KateGray

@mlt I like to imagine that bugs are like popcorn to Shelob. Nutritionally worthless, extremely small so you have to eat lots at a time, but fun

@Ulysses I HAD A WHOLEEEE THING PLANNED OUT ABOUT THIS. That the Shire exists as a peaceful beginning, from which the contrast of adventure and peril can develop. There needs to be the threat of the loss of peace to have this peace MEAN something. It's hard-won, at the end of the story, and it's not surprising that Tolkien drew so much from the World War for the story — it's a sinister peace, one that came at a great cost.

This game is set between The Hobbit and LOTR, so they occasionally talk about Bilbo's adventures, but there's no real contrast. It's all just very nice, although the occasional meanness of the hobbits gives it a bit of texture. You're so right that you NEED something threatening, even mild threat (nature would have been a good one), to make the cosy actually cosy. Hygge was invented in a country that has a super-depressing winter! That's the whole point!!!!

But yeah, I ran out of room because I needed to talk about the basics and the bugs 😭

@CANOEberry I do stream, sometimes, but I think I'd have to get my own review codes if I did — using NL's codes for a stream would be a bit unusual. But the thing I like about writing a review is that I really get time to sort out my feelings on a game, which you don't get in a live format! If I made fun of the game before realising how much the devs suffered, I'd feel terrible.

@Dman10 I spent my entire weekend (when I wasn't polishing the review) puttering around my garden and making pizza, so... I'll have to disagree with you there! But I know they're not hobbies for everyone. That's okay. Plenty of room in the world for all of us

@mlt thank you. I spent a long time trying to figure out if Shelob would even eat bugs, or if it's just people 😅

@Spider-Kev I've been playing it for two weeks. Yes, they will probably patch out SOME of these things over the next few weeks and months, but I'm not sure why you think I've been playing a pirated copy — reviewers get sent codes by the studio!

Alex on the video team has showed some of the game running on Switch 2, and will be covering it more soon. I don't have a Switch 2 currently because the expense doesn't make sense for me yet — as a sometimes-writer for the site, I only review a handful of games a year.

@TheBoilerman It's complicated, but I work in game development, so I can make some educated assumptions.

1. no developer wants to release a broken game.

2. the reports indicate that the development was rushed and the team was unsupported and junior, which means they likely didn't have the experience or support to make a game that runs well or looks good.

3. reports also indicate that the game design changed a lot over development, which likely means that the design they ended up settling on didn't have a lot of time in the oven.

Yes, it's a broken game, and yes, the developers are the ones who made it, but it's hard to make a good game when the industry is hostile and you aren't getting help from your studio, because they keep laying off or losing all their senior developers.

@Maxz I will admit that around the time of my 12th crash, I said out loud "I think I understand why Gollum moved into a cave"

@The_Nintend_Pedant I know, right? It's so distractingly weird. But I can't blame Weta for that one — I guess that's how the Tolkien estate decided to trademark it for some reason!

@Bendythumbs WE'VE COME FULL CIRCLE!!

that was one of my favourite reviews to write. I begged the editor for an extra two pages because I had so much to say about the game

end of a very weird era

@HingryHuppo well, if it makes you feel better, I was going to give it a 9, but took off a point for the bugs. So I'm not giving it an 8 based on potential!

@Kirbysonic I think you'll still have a great time! I forget the cases almost IMMEDIATELY after playing them, so even having finished AAI before, I remembered next to nothing. Also, the localisation is all-new for the second game

@Diogmites I'd definitely play some of the other collections first. imo, it's best to play Phoenix and Apollo back-to-back, then come back to Investigations. You can play Great AA any time, and I'd recommend playing it last because it's the prettiest one

@AJWolfTill I felt the same when I played AAI back in the day, and I wasn't hugely looking forward to replaying it, but AAI2 is SOOOOO GOOOOD that I'm glad I did.

@PikaPhantom I've been busy reviewing the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection! I was offered the review, but didn't have the bandwidth — the Detective Club games take a surprisingly long time to play through, especially with all the repetitive interrogation bits. So PJ got to do the review instead, and I'm glad, because it's a great read and he knows his stuff

@NINTELDRITCH I left a couple of years ago!

there wasn't an answer that let me tell you that I exclusively lick Switch cartridges on the toilet...

YEAH BOIIIII THIS GAME RULES

@Scooby-Doo this made me laugh very hard. I am so glad that Badguy Murderman lives on.

YAY

gonna take at least partial credit for this after my review of the first two 😉

@iNintendo Absolutely! You can submit feedback here!

https://rawfury.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1

To give you some insight into the possibility of larger fonts: it was something we looked into a great deal, but it's unfortunately not possible to change most of the text because of the way the UI works and the way the translated words are inserted into the game. The Switch has a native zoom function that may help, though!

