Kestrel

Poor performance is never due to hardware — it's only ever a (very predictable) outcome of sloppy optimization. Optimization is something that should be worked on constantly, starting on day 1, but all too often it winds up being a low-priority and devs don't start working on optimizing their builds until very late in development — at which point options are limited.

Blaming hardware is just deflecting responsibility. The Nintendo Switch could absolutely handle BotW/TotK at 60fps — if Nintendo chose to make that target a priority (friendly reminder that ALBW on the 3DS managed a silky-smooth 60fps). But they don't, because 30fps is "good enough" for most consumers, even with dips.

That mentality isn't going to change with more powerful hardware — if the bare minimum will suffice, then there's little incentive to invest in aiming higher. Nintendo knows it's consumers will tolerate poorly optimized games, so they've little reason to view that as a significant problem.

I was holding out hope they'd (finally) latch in an XP bank, but I guess not, huh? Too bad.

@N00BiSH Right? How long has it been? 2 years? 3? Been waiting forever.

@Everythingnotsaved lol, yeah, they look really weird and goofy. It's gonna be really funny when it inevitably turns out the weapons sprouting out of their heads do more damage than the ones in their hands.

@Krysus I mean, Square-Enix has had a pretty troubled history with Final Fantasy Games since the merger, you really SHOULD doubt their ability to deliver. But has Nintendo ever really failed to deliver with ANY of their flagship series? IE, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc.?

Yeah, there's no contest here. BotW's trailer was showing off an astonishingly beautiful open world unlike anything we'd ever seen before, absolutely brilliant scoring, and promised a dramatic, emotional story lending new weight to familiar beats.

I get folks riding high on the hype for TotK, but... no, the trailers are nowhere near comparable. TotK's trailer is showing us... a somewhat modified version of a (still drop-dead gorgeous) world we've already thoroughly explored, and only sort of gestures at its narrative. It's more of a teaser than a trailer, despite its length.

@blindsquarel I may be letting my myself get a bit carried away be hopeful thinking here, but what I suspect/want to be the case is that Link won't have the Sheikah Slate abilities from the start — that they'll be replicated later, with (dungeon?) items — so that your default abilities are just the TK hand and crafting skill, which wouldn't need quite as much tutorialization.

Like I'm imagining the tutorial basically being oriented around Link having to craft a glider (or similar thing) to get down to the surface.

The only thing that really disappointed me in BotW was the absence of any caves. Really hoping we get some real deep labyrinths to explore in TotK.

I hope so. I keep checking the Steam page every few weeks hoping they'll let me buy the damned thing already. They already have my money — they just haven't taken it yet.

My most coherent thought was, "In 200 hours of BotW I only collected 70 or so rubies...." after seeing Link attach one to an arrow. So wasteful! Hoard them rocks, Link!

G-gyaru Zelda? Again?

Anyway, I think y'all maybe missed one: right before the trailer shows Hyrule Castle raising up out of the ground we see another huge structure begin to rise up out of the desert — looks like a giant step pyramid. This would seem to (further) indicate the return of more elaborate dungeons.

@Lebest What is this inane, word salad reply? Are you drunk? High? Suffer a recent blow to the head?

I miss those old snowboarding games. 1080 was great, but SSX 3 would be my personal favorite. Shame they don't really make games like that any more... tried a couple "spiritual successors" on Steam and then immediately went back to my Gamecube.

@Yaycandy I'm a bit late to have ever done that, but as a kid on the 00s I definitely remember putting tape on the TV screen to mark the weak points for those annoying Walls in Okami.

I'm still bitter about that whole XC3 fiasco.

I think it's probably a good time for me to start going out of ,y way to avoid any and all things Zelda. I see this list of questions and all I can think is that I really do NOT want to know the answers. I'll leave that for the game, which'll be out in just a few more blinks of the eye.

Somewhere between a 4 and a 6 for me. Combat is fine — adequate. Story, characters and setting do nothing for me at the best of times, and are actively annoying at the worst of times. Music is pretty decent.

I'd rank it below Fates overall, but above Fates Conquest, specifically.

I picked up a bunch of Final Fantasy games on sale (Steam copies via GOG) so, you'd think, I'd be playing one of those.

Instead I've mostly just been fiddling with my music library on MusicBee — which, in fairness, has like 30 different FF albums — and playing Vampire Survivors in the odd moments in-between.

