Kestrel

@JohnnyMind It wasn't that long ago when Nintendo had special production runs for games that sold over a set number, that were priced at $20: Nintendo deserves all the criticism they get.

After VII-Remake, I just don't understand why anyone would want a IX Remake — the rumors of which never really came across as anything more than wishful thinking.

Like quality issues aside, splitting a remake of one game into into three (or 3+?) releases spread out across a decade (or more) really isn't the best precedent.

Fantasy Life is really the only contender here.

The one I always see folks talking about is Mega Man X.

@B3RTAY Same. Though I've also put more time into MK8 on my Switch 2 than MKW.

@OorWullie Or it's not going in a new direction, and reusing the engine and core mechanics of Odyssey makes it easier to bring in a pinch-hitter for.

In any case, I'm not gonna get my hopes up for anything. I remember the WiiU era, and I remember how much y'all got excited about "all the games" we were so sure Nintendo was holding back for the Switch 2 reveal, only for that number to be 2.

@sethfranum No, man, arguing that NS1 games and ports of old PC/PS/XB games are the same as actually new NS2 games would be disingenuous. As would acting like some "local" retailers having extra stock is the same thing as the console being "readily available." And why, exactly, do you assume I have a big backlog of NS1 games? I don't, and even if I did, that wouldn't exactly have any relevance here.

You realize that just because I'm okay with waiting a while to pick up the console... that doesn't make me your enemy, right? That just because I'm not salivating over every little aspect of this launch, that doesn't invalidate your own enthusiasm, right? Just... chill out.

I believe it when I see it. It took nearly two years for the PS5 to become readily available, so I won't exactly be holding my breath for it.

Though I guess it means I'll benefit from having more than two games to look forward to whenever I'm able to get one.

The first remake was pretty solid, I thought, minor performance issues aside. It was FM2 where they really dropped the ball — including on the English localization, which was all-but incomprehensible (like the result of MTL). And since they've never bothered to really fox that, despite it being a relatively easy and cheap thing to do, I can't say I have any hope in the FM3 remake being passable.

People absolutely will pay for the best. But no one in history has ever accused a Borderlands game of being the best anything.

This would be very exciting news... if Elden Ring wasn't a classless game.

All this really means is that they're adding two new preselected build for players to start the game with. And as someone who has made custom class mods for various other classless games in the past, this almost certainly involved less than an hour of work.

In other-words: a pretty meaningless addition whose only real function is to oil the the ever-churning hype machine so everything keeps spinning along properly.

Such a shame, then, that the story is (by far) the weakest element of the game. Though I guess that means there's more than enough room for improvement.

@Gorlock Uh... you're describing missions that don't exist. The missions that send you to areas with higher-level enemies are not missions where you're supposed to bludgeon your way through, fighting everyone. They're missions for you to be stealthy and avoid combat, or search out safe routes to your objective.

@FishyS probably years, possibly decades — but certainly not forever. Which is the problem.

Eventually those servers are gonna go down — and when that happens, these games will cease to exist. Along with all other games that require online verification to play, like Tears of the Kingdom.

@garfreek I have to assume it's referring to the Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster Version, just because that's the only game that's listed just as "Final Fantasy" (though I think the listing may be in all-caps).

But even then, it'd make more sense if the entire franchise had issues, because it's really hard to imagine a world where FF2-6 PRs all work flawlessly, but not FF1PR; and even harder to imagine a world where FF2PR and FF3PR were tested, but not FF1PR.

Mario Kart has always been genre-defining, to the point that the rest of the genre may as well not exist. Donkey Kong? Eh, not really. Maybe if we were talking about that Mario game literally everyone expected to see last week, sure, but Donkey Kong? Look, I love DK, but that ape has never been anywhere remotely close to casting that long of a shadow.

EDIT: That said, it's probably worth noting that "a racing game, but open world" has already been done, multiple times, and is MKW really wants to keep defining the genre, it's gonna need to do something new with that premise (which we haven't seen any evidence of yet).

So, if I want to be able to wake up my console with a controller, I have to buy a new one? Laaaaaaame.

Playing XCX again has really made me reevaluate which game has the "best combat."

It's XC3.

Granted. I think XCX does a lot of good thins I'd wish were incorporated into XC3, but on the whole, the pacing is just way too slow — especially if you, like me, are diving into XCX immediately after XC3. I'd gladly accept standing still to attack enemies in X if it meant I could do better than whittling off enemy HP one small sliver at a time.

@AussieMcBucket Of course we'll be paying. This is the same company that charged WiiU users a fee to access the NES roms they already had purchased installed on their WiiUs via the WiiU menu.

There was never the slightest chance of free updates for improved performance.

That said, we can still hope that NS1 games played on the NS2 via BC will still have better performance, but who knows.

I look forward to not being able to find any in-stock until June 2028.

So, like cel-shading but even better at making everything seem 2D? That'd be pretty cool, but it's hard to get excited without at least seeing a screenshot — or better still, a video.

@ouroborous Molded in color, no paint or glue required, though if you want 'em to look decent some panel lining and decals go a loooong way. Think HG gunpla, but at a much higher price — that's a Kotobukiya kit.

Sadly Dalong doesn't seem to have a review up for this kit, specifically, but here's what the Kotobukiya Laevatein model looks like (with no paint, lines or decals) for reference: http://www.dalong.net/reviews/kotobukiya/as01/as01_p.htm

@SearchingS There already is NG+, you just use the Time Machine to go back in time to wherever you like.

