SlowPokemon

I am really excited about this. The Famicom Detective Club games are some of my favorite visual novel games on Switch. Yes, the game design is somewhat dated, but I was shocked by how engaging it is. It actually made me feel the way I did the first time I played Professor Layton, back around 2007 or 2008, which was my first introduction to the mystery game genre and which was obviously inspired by FDC through the lens of Ace Attorney. I was already excited about the Emio teaser, but I feel like one of the only people who got MORE excited when they revealed it was a Famicom Detective Club game.

I’m also interested in what a company as creative as Nintendo does in the context of the horror genre, particularly M-rated horror. This is really rare throughout their history. Among the games they’ve published on Switch, the only M-rated titles are this and the three Bayonetta games, and this is the only one developed in-house. There is a first-party presence of Fatal Frame on Wii U, but again this is the first M-rated game in quite a while that is fully developed by Nintendo.

I also think they timed it quite nicely—kids who were 12-15 in 2021 and may have played the T-rated Famicom Detective Club entries are now the right age for a more intense horror VN.

Considering this, the excellent Another Code: Recollection, new Zelda, new Mario & Luigi, and Endless Ocean: Luminous (a surprising sleeper hit for me), 2024 is set to become one of my personal favorite Nintendo years in quite some time. They’re really taking risks and doing a lot of creative interesting things while more advanced development is undoubtedly taking place on the next big flagship titles.

@Clyde_Radcliffe no, they did not have English voice acting, and nor should they have. It’s not the kind of game that would benefit from a dub.

@KayFiOS not that badge. There’s one in the far right box full of badges that mentions sound effects specifically. I don’t know if it changes them to the original or not, but there is one.

@KayFiOS if you visit the badge shop in Rogueport, I think there’s a badge in the extra collection section that references changing Mario’s sound effects. Does that revert the sound effects to the original? (I’ve never played the original)

@Not_Soos yeah, it’s fine if the article is spoilery, but the headline itself is…I want to go into this game totally blind even though it’s a remake. The whole point of the remake is that most of us don’t have access to the original.

@jake1421 NintendoLife is not known for their proofreading skills.

It’s really sad that articles like this will hurt the sales of this game based on a selectively curated narrative that exists mostly to back up this site’s astoundingly low review. There are several higher scores, including a 9/10 from Digitally Downloaded, who I find to be reliable. Endless Ocean is innovative and different and not trying to do the same thing as other video games. This is a rare misstep from NintendoLife in evaluating the game based on what they wish it was, rather than at what it actually sets out to do. They fell smack into a classic pitfall for critics of art, classical music, and other forms of entertainment throughout history. I hope this game succeeds in whatever capacity it can, given the negative spinning surrounding it.

@Porky Have you actually played the game? Capcom’s disclaimer says “SOME” content appears as initially released. Not all. And tbh, the changes in your linked thread are actually for the better.

@Bass_X0 yeah, tbh, I don’t understand why people have to groan about puns or act like they’re a problem. Can’t we just smile and enjoy wordplay without getting all ironic and eye-rolly about it?

I must say I don’t like 5 and 6 nearly as much as Apollo Justice’s game, but I also didn’t like Turnabout Serenade and loved the silly noodle stand case, so I guess tastes are a question here.

This is a great collection of games at the end of the day. It is distinctly less emotionally affecting than the original trilogy, largely because the creative spark shifted from deep character relationships that are felt and subtextual to overly-explained ones. (In other words, show, don’t tell.) This is the reason Phoenix, Maya, and Edgeworth are fan-favorites and no one really cares too much for Athena—I genuinely believe it’s not just that the former are the original characters.

I will say though, Apollo Justice is my favorite protagonist. He’s very well-defined in AA4 and he has very fun and welcome differences from Phoenix Wright. It’s frustrating to see him pushed to the side in Dual Destinies (that’s where the “explained relationships” I referenced above seem to begin in earnest) but he does have a good through line to AA6. And the sting of those two games’ shift in direction is lessened a little bit now that we have Takumi’s take on the continuation of the series with Great Ace Attorney. It makes it easier to enjoy how fun Dual Destinies is in the moment to moment — the models are expressive as hell, and if silly anime shenanigans are your thing, it’s actually one of the best kind of games for that.

