Ludovsky

@Kalmaro tbh i'm not surprised since the original wild area felt like more of a.... prototype really? I.e.: their first time doing something like it so they were unduly conservative with it's design.

Isle of Armor in comparison shows that they're getting more confidence with that way of doing things and it shows with the higher quality and variety of environments that feel distinct from each others rather than being same-y except for token landmarks.

In many way the variety of environments reminded me of the variety of places in the base game(forests, mines, etc) yet this time seen from multiple angles thanks to the open world style camera.

It definitely makes me curious to see eeethat Crown Tundra could be like and I could well imagine the next game in a few years going all out with this sort of free camera/roaming approach from the start.

@Dremp considering that in the direct lat year it sounded like Isle of Armor would have additional content for PVP in the form of new battle rules options, i would not be surprised.

@Brydontk this actually make me wonder if the scaling will be based on badges or something like an average party level

@Archius9 in my eyes i'm a bit of mixed minds about this. If coins ends up being very useful to the quest, especially suince items are making a return to form, anne's you have to decide whether to use coins for more permanent upgrades or more limited uses boosts and items abilities... there could be ways XP could be 'missing' and still not make the player -feel- like they're missing on.

Especially as if you think about it... Mario might have been tied to regular leveling in older games but in comparison his companions never were in older games and were exclusively upgraded through shine sprites you had to find in hidden areas.

Honestly i'm tentatively curious about this one. Ditto about how companions will exactly function. It sounds like they might either be something you "call" upon or something like "episodic" followers tied to specific areas and locations of the story.

What i'm more uncertain about are the "Stationery" bosses but looking at snippets of the video(especially the larger paper craft enemies such as giant goombas/etc) it sounds like they're not the -only- boss styles enemies we'll face at least.

Either ways, this could end up a prelude to something of a closer return to form of the franchise and this(especially since the regular battles seem the closest to classic Paper Mario in over a decade+) receiving a good reception might well end up justifying a remaster of Thousand Years Door or something of the like later.

@Kirgo to add to your point :
The costs savings of a Switch without card reader would immediately be offset by the added storage you'd need to house the games where you don't even have the cartridge to store most of the game on. Already there's games that won't fit on the current cartridge meaning that they will be that the much LARGER on people's storage as digital- only editions.

So a digital-only Switch could easily end up costing -more- than one which still features a card reader due to the amount of storage expenses players would need to invest into.

In fact, just from what download times the larger games of stronger consoles, I suspect the digital only version of newer consoles might still remain somewhat niche. 80 or even 100gb games are almost a norm in the 'horsepower' console approach and this trend is unlikely to change with the upcoming gen I suspect. Perhaps even going to worsen to make up for new textures resolutions/etc.

This will greatly hinder the reach of digital-only consoles in general in areas without appropriate ISPs to not mention those where data caps remain a thing, I suspect.

Of course I could always be wrong but even with day one patches there's still a difference between a 1-10gb download(and it's still crazy there's games where -patches- are upward of 10gb) and a 100gb one.

@Supadav03 oh, my apologies!
Proof I shouldn't read comments without getting coffee first ^^;

@Ralizah honestly I had that same thought for a moment but afterward... you know what?

Paper Mario 64 kinda did as well, especially many partners(Koopa, Bob-omb, the lakitu too). And it make senses, it was the first of that spin-off franchise and still getting it's feet wet so to speak.

Thinking about this I think I might give this title a chance.

@Supadav03 dude... DLC can't actually introduce a new engine. It's code and asset content slapped onto the existing thing and a new engine would mean overhauling the entire thing.

What you want is a new -game- and that's not happening without selling an entire full priced game again. Be careful what you wish for.

@BANJO well, the filter already lets you browse by genre and prices range?

Want it or not, a lot of the "shovelware" is specifically what you'll find in the lower price ranges and aiming just for higher ranges than "the lowest possible" can often help.