As for difficulty, yeah, a new mode would be nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I should add that one of the coolest parts of the original game was how the open world would change as you progressed through the story (mostly NLA, but also other things, like the water treatment plant) so while it would be a much bigger technical hurdle, I think it is possible they might just add the new biome on the existing map after a story milestone is reached. It certainly would reinforce that whole mysterious "came out of nowhere" vibe if it literally did just that.

Best case news: new Suikoden game (probably mid-budget HD-2D style) announced.
Second-best case news: Suikoden 3 & 5 remasters announced.
Worst case news: Suikoden 4 remaster announced.

Guess it's about time for a refresher on what the fastest route to flying Skells was. I remember it being kind of a hassle the first time through.

I don't know why anyone would expect Nintendo do to bring them back later, or something similar, let alone be confident in that happening — that's just not how these things work. The gold points were an incentive to get people to buy games digitally, now that physically media is very clearly o. It's last legs, that incentive is no longer necessary.

@IceClimbersMain Congratulations on being the first person in the comments section to read more than just the headline! And it only took 23 posts....

It was neat, yeah, and betrayed a sense of fun that Nintendo's really been missing since Iwata's passing.

But if we're talking about legacy features that are sorely missed, I have to say, I think the Activity Log claims the top spot on my list. Just give us the data, Nintendo!

@FX29 Fans tend to greatly overstate how interconnected the games are, outside of the base duologies. It's really not that much more complicated than Suikoden was.

Hell, even within the duologies, each game is still pretty self-contained. Like FC is just its own story, beginning middle and end, but ends on a sudden reveal that sets up the next game — but FC's own story concludes very definitively.

And, frankly, the over-arcing plot tying all the games together isn't all that interesting. It's just "secret society is up to shenanigans, for unclear reasons."

"Realistic gunfire" seems like a bit of a stretch....

lol, no thanks. I've tried to order from BestBuy maybe a half-dozen times to get one of their pre-order bonuses... and gotten exactly zero.

At least it's nothing I'll be sad to miss out on, like a steelbook case.

Of course it looks "current gen." The fidelity arc plateaued more than a decade ago. The only real benefit left from new hardware is better performance with less optimization. That's it.

How good a game looks now, much like it has been since 2015, is down entirely to how much time and money the developers have, and the overall art direction they go with.

So anywhere between 0.01% fully backwards compatible and 99.9%.

Pretty boring. Didn't actually inform us of anything we didn't already know, directly from Nintendo, or show us something we hadn't already seen. I can't even muster any excitement for the brief MK9 reveal, because the only shots they shared were of a very basic and boring looking track. Perfectly level, really? Not even a hint of of a gliding section, antigravity portion, or even a gentle slop? Really bad first impression. And after the abysmal NSO DLC, I'm worried MK9 might wind up being a big step back in quality.

I mean, hopefully that's a groundless anxiety, but I need something to latch onto to keep the faith.

As for the console itself, it's also pretty boring. Why is it (almost) all black? Where's the color? The fun? The NS1 may not have been that colorful, but it's bright Joycons and their asymmetrical look inspired a wave of Switch-themed "patchwork dog" fanart for a reason, and I can't imagine this design inspiring anyone. Seems like they're moving closer to the aesthetic of the Steam Deck and other imitators here, which is definitely the wrong move. Has Nintendo finally forgotten they're a toy company?

Ultimately, I was worried going into the trailer, and just as worried going out. Nintendo has a real bad habit of just... not really putting their heart into platforms the following-up big successes. Of assuming that just because the last console was a hit, so will the next one. That everyone who bought a Wii will also buy a WiiU. I really don't want to see them make that same mistake again.

I just want a date already. Couldn't care less about the hardware, but I'm excited to see what games they have to show off.

I, too, feel the need to comment to express confusion at extremely explicable things.

@Yoshi3 lol, those "insiders" are never reputable.

Already preordered a physical copy directly from Nintendo and the only thing holding me back from preordering a digital copy right this very second is the fact that I have no idea what I'd use the second game voucher on.

I don't really get why folks seem more upset by this being an iterative upgrade — you know, like the SNES, the GBA, the 3DS, etc. (hardly unprecedented) — than the fact that the design is, apparently, so dreary and colorless.

@SplatRay001 I dunno, lumping remasters in with remakes shows these awards have some room for improvement, too.

Can't say any of these are too exciting for me. The best games there are just rereleases of stuff I played years and years ago.

All the best PS4 games have already been ported, haven't they?

Gotta say, I'll be very disappointed if the Switch 2 is just a black or gray slab of plastic. Colorful consoles are so much more fun!

@Solomon_Rambling No one's gonna want to review games that aren't worth playing, and with 50+ games coming out every day on Steam alone, the vast majority of games will never be reviewed.

@-wc- I'm much the same. Absolutely loved Okami, but aside from Infinite Space, none of the Platinum games have really appealed to me very much. I'm generally inclined to believe the stuff about Okami I loved was more the result of, you know, everyone else who worked on the game.

Between the man's work since and behavior, Kamiya's name alone isn't enough to convince me the upcoming Okami sequel will be any good at all, let alone live up to the original.

Don't know what to even say to anyone who still hasn't picked up Okami. It's 2024. Nearly 2025. We been tellin' ya'. For decades. At substantial volume.

It feels like there's a lot of imaginative space for a modernized version of Pac-Man dipicting the titular entity as some kind of all-devouring eldritch creature, roaming through vast labyrinthine spaces, haunted and hunted by specters in its undending quest to consume more, more, ever more.

But, uh... I guess dumping Pac-Man into a generic metroidvania is an idea, too.

Also, Raziel's raison d'être is heavily-monologued revenge quests. I don't know what the reviewer thinks those French words mean, but uh... they may want to look them up sometime.