Rudolf

@MARl0 Just one little difference: Smash is more a HAL/Sora game than a Nintendo game.

Since this option is called "random", the fact of choosing randomly the type of course is not nonsense. But now, they should give the players more options to play the tracks as they wish, the most important one being a customised "Knockout Tour" in my opinion.

I see that there are many people thinking intermission segments are just "straight lines": I don't have the feeling I notice the same thing, because on the contrary, I see a lot of curves (and there are around 100 segments, which is a lot).

Or are people thinking courses that are not looped (that is, not "circuits") mean the same thing as "straight lines"?

Thank you for the review.

In my opinion, there are 2 major updates to do:

• letting the player create a customised Knockout Tour, by choosing himself the 6 adjacent segments. In this game, there is around 100 hundreds routes between the circuits, but many of them cannot be played in Grand Prix or Knockout Tour. And I think Knockout Tour is essentially the thing that gives sense to this open world and map, because we play 6 races without any cut, seamlessly.
• As it has already been told before, letting the player create his own Grand Prix with OR WITHOUT the intermission segments, with classical 3 laps, in a way more convenient way especially when playing online.

The rest of possible updates, like expanding the world map or creating a Story mode are nice, but it comes after to me.

@crispfood2 "Also the intermissions are really boring and I wish I could turn them off in online and grand prix."

In Grand Prix, you can't, but online, you can (kinda, it depends also on the choices of the other players) by choosing "random" (I don't know if there is another way, so that we can choose the course we want).

@raymond23 Before having such an update, you should use VS mode, that allows the player to choose the number of courses he wants, with or without 3 laps or intercourses segments.

@Linux7055 There is only Japanese language in this type of Japanese Switch 2. And you can link only a Japanese Nintendo account. That means if you insert a non Japanese game, it will display only Japanese (menus, text in game, voice acting), unless the menu of this game has an option letting us changing language (which is quite rare on Switch).

In case of non Japanese game that has no Japanese language, perhaps this "only Japan" Switch 2 will prevent us launching it.

@Dadou Banjo-Tooie (and perhaps Mirror's Edge Catalyst, but I didn't play this game yet).
By the way, Metroid Prime are not "Metroidvania" in my opinion, because there is no RPG element.

Sakuna is an excellent game, so I can't wait to play that sequel/spin-off!

My most wanted Wii U games that are still Wii U exclusives (after Xenoblade X Chronicles: Paper Mario Color Splash (the second best Paper Mario game after the original N64 game), Nes Remix (especially the first game) and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (which is better than the DS game in my opinion, though the latter was really good too).

@FrowardCoast440 Konami has released Castlevania Legends and Castlevania Bloodlines on NSO, so both N64 entries might be available someday on NSO.

I am not expecting Gamecube or Wii games before Switch 2, because NSO's games are installed on Switch, but CD/DVD games like Gamecube's ones require much more memory to be stocked.

@Savage_Joe :

"Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their generally minimal gameplay. Typically the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving as if they were turning a page (many recent games offer "play" or "fast-forward" toggles that make this unnecessary), while making narrative choices along the way. Another main characteristic of visual novels is their strong emphasis on the prose, as the narration in visual novels is delivered through text. This characteristic makes playing visual novels similar to reading a book."

There are interaction with the environments and items to manage in the forementioned games like Phoenix Wright, so according to that Wikipedia quote, those games does not fit with that definition of "visual novel". Basically, a Visual Novel is like a book, with pictures and sound.

Besides, you can read very interesting things in that article:

"Visual novels originated in and are especially prevalent in Japan, where they made up nearly 70% of the PC game titles released in 2006.[3] In Japanese, a distinction is often made between visual novels (NVL, from "novel"), which consist primarily of narration and have very few interactive elements, and adventure games (AVG or ADV, from "adventure"), which incorporate problem-solving and other types of gameplay. This distinction is normally lost outside Japan, as both visual novels and adventure games are commonly referred to as "visual novels" by international fans. "

Since this expression was invented in Japan, I think Japan is much more legitimate than Western countries to tell us what "Visual Novel" really is. What they call "VN" (or rather "NVL" there) are games like those produced by Leaf company (like Shizuku) or other famous IPs like Fate/Stay Night.

