Xansies

@FredsBodyDouble It's pretty cliche because they're all based on movies and anime tropes for the most part, but the plot twist and overall plot holds up. It's more put together than the saga games and honestly while individually the character stories don't have much going on compared to octopath because each story goes exactly how you would think, the last chapter at least gives a good justification for them all fighting together and the overacrhing plot is more clear, even of octopath kinda ripped live a live off a bit when it comes to basically structure of the last bit.

For example, I can tell you the basics of every characters story and who the bad guy is and what was going on in love a live and I haven't played it in fifteen years, but I couldn't do that for octopath and I played that again last year.

@Travisemo007 This is an argument I never understand. Like people do realize that a systems output means that not only can things look better, but it can also render more complex or more numerous things at once? Like it's not just prettier, things gain objectively more depth either mechanically or in design. Like every switch game has the same sort of map design because you can only render so much on screen at once. Like compare MH world to rise. Yeah, world is prettier, but that's not the main takeaway. The maps in rise are relatively bland because the switch can't handle the verticality, environmental assets, or alternate paths like in world. It being pretty is like the least advantageous thing about having more power to work with

I liked the idea of different accents for different titans in 2, but other than that the accents were fine besides Rex. 1 was a little over the top though

@DrewDruc LA is an experiment. Basically if it sells well this is how Pokemon will be, because it's essentially what sword and shield started to be but expanded. If it didn't sell well and bdsp did then that's the style that would be leaned into. Luckily, la is selling well so the next Pokemon game will probably be an original game based on the foundation laid out be la.

The reason why it's set in sinnoh and not a new place is precisely because it's an experiment. They're hedging their bets by using established concepts that already proved successful that way the real test is whether the new format works without the other variables and honestly effort of coming up with and implementing new concepts on top of a new format.

I actually think LA is a good start, but I would hope they bring back gyms and ditch the monster hunter elements for the next game because those dont feel particularly great in a Pokemon game. It also, again, would be better with a different studio more experienced with 3d open world games and better hardware, but that's probably not going to happen.

@Boldfoxrd 2 doesn't play much at all like 1 and the story is pretty much objectively worse. Where 1 has a lot of episodic plot arcs that all sort of connect well, 2 is a lot lighter to the point never really feels like it matters until 2/3rds through the game. The only bad part about 1 is that it's slightly grindy and somewhat overly long. 2 has a lot of narrative and gameplay problems and doesn't explain it's battle system at all. It's also a lot more grindy than 1, which already was grindy. But, the expansion of 2 is a huge improvement and so 3 should be better because they already fixed the many problems with 2. I would honestly skip 2 and look up the plot summary. 1 is a classic and kinda a must play though. It's really not bad, but the grind and the gacha kills it and the story just is made of interesting elements while lacking a real plot. Like, parts are cool, but nothing actually happens for most of an 80 hour game.

@UsurperKing it's also unclear if characters like fiora and Shulk age after the end. I don't remember how what happened to fiora worked. If you told me she didn't age now I wouldn't question it. And Shulk, well, I'm also unclear if he got a wish or if he became a god or if he's even capable of aging after the ending in the first place. If you told me Shulk doesn't age I wouldn't be surprised. The humans from 2, I think it's fair if they're dead. I can't really remember what happened at the end of 2, but half of the cast should be alive in some form, shouldn't they?

@Dexeronstarsurge well, since the world's are merged, it should be only the near immortal characters in 2 (and 1 technically) should be alive. And maybe Shulk. I don't know if that's a spoiler because I can't remember if that's how it works or not. The ending of that game is weird. It makes since for it to be in the car future to give the new world at the end of the games time to sit instead of coming up with a conflict immediately after which would feel a bit more forced.

