Amazon - but I ended up going with Nintendo UK instead to make sure my order did not get cancelled because of stock issues (which I figured were likely to happen because of the limited release thing). Sure glad I paid that extra fiver now.
Re: Nintendo Reveals Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, A New Zelda Set 100 Years Before Breath Of The Wild
@kingeo There is one difference though - Twilight Princess and Wind Waker already are HD ports of GameCube titles, while all other WiiU titles ported to Switch (Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad, DK Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Mario Bros U and Mario 3D World) were brand new games built from the ground up. Being a port of a port of a mid-noughties game might make them a good fit for a Switch Zelda collection (if that makes sense).
Re: Nintendo Reveals Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, A New Zelda Set 100 Years Before Breath Of The Wild
@kingeo If BotW 2 is coming late next year (which I have a feeling it will), it would actually make sense for Nintendo to release a Zelda collection in the spring/summer, especially since 2021 will be Zelda’s 35th anniversary. Perhaps they could do something similar to what they’re doing with Mario 3D All-Stars - for example, putting Twilight Princess HD, Wind Waker HD and a straight Wii port of Skyward Sword in a collection with a £50 price tag. So don’t give up hope!
Re: Nintendo Reveals Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, A New Zelda Set 100 Years Before Breath Of The Wild
This is AWESOME!
I really enjoyed the first Hyrule Warriors on Switch, so I’ll definitely be picking this up day one (or perhaps ask my fiancé to get it for me as a Christmas present if I can muster a bit of patience and self-control, though it is not a very likely scenario 😂).
Re: Switch Software Sales Are Comfortably Beating The PS2's, The Best-Selling Console Of All Time
@Octane Same! I grew up in Italy in the early 2000s, and I owned very few PS1/PS2 games that were not bought off a vendor on a street corner. It didn’t help that legit copies of games cost an arm and a leg back then, at least in my country - I still remember my parents buying me a copy of Croc 2 for my birthday in 2001 for 99 thousand Lire (which back then used to be the equivalent of around €90), while pirated copies went for around 10 thousand. 😂
Re: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Has Sold Over 22 Million Copies
Those sales numbers are insane, but I’m honestly not surprised considering how wide the appeal of this game is. Look at my family alone as an example: I’m a non-casual Nintendo and PS4 gamer, and I’ve clocked almost 500 hours into ACNH, playing every day since launch. My fiancé - a hardcore PC and Xbox gamer who originally only got a Switch to play Pokemon with me - has played almost 200 hours in the past couple of months alone. My mum, a very casual gamer who bought a Lite because it was ‘cute’, has played over 500 hours of AC since launch, and my dad - a non-gamer who has only dabbled on Farmville and a few mobile games before - has bought his own Switch and surpassed the 600 hours mark.
This game resonates with so many different audiences, I wouldn’t be surprised if it became the top-selling Switch game by the time the console’s life cycle is over.
Re: Pikmin 3 Deluxe Officially Announced For Switch, Includes All DLC And New Content
Nice! Now I just need ports of 3D World and the Twilight Princess/Wind Waker remakes, and then I can box up my WiiU for good...
Re: Adorable Animal Crossing Dodo Airlines Reusable Bag Appears On My Nintendo Europe
@jimolya Same; it doesn’t work on any of the ones I’ve tried (Chrome, Safari and even Edge on my work laptop).
Re: Adorable Animal Crossing Dodo Airlines Reusable Bag Appears On My Nintendo Europe
@teamshortcut @jimolya I’m in the same boat; I have the code, but the button to add the bag to the cart is nowhere to be found. ☹️
Re: Story Of Seasons: Friends Of Mineral Town Is Out Today In Europe, Here's The Launch Trailer
@sandman89 Sorry, I’m used to shortening it - that stands for significant other, aka my partner. 😅
Re: Story Of Seasons: Friends Of Mineral Town Is Out Today In Europe, Here's The Launch Trailer
I love SoS games, but the price seems a bit steep for a fairly basic remake, so I think I’ll wait for it to drop to around £30 or less before I take the plunge. My gaming backlog is way too full to fit another game, anyway - I’m still playing AC daily, have just started Xenoblade Chronicles, and I have a Golden Deer FE run I need to finish. On top of that, I’ve been meaning to do another run on Breath of the Wild for ages, and I have a copy of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon my partner got me for my birthday (almost four months ago) that I’ve barely touched, so I’m probably set for the next six months as it is. 😅
Edit: replaced a word
Re: Talking Point: Is EA's Switch Strategy Lazy, Or Simply Common Sense?
