I think that, instead of having a kazillion different Emblems, they should've had a smaller number of Emblems and given them more dialogue and cutscenes to establish their individual personalities. As it is, most of them are very generic and interchangeable fantasy heroes. I get it that you're supposed to be familiar with their personal quirks from their parent games, but not everyone has played all or even most of them. So if you don't already know these characters, most of them come across as mere ciphers.
I really liked Mystery Journey, so to me the disappointment is that they're not gonna follow up on that. Especially given how several plot points were left unresolved in the game's ending, clearly in anticipation of a sequel. But I guess it wasn't succesful enough to get one?
Even if Three Hopes was called "Seasons" in its own code, it's perfectly possible they later considered it to be the 18th game in the series, and that's why Engage is coded "Iron19". It's not like they're following some unchangeable law when it comes to this numbering, it's just for their internal housekeeping. But of course it leads to juicier speculation if you think "Iron18" was some cancelled project instead of, you know, the 18th FE game which came out last year.
@larryisaman Presumably the whole sky island setting was created precisely to address the concern that the game would feel too samey to its predecessor. Since this is a direct sequel, they can't change Hyrule as dramatically as they've done between non-sequel entries in the series, so their solution was to add a whole new unexplored dimension to the Hyrule of the previous game. (Or possibly more than one dimension – Zelda falling through the ground in the trailer could possibly mean we get to explore some underground levels as her.)
@MSaturn The previous game came out 6 years ago, but that doesn't mean they been working full-time on the sequel for six years, especially since the DLCs came out in between. Presumably TotK was still early in its production when the first trailer came out in 2019.
@molkom To me it seems Digital Foundry often exaggerates how much framerate and framepacing affects gameplay, at least if you're not the sort of player who's constantly fixated on them. I watched their video about the new upgraded Witcher 3 on PC, and the dude was complaining about some distracting framerate/pacing in certain parts of the game, and even though I was watching the video on a big 4K television, I could not even see the thing he was complaining about.
@ketrac Agreed. I felt cheated to find out that even though I bought Breath of the Wild for 60 euros, some of the content was still locked and I would've needed to pay many times more for plastic toys I don't need or want to unlock it. And it's not like it was just some cosmetic additions like skins or something, Amiibo extras like Epona or Wolf Link add to the gameplay significantly. So I ended up buying the unofficial Amiibo card pack that allowed me to unlock all this stuff for a fraction of the price. And I still hated the fact that I needed to pay extra to unlock things that were already in the game I bought.
I have no problem with Amiibo existing as mere collectible toys for those who want them. But tying significant game content to them, and forcing people interested in said content pay more than they paid for the actual game is an awful, awful practice.
While the Switch could probably handle Mass Effect Legendary Edition with some graphical downgrades, I think the size of it would be a big issue. The PC version is 120 gigabytes, and even the US console versions (which lack various alternate languages) are around 80 gigs. So even if you release it as an English-only version, it won't fit on a single Switch cartridge. And while they could make it an Eshop exclusive, a 80–120 gig download is gonna hog a lot of the space available on a typical MicroSD card. So the only realistic option would be to release the three games separately.
I played the original PC version of the game back when it came out, and I really liked it, but it was pretty buggy. And since 38 Studios famously went bankrupt, it was never patched. But now they've re-released the game and are even creating new content for it, so does that mean that bugs have finally been ironed out? I might be interested in buying it again for the Switch if that's the case.
I dunno if it's a "hidden gem", but I feel Nobody Saves the World was the most underrated game of the year on Switch. Great story with lots of genuinely funny humour, funky cartoon graphics, classic Zelda style action adventure gameplay + experimenting with countless different builds for your character is as fun as in Hades. And it's a good port too, running flawlessly on Switch with 60 FPS. I got as much enjoyment out of it in 2022 as from AAA games like Nier Automata or Three Hopes.
@nathatruc Not every Switch game that came out last year is on the list, the article clearly states the criteria for inclusion: "below you'll find every Switch game we've reviewed this year awarded a 6/10 or higher". Sonic Frontiers got a 4/10 review, so it's not included.
@Vyacheslav333 The Finnish "ä" is pronounced like "a" in “hand", and the Finnish "ö" is pronounced just like it is in German, so it's like "i" in "girl" but with a shorter vowel sound.
