Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@nessisonett I'm not terribly worried about future releases unless these ports bomb, considering NIS seems to have taken hold of their biggest properties. And the sales of Disgaea 5 and Ys VIII seem to have convinced them that Nintendo Switch is their new home turf.

But yeah, Marvelous isn't a tiny company; hopefully they can be convinced to port a few of these games onto the Switch. It really sucks only having the back half of the Cold Steel saga on this device, and none of the Trails in the Sky games. None of these ports should be too difficult to develop and release.

Hell, ports Trails in the Sky to PS4 while you're at it. How hard could it possibly be to put a decades-old game that already has an HD Steam conversion on modern consoles?

@Ralizah The Trails in the Sky (holy crap, don’t make that an acronym) Steam port is an odd duck. It still uses the original art and battle style so doesn’t have Evo’s improvements. You can patch the JP voices in but it wouldn’t be possible on PS4 or Switch. I’d obviously prefer a translation of the Evo version but I don’t think that would be economically viable. Then Zero and Ao aren’t even translated at all, it’s really quite strange considering they all tie into a wider narrative.

@nessisonett Now you know why I always say "Trails in the Sky" instead of shortening it.

I think that lack of consideration for their Western fanbase is part of what puts me off about Trails overall. Like... it should be a priority to bring over the Crossbell games in some form, considering they apparently have important story connections to later, localized games. And despite them ostensibly considering PS4 their new home base, they still haven't bothered porting over Trails in the Sky.

Falcom gives me the impression of a company that only really cares about its niche of hardcore fans in Asia. It's one of the oldest developers in the industry, so it blows my mind that they've never tried to go bigger with their releases.

@KratosMD It’s not hard to see why Sky fans are absolutely livid with the direction Falcom are taking. The 2 leads of Sky only get the conclusion of their story in Ao, which still hasn’t been localised. Cold Steel 3 and 4 were always going to be localised, the first two games were after all. I reckon Zero/Ao weren’t localised because it was late in the PSP’s lifespan and the console just wasn’t as big in the West as it was in Japan.

@KratosMD It's really not unfair. This is literally one of the most seasoned developers in the industry, yet they're utterly risk-averse and, in interviews, still seem amazed that Western audiences even play their games. Even tiny Western indies composed of three person teams can usually manage to develop their games for multiple platforms and/or occasionally port older games to newer systems. Moreover, they're perfectly capable of porting their older games to newer hardware, as ports of games like Ys VIII, Memories of Celceta, the first two Trails of Cold Steel games, etc. can attest.

I'm not insulting them when I say they really only care about a tiny segment of hardcore Falcom fans in asia: that's just how they are. And, because of this, they've become rather insular in a variety of ways.

Anyway, it wouldn't be as big of a deal for something like Ys games, which are mostly disconnected one-shots with small references to previous games, but when you have this big, interconnected fantasy epic that relies on player familiarity with previous adventures, it's bad form for this gigantic chunk of the property to remain unlocalized for extended periods of time in some of the biggest gaming markets on Earth.

And, personally, if the company is utterly disinterested in my ability to become invested in the property and to easily access it on modern hardware, then, frankly, it becomes harder for me to want to invest my own time and money in their property. shrug Persona wouldn't be anywhere near where it is in terms of popularity in the West if Atlus treated their games in a similar manner. Imagine Persona 5, but to get the most out of it, you really need to have played all four previous games, but those aren't available on modern devices, and Persona 3 and 4 aren't even localized in English, so only hardcore Atlus nerds really have access to them. You think there would be millions of people over here clamoring for Persona 6? I don't.

If anything, Falcom's fanbase has only just recently started to grow in the West since companies like NIS and XSeed have started to expose their games to wider audiences.

@KratosMD At the very least, Sky SC absolutely sets up Cold Steel, and I know that despite not having played that arc yet. However, you would need to play FC first in order to experience that fully. The 3rd might not contribute much in its overall plot but the doors provide crucial information about Olivier and Osborne as well as setting up Crossbell, which in turn ties in with Erebonia. I couldn’t imagine just choosing certain games to play, the Trails series excels at slow world building through thousands and thousands of lines of dialogue across several games.

-Watches the conversation unfold wistfully... as her copy of Cold Steel hasn't even been dispatched yet and she's getting a bit antsy- 😔

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I had to wait nearly an extra week for my copy of FFVII Remake to arrive. With all of the crying about peoples' copies being canceled or indefinitely delayed due to coronavirus-related issues, I was rather nervous.

Lol this is how they get me to convert to digital formats isn't it @Ralizah? 😅

I think I recall that regarding your FFVII remake... Was it a fancy collector's Edition?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I'm seriously curious about the possibility of Sony shipping the disc-based PS5 to stores in lower quantities in order to push people toward the cheaper, all-digital version. There has to be a MASSIVE incentive to using the suck cost of digital purchases to keep someone locked in an ecosystem.