Switch doesn't feel old to me at all — middle-aged, maybe, sure.

What does feel rather long in the tooth these days is the perpetual assumption so many people seem to have that new hardware will magically resolve all the performance issues we're stuck dealing. Sorry, folks, but the people who can't be bothered to optimize their games for the Switch ain't gonna spontaneously manifest the will to do so for the Switch's successor.

@Jhena Er... not sure what makes you think I'm unhappy with anything. Quite the opposite. Between the the damage to the industry caused by smartphones, earthquakes and HD development costs, the 2010s were a pretty bad era for JRPGs — there's a reason why so many classic series suddenly died in the PS3 era.

The Japanese development scene has only really recovered from that in the past few years, but high development costs are still gonna keep the genre from even approaching those old heights simply due to how much longer it takes to build a game, and how fewer studios still have the budget to do so. It's cool that we're seeing so many remasters and remakes, and that helps shore things up a bit, but I wouldn't really factor those in whether or not it's a "golden age."

It's not about being happy or unhappy (and seriously, dude, do NOT go around making assumptions about other people's mental states, that's really annoying — among other things) and more that the SNES-->PS2 (or NDS) era is so strong for the genre that it's hard to consider any other era as coming even remotely close to it.

You could definitely call what we're seeing now a resurgence, or Renaissance. Everything post-Persona 5 has been quite pleasant to see.

@Jhena Not so much a new Golden Age as that we've finally recovered from a dark age.

@JeanPaul Haha... yeah, it's a lot to get into. But very interesting, especially if you're interested in the history of the genre. Falcom is notable for being one of the oldest PC game developers on the planet, since it started in 1989 (IIRC) the Legend of Heroes series also winds up being one of the longest-running RPG series out there, right alongside your Dragon Quests and Final Fantasies. Basically, there's a ton of history here that's largely unknown outside of Japan for various reasons.

Anyway, yeah, Zero is an excellent starting point. It will spoil some stuff from Sky, but despite what some fans will loudly insist, I really think the main appeal of the Trails series in the characters, not the plot. So even if you know certain twists ahead of time, if and when you are able to go back to the Sky games, I'm certain you'll still enjoy them immensely, despite the spoiler.

@BulbasaurusRex Really baffled why you'd think I haven't played the game, or own a WiiU. Like... did you not read any of my posts here? I think it's pretty obvious I own the game and have played it. Quite thoroughly, I might add.

Also baffled why you, or anyone, really, would ever think it would be a GOOD thing for a game to be kept confined to an obsolete platform. If you actually love a game, surely you'd want more people to play it than just yourself?

Also also baffled why you think that tapping a button to bring up a screen would be any more disrupting that physically turning your whole head to look at a different screen; or why you assume that any port would inevitably be of poor quality — you know the NS has better hardware than the WiiU, right? And that there's eventually gonna be an NS2; and further baffled that you think the map was such an integral part of the game that you'd need to be referring to it frequently. At least for my part I didn't find myself pulling up XCX's map any more frequently than I did the map in Breath of the Wild, or RDR2.

The former of which is actually a really good example here. Breath of the Wild was a tablet-dependent WiiU game ported to the Switch. And it runs better on the NS than on the WiiU. Breath of the Wild was also built around constantly being able to refer back to the world map/inventory menus on the tablet's second screen. That functionality got axed... and, you know what? No one missed it. XCX is not so fundamentally different that the same would not be possible here.

In short, I find your whole stance here unnecessarily pessimistic.

Literally the WORST thing about Trails is how much explanation is required to introduce it to (potential) new fans. I mean, Jesus. Look at all that text. That's the SHORT version. And it omits so, so, so much.

Like I didn't even get into Dragon Slayer.

@JeanPaul Here's a basic rundown, but first? The short answer is NO. Reverie would be one of the worst places to start.

Generally speaking, the Trails series is divided up into multiple story arcs consisting of duologies, or pairs of games. Most duologies feature a (mostly) new cast of characters in a different region of the Zemuria continent, (often) in a slightly different time period. The first part of any duology is intended to introduce new players to the world and be a good jumping-on point, and for the most part they function well as such.