Presumably they borrowed the last name of the character from the Formula 1 driver Kimi Räikkönen, him being one of the most famous Finns alive.
The concept sounds interesting, but based on the trailer and the screenshots, the graphics seem to be quite bland and boring "dark fantasy" style. Still, if everything else is good, I might give this a try.
I know this article is supposed to be humourous, but the Hyrule Historia text clearly says "cat-eye Link", not "Cat-eye" with a capital C. So the "cat-eye" bit is merely an attribute added before his name, like "child Link", not the name of the character.
I couldn't care less. One of the reasons I own a Switch and no other consoles is because FPS games don't interest me at all. And even if they did, I wouldn't want to give my money to crappy companies like Activision/Microsoft. Game publishers becoming part of larger and larger conglomerates is not good for video games as a form of culture and art IMO, because the bigger the company is, the more likely they're gonna be motivated by money, not by making better and more innovative games.
@Bobb Same Face Syndrome is very common in manga/anime as well as in video games with a manga/anime style character design. Typically it only applies to the protagonists though; supporting characters and antagonists are allowed to have more diverse facial designs, since they don't need to look "good". (The idea behind the Syndrome seems to be that you can't identify with a character unless they look good/cute, and that is less of a issue with non-protagonists.) You can have an anime/manga style character design that still avoids repeating the same face, as Three Houses showed for example. But it seems the designer of this came is more prone to it.
The Thief class grants Yunaka lock-picking abilities and swift movements for sneaking up on enemies.
I hope they've made the lock-picking skill more balanced than how it was in Three Houses. In that game it was practically useless, since you could buy as many keys you needed from the merchant, the keys would fit any lock, and they were so cheap you never ran out of them. For example, changing the game mechanics so that specific locks in a specific level need specific keys, so you have to either spend time searching the chests on that level or use a character who can pick locks, would make the skill way more useful.
I think it does show a lack of respect when they assume that people who play the game are folks who want to see female characters depicted like that... Instead of players being women (and others) who are tired of stereotypical, sexist depictions of women in media. And sure, tits & ass imagery can be art too, but I'd save it for games where it actually is the main point. In games like this, where it doesn't seem to serve any purpose, it feels like totally gratuitous fanservice, not some artful design choice.
@Arawn93 You can keep on making strawman arguments about "prudishness" for all you want, that doesn't magically make them true. "Showing skin" is not the issue, it's how those characters showing skin are depicted. They are depicted as regular women with regular bodies, they're visually designed to have exaggerated physiques, comically large boobs, etc., in the ages-old tradition of sexist visual stereotypes. AFAIK them having bodies like than and dressing up like that doesn't serve any narrative point, so the main point is to titillate straight male players. And yes, the first XC had issues with this too, mostly with Sharla, but it wasn't as over-the-top.
Also, no one has claimed that fanservice is a big part of the game or that these characters aren't strong. People are merely saying that this gratuitous fanservice is distracting and doesn't serve any purpose in a game like this. It actually makes more sense in those volleyball etc. games you mention, because there it really is the main point. You might be fine with it in a serious RPG too, but that doesn't mean everybody is. For me personally, this kind of casual sexism is usually a deal-breaker, just like casual racism and casual homophobia are. That is not because of prudishness, it's because I'd like video games to respect all kinds of players, not just straight men who want to see some tits & ass.
@PinderSchloss Agreed. The blatantly sexist fanservice with the design of the female characters is why I've refused to buy this game, even though I enjoyed the first XC. (And that game already had its share of questionable fanservice too, but it wasn't as bad as here.) Promo images with like this certainly aren't gonna change my mind.
@Tober Agreed. Reading throught the review, this sounded like something I might want to buy, until I saw the price. Maybe with a 50% or more discount I might be tempted to get it, but 35 dollars is more than what I paid for Nier Automata.
@MatoFilipovic If Nintendo was about to release a new Mario game to coincide with the movie, surely they would've announced it already? The movie's premiere is only five months away.
Also, some people here seem to think that depicting female heroes in fiction as more feminine is somehow better and truer than making them more masculine, but that is a very problematic idea. Not all women are feminine and not all men are masculine; gendered concepts of femininity and masculinity are very much stereotypes in themselves. In real life people are way more complex than that. A lot of men are not tough guy fighters and a lot of women are not caring nurturers.
