@LadyCharlie Does Tears of the Kingdom have day 1 DLC? Is Nintendo's CEO pocketing record $ rather than offsetting the high cost of development? I think it depends on the company and the game.
As someone who manages urban forests and has to deal with invasive vinelands on a near-daily basis, and as a gamer whose first console was the Game Boy, and as a huge Zelda fan, this game seems tailor made for me!
Please don't confuse people by calling FFIV's original release FFII (SNES) and calling FFVI's original release FFIII (SNES). I know that's what they were called in North America, but FFII and FFIII are here meaning completely different games in other releases and it's damn confusing when you change the names like that. Just use the modern corrected names for the games and maybe put SNES name in parentheses…
No! Game Freak also have said they never want to do it again, now that they have DLC. The whole point of the third version was to do DLC storylines added on.
I'd rather see something thematically related like Legends Arceus to BDSP.
@-wc- Some Foremen have to be CPMs, but my job is actually from the client side. I work for the Greatest City in the World managing contractors and keeping them on budget, on schedule, and performing the world legally and safely and following best management practices. My work is focused on natural areas construction and restoration, rebuilding wetlands and grasslands and forests, but also on green infrastructure and street tree planting, but people in my job title often work on building construction jobs as well.
Enjoy your trip down Snake Way, Sensei. Just watch out for the Home For Infinite Losers, you'll need to hold back your perversions or find a trampoline. The world will be a less merry place without you.
Just answering lingering unsolved questions. Past translation efforts identified major differences between the text of the original Japanese from the NOA official translation. GSU Wiki lacks in uniformity of translations on this front, and there are several unanswered questions.
My original reason for doing it was to understand better the real world inspirations for Golden Sun. Various characters, places, and ideas are more directly connected to real Earth history and mythology and folklore and geography than they are in the official translations.
Uncovering these secrets also helps the wiki become more precise to better serve the understanding of readers going there for information.
I have my physical copy, and loved ZREO back in the days before Twilight Symphony when they were remaking songs from all of the games. Cool to see them back at it!
One thing I hadn't expected with this new release is that it's SOOO nice to play with the original hardware filters and smaller screen - the game's colour palette, sprite work, and text boxes were designed with the GBA's screen in mind and previous emulation on Wii U and playing rom hacks on computer miss this LCD filter.
I just tried booting up Golden Sun on my old 2004 DS and the backlight colours on the top screen seem brighter than the colour palette I have on my TV with the game via NSO (using original hardware LCD-esque filter). The colours feel a bit yellowed and off from memory and from the NSO version, but at least capture the grainy LCD filter that the GBA has. I tried booting up my old GBA SP but it won't turn on even when charged — I think the on/off switch may have some issue on the inside. Will have to get it looked at. If I can find a blue or purple GBA around my house somewhere I'll test the colour of NSO against non-backlit GBAs, but I get the feeling that the darker color during the Vale Storm that I got with NSO emulation + LCD screen filter captured the colour feel of the game more than the DS backlit LCD top screen, and definitely hits the dark of the storm correctly.
Notably, turning off that feature makes all the sprites cleaner, but loses some of the contour and shading and makes the colour all feel a bit too bright.
I tried playing with small screen size vs full screen size and the game's resolution definitely feels more proper in the small screen size. I guess if you took off the LCD filter the full-screen would work, but LCD filter + full screen makes it feel like I can see way too many of the individual pixels, and everything feels a bit jerky and wrong. I think the game really relies on the smaller resolution and the LCD filter to smooth out a lot of the raw edges, and that's the most comfortable way to play it. Even on my huge TV, the smaller screen version feels small enough that the resolution doesn't feel any more "raw" than it did playing on GBA or DS.
I wish I could change the filters while in the game rather than having to exit out to GBA games menu and change the options there before loading back in to a save state.
Also, this has finally given me the impetus to download the Japanese versions of the NSO historic hardware apps. Rewind features makes it so much easier to explore the Golden Sun script and fan-translate the game for comparison against the official NOA translation (a personal project of mine, to clean up the errors on the Golden Sun Universe wiki, part of NIWA).
I'm disappointed that the reviewer fails to highlight the outstanding soundtrack! At least they don't crap on it like with the review of the first game — also one with gorgeous music!
I hum and sing the Golden Sun soundtrack ALL THE FRIKKIN TIME. Its soundtrack is LEGENDARY. I don't know what sort of reviewer doesn't latch on to Matoi Sakuraba's work, especially here, but you really missed the mark with this review when it comes to soundtrack!
Trace Memory was such a good game; looking forward to seeing how the point-and-click Adventure game + mystery puzzles translate away from the touch screen / closing the DS to traditional controls (and maybe motion control translation for the Wii game??)
Everyone who loves DQM series should buy this so we can convince them to finally bring West the Terry's Wonderland and Marvellous Mysterious Key remakes (DQM 1 & 2) that were only on 3DS for Japan but also enhanced and released for Japanese smartphones a few years later. There's no reason they couldn't bring the smartphone adaptation of them to Switch!!!
One thing I hadn't expected with this new release is that it's SOOO nice to play with the original hardware filters and smaller screen - the game's colour palette, sprite work, and text boxes were designed with the GBA's screen in mind and previous emulation on Wii U and playing rom hacks on computer miss this LCD filter.
