Well he already turned FFVII into an amateur fan fiction of itself, so let's hope Kingdom Hearts is the last and only thing his sloppy writing infects.
@Dr_Lugae I think your interpretation on his quote is a bit uncharitable. Here's a larger piece of that interview:
He wanted to show me what he made. The game, called The Tentai Show, is an arcade-style shooting game for the Nintendo DS. It challenges players to stop meteoroids that are hurtling toward a planet that is positioned where the system’s dual screens meet.
Mizobe wanted me to notice that the game used both of the DS’ screens for gameplay, a contrast with how most DS games treated one screen as its main gameplay view and used the other for support functions.
“Nintendo wanted students to create a new game,” he said. “So I learned how to create a new game and think in a unique style of game development.”
Had he learned any lessons from working with Nintendo that stuck with him years later?
“Kind of,” he said with a laugh. “I always think: To make new things is very hard.
“In game development, of course, sometimes we have to do it, but, as much as possible, I try to avoid creating new things.”
You like to mix and match, I suggested, thinking back to 2021, when I’d last interviewed Mizobe.
“Yes,” he replied.
:I understand that him and his team are involved in one controversy after the next about copying others people's work, but this is a pretty normal way to operate when creating something yourself. The majority of your ideas are going to be repurposed from the menagerie of things that inspire you, and typically you give those ideas a twist by combining them with others or having something new thrown in with it, that's just how people work.
Whether or not something is a copy of another is a matter of execution, and with that in mind, Palworld at the end of the day is clearly a distinct game from its inspirations through the combination of its inspirations. Which is exactly how most things - especially video games - are in certain degrees.
This isn't to defend anything Pocketpair may have done in infringing on Nintendo's patents, it's just to point out that that quote isn't really as damning to his character as you think it is.
@HeadPirate Fair enough, I may have jumped the gun there. My mind immediately went to stuff like WB's nemesis system and Namco putting a patent on loading screen minigames and assumed this was a similar case. Should have waited until we knew more about what patents exactly the Palworld devs are accused of infringing on.
Pretty faithful recreations of the Toriyama designs for the SNES remakes, they look badass. Not a fan of the ugly orange sports bra and shorts combo under the bikini armor obviously, but otherwise they all look great.
@SleeplessKnight Hard to say since I don't know how you define a weirdo Nintendo fan. Like with any fanbase there are a number of them who are entirely uncritical of 'the new thing', but at least with Nintendo I feel that we're seeing less and less of that. For example I don't see many people going to bat for their mediocre drip-feed model sports games, and public opinion on Pokémon has shifted drastically with each new low quality release (despite still having high sales numbers). I think the Switch is one of the weaker console generations myself, due to Nintendo's output of NEW games being fewer and more of a mixed bag of quality. But it's also got a gigantic collection of ports and classic games to supplement its library, so I can definitely understand why the switch is so many people's favorite.
The part of the fanbase I don't particularly care for are the capital NINTENDO fans. As in, the fans who only play the games that Nintendo themselves make. I feel where the platform has always shined most is it's sheer variety of games, and when you have this not insignificant subset of fans who exclusively play Mario and Zelda whine whenever resources are put into more niche projects (eg: Fire Emblem, Splatoon, Famicom Detective Club), it sets a bad precedent that I'm glad Nintendo has so far completely ignored.
@SleeplessKnight Thanks man, made it myself. First consoles I owned were a hand-me-down SNES with Super Mario World and a GBA. I believe I was around 6 at the time, so roughly 22 years.
As long as the game's just on par with the Girl Who Stands Behind it's gonna be a great time. Those two remakes might just be the very best "switch" games I've played under TOTK and maybe Mario Odyssey. Very much looking forward to it, even more now.
@Samalik Censored how? I've started a fighting game arc, so these collections are cool and all- but I'd like to go with the definitive version of every game and sometimes these arcade ports are not the pick.
@Ryu_Niiyama Lol, so far I've only played 4 out of what? TWENTY SOMETHING!? And one of those I played when I was 15 and got the worst ending so I shouldn't even be counting that one.
@rex_rex Corn Kidz 64 is a decent choice if you haven't tried it yet. It feels a bit wonky at times but it definitely doesn't hold your hand with the more challenging bits. Psuedoregalia is also a good one too in terms of sheer options of movement, but I didn't find the actual game too difficult myself, so mileage may vary. Both games are under $10 too!
@OwenOtter Right, I dedicated at least 15 hours alone watching the meal cutscenes and reading through all the rapport conversations lol. All together and counting reloaded saves my first playthrough has to be around 120-130 hours. Should definitely make the list.
Working through all the No More Heroes games, I've only ever played 2 on the Wii. Currently half way through 2 right now and I gotta say, despite these games not being particularly great mechanically or narratively, there's just some incredible magnetism to them. There's something really cool about having this duo of gory, insane black comedies just sitting right next to Mario Galaxy and Animal Crossing City Folk.
@Samalik I mean I prefer the original for the sprite work but you could easily argue now there's even more strategy involved in the remake since you have to commit to using an expendable resource in order to attack. Whereas in the original your basic attack was so powerful you hardly ever needed to use your limited moves.