But it really is worth noting that this is a fantasy movie whose main audience is kids. No one is expecting it to include complex, realistic characters who escape all tropes and stereotypes. It's a piece of heroic fiction, so it's more preferable that the main female hero among a cast of dudes is presented as a strong, positive role model than as someone adhering to ages-old stereotypical ideas of feminity and how women should be. If the movie had more female main characters, there would a better opportunity to display a wider variety of archetypes of women, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this one. (Though I'm happy if I'm be proven wrong.)
@FangleMan32 Why would a strong, independent woman be an "equally bad stereotype" as a weak woman who always needs to be saved by the male hero? Unless you think women's role in life and fiction is to support men, the former is much, much better than the latter. Especially in kids' movies, where kids learn what it means to be a hero.
@RareFan Most heroes in fantasy stories like this are strong, it comes with the genre. I've never seen anyone complain that Aragorn or Thor are boring characters because they're strong, so I don't understand why strong women in fantasy stories would automatically be boring either. It all depends on what else is done with the character besides showing her strength.
@RareFan Perhaps, but with centuries of gendered oppression and discrimination, which is still very much a part of most societies on our planet, a stereotype of strong women who need no men is still very much preferable to the stereotype of damsels in distress. This is a kids' movie, and I'm very happy that young girls these days can grow up with these kind of pop culture heroes instead of female characters whose main role is to support and/or be rescued by the male hero.
I thought it was funny that they took the effort of having Seth Rogen introduce the trailer, and then his character had no lines in it.
Also, I guess I'm not surprised, by it, but it still saddens me how some people here are complaining about Peach having an active hero role in this. Did you really expect this movie to conform to stupid gender stereotypes which were already old and tired 37 years ago, when the first Super Mario game came out, let alone in 2022?
Yeah, Byleth and a couple of other returning characters have been confirmed in the new trailers, as well as some new characters who are not on this list. Yet Byleth is still listed under "teased emblems" here.
I'm 43, so the NES and the original black-and-white Game Boy were a big thing in my childhood. After that any video games I played were strictly on the PC, but last year I got the Switch and I've been happy to join the Nintendo train again after 30 years. I've got a gaming PC too, but most of my playing is now on the Switch. There's so many cool exclusive games on it, and its portable nature makes the Switch great for smaller indie games as well.
What a weird concept for a full game. Did someone pay notice to the popularity of Unpacking and decide, "we gotta make a more MANLY version of this for REAL MEN"?
Glad to see Hades there among the more big budget titles, it's easily among my top 5 games of all time. Everything about it is so creative and so lovingly made; not just the gameplay and the visual design, but also the characterisation, the voice acting and the plotting. It's rare for such a game to have both an incredibly addictive roguelite gameplay loop and a deep, touching story.
I wish they'd allow you to exchange Platinum Points into Gold Points you can use at the Eshop. Even if the exchange ratio was something like 10 Platinum Points for each Gold Point, it'd still be better than the current award system. I don't care that much about customising the small player icon you can barely see at the upper corner of your screen, and the physical rewards are mostly useless trinkets limited to a handful of games.
@BeautyandtheBeer It's sexist because she's supposed to be a knight, i.e. a physical fighter, yet her costume design doesn't reflect that anyway. The whole point of the outfit seems to be to emphasize her impossible hourglass figure and large breasts. And yes, since this is a manga/anime style game, all the heroes of all genders are drawn to be good-looking... But none the male characters we've seen so far have been designed with outfits which would, say, emphasize their buttocks or biceps. Their designs are appropriate to their role and class, and their major purpose is not to look sexy. That's where the sexism shows, the way female characters are depicted as fanservicey first and foremost, whereas with males the fanservice is secondary.
And yeah, sexy and sexist are not the same, but the women you see on a Saturday night who are wearing sexy clothes are probably not professional soldiers about to go to a battle. If you compare Chloe's design to the default outfits of Ingrid and Catherine, the two most prominent female knights in Three Houses, their designs both look gorgeous and make sense with what those characters do.
@BeautyandtheBeer Yes, I'm well aware that a lot people like cheesecake and the objectification of women, and that's why character models like this keep being made. That doesn't one can't be disappointed by the sexism of treating female characters like lust objects, especially since the previous game mostly avoided it. (The biggest exception being Manuela, but at least she wasn't being depicted as a physical warrior wearing ludicrous clothes like this, and her choice of attire was actually explained with her character motivations.)
