Troll_Decimator

@Fizza It's pretty good for newbies, not having any past conceptions can help. The fact that the Pokes are entirely rebalanced threw me off hard at first. Why does my Rowlet start with 52hp... wtf is going on? Besides, the game has lots of ways to go about its objectives, doesn't force you to do only a single thing, this is great for newcomers. It isn't the easiest game in the series for sure, but you can always catch some more Pokemon and then try again, you can really play in your own pace.

@REDWINDS To be fair, neither of those companies are on the same caliber as Nintendo, nor do they have their own platforms. There are countless Nintendo fan games out there that are not taken down too.

@darkswabber Doubt it, even most trolls have done a 180 on this one. But yeah it's a fantastic game, for me easily #1.

Team 17, because you are Brits and I know you are reading this, please stop being desperate and release some actual worthwhile games for a change.

@Expa0 You are confusing your owner personal nitpicks with what makes a game with a Metroidvania and that's a bit much. The genre is much broader than the ideal version of it in your own definition.

Also, Other M is vastly underrated.

Somehow I bought both games and they didn't end up in my backlog, I enjoyed both of them much more than I thought I would. Fatal Frame in specific is a great game for any horror fan. Not really scary but the gameplay is surprisingly fresh and the gyro makes it loads more fun. Certainly worth a try. Physical copies of Fatal Frame are still around if you look.

I have absolutely no problem with this depiction of Link.

I honestly applaud him for having the guts to retract his NFT plans. It would be extremely easy to ignore the critics and it wouldn't do him any harm really. Most likely, not even he himself knew what exactly he was signing up for, they just gave him a fat sack of cash as an influencer and he said "why not".

@kal_el_07241 Indeed, I fully expect the followup to be a huge improvement, as long as they stay focused on what makes this game so good. However, just by virtue of this game being so bold and fearless in its direction, while also managing to be so fun, I can't help but admire it just as much as Breath of the Wild, even if it has more flaws. Honestly, I was more optimistic than most about this game, but I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is.

@StarPoint I really didn't care much about the cinematics personally, but they certainly add to the AAA feel. I think that's what it did that hasn't been done before in the genre... simply the fact that it's a Metroidvania game with an actual budget. Most of them are crafted on a shoestring budget. Of course some are still great, but a game of this caliber was lacking in the genre, and now it exists.

Legends Arceus is legitimately the most fun I've had with a Pokemon game since the fateful day I bought Blue Version in 1999. I did love Silver, Ruby, Diamond, Y as well, but their impact was lessened due to being the same formula just done slightly better. Obviously, Legends a much better game in 2022 than other games in the series (including their remakes), so it's easily my favourite Pokemon game, and I would go a step further and say it's one of my favourite games of all time fullstop. Maybe not top 10, but it's close.

@Yosher That's a good point, although Metroid 2 on Gameboy is an important part of the main series/lore and Hunters is kinda irrelevant, but you never know with Nintendo.

Not to say that I dislike Metroid Hunters, in fact I replayed it a couple months ago, but just to put things into perspective, Federation Force is a far better game in this day and age. Hunters is very much a relic of DS limitations, it would need to be entirely remade from its core to be a viable product in the 2020s. At that point, it wouldn't even be Hunters anymore. I don't think Nintendo ever cared enough about this entry anyways.

Some more bad names:

Final Fantasy
Mega Man
Super Mario

All franchises that were clearly hurt by their bad naming. Absolutely shocking article, Tom.

I would be surprised if Bayonetta 3 only has a single Lead Designer.

@REDWINDS Right, I think you are confusing mods with reverse engineering. They are not the same thing. Bethesda officially supports mods in their games since Morrowind, they have been officially providing a construction toolkit with the game.

@rjejr See #25.

@Minecraft_Master Show us which company encourages reverse engineering their projects?

@anoyonmus I never played the Atelier games for the story, it's usually quite light hearted and nothing to write home about. I would say no need to play the first game.

Pokemon Legends Arceus for me, the phenomenal game that brings tears to GameFreak haters' eyes. Also some Yu Gi Oh Master Duel on the side.

@HammerGalladeBro It can go either way, if it didn't sell well, localizing it can be a way to recoup some of that lost revenue. It probably just isn't a priority. There are many games that take many months and/or years to be localized, so it could certainly happen.

For the record, the game's sales in Japan were extremely poor, but it got rather good reviews, with a 34/40 on Famitsu (9/8/8/9).

@victordamazio That's called cherrypicking. You selected the best possible angle and nicest area in Shenmue 2 and the least flattering one in Pokemon Legends. You can do the same with any game and make a N64 game look better, but it is entirely disingenuous and dishonest. Not to mention Shenmue runs in 480i and Pokemon Legends in 1080p. Have you tried playing Shenmue 2 now? It's a blurry jagged mess.

It looks great, I really hope Nintendo localizes it. It reminds me a bit of Ai Somnium Files and the older Cing games.

@Trikeboy Most importantly, graphics snobs should not even be here, because not a single Switch game has high end graphics.

@victordamazio Whoever is saying that PS2 or Dreamcast games look better than Pokemon Legends obviously was not born back then, lmao. They look nothing like this. Look at open world games on PS2 and compare them to this game. They look like night and day.

However, at the end of the day, we should not forget that Switch is a portable console, hence limited. When GBA was hot, XBox was already out and had far better graphics. Handhelds cannot compare with home consoles, obviously, they are a couple generations behind.

Maiden will sue the eff outta em

@JustMonika I usually buy from Bazaar-Bazaar, Play-Asia is too expensive most of the time in comparison if you are in Europe.