Plus not all genres lend themselves well to "cheap games launched quick" either that make a lot of the category people thinks of as shovelware.

@bones I think it's indeed coming in June. I could be wrong but I feel that if those are meant to prepare for the dlc, they would have delayed them as well if the dlc was to be delayed.

@Dezzy technically considering drift is caused by a mechanical part damaging the graphite contact plates(iirc?) within that control nub's box, something like a touchpad which seem to do without that kind of mechanical components may indeed be free from ever suffering again.

The proper issue is whether such a component would be cost effective for joycons without driving their cost further up when you consider we're talking about controllers that already support motion control in both cases and and NFC reader and IR camera in both cases. And those side charging rails definitely are a more custom design for assembly chains unlike the control nub which is basically flat out a 'generic' component even yourself can buy by the bulk. It could be that costs may remain cheap but still I wouldn't be surprised if replacing that nub would result in price increases considering we're talking about replacing that's likely the cheapest component to acquire(in fact I just replaced my own original nubs with new ones and the whole thing was 16$CAD for a new pair+the actual tools to open the controller and remove the original nub in the first place) with something drift-free but likely more costly.

@the_beaver Plus for the quality of the visuals, something tells me the kind of textures used by the game are lighter than we think.... ontop of being much more polygons-count friendly than a lot of other more realistic styles.

@Henmii it depends.
If Mario 64 is involved, that one would clearly get remastered.

Mario Sunshine Galaxy? Those can be kept mostly 'as is' with just a textures and lighting touch-up like Wind Waker I suspect which might not need THAT much effort of that project had been cooking since a bit.

And with the most recent dating beak top 13 years ago in 2007... honestly a bundled collection might not be TOO much of a stretch even if it still feels like somewhat of a stretch to get three such games together even for the 35th anniversary.

@MegaMari0 mind you I don't expect a FULL return to classic norms. HP seem very... color splashy?

But then again partners in classic games were upgraded through using hidden shine sprites rather than battle XP so applying such a mechanic to Mario himself isn't that much of a stretch and could still remain enjoyable if classic skills systems make a return in the new battle style.

After all it's be a nice of ensuring that though player might not be over-levelled for a challenge, they might not be under-levelled either.

And "shiny boots" from the trailer sounds more like "standard jump attack with better boots equipped" than something like "single use specialized Line Jump card".... and towns seem more prevalent again so perhaps there could be a return of items/gear shops?

@andyc777 the sudden reveal I think has less to with the game and more... 2020 and COVID in general?

There's already rumor that COVID is behind a possible cancellation of a previously planned June Direct and this may well be proof of this in the end I feel.

@sanderev yeah.

Rather than "more color splash", the fact cards seem to be gone gone me the feeling we might be looking at "Thousand Years Doors-style but enemies come from multiple directions on a 360 degrees axis you can rearrange" and that's a style I could go with if i'm right.

Also i'm looking at the battle preview again and though Mario is the clear center of the arena... the circle he's standing in is not only unusually large for just him to stand in alone but might just be large enough to actually house companions alongside him in battle???

@NerdyBoutKirby it looks like Color Splash on the cover but a lot in the details remind me of more RPG mario games.

RPG-style world map?
Cards seem to be gone and 'default' hammer/jump attacks seem to be back(and can be upgraded by the sounds of the "shiny boots" action, so perhaps even a return of equipment? ).

Partners aren't visible in combat(yet) but multiple companions seem to be visible in many scenes and overworld sequence.

Audience (TTYD-style?) seem to be back in the battle screens complete with a visible "Cheer" command(bringing back the mechanic of wooing the audience for perks?).

The more I look at this the more the feeling I get can be summed as "Color Splash on the cover, classic in the pages"?

As, if my hunch about combat mechanics prove right, "Thousand Years Door combat but enemies come from multiple directions on a 360 degree axis you can rearrange" is a twist I could go with I think.

