Ralizah

Ralizah

I'm tall and sour. Sufficient?

Comments 8,309

Re: Random: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Sold Better Than Tears Of The Kingdom Last Quarter

Ralizah

@Yoshi3 The issue for me is that the focus was shifted away from exploration and adventure, and toward creativity and resource gathering. It's still incredibly cool exploring new environments, sky islands, the depths, etc., but I would have enjoyed the game way more if they'd spent five years putting in better dungeons and a more involved story rather than simply adding in an incredibly fiddly new mechanic (Ultrahand) that required a ton of dev time to get right and ended up dominating the game.

I'm a big believer in liberating Zelda from its past design trappings, but a lot of what worked in BotW ONLY works in BotW. The story being minimal, out of order, and relegated mostly to the past, for example, works brilliantly with the setup, but it simply makes things confusing and unsatisfying in TotK when they tried to tell a more traditional story.

Honestly, it reminds me of Fire Emblem Fates, which ended up retreading a lot of the same ground as Awakening, but in a less satisfying and narratively cohesive manner.

@CupidStunt I have some issues with TotK, but honestly, it's probably the hardest game in the series I've played since Zelda II. Plenty of challenging enemies and environments. Surprised to see you think it's easy.

Re: Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of June 2024

Ralizah

I could maybe see Super Mario Wonder sneaking in to last place down the road if it sells at a faster pace than NSMBUD, but otherwise I think this top ten is pretty well and thoroughly baked in at this point, with Mario Kart 8 the indisputable leader forevermore.

@SpaceboyScreams "Insubstantial DLCs" don't sell 20 million copies at $69.99 MSRP lol. Sony has to slash the price on even its biggest properties to hit those numbers.

It's a direct story sequel to BotW, so of course it's not selling as well. If I'm new to the Switch, I'd buy BotW first as well.

Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Artist Celebrates Second Anniversary With New Illustration

Ralizah

As someone who has been in a bit of a love and hate relationship with the series over the years, I never expected Xenoblade 3 to blow me away like it did. What a rock-solid masterpiece! A technical marvel on Switch that addressed nearly every issue with the previous games, while elevating the series' best aspects to new heights of excellence.

Absolutely my favorite game on Switch. Probably my favorite JRPG. And a top three video game overall.

Cannot wait to see what Monolith Soft does next.

Re: Random: Zelda: TOTK Meets Super Mario 64 In Latest Ridiculous Ultrahand Creation

Ralizah

@Macnemo79 A few things.

  • Baldur's Gate 3 was the dark horse competitor from a much less prominent developer.
  • It's at least as highly critically acclaimed as TotK was
  • TotK was an iterative sequel, so plenty of people already felt a little fatigue regarding the formula.
  • TotK's storytelling was... not great, the dungeons weren't really any better than in BotW, and as cool as Ultrahand is from a tech/dev perspective, it's very fiddly and turns the game into more of a resource management sim/physics sandbox. Its predecessor had these elements in the background, making the open world feel more real and engaging, but it became almost the exclusive focus of TotK.
  • BG3 brought prestige and mainstream attention to a formerly extremely niche game genre.

Re: Poll: Are You Ready To Move On From The Switch?

Ralizah

The Steam Deck OLED has fully satisfied my desire for a more powerful Switch, so they'll have to sell me on it with exclusive games alone.

Not currently planning on buying the successor, as such, but Nintendo has a gift for publishing unmissable exclusives, so I'm sure I'll get it before too long.

Re: UK Charts: Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Stands Firm While Sales Shake Things Up

Ralizah

Nice to see so much support for Hogwarts on Switch, despite being a late, full-priced port that looks a fair bit worse than it does on competing platforms. Makes me excited to see what the platform split looks like when Switch 2 drops and it's able to be much more competitive as a 'primary' console in terms of support and game performance.

Re: Random: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Overtakes NES Lifetime Sales

Ralizah

@Hwatt Take a look at weekly software charts in the UK, and you'll see MK8D and GTA V basically never seem to leave the top ten. I imagine the same is true in the U.S.