I’m not a big fan of EA games (or practices) so I doubt I’ll be buying any of their upcoming releases on Switch anyway. That said, should they make another MySims, I’d probably buy it - I loved the two games they released on the Wii, I spent an insane amount of hours on them when I was a kid!
Re: Pokémon Unite, An Online Team Battle Game, Revealed For Switch And Mobile
This was...not what I expected, to be sure. Big letdown for me, since I'm very much not a MOBA person (or a free-to-play-game-riddled-with-microtransactions person).
I knew that chances of a new mainline game were slim considering that we're getting the Crown Tundra DLC this autumn, but from the hype level they were trying to drum up with a separate presentation, I was expecting either another Let's Go game or a remake of a spin-off like Pokemon Ranger or Pokemon Colosseum (which made sense to me since they had all those gen 2 plushies in the back of the first presentation, along with that gigantic black Pikachu). I DEFINITELY won't be getting this, that's for sure.
Re: Here's Your First Look At Harvest Moon: One World, Launching On Switch This Fall
@PhhhCough This is not actually a continuation of the original series, just so you know. The games known as Harvest Moon in the west were developed by Marvelous (under the Bokujo Monogatari name in Japan) and localised by Natsume under the HM trademark. In 2014, the original developer ‘split’ from Natsume because the quality of the localisation was becoming horrendous, but Natsume got to keep the ‘Harvest Moon’ name, since it was their own trademark. The series has continued in Japan under its original name, and is now known in the West as Story of Season. Natsume is now developing its own Harvest Moon games to capitalise on the popularity and reputation of the name, but they tend to be really bad and have nothing to do with the old games. I’d definitely recommend going for the latest entry in the original series over this - it’s called Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town and comes out sometime in July if I’m not mistaken. Sorry for the wall of text - lots of people don’t know about this, so I just wanted to warn you!
Re: Here's Your First Look At Harvest Moon: One World, Launching On Switch This Fall
Natsume needs to stop developing - those graphics are horrendous, it looks like a PS2 knockoff of the real thing. 🤦♀️
Re: Pokémon To Reveal A 'Big Project' Next Week In Second Presentation
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably going to be Gen 4 remakes or a Let’s Go-style Gen 2 game coming out this holiday season. Though I’d love to be surprised by something completely different and unexpected...
Re: New Metroidvania Curse Of The Sea Rats Takes To Kickstarter To Secure Switch Launch
@tzahn I’m actually planning to get my hands on the entire series in English in the near future, since my beloved Italian language paperbacks mistakenly got donated when we moved to the UK almost a decade ago. 😭 They are such great books, I’ve been itching for a re-read for ages.
Re: New Metroidvania Curse Of The Sea Rats Takes To Kickstarter To Secure Switch Launch
@tzahn That was the first thing I thought when I saw it! 😂 On a side note, you are one of the only people I’ve ever seen mention those books! I loved them growing up (they’re what got me into reading and I was OBSESSED with them from age 8 to 13, lol), but not many people seem to have read them, which is such a shame!
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield's Isle of Armor DLC Launches 17th June, Here's The New Trailer
That...actually looks really good. Very happy my SO got us both the expansion passes a while back - we had a lot of fun with Sw/Sh last year, and this looks like a sizeable addition to the base game. Looking forward to going down the Pokemon rabbit-hole again!
Re: Summer In Mara Sails Onto The Nintendo Switch On 16th June
Nice! I backed this on Kickstarter last year, can’t wait to finally get my hands on it!
Re: Video: Digital Foundry Delivers Its Verdict On Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
@Zeldafan79 I completely agree. I sort of feel bad for people who are so hung-up on graphics and framerate - they must miss out on so many great games (especially on ‘vintage’ consoles)!
