@Saego Yeah, it's still in early access, so it's not optimized yet. Still pretty amazing that in it's incomplete state, it's by far one of the most simultaneously played games on the planet at any current point in time.
@GC-161 "1UP: Games like Shining Force and Fire Emblem have cut-scenes during battle. Here, it feels like you're actually playing those sequences — is that something that guided the direction of the game?
RN: We started the project thinking we wanted to create a war drama — something dramatic. But I strongly felt that this sort of drama shouldn't just take place in movies and cut-scenes, but in the daily experience of the war that you have throughout the game. A big part of war movies is where the characters are walking through a village, and it's quiet, and they don't know where the enemy is, and they're afraid. We wanted to re-create that experience for the game. Or the feeling you have when your companion's shot and you have to decide if you want to go help him, even though you may be opening yourself to fire as well. We wanted to create lots of emotions through the battlefield and through being happy with your companions when they do something well — to be glad you added them to the team."
"1UP: Do you play a lot of Western strategy games? They tend to be very different in tone from the Japanese approach.
RN: Yes, I've definitely been playing Western titles — not a huge concentration, though. I've been trying to basically play games across all genres. Fantasy RPGs and Fire Emblem and others, too. We're trying to bring elements of many different genres that we feel would work well in the title. So this may be something new and unusual for those who are accustomed to Western games, but we hope they'll like the different visual style and the focus on individual characters."
I see, so the way FE influenced VC wasn't necessarily the gameplay or design itself, but it's thematic elements, such as fighting (and possibly dying) alongside people who become allies or even friends, while swept up in a greater conflict. That's where my reasoning was mistaken- there's more than one or a couple primary elements to RPG's, and more than one way for them to be interpreted.
VC in particular has a very dynamic set of elements interwoven together, so it makes sense that there were a lot of different sources which were drawn from. FE as a whole wasn't anywhere near as much of an influence for VC as Mario Kart was for Crash Team Racing, or Smash Bros was for Playstation All-Stars, but the thematic elements of being a war drama with camaraderie and permanent death are definitely shared.
In other words, FE and VC are more closely related than tenth cousins one time removed, but not as closely related as first cousins.
Lol, PUBG isn't just popular, it's the new Counter-Strike, the number one played game on Steam at any given point in time by far. Only very large MMO's have a larger simultaneous player base running at once. And that was months ago, it's still growing. It will never show up on NS, it's too demanding in more ways than one. And it has hard core difficulty compared to something like Splatoon, which is very casual by comparison.
Interesting that they're targeting the Asian market, I guess they're not convinced any console platform can catch up with PC numbers in the West. (And they're right.)
@MetalKingShield Except for places like Saudi Arabia, where they'll even ban Pokemon because they think it's "witchcraft/demonically influenced." Funny how they rarely ever (if ever) mention the actually demonic Shin Megami Tensei... But yeah, Senran Kagura would be restricted anywhere that people are so unbelievably, intensely socially conservative that they get freaked out if a woman drives a car or (GAAAAAAAAASP!!!) doesn't wear a head (or full body) covering in public. (I think our friend Anti-Matter over in Indonesia may know how that can go...)
@GC-161 You keep giving examples that would absolutely be directly inspired by a predecessor, like first cousins living across the street from one other. Whereas VC is comparatively about as related to FE/AW as one out of several tenth cousins one time removed, living on different continents from each other. So technically... I suppose that if you really, REALLY stretch it, then yes, VC was partially "inspired" by the design flow of FE/AW...by less than 1%. So, credit where credit is due. But @AlwaysGreener has the right of it.
@NEStalgia @GC-161 There are a lot of times where devs are inspired by movies, animation, and real places moreso than games. If we go back far enough, one could ask "what inspired Sakura Taisen?" Well, musical theatre combined with the mecha genre, in that case. It's not necessarily one particular series or media when it comes to games.
Do either of you have proof of VC's devs being inspired by Intelligent Systems series? I haven't found any yet. There's a whole world of gaming outside Nintendo. By contrast, if one were to say Shining Force was inspired by Fire Emblem, absolutely. But VC? Eh, who knows?
@oji Those were his words on Twitter, not mine. I guess he got fed up with being inundated with questions. Also, every Yakuza entry has always been PS console exclusive. PS2, PS3, and now PS4, nothing else. I wouldn't anticipate a break in tradition this time, either.
@GC-161 The original VC was co-developed by SEGA WOW and Overworks, the internal SEGA teams that previously made the Sakura Taisen series and Skies of Arcadia, respectively. So their most direct previous experience was primarily with those. SEGA WOW had also previously made the 3rd person action title Nightshade (in 2003).
They weren't really inspired by Intelligent System's titles, that's just a rumor. The current series producer, Shinji Motoyama, isn't on record confirming any such thing, either. Ryutaro Nonaka and Shuntaro Tanaka, the producer and director of VC1 respectively, are on record citing Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, and Combat! as inspirations.
