Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

I just watched the direct and I’m pretty hyped for this now. I’ve not played a Pokemon game since Blue (tried one on 3DS but couldn’t get into it really). This looks like it’ll be a lot of fun though - day 1!

@mookysam FFXII is a good comparison. That also has a balance of more narrow "routes" with larger, more open areas. And, to be honest, I think that's probably a good fit for Pokemon. This is starting to look like a true, home console version of the famous handheld RPG series.

@kyleforrester87 Y @kyleforrester87 Yatta! Day One for me as well. In fact, since I'm preloading it, I'll likely be up at midnight waiting to play it, like I was with Smash Ultimate.

I love the games, but the series was getting a little... been there, done that? Sun and Moon were a big technical step up, but I felt like they were always dragging me around by the ear, so to speak. The Let's Go games... I'm still working on them, but, unfortunately, they're kind of boring.

Sword/Shield look incredibly fun, though. Clearly they give you space to explore. The co-op raid mechanic seems neat. It's pretty stunning looking compared to previous titles. I can't wait to finally play whichever version I happen to get.

@Ralizah looking at the map I don’t get the impression the wild areas will be all that big (or that there will be many of them) unless the scale is deliberately all over the place. I don’t imagine they’ll be as large or plentiful as XBC or FF12s, which isn’t a problem of course, it’s what you can do in them that counts and the dynamic nature of them is interesting to me.

@kyleforrester87 I thought about that, too, but, from the trailer, it seems like there's at least a few different types of biomes. We'll see when it releases, of course. There are a few large-ish looking expanses on the map.

It sort of reminds me of the Safari Zone from Gen 1, but several orders of magnitude larger, and probably without weird rules of conduct.

On that note, I've been playing FFXII on Switch recently. A lot of the environments are a good deal more narrow than I remembered. Granted, you do have a couple of staggeringly spacious areas, but a lot of the environments wouldn't be out of place in FFX.

@mookysam, I read somewhere that you have the option of playing the Dynamax Raid battles with 3 AI partners if you can't play with other people online or IRL.

Anyow, here's my guess of how Nintendo published titles will roll out the rest of the year. NOTE: all releases through August have been confirmed.

June: Super Mario Maker 2, Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Nintendo self publishes all DQ games on their platforms)
July: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
August: Astral Chain
September: Link's Awakening, Daemon X Machina.
October: Luigi's Mansion 3.
November: Pokemon S/S, DQXIS (again, on the DQ on Nintendo thing).
December: Animal Crossing

So, a pretty full rest of the year on Nintendo published titles, though there's always the chance they could squeeze in a Wii U port or new smaller budget game in one of the months with only one game, as they've had plenty of two game months before (BotW + 12Switch Mar '17, SMO + FE Warriors Oct '17, Bayonetta 1&2 + DQB Feb '18, LABO kits 01 + 02 Apr '18, Hyrule Warriors + DKCTF May '18, Mario Tennis + Sushi Striker June '18, Octopath Traveller + Captain Toad + Go Vacation July '18, Torna + LABO kit 03 Sept '18, NSMBU + Fitness Boxing Jan '19, Mario Maker 2 + DQB2 June '19, FE: TH + MUA3 July '19).

If it does end up anything like that there'll definitely be a couple months with some tough choices!

@RR529 I dunno, I hope Daemon x Machina gets delayed into next year. It needs work. The demo was kind of rough.

Anyway, I'm fully expecting a Pikmin 3 port. Hopefully with the announcement of Pikmin 4 being due out next year.

Dynamax makes mega evolutions look cool. It's so stupid, I hate it

Areas look alright, but still sparse. I really hope the Pokemon interact with their environment. But it seems like the idle walking animations from LGPE are back.

@mookysam They did say you can do raids locally too.

I think Dynamaxing looks pretty interesting, personally. I mean, yeah, it's kinda stupid, but that's part of the charm. I can't believe they went and make kaiju-sized Pokemon battles a thing. It's great!

@Ralizah Less interesting than mega evolutions imo. It's like z-moves, just an OP thing that makes battles less fun, except now it applies to a Pokemon instead of a move. I kinda hope you can ignore it.

@Octane The fun is in the spectacle of it. And probably in raid battles as well. We'll see.

@Ralizah I guess I wasn't impressed by it then...!

@Ralizah Pikmin 4 surely has to be coming within the next year. Isn't it supposed to have been "almost finished" for years? Pikmin 3 deserves to be played by more people, but I think the series will remain pretty niche by Nintendo standards.

@Knuckles-Fajita I don't know enough people with a Switch who have any interest in playing it. 😂

@RR529 That would help a lot as long as the AI is up to snuff. Out of your list of expected release dates, what are you planning on getting?

@mookysam Even niche series have done very well on Switch, so I hope it comes to the system sooner than later. And yeah, I have wondered if the project was in development hell or if Nintendo has just been sitting on the thing for ages!

Either way, Pikmin 4 needs to happen. Next year, ideally, as this year is quite busy as it is.

Pikmin 4 better happen this year.

Better to launch in a slow period next year than compete for mindshare with a dozen other first party releases this year.

@Ralizah It's only competing with Link's Awakening this year, I don't see the problem

@Octane Animal Crossing and Pokemon would eat its lunch and you know it.