I just tried booting up Golden Sun on my old 2004 DS and the backlight colours on the top screen seem brighter than the colour palette I have on my TV with the game via NSO (using original hardware LCD-esque filter). The colours feel a bit yellowed and off from memory and from the NSO version, but at least capture the grainy LCD filter that the GBA has. I tried booting up my old GBA SP but it won't turn on even when charged — I think the on/off switch may have some issue on the inside. Will have to get it looked at. If I can find a blue or purple GBA around my house somewhere I'll test the colour of NSO against non-backlit GBAs, but I get the feeling that the darker color during the Vale Storm that I got with NSO emulation + LCD screen filter captured the colour feel of the game more than the DS backlit LCD top screen, and definitely hits the dark of the storm correctly.
Notably, turning off that feature makes all the sprites cleaner, but loses some of the contour and shading and makes the colour all feel a bit too bright.
I tried playing with small screen size vs full screen size and the game's resolution definitely feels more proper in the small screen size. I guess if you took off the LCD filter the full-screen would work, but LCD filter + full screen makes it feel like I can see way too many of the individual pixels, and everything feels a bit jerky and wrong. I think the game really relies on the smaller resolution and the LCD filter to smooth out a lot of the raw edges, and that's the most comfortable way to play it. Even on my huge TV, the smaller screen version feels small enough that the resolution doesn't feel any more "raw" than it did playing on GBA or DS.
I wish I could change the filters while in the game rather than having to exit out to GBA games menu and change the options there before loading back in to a save state.
Also, this has finally given me the impetus to download the Japanese versions of the NSO historic hardware apps. Rewind features makes it so much easier to explore the Golden Sun script and fan-translate the game for comparison against the official NOA translation (a personal project of mine, to clean up the errors on the Golden Sun Universe wiki, part of NIWA).
One thing I hadn't expected with this new release is that it's SOOO nice to play with the original hardware filters and smaller screen - the game's colour palette, sprite work, and text boxes were designed with the GBA's screen in mind and previous emulation on Wii U and playing rom hacks on computer miss this LCD filter.
I just tried booting up Golden Sun on my old 2004 DS and the backlight colours on the top screen seem brighter than the colour palette I have on my TV with the game via NSO (using original hardware LCD-esque filter). The colours feel a bit yellowed and off from memory and from the NSO version, but at least capture the grainy LCD filter that the GBA has. I tried booting up my old GBA SP but it won't turn on even when charged — I think the on/off switch may have some issue on the inside. Will have to get it looked at. If I can find a blue or purple GBA around my house somewhere I'll test the colour of NSO against non-backlit GBAs, but I get the feeling that the darker color during the Vale Storm that I got with NSO emulation + LCD screen filter captured the colour feel of the game more than the DS backlit LCD top screen, and definitely hits the dark of the storm correctly.
Notably, turning off that feature makes all the sprites cleaner, but loses some of the contour and shading and makes the colour all feel a bit too bright.
I tried playing with small screen size vs full screen size and the game's resolution definitely feels more proper in the small screen size. I guess if you took off the LCD filter the full-screen would work, but LCD filter + full screen makes it feel like I can see way too many of the individual pixels, and everything feels a bit jerky and wrong. I think the game really relies on the smaller resolution and the LCD filter to smooth out a lot of the raw edges, and that's the most comfortable way to play it. Even on my huge TV, the smaller screen version feels small enough that the resolution doesn't feel any more "raw" than it did playing on GBA or DS.
I wish I could change the filters while in the game rather than having to exit out to GBA games menu and change the options there before loading back in to a save state.
Also, this has finally given me the impetus to download the Japanese versions of the NSO historic hardware apps. Rewind features makes it so much easier to explore the Golden Sun script and fan-translate the game for comparison against the official NOA translation (a personal project of mine, to clean up the errors on the Golden Sun Universe wiki, part of NIWA).
Having save states and rewind features and easy access to the Japanese versions are going to make script re-translations so much easier!
Don't get me started on how many hours I've spent on translation work for Goldensunwiki.net (Golden Sun Universe). I'm glad I own the JP version carts of all three games as well, but it'll be REALLY nice to have the rewind feature to jump back to before a Yes-No dialogue tree split for script analysis!
To be fair to Natsume, Natume is a perfectly reasonable translation of their name.
Tu and Tsu are written with the same kana, and it's a Japanese world.
I say this even as I remind folks that these games were made by Marvelous and Natsume are the bungling translation team that distributed this series out of Japan until the fork when Marvelous started selling them on their own under a more direct translation of the Japanese title – "Story of Seasons" – while Natsume continues to try to cash in on nostalgia by releasing janky knock-off farming sim games under the "Harvest Moon" title.
Fujibayashi seems interested in continuity; Aonuma seems to be more along the lines of Miyamoto in preferring to keep continuity at a minimum and always subject to tossing out the window in service of matching a new game's gameplay concepts.
In any case, the continuity is really not that big of an issue with the Zelda timeline. Rauru the Zonai established the Kingdom of Hyrule sometime after the the fall of the original Hyrule Kingdom (and in my opinion, after a re-merging of the 3 timelines). Rauru's Sages are spiritual revisits of Ocarina of Time's Sages, because history repeats itself and characters with the same name show up throughout the Zelda timeline, often serving the same or very similar roles.