@rvcolem1 Thank you for saying that! I don't mind people disagreeing with me — I'm a game reviewer, not an Always Correct Opinion Haver, because those don't exist — but I do mind when people say I'm wrong, or biased, or stupid, or whatever.

I mean, I might be all of those things at times, but reviews are subjective, and are designed to let people know what a game is about, so they can choose for yourself — like you did I think giving something a 9 or 10 just makes people very angry for reasons I can never quite understand.

@FishyS oh yeah, when I was done with the Switch version and looked up PC/console reviews, I felt a little robbed by how gorgeous it is! That's why it's one of my main cons in this review. However... if I liked it this much on Switch, I bet I'd like it even more on PS5 or Xbox 😊

@gcunit I think she'll love it! A warning from later in the review: some of the topics are a bit dark, but in a cartoony way. There is death, murder, dismemberment, and a character that eats babies. But again, it's all cartoony, so it's up to you

Length-wise it's a short 6-8 hours to blast through the story, but there's so much stuff to do you can easily play for at least twice that long!

Thank you for highlighting our game 😭

YYYEEEEEEAAAAAH Nintendo must actually be reading my wishlist at this point

Edgey-poo!!!!! my beloved!

@Dm9982 I'm the only writer and also the community manager! If you see someone saying they're Moonstone Island on Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, or Discord, it's probably me!

@KoiTenchi you really don't have to engage with the farming much at all. It's mostly there so you can grow crops that heal/buff your Spirits and make potions, but you can find the crops in the wild or buy them. There are a couple of quests that will require certain crops, but it's not hard to find them.

We tell people it's not really intended to be a farming game, it's more about the creature collecting and deckbuilding, but you can engage with the farming side as much or as little as you want!

@somnambulance @Rainz Thank you both! I have been doing a lot of this stuff, and you've reassured me that I'm on the right path, at least. And I just unlocked the rice farm! Woo!

I switched from killing fish with guns to using tranqs and nets, and that made a biiiiig difference alone in terms of fishy quality. I'll keep at it

@FishyS I promise it's not that scary. I actually got one of my friends into deckbuilding by making them play Moonstone Island, lol

now they're playing Balatro and Slay the Spire for fun!

@TotalHenshin UH. I MUST LEAVE. I HAVE MANY MOUSTACHE MEETINGS TO ATTEND

@TotalHenshin hello there it's me, a person who is not Kate, as you can tell from my large and glorious and very real moustache. Moonstone Island is very good. you can trust me because I am a real moustache man

@cookiki I think that's still true! I write occasionally for the site still, I'm just not a full-time staff writer any more

I do love cows and crabs

I came here to say "hey this art looks like David Hellman's art from Braid"

I guess I'm technically right 😅

@somnambulance any tips? I'm finding all the systems hard to keep track of! There's so much to remember! I just unlocked the fish farm and the Sea People Village and I already struggled with diving + sushi hahahaha

@Diogmites thank YOU, diogmites! I don't like giving low scores, so I spent a lot of time walking through my thought process. I think the game is beautiful too, and it looks like it'll probably do well on PC and Xbox

@awp69 I honestly don't know why I had such a rough time with it when PC (and presumably Xbox) seems to be just fine. My guess is that the Switch screen tininess + bugs combined in a particularly rough way 😔 I'm so glad it's good on Game Pass though, and I hope lots of people play it there!

@Capt_T @Capt_T I know what it says, I used to work here! But I also know that IGN doesn't own NL

The Witcher 3 is a game on the Nintendo Switch, and IGN does not own Nintendolife. Also, you both clicked on it 🤷

@PikminMarioKirby I hope so!

@Diogmites I'll never tell!!!! well... I will have to eventually, I guess

PAPER MARIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

@jump I'm cautiously excited! I fell off around Like Clockwork, jumped back on HARD for Villains, and then sort of lost track after that, which was the time where all the bad things were happening to Josh. So I had to look up a LOT of context, but now I'm back on board with In Times New Roman and happy for it ☺️

@Doctor-Moo this is terrible but I can't really tell the difference between the Marios Party, I haven't played enough of them to know better!

@TheBigK I love it here very much!!!! I have a house and a garden, I'd never get that in Montreal. I just sometimes miss being able to go to concerts and big events, yknow? But it's worth it for the quality of life here.

Having said that, I will be going to see Queens of the Stone Age next week ☺️ they're my favourite!!!

@Ooyah well now I'm maining the Anaglyph Deck too! I'm not very good at it so far...

Also, it seems like the upcoming patch will make things a little easier where it counts

@RJCW @Diogmites thank you both! When Fantasy Life 2 comes out, eventually, I hope I'll be reviewing that too........

@Pod I really don't know why they decided to recall The Witness quite so much, but I was glad it was only surface-level

@the4realpsych I've seen some reviews putting it at 6 hours! Annoyingly, the Switch won't let you see your playtime for new games, so 4 hours was an estimate, but howlongtobeat is saying 4 hours too.