@andyc777 perhaps i'll eat crow later but I have an odd feeling they might be managing just that. Or at least i'm giving them the benefit of doubt. There's a lot that indirectly reminds me of older style games in there.

@MegaMari0 I could be wrong but the more I look at this game, the more one of the impressions i'm starting to get might be summed up as...
"Color Splash on the cover, Thousand Years Door in the pages"?

They're not visible in combat yet, but partners seem to be making a clear return in the overworld(return of their exploration skills)?

The game seem to feature RPG style world map.

Battle seem to hint at a return of (TTYD-style?) audience complete with a "cheer" command.

Deck of cards seem to be gone in favor of a return of traditional action menu? Classic repeatable jumpshoes/hammer seem back and the menu seem definitely too small to browse 50+ single use cards... but the perfect size to add a customized to set of badge skills again.

Which... if it's the case, "TTYD style battles but enemies can come from multiple directions for area targeting moves" is a style I think I could go with. Much more strategic and fair than "hope you brought the right single use card to the fight" of Color Splash.

The use of "shiny boots" rather than a specialized move like "line jump" in a fight seem to perhaps even hint at a Lite form of rpg gear rather than a single-use card which perhaps could mean a return of equipment shops? Towns locations seem much more present(perhaps even numerous?) than Color Splash anyway .

I'm tentatively optimistic about this. Like said it feels "Color Splash on the cover, but classic-style in the pages" the more I look at it.

@sup3Rmint if the battle systems proves "TTYD style with enemies coming from all 360 degrees directions" as i'm starting to suspect... I think i'll be there for it.

@mesome713 I will so be there for it if postcard-Bowser is our new source of environment/battle tattles because Bowser-as-portable/helpless-Bowserpedia could feature some glorious lines of dialogue humor I feel

@Kalmaro which would still be a step up from Color Splash if you asks me considering partners skills back in the days in exploration and a step up from depending on expendable cards/stickers.

And we only saw the one single turn of battle so we don't know if there could still be a partner switch in battle or something.

More importantly one thing i'm curious about is that it seems like multiples towns might make a return at least.

@andyc777 the battle system look odd at first but at closer look may look closer to classic games.
Cards seem to be gone now. Default hammer/jump action seem back and the action UI seem the perfect size to add badge skills again but not large enough for the mess that was browsing through a deck of 50+ cards to find the "right" card.

If this proves to be "Thousand years Door but enemies come from multiple directions at once"-style... I think I could deal with that.

Some characters seem generic but there seem to be clear reccuring "helpers" I see a bob-omb who seem to be implied to be following Mario around in multiple sequences now almost as if a follower. Kamek/Bowser Jr. seem to be here as clear supporters as well.

And postcard-Bowser is the perfect size to carry around while limiting him to only being able to speak seem the perfect excuse to bring tattles back to the game in full.

@Harmonie "I understand that virus has caused issues" might be your answer right there.

@Kalmaro i could be wrong but from the one turn preview alone:

Gimmick seen to imply monsters coming from multiple directions, thus "rearranging " the arena to line up attack.

The battle menu showed only a single boots or hammer item and saw space for more... but not enough a full deck of 50+ cards. Could that means a return of "default" repeatable hammer/jump(perhaps even gear judging by those "shiny bootss" ) options alongside potential skill badge equips?

Partners aren't much visible in combat yet but are clearly present in some form in the overworld...

A post-card Bowser only able to talk is the perfect size to carry about everywhere and bring back the return of environment/combat tattles? And would be hilarious if it proves to be that Bowser become our own portable "Bowserpedia"(for lack of better nickname)?

Literally the more I look at it the more I wonder if what i'm seeing is "Color Splash on the outside, TTYD where it matters"?

As "TTYD style battles but enemies come from multiple directions in battle" is something I could deal with I think...

I mean, it could hint at classic mechanics but indeed more 3D "depth" so to speak

@Crockin Yeah. Tbh even nintendo themselves had recently mentionned in investor meeting iirc that the Switch was just entering the middle of it's life cycle. After three years, that might thus another good three more years for a potential full cycle of 6 years as a result.