As for the CERO's rating system, it was created in 2004, much later than the original FDS games. Since Emio is released just 3 years after the remakes of both FDS games, I think the probability those games were rated by the same people is high. But we cannot be for sure.

@Savage_Joe Do we have read the same Wikipedia articles?

Famicom Detective Club : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_Detective_Club

"Famicom Detective Club[c] is an adventure game duology developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System."

As for Phoenix Wright: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Wright:_Ace_Attorney

"Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney[a] is a visual novel adventure game developed and published by Capcom. "

And 999: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999:_Nine_Hours,_Nine_Persons,_Nine_Doors

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors[b] is a visual novel and adventure video game developed by Chunsoft.

In all of those articles, even if they talk about "Visual Novel", they all say they are also "adventure games".

By the way, I did not talk about ESRB, but about CERO (the rating system in Japan). In that country, each game of the series, including Emio, is rated "15+", so it implies Emio might not be so different than the two first games.

@Savage_Joe But why Emio has the same rating in Japan than the two first games: 15+?

By the way, not all adventure games let the player move the character. In very old games like e.g. Zork or Colossal Cave Adventure, you don't really "move" the character inside a single environment. Actually, "moving" is symbolised by the fact of interacting with elements of a single screen.

In Visual Novels, there is no puzzle at all, nor any interaction with the environment, contrary to Famicom Tantei Club or Phoenix Wright. The only things we do in a Visual Novel is reading texts and sometimes choosing between dialog options that does not block your progress in the game: that is all. In Adventure games like Famicom Tantei Club, 999 or Phoenix Wright, there is reflexion that is required to the player, or else, he cannot complete the games.

There are some Japanese exclusives:

• the RPG Stray Children from Onion Games, whose developpers made Moon (it is possible that this game will be translated into English someday);
• the remaster of Konami's Tokimeki Memorial (but this time, I fear it won't be translated into English);
• the adventure game with 8bit graphics Toshi Densetsu Kaitai Center, in which we investigate some "urban legends" (e.g. stories of ghosts or beeings coming from another world).

The other ones did not really appeal me.

@Riverlution "TTYD deserves to be played. So much better than all the other Paper Mario games that came after it."

I prefer Paper Mario Color Splash (as well as the original N64 game) by far. But it remains a good game in spite of its issues.

@daveMcFlave Yes, this game is not especially famous, contrary to "The Maze of Galious" (another excellent game I completed 2-3 years ago on PC with EGG). Anyway, I already purchased Drasle Family, but I haven't tried it yet.

As for Ys games, I completed the Chronicles versions, then PC Engine ones, and then the original PC88 versions on PC with EGG: I love those games, their atmosphere with a very "80's anime" feeling.

Yuzo Koshiro was already a genious on PC88, before the Mega Drive.

@BoilerBroJoe Perhaps you should Try Dragon Slayer IV Drasle Family: no need to understand Japanese for that game (as far as I know, there is no Japanese at all in this game), and this game is really appreciated (if we are interested in ancestors of Metroidvania games).

I would have bought some of those games, if I had not to pay again games that I already paid on EGG's PC version...

@ChameleonBros I agree, but you forgot the Sega Saturn, with the incredible Panzer Dragoon Saga (one of the best RPG ever created), and other great 1998 games released on Saturn like Shining Force III, Burning Rangers, Deep Fear, Sakura Wars 2, Baroque, Radiant Silvergun, Machi, Wachenröder.

"Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus": a little strange translation of the original Japanese title ("Bô to Tsukiyo no Aoi Hana"), which rather means something like "Bô and the Azure Flower of the Moonlit Night".

Anyway, this game looks great. Its gameplay seems to be a combination between The Messenger (especially the concept of multiple jumps that we can "reload" by striking different things) and Ender Lilies, in a traditional Japanese mythology.

Schim looks very cool. I always dreamt of such a concept: jumping from shadow to shadow.

Lorelei and Refind Self seem very interesting too.

