@Judal27 Being able to play NDS games on the 3DS means that it easily has one of the best, if not the best library of any system - period. If you like jRPGs for instance, it's pretty much the 3DS and PS2 sitting on top of everything else. But the 3DS also have tons of games that you don't see on other systems, or only very rarely. It was a unique system, cheap to develop for with a huge installbase, not unlike mobile, but with an audience that was willing to pay $40 for singleplayer game, which is unthinkable on the Appstore. That gave birth to a lot of good stuff
@WaveWitch So yeah, question like these ... how to use the technology? How to marry it with different genres and desgins? How to use it ethically when it comes to violence? ... will have to be answered, once the technology is really "there", affordable and all eyes turn to content.
Also, what has felt like a step backwards to me is the focus on photorealism in games, with the strong emphasis on Raytracing and such. There is nothing wrong with any of that by itself, but I had figured where had moved beyond that point, where good games = good graphics and good graphics = realistic graphics. The 2010s and on brought forth so many smaller, indie and not-indie projects that thrived on, for example, beautiful hand-drawn art, but this time mixed with 3D elements, such dynamic particle effects, and presented in ultra-hd for a sense of depth uncommon for such productions in the past.
VR in view is unkind for artistic expressions other than 3D rendering, for pretty obvious reasons. Hence I think VR is further poised to limit what games can look like to be "taken seriously" and commercially succesful. At least for the time being.
TO be fair though, I did buy a New3DS a while back, because there are many games I enjoy the 3D in, and I loved the stereoscopic 3D on my old Panasonic Plasma, stuff like Wipeout and Lion King was truly something to behold ... and yeah, I got myself a VR headset, but out of all these experiences, I found it the least engaging, because it is still the most cumbersome. People annoyed by shutter glasses can steer clear entirely. Not to mention that "everything" VR pretty much makes ideas like couch-coop and such entirely obsolete and just, as games that focus on different 2D visual styles, I am not willing to abandon any of that anytime soon.
@WaveWitch To each their own, but I could not disagree more. While 4K is a far cry from the leap from SD to HD, the leap from SDR to HDR (particular with screen technology such as a OLED, which enables true blacks) is at least as meaningful as that original transition. I immensely enjoy a good HDR implementation, as it goes a long way to support my suspension of disbelief, enabling me to really engage with these virtual worlds on an emotional level. In the simplest words: a sunset in-game resembling a sunset in real-life is a powerful thing.
VR is far from ready from primetime. The headset are expensive, but they are also everything but comfy. That is before you realize you wear glasses and a prone to sweating ... on your face I do think there are games that really benefit from the immediacy that VR offers, while for others it feels tacked on. I really loved what Ace Combat 7 was doing (though I would have loved a VR-enabled campaign more) and RE7. At the same time, I felt there was such a thing as too much immersion. Point being, whenever we were debating videogame violence the first and last line of defense was and still is this: we know it is not real!
With VR I can see how people will more readily forgo said suspension of disbelief and just start to blend VR as a form of seperate reality. We are not there YET, but the writing is on the wall, hell that is after all the mission statement of any good VR company: We will make you forget, that all of this is just fake.
So far the execution is far too clumsy: expensive, uncomfy headsets, demand for high-powered machine, very limited libraries, motion sickness, eye strain/Headaches, finicky setup ... also the lack of HDR obviously
Do I want to feel truly immersed in RE7? Is it better that way? I dunno, frankly, some of the artistic genius of RE1 was the way the limtations of the hardware translated to game philsophy: dispowering the player instead of empowering him. Limited movement, limited visibility, limited inventory and so on and so forth. Substituting all of that with a stronger emphasis of more immediate audio-visual horror ... I dunno if that necessarily makes for a better game. More heartstopping moments? Probably! but whether that is really what everyone is looking for, is a different question. Suspense and horror are not really identical after all.
@StevenG That was not what I was trying to say. I was just pointing out, that too few people support (put your money where your mouth is ^^) creative efforts.
Maybe I just choose to believe that people can be more than gluttons for reheated comfort food. As Steve Trevor said, it is not what they deserve, but what you believe in!
@StevenG I know it isn't, but how does that relate to my argument? Disney as a company takes note of the box office, not just their box office Oo Furthermore, every other Marvel IP besides Spidey is owned by Disney, so while they can't do "Into the Spiderverse", they could do three dozen other characters within such a creative framework. They don't though ... for good reason, people prefer a creative bankrupt version of 3DCGi Simba, that emotes less than cell-animated Simba
Judging by the trailer and a handful of reviews, it seems a tad silly to even consider paying movie ticket prices to see this at the best of times. These are hardly the best of times and running a serious risk of exposure to a potentially deadly disease just to watch this, strikes me as completey bonkers. No movie is really worth this, but this most certainly isn't.
Also, just as a sidenote, don't forget that these movies get made based on economic reasoning. Go see it if this is what you want game adaptions to be like. It's just like with Disney, if folks ignore excellent original programming like Spiderverse in favour of poor rehases like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, then you know what kind of content the future will by and large hold.
Milla Jovovich is actually not a horrible actress imho, seems kind of wasted on all these glorified direct-to-dvd productions Oo
The slow drip of titles as well as the choice of titles takes the fun out of the VC console for me. If you really want to play (a) specific game(s) just emulate them. After decades gone by, I don't see any point in a waiting & hoping game here. With this current pace, it is an unavoidable fact, that a the biggest part of the SNES library will never say the light of day on Switch - not to mention other systems. I'm not sure why Nintendo does this, as they are not really selling these games in the primary market anymore, so they do not make any money of them, as far as I can say, but hey ... you can pull a Disney+ and try to finally capitalize on your backcatalogue or you don't. Plus, the emulation is pretty barebones, it's fine, but not really "premium" imho, considering it comes at cost, even if you already bought these games in the past (multiple times in some cases for sure).
Nice to finally see DKC 3 there though, definitely a classic that should be easily accessible!
Their 3DCGi shows are a really mixed bag, curious to see where this'll land in the mix. Not a Sonic fan myself, but some of the DS games were pretty fun and I did love the movie, so maybe this'll be a pleasant surprise.
@Razer Yeah, it's funny, I remember a time when people figured cultural imperialism would work on China and help sway the country around. It's krass to see that the opposite holds true, more so every day, with Chinese sensibilities more and more impacting western cultural output, particulary Hollywood (not so gaming yet for obvious reason).
Then again, the west also believed that, as Clinton famously stated, that China would fail to curtail the democratic power of the internet, which turned out to be a catastrophic misconception as well. And even before that we figured, that their semi-capitalistic approach would fail (wrong again), before we stuck modernization theory, accepting that their approach worked, but that it would give rise to a middleclass that would push for democratic participation (again, just wrong for the most part).
I think we've grown rather resentful on issues like these, seeing how we've spend half a century being dreadfully wrong. And now, we have modell our movies after the Chinese market, be it racially insenstive jokes (with up to a point is a valid concern, but still), or the display of a friggin map in a kids movie.
9. Yes, it's all very, very, very samey. That's the problem to me. None of the individual pieces is bad, but they are all built on very similar foundations. It's not like you need to see every Disney movie, to get a feel for the middle and the end of the next one 10 minutes in.
10. That's why I feel Nintendo should strongly consider stretching it's wings. They had their experiments with partnering with outside studios for stuff like Star Fox and now the Warrior games for instance. But I feel this has not gone nearly far enough. If Nintendo has any desire to be more than "just staying relevant", it should push onward here. I've said this many times before, but outside of new controlers and concepts like the Switch, I would really love for Nintendo innovate on software as well, and by innovate I mean have content that is target at adults, without abandoning their popular IPs. That might not work for Kirby, but it could certainly work for Zelda an Metroid, Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, and who knows what. Plus, obviously new IPs are not out of the question.
All of that aside, I do think Zelda games in particular could do with much deeper characterisation than what we go before. I mean, not JUST for a mature game, but really all-around. I like to point to Avater TLA and Batman TAS/Beyond here. Children are not dumb, nor do they lack emotional intelligence. I find much media belittles kids and young adults mit inanely mindnumbing content. As if a kid were lost as soon as something happened that was not immediately apparent in it's cause or consequence or if a character had more than one or two traits, some of which might be conflicting. That is what I loved as kid about Batman TAS in particular. My mind was blown by "Heart of Ice" in particular. That was just 20 minutes of a rich tapestry of the human condition laid out for me in a way that compelling, yet anything but shallow. Hell, that episode is probably the reason why I spend the rest of my life being a Batman fan. It was one of the first peices of media I ever experienced made for me, but also taking me seriously. Friggin superhero show no less ...
Couple of things here: 1. Nintendo did not remain at the top, but made it back to the top rather recently.
2. I think "mature" is a thorny issue, as Resident Evil and Mortal Combat as mentioned in the article, are certainly not game for kids, but whether they are really "mature" is different story. Sometimes I feel we'd be labeled such content "adult" rather than "mature". As has been discussed a billion times before, the inclusion of or the focus on violence, gore, sex, drugs or similar subjects does make something ill suited for kids, and thus "adult" in my eyes, but not automatically "mature".