The intention with VC was to combine their previous experience with strategy, action, and RPG elements into a new type of title. Not to mention, the BLiTZ system is nothing like the traditional strictly turn based system of Fire Emblem/Advance Wars.
@retro_player_22 Actually... it did contribute towards killing sales of VC2 outside of Japan, which prompted the decision to not release VC3 internationally. Losing the fully fledged CANVAS engine's level of presentation was ultimately a big part of the reason why that happened. Combined with everything else wrong with VC2, that gave many people the impression that it was a severely dumbed down entry, so it sold very poorly. (And honestly, it really was dumbed down in every way except for it's class system, which was needlessly convoluted. Thankfully, VC3 fixed everything wrong with VC2.)
That said, I would expect the NS version to receive some favoritism with VC4, since series producer Shinji Motoyama favors portable consoles. The other console versions will likely just be upscaled from the base NS version.
@BLD VC3 fixed a lot of the gameplay/balance issues that were in the previous two entries, with things like leveling up each individual's stats instead of class-wide levels, allowing any character to pick any class (although everyone has their stat preferences), and only allowing Engineers/Medics to carry Ragnaid, making them far more valuable. Too bad it was JP only. (But there's a perfectly good fansub for those with a modded PSP, or PPSSPP if so inclined.)
No Switch. No PC. Idk about the box label, that's a Sony thing. pic.twitter.com/8R3Qj36deA
— John Hardin (@JohnLHardin) January 3, 2017"
I wouldn't be surprised if Persona 5 does eventually see a release on NS, though, since it was originally intended for the PS3, and the NS specs bests the PS3. Yakuza 0, much more highly unlikely. SEGA won't put in Panic Button levels of downscaling.
@Oscarzxn That was due to the CANVAS engine, which was originally tailor made for use with the PS3. It never got used in full again either, which is a shame.
@BulbasaurusRex That's the point, it's historical fiction. Even now, it's a sorely underused genre. Granted, the enemy nations in the VC series have been straight-forwardly classical examples of empire, instead of being modern democracies gone wrong, which would have made for more interesting stories. So not quite like the Nazi's, and neither did they have high level operating support from companies based in Allied nations (e.g. IBM and Ford), like the real Nazi's did. VC does hint at the parallel of the conflict largely being an imperialistic war, rather than a people's war as is told by mass media mouthpieces, but it doesn't get THAT deep into it.
@retro_player_22 VC1 did eventually see a PC release, which was accurately ported. (Getting the CANVAS engine to function outside of PS3 must have been a doozy!) So especially considering this multiplatform release, I would anticipate VC4 getting a PC port eventually as well. (Hopefully within a much shorter timeframe!)
@Specters VC2 was definitely a step backwards in every way except for the class system. VC3 was actually very good, but unfortunately remained JP exclusive. It did get fansubs, though! VC4 being on NS gets me HYPE
Yep, this definitely solidifies the reasoning to get an NS... But I'll still wait for an upgrade SKU. Sounds more and more like NS could be the 2nd coming of the PS2, RPG wise.
@LinktotheFuture I would recommend Heart Gold/Soul Silver for the first time. They hearken back to the blueprint era for the entire series, with a ton of upgrades and modernized additions. Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby is also a good choice, since they improve very significantly upon the original Ruby/Sapphire, which were... not very good, they needed Emerald to fix them. I've also heard others say X/Y is a good starting point, although I'd still say the remakes aren't so overwhelming to get into. Plus, X/Y is kind of a weak point in the series for the overall soundtrack, I think... Only their legendary battle theme is really good.
Sun/Moon made a LOT of changes to the formula and style of progression, some arguably for the better, but a lot of other things arguably for the much worse. (And other things like the forced hand holding, which unequivocally take steps backwards.) You'd have to play one of the earlier entries in the series to know why.
To be honest, I feel like the mass produced, highly corporatized products are out of place on a list of notable inventions. Headgear to assist the blind? Definitely important. Mars probe to help humanity learn about one of our planetary neighbors? Necessary for advancement. An alternative to the common petroleum based tires on automobiles? Good for sustainability. But Switch and iPhone X? Somehow, these sorts of devices do not spark the imagination and give the impression that humanity is making progress.
I think the last time gaming consoles or devices were notable as truly new inventions was back in the days of Willy Higginbotham modding a navy ship radar to simulate the first ever version of Pong, followed by SpaceWars! for arcades, Magnavox Oddysey for home, and maybe Game and Watch for portable. Honorable mention goes to the Dreamcast for being the first console to feature fully fledged internet connection support and arcade-like capabilities, punching way above it's weight class by 1999 standards.
@LinktotheFuture That being said, when you're booting the game and fighting in totem/special effect or 4-trainer battles (or presumably also when using totemics in Ultra Sun/Moon), New 3DS does load a bit faster and doesn't experience such heavy frame drops, respectively. Even with clock boost/L2 CPU use, there's still frame drops during camera angle panning, just not as heavy as on the original 3DS line. So you will occasionally notice a positive difference. Just not as much as one might hope for.