I watched first the Japanese Indie, and the game called Bô to Tsukiyo no Aoi Hana (translation: something like "Bô and Moonlit Azure Night) looks amazing! This game seems to mix gameplay from The Messenger (especially the multiple jump that we can "reload" by striking different things) and Ender Lilies, in traditional Japanese mythology:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIxBA5lmJR0

Me too, I think Forgotten Land is the pinacle of the series.

But for me, the worst game is... Squeak Squad.

Oh, and I think Rainbow Curse is a better game than Canvas Curse.

@TotalHenshin Yes, that was very long: the last official release was in 2014 (so 10 years ago) on the Japanese eShop of the Wii U. Speaking of that, For the Frogs the Bell Tolls takes too long to come too (since its release on the Japanese eShop of the 3DS in 2012).

@flighty Thank you for your message.
I'll definitely play this game soon.

@FinalSmashGamer Even PAL versions of some NES games would be appreciated (because Kirby's Adventure was available in French, which was very rare at that time on NES).

We can also play PAL versions of some Mega Drive games.

@Fizza Besides, in Marvelous, we can find some elements that first appeared before being used in some Zelda games. But if you want to play it, I won't spoil you. Anyway, you should definitely play it (but only if you undestand Japanse, or else you should try the unofficial English translation e.g. on PC).

@HammerGalladeBro In fact, Marvelous has not a "Zelda gameplay" at all, rather a point'n click gameplay (fights are extremely rare on this game, except some bosses and some enemies that we have to avoid instead of fight).

@EarthboundBenjy In fact, the Japanese exclusive "Tetra Navi Trackers" mode is supposed to be inspired on one of the games of the "Marvelous" series released on Satellaview. That's why there are unused character models, I suppose.

I was expecting Marvelous: Another Treasure Island at least on the Japanese NSO, because it was already available on the Japanese eShop of the Wii U. An excellent adventure game (looking like a point'n click) which is the first directed by Eiji Aonuma, I love it. Sadly, it is only in Japanese (there is an unofficial English translation patch though).

The best one is still the original one by Jordan Mechner (I played and completed the Macintosh version as a child though, so I can't vote here).

This game might interest me if the difficulty is not too low. I may like N64 aesthetics, but the N64 platformers I loved were quite challenging, so other recent titles like Cavern of Dreams or Kiwi 64 completely lost my interest when I realised they are very easy. I don't necessarily ask for a hardcore game, but at least something reasonable.

@Joe-b Hello. Hello. You might be interested: according to Japanese websites I've read and after checking myself the Japanese eShop, Ys II (PC-88 version) is now available on Switch.
I can advise you watching the opening of this game because it was amazing at that time (1988!!!).

But I've already bought this game on PC with EGG and completed it last year or two years ago, so I don't want to pay it again on Switch (unless I missed something, it seems my EGG PC version is not available on Switch, which is a pity).

Until today, I didn't know at all this is an Obsidian game whose director is the director of Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity!!!

Even if this is an American game, I'm thinking about playing it in German for more immersion (since I can understand German).

@RainbowGazelle Since 2013, Atlus is a part of Sega, so it can't easily bankrupt.

People say it's like Persona 5 Royal. Since we talk about Shin Megami Tensei series which predates Persona series, I'd rather say it's like Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Maniax on PS2 in Japan (in the USA and Europe, we got directly this version without the vanilla version).

I only watched the Japanese Direct.

Ender Magnolia is a fantastic news: the sequel of Ender Lilies, one of the best 2 or 3 Metroidvania I ever played.

The most surprising announcement to me, it's Hokkaidô Rensa Satsujin : Ohôtsuku ni Kiyu, remake of a totally obscure Japanese adventure and detective game that was first released in 1984 on Japanese computers (like PC-88) and directed by... Yûji Horii (one of the creator of the Dragon Quest series), and later released in 1987 in Famicom (only in Japan, of course). The Famicom remake of Portopia (which defined the Japanese adventure games and was also created by Yûji Horii) was based on this game, so it was also important. But I think this game is very obscure even to Japanese players, more than Portopia or Famicom Detective Club. But I'm very interested.

And the reveal of a new Action-RPG called Reynatis, taking place in Shibuya, seems very exciting to me.