Of course, one could also choose to ignore everything but Skyward Sword - Breath of the Wild - Tears of the Kingdom, and it would work just as well!
Not the action game, but I wouldn't be surprised if this studio also launched in part to do remakes/enhanced ports of the Xenosaga trilogy given how suggestive Future Redeemed was towards Xenosaga being canon to the Xenoblade trilogy. Bamco re-registered Xenosaga and KOS-MOS trademarks recently, but have given special leave for elements from them to show up in the Monolith Soft games for Nintendo.
Nintendo and Bamco may not be merging or anything, but they have a great working relationship, a lot better than Nintendo has with any of the other major Japanese video game studios (Squenix, Capcom, Konami, etc).
I wouldn't have known about it if not for John Cartwright at GVG (formerly of this website). While I share his love of Link's Awakening (it's my favourite in the series), the fact that the game is readily available on Switch in both HD and DX versions, as well as on Game & Watch in its original Game Boy version, means this is the sort of project no one should be touching, let alone advertising to the world. AM2R at least lived as long as it did because no one thought Metroid 2 was getting a real remake.
And calling it a PC Port? This was inevitable, and blatantly illegal, even if they completely rebuilt it from the ground up from scratch. They infringed on the IP, the scenario, the gameplay, the basic controls, the music, the sprites used, etc.
In contrast, Panic's Playdate has a game called "Resonant Tale" which is a very direct homage to Link's Awakening, in digital fonts, in sprite work, in world design, in genre, but it's 1-bit black and white graphics, and controls entirely differently and has its own map and puzzles that are entirely different. That's how you do a tribute to your favourite game; making something inspired by it, not making an illegal port of it that "improves" on it with lighting and shaders and item slots but also prevents you from locking the viewshed to the original gameboy screen transitions.
Finally, one more comment on building up the architecture from the ground up, because sometimes I see this thrown around as a way to get around the claims of piracy: OpenMW had to navigate a very delicate legal tightrope on this front when it recreated the engine of Morrowind to break the 2002 coding rules and open up the floodgates for game mods. But they had a few legal tools in their utility belt: (1) to play Morrowind in OpenMW, you need a copy of Morrowind. You could code your own game with the OpenMW using Morrowind as a guidepost but without many of its limitations, but to legally play a game with Morrowind's assets and scenario you need to actually own a copy of the game and install it. (2) Morrowind came with the Construction Set and Bethesda actively encouraged modding as long as you stayed within the licensing agreement – you're not distributing the game to others illegally, for example, or trying to sell your own game using their assets. (3) OpenMW completely rewrote the code, and I understand this game used some of the original code of Zelda GB.
Even STILL, Bethesda issued OpenMW a cease and desist at the time, only to retract it after the lawyers spoke with each other about it and clarified what OpenMW is and isn't.
This game breaks all of those guiding frameworks. The only thing really going for it is that it's an old game, but an old game easily available means it felt dirty even to see GVG making a video about it.
Ugh, I already own KOTOR I/II and Republic Commando as downloads.
Do I want all of these in physical or just to support the devs or send a signal of why good SW games are important? What to do…
Usually I only double up on digital and physical if I really want to play the game earlier and then later want to support an indy dev or something – say with Cadence of Hyrule. I'm still debating whether I download Sea of Stars now or just wait for the physical; I've got so much else in my stack that I can afford to wait, but Sea of Stars is the sort of game I'd double up like this on. Not sure if a physical pack of games that are all available digital and all from yesteryear is the sort of thing I'd want on cart, but hmmmm....
PlayDate showed me that alternate control schemes like cranks and scrollers are a great innovation.
I'd love "Switch 2" to play up "play your way" – it's very Nintendo and what makes them different from the other companies.
And if they can provide a variant optional controller with a second screen a-la the Wii U gamepad, then that opens up the back-catalog of DS, 3DS, and Wii U titles as well for NSO in the future.
I think it's okay to require specialty controllers for certain game styles, and you could always allow the game to be controlled with alternate functions and show both screens on the TV if necessary.
Best in the series… maybe from a gameplay point of view.
The story is the weakest of the three, and artistically, it's just not nearly as fun beating up teal putty ninjas as it is torturing angels or giving demons a taste of their own medicine. Finally, there's something missing from Bayonetta's portrayal in this one — in the previous entries, she was sexual in defiance of the male gaze, turning it around and controlling the scene as if she, as an AI, was taking ownership of her own sexuality. In this one, they play it safe, almost to the point that they want to pretend Bayonetta isn't inherently sexualized. It seems in line with the latter development of the lovely storybook-esque prequel, which is a hard-right turn for the series. And maybe that's fine for where Bayonetta's grown as a character — the games don't "NEED" to feel the same in that way. But it feels like the weakest of the three entries from storytelling and artwork and artistry, while being the strongest from pure mechanical gameplay design.
Don't get me wrong — I really enjoyed the game. But it's not a 10/10 for me, by a long shot.
These games are some of my favourite in the GameCube library.
You'd also notice if you play both these and all the Xenoblade games just how hugely influential they are on the concepts explored in the later titles. Not gameplay of course, but the worldbuilding concepts!
@Savage_Joe And the 4 Musketeer Legendaries are in NYC, not France. And Hoenn's legends come from Semitic Mythology/folklore. And Sinnoh's legends are based on the Izumo myth cycle — from the opposite side of Japan.