New 3DS runs Xenoblade, RE Revelations, Monster Hunter series, and other more demanding titles for the hardware without any issues, so it's most likely just Sun/Moon not being well optimized. Ultimately, I would say to use a New 3DS if you can just to save 15+ seconds booting up and not be slowed to a crawl on totemic/special effects appearances or 4-trainer battles.
Here's a comparison video NL did last year to show the difference where it's most noticeable, in the middle of 4-trainer battles, but otherwise playing nearly identically (possibly down to recording timing error):
Here's another one, showing a big difference in frame drops in an early battle with a special effect aura on an enemy, but otherwise playing identically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knzXlNFgtpA
@LinktotheFuture Nope, New 3DS doesn't boost performance for the most part in Sun/Moon. In many titles, it doesn't automatically boost performance at all. If you mod a New 3DS/XL and force both clock boost and L2 CPU usage, that does lower load times and lag in many titles.
(Edit: My bad, New 3DS does selectively boost performance automatically)
Phew! I thought I was going to miss out on all of the latest Switch hacking and custom firmware coverage! Thank you for informing us and bringing this matter to our consideration, of which we may or may not have had without you, Nintendo Life! Also many thanks for the Wololo link that users couldn't normally post.
Eh, this isn't any weirder than ... Really, a LOT of things in Shin Megami Tensei. Or Yakuza 0, where a chicken becomes one of your company managers after you get a turkey in bowling. Or any other anime where creatures can be heard speaking human words after someone became spiritually close to them in some capacity. Ash is basically a Pokémon whisperer, what seems crazy to us and others is completely normal to him. I thought this was well established?
@FinalFrog True, but that doesn't stop other sites like RPGFan from having higher writing standards than this for describing what's new, not new, mediocre, exciting, etc... Especially for a 10/10 review. (Granted, they never give their equivalent of 10/10, more like 9.5/10 at best)
I would say Prism version is better than S/M for retro fans. It's also a genuinely difficult version to Nuzlocke with level grinding limits!
@DrRandle It's no problem to give a 10/10 score and express an opinion. What is a problem is when a professional reviewer/outlet that earns money to do this doesn't back up the highest score they can give with an appropriately high standard of prose and elaboration. This is the quality of review one would expect to be dished out for a 6/10 "meh" eShop title, not a 10/10 modern masterpiece.
This review came out way too early- it reeks of being a reference point for a first draft. Frankly, it should be redone at some point after release. This is the laziest professional 10/10 review I've ever read in my entire life, no joke. Even GameFAQ's detailed/full reviews by users elaborate more on important points and considerations than this. If NDA's are an issue there... Just wait for day of release to publish a review. If you can wait an entire month to give NBA 2K18 a score, you can wait 3 more days to publish a better review for a mainline Pokémon title.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Sonic Forces sales is indeed like weaving straw into gold, but for all the effort put into the DOOM port, isn't that one getting lower sales at retail (but better sales for digital) more like converting gold into straw?
@Yorumi About loot boxes, the UK government is currently investigating how closely they should be associated with gambling laws. If loot boxes are integrated into regulation by gambling laws, then games with them will become prohibited from sale. It will become illegal to knowingly sell those games to minors. (Loot boxes really should be classified as gambling, it's not the same process psychologically as buying card packs, as the companies using loot boxes claim.) So let's hope Nintendo doesn't make a Pokémon title with loot boxes. They already went the cruddy Candy Crush route with Pokémon Shuffle.
Face it. This is what Nintendo has become. They're willing to use the same tactics as EA and Take-Two for micro transactions now. Not even under an expanded definition- even the most narrow definition would apply here.
This is not how to do DLC. This sort of content should follow CD Projekt RED's example with The Witcher 3: If it's not a full blown expansion (not just a few dungeons or extraneous story bits, but practically a whole new game), phase it in for free as a reward for those who have purchased the game and registered it on their account.
The sad thing about this is that there is a superior alternative in the works. Recent developments in BotW emulation on Cemu allow one to mod Link's model into different costumes or characters- including an upcoming fully fledged Zelda model mod. (Yes, that's right, play through the whole game as Zelda instead of Link.) Even completely different characters like Goku have been demonstrated, it's crazy. BotW modding really does make the game like Zelda Scrolls. Granted, the emulation of BotW is difficult to set up, requires fairly new components, and is still rife with errors, especially with various GPU's (the price to pay for this sort of thing).
Yet, the fact that such things can be had for no monetary charge makes paying for these official DLC variants look like a slap in the face by comparison. Seriously, go look up the BotW Cemu mod developments going on right now and compare them to this.
@JimmySpades @JaxonH If I had to guess, based on current sales, the current average attach rate is somewhere between 3 and 4 right now. Coupled with having several million/multi-million sellers already, that's very good for being at the 2/3 mark of the first year. It'll probably rise to between at least 4 and 5 during the holidays... unless people go ballistic slamming the stores and it rises to between 5 and 6, which wouldn't be surprising.
