Strawblaze

@Grumblevolcano Right? I'm surprised with how many people seemingly think they are getting a discount on digital media from now on rather than being charged more for the physical.

I just wish we could kick the event Pokémon out of the Pokémon Center when we wanted. They make the Pokémon Center counter feel useless.

@NintendoWife Precisely. Not specifically comparing it to search engines of course, but LLMs have created nothing that existing procedures couldn't, OCR being a small, simple example. They are just a new way of presenting end results that could already be reached previously, just not through a bunch of services connected by a chatbot GUI.

The reason so many people think these chatbots are doing something new is that they never heard about these individual tools before. Or they weren't as promptly available for the end user. If that's the new possibilities you're speaking of, then sure. They have been made way more mainstream now.

@NintendoWife And how does "emulate a certain behaviour shockingly realistically" positively affect the output if it doesn't contribute towards the game design? If we're talking behavior trees, that's not really different from manually crafting your own presets and assigning them just like someone did for AI.

See, what I mean to say is that there is no "tech breakthrough" in this process. If you say AI chatbots feature behavior patterns that managed to impress you, that's because someone put enough effort into creating it and pointing it towards relevant data. There is no digital abiogenesis. If it exists, someone has coded it. The same can be done to video games for a very long time now. It's just that developers don't think it's worth the effort. And using existing presets (such as the ones created for LLMs) in order to make it cheaper and faster doesn't make it better.

@RupeeClock "Why does an MMO, a genre of game specifically about engaging with other real players, need AI to assist new players like this?"

That's the thing, it doesn't, but for a long time now, Dragon Quest X doesn't want to be an MMO anymore. If you wanted, you could play the entire game with tavern bots (which are copies of existing players). And the endgame/post-game content nowadays is just instanced with main story characters anyway.

@NintendoWife "A new class of algorithms that can fake it way better" is very inaccurate to say the least. NPC behavior trees must be handcrafted in order to fit the game design necessities. AI is a bunch of vaguely put together code/scripts using long existing technologies connected to big data centers fed with data from over the internet. They work under extremely simplistic logic such as "How often does this word appear this close to that word?".

It's a glorified Google Featured Snippets. It's in no practical way more advanced than what we've had for years now. In fact, it's worse, because now it has to work in a way that can be shipped to the end user, such as by distilling information into a generalistic chatbot GUI instead of the output format that it would better work with. Other than that, not much has changed. The rhetoric is a marketing strategy so that greedy executives and tech illiterate people perceive whatever they call AI as a novelty they should buy into.

I have been playing Dragon Quest X for a very long time now and generally speaking the game is but an empty shell of what it used to be. Power creeping, avoiding QoL features in order to boost microtransaction sales, retconning, infinite main arch, overly instanced content, and more. So I was not surprised to hear it's the game to give in to SE's executive desires. Which is a shame, because the main story up to v6 and overall world building are my favorite of the series.

I've got to point out that the title is a bit misleading, though. Seems like a lot of people haven't read through the actual news and are thinking this is something that's going to be applied to the Dragon Quest series in general. This is a new "feature" (if we can call it that) for Dragon Quest X, a Japan-only MMORPG released in 2012. Unless you know Japanese or pair the PC version with third-party tools (both of which a lot of people here are allergic to), it's not a game you'd experience either way.

@OmnitronVariant They are temporarily unloaded. Even when they're max happiness and you can still see they own the house, if there are too many Pokémon in the region, they sometimes temporarily disappear for optimization reasons until you use Honey to call them (which I suppose temporarily unloads another Pokémon farther away from you). You can even see them spawn right in front of you in some cases when you use the Honey pot.

That's also the reason why the instanced houses exist. It's so this system can work more naturally by having Pokémon enter or leave their instanced houses.

@Spider-Kev 300 from across generations, randomly selected by the developers (based on popularity, I assume). You can find one of each and move them across regions to any habitat/house you wish. The only catch is that some of them are unloaded so that performance remains stable. To reload them all you've got to do is use a Honey pot where they live.

@Sciqueen I end up getting the game out of curiosity and thought I'd share my building experience with you.

The building lives up to the expectations left by Dragon Quest Builders 2. There's an ingenious post-game tool that works just like a direct evolution of the Transform-O-Trowel, and there are many furnitures and blocks to unlock. You also get your own island, Dream Islands work very similarly to the Resource Islands in DQB2, and you can get more space by using instanced houses. Progression loop is very similar as well.

Really, anybody who's played and enjoyed DQB 2 will not be disappointed. I'd say nothing from DQB is missing, other than combat obviously. Maybe wait for a sale if you're still unsure, but the reviews definitely would have done well to draw more comparisons to DQB.

