wollywoo

Hmm, all these impressions focus on the graphics and controls, but I wonder if there is a real gameplay "hook" here. I wonder what else Retro has been hiding.

FFVIIRemake is alright but Rebirth is the main event. It adds so much to the combat and the pacing is better since the sidequests don't disappear when the story moves on. And Queen's Blood! It's not a perfect game and it's a bit bloated and formulaic, but it was a great time for me and way better than Intergrade. Anyway, hopefully that will get a release too eventually.

I'd give it an 8. Mario Kart World looks pretty dang great but I'm not a huge Mario Kart fan so it's not enough to get me there on launch day, especially at the high price. I'm intrigued by the new DK but I'm really missing a new Mario or Zelda mainline entry that would force me to get this day one. Still, a From Software exclusive? Silksong? Impressive.

@GrailUK nah, I'm sure that Zelda will be an active protagonist like Peach was in the Mario movie. Honestly that's a lot more interesting anyway.

I loved OT2 so much. It's easily worth $50 just for the soundtrack. Maybe someday I will go back to the first one.

Studio Ghibli could make an amazing Zelda movie. Live action though... not too sure. Zelda should be a bit whimsical.

Yeah this one was pretty weak other than Metroid Prime 4 which looks great. I gave it 5/10. Without Metroid it would be 3/10 for me. Mostly a lot of cozy life sim type games and lot of ports of very old games. I might pick up Patapon though.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Switch has sold 130M copies, they won't just abandon it. And it should not be put into the same direct as the Switch 2. The Switch 2 has so much anticipation that any Switch 1 news would just be anticlimactic. On the other hand if they put it in this separate direct and make it cleae there will be no Switch 2 news, fans can put it proper context and appreciate it in its own right. The Switch 2 is waining a bit but still has legs.

No need for a remake. I think the original holds up just fine. Just needs a few quality of life upgrades. I enjoyed HD-2D games (Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveler 2 were both great) but not everything has to be in that style.

I'd love to see a sequel but somehow I'm not interested in a AAA product like FFVII Rebirth despite how much I enjoyed that game. I want more of that lush, soft look of the art from Trigger and Cross.

3 months? 3 months to make what is arguably the best game on NES? Whew, that's impressive.

I'd like to see this franchise revived. Capcom has been on a roll lately. Make it happen!

@Daniel36 I'll stick with it and report back!

I started Suikoden I. I've heard of these games for years as being some of the greatest ever made so I finally made the plunge now that they are on Switch. I really want to play II since that's the one that gets the most praise but I'll try to get through I first. So far... it's not really holding my interest. But I'm only an hour or so in. I'll give it a few more hours and see how it holds up.

Power is out where I am! I guess I'll play some Advance Wars until my Switch dies.

Not a fan of the JP one since the stupid magic light rays block out anything interesting on the left side. Voted NA despite the usual de-anime-ation from that time.

I never got to play these. I had heard about them for so many years, and then I heard they were on the PSN store only to discover, after I had bought a PS4, that they were only on PS3 for some bizarre reason. Seems like a better match for the Switch anyway. Might have to pick this up!

I breezed through "A Short Hike". Great game! I find myself wishing it were a slightly longer hike. The storyline was simple but charming. I found the map design to be pretty unique and the exploration was satisfying.

Then I picked up Monster Train for $2.99 on sale on Steam. It's a deck builder roguelike somewhat similar to Slay the Spire. NOT RECOMMENDED if you have actual adult things to do as it is highly addictive and fun.

I'm not a big fan of the Great Fox ship design that's featured so prominently on NA, and I like the menacing Andross on JP. I also just think JP's is more eye-catching and action-oriented. So voted JP.

Seems like a stretch. Hollow Knight fans are so desperate for news they see it everywhere. Well I can't blame them, I want Silksong too!

Eh, nothing surprising. I don’t care about Mario Kart and the Metroid Prime 4 teaser a while back didn’t do much for me so I probably won’t grab this at launch unless there’s something else really exciting announced. I had to grab Switch 1 at launch due to BOTW but I don’t see anything of that caliber coming yet.

I’m so happy though that they went with Switch 2 instead of something bizarre like, I don’t know, Switch Z or Nintendo Gilgamesh or whatever else they were thinking of.

The Switch hasn't had as much that's interesting to me lately, other than Echoes of Wisdom which I thought was great. I've been catching up on older PS5 titles with PS Plus. I tried GTA5 but it just made me feel a little gross and then bored, like GTA usually does for me. I played Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, which I loved. The story was presented well but pretty childish other than a couple nice character moments with Rivet. I kinda wish they had more Pixar-level storytelling, which it seems like they are going for, but the villains are a little too silly and Saturday-morning-cartoon to take seriously. I mean I get that it's sorta a kid's game / comedy and should not be taken TOO seriously but they could have done more. But anyway, GREAT game overall, I played it a second time on the hardest setting.