This has been Pokémon's MO forever. It doesn't need to make perfect sense or FIT exactly.
Then there's the benefit that Nintendo can easily port NSO over to the Switch 2, while they had to re-sell you a newly emulated version of each VC game you bought last generation every time their churned out a new console.
Xbox can let you restore your purchases based on your account precisely because it's a computer in a box. Nintendo's console… aren't that. They're also their own different animal with their own coding. Switch is relatively easy to code for compared to past generations because it's based on the Nvidia Shield tablets, but it still has the eccentricities of Nintendo's built-in systems.
Xbox can be so effectively backwards compatible with purchases because its newer releases are iterative, and Microsoft always builds its code on-top of the previous versions for compatibility. Nintendo goes in wildly different and interesting directions that are very difficult to plan for when they're trying to put out one-time purchases. But a streaming -> download service means they can future-proof NSO games for generations to come.
It's the same reason why we have Pokémon HOME now instead of Bank. Bank wasn't designed for compatibility with smart phones or with anything other than 3DS and DS carts, as it's a very 3DS-specific software. HOME is built for long-term compatibility.
If you buy a game and it's bugged, well, Nintendo already sold you the game. They may have an incentive to avoid bad reviews, as you said — if you shout loudly enough or enough people vote with their wallets and don't buy it — well then they do have an incentive to fix it. But for the most part, there's very little incentive on the part of the seller to provide free update services to consumers who have already bought their products.
But subscription models are an entanglement of consumer and producer. The subscriber can't have the game if they don't keep paying the recurring fee, but the creator also can't ignore problems lest people cancel their subs. There's mutual incentives for betterment of gaming as a whole.
@Lebon14 See, the problem is, you've bought the game already. Nintendo has no incentive to spend money fixing it for you, you've already paid all the money you're going to pay for it.
If, instead, you are paying a subscription fee, they have EVERY incentive to keep up the servers and patch issues with the game after the fact. That's the benefit of the subscription model.
Comments 800
Re: Saber Interactive CEO Doesn't Think $70 Video Games Are Sustainable
@Serpenterror There's been a lot of inflation since the late 90s. And even 1st party games back then were 60 USD.
70 USD seems reasonable if you're getting what you paid for!
Re: Saber Interactive CEO Doesn't Think $70 Video Games Are Sustainable
@LadyCharlie Does Tears of the Kingdom have day 1 DLC? Is Nintendo's CEO pocketing record $ rather than offsetting the high cost of development? I think it depends on the company and the game.
Re: Kudzu Is A Lovely Zelda-Inspired Adventure That's Playable On Game Boy
As someone who manages urban forests and has to deal with invasive vinelands on a near-daily basis, and as a gamer whose first console was the Game Boy, and as a huge Zelda fan, this game seems tailor made for me!
Re: Random: Nintendo Releases Endless Ocean Luminous ASMR Style Video
ASMR is a great thing, it's not sketchy.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Final Fantasy Game? Rate Your Favourite Mainline & Spin-Offs
Please don't confuse people by calling FFIV's original release FFII (SNES) and calling FFVI's original release FFIII (SNES). I know that's what they were called in North America, but FFII and FFIII are here meaning completely different games in other releases and it's damn confusing when you change the names like that. Just use the modern corrected names for the games and maybe put SNES name in parentheses…
Re: Nintendo Switch System Update 18.0.0 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@Ironcore
I'm assuming those were going to be Switch Pro features but were pushed to the Switch 2 when the chip shortage cancelled the Pro.
Re: Talking Point: Should 'Third' Pokémon Games Make A Comeback?
No! Game Freak also have said they never want to do it again, now that they have DLC. The whole point of the third version was to do DLC storylines added on.
I'd rather see something thematically related like Legends Arceus to BDSP.
Re: Exclusive: Construction Simulator 4 Builds A May Release Date On Switch
@-wc- Some Foremen have to be CPMs, but my job is actually from the client side. I work for the Greatest City in the World managing contractors and keeping them on budget, on schedule, and performing the world legally and safely and following best management practices. My work is focused on natural areas construction and restoration, rebuilding wetlands and grasslands and forests, but also on green infrastructure and street tree planting, but people in my job title often work on building construction jobs as well.
Re: Exclusive: Construction Simulator 4 Builds A May Release Date On Switch
@-wc- I'm a Construction Project Manager.
Re: Dragon Ball Creator Akira Toriyama Has Passed Away
Enjoy your trip down Snake Way, Sensei. Just watch out for the Home For Infinite Losers, you'll need to hold back your perversions or find a trampoline. The world will be a less merry place without you.
Re: Review: Golden Sun - A Radiant RPG, Once It Gets Going
@Dark_Isatari Feel free to join, scour and improve the wiki! We're stronger together! https://goldensunwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page
Re: Former Netflix-Exclusive 'Valiant Hearts: Coming Home' Arrives On Switch Today
What the heck do you play Netflix games on? It's such a weird concept
Re: Mother Creator On Third Game's Localisation: "Please Talk To Nintendo About That"
@Don Mario, your Princess is in another Cancel – er, I mean Castle.
Re: Monolith Soft Is Looking For Programmer With "3D Action Game Experience"
Xenoblade X remaster, or remakes of Xenosaga but with Xenoblade's combat system?