@Ulysses Nah, it's more like an adjusted mmo style. The attacks are auto attacks, but the skills aren't and they all come up so often that the idea is to keep up the skills and use them as often as you can. By the midpoint of the game, you'll rarely if ever use an auto attack. You do use them. More in 2 but the way it's set up it's meant for you to just hit the first hit of a auto combo and reset because the first hit is faster and gets your skills back up faster. You can play it like it's atb, but not only does that make the game harder, it's super boring.

I'm hoping I'm right in assuming they got rid of the gacha mechanics from two and made the game easier to understand mechanically. 2 was arguably a better game battle mechanics wise than 1, especially torna, but it was the game didn't explain how to play it at all and how you were supposed to play it was counter intuitive. The gacha also really turned a grindy game into something ridiculous. I honestly didn't really like 2 because of its story and gacha and 1 was a little over long, but I'm definitely still going to get this.

@Floki Honestly, I thought the dp remakes we're cute and worked. I wouldn't even hate if they just stuck to that and just kept making the same Pokemon game if it means not making games sorta halfway. Like I actually like LA but the performance problems and knowing if someone else did it it would probably be great kills it for me. All the gameplay changes except for getting rid of abilities are great.

@twicesmt it's not like the graphics are passably bad. They're honestly bad enough where it would be a problem if any major release came out looking like this. It's a clear lack of polish that is expected and shown in other games so it should be in this one. Like I use monster hunter to compare to this because LA is a play on mh mostly. MH is clearly a compromise to be the best it can on limited hardware. Like it's barren and the maps are dull compared to world, but that's the switches fault not capcoms. LA is
a blurry laggy less with incredibly stiff animations that wouldn't fly in an indie game or really even any game past a low budget PS2 jrpg from 2005. Like it's not like people should expect greatness from gamefreak, but they should demand better than something dev teams of three people do better. Like my time at Portia looks better.

@Slownenberg the pop in is pretty bad compared to a game like mh rise and stories which is I'll be honestly with you, the exact same gameplay loop wise as LA. The animations are also very poor but what you can't tell from stills is how blurry the game is. It's like it runs at 420p I'm docked mode. It's very, very distracting. I think my main problem is that MH doesn't have this problem even though from a map design standpoint they are the exact same and MH has more going on in a give map, which are typically larger and more dynamic, than LA. Is genuinely frustrating because you can point to something and say, look, this dev obviously figured it out and you have Pokemon money.

Of course it matters. Graphics don't only include what something looks like, it's always a factor of what can be rendered. I don't know anyone that prefers low density flat plains with a couple of trees to a density and active environment.

For LA, that game looks like a straight PS2 game. It honestly looks worse than remasters of PS2 games like .hack gu. Not just because the textures are blurry and the frame rate is poor, but the animations are so stiff. I remember walking in a rainy area in LA and being surprised that the hat got wet because that detail didn't match the quality of the rest of the game.

This isn't even a comment on the lack of power of the switch, LA looks bad compared to other switch games. MH rise looks great for a switch game even though it's honestly kinda disappointing when it comes to map variety compared to world because of hardware limitations. Rise is as complex on an animation standpoint as world and you can tell they did their absolute best within the limitations they had. LA is not that. They absolutely could have done better and I don't think it's productive to say that it's okay when it's clearly not. I mean, the game is fun, but it would be more fun if I could make out what Pokemon was what at a distance and if the Pokemon and characters actually didn't move like they were in a PS1 game.

I figured out what la looks like. A PSP game. I don't think that acceptable

I'm trying to get through high rank in monster hunter rise, but I recently went back to world and it's kinda just not great. I mean, it's great for a handheld game, but the switch isn't a dedicated handheld device. The maps, man. Rises maps are relatively just bad. And they took out the hunting from monster hunter. I mean, MH is a grind fest, but since they took out the actually finding of the monsters in lieu of just running up and smashing them and because they're are so few monsters in the base game once you get through the story and up to high rank it's just so repetitive. It just doesn't feel the same.

