Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

The reviews for Zelda have made me super cautious.

What I get from is that hardly anything really meaningful has been added, aside from the quality of life stuff. And it suffers from performance issues.

I am really happy that one of my favorite games will reach a new generation this way. But it doesn't sound like it'll add anything for me as a long time Zelda fan. I also feel that the classic one, which I played again one year ago, still holds up quite well in terms of gameplay.

Anyway, all of you who'll experience this game for the first time this week: I hope you enjoy it a lot!

@Kidfried It's been well known it's basically a straight copy of the game, with upgraded graphics and minimal new content for awhile though. Kinda dubious about the performance issues, they don't look game breaking at all but it's unfortunate. I've got my copy coming tomorrow and looking forward to playing it.

I played it back in 96 and remember really enjoying it, along with Pokemon it's really the only Gameboy game I really enjoyed. But I don't recall the majority of it, so I'm sure i'll have a great time replaying it. Perhaps not worth it for someone who played it more recently or with a better memory, though.

@kyleforrester87 Yeah you're right about the fact that Nintendo always was clear that this remaster wouldn't be as ambitious as some other games out there.

I really enjoyed it, and was still surprised during my last playthrough, which was only 5 years after my last one, so you'll probably enjoy it a lot after... 23 years. (Does that make you feel a bit old, hehe?)

The DX version of this game was my first Zelda game, so it's probably more special to me than most.

@KratosMD Very curious for that game too. I'll probably play it on PS4, because somehow that's where I play most visual novels on.. Though reviews weren't super rad yet.

Maybe a bit premature to say because I'm only in File 5, but Astral Chain is shaping up to be the best Switch exclusive I've played since year one's "big three" (BotW, Mario Odyssey, & XC2).

At the moment it's standing up along with God of War (2018), DQXI, & FFXHD as one of the best games I've played this year.

@RR529 I’ve really been digging AC, I am on the last boss and had hoped to have it wrapped up before LA (with a view to returning and mopping up down the line) but the last boss is a major difficulty spike. I basically have to restart the file and be more careful with my consumables.

My advice for the final chapter is go in with max items and try not to use any before the final boss

@Kidfried I got LA a day early (so yesterday) and had about an hour with it. I borrowed it back in the day from a friend for a night and that is how much I played it so I am in the group of discovering it for the first time. Not had any major performance issues though I don't like the blurring on the peripherals of the screen. I assume this is deliberate but it feels at odds with the glossy visuals. Dungeons look gorgeous though. Looking forward to getting back on it though!

I had a feeling this art style would be devisive. Intense depth of field (the blurring @Rudy_Manchego noted) is about as divisive as motion blur.

I like it personally. It was a bit intense in something like Yoshi's Crafted World but here it seems right to focus on the games bounding box where all the action is.

Because the camera basically no matter what will keep Link in a box in the middle of the screen. As you change direction it will scroll gradually until Link is at the edge of that box.

@Knuckles-Fajita Yeah, it isn't a game ruiner and I wouldn't mark it down. I think it is because I think the visuals are gorgeous and I'm not sure what it adds other than being noticeable if that makes sense. From a preference point, I would remove it.

@Rudy_Manchego I'm in love with this art style. It looks plasticy but not in the off and bland way NSMBWii did.

Plus all the things like lighting, shadows, particles really make this game pop. It feels like an evolution of the sort of art style ALBW was aiming for, but even more stylised.

Yarn...Clay....Paper crafts...now toys. What next?

@Knuckles-Fajita I would put money on a mechanical/meccano style game for one of their big franchises. In fact, if they do, I want copyright money.

On a separate note, just noticed that Bloodstained has gone on Game Pass. Since I am one of the suckers who didn't both reading reviews of which version to get and bought the Switch, I'm a bit gutted that there still hasn't been a solid patch for the Switch version. I mean, my fault for not paying attention and lesson learned but very tempted to trade it and just play the Xbox version.

Eeee so good to be playing Links Awakening again. I’m only at the start, but 2 decades later it’s awesome to be running round the starting village again. I’m still the boss at the crane game, and I love the kids telling you stuff about the game while not knowing what it means or how they know it 🤷‍♂️😂

You’re never guess looking at the screenshots that Bloodstained would be the kind of resource intensive game that’s best played on the enhanced consoles. @Rudy_Manchego

Started Xenoblade Chronicles 2 the other day. I'm not really feeling it so far. I dislike the battle system compared to the first game, find the UI horrible and feel that in general there is a lack of polish. The framerate seems to have issues and the image is quite soft on the TV.
It took me quite a long time to get into the first Xenoblade Chronicles, so I'm not writing the game off yet. Hopefully the story will draw me in!

@KratosMD Haha, well am going to stick with 2 because the first one took quite long time to click too. Not abnormal for RPGs in my experience owing to the need to learn all the various systems.

The story got really good Xenoblade 1 so I hope that if you return to it (or start fresh with the remake) that it does eventually all gel. Hopefully the remake will retain the battle system the original release had. It should be the definitive version.