Re: Review: Golden Sun - A Radiant RPG, Once It Gets Going
@Dark_Isatari
Just answering lingering unsolved questions. Past translation efforts identified major differences between the text of the original Japanese from the NOA official translation. GSU Wiki lacks in uniformity of translations on this front, and there are several unanswered questions.
My original reason for doing it was to understand better the real world inspirations for Golden Sun. Various characters, places, and ideas are more directly connected to real Earth history and mythology and folklore and geography than they are in the official translations.
Uncovering these secrets also helps the wiki become more precise to better serve the understanding of readers going there for information.
Re: ZREO Is Revisiting Zelda: Twilight Symphony With An 80-Piece Orchestra
I have my physical copy, and loved ZREO back in the days before Twilight Symphony when they were remaking songs from all of the games.
Cool to see them back at it!
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's GBA Library With Two RPG Classics
One thing I hadn't expected with this new release is that it's SOOO nice to play with the original hardware filters and smaller screen - the game's colour palette, sprite work, and text boxes were designed with the GBA's screen in mind and previous emulation on Wii U and playing rom hacks on computer miss this LCD filter.
I just tried booting up Golden Sun on my old 2004 DS and the backlight colours on the top screen seem brighter than the colour palette I have on my TV with the game via NSO (using original hardware LCD-esque filter). The colours feel a bit yellowed and off from memory and from the NSO version, but at least capture the grainy LCD filter that the GBA has. I tried booting up my old GBA SP but it won't turn on even when charged — I think the on/off switch may have some issue on the inside. Will have to get it looked at. If I can find a blue or purple GBA around my house somewhere I'll test the colour of NSO against non-backlit GBAs, but I get the feeling that the darker color during the Vale Storm that I got with NSO emulation + LCD screen filter captured the colour feel of the game more than the DS backlit LCD top screen, and definitely hits the dark of the storm correctly.
Notably, turning off that feature makes all the sprites cleaner, but loses some of the contour and shading and makes the colour all feel a bit too bright.
I tried playing with small screen size vs full screen size and the game's resolution definitely feels more proper in the small screen size. I guess if you took off the LCD filter the full-screen would work, but LCD filter + full screen makes it feel like I can see way too many of the individual pixels, and everything feels a bit jerky and wrong. I think the game really relies on the smaller resolution and the LCD filter to smooth out a lot of the raw edges, and that's the most comfortable way to play it. Even on my huge TV, the smaller screen version feels small enough that the resolution doesn't feel any more "raw" than it did playing on GBA or DS.
I wish I could change the filters while in the game rather than having to exit out to GBA games menu and change the options there before loading back in to a save state.
Also, this has finally given me the impetus to download the Japanese versions of the NSO historic hardware apps. Rewind features makes it so much easier to explore the Golden Sun script and fan-translate the game for comparison against the official NOA translation (a personal project of mine, to clean up the errors on the Golden Sun Universe wiki, part of NIWA).
Re: Review: Golden Sun: The Lost Age - More Of The Same, Which Is No Bad Thing
I'm disappointed that the reviewer fails to highlight the outstanding soundtrack! At least they don't crap on it like with the review of the first game — also one with gorgeous music!
Re: Review: Golden Sun - A Radiant RPG, Once It Gets Going
Also lacking in earworms?
I hum and sing the Golden Sun soundtrack ALL THE FRIKKIN TIME. Its soundtrack is LEGENDARY. I don't know what sort of reviewer doesn't latch on to Matoi Sakuraba's work, especially here, but you really missed the mark with this review when it comes to soundtrack!
Re: The First Review For Another Code: Recollection Is In
Fantastic.
Trace Memory was such a good game; looking forward to seeing how the point-and-click Adventure game + mystery puzzles translate away from the touch screen / closing the DS to traditional controls (and maybe motion control translation for the Wii game??)
Re: Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Version 1.0.3 Out Now, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Everyone who loves DQM series should buy this so we can convince them to finally bring West the Terry's Wonderland and Marvellous Mysterious Key remakes (DQM 1 & 2) that were only on 3DS for Japan but also enhanced and released for Japanese smartphones a few years later. There's no reason they couldn't bring the smartphone adaptation of them to Switch!!!
Re: Review: Golden Sun: The Lost Age - More Of The Same, Which Is No Bad Thing
One thing I hadn't expected with this new release is that it's SOOO nice to play with the original hardware filters and smaller screen - the game's colour palette, sprite work, and text boxes were designed with the GBA's screen in mind and previous emulation on Wii U and playing rom hacks on computer miss this LCD filter.
I just tried booting up Golden Sun on my old 2004 DS and the backlight colours on the top screen seem brighter than the colour palette I have on my TV with the game via NSO (using original hardware LCD-esque filter). The colours feel a bit yellowed and off from memory and from the NSO version, but at least capture the grainy LCD filter that the GBA has. I tried booting up my old GBA SP but it won't turn on even when charged — I think the on/off switch may have some issue on the inside. Will have to get it looked at. If I can find a blue or purple GBA around my house somewhere I'll test the colour of NSO against non-backlit GBAs, but I get the feeling that the darker color during the Vale Storm that I got with NSO emulation + LCD screen filter captured the colour feel of the game more than the DS backlit LCD top screen, and definitely hits the dark of the storm correctly.