@somebread Not the case unfortunately. The majority of people see indie games graphics and immediately dismiss them as unplayable. I'm not talking about hardened "veterans" like you and me of course but people that play only FIFA and Call of Duty. The majority.

Man, I'd hate to be an indie developer, these are graphics most Indies can't even dream of and we openly call them janky. I mean, it's the Switch, it was never going to be perfect, but the game looks good. Certainly the best looking Pokémon game to date overall. Even New Pokémon Snap, which technically looks better, mainly due to being a small on rails map, doesn't feel as alive and fully realized as this world (because it isn't).

@blindsquarel That's still a major overreaction, lol.

@blindsquarel It can be very good in practice. If not on current games/platforms, in the future it will definitely be solid, almost indistinguishable to local hardware.

The problem with cloud gaming is ownership. Like, if you are worried about "owning" your Steam games, imagine cloud games, which don't even run on your hardware. I really don't like it.

I like the fact that I can still play my NES games on my original NES (or well, a Toploader that I am using these days), just the way they were meant to be played, and no licensing issues or other "happenings" are ever going to change this.

@blindsquarel I just don't jump to conclusions based on a job listing. People come and go from jobs all the time, including game development. Maybe someone left, so they are getting in a replacement... normal stuff that every business has to deal with. Only children would think this means trouble for the project.

Someone should tell them those are not the starters in Arceus

I want it but that is an absolutely ridiculous price for a simple T-shirt with a print.

@BloodNinja I've noticed you generally don't read well and you just skim, this is not only for my own post. No offense, but try harder.

@westman98 Except this is about the long term game. Right now the Quartz NTF they released is implemented only in 1 unpopular game and nobody cares, it is entirely a prototype/experiment as a proof of concept. Rest assured once they start adding it to more and more games it will gain traction. But I wouldn't care if it didn't, I don't plan to partake in this.

@blindsquarel And in my opinion might be that the Earth is flat, this doesn't make it any less of a dumb, uneducated opinion though. Your opinion on the topic is irrelevant, you don't know the first thing about game development. By your definition, every single game is in development hell.

Case in point: Look up any major game that is releasing in the next 12 months, and you'll find they all have job openings. Metroid might even be 2 years away. You think most games are smooth sailing and only a few have problems? Every single game has problems, that's what game development is, solving problems to get to the final game.

@BloodNinja That was exactly my point, some reading comprehension wouldn't hurt. The majority of gamers don't know or care what NFTs are, they are just going to use the service like good little boys and make Ubisoft lots of dough. What the vocal antagonists think is entirely irrelevant.

@Burning_Spear NFTs are absolutely a paradigm shift. It might not be for the better, depending on your perspective, but it is.

@RudyC3 Other things players don't want:
1. Microtransactions
2. Paid DLC
3. Preorder bonuses
4. F2P/P2W

Yet companies make the majority of their money exactly from those things. They go where the money is, and in the near future, NFTs will be exactly that, the new big money making opportunity for them, potentially something beneficial for players depending on implementation.

If you don't like it, don't support it and support companies that don't implement NFTs. It really is that simple. They really don't give a damn about what some vocal gamers think (even if they are right, that's irrelevant to them).

@TimGibson Not all, just enough to make this profitable. And it will be wildly so.

Switch games are always 39.99 at launch, anyone paying RRP (without steelbook, other goodies) is deservedly getting robbed for not doing their research. Curry's has been doing this for quite a while, they have a 5 off coupon for Switch games except preorders.

@Dr_Lugae Yes, that's the funny part. If GameFreak got any message from Sword and Shield, it was "bring National Dex back!", and what did they do? The next game has HALF the Pokemon of even Sword and Shield. If this isn't a big slap to the face for the perpetually outraged, I don't know what is.

@nhSnork Only first worlders are perpetually offended, so that much should be obvious.

@InkIdols You could say the same about microtransactions, yet a simple mobile game with microtransactions can rake in millions in revenue. Don't confuse good business with tone deafness. You are not the target audience.

@westman98 Right... now watch as they make a ton of money from NFTs and laughing all the way to the bank. There's a reason why executives make millions and millions. This is not burger flipping.

Let's face it, NFTs are certainly far more worthwhile for a gamer than microtransactions ever were, yet the microtransaction model is literally dominating the industry right now. If you think NFTs are not here to stay, you're in for a ride.

Good thing Nintendo most likely won't bother with it, just like most other trends. The only company worth supporting with as much money as possible currently. Send a message.

@HotGoomba I can assure you criticism had absolutely nothing to do with it. First off, the criticism is overblown. The majority of people that played Sword and Shield really enjoyed them. Look at the recent Japanese poll for what mainstream thinks of the games, not niche forums. GameFreak IS a Japanese company, after all, so the praise from Japan is a lot more audible to them than complaints for a vocal minority in the west.

However, most importantly, the game was in production well before the previous games even came out. Do people really think that a project well into production is going to change direction because of some vocal complaints? No it won't, besides, the main complaint and hashtag was the lack of national Dex, and this game has even fewer Pokemon. Plus, for any complaint coming from gamers, there are internal concerns on the exact same thing. This isn't a company with a dozen people, they employ dozenS of gamers. They don't need us to tell them.

@Preposterous Trollkeeping. If you don't want this game to succeed, you don't want the IP to keep improving, hence not a fan by definition.

@darthyoshi Maybe when you realize how difficult game development is, especially on a limited platform like the Switch, you will stop being so self entitled and be able to enjoy games again. Yes, GameFreak must be praised to high heavens for this fantastic game, whether you like it or not.

Looks offensively generic.