3. The Switch as far as hardware goes, is certainly aimed at a younger audience than most comparable devices. It is relatively cheap, stury and does not require significant additional investments (like a 4K TV set and such for instance).
4. Yet, thinking back at the systems initial marketing, it seemed at least as much focused on young adults than actul kids (we all remember the rooftop party ad right? ^^).
5. The issue I have with Nintendo is that they are games often feel kinda of stuck, been there dan. This has become less of an issue thanks to the introduction of some fresh blood and actual new approaches as evident most clearly in Splatoon and Breath of the Wild.
6. Yet all of these games are more about mechanical and structural changes, like a focus on a competitive online shooter or an open-world game. Thus - if we are honest - only followig long established industry trends.
7. I don't mind Nintendo themselves sticking to their guns, if they must, but I would appreciate they farming out some of their IPs for tales that are indeed a bit more mature, with strong focus on worldbuilding, narrative, character and also mature themes.
8. The Disney comparison is compelling, because Disney itself ran into trouble with this course of action that was mired in staticness. That's why they went after Pixar, Lucas Arts and Marvel. They needed some fresh material to pull in new audiences and retain old ones with fresh takes. Hell, that is why they went after Fox. Imagine Disney+ without any of those purchases. The entire service would hit just one-note in terms of content. Gargoyles would probably one of the only aberations within the entire library.
@COVIDberry This could be a boon in and of itself, as this allowed some characters to age (again, Old Man Logan was just the first thing popping in my mind here), and with this aging progress, other thematic ideas would almost automatically come to the forefront.
I'm NOT saying that classic Zelda games about a young Hero Link need or should go away, just that I would appreciate, like I said, additional takes on that. One of my favourite aspects of Ocarina of Time was the whole idea of the time travel, getting older Link, peeking into the future, getting that desolated, decidedly not farily tale world. But all of this was very narrowly confined to what the game allowed it to be, which was not all that much in the grand scheme of things.
Also, not gonna lie, I'd love to see the mechanics change with the themes as well. Like taking some influences from Dark SOuls could not hurt. We don't need to go grim-dark, but there is certainly room for improvement in terms of combat in particular. Again, an older, more seasoned and maybe less naive Link would not just act differently, see the world differently, but also fight differently, would he not?
I just feel it would be immensely satisfying for longtime fans and players to see Link grow up besides them. That does not take away from nostalgia being a pleasant feeling booting up these games nowadays, and there is more to them than that for sure, as all of this is not diss of great games like BotW, but ... I can imagine quite a bit more here and the time seems ripe to me. That's why I brought up "Logan". That is a MAJOR character of vast popular appeal, and he was allowed to age and ... end. Jackman has become the most well known incarnation of Wolverine. Starting from a young'ish and angry version of himself until ... something completly different. He is no longer a static character. He is not recast as soon as he quits or is to old to fill the role, like most of these characters (think James Bond, Spider-Man and such). He is given a real arc as a person. I think that is easily the greatest achievement of Fox's X-Men movies. Does this mean Link has to die? No, not at all, what it does mean is that Link should seem mortal for a moment. Not just a recurring idea, but a person that is just a manifastation of said idea. People though ... people change and they CAN die.
Will Wolverine be recast and brought back eventually? Absolutely, and I want him to at some point. But for now he more than caricature of a character. He had an actual tangible fictional life, with beginning, middle and end. I do love that, I truly do.
I doubt Nintendo is going to take this to heart anytime soon though, which is a shame, as I imagine it would also be a boon to their creative teams to allow for some other directions to be taken, some creative muscles long dormant being flexed!
@COVIDberry Thanks for sharing those links, interesting reads for sure. And yeah, I absolutely agree with your points about Zelda. It's not like these games don't have a rich background and thematic/philosophical themes, they sure do, but sadly the games do a rather poor job of exploring these. In fact, they seem to intentionally only tease them and then gloss over the deeper implications.
As for Samus, and really my whole point in general, is not necessarily to include more violence or other "mature" content in that regard, but to make the franchises feel less status-quo-bound. In one word I want to see consequences, characters taking out of their usual element. Watching the Mandalorian, I kept thinking how much I would love a Metroid game (or even show) modelled on similar themes and ideas.
In regards to your interesting observation about Buddhist influences, I feel yes, that would certainly be most interesting to be explored, but it also speaks to my greater point here about Nintendo's games in general and what I was just trying to say. Maybe "consequences" or "continuity" are the right terms to describe it. With Nintendo things are constantly rebirthed, but they rarely carry over consequences from previous lifes. There are a few exceptions, and sure there are timelines for Zelda and such, but I never felt the whole thing came together, progressed and did not start at scratch.
I dunno what there is to even argue about. That's like arguing whether Disney is "aimed at kids and teens". Of course it is. This doesn't make any (or all) of their output akin to Paw Control. Kids friendly is probably a better way to put, but it's really the same differrence. I will say this though: I would love for Nintendo to recognize that they have huge fanbase of adults, who might be open to more, in particular more mature takes on their beloved IPs and characters. Zelda really could do with a entry that is focused solely on adults. I would love to really get a mature tale about link, that dives into his personality, the struggles of being "the savior" and all of that. I would complete a picture of the franchise for me, that has been forming in my mind for a quarter century now. Because yeah, the characterisation in Zelda game is superficial at best, but I always ... wanted to believe there is more to it.
I would also love a kind of "Old Man Loga" take on someone like Samus. A bit of more cynical look at an older Samus. I just think these are interesting avenues to explore and by sticking to that whole "kid friendly" approach through out Nintendo is very much putting shackles on their own creativity. That's just an unfortunate truth.
I bring up Logan because I think that was a case in point for Superhero movies. If you are shooting for a particular form of "mass appeal", you have to compromise your artistic output to fit a particular mold. That just limits what you can do. Wolverine was never more alive and real as compelling character as when he was fighting for that girl and paying the ultimate price. It was compelling stuff, way beyond anything else based around a Marvel IP.
The same could one day be true for Link or Samus. Here is to hoping.
Played like 20 hours on PC before it got stale. Really a fun little gem of a game. A bit on the easy side for a rogue-lite, but then again that might be plus for some. Don't be surprised if you "beat it" right out of the gate. There a couple of issues with it, like there being some team compositions that are clearly vastly superior to others, and some classes that are borderline necesary while others are close to useless. Still, combat is great fun and the visuals are just stunning.
Not gonna lie, each year I forget that these Awards are a thing and each year I wonder why, and then I tune in for a moment only to recall ... why I keep forgetting and wondering Srsly, last time, what I saw was atrocious. To say it was about games and their creators and the community would be a bald-faced lie.
@MegaVel91 Yes and no, draw distance is always an issue for sure, but I never felt it was this bad. It really takes me out of the experience when the map tells me 50m in front of me a battle is ranging on and I ... just can't see it even though I'm standing on a plain field. And again, it's not like the game is pushing high pixel counts or at a steady framerate. If that were the trade-off, at least it would be that, a trade-off. As it is, it is no trade-off, but an all-around mess, wasting some really good ideas.
I hope we get to see a Switch Pro soon and this game will see an "Pro" update. A musou game hurting in that "heat of battle" feeling ... it's just a substantial issue to me, no matter how well executed the rest is. That's like a great platformer with ... floaty controls or sumthing. That part is just not optional imho, it's the very core of the experience.
Very excited for this seeing as it is coming to PS4. I really hope they take advantage of the system, particularly in terms of drawing distance. I absolutely HATE that in Age of Calamity (performance issues and pixel'y resolution in handheld aside): I never felt part of a battle, since I was only ever seeing the tiny skirmish going on around me, with no idea what was happening 100m away or having to rely on the map to get a sense of the situation. The map does absolute nothing for immersion in said battle though.
That to me is a incrediblely huge drawback for a musou game, way worse than performance and resolution, just way worse.
Might pick up Fire Emblem, even though there are a ton of other FE games I would have preferred to be quite honest.
Fenyx and Doom I will check out on XSX or PS5 when the time comes and I am in the mood for it. Fenyx looks like an impressive effort on Switch, but the visual downgrades are still very much substantial.
Not a Sonic fan myself, but the first one was good fun. I'm definitely down for a sequel, esp. if the casting stays the same and the VFX continues to be as good as it was.
I can handle a locked 30 fps, I can also handle some occassional dips, but wild jumps anywhere between 15 and the target 30 ... just no. It has to be an otherwise amazing game, that makes we want to put up with any technical shortcoming to even consider going down that route.
The fact is, there are more great games out than I can play. Yes, times are good, but because they are good, a game that tanks one aspect, needs to be genre defining in about every other way.
@Deltath A Path of Radiance (Radiant Dawn Collection) Release on Switch is a must for me, personally. Just as a Baten Kaitos collection. The former though, given the popularity, should be a no brainer!
@Deltath I dunno whether FE has what it takes to support multiple branches. But looking at SMT which does Persona, Mainline SMT, stuff like Devil Summoner, Dancing Games, Etrian-Odyssey'esque dungeon crawling like what you mentioned with Strange Journey or the excellent Persona Q (2) ... except for Persona none of these are like chart topping entries. They just (used to) sell enough to justify their existence.