@UglyCasanova See Sonic is one game that could use seamless load times and open worlds. Sonics whole thing is being fast yet he's never actually felt fast in gameplay. If they can figure that out, which more space could help, then it could be good. Honestly, a Forza horizon with sonic would make a lot of sense. Open world is one genre where Sonic makes the most sense.

@LUIGITORNADO It's more a concept demo. If it works more Pokemon games will be this style, if it doesn't then we'll get more sword and shields until the sun explodes. I think it's kinda an average game that's a good Pokemon game and I hope people buy it just because I know the series won't change at all if people don't.

@Varkster I played a bit of LA. It's honestly not bad. But I feel like people really slept on Monster hunter stories 2. They're remarkably similar. And I mean, like, game freak played the first one and other MH games similar. The general theme and gameplay loop is monster hunter. There's really no denying that. If I had to say one was better it would be mh. Arc is a little broader and definitely more pokemony in gameplay, which is good, but it's hard to ignore that it's kinda ugly at times, especially compared to MH, which is also a switch game.

And this may be a surprise, but the story in LA isn't great. It's honestly the story of all the other games without the gyms but there isn't any reason for me to care about the characters because they're all as one note as Pokemon characters usually are. Their designs are cute though, there's just nothing to them so far.

@PessitheMystic to be fair, it's a Pokemon game. Low expectations are kinda the default. That it has pokemon isn't even a 100% safe expectation. This is a series that isn't really known for pushing the envelope. It's more known for barely managing to mail an envelope.

It's monster hunter with a Pokemon skin. That sounds awesome, but somehow I'm sure gamefreak made it suck.

@VoidofLight It's been 5 years, man. That's time enough. The last gen lasted unusually long.

@Giancarlothomaz To be fair, switch exclusives couldn't run well in 2017. We pretend botw did, but it had massive slowdowns any time there was fire and the lost woods ran at like 15 fps on the og switch.

@EpicPieFace the gameplay is pretty much inarguably better considering it's literally just persona 4s battle and skill system. But the visual novel style is a con for some, me included. Everything being menu based is because the psp version was downgraded in many ways compared to the PS2 version. The also cut the answer, which it depends if you liked the answer or not, but I did. That said,it's impossible for them to tack on either game to the other because of the changes. It's better to just consider them different games. Fes has a better presentation, p3p is the better game.

@NoTinderLife Well, its a remake of the gba game it would be more confusing if it wasn't called that. But sure.

@Boopero honestly, it's probably because it's a cult classic. Everyone that plays it digs it because it's just so well written, but basically the only way you'll ever hear about it is word of mouth. Nobody has played the thing. Also, I dunno, some of it's subject themes might be why NL has dodged it. May not have much of an overlapping audience. thats literally my only guess. I'm just saying I wouldn't call fata Morgana light reading. It's not ace attorney to be sure.

Fata Morgana not here? I get nobody has played it, but it's one of the best visual novels around. If anyone has a choice between great ace attorney and fata Morgana, well, it depends on if you want casual racism and zany characters or a incredibly complex but very dark story. I'm just saying, fata Morgana is definitely on the top of my favorite visual novels. It does go to places probably not great for all audiences though

@Joker1234 low.key, I'd play a real persona warriors game. Strikers gameplay was kinda dope. They leaned too much into damage sponge bosses to the point where playing on easy felt so much better, but it really did translate the persona gameplay to an action game perfectly. Do that but with better writing and p2 through 4 characters and the would be awesome

Fes was better than portable by far. I actually just played strikers and 4. Somehow the writing kept getting more anime as the games went on. I mean 3 had a robot and a dog, but the characters felt more believable than in 5. By strikers those guys felt more like middle schoolers than 18-19 year olds.

Saying v3 is the best one is a controversial opinion, man. I mean, it definitely teases a lot of things that go nowhere, intentionally. It's the weirdest in a weird series for sure though

@Lady_rosalina It's kinda annoying that they just made sora a better bayo.