For anyone wondering the original and remake essentially swap difficulties. The 2006 game has a difficult main story followed by a much easier post game (outside of level reset dungeons) On the other hand, the remake and its new mechanics make for an easier main story and a MUCH harder post game.
I'd say it's a good example of a remake that offers a unique experience from the original rather than just replacing it. Worth playing even if it is ugly as ***** lol
@csward53
To clarify I have only ever played Engage on hard/classic, so I can't comment on what the difficulty is like for normal or maddening. Nor did I ever buy the DLC rings, so I can't speak on those if you used them yourself - though I do hear they break the game, so fair enough there.
But as for the base game rings, they are not a catch all solution. They each have their own niche utilities and stat increases, and they're always on a resetting timer so you can't use them indefinitely. Through the early and midgame the rings are presented as an incredibly strong offensive option due to how you're limited to only a few of them. But when late game rolls around and you (potentially) have most of the rings recollected, the game starts to heavily increase the number of enemies, spread them across a wider playing field and of course make them much stronger.
They also start to zero in on classes with high HP and Avoid, as well as enemies that inflict Poison and you'll see dragons a lot more often. Enemies have access to the same break mechanic that you do, which can easily turn an enemy phase against your favor.
On top of that each chapter has a certain theme or gimmick that's going to affect the way you interact with the map and enemies one way or another.
The units you get as you progress through the game do seem to be objectively better than the ones you get before them and I do think that's a flaw (for team building reasons), but for this argument it's irrelevant because the large majority of them join you in the early/midgame, and won't have so large of an advantage over later enemies that you can just throw them out into the field and auto-win Awakening style.
And no, the late game recruits are all worse than the units you've built up so there does come a point (specifically after the Solm arc) where you can no longer rely on the new character making an incredible difference on a map.
Three Houses on the other hand has a unique sandbox like approach to building your units, which I think is really cool, but the enemies cannot contend with the crazy builds available to you and start to crumble very early on. I'm talking before the war arc, as long as you engage with all the mechanics in the game - which I'm assuming your average player will - you will essentially have built yourself a small team of indestructible characters (for most situations) and the enemy's growth never scales far enough to match it.
No one who's actually played Engage seems to disagree that it has superior gameplay mechanics to Three Houses, as well as a more balanced difficulty curve so your units aren't steamrolling all opposition only 20 hours in. So then the main points of contention are the story/writing and character design. Say what you will about the designs in Engage, I get it, they look like anime freaks - but I'm tired of people pretending that TH's story and characters are just so much better than Engages.
Three Houses has a more ambitious story - true, it has four whole routes and insane amounts of lore and optional dialogue for you get sucked in to as your making your way through the first arc... And then it falls flat on its face. The war arcs for all four routes are painfully underdeveloped as you essentially speed-run into that particular route's half-assed conclusion that range from 'serviceable when viewed separately from the whole picture' to 'pants on head ridiculous anime lemme take my crazy pills garbage'. Engage comparatively is extremely basic (which I want to stress is not a bad thing contrary to what people say) but has little to no major faults. It's got plenty of small issues that add up over the totality of the story and overall the major plot beats tend to underwhelm. In simpler terms, Engage never reaches the heights that TH's story reaches but it also doesn't fail as hard as TH's story. You can prefer whichever one you want, but to me I consider both to be pretty even in terms of execution. And as far as character dialogue is concerned, Engage may be more offensively cringe in the opening hours of the story but Three Houses quickly evens the playing field by having the most dreadful support conversations in the entire series. Cringy dialogue and one-note personalities is a problem BOTH games suffer from and if anything else, I want people to stop putting TH's characters on a pedestal when they're just as guilty of what Engage's characters are accused of. Three Houses is a flawed but great game. Engage is a flawed but even greater game... Play Shadows of Valentia.
They are absolutely right, Next Level Games hit it out of the park with LM3's visuals and it's gone totally unmatched since. Super Mario Odyssey and Metroid Dread are also a fine contenders, strong art direction goes a long way on the switch.
@Maubari Point being don't throw a lazy nostalgia argument at me when I can see - with my current day eyeballs - both stages side by side in the trailer. I can just flip it back at you and say you're biased the other way around.
Sonic Generations is fine, I don't care for any of the boost games myself, but I obviously don't disparage anyone for picking up the remaster. Judging from your earlier comments we seem to agree that it's one of the only decent ones in the last 20 years anyways. Just pray they don't screw it up like the Colors remaster.
@Maubari Or... Despite the lower fidelity, the original game's artists and graphic designers had a stronger grasp on how to make the colors pop for the Ark stages. Sonic Adventure 2 is a wonky clown game but presentation is something it did very well. Don't let the urge to blindly consume next product win.
Just goes to show how much art direction factors into the visuals when a 23 year old Dreamcast game looks better than a modern day counterpart. Why tf did they dull the colors so hard??
That's incredible news! I've been praying for a third game after those remakes. I even played the SFC remake of The Girl Who Stands Behind, FDC 1&2 are some of the best in Nintendo's catalogue.