I do think FE could do the same, at least to the point, where the theory ought to be tested in my view. It's also not like these two branches have to be entirel separate entities. There is a good chance that their appeal and fandome will feed into each other. Except for the dancing games, I kinda really enjoy all the SMT games, their unique designs, excellent music, varied gameplay styles, but over all consistent tone and just style-factor. They are just in their own way cool and fun.
I think there is room then for a very much somber FE experience, that takes itself rather serious, flanked by a somewhat more playful and lighthearted (at times) kind of entry, which more focus on social interactions and such.
As for the ludonarrative dissonance, I agree it was 100% always there, but never felt it that annoying to me. The anime aesthetic, with alot of stereotypical (not bad, but well trodden) designs, plus the school setting with all those buddy-buddy or downright romantic chatter made for a ... krass contrast for tons of quite brutal slaughtersfest. Because yes, I came across tons of battles where my enemies never had a chance, where under normal circumstances, you have expected to route and surrender, but the game has no provision for that, so I basically had one or two man armies just wade through them an cut them down like dry wheat. I was really odd to see those cut childlike kid characters do that.
In TMS#FE you are not killing actual people but monsters/shadows for instance. And you might just be "dispelling" them or something, not even killing. THat just gels so much easier with the whole highschool setting, same for PErsona.
I always liked that FE was not steeped taht deeply in that kind of "fantastical" approach, and a bit more grounded. Something Awakening also rebalanced sadly vis a vis PoR and RD, which that focus on time travel and all that.
I think the your point about Zelda is apt as well: THere is room for Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, which can be playful but also tend to be more darker and grounded experiences, next to let's say Minish Camp or Wind Waker. Both are "Zelda", neither is wrong or bad or whatever. Having just one branch here again and again hitting the same notes ... I dunno, it would not be for me.
@Deltath I thoroughly enjoyed FE Echoes of Valentia btw. Really, the fate wheel seemed like a much better compromise to increase accessibility. It kept the challenge were it was but made the whole execution less tedious. Basically, like a souls gme cutting loading times in half. Same challenge, but less time wasted executing. Also, it just felt less: "Let's talk about that cute boy over there, you know, the handsome one with the golden bow, while we stand here amongst the corpses of the enemy soldiers we had just slaughtered during our launch break." That kind of ludonarrative dissonance (yes, there I said, sorry for that ^^) never sat right by me. Not in awakening and certainly not in three houses.
The whole hours early on with that sense of Go-Happy-Hogwarts was super weirdly at odds with what was actually happening. Of course that was not the case with the story-related dialogue as such, not to that degree at least, but still.
Point being, want more of Valentia. That does NOT mean I begrudge you or anyone else their Three Houses. I DON'T! I am okay with having to wait a few years longer between each entry of "MY" FE game. I would be ... miffed if all we were to ever get now, is games set in the same tone as Awakening, largely Fates and Three Houses, particular the first half.
Hell, if you doubt me, I LUVED TMS#FE, in fact I double dipped on it on the Switch, having already finished it on WiiU just to support it. So I am not generally opposed to some fan service, cringe, sexualistion or any of that. But it has to fit with the rest of the game, and that can never replace a franchises core.
I would very much be upset if TMS#FE would turn out to have SMT as such for good. In fact, that is what equally worries me about the success of Persona 5. I loved the game, spend 200hours on it, even own the OST, some collectibles, you name it. But if it kills of Mainline SMT post the upcoming Switch game (should that fail to move some serious units all in all), I would be very much ... I dunno angry with myself and the world I guess.
@Deltath I don't deny it is popular, in fact, that was kind of the entire second half of my statement - just to be clear ^^ You are right about their attempt at focusing on interpersonal relationships. I think that part is also a strong analogue to Persona (compared to SMT Mainseries). Play something like Nocturne in particular and you will be confronted with really heavy themes of religion, philosophy and really criticism of religion. That is not to say that I did not luv, luv, luv Persona 3 and 5. I sure did!
Anyways, I was never a big fan of the dialogues in the game to be honest. I think Awakening was pretty charm for the most part. Three Houses often struck me as more awkward, but that might be personal taste. I certainly stopped using some aspects like tea time stuff, because it felt like a waste of time, plus heavy on the cringe.
Aside of the obvious Persona comparison, I would also refer to Game of Thrones (TV). While the first seasons were driven by societal themes, they pivoted later on to a form of emotional narrative. I found the former far more engaging than the later, even though in many respects productions values were always consistently great, might even have increased later on.
In that sense I really enjoyed (for example) Path of Radiance take on the ideas of "just war" and how it dealth with societal/political topics like slavery and racism, particular in respect to the Laguz. I also liked the (mostly superfical but still exisiting) parallels between PoR and Berserk in respect to the whole Golden Age Arc of Berserk and Ike's mercenary band. Again, personal taste though.
I am not saying that any of what Three Houses does here is objectively worse, just different and yes, subjectively worse.
What I found objectively worse where the changes to combat. I don't want to get into detail here, since I feel enough has been said on the issue, but the game felt less complex and in consequence less rewarding to play for me. I am not hung up on the weapon triangle, but the lack of it was felt harshly as the system repalcing it was much more shallow and more importantly, more often than not, optional.
As for waifu in particular, well, mabye it is less offensive than Fates. It might, I did not stick all that long with Fates to be honest, even if it was a major step up from Awakening as far as the map design went. I think it worth noting that aside of Fates and Awakening, the whole waifu-issue was as far as I am concerend never an issue with FE at all. There has been fandom sure, but that came after the fact. It was never anticipated or intentionally stoked by the games, their design, the characters behavior and such. That is a big difference compared to these three recent games, which were made in part at least for the tumblr sphere.
I hate this and I love this. I hate this because it is my least favourite modern FE game, it was just too mindnumbingly easy and it lacked the sense of mature themes I loved about the GC games, while also being too convoluted and waifu'y for it's own good to compete with the classics like Sacred Stone or sumthing.
I love it becaue it means the series will continue to go strong for a while longer and we might have a shot of getting some collection on the Switch one day (it is beyond me utterly beyond me why that has not happened already), plus maybe there is a chance we get a SMT/Persona situation, where people who liked the games for their epic tales and challenging tactical gameplay will be satisfied just as much as the folks who like anime characters and their group dynamics.
I am not saying that the latter is necessarily worse than the former, but that they are very, very different beasts.
@Dirty0814 You might want to hold your horses there for just a ... frame.
First, what's with the language? Sorry you are having a bad day, truly, but that gives you no right to act like a little ****. Get a grip.
Secondly, what kind of argument is 'it was okay 40 years ago, so don't be a whiner!'. A lot of stuff was done 40 years ago, that we thankfully moved beyond, in gaming and elsewhere. If you want to go back to 8bit 4:3 digital entertainment be my guest. No, you go right ahead and stick to the 80s.
It's a sad day when a consumer blames another consume for being pathetic because they show no particular desire to quote-unquote adapt.
This game is no Sekiro. It's not worth bothering adapting to. I played and finished Sekiro just fine despite some at times annoying framepacing issues, thank you. It was well beyond worth it, masterpiece such as it is. This is simply a game that should be mindless fun, definitely not bogged down by the issues it is currently having.
Also, last but not least, FE Warriors was handled pretty well by the Switch, so ... I absolutely do feel entitled to an at least similar level of performance.
I feel most gamers, if they are honest, value steady performance, be it a locked 30 or 60fps, over visuals. So yeah, I remember Golden Eye choking up when the action got heavy, esp. in split-screen, sure, but at the time I did not know any better. NOW is not then though. It's 2020.
Don't be a shill. As any other person, you are well above that, whether you know it or not.
Age of Calamity if the performance issues can be addressed. Sakuna looks nice, but I'll probably pick it for another system. Too much else happening else where this year honestly.
@Rodan2000 Know the difference between what? Also, "FPS" as such is a secondary concern as I said before. The impact on frame pacing is far more egregious. Less fps are actually preferable if they are delivered in constant intervalls that divide equally by refresh rate, which is typically 60hz (at least forgoing any form of VRR, which the Switch does not support).
There is next to nothing to understand or know here. It's literally elementary school math. I tired of people pretending just because you can calculate frametimes and plot them on a graph, you cannot see issues with frametime without said graph. It's simply an inane statement to make and it is also evidently false.
If you are okay with paying full price for a pixelsoup presentation (at times), that will never run and thus feel smoothly, that is fine. But that does not mean the issue is non-existent. This is not motion sickness or something like that. It is not subjective. It may matter to you or know, but whether it does ... it is still there.
Stop defending technically inadequate productions please. Other developers put a lot of time and hard work into making their games enjoyable on every level, that should be appreciated. Equally, devs not willing or able to do the same should be called out on this.
@SilentHunter382 Agreed, I would be fine with 30fps and 720p docked. Just an okay experience, but enough for this game. This is not it though. I really hope we get that "Switch Pro" sooner rather than later...
1. It is less about framerate and more about framepacing. Anyone can tell variable from constant framepacing right away, particularly in an action game.
2. The different between sub-30 and a locked 60 has no need for a framegraph either. This gap anyone with any experience in modern gaming can tell right away, hell you don't have to be playing even. Most of the time you can just tell from the footage, for instance by the smoothness of a horizontal turn. It's not 100% reliable of course, as there are means for interpolation, but still, there is no way of hiding these kind of krass performance issues - measurements or not.