@Crockin Not only that, but if you look closely the news might imply they're farther along than we think.

What they're hiring is not level designers, or coders or even character modellers.... but actual special effects for like... weapon laser , ambient fire, etc.

That's not the "roots" of a game but it's "dressing". The stuff you start laying about only when the full cake is already mostly ready when you finally move from the "coder art" placeholder you'd been using to test mechanics/etc for the real deal that should be present in the final version of the game.

So I suspect that rather than showing us there's still years left in the development of the game, it might rather be months and then the final playtesting/etc bit. I'm not sure of myself yet to say it's gonna be a 2020 release, but I'll be cautiously optimistic enough this might have just confirmed it to likely be an early 2021. And a 2022 one at the very very latest.

@RickD Dunno. I'll be cautiously optimistic with this , to be honest.

"What they're still hiring???" could indeed make one think the game still is barely started.... but if you look at it, the folks hired are all special effect artists. Not coders, not level designers or even 3D modellers/texture artists but effects ones.

I feel that's notable because in game development I'm under the impression that special effects is actually an aspect that would be come not early but late in development. When most of the code is written for weapons that will use projectile effects and when level are already mostly complete for them to put fire/atmospheric effects into in the first place.

Literally, I could be wrong but you call on these artists only when all that stuff is already coded into the game to finally replace the placeholder "coder art" that was use to prototype it with the real thing.

So rather than "this is much farther away than we expected", this might perhaps even imply a "this is coming closer than we expect".

I'm not expecting a 2020 release out of this yet, but I could actually picture a early 2021 one now.

@Rodan2000 I wouldn't worry THAT badly.

Yes these are "new hires", which means the game isn't completed yet. But what's interesting is the nature of these hires:

"As spotted by VGC, the Texas-based developer has brought on a number of new VFX artists - the people responsible for the visual aspect of special effects like explosions, lasers, fire, and the like. "

If you think about it, "special effects like explosions, laser, fire and the like" might means the game is farther ahead than we think. That's not something people worry about(as far as I know) early in development when they haven't yet written the code/etc for mechanics meant to later involve such effects.

Rather it's stuff that's finally called upon when a lot of this has already been coded/implemented and they're planning to finally move away from the placeholder "coder art" they'd been using all along for testing during development and finally replace it with the "real deal" that should be used in the final version of the game.

I could be wrong, but them making a call for such artists(rather than programmers/etc and so on) make me feel they might be surprisingly farther along than we think.

I don't think it'll be a 2020 release nonetheless, but it just might be a 2021 release, perhaps even an early 2021 one. 2022 at the likely latest. I could be wrong, but re:reading the kind of folks they're hiring is making me cautiously optimistic.

@Dragonslacker1 I have to say I'm wondering if this might not confirm the game as a 2021 release rather than 2022. The artists seem to be specifically the kind involved for special effects/etc that would come late in development rather than "early". You don't make those effects unless the mechanics/stuff they're meant for is already in place and you just need to start replacing placeholder "coder art" used during most of development(that might have been going for a while) with the real thing that'll be in the final game.

At least from what little I know.

I'll write this as a "cautiously optimistic" kind of thing on my end that this might not be as bad as we think.

@antdickens tbh I noticed that trend to and though I could be wrong, most likely the Metroid Prime 4 debacle is imo the most likely reason for it.

Though seen in another way, it may show how quickly they learned from it for their first party release considering how they've taken to handing announcements afterward as a result

@antdickens yeaaaaah and like...

... it's kinda the year of COVID which means a lot of companies(especially bug ones like Nintendo) that were chiefly oriented toward office works in both home and overseas studios needed to completely overhaul their work process anne's logistics toward remote work from home... something that was traditionally looked down upon in a lot of these business's culture vs "showing up to work at the office".