I'm disappointed they went for the cheesecake approach with this pegasus knight, when Ingrid in Three Houses had an athletic build and a much more appropriate attire for a physical fighter type of character. Why is it so hard for so many JRPG makers to understand not everyone playing their games are straight teenage boys or other folks like that who are excited just to see some boobies? Of course these games are not realistic, so the characters don't need to be that, but they don't need to be embarrassingly sexist either.
@JeanPaul I'm not sure about where you live, but in most countries consumer legislation would stop the seller from charging any extra, even if they accidentally sold the game for too cheap. It's their mistake, so they'll suffer the consequences, not you.
@Draxa The third person ship view is there on the Switch version too, and it works fine. When flying the ship, you can change into third person from the same menu where you switch between first and third person while walking.
I know the texts here are just copy-pasted from the original reviews, but it's still kinda funny how a supposedly updated article mentions that Darksiders II "is rumoured to be arriving on Switch soon", when it arrived three years ago.
My favourite music genres are techno, ambient, jazz, and classical music, and while many games have music in those styles, they tend to be original soundtracks, not licensed tracks. In fact, I can't think of any game that would use licensed, pre-recorded jazz or ambient music. So while there's plenty of original game music I like, I've never really discovered any licensed music through them.
@Anachronism I'm not usually that bothered by graphical issues either, but stuttery movement is a special case, especially in fast-paced games like Foregone, as it just make my eyes hurt. So it's a shame the game has suffers from it, otherwise I it would be right up my alley.
Just to be sure, I tried to play Foregone today to see if they've patched it, but no, the stutter is still there. If they're indeed using filtered 3D models like you say, that might explain the issue. Like I said, there's no reason to have such stuttering in a 2D pixel game.
Comments 451
Re: Nintendo Details New Emblems And Additional Storylines For Fire Emblem Engage DLC
I think that, instead of having a kazillion different Emblems, they should've had a smaller number of Emblems and given them more dialogue and cutscenes to establish their individual personalities. As it is, most of them are very generic and interchangeable fantasy heroes. I get it that you're supposed to be familiar with their personal quirks from their parent games, but not everyone has played all or even most of them. So if you don't already know these characters, most of them come across as mere ciphers.
Re: Professor Layton And The New World Of Steam Is Bringing The Puzzle Franchise Back To Switch
I really liked Mystery Journey, so to me the disappointment is that they're not gonna follow up on that. Especially given how several plot points were left unresolved in the game's ending, clearly in anticipation of a sequel. But I guess it wasn't succesful enough to get one?
Re: Celeste Gets Beautiful New Collector's Edition For Fifth Anniversary
@theModestMouse You do know Madeline is transgender, right? Those kind of cheap jokes are not okay.
Re: A New Fire Emblem Datamine Has Possibly Uncovered A Gap In The Main Timeline
Even if Three Hopes was called "Seasons" in its own code, it's perfectly possible they later considered it to be the 18th game in the series, and that's why Engage is coded "Iron19". It's not like they're following some unchangeable law when it comes to this numbering, it's just for their internal housekeeping. But of course it leads to juicier speculation if you think "Iron18" was some cancelled project instead of, you know, the 18th FE game which came out last year.
Re: Feature: 9 Unanswered Questions We Have About Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
@larryisaman Presumably the whole sky island setting was created precisely to address the concern that the game would feel too samey to its predecessor. Since this is a direct sequel, they can't change Hyrule as dramatically as they've done between non-sequel entries in the series, so their solution was to add a whole new unexplored dimension to the Hyrule of the previous game. (Or possibly more than one dimension – Zelda falling through the ground in the trailer could possibly mean we get to explore some underground levels as her.)
Re: Feature: 9 Unanswered Questions We Have About Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
@MSaturn The previous game came out 6 years ago, but that doesn't mean they been working full-time on the sequel for six years, especially since the DLCs came out in between. Presumably TotK was still early in its production when the first trailer came out in 2019.
Re: Critically Acclaimed Action RPG 'Nobody Saves The World' Receives A Free Update
This was one of the top 5 games of last year. Hope everyone who hasn't already gotten it will seize the opportunity now.
Re: NYXI Reveals A GameCube-Inspired Switch Controller With No Drifting
The list of features doesn't mention vibration or gyro controls, so I'm guessing it doesn't have them?