It's an alright game so far but I think the primary appeal is just how stylish it is, and I can't imagine the Switch doing it any justice in that regard.
@HeadPirate Well put, this isn't really an issue. Even if they tried there's no way Nintendo would be able to police every single piece of smut featuring their characters (nor do I think they should), they couldn't even manage that on their own social media platform with Miiverse. This was an answer for the shareholders and the shareholders only.
Not worried about any game not being as good as I remembered it, just makes me appreciate the truly remarkable games more over nostalgia. But off the top of my head a few come to mind:
I used to laud Super Mario RPG as one of the best games ever made. Upon playing the remake and replaying the original, It's just good - not great.
Super Mario Sunshine likewise was one of my childhood favorites, but I've since seen the light of how terribly made it is lol.
And every Pokémon game I replay fails to hold up to scrutiny because they all play identically and are too simplistic for their own good.
I still love all these games for the memories I have of them and the impact they've had on me, but I can accept that they aren't the masterpieces I once thought they were.
Sorry about the essay, I wanted to give you a more substantive answer than "cuz it's bad". To summarize:
TERRIBLE WRITING / NONSENSE STORY
THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR GOTHIC HORROR THEMES GO UNDERUTILIZED
DECEPTIVELY LINEAR GAME DESIGN / IS ON RAILS
COMABT IS MEDIOCRE AT BEST / PAINFULLY LITTLE ENEMY VARIETY
PUZZLES MIGHT AS WELL NOT BE IN THE GAME
LOW REPLAY VALUE
ETHAN IS CRINGE
CUZ IT'S BAD lol
Oh, and one more point I just thought of
THE SHOP AND INVENTORY ARE ONLY IN THIS GAME CUZ 4 DID IT AND 4 ALSO HAD A VILLAGE, SEE LOOK GUYS IT'S LIKE 4 POG
In all seriousness, due to all the guns not being distinctive enough, the entire shop could be replaced with an item box and I don't think the game would feel meaningfully different. And the less said about the Duke as a character the better.
It's also extra ironic that the 4 remake would be next to follow Village up and is leaps and bounds its superior. I personally chalk it up to the wheelhouse of RE directors and their experience (or lack thereof) in making games, but I haven't done any research on them so take that with the smallest grain of salt.
If you'd like me to expand on anything here, I can. Village is the most disappointed I've ever been in a game, I was extremely excited for it and they completely dropped the ball on what would otherwise been an amazing concept.
@Yoshi3 COMBAT & PUZZLES The combat is painfully mediocre due to the game's lack of enemy variety and having guns that don't feel meaningfully different from each other. They rely way to much on fighting trash mobs of Lycans, which leave a good impression in the beginning but begin to wear out their welcome due to them making up like 85% of Village's total enemies. The game has puzzles designed so that you find the solution within the first minute. They really didn't care about making much of substance, there's like two decent ones in the whole game and they're both in the castle. ON RAILS (DONNA BENEVIENTO) Speaking of puzzles, Donna Beneviento's manor is the worst part of the game. The entire segment consists of a drawn out escape room / a monster that will genuinely scare you at first until you realize it's defeated by a table and a bed / and a "boss fight" that is just an incredibly lazy game of hide and seek (no mechanical depth here, just find the doll three times before the time limit expires, pathetic), this manor is completed the same way every single time and I can't imagine how people who play through this game regularly or speedrun it find this segment stimulating or even scary. The manor is a perfect example for how the devs are relying that the majority of Village's playerbase only played it the one time, so they don't notice how much of a shallow on-rails experience it really is- and how easy it is to see the cracks upon further scrutiny. ETHAN And as a final point, cause I know this rant is long in the tooth sorry about that, Ethan Winters is an annoying schizophrenic protagonist who constantly cycles through three personas at random. It was a problem in VII, but not nearly as bad as in Village where he never shuts the hell up, and constantly makes stupid decisions that aren't necessarily intuitive to the player. Sometimes he's the no-nonsense veteran, sometimes he's the fearful everyman, and sometimes he's the wise-cracking action hero. And there's no discernable criteria between them, sometimes he'll even cycle between all three in a single cutscene. He doesn't react or respond like a real human, it's frustrating to listen to and I wish they had just committed to the faceless protagonist and made him silent.
@Yoshi3
7 starts strong but gets progressively worse as it goes on, and I believe even big fans of the game can agree on that.
Village on the other hand is just a weak, hollow shell of a game in every regard other than visuals.
STORY / CHARACTERS / DESIGN
It's story is complete utter nonsense, with immersion-breaking logic in practically every cutscene. The game is constantly putting spectacle and mystique over an actual line of reasoning in events, to the point where the game needs to lampshade its own nonsense writing with thinly-veiled excuses that only end up causing more holes in the long run.