Without mentioning what that means for intra-studio coordination when specifically office work was preferred due to the "easier" ability to manage/coordinate or what it means for people used to work as teams(and getting socialization through in person work) when they have to work in (physical) isolation

@Ogbert Oh yeah, I was totally forgetting about that myself.

Sure it sounds like easy money but... that's for a service people are already suscribing to. And there's no saying those people would be ready to add -another- subscription of top of that.

And on top of this point, as you mention yourself, that doesn't get into all the tech support/etc they'd need to do for such a service as well, the bug testers/etc they would need to pay for and so on.

@AG_Awesome Honestly I don't know how much money they'd really get.
In a way, it's kind of the reverse situation to the birdman's fallacy that people applied to the Wii; i.e. when the Wii introduced motion control EVERYBODY tried to introduce their own take on motion control stuff assuming that it was motion control alone that was popular and not what was -done- with it and how much it was applied(or not).

In a way here's it's assuming that just because someone -may- be experiencing(and it might just be based on biased perspective/etc) something good, then anybody can jump in that thing without regard to context/etc to really figure out how to actually make it work.

Recall a lot of people literally faceplanted when they tried to release motion control to other platforms than the Wii.

Because say Nintendo introduce their own Apple Arcade-like service as Apple Arcade is experiencing a surge of popularity... would the people -already- subscribing to Apple Arcade truly want to pay for -another- subscription service to play another set of games they could argue should just have released to the existing service(over which Nintendo would have gotten a smaller share of income than if it had been their own service)?

@ummyeahnintendo depends . Ironically enough I suspect it's indeed very much larger studios that are going to be affected by COVID. With larger studio having more of an office culture demanding that people show up at the actual office "so manahers/etc know they're not slacking off", infrastructure and work organization shift to work-from-home might be that much harder to pull off. Especially when we're talking about teams in the multiple dozens or hundred employees and the coordination effort it represented even when they all worked from the same office.

Contrast with the many indie where ironically their smaller teams and budget often meant that remote work and online coordination/group calls was often their default way of doing things before even all this pandemic stuff.

@UmbreonsPapa I assume one thing that is (mostly) certain is for filmed segments of presentations to be absent until COVID is over .

Pretty certain the last news people want is "Miyamoto/Sakurai/etc has died after contracting COVID from film crew/interviewers while preparing the last Direct".

@sanderev the thing is when analyst speaks they're not concerned about the actual industry or fans/etc.

Or even actual operating profits to a degree.

They're concerned about the stock market and whatever buzzword could have stock folks' perception of something becoming big could lead to rise in stock value even if just for a short term so they could profit from that rise.

It being founded over legit foundations is... entirely optional.

They're not looking at actual legit features for actual fans but merely buzzwords that could get stock values moving no matter how founded or even sustainable the outcomes might be.

@Dualmask plus for some it really isn't a comfortable way to play ergonomics wise? Even a jrpg like Monster Hunter Stories give me wrist aches after only 10-15 minutes.

I can't believe what a more action driven game would do to me on phone.

@Dualmask can concur.

I've tried the demo of mobile port Monster Hunter Stories because I completed the game on 3DS and I know mobile got updates the 3ds never got and...

... I just can't. I get wrist aches just after 10min of holding the phone that way.

And it's a jRPG. Not even an action game which would be even more demanding.

And since my primary income come from art commissions right now, I kind of need my hands if I want to make any money these days.

Long answer told short?

Most likely if you consider how much of a step back he took from game development and how many games(even franchises) are now headed by new teams or even lead directors.

Like Animal Crossing which is now headed by a different person( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aya_Kyogoku ) than the ones they started with. In fact she even made sure the AC development team would achieve gender parity in it's makeup which diversity ouc viewpoints may well have helped make this into a title that can appeal to so many players in the first place.

Another fun fact: New Horizon as a title is well known for it's gameplay already but did you know the amount of writing in this game actually numbers over a million words? That's a gargantuan amount of writing for a game or even a novel(recall that the writing goal for Nanowrimo's novels is only 50 000 words for a "finished" novel).