Bundles only explain most of the sales in the sense that people seem to buy the game alongside the console. It's the sort of system-seller the competition dreams of.

Re: Zenless Zone Zero Producer Reportedly Open To Switch Successor Release

Ralizah

Based on my experience with Genshin, while they're obviously using content drops to push the gacha, you can enjoy the game's story content with just the base characters. Really, it's like getting a AAA RPG for free. Maybe that changes later on, and I've been incredibly skeptical of Hoyoverse, but it seems to be a fairly user-friendly approach to F2P.

@Poco_Lypso I'll give it a bit more time, but yeah, I wasn't really impressed with the bit I played of ZZZ. Genshin was much more addictive.

Still need to try Star Rail.

Re: Tactical RPG Based On 'Goblin Slayer' Launches On Switch Later This Year

Ralizah

Yoooo

Legitimately awesome. I almost never buy anime tie-ins, but I love Goblin Slayer, and really love tactics games, so this makes it a perfect fit for me!

Great choice of gameplay style, too. Fits well with the series' focus on fighting intelligently, considering positioning, and using all tools at your disposal when appropriate.

Re: Best Shin Megami Tensei Games On Switch And Nintendo Systems

Ralizah

Apocalypse is WAYYYY too low on this list. One of my favorite JRPGs. It may have lost a lot of the atmosphere the series typically excels at, but the QoL fixes compared to SMT IV, and the actually really smooth difficulty progression, makes it one of the funnest games in the series.

Having played about 40 hours of Vengeance now, it's definitely a top three MegaTen game overall. Is it the best? I'll have to see how it sticks the landing. It's already a gigantic improvement from base SMT V, though, which I enjoyed but was obviously flawed in certain respects.

And yeah, the 3DS Devil Survivor games should be where the DS ones are currently. They're literally just all-around improvements on the original.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Has Topped 500,000 Sales In Just Three Days

Ralizah

@Nontendo_4DS My point is the strategy has worked for them for decades. No reason they would stop now. Even if Vengeance flopped, it wouldn't make a difference.

Heck, even NDS/3DS owners were hit with expanded versions of both Devil Survivor games and Strange Journey.

The way people are acting like this is literally anything other than what should be expected of Atlus at this point is weird to me.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Has Topped 500,000 Sales In Just Three Days

Ralizah

Well-deserved. They made so many improvements to this version, and it runs so much more nicely on stronger hardware. It's easily my GOTY so far, although I'm open to Metaphor: ReFantazio impressing me as well. Banger year for Atlus!

@Nontendo_4DS All someone has to do is look at how many times they've re-released games on the same system over the years to know that's a lost battle. Nocturne technically got THREE different releases in Japan on the PS2, as I recall. Heck, even recently, Persona 5 enjoyed almost identical treatment to SMT with Persona 5 Royal. And, of course, there are four different versions of Persona 3, with two of them on the same console (technically also true for XSX/PS5 with Portable HD and Reload). This is a long-running trend with Atlus.

Re: UK Charts: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Debuts At Number One

Ralizah

@UltimateOtaku91 Eh. I'm just happy more people are playing the game.

There's 70% of a new game here in the Vengeance route, what's the same is pretty well touched up (even on Switch, menu loading and whatnot is improved), and all the original game's DLC is included. It's probably the most elaborate re-release from them to date. So it's the one I least mind paying full price for.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance?

Ralizah

Can't say until I play deeper in, but if they nail the plot and character development (or at least do a good enough job with those aspects), it could very well become my new favorite entry in the series. We'll see.

@Snatcher Combat is similar, but more balanced, and it punishes sloppy gameplay way harder.

There's no social simulation aspect. No calendar system. You're wandering extremely open-ended apocalyptic landscapes fighting and collecting demons for long stretches of time.

Tonally, musically, narratively, and thematically, there is very little overlap.

I like Persona and LOVE SMT, but for different reasons. Liking one definitely doesn't guarantee enjoyment of the other.