The characters suffer greatly for this too, the four lords are shallow caricatures that only exist because the Bakers were such a hit in the previous game, and the game puts little to no effort into their theming. Lady D for example looks like a vampire (with inspiration also taken from a Japanese urban legend) and that's as far as the idea goes. Mechanically she's just a more embarrassing Mr.X, on account that they put the primary store/save room in the same hall that she patrols the most, meaning the majority of your encounters with her are going to end in you going through a door she arbitrarily can't follow you in. While Mr.X and Jack Baker do have the same problem, those game try and account for it by placing the rooms they can't follow you in out of the way (In VII I even remember them having narrow passageways Ethan slides through to create segments where Jack can't follow).
STRUCTURE
Enemies in general have extremely short leashes in Village save for a few mob battles, for the most part you only need to run a little ahead of them for them to quit their pursuit of you. I assume they do this because the game isn't really interested in creating diverse combat scenarios and is primarily focused on getting you from one ridiculous cutscene to the next. This is also why there's very little exploration outside of the few pleasant optional treasure hunts in the village between the main sections. Despite Castle Dimitrescu having the appearance of big winding halls, your path through it is almost entirely linear, with only one major divergence being which of the two remaining daughters you want to kill first (who are functionally the same boss fight). This linearity continues all the way up until Heisenberg's factory, which most people seem to agree is one of the worst sections due to it's labyrinthine layout. I myself didn't hate it, but I did start to get sick of it when the game began to spam the robot enemies.
They even made things confusing by putting the remaining three lords on the map early like you'd have a choice on the order you want to tackle them in. I remember thinking my game was bugged when I tried to open the gate leading to Dr. Moreau, only to realize that my only option was the gate on the opposite site leading to Donna.
I haven't played anything on my Switch this year, but in general for 2024 so far it's:
1. Unicorn Overlord
2. Stellar Blade
3. Granblue Fantasy Relink
4. Being endlessly tormented in Silent Hill IRL
5. Playing Silent Hill: The Short Message again
Having the equipped weapon and shields visible on the characters is an awesome detail. The SFC remake had a few pieces of armor that would change the overworld sprite's outfit. Hoping those make a return and have a cosmetic option. Loving everything I'm seeing of this game and very glad to hear it has a rearranged soundtrack rather than using MIDIs (that was my biggest fear lol).
Normally I would say 3D because I prefer remakes to not replace the original game and be its own thing. But I don't trust Square Enix to handle a project like that well, so HD-2D would be more of a surefire thing.
@Arawn93 I mentioned this in previous thread. The HD-2D games are: Octopath Traveler (2018), Live A Live (2022), Triangle Strategy (2022), Octopath Traveler II (2023) / Champions of the Continent (mobile game), and the upcoming Dragon Quest III remake (TBA). And that's it. Five full titles plus one mobile game all released within a six(?) year timeframe by a company who releases ten thousand games a year.
So yeah, I agree, the complaints are way overblown.
Comments 603
Re: Tetsuya Nomura Contemplates Retirement And Concluding Kingdom Hearts
Well he already turned FFVII into an amateur fan fiction of itself, so let's hope Kingdom Hearts is the last and only thing his sloppy writing infects.
Re: The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Developer Seemingly Revealed
Very obvious, but should have been confirmed from the start nonetheless.
Re: Nintendo And Pokémon File Lawsuit Against Palworld Developer Pocketpair
@Dr_Lugae I think your interpretation on his quote is a bit uncharitable. Here's a larger piece of that interview:
He wanted to show me what he made. The game, called The Tentai Show, is an arcade-style shooting game for the Nintendo DS. It challenges players to stop meteoroids that are hurtling toward a planet that is positioned where the system’s dual screens meet.
Mizobe wanted me to notice that the game used both of the DS’ screens for gameplay, a contrast with how most DS games treated one screen as its main gameplay view and used the other for support functions.
“Nintendo wanted students to create a new game,” he said. “So I learned how to create a new game and think in a unique style of game development.”
Had he learned any lessons from working with Nintendo that stuck with him years later?
“Kind of,” he said with a laugh. “I always think: To make new things is very hard.
“In game development, of course, sometimes we have to do it, but, as much as possible, I try to avoid creating new things.”
You like to mix and match, I suggested, thinking back to 2021, when I’d last interviewed Mizobe.
“Yes,” he replied.
:I understand that him and his team are involved in one controversy after the next about copying others people's work, but this is a pretty normal way to operate when creating something yourself. The majority of your ideas are going to be repurposed from the menagerie of things that inspire you, and typically you give those ideas a twist by combining them with others or having something new thrown in with it, that's just how people work.
Whether or not something is a copy of another is a matter of execution, and with that in mind, Palworld at the end of the day is clearly a distinct game from its inspirations through the combination of its inspirations. Which is exactly how most things - especially video games - are in certain degrees.
This isn't to defend anything Pocketpair may have done in infringing on Nintendo's patents, it's just to point out that that quote isn't really as damning to his character as you think it is.
Re: Nintendo And Pokémon File Lawsuit Against Palworld Developer Pocketpair
@HeadPirate Fair enough, I may have jumped the gun there. My mind immediately went to stuff like WB's nemesis system and Namco putting a patent on loading screen minigames and assumed this was a similar case.