@Solid_Python Just because someone doesn't want to use GameChat doesn't mean they're not chatting elsewhere. Especially if you use a line-in with your computer or a capture card, there are no reasons to use that sorry excuse for a feature.

Well, maybe if you're a five years old and your parents won't let you use another VOIP. But that's it.

I had the Talking Flower voices activated on my first playthrough. Second playthrough? Deactivated them as soon as I could. The Wonder Flower mechanics don't age well on a second playthrough. The Talking Flower even less.

I think the worst parts of the Talking Flower are reactions like "Weee!" or other small talk that feel like they're trying to get a chuckle out of a child. Very hit and miss. I agree they'd be more effective if they appeared less.

Unbelievable...

@AllieKitsune I've got to agree it's quite weird seeing a version that is "capped at 30 FPS and featuring texture issues and frequent pop-ins" being called an improvement over the original. Especially as the game is scored 60 and below on Steam for being capped at 60 FPS on PC.

I'd really appreciate more info from the reviews coming out. Is the world procedurally generated? Is it infinite? What is the post-game comprised of? How many furniture are there? Can you visit instanced versions of other people's buildings like in DQB2 or ACNL?

I understand content creators and Nintendo not wanting to spoil too much. But the way it is, I can't help but feel there must be a catch behind people not wanting to talk about these very important aspects of the game. If filling up the Pokédex is the actual focus of the game rather than building - which seems to come just as part of the process of befriending Pokémon - that'd reduce the game to a glorified Pokémon themed Happy Home Designer. And I don't want that.

With ACNH, Nintendo said events would be locked behind updates and that it wouldn't be sharing too much about the game in general so that people wouldn't get spoilers. It turns out the game was just an empty shell of what the series used to be, featuring as little as a single upgrade to T&T.

@Sciqueen That's what is holding me from buying the game as well. Some reviews mention that breaking and placing blocks is slow due to animation locks. And most of the buildings I've seen so far look more like Pokémon museums. With so many Pokémon themed furnishing, it's hard to tell how far you can stray from the pure Pokémon theme when creating stuff. And that'd limit the variety of what you can build in the long run.

So far, I have a feeling that filling up the Pokédex is the actual focus of the game rather than building, which seems to come just as part of the process of befriending Pokémon. That'd reduce the game to a Pokémon themed Happy Home Designer. In DQB2 building was an integral part of progressing through the story, sure. But the post-game opened things up a lot so that you could pretty much do whatever you want. I'm wondering whether it's the same with Pokopia.

Really wish the content we've seen so far was more transparent on what to expect on the late and post-game. I can't even tell how big the world is, or whether it is procedurally generated.

@DashKappei As far as this story lets out, the group going after refunds and spreading knowledge about the shimmering and other issues in this upgrade is supposedly from Reddit, nothing to do with NintendoLife's comment sections. And I have seen no shortage of people saying 1080P/60 FPS doesn't matter or similar stuff in there too.

Sure, the people filing the complaints and asking for them to be addressed may in fact not be the same as the ones who glaze over bad performance either way. I just wonder where the people complaining about this upgrade now and asking for actions were when dozens of Switch 1 games had disgusting resolution and framerate.

I'm not trying to undermine people asking for Nintendo to take responsibility. I just wish everyone stood up to point out these issues back then as well, as we could have used that before. That's all I'm saying.

@Dang_69 Then you're still the exception. If you read my comment again, you'll notice I've said "people who were playing games on dynamic resolution 720P 30 FPS just the other day AND saying they only cared about gameplay". You've got my point.

I'm sure on portable mode it is as bad as people are saying it is and hope they fix it soon.

@Dang_69 Then you know you're the exception and my comment isn't aimed towards you. Because if you in fact couldn't handle it (just like I couldn't), you know that most people, especially here on NintendoLife's comments, glazed over it.

Complaints about shimmering and upscaling sound quite soulless coming from people who were playing games on dynamic resolution 720P 30 FPS just the other day and saying they only cared about gameplay (as if performance didn't have an impact on it). Or that 60 FPS don't even exist.

I, for one, hope they address the issues, especially for the people playing on portable mode. But would rather have complained when games like Bayonetta 3 and Astral Chain landed. So far I'm enjoying the upgrade on docked mode and being able to play the game on 60 FPS alone feels like a blessing. If only that could have been more of a focus on Switch 1...

@OmnitronVariant This has happened multiple times to FINAL FANTASY XIV's Naoki Yoshida and many other developers too. It really is extremely frustrating to see them being affected by mistranslations — opportunistic ones or not. Out of all languages out there, Japanese is probably among the ones making the most use of expressions rooted in historical content such as haiku and the like. So you'd think people would avoid jumping to conclusions, but it seems that's asking too much.