But you know, the original Ace Attorney trilogy has a subtext to it that’s more than just “Saturday morning cartoon” or “action anime tropes.” It has those things, but it also has a huge heart and the sense that the creators needed to make the games for personal fulfillment. 5 and 6 in particular, while fun and charming, feel like they were developed largely to keep the popular franchise alive.

I talked way too long here, but I hope that makes sense. I’ll enjoy going back through these games—it’ll be my first time with Dual Destinies in about eight years, and I haven’t replayed Spirit of Justice since my original experience in 2016 (you can’t blame me, it took me about 60-70 hours for that run lol).

Thanks for the review, hope a lot of people pick this up and enjoy Apollo Justice.

Had to vote Japan. It’s so amazingly weird.

Again, it’s so clumsy when the author of the article weighs in on some art being “boring,” losing objectivity and potentially influencing the results. Just not fun to read.

GBA is 32-bit, not 16-bit. Lol

That kind of day you’re describing, those friends you had and the excitement you experienced—that’s true love right there. I hope you still have some contact with those friends.

@SonOfDracula get the story out without spoiling in the headline. I have no problem with the story itself.

@dartmonkey yes, but I’ve been staying away from spoilers about the movie so I hadn’t seen that. It’s very flimsy justification for putting it in a headline. I understand reporting on it, but why would you spoil someone who has been choosing not to click on the articles? Is it to bait us here to complain so you get more clicks? This is blatantly ignoring your user base’s requests.

@dartmonkey most of us consider this a spoiler, and it was published before there was a reasonable window of time to see the movie. (It’s not even showing until tonight where I’m at.) Be responsible to your readers please. This is problematic. Looks like I’ll have to stop coming here leading up to Zelda.

The Bolero of Fire from Ocarina of Time was inspired by Ravel’s Boléro, and even uses the same snare drum rhythm as an homage. This was also the temp track for the title screen of NES Zelda I before Kondo wrote a new piece to avoid copyright infringement (the piece was not in the public domain).

In almost three years, I’ve never time traveled. I have every achievement and have 100%ed the catalogue including color variations, besides a few more of the Flick/CJ models and about 8 more item variants from Gulliver. I think I’ve been successfully playing hard mode from the beginning.

When will this website learn that it’s “pore over” and not “pour over?”

@C-Olimar I love that one too! It’s actually “ScoVILLAIN” though, not “Scovillian” — the animosity in the name is even more hilarious to me

Grafaiai is probably the top spot. There are some great Grass types this gen, like Smoliv’s entire line and Scovillain. Also very fond of Tadbulb/Bellibolt, Clodsire, Farigiraf, and Tarountula. But I will say on the whole, the designs weren’t nearly as creative as the last few gens. Way too many of the Pokémon are just normal animals that don’t really feel like Pokémon. And there are too many that are just cute or cool with nothing really quirky about their appearance, such as Charcadet’s line or almost any of the dog/rodent ones this gen. Even the starters fell victim to this, except Fuecoco, which I almost wish I had started with because of how amazing its evolutions are.

Around gen 6(?) I started giving them nicknames that are mostly actual human names, which never stopped being funny for me. The powerhouses on my Shield team were an Appletun named Susan and a Sandaconda named Sylvain. (My starter, Inteleon, was Kyle.)

Of course, that had a majorly detrimental effect in that gen, because I didn’t remember the actual names of the Pokémon I was raising. A bit split about whether I’ll do so for Violet.

One time I played Crystal and gave all the characters names based on Animal Crossing villagers (Politoed = Raddle, Xatu = Jitters, Donphan = Cyd, etc.) and that was fun.

“The original Nintendo Switch game”…which was actually originally a Wii U game LMAO they seriously are trying to retcon the Wii U from existence

@Wilforce the “main theme” you’re referring to is actually called the Ground Theme, which is what I said. Also, that’s not a second half, that’s another section of the orchestra. The winds are top, followed by brass, as seen for example here: https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/d/dd/IMSLP767386-PMLP3203-Prokofiev_-_Andante_from_Piano_Sonata_No.4_in_C_minor,_Op.29bis.pdf

So those staves are all in sync.

This is the opening of the Ground Theme from SMB1, just with some extra flourishes.