Should have waited until we knew more about what patents exactly the Palworld devs are accused of infringing on.
Re: Nintendo And Pokémon File Lawsuit Against Palworld Developer Pocketpair
Jeez, patents for basic gameplay ideas are such insufferable cringe. ***** off Nintendo with your stifling bull.
EDIT: Provided that the PocketPair didn't steal code from Nintendo, as @HeadPirate is speculating may be the case.
Re: Devolver Digital Confirms The Plucky Squire Won't Run At 60 FPS On Switch
No surprise there, PS5 as usual.
Re: Onward And Upward! This Upcoming Mario Wonder Plushie Actually Talks
My brain is broken
Re: Square Enix Reveals New Character Art For Every Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Job Class
Pretty faithful recreations of the Toriyama designs for the SNES remakes, they look badass. Not a fan of the ugly orange sports bra and shorts combo under the bikini armor obviously, but otherwise they all look great.
Re: PlayStation Dating RPG 'Eternights' Is Coming To Switch
@SleeplessKnight Hard to say since I don't know how you define a weirdo Nintendo fan. Like with any fanbase there are a number of them who are entirely uncritical of 'the new thing', but at least with Nintendo I feel that we're seeing less and less of that.
For example I don't see many people going to bat for their mediocre drip-feed model sports games, and public opinion on Pokémon has shifted drastically with each new low quality release (despite still having high sales numbers).
I think the Switch is one of the weaker console generations myself, due to Nintendo's output of NEW games being fewer and more of a mixed bag of quality. But it's also got a gigantic collection of ports and classic games to supplement its library, so I can definitely understand why the switch is so many people's favorite.
The part of the fanbase I don't particularly care for are the capital NINTENDO fans. As in, the fans who only play the games that Nintendo themselves make.
I feel where the platform has always shined most is it's sheer variety of games, and when you have this not insignificant subset of fans who exclusively play Mario and Zelda whine whenever resources are put into more niche projects (eg: Fire Emblem, Splatoon, Famicom Detective Club), it sets a bad precedent that I'm glad Nintendo has so far completely ignored.
Re: PlayStation Dating RPG 'Eternights' Is Coming To Switch
@SleeplessKnight
Thanks man, made it myself.
First consoles I owned were a hand-me-down SNES with Super Mario World and a GBA. I believe I was around 6 at the time, so roughly 22 years.
Re: PlayStation Dating RPG 'Eternights' Is Coming To Switch
@SleeplessKnight Now he's backtracking on his backtrack. Zero convictions
Re: PlayStation Dating RPG 'Eternights' Is Coming To Switch
Removed
Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
As long as the game's just on par with the Girl Who Stands Behind it's gonna be a great time. Those two remakes might just be the very best "switch" games I've played under TOTK and maybe Mario Odyssey. Very much looking forward to it, even more now.
Re: Reaction: Shadow Drops & Surprises - A Stuffed Direct With Something For Everyone
Lots of good stuff if not a whole lot of new stuff. Pleased with this one and how out of the blue it was announced.
Re: Reaction: Shadow Drops & Surprises - A Stuffed Direct With Something For Everyone
@Samalik Censored how?
I've started a fighting game arc, so these collections are cool and all- but I'd like to go with the definitive version of every game and sometimes these arcade ports are not the pick.
Re: New Atelier Game Brings More Alchemy And Action To Switch Next Year
@Ryu_Niiyama Lol, so far I've only played 4 out of what? TWENTY SOMETHING!? And one of those I played when I was 15 and got the worst ending so I shouldn't even be counting that one.
Re: Review: Bakeru (Switch) - Good-Feel's Carefree Platformer For Goemon Lovers Makes It To The West
@rex_rex Corn Kidz 64 is a decent choice if you haven't tried it yet. It feels a bit wonky at times but it definitely doesn't hold your hand with the more challenging bits.
Psuedoregalia is also a good one too in terms of sheer options of movement, but I didn't find the actual game too difficult myself, so mileage may vary.
Both games are under $10 too!
Re: Nintendo Life's Switch Summer Survey 2024
At this point who HASN'T brought their switch to a rooftop party and made your friends watch you play a single player game?
Re: Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Is Out Next Week, Will You Be Getting It?
Definitely. Most anticipated game of the year for me...
...the whole one month since it's announcement.
Re: Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Is Getting A Free Multipart Demo
I wonder how long this one will be, the remakes both run around 8 hours. Think I'd rather just wait for the full release.
Re: 36 Longest Switch Games Worth Playing To The End
@OwenOtter
Right, I dedicated at least 15 hours alone watching the meal cutscenes and reading through all the rapport conversations lol. All together and counting reloaded saves my first playthrough has to be around 120-130 hours. Should definitely make the list.
Re: 16-Bit Platformers Based On Halloween And Evil Dead Announced For Switch
Anyone here recommend the Evil Dead show the game is based on? I've only ever seen the movies.
Re: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake New Story Segments Will Focus On Your Father
The chad dad vs the virgin Zoma.