And then there are people saying the idiomatic expression is bad and mean nonetheless, completely forgetting the nuances of culture and that common use of idiomatic expressions turns words lighter than their raw meaning would let through. This sort of misunderstanding is precisely why studying idiomatic expressions, word choices, and mannerisms is one of the most important parts of learning a new language. Even more important than vocabulary or pronunciation. It's what makes you more believable when speaking and writing, and not something you can get away with not knowing if you want to "sound like a native".

@BrewsterTea Good. But for anyone overseas who can rely on regional pricing (which other publishers fortunately support despite Nintendo never giving a care about it), this costs roughly the same as three copies of a brand new game such as Demon Tides or one copy of a medium-high production cost game such as Romeo is a Dead Man. In this case, do you see how preposterous it is that Nintendo — let's say just by not supporting regional pricing — seems to think a raw rerelease needs to make as much as a brand new game a medium sized team of developers has poured their blood and sweat into for almost a decade?

It's a powerful IP and it's doubtlessly going to sell way more than Romeo is a Dead Man for that reason alone, that's for sure. But saying $19.99 for a raw rerelease is "an excellent price for a highly prized product relative to 2026 standards" is inaccurate. So it seems we're going to have to agree to disagree on this matter. Fortunately there are people sharing opinions with both of us, so I assume neither of us must be going insane.

@BrewsterTea Sure, I'm not naive and I have no doubts people spare no efforts when it comes to Pokémon. We have no shortage of examples involving Pokémon TCG. And it is true that the game is only available on GBA and is sold for outrageous prices.

But they sure are blatantly taking advantage of that. The least they could have done is make this rerelease a bit more appetizing with new features. The game doesn't even seem to be running on integer scaling on the footage we've seen so far. Either way, I bet people would be willing to pay $30 if it had more to it.

@MoogleMuffins Totally agree. But it's nostalgia bait and people are biting. For a rerelease celebrating the thirtieth anniversary, the least they could have done is add an insane amount of filters, sidebar customization, a re-orchestrated soundtrack (which I'm sure has been done before) and similar stuff.

As for the "NSO vs. Standalone" debate, why not have both options so people can choose? Game states could simply be disabled for that specific game.

@Cheez At the very least I'm happy it's just $5. Beats me why they think the extra content on the Mario Wonder upgrade makes it worth $20 instead, especially considering the previews didn't think much of it.

@Max_the_German True. Is this game CPU-heavy, though? I've played about ten hours on PC and it didn't seem to be. But then again that was back in April 2024, so they may have added more dynamic stuff since then.

@Max_the_German PlayStation 4 doesn't have access to DLSS and similar technologies. This game should be fine on Switch 2 if they make use of such technologies.

Reading comments on anything related to CFW on this website always makes me want to puke. Piracy this, piracy that. For crying out loud, please learn what CFWs, emulators and homebrews can legally offer before spreading misinformation.

Considering the original detail-rich pixel art style has aged super well, I don't see much of a reason to play this unless there are loads of new stages. And even then, Rayman Redemption is such an excellent fan "remake" of the original entry that I'm honestly not sure they could best it.

Does the soundtrack feature as much insufferable hand-holding as the actual game?

Why the heck do they feel they have to explain this? It's quite logi— Oh... It was a question made during the financials Q&A session... Yeah, unfortunately that completely makes sense now.

@smoreon Daytona, Outrun, SEGA Rally and similar series all had their own art styles. The assets matched and had a set goal in order to achieve a desired tone. This, however, feels just like a mishmash of assets made by different people with different art styles and LoQs. The overall visual quality screams generic and the games I have mentioned are simply better looking despite their age.

Interesting to hear Kenji Sasaki is involved in the making of this game. But it looks like a low budget Unreal/Unity asset flip. Even the promo content is lacking oomph. If I may be so bold, it feels like the project had no art direction at all.

Maybe they'll consider making us a new Sonic Riders now. Hopefully.

@OmnitronVariant Indeed. I really hope we do get a system update changing this someday, but I have hoped for so long with Switch 1 that it is mostly copium nowadays. It's come to a point I can't really imagine the Switch OS featuring cool stuff like the 3DS badges and menu BGMs.

Hypocritical move, as usual. I've said it before; Nintendo taking action on such instances and then not giving a care when slop games with explicit thumbnails and "Hentai" on the title show up on the Great Deals page side by side with their first party games disqualifies any allegations Nintendo does this for the sake of children.

Holding this feature until later this year instead of making it available from the get go is the pinnacle of drip-feeding. Ridiculous.

Edit: Hold on... What the... these are PHYSICAL FILTERS instead of post-processing?! If so, Nintendo really is living in the stone age. I hope it's just weird wording on the story.