And the resolution ... can I tell the difference between 1440p and 2160p at all time? No, can I tell the difference between 540p and 1080p in docked .... sure, anyone can.
Again, these are pretty krass numbers, and as such measuring them is just icing on the cake. People were complaining long before anyone bothered getting scientific with this game, precisely because they could tell without any graphs. I really don't get what you are droning one about. The 2000s are gone and done. Most of us have grown rather sensible to these issues, and frankly, the prevalance of Hold-Type displays did not really help in that regard either. I am less than keen on playing juddery messes like this on my OLED.
It feels like controling someone stuck in molasses and any technology that is meant to compensate by interpolation is going to have a rough time with this all-over-the-place frametiming graph. It's never going to feel even remotely smooth playing and it is never not going to look "meh".
@SimonCucho Has nothing to do with being a "snob". Why would I bother with paying full price for what often degrades into a juddery pixelsoup, when tons of equally good or even better games deliver an experience several levels above and beyond said title.
Mabye if it was $20 game I could find it in me to be more lenient here, but ultimately, this is just a either too demanding for the system, and as such a mismatch, or it is poorly optimized, which is flat-out unaccepable at the asking price.
This is bad, no point in down playing this. We are talking like 540p, aka standard definition resolution, at framerates below 20fps.
The worst part is that is the frame pacing is flat-out broken and there is barely a second of smooth gameplay in that clipp.
I dunno, was looking forward to this, but it is not a must-have game to me, not with all the other heavy hitters around the corner. Someone mentioned Bloodborne earlier, and while this had some framepacing issues as well, the resolution and framerate was nowhere near as bad, and besides these issues, I still hold it up as the best From Software and best Souls games to date. It's a masterpiece with framepacing issues. Bloodborne looked grotesquely gorgeous, still does, and I play it to this day.
This is just another intriguing musou game featuring Nintendo characters with resolution, fps and framepacing issues up the wazoo.
Are these any good? I'm not really a huge Sonic fan, but I did like the DS games and I really enjoyed the recent movie.
@IAmBerk Worth every penny though. I just read Vol. 11 of the TMNT IDW collection today. My only gripe continues to be the lack of extras, but to me that is not crucial personally, but I do get complaints in that regard.
Plus, I had Vol. 11 PO'ed on Amazon for months and ended up being 30€ thanks to their preorder service, where you get the best price before release.
Been playing since the weekend and have been absolutely loving it. Very much reminds me of greats like Orcs & Elves and The Quest. Not sure about the combat getting too busy. It's turn-based after all, though sometimes I wish I could turn the camera. As for the performance, if the actions gets extremely busy (like a dozen barrels blowing up at the same time) it drops significantly for a few moments. But again, it's turn-based, hence it really doesn't matter.
Darn shame, there goes another piece of DS-quirky-weirdness I really enjoyed the Layton games. I hope they'll come back someday or that someone else decides to pick up their games. I already feel that the Switch, despite it's success, has killed of a particular set of niche games that found success on the DS and replaced them with (definitely great) western indie games, as a kind of Steam-Best-Of.
It was probably inevitable, but still a loss that is truly felt.
@Azuris Yeah, I agree. If you like the TMNT show, I can only highly recommend the current IDW comics run. Well, "current", it has been going on since 2011. It's excellent. It's really my favourite long-form comic since Wolfman's Teen Titans and Claremont's X-Men, just with even better art and less 'dated' dialogue.
Batman vs TMNT Vol. I - III is also neat, if you liked the movie. I personally loved "Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures" even more since it brings two of my favourite cartoons together: The aformentioned TMNT (2012) and original Batman the Animated Series by Timm and Dini, which is up there with Avatar TLA as the best cartoon ever produced!
Seriously though, do yourself a solid (if you haven't already!) and pick up the IDW stuff. There are perfect HC Deluxe editions available as well, which I adore for their quality and also for their perfect mapping, as they have the entire series, incl. Micro-, Macro-, Tie-In-Series incl. TMNT Universe, in perfect chronological reading order. Something sadly, too few collections can manage.
Granted, it's already over 200 issues, and as such a commitment, but I guarantee you, you will not regret it
@Sakaixx I never got further than 3-4 eps. into GitS. Maybe I should take another look, but it was just such a severe cut below the movie and Stand Alone Complex, that I found it too hard to stomach.
@Hagemaru Yeah, I kinda agree. At least Ultraman was kinda fun as a show, even with the horrible CGi, but the rest of the bunch like Saint Seiya or the more recent Ghost in the Shell or Dragon's Dogma were just bad. I also didn't mind it in the TMNT (2012). It looked a bit cheap, but at least it was consistent and worked great for the action. It still is my favourite TMNT cartoon to be honest, nostalgia for the 90s aside.
It's shame though, because CGi can work if it is done right, just look at what Studio Orange does with Land of the Lustrous and Beastars, which are pretty gorgeous. CGi also worked for Dorohedoro. Hell, I would go so far as to say that Kengan Ashura works much better in CGi than it would in Cell as it is super action heavy and those aspects clearly benefit from CGi.
Too early to judge RE for me, but honestly, after Netflix recent output, that so clearly favoured quantity over quality, I am anything but hyped. It's shame to see them pump money into all those IPs but then not spending enough to really make it work.
Looks pretty fun actually. I'm just not sure if it'll be different enough to Hyrule and FE Warriors to be really worth it. Also, like I said before, I really, really, really wish we could have finally gotten online co-op. This practically begs for it, it really does.
@aaronsullivan I don't know, but I imagine it's hard to find a good game, with teammates who know what they are doing and an opposing team that is competitive. Worst of all, most of the versions that existed had a bug that caused a single stun to last forever, which broke the game unfortunately
@aaronsullivan Yeah for sure! I get pretty competitive, too, in these type of games, but there is slim line between a fun diversion and a serious commitment, and the former is more about joy while the latter is more about achievment.
Personally, I miss Enfo the most. Really wish we could get a DotA/HoN/LoL etc. stand-alone version of Enfo. That would be a dream come true.
@ShadJV I did not even think about the lack of a levelcap. That is indeed a removal of another strategic layer, that made choices made previously more meaningful. They really strip the series of all it's mechanical identity step by step
I guess I liked the story fine, but honestly, I like the characters in some of the previous games better, like Awakening actually. And I clear prefer the world of PoR. I just thought the "Berserk"-Golden-Age Feel was amazing and I luved how it used the Laguz to talk about issues of racism and slavey, when that was not exactly a common theme in games, and certainly not Nintendo games ... still isn't.
And yeah, I absolutely agree, these games often pick up on abandoned ideas and sometimes do them better than ever. Still, I'd also love say a Dawn of Sorrow like game that took hints from Hollow Knight and Dead Cells among others. There is a lot of potential there, too bad many of these bigger publishers don't seem to care for their legacy...
Comments 2,303
Re: Best Of 2020: An Ode To The 3DS, Nintendo's Workhorse Console
@Judal27 Being able to play NDS games on the 3DS means that it easily has one of the best, if not the best library of any system - period. If you like jRPGs for instance, it's pretty much the 3DS and PS2 sitting on top of everything else. But the 3DS also have tons of games that you don't see on other systems, or only very rarely. It was a unique system, cheap to develop for with a huge installbase, not unlike mobile, but with an audience that was willing to pay $40 for singleplayer game, which is unthinkable on the Appstore. That gave birth to a lot of good stuff
Re: Best Of 2020: An Ode To The 3DS, Nintendo's Workhorse Console
@WaveWitch So yeah, question like these ... how to use the technology? How to marry it with different genres and desgins? How to use it ethically when it comes to violence? ... will have to be answered, once the technology is really "there", affordable and all eyes turn to content.
Also, what has felt like a step backwards to me is the focus on photorealism in games, with the strong emphasis on Raytracing and such. There is nothing wrong with any of that by itself, but I had figured where had moved beyond that point, where good games = good graphics and good graphics = realistic graphics. The 2010s and on brought forth so many smaller, indie and not-indie projects that thrived on, for example, beautiful hand-drawn art, but this time mixed with 3D elements, such dynamic particle effects, and presented in ultra-hd for a sense of depth uncommon for such productions in the past.
VR in view is unkind for artistic expressions other than 3D rendering, for pretty obvious reasons. Hence I think VR is further poised to limit what games can look like to be "taken seriously" and commercially succesful. At least for the time being.
TO be fair though, I did buy a New3DS a while back, because there are many games I enjoy the 3D in, and I loved the stereoscopic 3D on my old Panasonic Plasma, stuff like Wipeout and Lion King was truly something to behold ... and yeah, I got myself a VR headset, but out of all these experiences, I found it the least engaging, because it is still the most cumbersome. People annoyed by shutter glasses can steer clear entirely. Not to mention that "everything" VR pretty much makes ideas like couch-coop and such entirely obsolete and just, as games that focus on different 2D visual styles, I am not willing to abandon any of that anytime soon.
