Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@YummyHappyPills @Ralizah What are your guys thoughts on Octopath anyway? Play the demo?

@kyleforrester87 IS good.

@kyleforrester87 I played the demo the day it came out. I'm... cautiously optimistic about it. I absolutely adore the "HD 2D" art style, the Bravely-esque battle system, the music, and the individual characters (the ones in the demo, at least). With that said, everything I've played and seen indicates that there's not going to be much of a party developing in this game, with the main characters instead occasionally crossing paths but largely traveling alone. This concerns me, as it might speak to limited combat (there's only so much you can do with temporary party members) and a complete lack of banter and character interactivity. I also worry that the "path actions" will become gimmicky or a nuisance, and this focus on rogue or noble actions might streamline the role playing in a way I don't care for (I thought similar systems in Bioshock and Mass Effect were largely boorish).

And yeah, the new Wolfenstein doesn't seem as fun as TNO, which is a shame. DOOM stomps all over both of them, of course.

@kyleforrester87 Personally, I thought New Colossus blew New Order away. The gameplay is so much more versatile what with being able to dual wield any two weapons. It's a bit short, but that's never been something I've seen as a bad thing as long as a game is fun. I will admit the story maybe isn't quite as good, but the gameplay to me more than makes up for it.

Also, it's so much prettier looking than New Order. Not a big deal, but I really love the visual improvement from Id Tech 5 to 6.

But yeah, Doom is still the king. Partially because it actually lets me replay missions (with all of my newer weapons and upgrades!) without me having to make separate saves. Seriously, why did Wolfenstein II drop the chapter select feature?

@Ralizah I got the impression that the lack of party development in the demo was deliberate as it was just a demo. I mean it felt so lacking I couldn't really consider otherwise - you didn't even have a line of dialogue before the other member joined your party. That makes no sense to me, I would be really surprised if this isn't more fleshed out in the full game. But perhaps I'm wrong.

@Giygas_95 Fair enough - I preferred the development of the relationship between BJ and Anya in that game, and being in Germany was better than USA. Plus the pacing just seemed better in the first game. That's not to say New Colossus was really bad though, I guess I just found it disappointing in comparison.

@kyleforrester87 I liked the USA setting because well, for one thing, it's my country, but also because I loved seeing how things played out in the US in this continuity. On one hand you have the eerie remains of Manhattan just looking completely obliterated along with the ghettos and death squads of New Orleans, and on the other you have the Nazi parade in Roswell being cheered on by people. It was a really interesting contrast and showed how badly brainwashed people were by the Nazis' pervasive presence. I wish they had done a bit more stuff like that though. On the other hand, I didn't feel like New Order did enough with its Berlin setting...

@Giygas_95 @kyleforrester87 I think more of the US setting being more interesting because...well we already know what Nazi occupied Berlin was like. But speculating on what regions they could have controlled would have been like makes for more interesting stories and ideas.

@YummyHappyPills I was gonna say I wish New Order had shown us more of the people of Berlin like New Colossus shows the people of America (because I know not everyone in Germany during WWII believed the Nazi ideology so that might have been interesting to see), but I did remember there was Klaus in New Order who used to be a Nazi but forsook them completely so that was pretty interesting. And now that I think about it, Caroline was German too wasn't she?

@kyleforrester87 Oh man, I hope you're right. I want to love this game. But the way it's structured, with eight selectable campaigns, worries me.

I guess we'll see. I'm still optimistic overall, but I'm definitely waiting on reviews first.

@Giygas_95 yeah I wasn't against the US setting at all, in principal it was a great idea, I just don't think they did enough with it in the end.

@Ralizah I guess it could work just like in the demo but somehow come together in a way that works as you play the game. I'd like to say I have complete faith but it's not like BD1 and 2 are without their faults in the narrative department. Not sure this is exactly the same team working on Octopath, mind you. We'll wait and see, I guess!

So Kimishima is stepping down in June, being replaced by the much younger Outside Director of TPCi and Head of Switch Marketing.

Koizumi is being promoted to the board along with some others.

Apparently he decided management should be younger

Online Service details will come in "Early May"

Bayonetta 2 is outpacing sales of Bayonetta 2 on Wii U in the same time frame.

Overcooked has hit 500k sales.

Stardew Valley is nearing 1m sales.

Over 600 games on the eShop by March 2018.

Third party software is selling surprisingly well

And here are the E3 plans!

If anyone still thinks Smash is a port, leave now. XD

@YummyHappyPills I still have one friend that is 100% certain that it’s a port, it’s a little painful to hear him talk about it with such certainty when there’s 0 evidence that it’s a port.

@TheTetrisGuy No evidence its a port, new characters and looks for existing fighters like Link, shown off in a tournament, and is the focal point of E3 2018 unlike the to be revealed FE16, Pokemon or Metroid Prime 4.

You dont do that for a port.

@YummyHappyPills Agreed. Nintendo would just be setting themselves up for a massive backlash by building all this hype up for a port. If it was a port, they would of said so upfront.

Based on Nintendo's pattern of re-releasing critical Wii U releases, sometimes with large updates, for the Switch, I still believe it's an upgraded port. Also, the lack of a drawn-out marketing cycle.

@Ralizah Well if you want to get technical Smash 4 is built entirely on top of Brawl's engine. So that's actually an upgraded port.

@YummyHappyPills That's like saying Metal Gear Survive is a "port" of MGSV because they both use the Fox Engine.

@TheTetrisGuy It would get "backlash" from a handful of loud people on the internet. Otherwise, I could easily see it becoming the best-selling version of the game, just like MK8D and Bayonetta 2 outsold their Wii U versions.