Comments 176

Re: Pokémon Legends' Hisuian Zorua Is Sad And Dead Because Everyone Was Mean

StardusterEX

All of the ‘Dex entries for the Mega forms from S/M/US/UM are pretty horrifying/depressing to think about. Most of them were about how the energy either leaves them acting purely on the instinct to destroy everything around them or causes their bodies to melt and leaves them in constant pain.

Actually, even the regular entries got kind of like that... one of them said that Primape can get so angry that it just dies and that that’s the only time it looks peaceful.

Re: Yay! Town Ordinances Are Finally Making A Return To Animal Crossing

StardusterEX

I wish some more personality variance would be added within the pre-established types, and I wish a proper nightclub would be added (purely because I loved that location in New Leaf, lol), but I’m overall happy with the state of things. I don’t think the way things were handled was favorable at all, but as someone whose current job is being a go-between for customer service and production, I know there’s a ton of stuff that can go wrong from start to finish and slow stuff down... Most of which the end-customer never gets to learn about. D:

Re: Exp. Share Supposedly Can't Be Turned Off In The Pokémon Diamond And Pearl Remakes

StardusterEX

The problem isn’t even the EXP share (though I would like the option to turn it off), it’s that the games aren’t balanced around the ability to level up everyone at once. I get the focus is not younger players, but that’s not an excuse for making a game that nearly plays itself. Kids deserve good games, too. There’s no reason that you should be able to one-shot a gym leader’s ace Pokémon because your own Pokémon are 5 levels than everything around you without even having to grind. There’s no sense of accomplishment if you don’t even have to try. That’s why everyone remembers Whitney and the Mt. Silver Red battle. And as remakes, I’ve got reason to doubt they’re going to be rebalancing them entirely as opposed to just porting everything over. Maybe they will surprise us, but...

I’d even settle for the ability to just make a self-imposed challenge because that’s normally what I do in Pokémon, but an inability to turn the EXP share on/off makes that much harder to do.

Re: Pokémon Legends: Arceus Won't Actually Be An Open-World Game

StardusterEX

If the areas are well-populated with stuff to do and things to look at, I don’t mind. It’s the way Atelier games barring Atelier Firis have done it. I don’t really want to feel railroaded, though. Or, I’d at least like the illusion of not being railroaded. Just block things off by terrain-scaling HM-equivalents that I can use again later in the game, don’t have people standing in the road as a literal roadblock, lol.

Re: Adorable Hamster-Car Anime 'Pui Pui Molcar' Comes To Switch In Japan

StardusterEX

This series also got a Tamagotchi crossover recently. Seems it’s doing quite well, which makes me happy. I don’t need this game, but... it’s so adorable, I really, really want it lol. And with an actual English option it would be easy to play... Not like the time I imported a bunch of Mamegoma DS games and had to stumble my way through, lol.

Re: Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town Has Shipped More Than A Million Copies

StardusterEX

Made it to year 3. Maxed out my skills. I don’t necessarily regret it, but I don’t think I’m going to go back and play it again. I also don’t think I’ll be pre-ordering the next SoS game, and won’t be buying until I get a chance to see what it’s like. I’ve been playing HM/SoS since the GameCube, and it’ll be the first time it years that’s happened. ...It’s a strange and kind of sad feeling.

Natsume continues to build on the same formula each time. More crops, more mutations to find, more ways to find them. It’s progress, if incredibly slow. You always have an idea of what you’re in for going in. And they continue to put out adjustment patches based on fan feedback.

I guess I just expect... better from Marvelous than Natsume? At least Natsume are making their games in-house as far as I’m aware. And contracting out doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but this particular choice seems questionable at best considering the company Marvelous chose was previously known for producing licensed One Piece and Assassination Classroom games and seems to have been rushed at that.

Maybe I’m still upset at feeling like I paid to beta test this game when I’ve never really felt like that with one of Marvelous’ games in the past. I don’t know. ._.

Re: Koei Tecmo Officially Announces Atelier Sophie 2, Arriving On Switch Next February

StardusterEX

@tech7 I think Sophie won out on some polls as a really popular character/game, and they wanted to pander a bit since it’s the 25th anniversary this year iirc. Plus it’s also probably buying them time so they can work longer on Ryza 3. Though I’m hoping a precedent isn’t being set with Lulua/Sophie 2, as I’d rather move onto a new trilogy/series than see a Ryza 4 tbh...

Also doubt we’ll be seeing Firis unless we get some Rorona+ Overtime-style shenanigans, since this seems to take place between Sophie and Firis chronologically.

Re: Koei Tecmo Officially Announces Atelier Sophie 2, Arriving On Switch Next February

StardusterEX

@Kimyonaakuma Even with the slightly watered-down synthesis in Ryza, you won’t find games with better crafting systems.

I preferred Lydie & Suelle to Sophie, but Mysterious has my favorite crafting system and my second-favorite combat, so I’m really happy to see a return. I’m also hoping this means a Dusk 4 is coming in the future... I’d really like to know what happened after Atelier Shallie.