Re: Best Of 2020: An Ode To The 3DS, Nintendo's Workhorse Console
@WaveWitch To each their own, but I could not disagree more. While 4K is a far cry from the leap from SD to HD, the leap from SDR to HDR (particular with screen technology such as a OLED, which enables true blacks) is at least as meaningful as that original transition. I immensely enjoy a good HDR implementation, as it goes a long way to support my suspension of disbelief, enabling me to really engage with these virtual worlds on an emotional level. In the simplest words: a sunset in-game resembling a sunset in real-life is a powerful thing.
VR is far from ready from primetime. The headset are expensive, but they are also everything but comfy. That is before you realize you wear glasses and a prone to sweating ... on your face I do think there are games that really benefit from the immediacy that VR offers, while for others it feels tacked on. I really loved what Ace Combat 7 was doing (though I would have loved a VR-enabled campaign more) and RE7. At the same time, I felt there was such a thing as too much immersion. Point being, whenever we were debating videogame violence the first and last line of defense was and still is this: we know it is not real!
With VR I can see how people will more readily forgo said suspension of disbelief and just start to blend VR as a form of seperate reality. We are not there YET, but the writing is on the wall, hell that is after all the mission statement of any good VR company: We will make you forget, that all of this is just fake.
So far the execution is far too clumsy: expensive, uncomfy headsets, demand for high-powered machine, very limited libraries, motion sickness, eye strain/Headaches, finicky setup ... also the lack of HDR obviously
Do I want to feel truly immersed in RE7? Is it better that way? I dunno, frankly, some of the artistic genius of RE1 was the way the limtations of the hardware translated to game philsophy: dispowering the player instead of empowering him. Limited movement, limited visibility, limited inventory and so on and so forth. Substituting all of that with a stronger emphasis of more immediate audio-visual horror ... I dunno if that necessarily makes for a better game. More heartstopping moments? Probably! but whether that is really what everyone is looking for, is a different question. Suspense and horror are not really identical after all.
Re: Devolver Digital Teases Five Unannounced Games For 2021
Out of all their unannounced games, Half-Life 3 on Switch is definitely my No. 1 anticipated title! That's gonna be awesomesauce.
Re: Best Of 2020: Burnout Paradise Remastered Dev On Optimisation, Resisting Temptation And Nailing 60 FPS On Switch
Too bad I really did not enjoy Paradies. Now Revenge would have been a different story ...
Re: Review: Grindstone - A Thrilling And Compelling Puzzle Adventure
Fun game, best enjoyed in short bursts though! Recommended!
Re: Monster Hunter Movie Tops The Box Office But Took $15 Million Less Than The First Resident Evil Film
@StevenG That was not what I was trying to say. I was just pointing out, that too few people support (put your money where your mouth is ^^) creative efforts.
Maybe I just choose to believe that people can be more than gluttons for reheated comfort food. As Steve Trevor said, it is not what they deserve, but what you believe in!
Merry Christmas!
Re: Monster Hunter Movie Tops The Box Office But Took $15 Million Less Than The First Resident Evil Film
@StevenG I know it isn't, but how does that relate to my argument? Disney as a company takes note of the box office, not just their box office Oo Furthermore, every other Marvel IP besides Spidey is owned by Disney, so while they can't do "Into the Spiderverse", they could do three dozen other characters within such a creative framework. They don't though ... for good reason, people prefer a creative bankrupt version of 3DCGi Simba, that emotes less than cell-animated Simba
Re: Monster Hunter Movie Tops The Box Office But Took $15 Million Less Than The First Resident Evil Film
Judging by the trailer and a handful of reviews, it seems a tad silly to even consider paying movie ticket prices to see this at the best of times. These are hardly the best of times and running a serious risk of exposure to a potentially deadly disease just to watch this, strikes me as completey bonkers. No movie is really worth this, but this most certainly isn't.
Also, just as a sidenote, don't forget that these movies get made based on economic reasoning. Go see it if this is what you want game adaptions to be like. It's just like with Disney, if folks ignore excellent original programming like Spiderverse in favour of poor rehases like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, then you know what kind of content the future will by and large hold.
Milla Jovovich is actually not a horrible actress imho, seems kind of wasted on all these glorified direct-to-dvd productions Oo
Re: Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online SNES And NES Service With Five More Titles
The slow drip of titles as well as the choice of titles takes the fun out of the VC console for me. If you really want to play (a) specific game(s) just emulate them. After decades gone by, I don't see any point in a waiting & hoping game here. With this current pace, it is an unavoidable fact, that a the biggest part of the SNES library will never say the light of day on Switch - not to mention other systems. I'm not sure why Nintendo does this, as they are not really selling these games in the primary market anymore, so they do not make any money of them, as far as I can say, but hey ... you can pull a Disney+ and try to finally capitalize on your backcatalogue or you don't. Plus, the emulation is pretty barebones, it's fine, but not really "premium" imho, considering it comes at cost, even if you already bought these games in the past (multiple times in some cases for sure).
Nice to finally see DKC 3 there though, definitely a classic that should be easily accessible!
Re: Former Apple Arcade Exclusive Grindstone Hits Switch Today, Before Other Consoles
@Muddy_4_Ever Ditto! Actually been waiting for this to make the jump from Apple Arcade. Btw, Critter Crunch was also pretty darn good
Re: Netflix Announces New 3D Sonic Animated Series, Quickly Deletes Tweet
Their 3DCGi shows are a really mixed bag, curious to see where this'll land in the mix. Not a Sonic fan myself, but some of the DS games were pretty fun and I did love the movie, so maybe this'll be a pleasant surprise.
Re: Monster Hunter Movie Director And Star Apologise To Chinese Viewers For "Racist" Joke
@Razer Yeah, it's funny, I remember a time when people figured cultural imperialism would work on China and help sway the country around. It's krass to see that the opposite holds true, more so every day, with Chinese sensibilities more and more impacting western cultural output, particulary Hollywood (not so gaming yet for obvious reason).
Then again, the west also believed that, as Clinton famously stated, that China would fail to curtail the democratic power of the internet, which turned out to be a catastrophic misconception as well. And even before that we figured, that their semi-capitalistic approach would fail (wrong again), before we stuck modernization theory, accepting that their approach worked, but that it would give rise to a middleclass that would push for democratic participation (again, just wrong for the most part).
I think we've grown rather resentful on issues like these, seeing how we've spend half a century being dreadfully wrong. And now, we have modell our movies after the Chinese market, be it racially insenstive jokes (with up to a point is a valid concern, but still), or the display of a friggin map in a kids movie.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Focus On Younger Players Is A Positive, Not A Negative
9. Yes, it's all very, very, very samey. That's the problem to me. None of the individual pieces is bad, but they are all built on very similar foundations. It's not like you need to see every Disney movie, to get a feel for the middle and the end of the next one 10 minutes in.
10. That's why I feel Nintendo should strongly consider stretching it's wings. They had their experiments with partnering with outside studios for stuff like Star Fox and now the Warrior games for instance. But I feel this has not gone nearly far enough. If Nintendo has any desire to be more than "just staying relevant", it should push onward here. I've said this many times before, but outside of new controlers and concepts like the Switch, I would really love for Nintendo innovate on software as well, and by innovate I mean have content that is target at adults, without abandoning their popular IPs. That might not work for Kirby, but it could certainly work for Zelda an Metroid, Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, and who knows what. Plus, obviously new IPs are not out of the question.
All of that aside, I do think Zelda games in particular could do with much deeper characterisation than what we go before. I mean, not JUST for a mature game, but really all-around. I like to point to Avater TLA and Batman TAS/Beyond here. Children are not dumb, nor do they lack emotional intelligence. I find much media belittles kids and young adults mit inanely mindnumbing content. As if a kid were lost as soon as something happened that was not immediately apparent in it's cause or consequence or if a character had more than one or two traits, some of which might be conflicting. That is what I loved as kid about Batman TAS in particular. My mind was blown by "Heart of Ice" in particular. That was just 20 minutes of a rich tapestry of the human condition laid out for me in a way that compelling, yet anything but shallow. Hell, that episode is probably the reason why I spend the rest of my life being a Batman fan. It was one of the first peices of media I ever experienced made for me, but also taking me seriously. Friggin superhero show no less ...
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Focus On Younger Players Is A Positive, Not A Negative
Couple of things here:
1. Nintendo did not remain at the top, but made it back to the top rather recently.
2. I think "mature" is a thorny issue, as Resident Evil and Mortal Combat as mentioned in the article, are certainly not game for kids, but whether they are really "mature" is different story. Sometimes I feel we'd be labeled such content "adult" rather than "mature". As has been discussed a billion times before, the inclusion of or the focus on violence, gore, sex, drugs or similar subjects does make something ill suited for kids, and thus "adult" in my eyes, but not automatically "mature".
3. The Switch as far as hardware goes, is certainly aimed at a younger audience than most comparable devices. It is relatively cheap, stury and does not require significant additional investments (like a 4K TV set and such for instance).
4. Yet, thinking back at the systems initial marketing, it seemed at least as much focused on young adults than actul kids (we all remember the rooftop party ad right? ^^).
5. The issue I have with Nintendo is that they are games often feel kinda of stuck, been there dan. This has become less of an issue thanks to the introduction of some fresh blood and actual new approaches as evident most clearly in Splatoon and Breath of the Wild.