It makes me wonder, though: could these complaints stem from the fact that BotW set a ridiculously high bar for games of this type on the console? It runs at 1080p docked and 720p handheld, and is pretty much locked at 30fps in most areas (infamous Korok forest aside), which is really impressive for an open-world game on what is essentially a handheld console running a mobile chip. I feel like people now expect that to be the standard for this genre, while ignoring the fact that BotW is a first-party game with a huge budget and that, while it looks AMAZING, it has very little happening on the screen at any one time compared to things like Xenoblade.
Re: Video: Digital Foundry Delivers Its Verdict On Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
Considering that I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for 200 hours (as a mix of handheld and docked) and LOVED it, this doesn’t bother me one bit. I’m far more interested in story and gameplay than graphics (not to say that a stable framerate and HD visuals don’t make a great game even better; it just isn’t a deal-breaker for me), and from what I know of this game, I already know I’m going to very much enjoy it.
As for the people expecting it to run at 720p handheld and 1080p docked, with a stable 30fps...you do realise that the Switch is mostly used as a handheld and is not even close to the power levels of the PS4/XB1, right? The devs probably decided to use lower graphical specs to make sure that the game did not drain the battery from a full charge in less than two hours (especially with so many Switch Lites in the wild). If you don’t like it, don’t buy it, but don’t whine about the devs being lazy or the Switch being underpowered ‘for 2020’.
Re: UK Charts: Animal Crossing Holds Strong While Mario Kart 8 Zips Past Call Of Duty
@MichaelHarvey Agreed! The 3DS is still tied with the Switch for me (thanks to the Story of Seasons games, the Zelda OoT and MM remakes, Fantasy Life and the Layton series), but I have no doubt the Switch will be my #1 favourite console by the time it reaches the end of its life cycle. Especially if one or more of the aforementioned games end up getting ported over eventually...
Re: Story Of Seasons: Friends Of Mineral Town File Size Revealed, 10 New Screenshots
@Ryu_Niiyama Sorry, I meant the Doraemon x Story of Seasons one! That’s the one I’ve played and is grindy as heck. I can’t wait for this one, I haven’t preordered yet but I’ve been heavily hinting at my SO that I would like the game, since it comes out a week before our anniversary. 😂
Re: Story Of Seasons: Friends Of Mineral Town File Size Revealed, 10 New Screenshots
@Ryu_Niiyama I’d recommend getting it on sale - although the watercolour graphics are adorable and the game is very reminiscent of the older HM games, it has some balancing issues and requires WAY too much mining to progress. For reference, I played the game for about 60 hours, and I spent about half of that time mining for ore; it got so tedious, it eventually made me stop playing.
Re: Random: Accurate Portrayal Of Famous Statues Send Animal Crossing Fans Wild
I actually laughed at this...I was born and raised in Rome, where we start going on museum field trips with our schools when we are 6 - and where, of course, the art is shown in all its uncensored glory. I have also never seen any censure of the statues’ bits in art history textbooks - even the illustrated, kiddy ones we had in primary school in the early 2000s. And just to clarify, I went to a religious school run by Roman catholic nuns until I was 10; if the nuns weren’t bothered to hide the use of nudity in art from a bunch of 7-year-olds, I don’t see why accurate reproductions in AC should be a cause for worry. 😂
Re: Super Mario 35th Anniversary Rumours Intensify
I’m totally behind this - I’d 100% buy an HD port/remaster of Mario 64 (even better if it’s based in the DS version), an HD Mario Galaxy collection and a port of 3D World, even as separate games. Fingers crossed this is true!
Re: Gallery: Feast Your Eyes On 20 Story Of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town Screenshots
I’m not a huge fan of the art style, to be honest, but I love Story of Seasons games and MFoMT is the one that got me into the genre, so think I’ll pick it up anyway once it comes out.
Re: Trials Of Mana Demo Releases On Japanese eShop Tomorrow, Will Include English Language Support
Nice! I have a Japanese account set up exclusively to download demos, so I’ll have to grab this tomorrow. If the servers are up again by then, that is...
Re: Japanese Charts: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Debuts In First, Switch Sales Go From Bad To Worse
@Anti-Matter hear hear! Stay safe out there, everyone!
