NoxAeturnus

MOBAs bore me. Hard pass.

@okimoki You found the joke.

Pokemon Sleep launch date reveal.

The people who were originally fooled by Billy's cheating, or worse didn't care, have testified that he didn't cheat. Guess that solves the case!

Looks good, glad it is in fact coming to Switch!

Sw/Sh were bland and ugly. Were there even 5 different things to do in the wild area? Ugly I can forgive. Bland I cannot.

Oh well, bring on Pokemon Snap! Played the original again last night and it's still perfect for some light pick up and play gaming. I imagine I'll be filling gaps with New Snap for a long time, especially with the portability.

@okimoki Because F2P on mobile is a cash cow. Pokemon Go has made obscene amounts of money and they're going to keep chasing that high. I think it's more likely that Game Freak continues to spread themselves thin developing more mobile apps than that they put more into main series games, which are selling very well despite being mediocre. (Edit: I agree with you, it's also my worst case scenario. It's just what I expect them to do.)

Why so much on rails hate? I like a good open world game, but I also like amusement park rides. In the original I like that interacting with the pokemon could take you off on side paths sometimes, just do some more of that and give me gyro aiming in portable mode with the camera button on L or R and this game will be perfect. I'm hyped that it looks like it plays just like the original.

About time they expanded. Maybe Pokemon won't be so stale down the road. Or we'll see a lot more free-to-start mobile games.

Hollow Knight was briliant. If Silksong even comes close it'll be something special. I can't wait to play as Hornet, she had such an interesting moveset in Hollow Knight.

@Krzysztof Backing up to cart for the inevitable future when the eshop is closed is a great idea. I'd settle for being able to authorize my digital games from the SD card. Or, you know, when the eshop closes if they could just remove the need entirely and make digital games fully and easily transferrable that'd be great. It'll never happen, but it'd be great.

Sure, why not have a digital only? Most games are only half on cart anyway, completely undermining the point of physical. SD card storage is preferable for me because it makes it easy to transfer my games between systems and I control how much storage I actually need. That's worth the added cost for me. The real problem is when/if the authorization/account system changes and I'm not able to authorize my games on a new system. That's the only long-term problem I need solved for digital to be strictly better than physical for me.

Edit: Hey, I got comment #123! That's a chat position you can count on!

Looks a bit like a 3D Hollow Knight. If it comes even close to that good it'll be a ton of fun.

@SwitchVogel Spot on. I haven't heard anything about them localizing the anime either. It's no wonder Persona continues to be a niche franchise, since they apparently can't manage a brand out of a wet paper sack. Typical Atlus. I had hoped things might change when SEGA acquired them, but who was I kidding? SEGA, the company that still can't figure out their own flagship franchise. Guess it really was a fitting matchup.

If this becomes real, I feel obligated to play it.

Even if Nintendo sits on all their announcements and reveals for E3 (which I doubt), I think we can expect a 3rd party showcase in the next couple weeks or in April. Early March will obviously have an Animal Crossing direct.

Alright, I'll move everything up during the freebie crossover month with Bank, but I'm not paying anything for the service unless they lower the price, add more value than simple storage and trades, or until I'm able to move all my 'mon into a game where they can be played. Premium's price is a joke for what it offers.

@lordzand The survey question was: "If previous Atlus games (games which can be played on other hardware, without adding additional elements) were ported to the Nintendo Switch, would you want to play them? Select all of the titles below that you would like to play on the Nintendo Switch.

Port of “Revelations: Persona”
Port of “Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Eternal Punishment”
Port of “Persona 3,” “Persona 3 FES,” and “Persona 3 Portable”
Port of “Persona 4” and “Persona 4 Golden”
Port of “Persona 5” and “Persona 5 Royal”
Port of “Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne”
Port of “Shin Megami Tensei IV”
Port of “Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse”
Port of “Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner” series
Port of “Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers”
Port of “Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha” series
Port of “Etrian Odyssey” series
Port of “13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim”
Port of “Persona Q”
Port of “Catherine: Full Body”
Port of “Odin Sphere Leifthrasir”
Port of “Dragon’s Crown Pro"

As you can see, all past Persona games were included as options.