In addition to the duologies there are "gaiden" games — think of them as (very) extended epilogues for the preceding duology that also work to set up some stuff for the next duology. Gaidens can be considered optional, but many fans consider them to be among the best games in the series, so ignore them at your own risk.

(There are also spin-off games like Nayuta, but we don't need to get into them here).

So, to map everything out:

• Liberl Duology: Trails in the Sky & Trails in the Sky SC.
• Liberl Gaiden: Trails in the Sky The 3rd.
• Crossbell Duology: Trails from Zero & Trails to Azure.
• East Erebonia Duology: Trails of Cold Steel & Trails of Cold Steel 2
• West Erebonia Duology: Trails of Cold Steel 3 & Trails of Cold Steel 4.
• Erebonia/Crossbell Gaiden: Trails into Reverie
• Calvard Duology: look, it's complicated, and I haven't played these so who knows... but from what people have said, it's Kuro no Kiseki and Kuro no Kiseki 3, with the second game somehow being more like a Gaiden. Currently unavailable in English, though, so no need to worry about 'em.

On Nintendo Switch, you have two (unequal) options for entry points into the series: Trails of Cold Steel III and Trails from Zero. The former is a fine place to start the series, but far from ideal. The closest analog would be if "Infinity War" were your first MCU movie. Sure, it'd be a fun film, and you wouldn't have any trouble following it... but you also would really be able to appreciate the COPIOUS fanservice.

Therefore if you only have a Switch, start with Trails from Zero, then play Azure. After that, play whatever you like, just know that as in most things your experience with the series will be better if you consume the media in production order.

I just played the XEL demo a few days ago. Seemed pretty inoffensive to me. Not great, not awful, just super mid.

Seems like this is probably a case of the really Bads just not ranking in Metacritic because no one's bothering to review 'em.

Nothing for me this week, or this month. I, uh... went a bit overboard on Christmas shopping this year.

Will definitely be picking up Crisis Core and Dragon Quest Treasures in a month or two, though.

Not really sure what the "of varying quality" thing is supposed to signify. Dragon Quest proper is literally THE most consistent JRPG series out there. Virtually every single game in the series has ranked somewhere between "very good" and "timeless classic." There's a reason why it's a cultural juggernaut.

If you're just commenting on the spin-offs, that's fair, but you should say that.

@Miu I hope you get the chance! It's one of the best experiences I've ever had with games.

And also, to be perfectly honest, it kind of NEEDS a remaster. The UI is a confusing mess of menu elements and too-small text (nowhere near so bad, overall, as the first Xenoblade... but a far cry from the streamlines interfaces of XC2, XCR or XCR).

And while some people act like the second-screen thing would be difficult to translate to a different console, honestly all it really does is let you open up a menu while still playing the game. Easy enough to convert that into, you know, an actual menu that pauses the game while you mess around.

Addendum: quick PSA for anyone who might not have noticed or forgotten, while flying you can press L3 and R3 simultaneously to free fall. It is incredibly fun! Fly up as high as you can go (which is quite high) and then just fall all the way down!

Also: as good as the world is to explore, like... a huge chunk of what makes that exploration enjoyable isn't the world itself, it's the mechanics you use to explore. Like those old Miyamoto quotes about Mario say, the most important thing (in that case running and jumping) is for the principal mechanic of the game to feel perfect. And XCX really nails that.

On foot, you can run sprint incredibly fast and leap far higher than any human physically could (unaided). This keeps the early game interesting and you run and hop through the world, experimenting with platforming to access areas you maybe shouldn't be going. And then a third of the way through, you unlock the Skells, and suddenly you're whole perspective on the world shifts: you're bigger, faster, and far more dangerous. Towering monsters you once had no choice but to flee from now cower beneath you. Vast tracts of land that required long hikes to traverse can now be sped through with the Skell's motorcycle form — sure, the physics can be wonky, but who didn't spend hours just zooming about the world, picking up items and leaving overpowered boss-monsters eating your dust?

And then in the last third of the game, you get to FLY. And the "game feel" of the flight mechanics is absolutely perfect. From this point on, you stride and soar across Mira like a god.

90% of your time in any game is spent simply moving from point A to B. Usually the mechanics to get you there are utterly unremarkable — something you'll typically only notice when something's wrong. But XCX really embraces the lesson taught by the Mario games, and makes the raw act of traversal a consistent delight. Yes, Mira is a gorgeous, intricately-designed open-world that is endlessly fascinating to explore... but what really transforms XCX into a truly great game is simply how gratifying it is to move through it.