@JaxonH I guess the thing is, in this case as well, many members of the tech press (including Digital Foundry) are good at digging for information, but they're not always very good at contextualizing that information and analyzing what it all means. Sometimes they even go overboard and overemphasize some issues at certain times, as others here have mentioned, since that draws more hits. By comparison, Digital Foundry previously made this video previewing DOOM on NS:
If you didn't know it was made by someone at DF, who could tell it was even from the same outlet? The tone and focus is very different from the one linked in this article.
In that DF preview, they're showering praise and wondering how a portable version like this exists at all. Ultimately, a PC specced as closely as possible to an NS, with as similar settings as possible, simply cannot run DOOM as well as an NS. Technical wizardry techniques were used by Panic Button (the company Bethesda farmed development of the port out to) that aren't among the aspects typically recorded by benchmarking tools. To compound that, it's become an unfortunate trend in the tech press to have very incomplete (or sometimes even outright inaccurate) benchmarking criteria and variables.
A notorious recent example is the huge range of results among the tech press with testing the recently released Coffee Lake CPU lineup's performance, some of which were the result of honest mistakes, but none of which told the whole story: different motherboards and their settings can now end up yielding completely different performance results with the same CPU. Which also means a low- or mid- range motherboard can now be a performance bottleneck. Combined with what is essentially a paper launch, since almost no one can actually get their hands on Coffee Lake CPU's at the moment, it's a veritable con job. The tech press is supposed to be a check/balance when this happens, but that didn't happen in this case. Someone in the general public had to do detective work to figure out how and why this had happened, and inform the tech press members about it.
The moral of the story is, you can't rely on the tech press to give you all the details.
@westman98 Oh, that's right! It was first month not being indicative, not first year! My bad. Thanks for reminding me, that was a pretty bad memory lapse on my part.
And yeah, vgchartz never tells you the whole story. I don't know why anyone links towards it as "evidence" to this day.
@ThanosReXXX "In any case, it's up to all parties to guarantee success."
@JaxonH "It's success is out of our hands, so can we just talk about enjoying it while it's here rather than constantly trying to remind everyone it's going to fail?"
Ooh, now I'm imagining Action Jaxon Pikmin and Thanosaurus Rexes duking it out for some reason... Even though I know you two are on the same page!
@westman98 "First year sales absolutely are indicative of the platform's outlook."
Not necessarily. The first year on both the DS and 3DS weren't anything to write home about, but they took off into the stratosphere after their second year and beyond. The Dreamcast performed excellently for it's time during it's first year, but it couldn't save SEGA from their own upper management problems. On a smaller time frame scale, the first couple of months of the Wii U made it seem like it would be another smash hit, but it fell off a cliff immediately at the turn of 2013, recovered slightly in 2015, then died down again, with BotW being the last gasp. Fortunes can turn positive or negative for reasons that are not necessarily fully apparent during the first year. I can't recall how many times throughout the years I read the phrase "the first year is not indicative of the final result" back in the days of print magazines...
Much better. I guess whoever came up with the bright idea to use the other, infinitely more bland box cover was listening too much to bad marketing advice.
Comments 5,813
Re: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Studio Bluehole Working On New Game For Switch
@Saego Yeah, it's still in early access, so it's not optimized yet. Still pretty amazing that in it's incomplete state, it's by far one of the most simultaneously played games on the planet at any current point in time.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@GC-161 "1UP: Games like Shining Force and Fire Emblem have cut-scenes during battle. Here, it feels like you're actually playing those sequences — is that something that guided the direction of the game?
RN: We started the project thinking we wanted to create a war drama — something dramatic. But I strongly felt that this sort of drama shouldn't just take place in movies and cut-scenes, but in the daily experience of the war that you have throughout the game. A big part of war movies is where the characters are walking through a village, and it's quiet, and they don't know where the enemy is, and they're afraid. We wanted to re-create that experience for the game. Or the feeling you have when your companion's shot and you have to decide if you want to go help him, even though you may be opening yourself to fire as well. We wanted to create lots of emotions through the battlefield and through being happy with your companions when they do something well — to be glad you added them to the team."
"1UP: Do you play a lot of Western strategy games? They tend to be very different in tone from the Japanese approach.
RN: Yes, I've definitely been playing Western titles — not a huge concentration, though. I've been trying to basically play games across all genres. Fantasy RPGs and Fire Emblem and others, too. We're trying to bring elements of many different genres that we feel would work well in the title. So this may be something new and unusual for those who are accustomed to Western games, but we hope they'll like the different visual style and the focus on individual characters."
I see, so the way FE influenced VC wasn't necessarily the gameplay or design itself, but it's thematic elements, such as fighting (and possibly dying) alongside people who become allies or even friends, while swept up in a greater conflict. That's where my reasoning was mistaken- there's more than one or a couple primary elements to RPG's, and more than one way for them to be interpreted.