Notably, turning off that feature makes all the sprites cleaner, but loses some of the contour and shading and makes the colour all feel a bit too bright.
I tried playing with small screen size vs full screen size and the game's resolution definitely feels more proper in the small screen size. I guess if you took off the LCD filter the full-screen would work, but LCD filter + full screen makes it feel like I can see way too many of the individual pixels, and everything feels a bit jerky and wrong. I think the game really relies on the smaller resolution and the LCD filter to smooth out a lot of the raw edges, and that's the most comfortable way to play it. Even on my huge TV, the smaller screen version feels small enough that the resolution doesn't feel any more "raw" than it did playing on GBA or DS.
I wish I could change the filters while in the game rather than having to exit out to GBA games menu and change the options there before loading back in to a save state.
Also, this has finally given me the impetus to download the Japanese versions of the NSO historic hardware apps. Rewind features makes it so much easier to explore the Golden Sun script and fan-translate the game for comparison against the official NOA translation (a personal project of mine, to clean up the errors on the Golden Sun Universe wiki, part of NIWA).
Re: Review: Golden Sun - A Radiant RPG, Once It Gets Going
One thing I hadn't expected with this new release is that it's SOOO nice to play with the original hardware filters and smaller screen - the game's colour palette, sprite work, and text boxes were designed with the GBA's screen in mind and previous emulation on Wii U and playing rom hacks on computer miss this LCD filter.
I just tried booting up Golden Sun on my old 2004 DS and the backlight colours on the top screen seem brighter than the colour palette I have on my TV with the game via NSO (using original hardware LCD-esque filter). The colours feel a bit yellowed and off from memory and from the NSO version, but at least capture the grainy LCD filter that the GBA has. I tried booting up my old GBA SP but it won't turn on even when charged — I think the on/off switch may have some issue on the inside. Will have to get it looked at. If I can find a blue or purple GBA around my house somewhere I'll test the colour of NSO against non-backlit GBAs, but I get the feeling that the darker color during the Vale Storm that I got with NSO emulation + LCD screen filter captured the colour feel of the game more than the DS backlit LCD top screen, and definitely hits the dark of the storm correctly.
Notably, turning off that feature makes all the sprites cleaner, but loses some of the contour and shading and makes the colour all feel a bit too bright.
I tried playing with small screen size vs full screen size and the game's resolution definitely feels more proper in the small screen size. I guess if you took off the LCD filter the full-screen would work, but LCD filter + full screen makes it feel like I can see way too many of the individual pixels, and everything feels a bit jerky and wrong. I think the game really relies on the smaller resolution and the LCD filter to smooth out a lot of the raw edges, and that's the most comfortable way to play it. Even on my huge TV, the smaller screen version feels small enough that the resolution doesn't feel any more "raw" than it did playing on GBA or DS.
I wish I could change the filters while in the game rather than having to exit out to GBA games menu and change the options there before loading back in to a save state.
Also, this has finally given me the impetus to download the Japanese versions of the NSO historic hardware apps. Rewind features makes it so much easier to explore the Golden Sun script and fan-translate the game for comparison against the official NOA translation (a personal project of mine, to clean up the errors on the Golden Sun Universe wiki, part of NIWA).
Re: Gallery: Here's Another Look At Golden Sun For The Switch Online Expansion Pack
Having save states and rewind features and easy access to the Japanese versions are going to make script re-translations so much easier!
Don't get me started on how many hours I've spent on translation work for Goldensunwiki.net (Golden Sun Universe). I'm glad I own the JP version carts of all three games as well, but it'll be REALLY nice to have the rewind feature to jump back to before a Yes-No dialogue tree split for script analysis!
Re: Random: Wait, Is Ocarina Of Time 3D Old Now?
@Axecon 9 years. You're double counting a year. MM3D was released Spring 2015, and it's not Spring 2024 yet – when it'll be 9 full years.
Re: Talking Point: What Will The 'Switch 2' Actually Be Called?
Nintendo Dual Switch (NDS), and it'll have dual screens so it can emulate DS, 3DS, and Wii U titles.
Re: 'Year In Numbers' Infographic Highlights Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Sales Success In 2023
@CaleBoi25 the Game of the Year, according to the Game Awards.
Re: Review: Harvest Moon 64 - Rose-Tinted Specs Recommended For This Beloved Farm Sim
To be fair to Natsume, Natume is a perfectly reasonable translation of their name.
Tu and Tsu are written with the same kana, and it's a Japanese world.
I say this even as I remind folks that these games were made by Marvelous and Natsume are the bungling translation team that distributed this series out of Japan until the fork when Marvelous started selling them on their own under a more direct translation of the Japanese title – "Story of Seasons" – while Natsume continues to try to cash in on nostalgia by releasing janky knock-off farming sim games under the "Harvest Moon" title.
Re: Random: Hyrule's Shrines Serve A Secret Peace-Keeping Purpose, Says TOTK Director
Fujibayashi seems interested in continuity; Aonuma seems to be more along the lines of Miyamoto in preferring to keep continuity at a minimum and always subject to tossing out the window in service of matching a new game's gameplay concepts.