Re: Here's Your First Look At River City Girls 2's Double Dragon DLC
@Synecdoche Funnily enough the first River City Girls is also 50% boys.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (3rd August)
Working through all the No More Heroes games, I've only ever played 2 on the Wii. Currently half way through 2 right now and I gotta say, despite these games not being particularly great mechanically or narratively, there's just some incredible magnetism to them.
There's something really cool about having this duo of gory, insane black comedies just sitting right next to Mario Galaxy and Animal Crossing City Folk.
Re: Nintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Upcoming Switch Games
Insanely hyped for Emio. Loved how they announced it just a month out from its release.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's GBA Library With Pokémon
@Samalik I mean I prefer the original for the sprite work but you could easily argue now there's even more strategy involved in the remake since you have to commit to using an expendable resource in order to attack. Whereas in the original your basic attack was so powerful you hardly ever needed to use your limited moves.
For anyone wondering the original and remake essentially swap difficulties. The 2006 game has a difficult main story followed by a much easier post game (outside of level reset dungeons)
On the other hand, the remake and its new mechanics make for an easier main story and a MUCH harder post game.
I'd say it's a good example of a remake that offers a unique experience from the original rather than just replacing it. Worth playing even if it is ugly as ***** lol
Re: Poll: Which Is Your Favourite Nintendo Game Cartridge Design?
Famicom and Super Famicom carts are sleek, I love em. N64 takes the no.3 spot easy.
Re: New Fire Emblem: Three Houses Figures Announced, Pre-Orders For Dimitri Live
Sick as hell. This one's definitely getting added to the Fire Emblem pile in the corner of my room lol
Re: Poll: Do You Prefer Fire Emblem: Three Houses Or Engage?
@csward53
To clarify I have only ever played Engage on hard/classic, so I can't comment on what the difficulty is like for normal or maddening. Nor did I ever buy the DLC rings, so I can't speak on those if you used them yourself - though I do hear they break the game, so fair enough there.
But as for the base game rings, they are not a catch all solution. They each have their own niche utilities and stat increases, and they're always on a resetting timer so you can't use them indefinitely. Through the early and midgame the rings are presented as an incredibly strong offensive option due to how you're limited to only a few of them. But when late game rolls around and you (potentially) have most of the rings recollected, the game starts to heavily increase the number of enemies, spread them across a wider playing field and of course make them much stronger.
They also start to zero in on classes with high HP and Avoid, as well as enemies that inflict Poison and you'll see dragons a lot more often. Enemies have access to the same break mechanic that you do, which can easily turn an enemy phase against your favor.
On top of that each chapter has a certain theme or gimmick that's going to affect the way you interact with the map and enemies one way or another.
The units you get as you progress through the game do seem to be objectively better than the ones you get before them and I do think that's a flaw (for team building reasons), but for this argument it's irrelevant because the large majority of them join you in the early/midgame, and won't have so large of an advantage over later enemies that you can just throw them out into the field and auto-win Awakening style.
And no, the late game recruits are all worse than the units you've built up so there does come a point (specifically after the Solm arc) where you can no longer rely on the new character making an incredible difference on a map.
Three Houses on the other hand has a unique sandbox like approach to building your units, which I think is really cool, but the enemies cannot contend with the crazy builds available to you and start to crumble very early on. I'm talking before the war arc, as long as you engage with all the mechanics in the game - which I'm assuming your average player will - you will essentially have built yourself a small team of indestructible characters (for most situations) and the enemy's growth never scales far enough to match it.
Re: Poll: Do You Prefer Fire Emblem: Three Houses Or Engage?
No one who's actually played Engage seems to disagree that it has superior gameplay mechanics to Three Houses, as well as a more balanced difficulty curve so your units aren't steamrolling all opposition only 20 hours in.
So then the main points of contention are the story/writing and character design.
Say what you will about the designs in Engage, I get it, they look like anime freaks - but I'm tired of people pretending that TH's story and characters are just so much better than Engages.
Three Houses has a more ambitious story - true, it has four whole routes and insane amounts of lore and optional dialogue for you get sucked in to as your making your way through the first arc... And then it falls flat on its face.
The war arcs for all four routes are painfully underdeveloped as you essentially speed-run into that particular route's half-assed conclusion that range from 'serviceable when viewed separately from the whole picture' to 'pants on head ridiculous anime lemme take my crazy pills garbage'.
Engage comparatively is extremely basic (which I want to stress is not a bad thing contrary to what people say) but has little to no major faults. It's got plenty of small issues that add up over the totality of the story and overall the major plot beats tend to underwhelm.
In simpler terms, Engage never reaches the heights that TH's story reaches but it also doesn't fail as hard as TH's story. You can prefer whichever one you want, but to me I consider both to be pretty even in terms of execution.
And as far as character dialogue is concerned, Engage may be more offensively cringe in the opening hours of the story but Three Houses quickly evens the playing field by having the most dreadful support conversations in the entire series. Cringy dialogue and one-note personalities is a problem BOTH games suffer from and if anything else, I want people to stop putting TH's characters on a pedestal when they're just as guilty of what Engage's characters are accused of.
Three Houses is a flawed but great game.
