Ralizah

@burninmylight I think you misread my comment. I said: "The series has had dungeons and more classic JRPG-inspired aspects before via Gaiden." I'm saying the series has had these aspects before, because they were in Gaiden.

@Tim_Rattray You're definitely correct that the expanded social elements of Three Houses was a big part of its appeal. I just wonder what another 'big' Fire Emblem game might sell like if it only lacked the social simulation aspects. Maybe that Fire Emblem 4 remake will answer that question, if it's real?

Either way, I don't disagree with the fundamental premise that Fire Emblem only has a glorious future if it continues to evolve away from the simplicity of the past.

This analysis seems simplistic.

Engage didn't sell nearly as well as Three Houses, sure, but this isn't necessarily just because the latter committed so hard to the social aspects. Engage is also a much less ambitious feeling entry. The story is... goofy. The character designs are stylized to the point where they often look more like ridiculous vtubers than Fire Emblem characters. The writing is downright strange pretty frequently. The storytelling wasn't nearly as dramatic or engaging.

I loved it, but I FULLY understand why other people would skip it.

Fire Emblem is a tactical RPG franchise at its core. There's no reason to change that, or even streamline those aspects. If Nintendo wants another blockbuster entry, they need another game that feels big and serious like Three Houses did, and that has a cast that draws people in like that game did.

I welcome a further deepening of the social sim elements, but not as a replacement for the tactical aspects.

That said, I do think one thing I'd love to see from a future 'big' Fire Emblem sequel is them continuing to expand the explorable areas and real time movement opportunities. The series has had dungeons and more classic JRPG-inspired aspects before via Gaiden. Why not expand on that?

Might have to cop this physically. Huge fan of the series, and I've wanted an official release of the SNES game for years. Not a huge fan of LRG, but whatevs.

@MysticX Strange how, in retrospect, making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit by enabling the piracy of software from a famously litigious multi-national corporation might have been a bad idea.

With that said, it sounds like he's taking responsibility for his life and is choosing to make the most of it, so good for him.

@tektite_captain LOL I know, right? Judging from these comments, you'd think King Nintendo arbitrarily assigned a punishment to this dude.

He went through a legal process. Be mad at the system all you like, but it's not like Nintendo sent hired thugs to his apartment to steal his money.

@Pillowpants I think what impressed me the most about Dragon's Trap was how approachable and modern it seemed. This is a game from 1989!

There were a few QoL improvements in the remake, but overall, it's the same, and that's crazy to me. So many older games play terribly in comparison.

I've only ever played the NES port. I love the idea of updating the game while retaining the feel of the original experience, though. And yeah, the overlay is very nice.

Def. adding this to my wishlist.

Woah, they actually touched on Vivian being trans? I'm impressed. That change in her backstory was one of the few big gripes I had with the original release.

As an Android user, I never realized emulation software had been kept off the App store for so long.

@TotalHenshin DOOM 64 is my go-to DOOM. Level design is leaps and bounds over its predecessors.

That's the exact reason Portal, and not Portal 2, is my go-to Portal game. I've replayed it so many times.

Also, Metroid: Zero Mission, which can be comfortably completed in a single afternoon.

Okami was definitely too long. Game just kept going, long past when it should have ended.

On the Paper Mario front... I'm sorry, but I found Origami King's combat to be delightfully engaging, and a breath of fresh air compared to the fairly stale combat in TTYD. Doesn't help that TTYD also has really bad side-quests and level design in general.

@Friendly The DLC from the original SMT V will be bundled in with Vengeance. They did this with P5 Royal as well.

Nope. Played for about 80 hours, a significant chunk of which was spent in The Depths, and then haven't gone back since last May.

I will eventually, though, I want to see the end.

Oh, I'd love that. Retro Game Challenge was one of the best hidden gems in the NDS library. Was very sad when the sequel never made the jump.

@nessisonett Agreed.

Add onto that that people who are hardcore enough to get into modifying old Nintendo games are probably going to be knowledgable and creative enough to go interesting places with those skills (not always, as you attested, but a lot of the time). Versus your random person with a Switch who knows nothing about good level design.

Mario Maker 1 and 2 had some cool levels, but they were little gems buried under enormous masses of garbage.

Ah, no. I'll just wait for the next 3D Mario game, thanks. Don't even want to imagine what bad player-created levels would be like in 3D lol

@GammaPhonic Dunno what the level of interest will be, but there's an obvious overlap between aspects of metal culture and the themes and aesthetics of mainline SMT games.

Rocket Knight Adventures is an awesome game. Arguably in the running as the best 16-bit platformer.

