Polvasti

NieR Automata is one of my top 5 video games of all time, but I wouldn't want a direct sequel to it. It has a great open ending that leaves just enough for the player's imagination, and I don't want a sequel that tells me, "actually, this is what really happened after Ending E". Even the small bits of lore information I've heard about NieR Re[in]carnation have been kind of too much, I really don't need to know what became of the androids in the future. The story of Automata is enough for me.

Now, if Yoko Taro were to write a completely different story broadly set in the same universe, kinda like how the NieR games are in relation to Drakengard, that one I would be interested in.

Instead of asking for our opinion, why isn't Nintendo Life reviewing this game? I find most of the reviewers on this site to be quite professional and trustworthy, so I'd rather hear their thoughts on Tokyo Scramble than those of some random Internet people.

@Theghostofkeithmoon Did you read the article? They are releasing a completely new game.

@ThomasBW84

your role as a Prince and Ranger sees you working to improve the world in multiple ways.

Does this mean you can't choose the gender of your player character like you could in the previous two games?

Sounds horrible. Modern video games are already often way too long. If you have so many new ideas, just make a new game (or several), don't try to squeeze them all into one.

Hollow Knight had a perfect difficulty curve, but with Silksong they unfortunately made it too difficult for your average player, especially with the bosses and the locked room enemy gauntlets. With SS I simply gave up at some point, because all those runbacks to die in the hands of the same enemies for the 100th time made the game unfun to play. That never happened with HK, which I was able to finish and enjoyed most of it.

It's too bad, I thought Silksong had an equally great atmosphere as Hollow Knight, and the platforming was actually more fun with Hornet's more fluid moveset. But the sadistic enemy encounters were just too much for me.

@Lizuka @the_beaver Agreed. One of the best things about the demo for me was that they seem to have managed to create a kid sidekick character who's not annoying but actually interesting.

@Gohanjin

A capped 30 in exploration and 60 in combats would have been a better choice (same as Digimon on PS5).

Framerate fluctuation is definitely an issue that should be fixed, but there's no need for a turn-based RPG to have 60 FPS. Especially if they'd need to downgrade the graphics to get better performance, which is usually the case with Switch ports. If it's not an action game where those extra frames actually matter, I'd much rather have better graphics with a stable 30 FPS.

I was mildly interested in this one before, but after seeing the trailer, no thanks. If even the promotional footage looks that rough, I can't imagine how badly optimised the actual game is.

When I saw the trailer in the direct I thought this looked like a mobile game, so it being a port of a one makes sense. The character models and their animations had that cheap, papercut-like quality seen in so many mobile games. It's an instant turn-off for me.

@Friendly

you’re not the only one. As a completionist that game and especially the boss gauntlet of the free DLC haunts me to death… Every time I see the game being mentioned I get reminded of my failure to complete every single boss with a gold medal…

It's the same for me. I don't have super fast fingers or anything, but I was still able to finish the main game with lots of practice and patience... But I thought it was a real bummer that Team Cherry decided to do a whole DLC with an alternate ending to the game's story that your average player can never finish because it requires such fast reaction speed to get through the whole boss rush.

Unfortunately they followed the same pattern with Silksong, making even the base game harder than Hollow Knight was, so I eventually quit it halfway through because it just wasn't fun anymore, dying a thousand times in those stupid miniboss gauntlets.

@Friendly

It should be hands off by Nintendo and done by Retro Studios only (with external support). Let it be the only Western developed and focussed series Nintendo has.

Weren't the two most recent 2-D Metroid games (Samus Returns and Metroid Dread) also developed by a Western studio, i.e. MercurySteam from Spain? And given how successful Dread was, presumably Nintendo is gonna let them develop the next 2-D game as well.

@AstroTheGamosian Maybe don't mention spoiler stuff about the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles X in a comment section that's not about that game's plot. Not everyone has played it yet.