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Mortal Shell: Complete Edition On Switch
@molkom To me it seems Digital Foundry often exaggerates how much framerate and framepacing affects gameplay, at least if you're not the sort of player who's constantly fixated on them. I watched their video about the new upgraded Witcher 3 on PC, and the dude was complaining about some distracting framerate/pacing in certain parts of the game, and even though I was watching the video on a big 4K television, I could not even see the thing he was complaining about.
Re: Zelda amiibo Listings Surface Online Ahead Of Tears Of The Kingdom Release
@ketrac Agreed. I felt cheated to find out that even though I bought Breath of the Wild for 60 euros, some of the content was still locked and I would've needed to pay many times more for plastic toys I don't need or want to unlock it. And it's not like it was just some cosmetic additions like skins or something, Amiibo extras like Epona or Wolf Link add to the gameplay significantly. So I ended up buying the unofficial Amiibo card pack that allowed me to unlock all this stuff for a fraction of the price. And I still hated the fact that I needed to pay extra to unlock things that were already in the game I bought.
I have no problem with Amiibo existing as mere collectible toys for those who want them. But tying significant game content to them, and forcing people interested in said content pay more than they paid for the actual game is an awful, awful practice.
Re: New Kingdoms Of Amalur Expansion Gets A "Last Moment" Delay On Switch
@Avaloner Man, that sucks. The game is 10 years old, and no one has still bothered to fix stuff like that? I think I'll skip it on the Switch then.
Re: Feature: Nintendo Switch Ports We'd Love To See In 2023
While the Switch could probably handle Mass Effect Legendary Edition with some graphical downgrades, I think the size of it would be a big issue. The PC version is 120 gigabytes, and even the US console versions (which lack various alternate languages) are around 80 gigs. So even if you release it as an English-only version, it won't fit on a single Switch cartridge. And while they could make it an Eshop exclusive, a 80–120 gig download is gonna hog a lot of the space available on a typical MicroSD card. So the only realistic option would be to release the three games separately.
Re: New Kingdoms Of Amalur Expansion Gets A "Last Moment" Delay On Switch
I played the original PC version of the game back when it came out, and I really liked it, but it was pretty buggy. And since 38 Studios famously went bankrupt, it was never patched. But now they've re-released the game and are even creating new content for it, so does that mean that bugs have finally been ironed out? I might be interested in buying it again for the Switch if that's the case.
Re: Feature: The Best Hidden Gems And Underrated Switch Games Of 2022
I dunno if it's a "hidden gem", but I feel Nobody Saves the World was the most underrated game of the year on Switch. Great story with lots of genuinely funny humour, funky cartoon graphics, classic Zelda style action adventure gameplay + experimenting with countless different builds for your character is as fun as in Hades. And it's a good port too, running flawlessly on Switch with 60 FPS. I got as much enjoyment out of it in 2022 as from AAA games like Nier Automata or Three Hopes.
Re: Poll: Rate Your Favourite Switch Games Of The Year 2022
@nathatruc Not every Switch game that came out last year is on the list, the article clearly states the criteria for inclusion: "below you'll find every Switch game we've reviewed this year awarded a 6/10 or higher". Sonic Frontiers got a 4/10 review, so it's not included.
Re: Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed Is A Game About Taking Off People's Clothes
@Vyacheslav333 The Finnish "ä" is pronounced like "a" in “hand", and the Finnish "ö" is pronounced just like it is in German, so it's like "i" in "girl" but with a shorter vowel sound.
Presumably they borrowed the last name of the character from the Formula 1 driver Kimi Räikkönen, him being one of the most famous Finns alive.
Re: Poll: Rate Your Favourite Switch Games Of The Year 2022
Top 5:
13 Sentinels
Fire Emblem: Three Hopes
Nier Automata
Nobody Saves the World
Triangle Strategy
Re: Ender Lilies Dev Announces Redemption Reapers, A New "Dark Fantasy Tactical RPG" Coming Early 2023
The concept sounds interesting, but based on the trailer and the screenshots, the graphics seem to be quite bland and boring "dark fantasy" style. Still, if everything else is good, I might give this a try.
Re: Poll: Is Zelda: Wind Waker's Hero Called 'Cat-Eye Link'?