That said, $30 for a few old SNES/Genesis ROMs is highway robbery.

They'll show it this year. Probably September - November. With an early to mid 2025 release date. It's possible they could follow the Switch playbook and wait for January to have a massive blowout.

After all the rumors and speculation, it'll be interesting to see what this thing is actually capable of.

@the_beaver Just imagine how dire it could've been if Nintendo hadn't done their aggressive price cut on 3DS in late 2011 and revived sales!

@Max_the_German True, although 3DS, despite selling wildly better than Wii U, is still their worst-selling major handheld to date. So last gen was absolutely the worst one for them from a sales' standpoint.

What a wild generation this was. It feels like Nintendo's in a new golden age. And this is coming off of probably their worst generation to date immediately before.

Glad they announced ahead of time that the next Direct won't be focused on next-gen.

Won't stop hordes of people from demanding to know about Switch 2, though!

I just wish Citra hadn't gotten caught in the crossfire. I understand going after a Switch emulator, especially one whose developers were flagrantly profiting from it, but 3DS emulation hurts nobody and allows access to many, many, many games that are impossible to play otherwise.

@BeefSanta The existence of a remake has definitely devalued it, since that was the only way to play it before now.

That said, the GC original holding up better performance-wise is going to help matters a bit. After all, presumptive buyers are more than likely a highly informed niche of hardcore gamers who will take issues like that rather seriously (versus more casual gamers who don't care and will just buy a copy on the Switch, where it's more readily accessible).

Whereas, if the Switch remake was just flatly superior in all regards, it would command an even lower price on the secondary market.

Seems pretty unacceptable to me when something like Metroid Prime Remastered runs at 60fps and also practically looks like a new game.

Even a full-blown remake that was far more transformative, like Super Mario RPG, ran at 60fps with little issue.

That said, I'm actually not unhappy about this, since it means the re-release didn't fully devalue my GameCube copy of the game.

@LEGEND_MARIOID Steam Deck. Game is already Verified on there, so it should run reasonably well.

Other than existing games I already own, it's hard to even want to play stuff that's not available in hybrid form any more.

Insane that they release games this poorly optimized on Switch when that audience makes up the majority of their base.

Build the game for the platform your audience is predominantly on.

I LOVE many of WayForward's games, but it can be aggravating being a fan.

Incredible price for Rise and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

Perfect. Now this will dominate discussion about these remasters forever online.

Anyway, this sort of censorship isn't ideal in the best of circumstances, but especially when it happens in a post-launch patch, after the people most excited for it have already parted with their money.

Some will say it doesn't matter because it's purely cosmetic, but these same people wouldn't react this way if it was, say, a pride flag being removed, y'know?

World of Goo 2: Gookkake

#1: Planet Robobot
#2: Forgotten Land
#3: Return to Dream Land Deluxe

So, in general, I mostly agree with the consensus, despite not understanding the love for Super Star (the minigames are my least favorite part of any Kirby game, and this is pretty much that in place of one cohesive adventure).

@ItsATM lol thanks. Turns out getting off the hype cycle and out of your own head and simply appreciating what's already available to you reveals a wealth of riches. In gaming and in life.

Putting aside PC gaming bundles (more attractive than ever now that I have a Steam Deck OLED), I've been pretty good about not adding to my backlog this year. Been laser focused on existing games.

Seven games down (nine if you count the Crash Bandicoot remake games individually) versus one normal purchase.

@Darthmoogle From what I understand, there are some new mechanics that have also applied to the original path, but I haven't heard anything about new lore or story elements.

I think the changes they wanted to make were probably just integrated into the new route.

They really went to town with this re-release.

Day one, baby. Don't grab many games day one anymore, but I'll always be there for mainline SMT.

@Not_Soos There are only so many questions that won't annoy/offend some portion of the audience.

Also, you can't imagine how unfathomably boring that theme is to someone who doesn't care about Spongebob lol

Also, Team Bunny!

The new bosses, music, mechanics, outfits... everything looks awesome!

Steam Deck ho!

@UltimateOtaku91 I don't, actually. A new franchise from Atlus with a weird name? I'll be shocked if it sells particularly well.

I am excited for it, though.

@UltimateOtaku91 P3R is a remake from a smaller developer, and Dragon's Dogma 2... wasn't the original kind of a weird, niche game anyway? I wouldn't expect that to blow up the charts.

Physical sales data for Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon Quest XII are going to tell us a lot about where the problem actually is.

@UltimateOtaku91 @johnedwin Pretty much everything sells better in the States. That said, a new Dragon Quest or Monster Hunter game would clear at least a million or more units physically, even on Playstation. I just wasn't aware Final Fantasy's sales potential had fallen so low in Japan.