Hopefully it's a new game or a spinoff and not just Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Special Edition. Or if they are indeed releasing a remake of XC2, at the very least I hope they'll tone down the juvenile and embarrassing fanservice of the original game. Then I might consider actually buying it.

@The_Nintendo_Expat Even if Nintendo themselves don't call it an FPS, the trailers and other promotional material make it look like an FPS, like I said. And because of the 18+ year gap between Metroid Prime 4 and the previous game, there's bound to be a lot of Switch players who're not familiar with this sub-series and who might assume it's a first-person shooter. That's certainly what I thought about the Metroid Prime games, that they are an FPS spinoff of the original 2D series.

@the_beaver If it's not an FPS then Nintendo has kinda failed at its marketing, because all the promos definitely made it look like an FPS.

I'm not surprised at all by Metroid Prime 4's low sales, there seems to be multiple obvious reasons for them:

1) It didn't get that good reviews for a first-party Nintendo game.

2) It's a sequel to a game that was released over 18 years ago, with 2 whole console generations between Metroid Prime 3 and 4. I'm sure there are a lot of Switch owners like myself who never owned a Gamecube or a Wii (or weren't even born back then) and therefore don't have any particular attachment to this spinoff series. Some of us would also feel weird buying game number 4 when numbers 2 and 3 aren't even available for us to play on the Switch.

3) It's an FPS, a genre which has never been Nintendo's forte and which isn't that visible on the Switch even among third-party games. So a game in this genre is less likely to attract your stereotypical Switch player than, say, a more traditional 2D Metroid.

Nice to see this one is getting a Western release. I saw the Japanese trailer a while ago and was hoping it would arrive here too, as it seems right up my alley.

@Friendly Cyberpunk 2077 absolutely has visible genitalia. For example, you can see them right at the start in the character creation screen, and you can walk around Night City naked and use the photo mode to take pics of your private parts, if you so wish. Also, I'm pretty sure the sex scene between V and Judy has some vulva showing, though it's subtle. (Haven't seen any of the other sex scenes with other romanceable characters, so I don't know about them.) And none of this is censored in the Western Switch 2 version.

The new Fire Emblem and Monster Hunter Stories games are what I'm looking forward to the most, as I loved the previous Switch entries in those series.

@shgamer Your understanding isn't quite correct then, as Rowling hasn't just attacked these supposed criminals (who are actually incredibly rare and are mostly used as boogiemen by anti-trans people to justify wide discrimination of trans people) but has made a lot of general anti-trans comments throughout and is even contributing substantial amount of money to an anti-trans organisation she founded.

@R_Ryder There isn't any violence, nudity or other graphic adult content in this game, it's a cozy life sim, so why should it get a 16+ or 18+ rating?

@ItsATM I play games like Animal Crossing, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, Handy Hockey, Bravely Default, etc. Simulation games like Animal Crossing and Rune Factory, where you alternate between controlling your character and interacting with objects on a grid are made much easier by the ability to switch between regular controller mode and mouse mode. Handy Hockey is an air hockey game where mouse mode is by far the best way to play, as it emulates using an air hockey paddle nicely. And Bravely Default has two fun minigames where you have to use both controllers in mouse mode, and which are impossible to play without it.

So yeah, with all these games that use mouse mode effectively, and with many more such games to come in the future, I'm not gonna invest in an expensive joycon alternative that doesn't have it. I thought it was weird that this article is saying the Hyperion 3 could be "the perfect Joy-Con 2 alternative" when it's lacking this basic function that the official joycons have.

So they don't have mouse mode? Then that's a hard no. I'm gonna wait until Mobapad launches their Switch 2 version of the M6 HD (which were the best joycon replacements for the Switch 1, and still work fine with the Switch 2), which I'm sure are gonna have mouse mode on top of all the other features.

Jeez, I knew Final Fantasy is a popular series, but I didn't realise it has this many spinoffs on Nintendo systems alone. How many FF games are there in total if you count all platforms?

I bought Cyberpunk 2077 when the Switch 2 launched, and after 115 hours I think I'm finally getting close to the finale the main story, so that's probably the only game I'll play.

