fireflydrake

@liljmoore the struggle and the headache is--the game is FUN. And there's so much potential and so many good steps forward and plenty of things that ARE worth celebrating. Am I going to repeatedly bang my head and groan that they've bungled it so badly from a technical and graphics standpoint? Yes. Do I have the willpower to deprive myself of what is ultimately still a very fun game just because they continually drop the ball on parts of it? No. It's a bittersweet thing. I will for now continue to tolerate their weaknesses and take comfort in the fact that at least in ARCEUS and now V/S they HAVE proven willing to really rethink core gameplay and move forward. Hopefully the rest will follow as well.

@blindsquarel Bug Fables was great. Hades was too. I've been really digging all the Indies that are on Switch. The Ori games weren't as good as the above two but were another really fun one, and those are just a few from the top of my head.

@Jamie_R nah. Good Indies will always exist, be honored, and be what people think of when they hear Indie. The rest just gets thought of as Shovelware and rightfully dismissed out of mind.

If anyone here had even the slightest affection for the first two Paper Mario's, I recommend Bug Fables 10000%. The basic combat / RPG / exploration parts of the game are immediately recognizable, but they also have a lot of fun twists and improvements from PM's system. And, just like the first two PMs, the world is rich, filled with characters you'll fall for, and has stories of horror and sorrow just as well as ones of joy and growth. Can't recommend it highly enough!
Not to mention it has several "secret" modes to make for good replayability, such as one that randomizes badge locations or only lets you upgrade badge points instead of HP/MP, BUT also lowers all badge requirements to 1 MP in return.

I really loved the GameCube one and would pull it out to play with my brothers even well into the Wii U era. If they make another really awesome one I'd buy it for sure.

@roka_adrian alright, I'll bite. Inspiration can indeed come in many forms. But I'm not going to stick around to see if you manage to stick a Ghibli-esque landing when you've got such a blatant pikachu ripoff front and center. "Electric zigzag rodent" would've been obvious enough, but you also have to insist on using pikachu ears, stripes, and yellow colors? C'mon dude. How can I trust you to take me anywhere original or interesting when out of all the endless things you could've dreamed up for monster designs, you took the lowest hanging knock off fruit imaginable? Your mobile game vibes go a lot deeper than the artwork and base gameplay. You're not even out of kickstarting and the game already feels lazy and derivative.

Don't play the Studio Ghibli card unless you're ready to back it up. This looks very meh mobile game even before setting me up for that disappointment, but the worst of it all is how blatant the zigzag tailed electric rat is. You can create any wondrous beasties from your imagination you'd like, and you resort to copying three of the most obvious traits of one of the most well known fictional monsters in the world? Hard pass.

Edit: a second glance reveals its even worse than I first thought. Zigzag tail electric rat also has stripes, yellow colors, and even the classic pikachu ears. Like c'mon. And that art style couldn't be more mobile if it tried.

@Alienfreaks04 no and yes. They follow the same scripted paths on each run, BUT:

• those paths change with day and night
• those paths change with different research levels (4 per level)
• and, most critically, you can influence them into a lot of different actions by influencing them through the use of items at your disposal (music, food, etc).

It's kind of like light puzzling mixed in with a photo safari. If the Pokémon did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted every time you revisited the same setting, then if you'd just missed a fantastic interaction the run before, you'd be out of luck until the RNG Gods smiled on you. Random encounters certainly have their place, but in a game like this they'd somewhat reduce effort and patience to luck.

Sky port please!

@WoomyNNYes while I'm awaiting a release date too, is Genshin Impact really considered an "indie?"

@GrailUK all of those sound amazing tbh

Oof, most of in game sprites look so nice--EXCEPT the people and monsters. :/ I thought the protag was a bearded middle age man, which would've been an interesting choice, but based on the cover art it's a young typical dude with a scarf. Does not translate well.

Mmm, so many good memories. I cherish Golden Sun to this day, and Superstar Saga, Fire Emblem, and Pokémon Sapphire were all terrific. It's unfortunate that the later installments often don't match those heights (the other Mario & Luigis were never quite as good, the third Golden Sun was all over the place and not very visually pleasing, and while I still adore the Fire Emblem series I think the storylines have been pretty downhill since the Wii era... though, to be fair, I still need to return to Three Houses.)

Honestly I think one of Nintendo's greatest issues is they drop the ball more often than they catch it in terms of hype. First full direct in over a year sets people's hopes up and then you have no really major upcoming new releases? Splatoon 3 is great but it's in 2022. This whole release was billed as being soon to come games (which imo wasn't a great idea since they apparently didn't have much to show). Should've waited til they had BotW2 updates or something equally grand.
It's like when Pokemon announced two presentations back to back a while ago; people got Pokemon Snap in the first and were really excited, then the second release was just some generic looking crossover. If it had been just roped into the first presentation instead of hyped as a whole second one it'd have been taken differently.

Zelda 35th anniversary and Pokemon 25th ongoing and still nothing really mind blowing from either franchise. Was really hoping for BotW2 news, but barring that at least an HD rerelease of OoT/MM. Nope, just SS, the worst main Zelda game (fight me on this).

Also no Pikmin 4 HMPH.

Looking forward to Splatoon 3 tho--really hope they push further with fleshing out the world. They took baby steps with 2 but could've done so much more. I honestly think Splatoon could stand next to Zelda and Mario as a core franchise if they really make a stellar single player experience to go side by side with the phenomenal multiplayer.