@Alztru He's supposed to be a counter puncher character. He does feel a bit bad to play, but his style is set up to basically spam range attacks until the other character comes to him. Which means he gets wrecked by fast characters.

@NotoriousWhiz Google took me here saying that this was the last one.

@UglyCasanova Donkey Kong buffs are actually big. Meta knight might be able to kill and that's be cool if since he's been kinda bad for two game in retribution for brawl. Min min and pythra nerfs are welcome. Other than that, it's a large balance patch that doesn't really nerf anyone except those two. Really only the mid tier characters and plant got buffed in this which means the meta could be changing a lot from this patch. Some characters that were just okay may see an increase in win rates and usage, basically.

If I had 350 to burn id get o e to replace my ig switch. The battery life upgrade would be nice. But I use my lite to play portably so if I did have an OLED I couldn't justify even having a switch lite.

@anoyonmus Probably because the switch normally doesn't. That's the only reason I can think of. Usually the only games with downloads on day one are third party games, which Pokemon technically is, but you know what I mean.

@TimeGuy that definitely had a historical precedent though. The last gba and the dsi xl came out like six months before the da and 3ds. The 2ds xl came out after the switch. And yeah you could argue the switch is not a handheld. You'd be wrong, but you could make that argument.

@StifledSilence Doom eternal is a corridor shooter. It's easier to cheat things when you're only needing to load things in a small area just in front of you. And yeah, they probably could get the PS4 versions of kingdom hearts one and 2+ running on the switch, because that's what they are, no the decades old versions. probably not 3 because of how much ***** goes on constantly. It's not like Witcher, it's like Bayonetta with larger levels that need to be rendered constantly and with just a stupid amount of partial effects that I guess could be turned off, but still

It's still not lazy. Someone decided it's not worth the money, which it might not have been. I don't know how much it would have cost to have a team port over those games compared to the cloud, but the cloud is certainly cheaper. You'd also have to have people not work on something else and instead work on the port, which may not be a good allocation of manpower. It's not pure laziness, it's pure cost analysis. Things cost money. Bethesda decided that it was worth the money, square enix working with a different product decided differently and that's okay, at least it's on the switch.

@StifledSilence I don't think so. Someone determined that it was the cheaper option and more likely to make the money back than a full port. That's definitely not lazy, it's just a business decision. The switch is inherently weak hardware, to get something to actually run on the thing thats literally a generation or now two ahead of it takes a lot of investment of time money and people. I side with the publishers andnl higher ups on this one. Chances are it's not worth it to port some of these things except with cloud gaming.

@Astral-Grain Not necessarily. Shifting opinion can change the expectation of future profit. People have been saying the same thing about game freak for years, most other companies would see the writing on the wall and change things up to avoid the loss of interest. In video games you can see this happen literally all the time with publishers that put out yearly games. Sure the sports games change very little year to year, but there is a progressive yearly change so that after 3-5 years you can actually tell the difference mechanically between the games. It's a sort of grow or die mentality. Game freak doesn't change and there's been a lot of backlash growing since sun and moon especially because of it. You'd think that'd be cause for a leap, which Arceus arguably is a rare experiment in the direction of. It's also arguably monster hunter stories. Well see how well it does once it's called Pokemon. Probably great, honestly.

It's weird that the last cool Pokemon game I can think of was conquest.

@Astral-Grain Usually a buggy game comes from a lack of time or resources. Some companies lack neither and put out sub par games. Both scenarios come from an upper management position. I guess mismanaged would be the right word, but I mean, it's just a pedantic choice. What's it matter when the intent behind what's said is the same? That being that the product didn't meet expectations. Whatever the reason it's not really in the consumers bounds to fix it, it's not their job either. Lazy is as good a word as anything else. We can discuss why things didn't meet expectations, but not everyone wants to have that conversation. Sometimes people just want to voice their disappointment and that's okay. It gets less okay when talking about a person, but companies, no matter what they want you to think, aren't people. Talk ***** about them. Between that and not buying their product that's the only way to see change.