@mookysam where you up to exactly? I was hooked on it pretty quickly (I liked Rex) and by the end of Chapter 1 I was sold!

@kyleforrester87 Chapter 2 (I think). I've just had some cutscenes in the town in Gormott.

I got my partner The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and the matching Link amiibo yesterday.

We played quite a big chunk of it yesterday (well, I played, he directed) but booting it back up this morning, I felt my motivation flagging. It means the world to him, he played the original and is a massive Nintendo fan, but for me... well, eh. It's all quite intuitive for the most part (the fishing controls can do one) and I can definitely see the appeal, but the back-and-forth gameplay loop wasn't enough to keep me engaged. It swings wildly between "so simple it's boring" and "so fiddly it's frustrating", especially with the constant need to pause and map different special abilities to X and Y. And yes, even in docked mode, the framerate can stumble quite consistently.

But it's all very charming. The art style is lovely, the character designs are cute without being annoying, and the music is nicely updated (although if somebody started playing Link's theme beside me right about now, I think I'd bludgeon them to death with their instrument). The real litmus test was whether it got my partner's stamp of approval; he's notoriously anti-3D and anti-remake, so for him to be so positive about it is wonderful to see.

For me, though? Happy to be taking a break until next weekend. I need to play something else. Fast.

You talking about the Switch release or the original GameBoy one? Because lets just say this.

You open your menu every 6 seconds in the original because your Sword and Shield are equipped to A and B. So need to a do a long jump? Open the menu, swap both out, do the jump, swap both back in the menu....over and over and over for everything.

I dont see how the fishing controls are hard, given all you do is mash A to reel it in, and stop mashing if it pulls on your line. Rinse and repeat until caught.

As for the fiddly and simple design, thats always been 2D Zelda. I prefer it 3D Zelda, where, lets take Ocarina of Time as the peak example, it takes ages to do what takes minutes in 2D, especially noticeable when you realise A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time share a structure and progression.

What takes 10 minutes in 2D, is 2 hours in 3D.

But of course, the simplicity of the game is due to being a remake. A Link Between Worlds was the last 2D Zelda and was far more complex, but it was also built from the ground up with new mechanics and ideas to make it so complex. This is a remake of a GameBoy game, and its simplicity is down to being....well....a remake of a GameBoy title.

Now sure they could have massively changed it, but then at that point it may as well be a new game, like ALBW. The developers set out to remake LA, and they did. If they set out to make a new game, itd probably be more enjoyable to you.

As for myself, as someone who can't play a 3D Zelda beyond BOTW for more than 10 minutes before becoming bored stiff, a 2D game is just what I look for. Its a shame they are few and far between now, so this is what I want from Zelda every few years. It especially helps that I never played much of LA, but I did get a copy earlier in the year and did the first dungeon. So as someone younger than the source material, this is a new game to me.

Which brings up the argument that a GameBoy remake shouldn't be £50, and as some internet personalities say, you can just play the original.

I'd argue that to play the original on my TV I'd need to buy a Gamecube, GameBoy Player, and copy of the game, and then hope it all works. That set me back around £220 earlier in the year. Or I can pay £50 and play it on this Switch I already own with most of its faults removed.

I dont get the whole "The game isn't worth x because y" arguments that people try and use to convince others that a game is too expensive. Worth and value are two different things, and this is confused when people are basically trying to tell people that a GameBoy remake for that price isn't a good value proposition.

Yet they forget that value is subjective, worth is monetary. An item could be worth pennies and sell for pennies, but its value to an individual could be enough to have them spend above and beyond that.

So to tell people that a game isn't worth £50 because its a remake is wrong, objectively, because yeah, factually, it IS worth £50 as thats what its selling for. That is its market worth. You just dont VALUE it at £50. /rant XD

@Knuckles-Fajita Oh, hey, I'd have paid twice what I did yesterday just for the look on my partner's face when he saw the title screen. He absolutely adores it, and that's the key difference; my post was just me, somebody who isn't a Nintendo fan or Zelda fan, coming at this thing fresh because I'm helping my partner by playing it for him. I stand by my opinions, but I'll defend his in the same breath.

I completely agree with you; remakes are worth a price reflective of the effort put into development, and it's clear that this remake of Link's Awakening has had a truckload of effort put into it. It's a gorgeous, mostly-well-made, very playable slice of entertainment. I think we've been spoilt by things like the N'Sane Trilogy and Reignited being pitched at a lower price by Activision, but that's their decision and they freely admit that they didn't expect Crash's remasters to be so insanely popular. Nintendo know that this is one of their big pre-Christmas releases and they've treated it as such, from development to the price tag. Fair play to 'em.

And if the things I'm personally criticising are either features of the original, or have been improved since the original without changing them too much, then I understand that and that's cool. I respect Nintendo for preserving the simplicity of a GameBoy game on its more powerful console, for those fans who'll notice. I'm just walking in as a semi-ignorant punter who plays interactive movies, s'all.