Atlus: Oh, is that a wound? It would be a shame if I...rubbed salt in it.

P5 coming to the system is less of a problem to me than the fact that this game is a completely different genre than the original, with musou gameplay that I personally find soulless and boring.

Setting aside the price gouge on the cost of storage, there's a missed opportunity here. I feel like if it allowed me to do SOMETHING with the pokemon stored in Home it would be more attractive as a service, and help alleviate the sting of the national dex cuts in Sw/Sh.

All they had to do was let you battle with your stored Pokemon. No battle animations, no breeding, no training, maybe even no held items, just a barebones battle system with static models. Because then I'd be able to do something with the 'mon that can't go into Sw/Sh while maintaining the value of Sw/Sh. And that's ignoring how much I'd use the mobile app if battling was a feature that was available in it (hint: all day every day).

But nothing like that will ever happen. And if it did, they'd sell it as DLC and then charge an additional subscription fee to keep accessing it.

That's ok. I feel that his books are the weakest of the three despite being the source material from which the other two were made.

@GetShulked It's a warriors crossover, but the story is a direct sequel to the original game. I can ignore a spinoff, but I'd love a sequel...except for the odd choice to completely shift genres.

@nimnio The game looks well designed, and fun...for someone who likes hack and slash games. What's weird, and irritating, and in my opinion a crap decision, is that this is a hack and slash direct story sequel to a game that is not in any way hack and slash. It's like if Fire Emblem Three Houses suddenly had a direct sequel that was a platformer. There's nothing wrong with platformers, it'd just be a weird choice, and people who like FE but not platformers would be a little put out don't you think?

@Peterjr1 The musou part of musou is...wait for it...warriors. It's the fighters. Musou games aren't defined by their environment and battlefields, they're defined by their particular flavor of hack and slash combat. Which again, Scramble has in spades. But honestly? It actually doesn't matter to my original point whether or not it's specifically musou or just a general hack and slash. You're arguing that this isn't a particular tree in the forest, I'm saying it's a crap decision to make this a game about forests when it's a direct story sequel to a game about rivers. Metaphorically speaking.

@Peterjr1 Musou IS a hack and slash game. Nothing in the gameplay videos has convinced me that the combat in this game plays any differently than musou. It's been developed as a P5-Dynasty Warriors crossover in conjunction with Koei-Tecmo (Specifically Omega Force, makers of Dynasty Warriors). Who cares if it's in a separate screen and the environmental traversal is the same? This is a musou game.

It irritates me when a direct sequel is in a completely different genre. Like, hope you enjoy both kinds of game if you want the story. Loved P5, but I could not be less interested in musou games. The gameplay always feels so empty and soulless.

Well, I learned something today. And the more you know...

The best parts of Wii-U were always its interface. I could change it from single line of icons to grid like a tablet and adjust the size of that grid - you know, things the 3DS could do. It had folders. And Miiverse was an awesome place for artwork. I completed a whole pokedex just by chatting with people in Miiverse and setting up trades for some of the rarer 'mon like Shaymin.

Really threw the baby out with the bathwater on Wii-U Nintendo.

I would settle for a rerelease of the Gamecube version. It's so hard to find. Selling my copy is still one of my biggest gaming regrets.

@Edward_J_Grug_III They did say that they made the DLC in place of a paired sequel or third version. I'm not denying they said that. I'm denying that there's any flaw in comparing the actual costs of the previous generation to the actual costs of this one without factoring in the hypothetical cost of a nonexistent product. This is what we're arguing about:

You're buying a car. The car is $20,000. The salesman tells you that's a great deal, because last year's model was $15,000, but if they had produced that model this year, it would have been $25,000. So the new model is $5,000 less than it would have been!