6. Yet all of these games are more about mechanical and structural changes, like a focus on a competitive online shooter or an open-world game. Thus - if we are honest - only followig long established industry trends.
7. I don't mind Nintendo themselves sticking to their guns, if they must, but I would appreciate they farming out some of their IPs for tales that are indeed a bit more mature, with strong focus on worldbuilding, narrative, character and also mature themes.
8. The Disney comparison is compelling, because Disney itself ran into trouble with this course of action that was mired in staticness. That's why they went after Pixar, Lucas Arts and Marvel. They needed some fresh material to pull in new audiences and retain old ones with fresh takes. Hell, that is why they went after Fox. Imagine Disney+ without any of those purchases. The entire service would hit just one-note in terms of content. Gargoyles would probably one of the only aberations within the entire library.
Re: Nintendo Consoles Are Aimed At "Kids And Teens" Says Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi In Disputed Translation
@COVIDberry This could be a boon in and of itself, as this allowed some characters to age (again, Old Man Logan was just the first thing popping in my mind here), and with this aging progress, other thematic ideas would almost automatically come to the forefront.
I'm NOT saying that classic Zelda games about a young Hero Link need or should go away, just that I would appreciate, like I said, additional takes on that. One of my favourite aspects of Ocarina of Time was the whole idea of the time travel, getting older Link, peeking into the future, getting that desolated, decidedly not farily tale world. But all of this was very narrowly confined to what the game allowed it to be, which was not all that much in the grand scheme of things.
Also, not gonna lie, I'd love to see the mechanics change with the themes as well. Like taking some influences from Dark SOuls could not hurt. We don't need to go grim-dark, but there is certainly room for improvement in terms of combat in particular. Again, an older, more seasoned and maybe less naive Link would not just act differently, see the world differently, but also fight differently, would he not?
I just feel it would be immensely satisfying for longtime fans and players to see Link grow up besides them. That does not take away from nostalgia being a pleasant feeling booting up these games nowadays, and there is more to them than that for sure, as all of this is not diss of great games like BotW, but ... I can imagine quite a bit more here and the time seems ripe to me. That's why I brought up "Logan". That is a MAJOR character of vast popular appeal, and he was allowed to age and ... end. Jackman has become the most well known incarnation of Wolverine. Starting from a young'ish and angry version of himself until ... something completly different. He is no longer a static character. He is not recast as soon as he quits or is to old to fill the role, like most of these characters (think James Bond, Spider-Man and such). He is given a real arc as a person. I think that is easily the greatest achievement of Fox's X-Men movies. Does this mean Link has to die? No, not at all, what it does mean is that Link should seem mortal for a moment. Not just a recurring idea, but a person that is just a manifastation of said idea. People though ... people change and they CAN die.
Will Wolverine be recast and brought back eventually? Absolutely, and I want him to at some point. But for now he more than caricature of a character. He had an actual tangible fictional life, with beginning, middle and end. I do love that, I truly do.
I doubt Nintendo is going to take this to heart anytime soon though, which is a shame, as I imagine it would also be a boon to their creative teams to allow for some other directions to be taken, some creative muscles long dormant being flexed!
Re: Nintendo Consoles Are Aimed At "Kids And Teens" Says Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi In Disputed Translation
@COVIDberry Thanks for sharing those links, interesting reads for sure. And yeah, I absolutely agree with your points about Zelda. It's not like these games don't have a rich background and thematic/philosophical themes, they sure do, but sadly the games do a rather poor job of exploring these. In fact, they seem to intentionally only tease them and then gloss over the deeper implications.
As for Samus, and really my whole point in general, is not necessarily to include more violence or other "mature" content in that regard, but to make the franchises feel less status-quo-bound. In one word I want to see consequences, characters taking out of their usual element. Watching the Mandalorian, I kept thinking how much I would love a Metroid game (or even show) modelled on similar themes and ideas.
In regards to your interesting observation about Buddhist influences, I feel yes, that would certainly be most interesting to be explored, but it also speaks to my greater point here about Nintendo's games in general and what I was just trying to say. Maybe "consequences" or "continuity" are the right terms to describe it. With Nintendo things are constantly rebirthed, but they rarely carry over consequences from previous lifes. There are a few exceptions, and sure there are timelines for Zelda and such, but I never felt the whole thing came together, progressed and did not start at scratch.
Re: Nintendo Consoles Are Aimed At "Kids And Teens" Says Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi
I dunno what there is to even argue about. That's like arguing whether Disney is "aimed at kids and teens". Of course it is. This doesn't make any (or all) of their output akin to Paw Control. Kids friendly is probably a better way to put, but it's really the same differrence. I will say this though: I would love for Nintendo to recognize that they have huge fanbase of adults, who might be open to more, in particular more mature takes on their beloved IPs and characters. Zelda really could do with a entry that is focused solely on adults.
I would love to really get a mature tale about link, that dives into his personality, the struggles of being "the savior" and all of that. I would complete a picture of the franchise for me, that has been forming in my mind for a quarter century now. Because yeah, the characterisation in Zelda game is superficial at best, but I always ... wanted to believe there is more to it.
I would also love a kind of "Old Man Loga" take on someone like Samus. A bit of more cynical look at an older Samus. I just think these are interesting avenues to explore and by sticking to that whole "kid friendly" approach through out Nintendo is very much putting shackles on their own creativity. That's just an unfortunate truth.
I bring up Logan because I think that was a case in point for Superhero movies. If you are shooting for a particular form of "mass appeal", you have to compromise your artistic output to fit a particular mold. That just limits what you can do. Wolverine was never more alive and real as compelling character as when he was fighting for that girl and paying the ultimate price. It was compelling stuff, way beyond anything else based around a Marvel IP.
The same could one day be true for Link or Samus. Here is to hoping.
Re: Review: Star Renegades - Borrows Ideas From The Best To Create A Truly Inventive RPG
Played like 20 hours on PC before it got stale. Really a fun little gem of a game. A bit on the easy side for a rogue-lite, but then again that might be plus for some. Don't be surprised if you "beat it" right out of the gate. There a couple of issues with it, like there being some team compositions that are clearly vastly superior to others, and some classes that are borderline necesary while others are close to useless. Still, combat is great fun and the visuals are just stunning.
Highly recommended!
Re: Geoff Keighley Shares "Hype Trailer" For The Game Awards 2020
Not gonna lie, each year I forget that these Awards are a thing and each year I wonder why, and then I tune in for a moment only to recall ... why I keep forgetting and wondering Srsly, last time, what I saw was atrocious. To say it was about games and their creators and the community would be a bald-faced lie.
Re: Persona 5 Strikers Is Coming To Western Switch Consoles In February 2021
@MegaVel91 Yes and no, draw distance is always an issue for sure, but I never felt it was this bad. It really takes me out of the experience when the map tells me 50m in front of me a battle is ranging on and I ... just can't see it even though I'm standing on a plain field. And again, it's not like the game is pushing high pixel counts or at a steady framerate. If that were the trade-off, at least it would be that, a trade-off. As it is, it is no trade-off, but an all-around mess, wasting some really good ideas.
I hope we get to see a Switch Pro soon and this game will see an "Pro" update. A musou game hurting in that "heat of battle" feeling ... it's just a substantial issue to me, no matter how well executed the rest is. That's like a great platformer with ... floaty controls or sumthing. That part is just not optional imho, it's the very core of the experience.
Re: Persona 5 Strikers Is Coming To Western Switch Consoles In February 2021
Very excited for this seeing as it is coming to PS4. I really hope they take advantage of the system, particularly in terms of drawing distance. I absolutely HATE that in Age of Calamity (performance issues and pixel'y resolution in handheld aside): I never felt part of a battle, since I was only ever seeing the tiny skirmish going on around me, with no idea what was happening 100m away or having to rely on the map to get a sense of the situation. The map does absolute nothing for immersion in said battle though.
That to me is a incrediblely huge drawback for a musou game, way worse than performance and resolution, just way worse.
Re: Video: 11 Exciting New Games Coming To Nintendo Switch In December
Might pick up Fire Emblem, even though there are a ton of other FE games I would have preferred to be quite honest.
Fenyx and Doom I will check out on XSX or PS5 when the time comes and I am in the mood for it. Fenyx looks like an impressive effort on Switch, but the visual downgrades are still very much substantial.
Re: Sonic Movie Sequel Scheduled To Start Production In March Next Year
Not a Sonic fan myself, but the first one was good fun. I'm definitely down for a sequel, esp. if the casting stays the same and the VFX continues to be as good as it was.
Re: Review: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Not The Zelda Game You Want, But Perhaps The One You Need
@Indielink Thanks for the info. I guess I'll just what and see.
Re: Review: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Not The Zelda Game You Want, But Perhaps The One You Need
Is the performance improved on the demo?
I can handle a locked 30 fps, I can also handle some occassional dips, but wild jumps anywhere between 15 and the target 30 ... just no. It has to be an otherwise amazing game, that makes we want to put up with any technical shortcoming to even consider going down that route.
The fact is, there are more great games out than I can play. Yes, times are good, but because they are good, a game that tanks one aspect, needs to be genre defining in about every other way.
Re: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series
@Deltath A Path of Radiance (Radiant Dawn Collection) Release on Switch is a must for me, personally. Just as a Baten Kaitos collection. The former though, given the popularity, should be a no brainer!