Oh yeah and I played Humanity. Fun puzzle game if a little finicky. What precisely it's trying to say about humanity, I don't know, other than that we are dumb sheep and need a godlike dog to lead us.

These all look SO bad. Voted NA because it has the best background.

This game seems to have received a somewhat mixed reception but I loved it! Really unique and fresh take on Zelda.
I agree the combat could be better. I wish they had given Zelda a unique weapon she could use any time instead of Link's sword. Just make it a tad weaker so it would be rewarding to use echoes in combat too. But that's a minor blemish on an overall great game.

Great interview. I like it when the conversation can flow pretty naturally and not just feel like a q&a.

Fun game! I rolled the credits but I didn't feel compelled to dive further than that. I think more games should have these kind of deep mysteries, though, "breaking the pattern" of the game you're in. Would love it if the next Zelda had some crazy secrets that aren't signposted at all.

I have been catching up on PS5 games since getting it earlier this year. Picked up Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and finished it up after ten hours or so. Loved it! Haven't played Ratchet game since the original on PS2, which never grabbed me, so wasn't sure what I would think but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

IMO well deserved. Haven't played Octo 1 but Octo 2 is amazing and has one of the best OSTs ever.

I played Triangle Strategy and Octopath II and loved them both. I like the art style a lot but it could use a bit of a change up. Maybe something similar but with a more detailed, hand-drawn look. The real draw for me though is the music. Octopath II has one of my favorite OSTs of all time.

In some of the other examples I could see where the prison design could be improved, but in Echoes it's a bit much to expect Hyrule's architects to account for the possibility of an interdimensional spirit that can clip through walls and grant magic powers.

I really did a double take there wondering what The Legend of Zelda: Kai no Kiseki was and why it was on PS5.

It's a very very mild annoyance for me at best. Hardly bothers me. Love the game.

Gave it a 9 for my experience so far! I'm on the fourth dungeon and it's just lovely. It's like a comfort game.

@Frailbay30 Yeah it's a bummer Zelda doesn't talk. Usually in a Zelda game Zelda has such an important presence in the story, delivering some important lines... and here we don't even have Link to fill that role because he's silent too.

But I still love it.

Echoes of Wisdom obviously. Played 5 hours or so and loving it so far! I love exploring this world so much. Great way to help me regain my sanity from a ***** week at work. It's such a great blend of old and new ideas. Like being wrapped in a blanket and brought a warm drink by an old friend you haven't seen in a long time.

While waiting for it to release I got the Zelda bug and pulled out Tears of the Kingdom. I never got all the shrines or finished the Depths so there is a decent amount to do. I'm also really really to get NSO to do one more playthrough of Majora's Mask.

I'm also still getting through God of War: Ragnarok on PS5 and enjoying that one a lot. I'm closing in on the end of it but I want to savor it more, so I'm doing as much side stuff as I can aside from the overly tedious collectathon parts.

Sounds like it's good. I'm really happy Nintendo keeps putting new ideas into Zelda instead of letting it grow stale. Can't wait.

Fascinating to see how story evolves from gameplay at Nintendo. I've been wanting a game starring Zelda for so long, and it makes total sense to use her in this way. Although personally I wouldn't have minded a more action-focused Zelda either.

@VoidofLight I hope you're right! Although not that big a deal either way.

Cool. Mildly disappointed that Ganon is here again. I'm a little tired of fighting that guy. I hope the real bad guy is someone else. But overall super stoked for this game!

Combing through the PS5 library. Finished FFVII Remake + Rebirth, tried Alan Wake 2 and didn't enjoy it, now in God of War: Ragnarok which I'm appreciating a lot more. It's repetitive and I'm not a big fan of the maze-like world design, but it's still consistently enjoyable and the story is extremely well done and compelling. I'm nearing the end after 50 hours but savoring my time with the side content. I don't think I'm going to go for every damn chest and raven, but I'd like to finish the Muspelheim challenges before facing off against Odin.