Okay. I'd we're talking about game freak let's call them complacent with apparently the wrong attitude to further develop the one product they have. Game freak is probably the largest dev team that puts out work that barely pushes it's genre at all. Activision as a publisher is up there, but even cod changes eventually even if it takes a long time and like 5 yearly releases.

Pokemon just got more streamlined since gen 2 or 3 with very small improvements and literally all of them were highly just cribbing from other games in the genre that worked. Which Ubisoft does and is probably the most guilty party, bit they usually still take like 6 things and cram it in their build a game that makes money formula. It usually doesn't really work all the way like far cry 5 and Valhalla, but they at least try something. Game freak doesn't try to actually develop their formula and doesn't allocate perceively any resources to make their games at least look or run better or he more feature complete. I know this wasn't talking strictly about game freak, but the title card and they just plain suck. So game freak isn't lazy. They suck. It's much easier to use one word rather than 150. Which may be lazy, or just more effort than it's worth, which is what dev teams like game freak seem to think of their product.

I still don't know how I feel about this game. It looks like they made smt 3 again with the mechanics lifted from 4 and a bit from persona 5. It just seems a little too safe. I mean, 3s a cult classic and all, but it 5 looks like they just made smt 3 again full stop. I mean, world ends in the first 20 minutes and you play in a desertified Tokyo as a half demon hybrid and by all accounts rely on environmental storytelling to piece together a sparse plot. Which game is that? I hope it does something to differentiate itself. I had problems with 4, but at least the story felt innovative and pushed the series.

@CharlieGirl The first game wasn't so grim when you put it next to the second. Man, that game went dark and never came back up for air.

For what its worth Mitama are boosters and completely destroy the game by making money and levels meaningless. Don't buy them if you want to actually play the game so that's a moot point. 10 bucks for a super boss is steep though.

@StinkyTrapDoor I think the were more known for slightly updated rereleases like persona 3 fes, p4 golden, and p5 royal. Smt 4 had the exact same dlc and smt 3 had a slightly updated rerelease. Devil survivor did too Eterian odyssey had a load of dlc and rereleases. Atlus has historically been just as bad as any other Japanese company. I think Namco is worse, but that's an opinion

@tanaka2687 Japanese companies have been on this since like 2006. As soon as dlc became a thing Atlus, Namco, my god, Tecmo, and Capcom have had predatory dlc plans of anything they can sell at ridiculous prices. Especially costumes. Dead or alive? That time Capcom sold the ending to Asura? Every tales game since vesperia. All of nipon icchis games. It's just a Japanese thing. Different culture about dlc

@nessisonett And again, it's hard to justify reading through steins gate compared to watching the show. Is the visual novel more complete in a lot of ways? Yeah, but you'd not be missing much. I think the on visual novel that didn't have some gameplay I liked was ever 17. The nonary games games, hotel dusk, phoenix wright games are good, but they have some light puzzle stuff so it's slightly different.

@Spiders It's actually pretty cool to see a shift back from a cutscene and you see what the other sides of a missile block or what a blocked door looks like from a different angle.

@Beaucine Nah, that's how normal people play all the Metroid games, including dread. On my playthrough it was a lot of getting lost and trying to find out how to get items. This was the most easy Metroid to get lost in. The maps are surprisingly labyrinthine.

@Nego I don't know how he's otherwise problematic. He raises his own meat? I think that was the thing. He wore a t-shirt people didn't like once. I don't even know when he made a transphobic remark. I think he defended a transphobic church, which is different. And since I googled it he made apparently a transphobic joke to Jennifer Lawrence, but I'd didn't know it was transphobic when I heard it was really funny so dunno.

@N64-ROX There's only one ending, it's just how you get there you can choose. You can kinda determine what kind of guy your main character is, but it's a psychological thing so if you just answer the way you would answer you'll get there. There's not really a wrong answer, which is the whole point of the game