Re: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series
@Deltath I dunno whether FE has what it takes to support multiple branches. But looking at SMT which does Persona, Mainline SMT, stuff like Devil Summoner, Dancing Games, Etrian-Odyssey'esque dungeon crawling like what you mentioned with Strange Journey or the excellent Persona Q (2) ... except for Persona none of these are like chart topping entries. They just (used to) sell enough to justify their existence.
I do think FE could do the same, at least to the point, where the theory ought to be tested in my view. It's also not like these two branches have to be entirel separate entities. There is a good chance that their appeal and fandome will feed into each other. Except for the dancing games, I kinda really enjoy all the SMT games, their unique designs, excellent music, varied gameplay styles, but over all consistent tone and just style-factor. They are just in their own way cool and fun.
I think there is room then for a very much somber FE experience, that takes itself rather serious, flanked by a somewhat more playful and lighthearted (at times) kind of entry, which more focus on social interactions and such.
As for the ludonarrative dissonance, I agree it was 100% always there, but never felt it that annoying to me. The anime aesthetic, with alot of stereotypical (not bad, but well trodden) designs, plus the school setting with all those buddy-buddy or downright romantic chatter made for a ... krass contrast for tons of quite brutal slaughtersfest. Because yes, I came across tons of battles where my enemies never had a chance, where under normal circumstances, you have expected to route and surrender, but the game has no provision for that, so I basically had one or two man armies just wade through them an cut them down like dry wheat. I was really odd to see those cut childlike kid characters do that.
In TMS#FE you are not killing actual people but monsters/shadows for instance. And you might just be "dispelling" them or something, not even killing. THat just gels so much easier with the whole highschool setting, same for PErsona.
I always liked that FE was not steeped taht deeply in that kind of "fantastical" approach, and a bit more grounded. Something Awakening also rebalanced sadly vis a vis PoR and RD, which that focus on time travel and all that.
I think the your point about Zelda is apt as well: THere is room for Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, which can be playful but also tend to be more darker and grounded experiences, next to let's say Minish Camp or Wind Waker. Both are "Zelda", neither is wrong or bad or whatever. Having just one branch here again and again hitting the same notes ... I dunno, it would not be for me.
Re: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series
@Deltath I thoroughly enjoyed FE Echoes of Valentia btw. Really, the fate wheel seemed like a much better compromise to increase accessibility. It kept the challenge were it was but made the whole execution less tedious. Basically, like a souls gme cutting loading times in half. Same challenge, but less time wasted executing. Also, it just felt less: "Let's talk about that cute boy over there, you know, the handsome one with the golden bow, while we stand here amongst the corpses of the enemy soldiers we had just slaughtered during our launch break." That kind of ludonarrative dissonance (yes, there I said, sorry for that ^^) never sat right by me. Not in awakening and certainly not in three houses.
The whole hours early on with that sense of Go-Happy-Hogwarts was super weirdly at odds with what was actually happening. Of course that was not the case with the story-related dialogue as such, not to that degree at least, but still.
Point being, want more of Valentia. That does NOT mean I begrudge you or anyone else their Three Houses. I DON'T! I am okay with having to wait a few years longer between each entry of "MY" FE game. I would be ... miffed if all we were to ever get now, is games set in the same tone as Awakening, largely Fates and Three Houses, particular the first half.
Hell, if you doubt me, I LUVED TMS#FE, in fact I double dipped on it on the Switch, having already finished it on WiiU just to support it. So I am not generally opposed to some fan service, cringe, sexualistion or any of that. But it has to fit with the rest of the game, and that can never replace a franchises core.
I would very much be upset if TMS#FE would turn out to have SMT as such for good. In fact, that is what equally worries me about the success of Persona 5. I loved the game, spend 200hours on it, even own the OST, some collectibles, you name it. But if it kills of Mainline SMT post the upcoming Switch game (should that fail to move some serious units all in all), I would be very much ... I dunno angry with myself and the world I guess.
Re: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series
@Deltath I don't deny it is popular, in fact, that was kind of the entire second half of my statement - just to be clear ^^ You are right about their attempt at focusing on interpersonal relationships. I think that part is also a strong analogue to Persona (compared to SMT Mainseries). Play something like Nocturne in particular and you will be confronted with really heavy themes of religion, philosophy and really criticism of religion. That is not to say that I did not luv, luv, luv Persona 3 and 5. I sure did!
Anyways, I was never a big fan of the dialogues in the game to be honest. I think Awakening was pretty charm for the most part. Three Houses often struck me as more awkward, but that might be personal taste. I certainly stopped using some aspects like tea time stuff, because it felt like a waste of time, plus heavy on the cringe.
Aside of the obvious Persona comparison, I would also refer to Game of Thrones (TV). While the first seasons were driven by societal themes, they pivoted later on to a form of emotional narrative. I found the former far more engaging than the later, even though in many respects productions values were always consistently great, might even have increased later on.
In that sense I really enjoyed (for example) Path of Radiance take on the ideas of "just war" and how it dealth with societal/political topics like slavery and racism, particular in respect to the Laguz. I also liked the (mostly superfical but still exisiting) parallels between PoR and Berserk in respect to the whole Golden Age Arc of Berserk and Ike's mercenary band. Again, personal taste though.
I am not saying that any of what Three Houses does here is objectively worse, just different and yes, subjectively worse.
What I found objectively worse where the changes to combat. I don't want to get into detail here, since I feel enough has been said on the issue, but the game felt less complex and in consequence less rewarding to play for me. I am not hung up on the weapon triangle, but the lack of it was felt harshly as the system repalcing it was much more shallow and more importantly, more often than not, optional.
As for waifu in particular, well, mabye it is less offensive than Fates. It might, I did not stick all that long with Fates to be honest, even if it was a major step up from Awakening as far as the map design went. I think it worth noting that aside of Fates and Awakening, the whole waifu-issue was as far as I am concerend never an issue with FE at all. There has been fandom sure, but that came after the fact. It was never anticipated or intentionally stoked by the games, their design, the characters behavior and such. That is a big difference compared to these three recent games, which were made in part at least for the tumblr sphere.
Re: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series
I hate this and I love this. I hate this because it is my least favourite modern FE game, it was just too mindnumbingly easy and it lacked the sense of mature themes I loved about the GC games, while also being too convoluted and waifu'y for it's own good to compete with the classics like Sacred Stone or sumthing.
I love it becaue it means the series will continue to go strong for a while longer and we might have a shot of getting some collection on the Switch one day (it is beyond me utterly beyond me why that has not happened already), plus maybe there is a chance we get a SMT/Persona situation, where people who liked the games for their epic tales and challenging tactical gameplay will be satisfied just as much as the folks who like anime characters and their group dynamics.
I am not saying that the latter is necessarily worse than the former, but that they are very, very different beasts.
Re: Frame Rate And Resolution For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Demo Revealed
@Dirty0814 You might want to hold your horses there for just a ... frame.
First, what's with the language? Sorry you are having a bad day, truly, but that gives you no right to act like a little ****. Get a grip.
Secondly, what kind of argument is 'it was okay 40 years ago, so don't be a whiner!'. A lot of stuff was done 40 years ago, that we thankfully moved beyond, in gaming and elsewhere. If you want to go back to 8bit 4:3 digital entertainment be my guest. No, you go right ahead and stick to the 80s.
It's a sad day when a consumer blames another consume for being pathetic because they show no particular desire to quote-unquote adapt.
This game is no Sekiro. It's not worth bothering adapting to. I played and finished Sekiro just fine despite some at times annoying framepacing issues, thank you. It was well beyond worth it, masterpiece such as it is. This is simply a game that should be mindless fun, definitely not bogged down by the issues it is currently having.
Also, last but not least, FE Warriors was handled pretty well by the Switch, so ... I absolutely do feel entitled to an at least similar level of performance.
I feel most gamers, if they are honest, value steady performance, be it a locked 30 or 60fps, over visuals. So yeah, I remember Golden Eye choking up when the action got heavy, esp. in split-screen, sure, but at the time I did not know any better. NOW is not then though. It's 2020.
Don't be a shill. As any other person, you are well above that, whether you know it or not.
Re: Guide: Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games And Accessories For November And December 2020
Age of Calamity if the performance issues can be addressed. Sakuna looks nice, but I'll probably pick it for another system.
Too much else happening else where this year honestly.
Re: Frame Rate And Resolution For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Demo Revealed
@Rodan2000 Know the difference between what? Also, "FPS" as such is a secondary concern as I said before. The impact on frame pacing is far more egregious. Less fps are actually preferable if they are delivered in constant intervalls that divide equally by refresh rate, which is typically 60hz (at least forgoing any form of VRR, which the Switch does not support).
There is next to nothing to understand or know here. It's literally elementary school math. I tired of people pretending just because you can calculate frametimes and plot them on a graph, you cannot see issues with frametime without said graph. It's simply an inane statement to make and it is also evidently false.
If you are okay with paying full price for a pixelsoup presentation (at times), that will never run and thus feel smoothly, that is fine. But that does not mean the issue is non-existent. This is not motion sickness or something like that. It is not subjective. It may matter to you or know, but whether it does ... it is still there.