Re: Rune Factory 5 Will Feature Same-Sex Marriage In The West

StardusterEX

I’m glad to get to play as Ares and have the option of dating either the male or female candidates. I had plans to go after Ryker, but getting to play as Ares while doing it is even better. Also it leaves my options open if I befriend the female candidates as well and discover I like one of them more personality-wise. D:

Re: Koei Tecmo Sale Discounts Lots Of Atelier Games, Ninja Gaiden And More On Switch

StardusterEX

@FantasiaWHT Ryza is a good place to start, though not necessarily indicative of what you’ll get if you play the predecessors. Combat is easy even on harder difficulties, alchemy has been streamlined, and there’s only one ending, among other changes. The first also has a lack of individual character events compared to other games.

I think Escha&Logy is seen as a fan favorite, though do note that it’s the second game in the Dusk Trilogy. You’ll get spoilers for the True Ending of the first game in the trilogy (though the games aren’t story heavy at all, and each one barring Ryza1&2 are technically standalone stories and follow different protagonists). It’s got in-game time limits, but they’re very relaxed. If you’ve ever played any kind of time/resource management game, you can more than handle this.

Re: A New Kirby Game Just Leaked On Nintendo Japan's Website

StardusterEX

@TSR3 He’s cute and cuddly and beats up demons, black holes, and elder gods. Kirby final/secret bosses have a long history of mood-whiplash... Plus, I find the lore unnecessarily, legitimately interesting. They didn’t have to do this for a game like Kirby, but they did and I appreciate the effort and attention to detail.

Re: A New Kirby Game Just Leaked On Nintendo Japan's Website

StardusterEX

After everything that happened in Star Allies, I’m interested to see what more this can add to the Kirby lore.

If this is a return to Dreamland, with all the tie backs to the original game at the end of Soul Melter EX mode, perhaps we’ll be getting a follow up to what happens after the special alternate boss battle?

Re: Feature: Should I Play Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town Now?

StardusterEX

Umm... light-novel incoming.

It’s not... Awful. But... Some decisions are strange. Like when “upgrading” the town. Nothing really changes. Nothing changes visually, you can’t visit the “shops” people open other than the salon... People in town talk about stuff changing, but you don’t really get to experience any of it. Which is... not fun, when it’s the main story of the game and when the previous 3DS game Trio of Towns handled it so much better. When people opened or upgraded stores, or when visual changes happened like upgrading statues, you actually got to see it and benefit from it afterwards.

I’m not sure why Marvelous’s pushed this off on a separate company, or why they’d choose 3 Rings who previously made... 3DS One Piece games. It feels like they were rushed, or that they weren’t able to fully implement everything they wanted. For example, it feels like this game was supposed to be more fully 3D than it turned out in the end. That might not be the case, of course, but everything is fully textured, front, sides, and back. That seems like a lot of effort to go through just for taking pictures of animals on your farm. The houses have pictures and stuff that are hard (impossible?) to see from the overhead angle without pulling out the camera tool. And with the new dynamic camera, when you talk to someone and it zooms in, it doesn’t just bring up their model with the text box the way Natsume’s game does. It shows you what’s going on around them, from whichever angle you talk to them at. I dunno. Last I read, Marvelous is still planning on working with them for future games. I wish they’d made all this more clear to the non-Japanese audiences, but maybe they didn’t want a repeat of what happened over Twitter when the game first released in Japan. Just seems a touch deceitful, though.

I played long enough to max the skills (it gets really grindy after hitting level 8 for some of them) and I think I was around Year 3 when I stopped. I think that’s enough time to give it a chance. I just can’t help but feel like it’s still got less content and less engaging content than both its 3DS predecessor and rivals like Stardew Valley. I don’t regret the money or time I spent, it’s not like I didn’t have fun or that I hated it, but I’m also not sure that it’s going to be something I return to replay over again. I also don’t know about the opinions of casual players, but I think this game releasing in the state it did and the way the DLC has been handled have damaged Marvelous’s reputation within the HM/SoS community. I know I’m actually hesitating to preorder whatever game they put out next, and I’ve been playing since GC and preordering since the DS without ever having felt like this. I think the situation surrounding the game as a whole has just made me tired.

Re: Sonic And Balan Wonderworld Creator Yuji Naka Is Now Making Smartphone Games

StardusterEX

@KiraMoonvalley There’s stuff I could nitpick, but I’ll try and just go over the biggest issues...

When it launched, the final boss had a flashing light pattern that could trigger seizures. That’s been patched, but sucks for anyone who bought physical and doesn’t have internet.

Since there are so many costumes, there has to be a way to account for every combination in some way so you don’t get stuck... Everything’s really simplified. It’s too easy and boring vs platformers where the level design is tailored to a more limited set of abilities. Even all the buttons only do one thing. Which means all the costumes do one thing. Which means some of them don’t allow you to jump.

On that note, some costumes are redundant because they’re functionally the same. Some are better versions of others. Some are so irritating to use as to be useless (BOX FOX. You’re a fox, sometimes you turn into an invincible box. You can’t control when this happens. YOU CAN’T CONTROL YOUR MOVEMENT).