Final Fantasy VII just vanished lol. Stock issues, or did it really just not capture the public imagination over there?

@Savage_Joe I literally don't even know where my dock is. Haven't used it since last year.

@Arcata Well, when you've tethered your personal identity and self-worth to the success of a multi-national gaming brand, any perceived criticism of it becomes a personal attack, right?

Yeah, ironically, the PS1 and PS2 are two of my all-time favorite gaming devices. Still are. I'd probably put them behind Switch at this point, but in terms of pure home consoles, you don't really get better.

With Wii, I think the perception was that grandma bought it to play bowling/dancing/fitness games and forgot about it after a few months. The attach rate was also very high for that console, but I'd never deny that the non-gamer dollar was a huge element in the console's success.

@kedireturns I thought your previous post was your last one under this article?

Either way, take a deep breath, wipe the tears from your eyes, and listen closely: literally nobody here has argued, in your words, "PS2 is successful only cos of DVD."

It has been argued that the DVD playback was an ELEMENT of its success. Not that it wasn't even more popular as a gaming device.

Do you understand the distinction?

You know what else is an element of its success in terms of hardware numbers? Sony continuing to sell it as a budget alternative to the PS3 during the entirety of the seventh generation.

Whereas, with Nintendo, all they had to do was not opt to splinter their existing player base between two separate devices as they traditionally have. The console has no multimedia functionality to fall back on, and the console has enjoyed no price cuts, and will still outsell the PS2 in a fraction of the time that device was being manufactured.

Different manufacturers use different methods to drive adoption of their hardware. In Sony's case, part of the success of the PS2 was that it was, to use your language, a "2-in-1" device: a gaming console and a DVD player.

Why did this not help Microsoft at the time? Well, I'm inclined to point toward people needing to make a separate purchase of a DVD playback kit to enable the functionality, but the reality is that people probably just weren't aware it could do this. I was gaming regularly in this era, and I had NO idea the Xbox was capable of DVD playback at the time. Whereas pretty much everyone knew the PS2 could also play movies and thus was pretty much an all-in-one home entertainment solution for the living room.

Moreover, the Playstation brand was more popular. If you're going to grab a console that can play DVDs, you only need one.

Many people used PS2 primarily as a gaming console, and also occasionally watched a movie on it. Other people also grabbed it primarily as a DVD player and then, why not, grabbed a few cheap games to go along with it. If you're going to own both a game console and a DVD player, it makes a ton of sense to grab a device that can play DVDs and has access to most of the biggest games on the market.

@kedireturns My man, your posts read like you're in the denial stage of grief.

Chill. Being #2 behind Switch isn't a terrible fate for the PS2. It's still a good console. And a GREAT low-price DVD player.

@Majicou Non-gamers, in this context. Probably had a few FIFA titles mixed in amidst the stack of mainstream blockbuster films they watched on their Sony Playstation 2.

@kedireturns You say Nintendo needed to combine their handheld and home console markets to potentially beat the PS2, but all that means is that they're not splintering their base for the first time like they did in previous generations.

Also, even after the peak of covid hysteria and chip shortages, Switch has continued to sell at numbers that well exceed the peak sales years of the PS4, so let's not act like it only sold well during or because of the pandemic.

Companies use different tactics to move hardware. Sony's historic PS2 numbers were at least partially due to frequent sales, a loooooooooooong lifespan (13 years, as I recall), and the system's multimedia playback. This is indisputable. It doesn't mean that the PS2 had a bad library or would've sold poorly without DVD playback. But it probably would have sold millions of fewer units (although, as with speculation about how Switch would have sold in 2020 without 'rona and lockdowns, that's pure speculation), and the Nintendo DS would have easily knocked it off its perch.

Don't worry, we all still think the PS2 is an incredible console. You don't need to defend its honor.

@Arcata

"But yes Give them brony points for Taking the analogue stick from Sega/ Nintendo and putting 2 instead of one xD"

lmao "brony points"

155 million is the last official number, so it's the only one that matters. Once Switch has sold more than that, it has officially outsold the PS2.

Even if the goalpost moves up, though, all Nintendo has to do is keep the Switch around as a budget alternative for another year and they'll easily clear that last five million.

In way less time than the PS2 hit its historical numbers as well. And without having to be sold at clearance as a DVD player to normies.

Switch is already the GOAT.

Seems like a lot was gained presentation-wise when they automated the awkward dancing bit from the original.

Demo was pretty fun. They nailed the feel of the controls, which was the main thing I was worried about with this. Definitely on my 'to-buy' list.