Give us Birdo!

@Kiz3000 The statement made by Square Enix on the official Final Fantasy Twitter channel goes like this:

That’s not all, the remake trilogy will also be making its way to Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC as well as PlayStation 5, Steam and Epic Games Store!

https://x.com/finalfantasyvii/status/1966514225117118813

So they don't specifically mention that all platforms will get it at the same time.

@Paintfrenchy

Still sad that this isn't a proper physical release.

The file size of this game is 87.9 GB, so they literally couldn't have fit it onto a Switch 2 cart even if they wanted to, since the cart's maximum capacity is 64 GB.

What I don't understand is why Nintendo expects us to download four different apps for all of their smartphone services: Nintendo Music, Nintendo Switch App, Nintendo Store, and Nintendo Today. Okay, it kinda makes sense that Music is its own app, but why do we need three separate apps for the Switch store, Switch news, and other Switch stuff? Unless they conflate these three I'm never gonna install Today just to read some news I can get from elsewhere.

I wish Nintendo would also add the Switch 2 upgrade to Super Mario Galaxy as included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, so those of us who own Galaxy as a part of that compilation wouldn't need to buy it for a second time just to get the S2 enhancements.

So, by this definition Nier: Automata is actually 3 games and Fire Emblem: Three Houses is 4 games?

@sketchturner

Ingenious mechanic I've never seen in a game and yet also lacks originality? The pros/cons does not compute.

As mentioned in the review, the perspective shift mechanic which seems to be the cornerstone of this game lacks originality because it's borrowed from an earlier game called FEZ.

@axelhander

Data centers use the same energy everything else uses, so not sure where this "most of the energy data centers use isn't sustainable" nonsense comes from.

It comes from the fact that most energy humanity currently uses is not sustainable, and (like I said in my previous message) because of this we should be looking into way of drastically reducing our energy consumption if we want to have any chance of mitigating the ecological and societal catastrophes global warming will cause. So in a situation like this, the last thing we should be doing is creating new energy-hungry industries like AI data centers, especially if they have so few tangible benefits for humanity.

@axelhander

Speaking of debunking, the "AI is destroying the environment" claim is bogus:
https://andymasley.substack.com/p/the-ai-water-issue-is-fake

That article is only talking about water usage in data centers. As the writer himself notes, the massive amount of energy they use is a separate issue. Most of the electricity AI data centers use is not produced by sustainable means, and therefore this at best pointless and at worst deeply harmful industry is contributing to global warming, i.e. environmental destruction. If we want to avoid the massive ecocatastrophe looming in our near future, humanity absolutely needs to reduce its energy consumption, not increase it because of needless "innovations" like this.

If Nintendo starts making these in other colours than black (with some coloured accents) I might consider getting a second pair, but at the moment I'm not interested. I don't like black.

None. I don't care about shooters, and I'm definitely not gonna give my money to crappy companies like Activision or Microsoft.

Too bad this is only available as a single pad and not as two separate joycons, I've no use for it as such.

Isn't this a port of a platformer from 1997? Why the heck would it need a Switch 2 edition for "improved performance"? Shouldn't the Switch 1 already be able to run a game from the nineties flawlessly?

@somnambulance

This list goes to show that more curation is needed when making these types of lists. How many games aren’t getting exposure because X game released on Switch 2 even though it released years ago on another platform?

By this logic, ports of older games released on the Switch could never make it to the "best Switch games of the year" list, because it's not like they could be included on such a list before they were actually ported to the Switch. IMO an excellent port like Cyberpunk 2077 deserves to be on the "best of 2025 for the Switch" list, because that's the year it first became available on the console. Also, for people like me, whose only or primary gaming platform is the Switch, 2025 is the first time we actually got to play it. So it's among the best games of the year for us.

According to some earlier interviews Larian has a new game in development, and it's supposedly a completely new IP, so not set in the Divinity world. I guess they could be lying about it and it really is just Original Sin 3, but I kinda doubt that.