I know this article is supposed to be humourous, but the Hyrule Historia text clearly says "cat-eye Link", not "Cat-eye" with a capital C. So the "cat-eye" bit is merely an attribute added before his name, like "child Link", not the name of the character.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Excited To See Call Of Duty Return To Nintendo Platforms?
I couldn't care less. One of the reasons I own a Switch and no other consoles is because FPS games don't interest me at all. And even if they did, I wouldn't want to give my money to crappy companies like Activision/Microsoft. Game publishers becoming part of larger and larger conglomerates is not good for video games as a form of culture and art IMO, because the bigger the company is, the more likely they're gonna be motivated by money, not by making better and more innovative games.
Re: Fire Emblem Engage Characters - Every New And Returning Hero Revealed So Far
@Bobb Same Face Syndrome is very common in manga/anime as well as in video games with a manga/anime style character design. Typically it only applies to the protagonists though; supporting characters and antagonists are allowed to have more diverse facial designs, since they don't need to look "good". (The idea behind the Syndrome seems to be that you can't identify with a character unless they look good/cute, and that is less of a issue with non-protagonists.) You can have an anime/manga style character design that still avoids repeating the same face, as Three Houses showed for example. But it seems the designer of this came is more prone to it.
Re: Fire Emblem Engage Characters - Every New And Returning Hero Revealed So Far
I hope they've made the lock-picking skill more balanced than how it was in Three Houses. In that game it was practically useless, since you could buy as many keys you needed from the merchant, the keys would fit any lock, and they were so cheap you never ran out of them. For example, changing the game mechanics so that specific locks in a specific level need specific keys, so you have to either spend time searching the chests on that level or use a character who can pick locks, would make the skill way more useful.
Re: Monolith Soft Celebrates Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Fifth Anniversary With Special Artwork
I think it does show a lack of respect when they assume that people who play the game are folks who want to see female characters depicted like that... Instead of players being women (and others) who are tired of stereotypical, sexist depictions of women in media. And sure, tits & ass imagery can be art too, but I'd save it for games where it actually is the main point. In games like this, where it doesn't seem to serve any purpose, it feels like totally gratuitous fanservice, not some artful design choice.
Re: Monolith Soft Celebrates Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Fifth Anniversary With Special Artwork
@Arawn93 You can keep on making strawman arguments about "prudishness" for all you want, that doesn't magically make them true. "Showing skin" is not the issue, it's how those characters showing skin are depicted. They are depicted as regular women with regular bodies, they're visually designed to have exaggerated physiques, comically large boobs, etc., in the ages-old tradition of sexist visual stereotypes. AFAIK them having bodies like than and dressing up like that doesn't serve any narrative point, so the main point is to titillate straight male players. And yes, the first XC had issues with this too, mostly with Sharla, but it wasn't as over-the-top.
Also, no one has claimed that fanservice is a big part of the game or that these characters aren't strong. People are merely saying that this gratuitous fanservice is distracting and doesn't serve any purpose in a game like this. It actually makes more sense in those volleyball etc. games you mention, because there it really is the main point. You might be fine with it in a serious RPG too, but that doesn't mean everybody is. For me personally, this kind of casual sexism is usually a deal-breaker, just like casual racism and casual homophobia are. That is not because of prudishness, it's because I'd like video games to respect all kinds of players, not just straight men who want to see some tits & ass.
Re: Monolith Soft Celebrates Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Fifth Anniversary With Special Artwork
@Arawn93 Being against sexism and objectification of women has nothing to with being a "prude".
Re: Monolith Soft Celebrates Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Fifth Anniversary With Special Artwork
@PinderSchloss Agreed. The blatantly sexist fanservice with the design of the female characters is why I've refused to buy this game, even though I enjoyed the first XC. (And that game already had its share of questionable fanservice too, but it wasn't as bad as here.) Promo images with like this certainly aren't gonna change my mind.
Re: Review: Astronite - 1-Bit Metroidvania Adventuring With A Dash Of Dark Souls
@Tober Agreed. Reading throught the review, this sounded like something I might want to buy, until I saw the price. Maybe with a 50% or more discount I might be tempted to get it, but 35 dollars is more than what I paid for Nier Automata.
Re: Princess Peach And Donkey Kong Debut In New Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer
@Clyde_Radcliffe Read my comments above (especially #166 and #167) where I addressed the issues you mention.