You: That's a great deal!
Me: The new model is still $5,000 more than last year's.
You to me: You forgot to factor in the price that the new model would have been.
Me: Nope, I didn't forget, I just don't care about a model that doesn't exist. Old car is 15K, new one is 20K.
You to me: Your premise is flawed.
Me: smh

@Edward_J_Grug_III Ultra Sword and Shield don't exist, won't exist, and I do not acknowledge that any mathematical comparisons to them are valid. They are hypothetical, and therefore imaginary.

@Edward_J_Grug_III Yes, and so it has, it's a $30 expansion instead of the previous $40 sequel. However, the base game is now $60 instead of $40. They're not making a $60 sequel - that product doesn't exist, and it's not a flaw in my math to leave out comparisons to it. I understand your point, I just don't acknowledge it as a valid comparison because it's the kind of thing a car salesman would argue to make the deal sound better than it is.

@Edward_J_Grug_III Not a logical flaw to leave out comparisons to nonexistent speculative products. All in for Sw/Sh and expansions (current product) is more expensive than S/M and USUM (previous product). The DLC looks like decent value on its own, but can't be bought and played alone, so for me any value proposition has to factor in the poor value of the base game. In my opinion, Sw/Sh is poor value since it is less content and less polished content than its predecessor yet costs 1.5 times the price.

Each game's expansion pass includes both parts (Shield and Crown), but have to be bought separately. So it's actually like this:

S/M ($40) + USUM ($40) = $80 (or $160 if you want everything).
Sw/Sh ($60) + Expansion ($30) = $90 ($180 for everything).

Except there really wasn't much reason to own both versions before. For me it's more like $40-60 (cost pf one, or trade one to get sequel) versus the required $90 for all-in this generation.

Pokemon H.O.M.E. - Hostage Oubliette Management Environment

If the transfer is truly one-way from Bank and Let's Go, then any Pokemon not compatible with Sw/Sh that's transferred into Home may as well be a subscription hostage. They will literally have no place to go and no way to play with them. Cancel or lapse? Gone forever.

@johnvboy Am I right in summarizing your position like this: The game is selling great, lots of people are enjoying it, and the people who are criticizing it are a small minority and their opinions are no more or less valid than those who have been enjoying it? Regardless, why did it take you more than 70 comments on this article alone to get your point across? You alone account for roughly 25% of the comments here and yet you've said almost nothing worthy of note. Talks much, says little. You're a meta-complainer. Your entire purpose here is to complain and whine about the people complaining and whining rather than engaging with their sometimes valid and sometimes invalid criticisms. Maybe you're the one who needs to calm down with the complaining and move on.

Pokemon Direct is about Sw/Sh? Everyone break out your torches. My pitchfork's on loan right now, anyone have one I can borrow? I vote for @Kalmaro as mob leader. Remember everyone, follow your mob leader's instructions, don't get distracted arguing about side projects like Sleep, and we'll all have a lovely Poke-riot, ok?

They're not saying that the Nat Dex cut is good in general. They're saying that without the cut, Dynamax would be even more unbalancing than it already is. Which is fair, but then why not just leave out Dynamax instead?

@Aeleron0X As of April 2018 it's estimated GF had 143 employees. That's about two-thirds the size of Platinum (224), which is a growing company. You'd think they would have grown beyond the size of Intelligent Systems (151) in the more than 20 years they've been making Pokemon games. Especially considering that during that time Pokemon has grossed close to 100 BILLION dollars and is the highest grossing franchise of all time. There's no excuse.

@JayJ Sales are not a measure of quality. Otherwise they should stop making main series Pokemon games entirely and pour all of their resources into Pokemon Go. That's where the real money is.

@Kalmaro 100%, they may as well have just written, "No news today guys, but Pokemon's still a victim of its own success. Discuss." And I did, because I'm bored today.

@Aeleron0X They've had more than 20 years to build those relationships. They're sitting on a huge mega-franchise. We shouldn't even be discussing that they haven't expanded their talent pool or their relationships with others in the industry. That should just be a given. That it's not is telling isn't it?