Stop defending technically inadequate productions please. Other developers put a lot of time and hard work into making their games enjoyable on every level, that should be appreciated. Equally, devs not willing or able to do the same should be called out on this.
Re: Frame Rate And Resolution For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Demo Revealed
@SilentHunter382 Agreed, I would be fine with 30fps and 720p docked. Just an okay experience, but enough for this game. This is not it though. I really hope we get that "Switch Pro" sooner rather than later...
Re: Frame Rate And Resolution For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Demo Revealed
@Rodan2000
1. It is less about framerate and more about framepacing. Anyone can tell variable from constant framepacing right away, particularly in an action game.
2. The different between sub-30 and a locked 60 has no need for a framegraph either. This gap anyone with any experience in modern gaming can tell right away, hell you don't have to be playing even. Most of the time you can just tell from the footage, for instance by the smoothness of a horizontal turn. It's not 100% reliable of course, as there are means for interpolation, but still, there is no way of hiding these kind of krass performance issues - measurements or not.
And the resolution ... can I tell the difference between 1440p and 2160p at all time? No, can I tell the difference between 540p and 1080p in docked .... sure, anyone can.
Again, these are pretty krass numbers, and as such measuring them is just icing on the cake. People were complaining long before anyone bothered getting scientific with this game, precisely because they could tell without any graphs. I really don't get what you are droning one about. The 2000s are gone and done. Most of us have grown rather sensible to these issues, and frankly, the prevalance of Hold-Type displays did not really help in that regard either. I am less than keen on playing juddery messes like this on my OLED.
It feels like controling someone stuck in molasses and any technology that is meant to compensate by interpolation is going to have a rough time with this all-over-the-place frametiming graph. It's never going to feel even remotely smooth playing and it is never not going to look "meh".
Re: Frame Rate And Resolution For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Demo Revealed
@SimonCucho Has nothing to do with being a "snob". Why would I bother with paying full price for what often degrades into a juddery pixelsoup, when tons of equally good or even better games deliver an experience several levels above and beyond said title.
Mabye if it was $20 game I could find it in me to be more lenient here, but ultimately, this is just a either too demanding for the system, and as such a mismatch, or it is poorly optimized, which is flat-out unaccepable at the asking price.
Re: Frame Rate And Resolution For Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Demo Revealed
This is bad, no point in down playing this. We are talking like 540p, aka standard definition resolution, at framerates below 20fps.
The worst part is that is the frame pacing is flat-out broken and there is barely a second of smooth gameplay in that clipp.
I dunno, was looking forward to this, but it is not a must-have game to me, not with all the other heavy hitters around the corner. Someone mentioned Bloodborne earlier, and while this had some framepacing issues as well, the resolution and framerate was nowhere near as bad, and besides these issues, I still hold it up as the best From Software and best Souls games to date. It's a masterpiece with framepacing issues. Bloodborne looked grotesquely gorgeous, still does, and I play it to this day.
This is just another intriguing musou game featuring Nintendo characters with resolution, fps and framepacing issues up the wazoo.
Re: IDW Releasing Sonic The Hedgehog Hardcover Comic Collection In 2021
Are these any good? I'm not really a huge Sonic fan, but I did like the DS games and I really enjoyed the recent movie.
@IAmBerk Worth every penny though. I just read Vol. 11 of the TMNT IDW collection today. My only gripe continues to be the lack of extras, but to me that is not crucial personally, but I do get complaints in that regard.
Plus, I had Vol. 11 PO'ed on Amazon for months and ended up being 30€ thanks to their preorder service, where you get the best price before release.
Re: Review: Crown Trick - A Refreshingly Slow-Paced, Turn-Based Roguelite Adventure
Been playing since the weekend and have been absolutely loving it. Very much reminds me of greats like Orcs & Elves and The Quest. Not sure about the combat getting too busy. It's turn-based after all, though sometimes I wish I could turn the camera. As for the performance, if the actions gets extremely busy (like a dozen barrels blowing up at the same time) it drops significantly for a few moments. But again, it's turn-based, hence it really doesn't matter.
Re: Professor Layton Dev Level-5 Has No Plans For Future Games Outside Of Japan, Says Report
Darn shame, there goes another piece of DS-quirky-weirdness I really enjoyed the Layton games. I hope they'll come back someday or that someone else decides to pick up their games. I already feel that the Switch, despite it's success, has killed of a particular set of niche games that found success on the DS and replaced them with (definitely great) western indie games, as a kind of Steam-Best-Of.
It was probably inevitable, but still a loss that is truly felt.
Re: Banjo-Kazooie, Byleth And Terry Bogard Smash Bros. amiibo Release Planned For 2021
Going to pick up Byleth, like all the other FE amiboo, maybe Banjo Kazooie, too, if I ever see them cheaply, just for the fun of it
Re: Review: Trollhunters: Defenders Of Arcadia - WayForward Take A Big Step WayBack
Shame, loved the show, but this ... just no.
Re: Capcom Reveals Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness - A New Netflix Series Arriving In 2021
@Azuris Yeah, I agree. If you like the TMNT show, I can only highly recommend the current IDW comics run. Well, "current", it has been going on since 2011. It's excellent. It's really my favourite long-form comic since Wolfman's Teen Titans and Claremont's X-Men, just with even better art and less 'dated' dialogue.
Batman vs TMNT Vol. I - III is also neat, if you liked the movie. I personally loved "Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures" even more since it brings two of my favourite cartoons together: The aformentioned TMNT (2012) and original Batman the Animated Series by Timm and Dini, which is up there with Avatar TLA as the best cartoon ever produced!
Seriously though, do yourself a solid (if you haven't already!) and pick up the IDW stuff. There are perfect HC Deluxe editions available as well, which I adore for their quality and also for their perfect mapping, as they have the entire series, incl. Micro-, Macro-, Tie-In-Series incl. TMNT Universe, in perfect chronological reading order. Something sadly, too few collections can manage.
Granted, it's already over 200 issues, and as such a commitment, but I guarantee you, you will not regret it
Re: Netflix Reveals Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness
@Sakaixx I never got further than 3-4 eps. into GitS. Maybe I should take another look, but it was just such a severe cut below the movie and Stand Alone Complex, that I found it too hard to stomach.
Re: Netflix Reveals Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness
@Hagemaru Yeah, I kinda agree. At least Ultraman was kinda fun as a show, even with the horrible CGi, but the rest of the bunch like Saint Seiya or the more recent Ghost in the Shell or Dragon's Dogma were just bad. I also didn't mind it in the TMNT (2012). It looked a bit cheap, but at least it was consistent and worked great for the action. It still is my favourite TMNT cartoon to be honest, nostalgia for the 90s aside.
It's shame though, because CGi can work if it is done right, just look at what Studio Orange does with Land of the Lustrous and Beastars, which are pretty gorgeous. CGi also worked for Dorohedoro. Hell, I would go so far as to say that Kengan Ashura works much better in CGi than it would in Cell as it is super action heavy and those aspects clearly benefit from CGi.
Too early to judge RE for me, but honestly, after Netflix recent output, that so clearly favoured quantity over quality, I am anything but hyped. It's shame to see them pump money into all those IPs but then not spending enough to really make it work.
Re: Video: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity World Premiere Gameplay Footage
Looks pretty fun actually. I'm just not sure if it'll be different enough to Hyrule and FE Warriors to be really worth it. Also, like I said before, I really, really, really wish we could have finally gotten online co-op. This practically begs for it, it really does.
Re: Dwerve Is A 'Zelda-Inspired' RPG With Tower-Defense Combat, And It Hopes To Launch On Switch
@aaronsullivan I don't know, but I imagine it's hard to find a good game, with teammates who know what they are doing and an opposing team that is competitive. Worst of all, most of the versions that existed had a bug that caused a single stun to last forever, which broke the game unfortunately
Re: Dwerve Is A 'Zelda-Inspired' RPG With Tower-Defense Combat, And It Hopes To Launch On Switch
@aaronsullivan Yeah for sure! I get pretty competitive, too, in these type of games, but there is slim line between a fun diversion and a serious commitment, and the former is more about joy while the latter is more about achievment.
Personally, I miss Enfo the most. Really wish we could get a DotA/HoN/LoL etc. stand-alone version of Enfo. That would be a dream come true.
Re: Random: World Of Tanks Dev Would "Love" To Do An Advance Wars Collab
@ShadJV I did not even think about the lack of a levelcap. That is indeed a removal of another strategic layer, that made choices made previously more meaningful. They really strip the series of all it's mechanical identity step by step
I guess I liked the story fine, but honestly, I like the characters in some of the previous games better, like Awakening actually. And I clear prefer the world of PoR. I just thought the "Berserk"-Golden-Age Feel was amazing and I luved how it used the Laguz to talk about issues of racism and slavey, when that was not exactly a common theme in games, and certainly not Nintendo games ... still isn't.
And yeah, I absolutely agree, these games often pick up on abandoned ideas and sometimes do them better than ever. Still, I'd also love say a Dawn of Sorrow like game that took hints from Hollow Knight and Dead Cells among others. There is a lot of potential there, too bad many of these bigger publishers don't seem to care for their legacy...