Re: Video: Three New Animal Crossing: New Horizons Commercials To Brighten Your Day
@Investor9872 Isn’t that usually only things like norovirus (stomach bug) that live so long on hard surfaces, though? As far as I know (at least, as far as I was taught studying microbiology at uni) most flu-like viruses only survive on surfaces for 24 hours or less. The exception for Coronavirus seems to be metal surfaces, where it looks like it can survive for up to 9 days, but plastics should be safe fairly quickly afaik.
Re: Video: Three New Animal Crossing: New Horizons Commercials To Brighten Your Day
@Investor9872 I’m pretty sure Nintendo consoles and games for the Western market are not made in China anymore, but in Vietnam (iirc). Anyway, the virus only lives a few days on most surfaces, so the game and box should be fine since they’re probably already packaged and shrink-wrapped and en-route to the retailers by now.
Re: Poll: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Is Out Today On Switch, Are You Getting It?
I won’t be getting it day-one, but only because my birthday is in a few weeks and I needed to leave something for my poor SO to get me as a present. I loved the original on DS and really enjoyed the demo, so I’m very much looking forward to this!
Re: Review: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX - Fun, But Only In Short Doses
I loved the original in DS, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this, as well. I won’t be preordering though - I currently have more than enough to play with Rune Factory 4 and my Golden Deer play-through on Three Houses, and with Animal Crossing coming out in a couple of weeks (15 days, 7 hours and 57 minutes, but who’s counting, lol), that’ll be me sorted for ages. Besides, my birthday’s at the end of the month, so I need to leave something for my poor SO to get me as a present. ;P
Re: Random: Brie Larson Seems As Excited For Animal Crossing: New Horizons As We Are
@Zuljaras You’re sort of taking my words out of context there, mate. Some women may abuse the system in the way you described (though it’s extremely uncommon, partly because women make only a fraction of their wage while on maternity leave, and because many countries, including the US, only guarantee 6 weeks of maternity leave, or none at all), but I have also had a number of male colleagues who waited for their probationary period to end and then started calling in sick every other week, offloading their deadlines onto the rest of the team. Just because a small percentage of a group is dishonest, it doesn’t mean it’s fair to generalise and penalise the entire category by paying them less for their labour. By that reasoning, employers should also start asking men whether they smoke before they hire them, and pay them less if they do, since that would potentially mean they’d get cancer or respiratory problems Down the line and need extended periods off sick from work. Ah, but that is discrimination, and it wouldn’t be fair, now, wouldn’t it? You see where I’m going?
Re: Random: Brie Larson Seems As Excited For Animal Crossing: New Horizons As We Are
@Zuljaras I don’t usually like to get into politics here on NL, but I have to correct you there, since we do NOT have equality in the vast majority of developed countries. The gender pay gap in UK workplaces averages at 17%; women are considered less reliable/desirable employees because of the possibility that they might one day get pregnant and are frequently lobbied by their managers to quit their jobs once they do have a child, and around 20% of us (versus 4% of the men) face dealing with a sexual assault during our lifetime, and are often blamed for it. What, of all this, sounds fair or equal to you?
On a separate note, while I have not watched Captain Marvel and do not keep up with celebrity news - and thus cannot comment on her acting skills or political agenda - it’s really cool to see someone famous getting excited for AC. Only 17 days to go!
Edit: fixed some weird capitalisations.
Re: Review: Rune Factory 4 Special - The Definitive Version Of A Series Classic
@Ryu_Niiyama cough Fantasy Life cough and cough the Professor Layton series cough. Just those two things, and I’d be the happiest gamer on Earth. What is Level 5 waiting for?!
Edit: fixed a spelling error.
Re: Review: Rune Factory 4 Special - The Definitive Version Of A Series Classic
Can’t wait! I already have this pre-downloaded on my Switch (I had a lot of gold points saved up, so I snagged the game for less than £20), and I’m very much looking forward to diving into the game again after sinking 200 hours into the original five years ago. This will be the perfect thing to tide me over until Animal Crossing comes out!
Re: Nintendo Shares A Single New Animal Crossing: New Horizons Screenshot
@Welshland Sorry, mate. But hey, only 35 more days to go!