The big point of similarity is in the battle systems and monster collecting aspects. You're going to be using a lot of the same abilities and spells. Buffs/debuffs work the same way now. Fusing demons/Personae is very similar. And both SMT V and Persona 5 share similar methods of interrogating and collecting new monsters.

Re: Review: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (Switch) - Even Better Than The Stellar Original

Ralizah

Multiple people are saying SMT V: Vengeance is 60fps on Steam Deck! Let's go!

@Warioware Oh heck yeah, dude! I was a Vita stan for years and regularly played the little thing. It has held up marvelously over the years. Still use mine to emulate older systems and play PSP games that unfortunately never left Japan.

I get that, but keep in mind this is a way for Atlus to help smaller companies distribute their games, like they did with Disgaea in the U.S. back in the PS2 days. Vanillaware isn't a subsidiary of Atlus, and I doubt they have any say in the development of their games.

Re: Review: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (Switch) - Even Better Than The Stellar Original

Ralizah

@Warioware Well, yeah, because those were ported to more powerful consoles that weren't backwards-compatible. A lack of upgrades would be more scandalous than anything.

Actually, I wish they'd port more of their older games. The lack of Muramasa, Odin's Sphere, and Dragon's Crown on Switch is baffling. I suppose they all enjoyed portable releases on Vita already, but not very many people bought that handheld lol. hugs Vita tightly to chest

Re: Review: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (Switch) - Even Better Than The Stellar Original

Ralizah

Yeah, I figured performance would still be a downside on Switch. I'll be playing on PC/Steam Deck. Also pumped 100+ hours into the original and own it digitally and physically via the collector's edition. Super excited to dive in again!

"Yoko was planned to be part of the original release before being cut partway through development, and her addition to the core cast here feels organic and like it fills a gap that wasn’t previously apparent."

So basically the opposite of every other SMT re-release, where it's super obvious the new girl wasn't there in the original game.

@milonorth No offense, but the Push Square review was barely critical at all, so the 7 was undeserved IMO.

Re: Poll: How Would You Rate The Summer Game Fest 2024 Opening Showcase?

Ralizah

Format was mostly on-point during the first half, but none of the announcements did much for me. Very excited for Metaphor: ReFantazio, and MH Wilds still looks awesome, but we already knew about both of those. And yeah, it all drags on way too long.

Still better than the recent State of Play broadcast that was 90% Chinese gacha games/multiplayer stuff.

Nintendo seems to be the only big company in the industry left who knows how to put on an exciting show.

Re: 'Tales Of Kenzara: Zau' Director Addresses "Constant Targeted Harassment"

Ralizah

After seeing the reaction to Prince of Persia and the upcoming Assassin's Creed, I believe it. Plenty of knee-jerk racist reactions online to black characters, no matter the context.

That said, it's a little funny how the dude is acting like he's engaging in some benevolent act by pricing his indie Metroidvania in the same range that the majority of indie Metroidvanias launch at.

Re: Poll: Is $60 Too Much For Nintendo's Switch Re-Releases?

Ralizah

The 'right' price is whatever the market will bear without a sharp decrease in demand, so clearly $59.99 is the appropriate price for most of these releases.

Personally? It really just depends on the release, and how much value I forsee getting from them. $60 always felt absurd for buying the two Famicom Detective Club remakes when similar quality adventure games can be had in sales for, like, $10. But dropping full price for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition was a no-brainer, considering how big the game is, the quality of the graphical overhaul, and the fact that it ships with an expansion included (unlike, say, Persona 3 Reload, where the expansion is another $30 or so, even though Reload launched at $69.99).

Besides, vouchers and discounted eshop credit make it where I pay full price for nothing on Switch, which means I end up spending more overall.

Re: Best Paper Mario Games Of All Time

Ralizah

The Origami King is a fantastic game and I'm never going to stop speaking that truth. It doesn't have to be an RPG to be good.

Realistically, it probably would have fared better with a lot of people if it had dropped the RPG-esque battle system entirely and gone with something more action-based like in Super Paper Mario. I liked the puzzle battles, personally, but it's definitely a sticking point for a lot of people.