In any case, the continuity is really not that big of an issue with the Zelda timeline. Rauru the Zonai established the Kingdom of Hyrule sometime after the the fall of the original Hyrule Kingdom (and in my opinion, after a re-merging of the 3 timelines). Rauru's Sages are spiritual revisits of Ocarina of Time's Sages, because history repeats itself and characters with the same name show up throughout the Zelda timeline, often serving the same or very similar roles.
Of course, one could also choose to ignore everything but Skyward Sword - Breath of the Wild - Tears of the Kingdom, and it would work just as well!
Re: Bandai Namco Announces New Dev Studio For Commissioned Projects
Not the action game, but I wouldn't be surprised if this studio also launched in part to do remakes/enhanced ports of the Xenosaga trilogy given how suggestive Future Redeemed was towards Xenosaga being canon to the Xenoblade trilogy. Bamco re-registered Xenosaga and KOS-MOS trademarks recently, but have given special leave for elements from them to show up in the Monolith Soft games for Nintendo.
Nintendo and Bamco may not be merging or anything, but they have a great working relationship, a lot better than Nintendo has with any of the other major Japanese video game studios (Squenix, Capcom, Konami, etc).
Re: Pocket iRecatcher Will Reconnect Your Pokémon GO 'Auto Catch' Device For Uninterrupted Play
So this type of device is why everyone was able to conquer/defend gyms so ridiculously easily that the game was no longer fun to play.
Thanks, I hate it.
Re: Fan-Made 'Link's Awakening DX HD' Port Taken Down By Nintendo
I wouldn't have known about it if not for John Cartwright at GVG (formerly of this website). While I share his love of Link's Awakening (it's my favourite in the series), the fact that the game is readily available on Switch in both HD and DX versions, as well as on Game & Watch in its original Game Boy version, means this is the sort of project no one should be touching, let alone advertising to the world. AM2R at least lived as long as it did because no one thought Metroid 2 was getting a real remake.
And calling it a PC Port? This was inevitable, and blatantly illegal, even if they completely rebuilt it from the ground up from scratch. They infringed on the IP, the scenario, the gameplay, the basic controls, the music, the sprites used, etc.
In contrast, Panic's Playdate has a game called "Resonant Tale" which is a very direct homage to Link's Awakening, in digital fonts, in sprite work, in world design, in genre, but it's 1-bit black and white graphics, and controls entirely differently and has its own map and puzzles that are entirely different. That's how you do a tribute to your favourite game; making something inspired by it, not making an illegal port of it that "improves" on it with lighting and shaders and item slots but also prevents you from locking the viewshed to the original gameboy screen transitions.
Finally, one more comment on building up the architecture from the ground up, because sometimes I see this thrown around as a way to get around the claims of piracy: OpenMW had to navigate a very delicate legal tightrope on this front when it recreated the engine of Morrowind to break the 2002 coding rules and open up the floodgates for game mods. But they had a few legal tools in their utility belt: (1) to play Morrowind in OpenMW, you need a copy of Morrowind. You could code your own game with the OpenMW using Morrowind as a guidepost but without many of its limitations, but to legally play a game with Morrowind's assets and scenario you need to actually own a copy of the game and install it. (2) Morrowind came with the Construction Set and Bethesda actively encouraged modding as long as you stayed within the licensing agreement – you're not distributing the game to others illegally, for example, or trying to sell your own game using their assets. (3) OpenMW completely rewrote the code, and I understand this game used some of the original code of Zelda GB.
Even STILL, Bethesda issued OpenMW a cease and desist at the time, only to retract it after the lawyers spoke with each other about it and clarified what OpenMW is and isn't.
This game breaks all of those guiding frameworks. The only thing really going for it is that it's an old game, but an old game easily available means it felt dirty even to see GVG making a video about it.
Re: Reminder: Star Wars Heritage Pack Physical Edition Now Available (North America)
Ugh, I already own KOTOR I/II and Republic Commando as downloads.
Do I want all of these in physical or just to support the devs or send a signal of why good SW games are important? What to do…
Usually I only double up on digital and physical if I really want to play the game earlier and then later want to support an indy dev or something – say with Cadence of Hyrule. I'm still debating whether I download Sea of Stars now or just wait for the physical; I've got so much else in my stack that I can afford to wait, but Sea of Stars is the sort of game I'd double up like this on. Not sure if a physical pack of games that are all available digital and all from yesteryear is the sort of thing I'd want on cart, but hmmmm....
Re: Feature: "I'm A Big Fan Of Calamity Gammon" - Did You Know Gaming? On Puns, Nintendo, And Making A Card Game
Ordered a signed deluxe edition. This is too awesome to pass up.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 2nd)
Seasons and Ages linked game.
Re: Random: Sakurai Wanted The GameCube Controller To Include A Scroll Wheel
@Mgalens
PlayDate showed me that alternate control schemes like cranks and scrollers are a great innovation.
I'd love "Switch 2" to play up "play your way" – it's very Nintendo and what makes them different from the other companies.
And if they can provide a variant optional controller with a second screen a-la the Wii U gamepad, then that opens up the back-catalog of DS, 3DS, and Wii U titles as well for NSO in the future.
I think it's okay to require specialty controllers for certain game styles, and you could always allow the game to be controlled with alternate functions and show both screens on the TV if necessary.
Re: Review: Bayonetta 3 - A Stunning Return For An Icon, And The Best Game In The Series
Best in the series… maybe from a gameplay point of view.