Engage is a flawed but even greater game...
Play Shadows of Valentia.
Re: Digital Foundry Hails Luigi's Mansion 3 As The Best-Looking Exclusive Switch Game
They are absolutely right, Next Level Games hit it out of the park with LM3's visuals and it's gone totally unmatched since.
Super Mario Odyssey and Metroid Dread are also a fine contenders, strong art direction goes a long way on the switch.
Re: Ex Chibi-Robo Devs Announce Spiritual Successor 'koROBO'
We're cooking again
Re: Sonic X Shadow Generations Showcases Side-By-Side Of Old & New Stages
@Maubari Point being don't throw a lazy nostalgia argument at me when I can see - with my current day eyeballs - both stages side by side in the trailer. I can just flip it back at you and say you're biased the other way around.
Sonic Generations is fine, I don't care for any of the boost games myself, but I obviously don't disparage anyone for picking up the remaster. Judging from your earlier comments we seem to agree that it's one of the only decent ones in the last 20 years anyways. Just pray they don't screw it up like the Colors remaster.
Re: Sonic X Shadow Generations Showcases Side-By-Side Of Old & New Stages
@Maubari Or... Despite the lower fidelity, the original game's artists and graphic designers had a stronger grasp on how to make the colors pop for the Ark stages.
Sonic Adventure 2 is a wonky clown game but presentation is something it did very well.
Don't let the urge to blindly consume next product win.
Re: Sonic X Shadow Generations Showcases Side-By-Side Of Old & New Stages
Just goes to show how much art direction factors into the visuals when a 23 year old Dreamcast game looks better than a modern day counterpart. Why tf did they dull the colors so hard??
Re: 'Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club' Launches On Switch Next Month
That's incredible news! I've been praying for a third game after those remakes. I even played the SFC remake of The Girl Who Stands Behind, FDC 1&2 are some of the best in Nintendo's catalogue.
Re: Zenless Zone Zero Producer Reportedly Open To Switch Successor Release
It's an alright game so far but I think the primary appeal is just how stylish it is, and I can't imagine the Switch doing it any justice in that regard.
Re: Nintendo On Inappropriate Use Of Its IP And Games: "Action Must Be Taken"
@HeadPirate
Well put, this isn't really an issue. Even if they tried there's no way Nintendo would be able to police every single piece of smut featuring their characters (nor do I think they should), they couldn't even manage that on their own social media platform with Miiverse.
This was an answer for the shareholders and the shareholders only.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Nervous To Replay In Case They Don't Hold Up?
Not worried about any game not being as good as I remembered it, just makes me appreciate the truly remarkable games more over nostalgia. But off the top of my head a few come to mind:
I used to laud Super Mario RPG as one of the best games ever made. Upon playing the remake and replaying the original, It's just good - not great.
Super Mario Sunshine likewise was one of my childhood favorites, but I've since seen the light of how terribly made it is lol.
And every Pokémon game I replay fails to hold up to scrutiny because they all play identically and are too simplistic for their own good.
I still love all these games for the memories I have of them and the impact they've had on me, but I can accept that they aren't the masterpieces I once thought they were.
Re: Capcom Confirms The Next Resident Evil Game Is Now In Development
@Qwiff Well put.
Re: Capcom Confirms The Next Resident Evil Game Is Now In Development
Sorry about the essay, I wanted to give you a more substantive answer than "cuz it's bad". To summarize:
Oh, and one more point I just thought of
In all seriousness, due to all the guns not being distinctive enough, the entire shop could be replaced with an item box and I don't think the game would feel meaningfully different. And the less said about the Duke as a character the better.
It's also extra ironic that the 4 remake would be next to follow Village up and is leaps and bounds its superior. I personally chalk it up to the wheelhouse of RE directors and their experience (or lack thereof) in making games, but I haven't done any research on them so take that with the smallest grain of salt.
If you'd like me to expand on anything here, I can. Village is the most disappointed I've ever been in a game, I was extremely excited for it and they completely dropped the ball on what would otherwise been an amazing concept.
Re: Capcom Confirms The Next Resident Evil Game Is Now In Development
@Yoshi3
COMBAT & PUZZLES
The combat is painfully mediocre due to the game's lack of enemy variety and having guns that don't feel meaningfully different from each other. They rely way to much on fighting trash mobs of Lycans, which leave a good impression in the beginning but begin to wear out their welcome due to them making up like 85% of Village's total enemies.
The game has puzzles designed so that you find the solution within the first minute. They really didn't care about making much of substance, there's like two decent ones in the whole game and they're both in the castle.
ON RAILS (DONNA BENEVIENTO)
Speaking of puzzles, Donna Beneviento's manor is the worst part of the game. The entire segment consists of a drawn out escape room / a monster that will genuinely scare you at first until you realize it's defeated by a table and a bed / and a "boss fight" that is just an incredibly lazy game of hide and seek (no mechanical depth here, just find the doll three times before the time limit expires, pathetic), this manor is completed the same way every single time and I can't imagine how people who play through this game regularly or speedrun it find this segment stimulating or even scary. The manor is a perfect example for how the devs are relying that the majority of Village's playerbase only played it the one time, so they don't notice how much of a shallow on-rails experience it really is- and how easy it is to see the cracks upon further scrutiny.