@Rayquaza2510 and there's this:

"Now, everyone is entitled to an opinion and it would be foolish to expect every person to fully appreciate and enjoy Animal Crossing: New Horizons' charms – but Crosbie seems to admit on Twitter that the whole thing was written purely to wind up fans and earn his paycheque"

@KingBowser86 @Isaix tbh just the world builder is HUGE and was a feat of its own to put into gear I bet.

Also: re: styles; let's not exclude the possibility of DLCs. They might never happen but so far every times I felt something wouldn't happen with Nintendo this generation I was proven otherwise.

In a way I could see DLCs for more styles coming AFTER world maker update because then we'd have the framework to include their content into full worlds instead of individual stages.

@mesome713 the secondary display thing make me think of being able to use a second screen or even console in the way we used the gamepad pro with games on WiiU.

It dimly reminds me of faint memories back in the day before Switch's name was known that Nintendo was having patents for something that seemed to imply at the time that their 'console' would have functioned by doing some kind of local cloud-like processing or something as if to have multiple units pooling their horsepower together for performance boost.

That is probably just my memory playing tricks on me mind you and it could have been a really different deal instead but that datamining now makes me wonder if that might be what it was about and if re: streaming additional displays on another Switch or hardware might not be what that was all about in the end.

@KitsuneNight To be honest I think this is one of the reasons I struggle with regarding the prevalence of roguelikes these days?

Like, by definition the majority of them are basically defined by being -difficult- games so as to fit their play loop. But there's so many of them these days I have very few time for any, especially when there come periods of stress where I very much need the opposite to be able to relax/unwind.

Honestly that might explains why I'm taking so much to Animal Crossing as of late.

@alexybubble that's basically how I can't help but feel about this? Also I could be wrong but I feel like I recall hearing that Japan had been exceptionally careless about COVID compared to other Asian countries like South Korea because of Japan's insistence on hosting the Olympics this year no matter what.

Which is not say that other countries might not be affected but plenty of others had been more careful either through local measure when national leadership lacked or by more preemptive national leadership in the first place.

Which is to say that some/many worldwide releases might be unaffected due to their rating boards not facing the same levels of issues.

@MS7000 Like iirc it was confirmed to have sold some thing like 3.5 times the amount of sales of the original game which was itself apparently a good seller for the franchise?

@soundbuoy Iirc, new villagers joining is not immediate. First you need to recruit around three. Then at some point when you speak to Nook he will asks you to allocate three plot of lands specifically for these villagers(iirc you need to build a bridge either at the same time or before as a result to make it easier to access more of your island on foot alone).

Then you need to produce the furnishing for these particular three plots of land and once done the villagers will start joining in the following days(they don't seem to move all at once, but rather one per day).

It IS possible that this is a task that might need to be carried by the primary player. This said when you have multiple resident on the same console one can call the other to join them in local multiplayer when they're playing. So technically it could be possible for your daughter to call 'you' so that you could help her in these tasks while she's playing.

@Zorox88 honestly for a mini direct it had enough major third party announcement in the 2k Collection stuff alone yet so little first party stuff that i'm REALLY curious about the -next- Direct.

Because honestly it almost kind of feel like they're making sure the next one will have plenty of space for first party announcements?

@quinnyboy58 in a way, stocking so much third party stuff in a single mini direct rather than a full direct is interesting since stuff loike 2k collection was very much full direct grade imo?

I could be proven wrong but that means that's a LOT of third party stuff that won't have to be shown once a full direct land. Which makes me wonder if when we DO get a full direct if we shouldn't expect a fair amount of first party surprises despite current perception of a slow year.

@westman98 I think the game would remain an open world even there it's just that the act equivalent to popping up a tower might end up being required to unlock passageways to -other- regions. And many regions had very wide borders with each others at the end of the day so it'd be very hard to utterly close them off from each others in truly linear passageways.