VC in particular has a very dynamic set of elements interwoven together, so it makes sense that there were a lot of different sources which were drawn from. FE as a whole wasn't anywhere near as much of an influence for VC as Mario Kart was for Crash Team Racing, or Smash Bros was for Playstation All-Stars, but the thematic elements of being a war drama with camaraderie and permanent death are definitely shared.
In other words, FE and VC are more closely related than tenth cousins one time removed, but not as closely related as first cousins.
Re: Weirdness: Here's Two Pikachu-Enabled Smart Home Speakers Chatting With Each Other
@10-zx That...........................................................
Was amazing. I uh... I wasn't thinking any weird thoughts to myself while reading that story.
Re: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Studio Bluehole Working On New Game For Switch
Lol, PUBG isn't just popular, it's the new Counter-Strike, the number one played game on Steam at any given point in time by far. Only very large MMO's have a larger simultaneous player base running at once. And that was months ago, it's still growing. It will never show up on NS, it's too demanding in more ways than one. And it has hard core difficulty compared to something like Splatoon, which is very casual by comparison.
Interesting that they're targeting the Asian market, I guess they're not convinced any console platform can catch up with PC numbers in the West. (And they're right.)
Re: Weirdness: Here's Two Pikachu-Enabled Smart Home Speakers Chatting With Each Other
Imagine them with THIS face. 3scary5me
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@GC-161 Source? I've looked, but I can't find it.
Re: Shinobi Refle: Senran Kagura Arrives on the Switch This Week in Japan
@LUIGITORNADO Easy. They're not self-respecting.
Re: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Both Make Debut in UK Charts Top 5
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Bruh. Where are you. I'm lonely.
Re: Shinobi Refle: Senran Kagura Arrives on the Switch This Week in Japan
@MetalKingShield Except for places like Saudi Arabia, where they'll even ban Pokemon because they think it's "witchcraft/demonically influenced." Funny how they rarely ever (if ever) mention the actually demonic Shin Megami Tensei... But yeah, Senran Kagura would be restricted anywhere that people are so unbelievably, intensely socially conservative that they get freaked out if a woman drives a car or (GAAAAAAAAASP!!!) doesn't wear a head (or full body) covering in public. (I think our friend Anti-Matter over in Indonesia may know how that can go...)
Re: Shinobi Refle: Senran Kagura Arrives on the Switch This Week in Japan
@rjejr I can't believe that's already a meme...
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@NEStalgia If you think about it, a lot of western games are actually movies in drag...
...COUGH...
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@GC-161 You keep giving examples that would absolutely be directly inspired by a predecessor, like first cousins living across the street from one other. Whereas VC is comparatively about as related to FE/AW as one out of several tenth cousins one time removed, living on different continents from each other. So technically... I suppose that if you really, REALLY stretch it, then yes, VC was partially "inspired" by the design flow of FE/AW...by less than 1%. So, credit where credit is due. But @AlwaysGreener has the right of it.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@NEStalgia @GC-161 There are a lot of times where devs are inspired by movies, animation, and real places moreso than games. If we go back far enough, one could ask "what inspired Sakura Taisen?" Well, musical theatre combined with the mecha genre, in that case. It's not necessarily one particular series or media when it comes to games.
Do either of you have proof of VC's devs being inspired by Intelligent Systems series? I haven't found any yet. There's a whole world of gaming outside Nintendo. By contrast, if one were to say Shining Force was inspired by Fire Emblem, absolutely. But VC? Eh, who knows?
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@oji Good point, although those were remakes and not new. Maybe if Nintendo sneaks SEGA a little somethin' somethin'
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@oji Those were his words on Twitter, not mine. I guess he got fed up with being inundated with questions. Also, every Yakuza entry has always been PS console exclusive. PS2, PS3, and now PS4, nothing else. I wouldn't anticipate a break in tradition this time, either.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@GC-161 The original VC was co-developed by SEGA WOW and Overworks, the internal SEGA teams that previously made the Sakura Taisen series and Skies of Arcadia, respectively. So their most direct previous experience was primarily with those. SEGA WOW had also previously made the 3rd person action title Nightshade (in 2003).
They weren't really inspired by Intelligent System's titles, that's just a rumor. The current series producer, Shinji Motoyama, isn't on record confirming any such thing, either. Ryutaro Nonaka and Shuntaro Tanaka, the producer and director of VC1 respectively, are on record citing Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, and Combat! as inspirations.
The intention with VC was to combine their previous experience with strategy, action, and RPG elements into a new type of title. Not to mention, the BLiTZ system is nothing like the traditional strictly turn based system of Fire Emblem/Advance Wars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyria_Chronicles
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@retro_player_22 Actually... it did contribute towards killing sales of VC2 outside of Japan, which prompted the decision to not release VC3 internationally. Losing the fully fledged CANVAS engine's level of presentation was ultimately a big part of the reason why that happened. Combined with everything else wrong with VC2, that gave many people the impression that it was a severely dumbed down entry, so it sold very poorly. (And honestly, it really was dumbed down in every way except for it's class system, which was needlessly convoluted. Thankfully, VC3 fixed everything wrong with VC2.)