ETHAN
And as a final point, cause I know this rant is long in the tooth sorry about that, Ethan Winters is an annoying schizophrenic protagonist who constantly cycles through three personas at random. It was a problem in VII, but not nearly as bad as in Village where he never shuts the hell up, and constantly makes stupid decisions that aren't necessarily intuitive to the player. Sometimes he's the no-nonsense veteran, sometimes he's the fearful everyman, and sometimes he's the wise-cracking action hero. And there's no discernable criteria between them, sometimes he'll even cycle between all three in a single cutscene. He doesn't react or respond like a real human, it's frustrating to listen to and I wish they had just committed to the faceless protagonist and made him silent.
Re: Capcom Confirms The Next Resident Evil Game Is Now In Development
@Yoshi3
7 starts strong but gets progressively worse as it goes on, and I believe even big fans of the game can agree on that.
Village on the other hand is just a weak, hollow shell of a game in every regard other than visuals.
STORY / CHARACTERS / DESIGN
It's story is complete utter nonsense, with immersion-breaking logic in practically every cutscene. The game is constantly putting spectacle and mystique over an actual line of reasoning in events, to the point where the game needs to lampshade its own nonsense writing with thinly-veiled excuses that only end up causing more holes in the long run.
The characters suffer greatly for this too, the four lords are shallow caricatures that only exist because the Bakers were such a hit in the previous game, and the game puts little to no effort into their theming. Lady D for example looks like a vampire (with inspiration also taken from a Japanese urban legend) and that's as far as the idea goes. Mechanically she's just a more embarrassing Mr.X, on account that they put the primary store/save room in the same hall that she patrols the most, meaning the majority of your encounters with her are going to end in you going through a door she arbitrarily can't follow you in. While Mr.X and Jack Baker do have the same problem, those game try and account for it by placing the rooms they can't follow you in out of the way (In VII I even remember them having narrow passageways Ethan slides through to create segments where Jack can't follow).
STRUCTURE
Enemies in general have extremely short leashes in Village save for a few mob battles, for the most part you only need to run a little ahead of them for them to quit their pursuit of you. I assume they do this because the game isn't really interested in creating diverse combat scenarios and is primarily focused on getting you from one ridiculous cutscene to the next. This is also why there's very little exploration outside of the few pleasant optional treasure hunts in the village between the main sections. Despite Castle Dimitrescu having the appearance of big winding halls, your path through it is almost entirely linear, with only one major divergence being which of the two remaining daughters you want to kill first (who are functionally the same boss fight). This linearity continues all the way up until Heisenberg's factory, which most people seem to agree is one of the worst sections due to it's labyrinthine layout. I myself didn't hate it, but I did start to get sick of it when the game began to spam the robot enemies.
They even made things confusing by putting the remaining three lords on the map early like you'd have a choice on the order you want to tackle them in. I remember thinking my game was bugged when I tried to open the gate leading to Dr. Moreau, only to realize that my only option was the gate on the opposite site leading to Donna.
Re: Capcom Confirms The Next Resident Evil Game Is Now In Development
I like Revelations and VII wasn't all bad, so there's some hope yet. As long as they keep the directors of Village far away lol.
Re: Poll: What's Your Switch Game Of The Year Of 2024 So Far?
I haven't played anything on my Switch this year, but in general for 2024 so far it's:
1. Unicorn Overlord
2. Stellar Blade
3. Granblue Fantasy Relink
4. Being endlessly tormented in Silent Hill IRL
5. Playing Silent Hill: The Short Message again
Re: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Seems To Be Teasing A New Job Class
Having the equipped weapon and shields visible on the characters is an awesome detail. The SFC remake had a few pieces of armor that would change the overworld sprite's outfit. Hoping those make a return and have a cosmetic option.
Loving everything I'm seeing of this game and very glad to hear it has a rearranged soundtrack rather than using MIDIs (that was my biggest fear lol).
Re: Capcom's 'Super Elections' Reveals Fan Favourite Characters, Games And More
Guess I really ought to play Dino Crisis and see what all the buzz is about.
Re: Talking Point: HD-2D Or 3D - How Should Square Enix Remake Chrono Trigger?
Normally I would say 3D because I prefer remakes to not replace the original game and be its own thing. But I don't trust Square Enix to handle a project like that well, so HD-2D would be more of a surefire thing.
Re: Talking Point: HD-2D Or 3D - How Should Square Enix Remake Chrono Trigger?
@Arawn93
I mentioned this in previous thread. The HD-2D games are: Octopath Traveler (2018), Live A Live (2022), Triangle Strategy (2022), Octopath Traveler II (2023) / Champions of the Continent (mobile game), and the upcoming Dragon Quest III remake (TBA). And that's it. Five full titles plus one mobile game all released within a six(?) year timeframe by a company who releases ten thousand games a year.
So yeah, I agree, the complaints are way overblown.