Re: Random: More Kong Cameos Spotted In The Super Mario Bros. Movie
@MatoFilipovic If Nintendo was about to release a new Mario game to coincide with the movie, surely they would've announced it already? The movie's premiere is only five months away.
Re: Princess Peach And Donkey Kong Debut In New Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer
Also, some people here seem to think that depicting female heroes in fiction as more feminine is somehow better and truer than making them more masculine, but that is a very problematic idea. Not all women are feminine and not all men are masculine; gendered concepts of femininity and masculinity are very much stereotypes in themselves. In real life people are way more complex than that. A lot of men are not tough guy fighters and a lot of women are not caring nurturers.
But it really is worth noting that this is a fantasy movie whose main audience is kids. No one is expecting it to include complex, realistic characters who escape all tropes and stereotypes. It's a piece of heroic fiction, so it's more preferable that the main female hero among a cast of dudes is presented as a strong, positive role model than as someone adhering to ages-old stereotypical ideas of feminity and how women should be. If the movie had more female main characters, there would a better opportunity to display a wider variety of archetypes of women, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this one. (Though I'm happy if I'm be proven wrong.)
Re: Princess Peach And Donkey Kong Debut In New Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer
@FangleMan32 Why would a strong, independent woman be an "equally bad stereotype" as a weak woman who always needs to be saved by the male hero? Unless you think women's role in life and fiction is to support men, the former is much, much better than the latter. Especially in kids' movies, where kids learn what it means to be a hero.
Re: Princess Peach And Donkey Kong Debut In New Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer
@RareFan Most heroes in fantasy stories like this are strong, it comes with the genre. I've never seen anyone complain that Aragorn or Thor are boring characters because they're strong, so I don't understand why strong women in fantasy stories would automatically be boring either. It all depends on what else is done with the character besides showing her strength.
Re: Princess Peach And Donkey Kong Debut In New Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer
@RareFan Perhaps, but with centuries of gendered oppression and discrimination, which is still very much a part of most societies on our planet, a stereotype of strong women who need no men is still very much preferable to the stereotype of damsels in distress. This is a kids' movie, and I'm very happy that young girls these days can grow up with these kind of pop culture heroes instead of female characters whose main role is to support and/or be rescued by the male hero.
Re: Princess Peach And Donkey Kong Debut In New Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer
I thought it was funny that they took the effort of having Seth Rogen introduce the trailer, and then his character had no lines in it.
Also, I guess I'm not surprised, by it, but it still saddens me how some people here are complaining about Peach having an active hero role in this. Did you really expect this movie to conform to stupid gender stereotypes which were already old and tired 37 years ago, when the first Super Mario game came out, let alone in 2022?
Re: Fire Emblem Engage Characters - Every New And Returning Hero Revealed So Far
Yeah, Byleth and a couple of other returning characters have been confirmed in the new trailers, as well as some new characters who are not on this list. Yet Byleth is still listed under "teased emblems" here.
Re: Review: Smurfs Kart - Not As Smurf As Smurf, But Surprisingly Smurf
"with apologies to fans of football team Club Brugge, or a drowned Tintin"
I admit, that last bit made me laugh out loud.
Re: Switch Is Most Popular With 22-Year-Olds, Nintendo Says
I'm 43, so the NES and the original black-and-white Game Boy were a big thing in my childhood. After that any video games I played were strictly on the PC, but last year I got the Switch and I've been happy to join the Nintendo train again after 30 years. I've got a gaming PC too, but most of my playing is now on the Switch. There's so many cool exclusive games on it, and its portable nature makes the Switch great for smaller indie games as well.
Re: Mini Review: Save Room - RE4 'Inventory Tetris' Writ Large, Though Not Large Enough
What a weird concept for a full game. Did someone pay notice to the popularity of Unpacking and decide, "we gotta make a more MANLY version of this for REAL MEN"?
Re: Best Action Games On Nintendo Switch
@DarrenWarrenV Nintendo Life gave the Ninja Maiden Master Collection a fairly scathing review because of its performance and technical issues on Switch, so presumably that's why it's not on the list:
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/ninja_gaiden_master_collection
Re: Best Action Games On Nintendo Switch
Glad to see Hades there among the more big budget titles, it's easily among my top 5 games of all time. Everything about it is so creative and so lovingly made; not just the gameplay and the visual design, but also the characterisation, the voice acting and the plotting. It's rare for such a game to have both an incredibly addictive roguelite gameplay loop and a deep, touching story.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online Missions And Rewards: November 2022 - Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing
I wish they'd allow you to exchange Platinum Points into Gold Points you can use at the Eshop. Even if the exchange ratio was something like 10 Platinum Points for each Gold Point, it'd still be better than the current award system. I don't care that much about customising the small player icon you can barely see at the upper corner of your screen, and the physical rewards are mostly useless trinkets limited to a handful of games.