@dartmonkey I don’t have any social media, is the thing, so that argument doesn’t totally work in my book. I get that I’m a minority there, but the point is I expected to be able to choose what spoilers I see on this website since generally you guys do post warnings about spoilers. I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot more of them in the thumbnails when it comes to new Pokémon. I’m not really mad or upset, just bummed out and was expressing my feelings. I do hope you guys consider the feedback about this specific issue.

@Travisemo007 yeah, no respect for spoilers on this site. We should have the option to not click on the article to not see that content.

Also, the most prominent “secret eyes” on a Pokémon is probably Masquerain, who’s literally classified as “eyeball Pokémon” because of its wing designs

Controversial, but for me it’s Mario Party Advance. It was one of my favorite games as a kid. I loved meeting all the residents and trying to solve their puzzles, and some of the Gaddgets were really quirky and fun to mess around with.

North America by a long shot. It’s so weird. I really think it has a lot of character, like a children’s book cover that scares you when you’re a kid.

Played this back in 2018 on Vita. I won a free digital copy of the game through a Facebook giveaway, a very fond memory for me. I actually liked this one better than Steins;Gate, though it dragged much more, especially toward the middle of the experience. It’s been cool to get into Chaos;Head NoAH this week and catch some backstory for certain elements.

You do know it’s “grisly” murders, not “grizzly” 🤣 (only commenting because you complain about typos)

It’s really weird how Nintendo Life complains about how many of these there are. I’m halfway through S6. I just play Picross when I need to chill. I got through all 8 of them on 3DS as well.

I’m tired of reading “phased” and “unphased” on this website when it’s “fazed” and “unfazed.”

I know you guys don’t care about feedback for this column, but these would be a lot more fun if the author didn’t voice their opinions in the body of the article itself. That sways the poll results.

Call me crazy, but although yes, Gen 5 and Gen 7 are better and more interesting, I actually love the Team Flare plot in XY. Maybe it’s that bizarre music theme that plays when you fight them, or the way they’re obsessed with their sunglasses.

The Switch has been the console for me to try out series I’d missed or passed over all through the Gamecube, DS, and Wii era, such as Fire Emblem, Pikmin, and, yes, Metroid. Metroid Dread was my first game in the series, and I fell in love with it, even played it to 100% completion. I’ve got a nice little backlog on Nintendo Switch Online if I decide to keep looking into the franchise.

Played a good bit of this on mobile about 5 years ago and really enjoyed it. But I just can’t finish games on my phone. Too distracting. Maybe I’ll pick it up on Switch.

Japan, mostly because of the cute surprised look on Link’s face. Zelda is way more about discovery and surprise for me than it is about combat, which the international covers focus on.

@Royalblues it is not possible—for what it’s worth, Iris’s ending is the worst in the game. I also got that first and was put off the game for a while. In Uchikoshi’s games, you always have to see every route to fully understand the story, but the Iris route was a weird misfire for him.

@Sonos It’s probably like trying to lead Dougie Jones around an insurance agency

Tabby and Jitters are legit my favorite villagers. LMAO and I love Jambette too!

@Tobiaku Mama is a drag queen and actually a positive representation of an LGBTQ character—Iris is like Uchikoshi jerking off and besides that she’s just really annoying (and her ending was so irrelevant that it’s like it existed just to give her an ending)

@Tobiaku She didn’t. And she alone made it impossible to recommend the game to anyone but weird otaku types. Outside of her, anyone could enjoy the game as a detective story

Do…people actually like Iris? Bringing her back makes me want to skip this game.

Paradise Killer is by far the best of the game options for next month (yes, I’ve played and enjoyed all of them). Highly recommended. GNOSIA is all right but kind of disappointing ultimately. Paradise Killer delivers on an open world murder mystery premise.

Just let me turn off the f***ing experience share.

All of this site’s articles speak about Paper Mario: The Origami King as if everyone is in agreement that the combat is terrible. I loved the combat. It felt very Paper Mario to me and the ring puzzles broke up the monotony of JRPG grinding.

Saw the headline and was like “definitely a Kate Gray article”

Loved Chaos;Child on Vita (even if the insane length had me playing for two months). I’ve always been super interested in playing the first game.