I wish would make a new version Original Sin 2 for the Switch 2, though. The Switch 1 version runs well, but the resolution is quite low, which makes the image blurry. A 1080p or even 4K Switch 2 version would be appreciated.

@OmnitronVariant It's not "objectively worst platform" you can play Cyberpunk 2077 on, since the game was also released on Playstation 4, and PS4 never got the Phantom Liberty DLC, whereas with the Switch 2 version it's included in the package. Also, some people prefer the ability to switch been docked and handheld modes over 4K graphics; personally, I have a PC that could run Cyberpunk in 4K but I still prefer to play it on the Switch 2 because of that reason. So for people like me the S2 is an objectively better platform for the game than a PC.

But if we're talking only about exclusive games which "could not be done on Switch 1", why doesn't Bananza count for you? That game's physics and particle engine could not have run on the Switch 1, the developers have pretty much confirmed it. Similarly, Age of Imprisonment could not have been done on the Switch 1 with such a level of detail and running at 60 FPS (which matters in a fast-paced action game like this one), since its Switch 1 predecessor struggled with 30 FPS despite having less detailed graphics.

@OmnitronVariant I don't understand why you need to exaggerate so much to make your point. I've played Cyberpunk on the Switch 2 for a 100 hours now, and it's not "barely functional" but a solid port. It runs at steady 30 FPS for most of the time and the very occasional framerate drops don't really affect the gameplay. The image quality is also very good at 1080p; of course it's not 4K, but you couldn't run a game of this magnitude at 4K on a portable device. If you really think a game like this is "barely functional" and "looks and runs like *****", then your standards for Switch ports are impossibly high, and you should just stick to playing games on non-portable devices.

@Krambo42 AFAIK, this game has an autobiographical story about what football meant to its main developer when he was a kid in Ecuador in 2002, when the country qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time. So obviously he can't change his personal history or the history of Ecuador to make it about baseball or hockey.

@OmnitronVariant

The fact that they look almost identical bar minor performance differences is yet another example of how I'm still waiting for something to release on Switch 2 that makes me think "this could not be done on Switch 1".

So games like Cyberpunk 2077, Donkey Kong Bananza, Star Wars Outlaws, Age of Imprisonment, etc. are not enough for you? None of those could have been done on the Switch 1.

Still busy playing Hades II, haven't really been playing anything else since its physical version came out last month. It's definitely gonna be my game of the year for 2025.

@Troubbble

Who knows. Maybe it's just because the Switch 2 launch was somewhat weak...and if people aren't continually hyped about Nintendo, they don't have much reason to visit this site.

In that context, there isn't necessarily much to be gained saying "that game you were looking forward to isn't great" when you could just as easily turn 5's into 7's and 7's into 9's and keep the hype train rolling.

What about all the other gaming sites which gave Octopath Traveler 0 a similarly high rating, such as Destructoid, Gaming Trend, Noisy Pixel, PC Games, Digital Chumps, RPG Site, etc.? They are not particularly focused on Nintendo, so what reason would they have to give this game a better review than what it deserves? The Metacritic aggregate score for all versions of the game (Switch, PC, Playstation, Xbox) is 84, which is pretty much in line with the 9/10 score given by Nintendo Life.

@Troubbble

Portraying this as a close-to-perfect title for the new Switch 2 is verging on grifting.

Are you implying Square Enix paid Nintendo Life for a positive review, or what's your point? Is it really that hard to believe that reviewer simply liked the game (which I presume you haven't even played yet) a lot? Several other publications have given this game a similarly positive review, so are they all taking part in this grifting?

30 party members feels like it's way too much. To me, the best part of the previous two games was how well fleshed-out your 8 party members were and how deep their storylines felt, but I'm guessing with such a large roster this game simply can't have similar depth to its characters?

The game looks nice and I do like 2D Metroids, but first-person shooters aren't really my thing, so I'll probably skip it. Especially after having read the reviews about how irritating the NPCs are.