Re: Nintendo Introduces Chloe In Fire Emblem Engage
@BeautyandtheBeer It's sexist because she's supposed to be a knight, i.e. a physical fighter, yet her costume design doesn't reflect that anyway. The whole point of the outfit seems to be to emphasize her impossible hourglass figure and large breasts. And yes, since this is a manga/anime style game, all the heroes of all genders are drawn to be good-looking... But none the male characters we've seen so far have been designed with outfits which would, say, emphasize their buttocks or biceps. Their designs are appropriate to their role and class, and their major purpose is not to look sexy. That's where the sexism shows, the way female characters are depicted as fanservicey first and foremost, whereas with males the fanservice is secondary.
And yeah, sexy and sexist are not the same, but the women you see on a Saturday night who are wearing sexy clothes are probably not professional soldiers about to go to a battle. If you compare Chloe's design to the default outfits of Ingrid and Catherine, the two most prominent female knights in Three Houses, their designs both look gorgeous and make sense with what those characters do.
Re: Nintendo Introduces Chloe In Fire Emblem Engage
@BeautyandtheBeer Yes, I'm well aware that a lot people like cheesecake and the objectification of women, and that's why character models like this keep being made. That doesn't one can't be disappointed by the sexism of treating female characters like lust objects, especially since the previous game mostly avoided it. (The biggest exception being Manuela, but at least she wasn't being depicted as a physical warrior wearing ludicrous clothes like this, and her choice of attire was actually explained with her character motivations.)
Re: Nintendo Introduces Chloe In Fire Emblem Engage
I'm disappointed they went for the cheesecake approach with this pegasus knight, when Ingrid in Three Houses had an athletic build and a much more appropriate attire for a physical fighter type of character. Why is it so hard for so many JRPG makers to understand not everyone playing their games are straight teenage boys or other folks like that who are excited just to see some boobies? Of course these games are not realistic, so the characters don't need to be that, but they don't need to be embarrassingly sexist either.
Re: Grab Your Torch, Alan Wake Remastered Is Out Now On Nintendo Switch
@JeanPaul I'm not sure about where you live, but in most countries consumer legislation would stop the seller from charging any extra, even if they accidentally sold the game for too cheap. It's their mistake, so they'll suffer the consequences, not you.
Re: Review: No Man's Sky - Right Up There With The Very Best Switch Ports
@Draxa The third person ship view is there on the Switch version too, and it works fine. When flying the ship, you can change into third person from the same menu where you switch between first and third person while walking.
Re: Games Like Zelda - What To Play After You've Finished Breath Of The Wild
I know the texts here are just copy-pasted from the original reviews, but it's still kinda funny how a supposedly updated article mentions that Darksiders II "is rumoured to be arriving on Switch soon", when it arrived three years ago.
Re: Mini Review: The Battle Of Polytopia - A Gentle Introduction To Turn-Based City Builders
What is the "4X genre", I've never heard of it? I know about Civilization, but I thought it was just a strategy game. What does "4X" refer to?
Re: Talking Point: Is The Golden Age Of Licensed Music In Games Over?
My favourite music genres are techno, ambient, jazz, and classical music, and while many games have music in those styles, they tend to be original soundtracks, not licensed tracks. In fact, I can't think of any game that would use licensed, pre-recorded jazz or ambient music. So while there's plenty of original game music I like, I've never really discovered any licensed music through them.
Re: Community: 24 Switch Games We Missed, As Recommended By You
@Anachronism I'm not usually that bothered by graphical issues either, but stuttery movement is a special case, especially in fast-paced games like Foregone, as it just make my eyes hurt. So it's a shame the game has suffers from it, otherwise I it would be right up my alley.
Just to be sure, I tried to play Foregone today to see if they've patched it, but no, the stutter is still there. If they're indeed using filtered 3D models like you say, that might explain the issue. Like I said, there's no reason to have such stuttering in a 2D pixel game.