Aside from that, the sequel of World of Goo is a good news to me (I loved the first game), as well as the remake of Epic Mickey and Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance. And, of course, the release of Mother 3 on NSO is exciting to me (but less exciting to many Western players). Unicorn Overlord seems very good too.

The new Forever Blue (I liked the Wii's version) and Monkey Ball might be interesting to me.

I loved World of Goo on PC, so this sequel is exciting to me.

Fantastic news! Ender Lilies is one of the 2 or 3 best Metroidvania I ever played.

Good news to me because I can understand Japanese (hiragana's syllabary only makes it harder though), but this is sad news for other Western players.

@Joe-b Good.
Actually, I am very late: I still have to play Ys III (original version, not Felghana I already played and really enjoyed 10 years ago), Ys IV SNES, Ys V, Ys VI, Ys Origins, Ys IV PS Vita, Ys VIII, Ys IX, Ys X (and Ys I on X68000).

@Joe-b In Japanese, there is absolutely no problem about the equipment (weapons, armour, shield and ring), because everything is written in English (even when speaking to characters selling them or when found inside a chest). You just have to pay attention to the fact "yes" and "no" choices are written in Japanese, はい and いいえ respectively, and "not buy" and "buy" are written かわない and かう respectively (in other words, the longest word written in syllabary characters means a negative decision). All of the consumable items are also written in English, like "MIRROR" and "WINGS" (the other "passive" items are written in Japanese though, as well as the 6 books and their text inside). The menu is also entirely written in English. The rest, including dialogues, is written in Japanese (and worse, in Japanese syllabary characters instead of Chinese characters, which makes it harder to decipher, contrary to Ys II that is written in Chinese characters with Japanese syllabary characters alongside).

@Joe-b Yes, only in Japanese unfortunately. For me, Japanese is not a problem to understand, but I definitely don't advise playing this game without understanding the texts, because texts are very important in this kind of 8bit RPG, or else, we are easily stuck.

But I understand the complaints about scrolling. In my case, I am used to playing Japanese 8bit computer games like MSX or PC88 games.

@Joe-b @JohnnyMind

None of the old versions are perfect. I prefer the PC-88 version (even over the PC Engine version), because I think the soundtrack is better than Master System or even Sega Mark III versions (Western Master System and Japanese Sega Mark III have a different soundtrack because Sega Mark III version uses FM sound).
But the best version is the Chronicles' remake (I'd like to try the X68000 version though).

@Rainbowfire In my case, I prefer the N64/PSX/Saturn visuals to e.g. Atari VCS visuals.

@Banjo- When Super Mario Sunshine was released, I did'nt really considered its open world as "revolutionary", because, just one year before, I played... Banjo-Tooie, whose world was even more cohesive in my opinion, with more interaction between each stage (and when we also consider the fact we gained new abilities, Banjo-Tooie looked like a 3D Metroid game). Nevertheless, I appreciated the cohesive world in Super Mario Sunshine though.

@Dimjimmer In fact, there are differences between the original versions and the PC Engine version. For example, in original Ys I, Adol's level was limited, so I can tell you the second to last boss of Ys I was MUCH HARDER than in Ys Book I&II. Really, I died at least 20 times before beating this boss!!! Why? Because in Ys I, we already reached the max level before this boss, whereas in Ys Book I&II, Adol's level was shared between the two games, so we could go far beyond the max level of the original Ys I game when we fight this boss (and this boss became a piece of cake on PC Engine).

Besides, there are some differences in the story. For example, in the original Ys I game, the fortuneteller really died (as well as Chronicles' remake), whereas she was only abducted in PC Engine's version.

And of course, the soundtrack used FM synthesis, so it is a different feeling (for example, Dahm tower's music is far better on PC-88 than on PC Engine).

So, it is interesting to play the original versions, so that we can experience a different feeling.

@mauhlin12 Perhaps on TurboGrafx, but on PC-88, so the original version, Dogi was named... Dogi. Speaking of Reah, it depends on the chosen transcription, but on the original PC-88 version, this could have been transcripted as "Léa" (but it was transcripted as "Reah").

I really like this aesthetic that reminds N64 platformers. This is very charming. Very tempting to me.