To this day, I still regularly boot up my WiiU — literally the only reason I still have it plugged in — and load up Xenoblade X. I don't bother fighting any monsters or talking to any NPCs or completing any quests. I simply fly.

These polls are kinda worthless if you can't be bothered to include every game that releases in a given week. So much shovelware here, yet Front Mission gets forgotten? Yikes.

There's really no way to respond to something like this other than to nod my head vigorously at every sentence.

It's not merely unfortunate that XCX has yet to see a port/remaster/sequel, it's a travesty. Borderline criminal. Especially considering just how freakin' rare good SF games are these days, or even more specifically, good mech games.

Exciting news! Here's hoping this means the chances of a Suikoden V remaster are greater than 0% now! Best game in the series but, good grief, those loading times on PS2 are brutal.

Watch them release it the day after the war ends.

@ChadThundercock69 Oh please, it wasn't that bad.

Though -five- different farming ROGs was a bit much, I'll grant.

Neat.

But TBH I'm more excited for very minor QoL stuff in future updates.

I definitely like the character design, though. Very unique. Though it is vaguely reminiscent of the ARMS stuff.

Can someone explain to me why people go so crazy for this game? I emu,aged it a while back and... found it to be pretty rough.

Huh. Guess the first game must've sold really, really well. Ah well. Here's hoping they manage to integrate the 8 stories better this time around.

(Also, where's that HD-2D Dragon Quest III?)

So, no news of the perpetually-rumored remasters, but we did get a BotW2 release date, logo and title review! And it's less than a year away! Very exciting!

Or, rather, it would be... if it revealed literally anything new about the game itself.

Oof. That much DLC is gonna cost an arm and a leg.

Also, I'm kinda concerned about the gameplay. How's gonna work? That looked like the stylus controls from the 3DS games (no button prompts, just color#) which... yeah, I dunno. I can't see that working well on the Switch. Presumably there'll be button-input as well, but it's kinda weird they didn't show it.

Really not feeling it. Art direction is solid at least, PC character design notwithstanding (hopefully they'll be customizable like in the 3DS games) but everything about the premise/story looks awful. At first I thought it was gonna be a new mobile game or musou (somehow). But... it's a new mainline entry? Really?

Well, maybe they'll surprise me. Fates looked awesome in the trailers, and turned out to be pretty crap, so surely the inverse can happen, too.

@Baker1000 Famitsu doesn't actually review games. They only rate them, with each of the 4 judges providing a very brief explanation for their rating, usually just 1-2 sentences.

Can't wait for more NecroDancer.

BotW, XC3, Splatoon 3, BotW2, they really will work on anything in the world but XCX2, huh?

I remember the exact same same predictions from "reliable" journalists around this time last year.

I'm not sure I'd call the Zelda remakes "endless," considering there's only ever been... lemme count 'em... exactly 1.

But, yeah, remasters can only go so far and backwards compatibility is ideal. But is this really a bone to pick with Nintendo? Their platforms are so wildly different from each other that backwards-compatibility is effectively impossible. Even ignoring the (not insubstantial) issue of media format, a Switch simply cannot play 3DS games (no resistive touch screen) nor WiiU games (no multi-screen functionality--which also affects potential NDS/3DS compatibility).

Take it up with Sony, who could've made the PS4 and PS5 fully backwards compatible with all PS1 and PS2 games simply through software emulation, but chose not to.

Or, I guess, start lobbying Nintendo to abandon their present and historically very-successful hardware design philosophy to focus on making much more conventional consoles instead.

Does this qualify as throwing shade on all 5e Nintendo games that fail to hit 30?

@Jiggies also worth noting that what's ideal and what's adequate is not a constant--it varies from genre to genre. I'd argue that for certain modern action games, 60fps is only adequate--120 being the ideal. Meanwhile turn-based and/or puzzle games, without a lot of complex or quick movement, can be well suited for 30fps — or fewer.

@GuyProsciutto I thought the PS5 was also backwards compatible? That was the only reason I had one in my, "To Buy, Eventually," list.

It's also worth considering that console life-spans are going to (have to) increase to accommodate how much more time it takes simply to develop new games each generation.