YMMV, but the stories of the characters vary in quality and tone... I think it would have been more interesting if Balan was the main character instead of the two NPC-looking ones we got. Instead, he’s just kind of always in the background, which I think is a shame because he’s got such a cool design. It’s like if you played a Mario game, but instead got relegated to the role of a Goomba or something, lol.

This might be one of those nitpicks, but I didn’t like the ending. I think I get what it’s trying to say, but if I was going for that type of feeling, I’d be playing a different kind of game. This is a colorful platformer, gimme my storybook ending lol. It was really unsatisfying, like getting a bad/normal ending on a game when there’s a secret, true ending for 100% completion. Except there isn’t, and what you get is more insulting than the Mario Sunshine 100% completion bonus. Maybe they were trying to set it up for a sequel? Somehow doubt that’s going to happen now.

Excellent visuals during cutscenes and great music though. It should have just been a movie.

I’ve read there’s a novel that goes along with it that adds a lot of lore and context, but if that’s the case, it really should have just been packaged with the game in the first place. At least with physical copies.

That was kind of long, sorry. I do recognize I might have a lot of internalized rage. ._.”

Re: Undertale's 6th Anniversary Broadcast Locks In A Release Date For Deltarune Chapter 2

StardusterEX

@IronMan30 Because it’s presumably coming out on Switch like Chapter 1 and Undertale? Because there are fans who played the games who only have a Nintendo systems and might want to know if it’s a simultaneous launch to console or if a release date has been announced? So there’s an article to update with the release date of the Switch version if/when it’s announced? There are a number of reasons why it makes sense for this article to be here.

Re: The Original Nexomon Game Is Coming Soon To Nintendo Switch

StardusterEX

I’ve got to go back and play some more Nexomon: Extinction. I kind of put it down after my shifts at work got all turned around... Last time I played, I got a little lost and met a nice but lonely tree in the woods who wanted to make some Nexomon friends. I’ll have to help him out next time.

Re: Switch OLED Trailer Shows Tweaked Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Footage

StardusterEX

Dunno if the blurriness is the fog weather condition or the Vaseline smear so many handheld versions of games get to increase the performance/keep the undocked switch from overheating and melting in your hands... I don’t think anything could be as bad as WoFF in handheld, though. Coming from the Vita version, that was a major disappoint since I’ve got a Switch Lite...

Re: Tamagotchi's Next Trick? It's Becoming A Smartwatch

StardusterEX

@JayPrim3 If you don’t want to wait/import and are interested in color-screen models, the Tamagotchi Pix is currently available in EU/NA (and AU sometime later this year). Its camera eats batteries though, so it pairs well with rechargeable AAAs... It’s also got touch buttons, so there’s a little more interactivity because you can swipe them as well as using them like normal. The camera’s DSi/3DS quality, so it’s nothing amazing, but it’s a fun idea. It talks about social media, but as far as I can tell it’s just the other in-game Tamagotchi characters “liking” your pictures, so no actual interacting with other people/sharing images.

The Tamagotchi On is available in NA, but not EU last I knew. I like these quite a bit because you get to mix genes as your Tamagotchi marry, and it’s got an app you can connect to to get extra items and marry other people’s Tamagotchis from around the world. It’s got 3 different versions, but the only major difference is that each has an exclusive area with 2 exclusive characters to marry, so it’s kind of best to just go by which shell you think is the prettiest, lol.

...I’m sorry if I’m rambling at this point, I’m a little sad to admit Tamagotchis are my one consistent passion in life. u.u

Re: Tamagotchi's Next Trick? It's Becoming A Smartwatch

StardusterEX

@Not_Soos Might be a bit of a stretch, but Tamagotchi games have pretty much been exclusive to Nintendo systems. Unfortunately, besides the first GB game, the Wii board game, and three of the Corner Shop titles on DS, most of them never made it out of Japan...

Re: Tamagotchi's Next Trick? It's Becoming A Smartwatch

StardusterEX

@Silly_G They’ve got Digimon versions (though they’re more fitbits with a thin layer of Digimon paint than virtual pets). You do different missions with getting in steps and raising your heart rate and stuff like that and it impacts how your ‘mon grows.

Minimal (none, maybe?) Japanese in the watch itself, so it’s easy to use even if you can’t read it. I think the app it pairs with for storing Digimon and taking extra daily missions and stuff is in Japanese, but people probably already have translations up online...

Re: Tamagotchi's Next Trick? It's Becoming A Smartwatch

StardusterEX

@alexybubble You can do that in every version of the Tamagotchi, just hold the A and C buttons down together for a few seconds to generate a new egg.

@Damo Any chance of getting an article about the Tamagotchi Pix, since that‘s an NA/EU exclusive as of right now? :> It’s the first color-screen version released to not be based on a previously Japanese-exclusive version.

Re: Lil Nas X Is Coming To Fuser

StardusterEX

I grew up listening to stuff from artists like Kikuo, Materu, Machigerita, MASA Works, etc... I’m not saying kids should experience music/media they aren’t ready for, but there are also much darker things they could be listening to than Lil Nas X, lol.