That said, I would expect the NS version to receive some favoritism with VC4, since series producer Shinji Motoyama favors portable consoles. The other console versions will likely just be upscaled from the base NS version.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@BLD VC3 fixed a lot of the gameplay/balance issues that were in the previous two entries, with things like leveling up each individual's stats instead of class-wide levels, allowing any character to pick any class (although everyone has their stat preferences), and only allowing Engineers/Medics to carry Ragnaid, making them far more valuable. Too bad it was JP only. (But there's a perfectly good fansub for those with a modded PSP, or PPSSPP if so inclined.)
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@oji "Persona 5 platforms: PS3, PS4.
Yakuza 0 platforms: PS4.
THAT'S. IT.
No Switch. No PC. Idk about the box label, that's a Sony thing. pic.twitter.com/8R3Qj36deA
— John Hardin (@JohnLHardin) January 3, 2017"
I wouldn't be surprised if Persona 5 does eventually see a release on NS, though, since it was originally intended for the PS3, and the NS specs bests the PS3. Yakuza 0, much more highly unlikely. SEGA won't put in Panic Button levels of downscaling.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@Oscarzxn That was due to the CANVAS engine, which was originally tailor made for use with the PS3. It never got used in full again either, which is a shame.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@BulbasaurusRex That's the point, it's historical fiction. Even now, it's a sorely underused genre. Granted, the enemy nations in the VC series have been straight-forwardly classical examples of empire, instead of being modern democracies gone wrong, which would have made for more interesting stories. So not quite like the Nazi's, and neither did they have high level operating support from companies based in Allied nations (e.g. IBM and Ford), like the real Nazi's did. VC does hint at the parallel of the conflict largely being an imperialistic war, rather than a people's war as is told by mass media mouthpieces, but it doesn't get THAT deep into it.
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@retro_player_22 VC1 did eventually see a PC release, which was accurately ported. (Getting the CANVAS engine to function outside of PS3 must have been a doozy!) So especially considering this multiplatform release, I would anticipate VC4 getting a PC port eventually as well. (Hopefully within a much shorter timeframe!)
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
@Specters VC2 was definitely a step backwards in every way except for the class system. VC3 was actually very good, but unfortunately remained JP exclusive. It did get fansubs, though! VC4 being on NS gets me HYPE
Re: Sega's Valkyria Chronicles 4 Is Marching Towards Nintendo Switch
Yep, this definitely solidifies the reasoning to get an NS... But I'll still wait for an upgrade SKU. Sounds more and more like NS could be the 2nd coming of the PS2, RPG wise.
Re: Review: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (3DS)
@LinktotheFuture I would recommend Heart Gold/Soul Silver for the first time. They hearken back to the blueprint era for the entire series, with a ton of upgrades and modernized additions. Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby is also a good choice, since they improve very significantly upon the original Ruby/Sapphire, which were... not very good, they needed Emerald to fix them. I've also heard others say X/Y is a good starting point, although I'd still say the remakes aren't so overwhelming to get into. Plus, X/Y is kind of a weak point in the series for the overall soundtrack, I think... Only their legendary battle theme is really good.
Sun/Moon made a LOT of changes to the formula and style of progression, some arguably for the better, but a lot of other things arguably for the much worse. (And other things like the forced hand holding, which unequivocally take steps backwards.) You'd have to play one of the earlier entries in the series to know why.
Re: TIME Names Nintendo Switch as One of the Best Inventions of 2017
To be honest, I feel like the mass produced, highly corporatized products are out of place on a list of notable inventions. Headgear to assist the blind? Definitely important. Mars probe to help humanity learn about one of our planetary neighbors? Necessary for advancement. An alternative to the common petroleum based tires on automobiles? Good for sustainability. But Switch and iPhone X? Somehow, these sorts of devices do not spark the imagination and give the impression that humanity is making progress.
I think the last time gaming consoles or devices were notable as truly new inventions was back in the days of Willy Higginbotham modding a navy ship radar to simulate the first ever version of Pong, followed by SpaceWars! for arcades, Magnavox Oddysey for home, and maybe Game and Watch for portable. Honorable mention goes to the Dreamcast for being the first console to feature fully fledged internet connection support and arcade-like capabilities, punching way above it's weight class by 1999 standards.
Re: Review: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (3DS)
@LinktotheFuture That being said, when you're booting the game and fighting in totem/special effect or 4-trainer battles (or presumably also when using totemics in Ultra Sun/Moon), New 3DS does load a bit faster and doesn't experience such heavy frame drops, respectively. Even with clock boost/L2 CPU use, there's still frame drops during camera angle panning, just not as heavy as on the original 3DS line. So you will occasionally notice a positive difference. Just not as much as one might hope for.