@deafdood as someone who started Stardew for the first time a month ago and promptly buried a hundred hours in it, I'd highly recommend you give it another try! After your first few starting hours in the game you'll be drowning in so many consumables you'll never have to worry about energy again. There are also things later on that both permanently boost your stamina, reduce the stamina drained by tasks, AND greatly reduce how much stamina draining stuff you have to do to begin with. I honestly don't even think about stamina anymore unless I'm in some of the combat areas, in which cases a single wholesome cheese (of which I get five a day) is usually enough to get the job done.

And really, even in early game, the stamina thing isn't so bad as it looks at first sight--it encourages you to go out and explore instead of just hammer away at work all day, and that leads to many of the game's best moments.

@fivedigitLP now that you mentioned the cartoony bit, I wish they'd gone for a more Pokken tournament type of style. That game really hit the sweet spot of making Pokémon look good while still making sure they looked like Pokémon.

Ah well.

I really enjoyed the original and am looking forward to this, but some of the graphics leave much to be desired. The water areas look GORGEOUS but the grass and leaf textures are pretty bleh. I'm not expecting hyper realism in a pokemon game but I would've liked to see them a bit more detailed. Think BotW grass and foliage, it's simple but still beautiful looking.

@Grot there's realistic presentation of curvy women and then there's ridiculously deformed giant back breaking udder boobs. This is falling under the former. If you haven't ever seen a real lady to know the difference, maybe try doing that.

@Isle_Delfino_Man the MAX time you could hit in the original was thirty days, but most people who’ve played Pikmin before can finish the game in ten days or less. Ditto with Pikmin 2. Fun games, but the campaigns have never been overly long.

For me personally I found a lot more fun (and time investment) in the side missions. Had lots of fun hitting perfect co-op runs on those with family members.

I picked this game up after being disappointed with the newest Paper Mario and it’s the BEST GAME I’VE PLAYED ALL YEAR. The overall gameplay is similar to Paper Mario but the entire thing is exploding with jokes, character development, and serious lore building. Absolutely awesome game. I started a mystery badge run immediately after my first play through but did lose steam about halfway through; this is a great reason to jump back in and finish. Essentially free DLC! I love these people, hope they make a sequel down the road.

@Archius9 trust me, the game you’re getting at its current price is already an incredible deal. I put 40 hours into my first play through and immediately started a second. It’s the best game I’ve played on Switch all year, no question.

Maybe if it goes on sale.

Beat the snot out of the original (100% co-op with my siblings was a lot of fun), so was relying on a good amount of new additions to justify paying $60 again. Didn’t deliver that, IMO.

Gimme Pikmin 4 if you want my money, Nintendo.

Was back and forth about getting this, now leaning not. While 2 was my favorite (Caves! Treasure! Really detailed biological enemy info!), I did have a lot of fun with 3 and 100%’d all the side missions twice over with my family, plus participated in countless bingo battles. I really wanted a bit more new content to rebuy at the same price, and it sounds like it doesn’t deliver that. Online co-op bingo and mission would’ve been nice, as would more detailed piklopedia entries. The new controls have some pros but also some cons (although maybe I’m just too ingrained from all the time spent in the original)

Still waiting to hear:
1) is hard mode just a 60 Pikmin cap or is it also shorter days, more enemy HP etc?
2) REALLY waiting for someone to give us more info about the epilogue missions. Doesn’t have to be story spoilery but I’d like to know if there’s any new things to collect/enemies/characters/areas. ANYTHING new.

I’d been following this game for a while, bought it immediately on its Switch release, and it was indeed quite the disappointment. It would have made a charming (if cliche and predictable) short film, but as a game it falls very flat in many regards. Being an animal is a childhood dream and common flight of fantasy, but the game gives you so little to DO as any of its animals that they feel more like an afterthought. They don’t really relate to the core story of the game at all, and have so little means of interacting with their (linear) environment that I was barely interested in any of them. It’s a far cry from, say, Space Station Silicon Valley, a gem of my childhood where I’d fart around for hours as any random animal because there was so much fun to be had.

@Pod there have been so many new indie companies producing amazing things on the first try that I feel we can’t just hand wave this game’s many significant flaws as mere startup troubles, though. As just one recent example I recently finished and immediately started a new run of Bug Fables because it was so charming, and that was a first production. If there were just a few issues in Lost Ember I’d be more amiable, but in my experience it was really Not Good.
Although hey, maybe if people like you are still willing to support them they’ll make something truly dazzling in future. I do see potential in them, but this was such a blegh gaming experience for me that I really can’t personally recommend buying it.

I don’t think people care about the game so much as people were exceedingly disappointed about a big, separate Pokemon announcement just being a pay to play low quality mobile game with a format we’ve seen before. Pokemon Cafe was more interesting to me. And, of course, Pokemon Snap was the real delight. Ending with that then getting people excited over a whole second announcement just for... this... is what people are grumbly over.

@Princessgina Splatoon is extremely popular, as it should be. Why the heck would they leave it out of a direct? Animal Crossing probably doesn’t appeal to everyone either, should they leave that out of any future directs? Can’t have it both ways.

Mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm glad that tournaments won't have to worry about hacked pokemon (as much), but on the other... sometimes it's fun to just use hacked pokemon for your own use. I've proudly gotten to around ~640 pokemon in my pokedex, all legit, but I know there are some things I'll simply never get legally--such as a shiny Rayquaza I can name after one of my original characters. So in cases like that, I like to hack one just for my own in-game fun usage... but now it sounds like such things can endanger my entire game? Lame... unless it's just the generic "messing with your game can break it" message, in which case not much has really changed...