Yeah, it was the Deluxe Edition. They're easy-ish to come by now, I guess, but at launch people were struggling to obtain even normal copies of the game. It's rather funny how manufacturing and shipments have returned to relative normalcy in the States, despite the pandemic being worse than ever right now.

@Ralizah I really hope that isn’t true, the possibility of playing 4K Blu-Rays is the only reason I’m interested in the disc version and probably the only way I can convince my mum it isn’t a massive waste of money!

@nessisonett I like how a console that can play new games for 7-ish years is a waste of money, but a blu-ray player on steroids that'll only be able to play the same movies that are already available on normal blu-ray is fine.

As ness says I'd like to hope that isn't true @Ralizah.

Sony is a giant corperation and well... the end goal is to make money. Can't deny it could potentially happen.

Though they aren't WB, EA, 2K, Activision or the likes with the gross overmonetisation of MTX's so they aren't completely without some set of morals.

... For the moment at least.

-Looks up the FFVII R deluxe edition contents- Hardcover Artbook, Mini Soundtrack and a steelbook? Pretty decent swag to come with it!

Also we've gone rather off track from the Switch...

That uhh... Min-Min(?) for smash huh? 😂

@Ralizah Oh, don’t I know it 😂😂

I've played about two hours of Catherine: Full Body tonight. It's a tremendously weird game so far. Not sure how I feel about the puzzle aspects, but the narrative is incredibly engaging. And, good lord, is that opening theme smooth.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Mine also came with an exclusive PS4 theme and a few extra bits of DLC. It's very nice. Especially considering I got it in a pre-release sale that essentially made it the same price as the base version.

@Kidfried Yeah, I'm not too worried about the game's treatment of gender. It's obvious that it's proceeding from a bit of stereotypical cishet male perspective on love and relationships and women, but I think that's fine: many, many people out there also embody that perspective. There's nothing wrong with that perspective.

It's fun so far. I'm liking it. I hope Atlus creates more unique stuff like this in the future.

@Kidfried @Ralizah From what I played before deciding it just wasn’t for me, it was definitely apparent that a few of the ‘damning moments’ used against Catherine were in fact just things Vincent said. Now Vincent is absolutely not set up in any way to be a nice person, he’s a garbage human therefore I don’t see much point in picking apart all the terrible things he says. It’s like Ross from Friends, all these people on Buzzfeed and stuff going on about how he’s the worst character ever but that was the point, he’s supposed to be terrible. Without spoiling anything, there are some definite ‘oof’ moments later on but I still maintain that it’s a good game that just isn’t for me and definitely deals with certain things badly. That being said, it was Japan in 2011, attitudes have shifted massively worldwide.

@nessisonett @Kidfried I like how the game uses subtle clues in the dialogue to tie the world together. I met some guy in the bar who remembered Vincent from kindergarten, and who I suspected was kind of hurt when Vincent didn't remember him (a relatable situation; if I had a nickel for every time I bumped into someone who knew my name, but I couldn't even recall where I had met them...). Later on in the dream world, I meet a sheep who seems like he's sulking about that exact situation, suggesting he's the guy from the bar.

The game itself very obviously adopts a notion of gender essentialism that I can't really relate to, but I'm sure other people can. I imagine a lot of people who aren't in the "buzzfeed crowd" and who get offended by re-runs of 90's sitcoms probably also find it relatable. And I think anyone can probably relate to finding themselves in a situation where they feel outmaneuvered and trapped by the people around them.

Vincent is an interesting character precisely because of how flawed and ordinary he is. He's the sort of person I wouldn't get along with IRL, and, from the outside, I'd find his situation infuriating (I still do, actually), so it's interesting stepping into his shoes and inhabiting that headspace.

@Ralizah Vincent’s that one friend everyone has who makes terrible life choices but constantly bemoans their situation and asks you for advice (really just to moan) while totally disregarding what you’re saying. That’s part of why I stopped playing it, I really disliked Vincent as a person and as much as I’m OK with flawed characters, he really was terrible and I find it hard to get motivated to play when his choices just did my head in. I assume there’ll be a redemption arc at some point. I still think Catherine was a big step forward in telling mature stories about sex and relationships in games though, albeit with rather a few caveats. A lot of games treat relationships (and mostly with women) as plot devices, with your dead wife trope, your generic playful banter between the two leads etc. Catherine tells a story of human relationships, warts and all. Thinking about it, I can’t really name many games with great love stories to be honest. Mario and Peach? BroShep and Garrus, at least in my headcanon? The only game I can think of that made me actually feel something about a canonical pairing was Tidus and Yuna, which felt both natural and was integral to the overall plot. Contrast that with FFXV’s weird romantic subplot, where they spent about 5 seconds on screen together and had zero chemistry. Noctis has more chemistry with each of his yaoi stereotype ‘friends’, I mean look at them, there’s ‘dad’ boi who cooks, ‘abs’ boi who likes nature and dotes on his sister and your generic twink with a tragic backstory. We need more games with actual romance rather than me being left to fill the void with awful subtext 😂😂

OH MY GOD