New 3DS runs Xenoblade, RE Revelations, Monster Hunter series, and other more demanding titles for the hardware without any issues, so it's most likely just Sun/Moon not being well optimized. Ultimately, I would say to use a New 3DS if you can just to save 15+ seconds booting up and not be slowed to a crawl on totemic/special effects appearances or 4-trainer battles.
Here's a comparison video NL did last year to show the difference where it's most noticeable, in the middle of 4-trainer battles, but otherwise playing nearly identically (possibly down to recording timing error):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTZNDSqTYeU
Here's another one, showing a big difference in frame drops in an early battle with a special effect aura on an enemy, but otherwise playing identically:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knzXlNFgtpA
Re: Review: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (3DS)
@LinktotheFuture Nope, New 3DS doesn't boost performance for the most part in Sun/Moon. In many titles, it doesn't automatically boost performance at all. If you mod a New 3DS/XL and force both clock boost and L2 CPU usage, that does lower load times and lag in many titles.
(Edit: My bad, New 3DS does selectively boost performance automatically)
Re: Review: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Switch)
See, now this is a real review. Going by the writing standards of the Pokémon Ultra S/M review, this one makes NSkyrim sound more like a 19/10...
Re: Naughty Hackers Have Homebrew Running On Switch Now
@NEStalgia Wait... This can make your Switch go to the bathroom!? I don't care how illegal it is. I want that in my life. Best prank device ever.
Re: Naughty Hackers Have Homebrew Running On Switch Now
Phew! I thought I was going to miss out on all of the latest Switch hacking and custom firmware coverage! Thank you for informing us and bringing this matter to our consideration, of which we may or may not have had without you, Nintendo Life! Also many thanks for the Wololo link that users couldn't normally post.
Re: Random: Pokémon Fans Are Losing Their Minds Over Pikachu Talking
@wiggleronacid The Rockachu? Doesn't sound any more odd than John NuzLocke.
Re: Random: Pokémon Fans Are Losing Their Minds Over Pikachu Talking
Eh, this isn't any weirder than ... Really, a LOT of things in Shin Megami Tensei. Or Yakuza 0, where a chicken becomes one of your company managers after you get a turkey in bowling. Or any other anime where creatures can be heard speaking human words after someone became spiritually close to them in some capacity. Ash is basically a Pokémon whisperer, what seems crazy to us and others is completely normal to him. I thought this was well established?
Re: Review: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (3DS)
@FinalFrog True, but that doesn't stop other sites like RPGFan from having higher writing standards than this for describing what's new, not new, mediocre, exciting, etc... Especially for a 10/10 review. (Granted, they never give their equivalent of 10/10, more like 9.5/10 at best)
I would say Prism version is better than S/M for retro fans. It's also a genuinely difficult version to Nuzlocke with level grinding limits!
Re: Review: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (3DS)
@DrRandle It's no problem to give a 10/10 score and express an opinion. What is a problem is when a professional reviewer/outlet that earns money to do this doesn't back up the highest score they can give with an appropriately high standard of prose and elaboration. This is the quality of review one would expect to be dished out for a 6/10 "meh" eShop title, not a 10/10 modern masterpiece.
Re: Review: Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (3DS)
This review came out way too early- it reeks of being a reference point for a first draft. Frankly, it should be redone at some point after release. This is the laziest professional 10/10 review I've ever read in my entire life, no joke. Even GameFAQ's detailed/full reviews by users elaborate more on important points and considerations than this. If NDA's are an issue there... Just wait for day of release to publish a review. If you can wait an entire month to give NBA 2K18 a score, you can wait 3 more days to publish a better review for a mainline Pokémon title.
Re: Sonic Forces on Switch Has Solid UK Launch as DOOM Moves Up the Charts
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Sonic Forces sales is indeed like weaving straw into gold, but for all the effort put into the DOOM port, isn't that one getting lower sales at retail (but better sales for digital) more like converting gold into straw?
Re: Guide: All The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild amiibo Unlocks
@Mr_Zurkon How dare you ask such a question!? Dost thou wish to incur the wrath of thine Nintengods!?
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Has Embraced DLC, But Must Resist The Worst Industry Norms
@Yorumi About loot boxes, the UK government is currently investigating how closely they should be associated with gambling laws. If loot boxes are integrated into regulation by gambling laws, then games with them will become prohibited from sale. It will become illegal to knowingly sell those games to minors. (Loot boxes really should be classified as gambling, it's not the same process psychologically as buying card packs, as the companies using loot boxes claim.) So let's hope Nintendo doesn't make a Pokémon title with loot boxes. They already went the cruddy Candy Crush route with Pokémon Shuffle.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Has Embraced DLC, But Must Resist The Worst Industry Norms
Face it. This is what Nintendo has become. They're willing to use the same tactics as EA and Take-Two for micro transactions now. Not even under an expanded definition- even the most narrow definition would apply here.