Weirdly, the gameplay loop reminds is quite similar to FFVII. Both worlds seem designed a central story, with the the rest of the world being a maze-like theme park filled with somewhat formulaic optional challenges. They both have a very guided feel, with a lot of invisible walls and unpassable areas. There's a ton of ground in this game that no human can step foot on -like it's trying to mask that the actual playable space is quite corridor-esque. There are a lot of treasures that you can see but can't quite get to unless you go a very convoluted route around, despite their clearly being a pretty easy way over if you just climb on a bit of level geometry you're not allowed to. Kratos can only land his boat at very fixed locations, leading to some annoying puzzles where you can't grab that thing that's just... right... there! I can't help but compare them to Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom where every element was interactive and there were no boundaries to be seen except for the very border of the world map. I much prefer that kind of level design. Even something like Half-Life 2, while being incredibly linear, never had any boundaries to what the player could do other than those forced by the actual level geometry.

Anyway, I don't know why I felt compelled to make that rant. Other than those complaints, I'm loving God of War: Ragnarok.

Can't wait for Echoes of Wisdom next week!!

Everything I hear about this game makes me more excited. Really happy to have Nintendo experimenting with new game design instead of re-treading old ground. Nintendo's been on an incredible streak of good games this generation. A third new mainline Zelda game on one platform, that is unheard of. Can't wait.

Hmm. If Normal is on par with a typical 2D Zelda experience, I'll probably stick to that. I like a challenge in certain kinds of games, but to me Zelda is more about the puzzle solving and adventure aspects, and this one seems more puzzle-focused than most. But if the reviews tell me that Normal is easier than most past games, maybe I'll try the Hero mode.

I've been wanting something to play on my shiny new PS5 to see its full glory since finishing the excellent FFVII: Remake / Rebirth. I picked up Alan Wake 2. It's... not really holding my interest. The story is interesting. But the gameplay is a lot of wandering around in the dark with all the "puzzles" consisting of searching everywhere for little circle icons to interact with. In the dark everything looks the same, so everything is a damn maze and I hate mazes. I get it, it's a horror game, but I wish someone would just turn the lights on and tell me where to go. It doesn't feel like I'm investigating murders or exploring a netherworld so much as it feels like I'm checking off a bunch of boxes until the next fight or cut scene. And it always takes me so looong to figure out where those check boxes are. So, not sure I will continue.

NA easily. Looks like a 90's comic. Dynamic, full of action. Rad.

It looks really fun! Can't wait. Day one.

I mean... they're all fine? It's like asking what's your favorite rectangle.

@Markatron84 Yeah I feel the same. It is personally one of my favorite games of all time, but I never had any desire for a remake. The OG is already very pretty and doesn't seem outdated in any way. Still, I think he added some more content here, so maybe I'll check it out eventually.

Not much to speak of on Switch lately. It's been a good year for 1997 remakes. I finally beat FFVII: Rebirth after 122 hours. Great game, highly recommended! It's full of general Final Fantasy weirdness and a plot that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, but I sure enjoyed it. Huge improvement in every way over FFVII Remake. The combat is excellent and challenging.

I also played the Riven remake. Excellent as well, and absolutely beautiful. Shame it's not getting more attention. The changes are pretty substantial and the puzzles are much improved over the original. I'm now inspired to play Obduction and/or Myst III: Exile and I'm reading the first Myst book, which is also pretty good so far.

JP is definitely better and cleaner, but somehow the NA one makes me nostalgic for the loose, sketchy art style of early 90's Nintendo Power.

BG3? Elden Ring? Alan Wake 2? Guys no. Maybe on Switch 2. All I want is some PS1 JRPG(-ish) ports like Suikoden I+II, Symphony of the Night, and Final Fantasy Tactics.

Neither are great. How dumb is it to have basically have three images of Samus. I sorta remember back in the day when somebody edited like five other copies of Samus into this to make it even "better."

Loved Perfect Dark on N64, but I don't feel a strong desire to return to it. I don't think it has aged that well, and anyway I'd rather play the Xbox version.

Regarding PD vs GoldenEye... it's a toss-up for me. PD's missions are great for the first half of the game but it kinda ***** the bed for the second half when all the hallways start looking the same (especially you, submarine mission) and the alien enemies aren't very interesting. But the first 6 or so missions are classic. If you only play on Agent you don't really appreciate it - playing on the hardest difficulty, their design starts to shine through. GoldenEye is a little more consistent and stays pretty fun throughout.

Perfect Dark's multiplayer though... that's the best split-screen couch co-op of its era.

The new wand mechanic seems really fun. I hope it doesn't have the framerate issues from Link's Awakening. And - I would love it if Hyrule Castle an explorable town area and not taken over by evil something or other this time. After all, you're Princess Zelda, you should be able to walk in and say hi to all your subjects. Speaking of which, I kind of hope she is not a silent protagonist.