The story is the weakest of the three, and artistically, it's just not nearly as fun beating up teal putty ninjas as it is torturing angels or giving demons a taste of their own medicine. Finally, there's something missing from Bayonetta's portrayal in this one — in the previous entries, she was sexual in defiance of the male gaze, turning it around and controlling the scene as if she, as an AI, was taking ownership of her own sexuality. In this one, they play it safe, almost to the point that they want to pretend Bayonetta isn't inherently sexualized. It seems in line with the latter development of the lovely storybook-esque prequel, which is a hard-right turn for the series. And maybe that's fine for where Bayonetta's grown as a character — the games don't "NEED" to feel the same in that way. But it feels like the weakest of the three entries from storytelling and artwork and artistry, while being the strongest from pure mechanical gameplay design.
Don't get me wrong — I really enjoyed the game. But it's not a 10/10 for me, by a long shot.
Re: Nintendo Reminds Fans Zelda Is Up For Nomination At This Year's Game Awards
I voted in all categories, and for TotK wherever it was available.
Re: Random: Sakurai Wanted The GameCube Controller To Include A Scroll Wheel
@Anti-Matter I prefer the asymetrical analog sticks. Feels more natural to me, and gives each side a different purpose.
But I guess YMMV.
Re: Switch Online N64 Controllers Have Been Restocked In North America
Don't need to — I have enough from the original stocking!
Re: Random: Sakurai Explains Why True Twin-Stick Controls Weren't Possible For Kid Icarus: Uprising
@BulbasaurusRex
Ah yes. That explains why I bought the left-handed circle pad and why i also didn't finish the game!
Re: Review: Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster - A Welcome, If Flawed, Return For Monolith Soft's GameCube Duo
These games are some of my favourite in the GameCube library.
You'd also notice if you play both these and all the Xenoblade games just how hugely influential they are on the concepts explored in the later titles. Not gameplay of course, but the worldbuilding concepts!
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Version 2.1.0 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@CutchuSlow There is another way without amiibo — but not for the Swordfighter class.
Re: Baten Kaitos Remasters Have Japanese VO Only, Frame Rate, File Size Revealed
Awww, I have nostalgia for the tin-can dub.
It was BAD, but it was so BAD it was good.
Re: Feature: 'Rugrats' Dev's Mission To Make NES-Style Games "That Should Have Existed"
@popey1980
My understanding is that the NES cart is limited run, but they're also releasing the game for all modern console
Re: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC Brews Up Brand New Pokémon Poltchageist
@Savage_Joe And the 4 Musketeer Legendaries are in NYC, not France. And Hoenn's legends come from Semitic Mythology/folklore. And Sinnoh's legends are based on the Izumo myth cycle — from the opposite side of Japan.
This has been Pokémon's MO forever. It doesn't need to make perfect sense or FIT exactly.
Re: Memory Pak: Making Contact With The "Ungoogleable" Game I Couldn't Quite Remember
Logic Quest 3D was the one that haunted me for years before I eventually found it.
Literally a forerunner to Minecraft and one of the quirkiest dungeon builders out there.
Darn, The Learning Company (and MECC before them) had some of the best 90s games…
Re: Switch Online's N64 Update Is Live (Version 2.11.0), Here's What's Included
Then there's the benefit that Nintendo can easily port NSO over to the Switch 2, while they had to re-sell you a newly emulated version of each VC game you bought last generation every time their churned out a new console.
Xbox can let you restore your purchases based on your account precisely because it's a computer in a box. Nintendo's console… aren't that. They're also their own different animal with their own coding. Switch is relatively easy to code for compared to past generations because it's based on the Nvidia Shield tablets, but it still has the eccentricities of Nintendo's built-in systems.
Xbox can be so effectively backwards compatible with purchases because its newer releases are iterative, and Microsoft always builds its code on-top of the previous versions for compatibility. Nintendo goes in wildly different and interesting directions that are very difficult to plan for when they're trying to put out one-time purchases. But a streaming -> download service means they can future-proof NSO games for generations to come.
It's the same reason why we have Pokémon HOME now instead of Bank. Bank wasn't designed for compatibility with smart phones or with anything other than 3DS and DS carts, as it's a very 3DS-specific software. HOME is built for long-term compatibility.
Re: Switch Online's N64 Update Is Live (Version 2.11.0), Here's What's Included
If you buy a game and it's bugged, well, Nintendo already sold you the game. They may have an incentive to avoid bad reviews, as you said — if you shout loudly enough or enough people vote with their wallets and don't buy it — well then they do have an incentive to fix it. But for the most part, there's very little incentive on the part of the seller to provide free update services to consumers who have already bought their products.
But subscription models are an entanglement of consumer and producer. The subscriber can't have the game if they don't keep paying the recurring fee, but the creator also can't ignore problems lest people cancel their subs. There's mutual incentives for betterment of gaming as a whole.
Re: Switch Online's N64 Update Is Live (Version 2.11.0), Here's What's Included
@Lebon14 See, the problem is, you've bought the game already. Nintendo has no incentive to spend money fixing it for you, you've already paid all the money you're going to pay for it.
If, instead, you are paying a subscription fee, they have EVERY incentive to keep up the servers and patch issues with the game after the fact. That's the benefit of the subscription model.