This is not how to do DLC. This sort of content should follow CD Projekt RED's example with The Witcher 3: If it's not a full blown expansion (not just a few dungeons or extraneous story bits, but practically a whole new game), phase it in for free as a reward for those who have purchased the game and registered it on their account.
The sad thing about this is that there is a superior alternative in the works. Recent developments in BotW emulation on Cemu allow one to mod Link's model into different costumes or characters- including an upcoming fully fledged Zelda model mod. (Yes, that's right, play through the whole game as Zelda instead of Link.) Even completely different characters like Goku have been demonstrated, it's crazy. BotW modding really does make the game like Zelda Scrolls. Granted, the emulation of BotW is difficult to set up, requires fairly new components, and is still rife with errors, especially with various GPU's (the price to pay for this sort of thing).
Yet, the fact that such things can be had for no monetary charge makes paying for these official DLC variants look like a slap in the face by comparison. Seriously, go look up the BotW Cemu mod developments going on right now and compare them to this.
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@Kamalot
Picky, picky. You should just let Mr. Lincoln send us time traveling messages from his iPhone given to him by the aliens in peace.
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@JimmySpades @JaxonH If I had to guess, based on current sales, the current average attach rate is somewhere between 3 and 4 right now. Coupled with having several million/multi-million sellers already, that's very good for being at the 2/3 mark of the first year. It'll probably rise to between at least 4 and 5 during the holidays... unless people go ballistic slamming the stores and it rises to between 5 and 6, which wouldn't be surprising.
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Save your appreciation for Panic Button, they're the ones who did most of the hard work.
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@JaxonH I guess the thing is, in this case as well, many members of the tech press (including Digital Foundry) are good at digging for information, but they're not always very good at contextualizing that information and analyzing what it all means. Sometimes they even go overboard and overemphasize some issues at certain times, as others here have mentioned, since that draws more hits. By comparison, Digital Foundry previously made this video previewing DOOM on NS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=74&v=cXxDKgqBWXA
If you didn't know it was made by someone at DF, who could tell it was even from the same outlet? The tone and focus is very different from the one linked in this article.
In that DF preview, they're showering praise and wondering how a portable version like this exists at all. Ultimately, a PC specced as closely as possible to an NS, with as similar settings as possible, simply cannot run DOOM as well as an NS. Technical wizardry techniques were used by Panic Button (the company Bethesda farmed development of the port out to) that aren't among the aspects typically recorded by benchmarking tools. To compound that, it's become an unfortunate trend in the tech press to have very incomplete (or sometimes even outright inaccurate) benchmarking criteria and variables.
A notorious recent example is the huge range of results among the tech press with testing the recently released Coffee Lake CPU lineup's performance, some of which were the result of honest mistakes, but none of which told the whole story: different motherboards and their settings can now end up yielding completely different performance results with the same CPU. Which also means a low- or mid- range motherboard can now be a performance bottleneck. Combined with what is essentially a paper launch, since almost no one can actually get their hands on Coffee Lake CPU's at the moment, it's a veritable con job. The tech press is supposed to be a check/balance when this happens, but that didn't happen in this case. Someone in the general public had to do detective work to figure out how and why this had happened, and inform the tech press members about it.
The moral of the story is, you can't rely on the tech press to give you all the details.
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@JaxonH Oh... I see... But can your Pikmin... Do a barrel roll!?
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@westman98 Oh, that's right! It was first month not being indicative, not first year! My bad. Thanks for reminding me, that was a pretty bad memory lapse on my part.
And yeah, vgchartz never tells you the whole story. I don't know why anyone links towards it as "evidence" to this day.
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX "In any case, it's up to all parties to guarantee success."
@JaxonH "It's success is out of our hands, so can we just talk about enjoying it while it's here rather than constantly trying to remind everyone it's going to fail?"
Ooh, now I'm imagining Action Jaxon Pikmin and Thanosaurus Rexes duking it out for some reason... Even though I know you two are on the same page!
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@westman98 "First year sales absolutely are indicative of the platform's outlook."
Not necessarily. The first year on both the DS and 3DS weren't anything to write home about, but they took off into the stratosphere after their second year and beyond. The Dreamcast performed excellently for it's time during it's first year, but it couldn't save SEGA from their own upper management problems. On a smaller time frame scale, the first couple of months of the Wii U made it seem like it would be another smash hit, but it fell off a cliff immediately at the turn of 2013, recovered slightly in 2015, then died down again, with BotW being the last gasp. Fortunes can turn positive or negative for reasons that are not necessarily fully apparent during the first year. I can't recall how many times throughout the years I read the phrase "the first year is not indicative of the final result" back in the days of print magazines...
Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch
@ballistic90 Oh yeah, you're right!
Much better. I guess whoever came up with the bright idea to use the other, infinitely more bland box cover was listening too much to bad marketing advice.