@TheRazor Indeed. I wonder how much they spend to create one, though. Because I do feel Nintendo is going for a very high profit margin.

Very good game. This and Lost Odyssey are hands out some of the best RPGs I have ever played. Sakaguchi does a wonderful job creating enjoyable (and usually grindless) RPGs with inventive mechanics.

Crazy to think this plastic mounting piece is $100 while Quest 2 AiO goes for $200 or sometimes less than that. And no — the lens they are using are not expensive. At least, there's no reason for them to be. The software isn't visually demanding enough to warrant good quality lens.

@BentIeyma That's something I really don't understand. Besides emulation not being perfect, they insist on adding games that already have a definitive (or at least much better) version, Wind Waker being an example. As I see it, anyone interested in playing older games on NSO would also be willing to go the extra mile in order to play the definitive version of said games. This is almost like tricking people into playing inferior versions and/or showing you don't really care whether you are delivering something inferior.

@ThatOneLevel They really are messing up their priorities at this point. Releasing game trailers randomly through the week and having Directs for movie marketing.

I couldn't care less about movies and really wish they'd give gaming more attention once again.

@PanAndrzej The Great Deals section is the one most filled with such games. Which is a shame, 'cause if you ask me, that's precisely one of the sections kids are the most likely to access in a daily basis. Regarding other platforms, Steam does have a pretty sturdy system that completely blurs all thumbnails and screenshots for adult games until you enter the game's dedicated store page and confirm your birth date (or tick in a checkbox in your account settings page to disable this protection). There's even an option to hide games with an specific type of content or specific tag from showing up for good. PlayStation Store doesn't feature such a system, but the rubbish is usually buried on not as accessible category pages. Not sure about the Microsoft Store.

You're right it may have been a decision taken because of player reports and the possibility of videos covering the island going viral. It's just I think it's hypocritical for Nintendo to take action on such instances and then not give a care when slop games with explicit thumbnails and "Hentai" on the title show up on the Great Deals page side by side with their first party games.

@PanAndrzej My argument is that the random games you're speaking of are being explicitly shown on the Nintendo eShop side by side with first-party games aimed at children, while this player island not featuring anything as explicit as the thumbnail of said games — and requiring a code or added friend to visit on top of that — was taken down.

If Nintendo really cared whether children are being exposed to adult content, they'd be moving the fake hentai games on eShop behind an age gate (and allowing them to actually feature adult content. Because as it is, they're just misleading scams) instead of banning an AC island a kid would have to go out of their way to visit and would probably still not even understand what it is about.

What's more likely: Googling "Hentai" after seeing the word pop up so many times on eShop, or being led to anything explicit by a nigh inaccessible ACNH island recreating a Japanese red light district?

@McBurn Very good point. The misleading fake Hentai games and their thumbnails are way more explicit than anything from this. And they're showcased side by side with Nintendo's first party titles.

@KayFiOS New Horizons isn't old. They should've known better than to make mechanics and physics tied to framerate in 2020. Other devs such as FromSoft realized that was a mistake a long time ago, 2015, when Dark Souls 2 had loads of issues because of FPS tied mechanics.

So at the end of the day that's still their fault.

@boxyguy I suppose whatever is written on the custom design signs could be the problem. Otherwise, I agree that punishing someone for making creative use of what's already in the game is a double-edged sword. As far as I know, New Leaf's Aika Village has never been banned before. And I'd argue that was a lot more visual and easier for a kid to understand and get scared from than this.

@HammerGalladeBro First time hearing about this feature. Pretty neat.

@Duncanballs I understand your point, but I'm not sure it's accurate. Older Apple products, for instance, have experienced all sorts of crazy shell material degradation and screen vinegar syndrome. And pretty much every hardware that's over ten years old has probably needed a battery replacement by now. Not to mention a lot of old tech simply had poor design decisions that hurt its lifetime. N64's stick degradation, PS2's disc drive ribbon cable coming off and scratching discs, and Dreamcast's PSU being connected by unreliable contact pins being but a few examples out of many. When you stop and think about these things, it doesn't really feel like quality has decreased since then.

Perhaps I'm biased because I'm into hard modding and retro collecting. But as I see it, there's always going to be people on the fight to keep older hardware rolling, whether the original materials are time proof or not.

@Kiz3000 Nobody said there's necessarily an "issue" with not providing game updates through physical cartridges. Just that it's a welcome convenience.

"Your Switch will likely be dead before the servers get shut down for allowing game updates."
What about it? There's plenty of hardware from the 90s still being used, and even if it ends up "going dead", there's always people willing to do modding and maintenance in order to keep their stuff from turning into tech waste. Precisely the reason why projects like WiiLink exist.