Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Ralizah Would love for it come to the PS4 (if it's good) but I doubt it'll happen.

@WanderingBullet Yeah, it's probably at least console exclusive. It could pull an Octopath and go to the PC, though. For some reason, the concept of exclusivity goes out the window when it comes to the PC. Which is awesome for me, as, despite it being old and not terribly powerful, my PC still runs circles around my PS4.

Just completed Onimusha Warlords tonight!

It's a bit rough around the edges in spots due to age, but it honestly had me hooked & had me wanting to go back for more every time I had to put it down. It had a fantastic atmosphere (I actually really dug the detailed pre-rendered environments, and I felt that with few exceptions, they still looked pretty sharp, at least on my 32" 720p TV), while the combat wasn't flashy by today's standards I found encounters with regular enemies to be engaging, it was nice to break up the action with the light puzzling elements (really, I quite enjoyed the whole "Metroidvania" structure of the game itself), and while the story is pretty standard, playing it in Japanese (with subtitles) really helped to bring me into it, given the theme. The only disappointment was that, aside from a couple exceptions, I wasn't too fond of the bosses (this is where the aged camera work really came into play). Still, I didn't find any of them too troubling (the last two maybe, but I had managed to find all health upgrades & stockpile the best medicine, so I was able to power through them), so not much of an issue in the end.

@WanderingBullet @Ralizah Nintendo is the publisher of Astral Chain and as such owns the IP, according to Platinum themselves.

@Knuckles-Fajita Sigh... oh, well.

Thanks, btw.

@WanderingBullet General rule, if it uses a Nintendo IP, outside of things like Starlink which was added after the initial development, or is published by Nintendo in all regions with no other platform in sight, it's exclusive.

Interesting the interview also noted that Platinum and Nintendo very much like working together. Then again, Nintendo is very clearly paying the bills. Platinum makes what they want, Nintendo pays the bills to do it.

@Knuckles-Fajita Thanks. I'm just surprised how games Platinum Games's working on. There's Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Babylon's Fall, Bayonetta 3 and now Astral Chain.

@WanderingBullet Platinum is surprisingly big. As we now know however, they arent working on Granblue anymore.

@Knuckles-Fajita Oh wow, that's news to me.

Just checked and it's by Cygames Osaka now. If I'm not mistaken this is the same developer working on Project Awakening.

Mary Skelter 2 is coming to the Switch in NA/Europe.

It's amazing watching this mass migration of fanservice games to historically puritanical Nintendo.

I just put in an order for the FFX/X-2 collection on Amazon JP! I'm both excited and nervous at the same time, lol (excited because FFX was one of the definitive games of my youth, but nervous to see if it'll really hold up since it's been about 15 years since I played it on PS2). It'll also be weird going back to a JRPG with random encounters since every one I've played in the past few years has ditched the concept.

Decided to pick up Mario Odyssey again last night after not playing it for about a year or so. It's amazing how even after not playing it for a year I can pick up as if I left off the other day. Most games if I do that I usually have to start over cause I forgot what I was doing or don't remember the story lol. Odyssey I was just able to pick it up and continue.

My copy of X/X-2 HD arrived yesterday. I have to say that it really looks good cleaned up, and it's bringing up all sorts of nostalgic feelings! Still in the opening act though (was just brought on board that Al Bhed ship after they find you at the ruins). Can't wait to get more into it.

@Tasuki yeah Odyssey has great pick up and play value. I play for 20 mins every now and then to pick up a few moons or if my nephew is round cuz it's such a joy to just have a little run around in that world

Well, I’m waiting for a flight and I just cleared the Grudo Guardian. Finally made some progress in Breath of the Wild and used the Switch as a portable console. Now we’ll see if the fact that not sure if I slept at all last night or Zelda will win on the flight. It was a neat set piece. It’s a little janky in keeping within the safe zone for lightning, but I cleared it only getting hit once.
I also have SSB and Cave Story with me, so I might give one of those a try too. I’ll have like 6 hours on both of my flights.

Played around with the Smash Bros Ultimate VR content for awhile today.

On one hand you have to wonder why they picked some of the stages they did to translate over (stages like Mushroom Kingdom 64 & WarioWare give you no reason to look around, and only have a 180° view), but on the other hand stages that move around an environment a lot (Mario Circuit, Pilotwings, Wuhu Island, and Delfino Isle, from what I've tried) work suprisingly well and give a 360° view to boot. Pilotwings & Wuhu Island in particular move quick enough & with enough verticality that I even got a light roller coaster like butterfly sensation.

Not revolutionary by any means, but it's worth coming back to more than the Odyssey or BotW content due to the pick up & play nature of the title.

I have to say, it obviously doesn't hold a candle to PSVR (duh), but for $40 I'd say it's a good budget option now that beyond it's own software, three major first party titles support it, even a third party title has been announced for it, and more might be on the way since Unity has announced support.

It's funny how different Pokemon S/S seem after that Direct.

The towns across the region are connected by an enormous, open world-y area where the bulk of the wild Pokemon reside. True random battles seem to be fully gone: as in LGPE, Pokemon wander the map, and there's an occasional random battle when you encounter exclamation points in the environments.

I havn't seen the direct yet.. does it look good though? it sounds pretty good.

@kyleforrester87 Looks amazing, honestly. Not quite the "full BotW" people were unrealistically hoping for, but having a semi-open world feel to it is going to be really cool.

There's a new mechanic called Dynamaxing where Pokemon grow kaiju-sized and battle each other, which seems like the "weird gimmick" of this game. It's incredibly weird and funny looking, though, so, unlike Mega-Evolution, I'm actually looking forward to it. There are also co-op raids where players can get together and fight super-powered Dynamaxed Pokemon they find in the open world area.

Very impressed with what was revealed. Dynamaxing sure looks like the gimmick of this game, but based on what was described it could be more interesting and strategic than Z-moves or mega evolution were. It certainly looks great from a visual perspective and will hopefully make the stadium-esque gym battles far more dynamic and exciting.

Not sure how much longer Game Freak could have got away with the traditional narrow routes linking cities - especially on hardware as powerful as the Switch - so it's brilliant that the environments are so much bigger than before. They look a bit like the areas in Xenoblade Chronicles or Final Fantasy XII from a size perspective. Anyone expecting a Breath of the Wild type environment was being unrealistic and only setting themselves up for disappointment.

Raids look like a very interesting addition, but less thrilled that it's the only way to catch some Pokémon if it means paying for Nintendo's woeful online service.