@Aeleron0X Who is saying it's black and white? What we're saying is they had options. They didn't take them. Intelligent Systems collaborated to get FE:Three Houses done. Retro was pulled in for Metroid Prime 4. Nintendo has a lot of talent. GF doesn't. They're very insular, and that's becoming more and more of a problem. Their studio is not up to speed on modern game development, as you've pointed out numerous times. You know how you get up to speed? You hire new talent. You collaborate with other talented people in the industry. You give yourself the time to get the job done right. I'd be more sympathetic if this wasn't a problem they hadn't created themselves by mismanagement. They're sitting on one of the largest global brands in existence.

@WoolooSweater Fans sure did say those things collectively. You know what they didn't say, "I really hope they remake Gen 1 (Edit: AGAIN) before releasing Gen 8." GF managed to release Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and develop Little Town Hero in that time as well. Sw/Sh are rushed and weak, would they have been so if GF wasn't trying to spread themselves thin on other projects?

@Aeleron0X Again, they could choose to let the franchise breath a bit and NOT release it yearly. Let's assume everything he's said is true. So it's hard? Hire more people. Collaborate with another studio. Give it more time. They're sitting on one of the largest global franchises, yet they develop for it like it's the minor leagues and they've managed it very poorly over the years.

@jowe_gw You're spot on with your comment in #59 about what the game encourages versus what actually happens. Here's my idea for Pokemon:

-Every type has an environmental power. All pokemon of that type can use that power outside of battle. It's not a move for use in battle, only for accessing areas in the environment. Exploration areas are gated behind these. Now you have to use various types of pokemon to even explore the world.
-When you face a gym, you have to use that type of Pokemon in all gym battles in that gym. You gotta earn it with the type.
-When you beat a gym, the badge for that gym unlocks that type's environmental power. So you can't explore areas until you collect that type and beat that gym.

Then build an exploration based Pokemon game around it. They don't even have to use my idea, but I wish they'd do something with Pokemon's potential. Instead of something new and interesting we get Dynamax, raids that are fun exactly once, a tacked-on and distressingly empty wild area, and an ever-expanding and unwieldy roster.

@Kalmaro True, but I'm also mad that they cut half the roster. If Home has no battle mechanics, it's a hostage situation. It's going to be one-way transfer into home from Bank, and Sw/Sh is the only game right now that will allow two-way transfer. Which means Pokemon check in but they don't check out because half of them have no game to be played within. And Home will be a subscription service, so I'll lose everything if I stop paying my subscription...with nowhere to transfer my data for safekeeping if my sub lapses or I want to cancel.

@Aeleron0X If it wasn't a yearly franchise, maybe they would have had the time to dedicate to actually making a better game. Also, if they hadn't been stagnating their skills for so many years, maybe they'd have had the chops to do better. They were excited about full camera control. In 2019. That tells me everything I need to know about their current skills.

Nintendo Life gave S/M and US/UM 10/10. Sword and Shield received an 8/10. That's pretty telling in my opinion. I played Sw/Sh on loan from the library and I have to say, it feels rushed. Enjoyable? Sure, for the 20 hours it took me to complete it. Worth +$20 over previous entries? Not a chance. Especially since they slashed the post game. Glad I didn't pay for it.

Wow. It's AMAZING.

The problem with the internet is that it's a sledgehammer, and an indescriminate one. A sledgehammer is a fine tool when you need to knock down a wall. It's a crap tool for most other problems.

I don't fault Chucklefish for apologizing here, even though they did nothing wrong, because everyone's afraid of the sledgehammer when they see it. And they did nothing wrong - even if you believe that they should have hired minority VAs for minority characters, the agency they hired to find them VAs is to blame for not bringing forward minority choices. Is that systemic racism? Maybe it is, but even if the sledgehammer could solve systemic racism (hint: it can't), Chucklefish isn't the right wall to knock down.