Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@nessisonett ownership is so 1990’s

@kyleforrester87 only 8.30 this morning? You've gone slack.

@JohnnyShoulder I dunno that’s pretty early for a Saturday. Shows a lot of commitment.

@kyleforrester87 I usually have some with my cornflakes, but be ****** if I'm getting up that early on a weekend.

Got Xenoblade Chronicles DE in last night & have played for a few hours today. Have mostly been doing sidequests around Colony 9 and it's really impressive that this is a Wii game at heart, as even this first area is just so expansive.

I do love how user friendly it is (you're never put into a situation where you lose really any progress, and you can freely play with the in-game day system so you don't have to wait around for quests that are tied to the time of day to be available), which I believe is something XC2 & Torna let you do too, which is important just for the fact that the areas are so large it encourages exploration without fear of what'll happen if that random level 70 enemy that might be around the corner one shots you.

@nessisonett

https://www.dualshockers.com/disco-elysium-japanese-rival-gno...

OK, this sounds awesome. The "RPG" part of it comes in because stats affect conversations, lying, deductions, etc. over the course of the game. Also, replaying the game over and over isn't just something you do, it's apparently worked into the core story, since your characters are stuck in a time loop of sorts.

@Ralizah Wow, it really does sound great. I’ve mentioned previously (many times) how much I loved Disco Elysium and this article makes Gnosia sound similar in the way it blends a compelling novel with stat-based RPG mechanics. It’s definitely a game I’d want to experience for myself since it seems to be defined by each player’s different stories and choices.

My childhood returned, I am playing the Final Fantasy Legend Collection. Those were my first jrpgs and I love that I can revisit them in modern hardware.

Strangely the Original Battery in FFL1 launch day version STILL works to this very day! I still have my almost 30 years save!!!

Well, when Crawlco Block Knockers was announced you just know someone was going to try it out, and since I had gold coins to spare I figured why not.

Pretty much it's a puzzle game where different colored blocks appear in the play area, and it's the job of your character to push & pull them around to make matches of the same color to slowly reveal pinup art of scantily dressed women under the play area (some of these do feature topless nudity, hence the "M" rating, however in addition to the default uncensored mode there are two different "modesty" modes you can enable to make it a less risqué experience), however various enemies & the ability to block yourself in (or make a section of the play area inaccessible) mean you have to try to think a bit ahead & on your toes.

A lot more has seemed to go into it than Waifu Uncovered (a title from the same publisher with a similar appeal). Outside of the fanservicy elements, the game has an appealing clean looking 80's neon aesthetic that's a world beyond the amateurish meme/potty humour of the previous title. Plus it seems legitimately better as a game too (though I'm not too far into it yet), and really makes you work hard if you want to unlock that pinup, as while you can clear stages without completely filling out the outlined area that features the pinup artwork, you don't unlock that image in the gallery unless you do so, which is a lot harder to accomplish than it initially seems (I find it to be very easy to be able to accidentally block off a section of the play area, which means you have to restart the level if you want to complete that specific part of the area).

You can turn off enemies on the level select screen which theoretically makes things easier as you can just focus on matching blocks (and I don't think doing so penalizes you in any way), however crushing enemies with a block also contributes to being able to fill out the play area, so you won't have that method of clearing available to you if you do so (and probably limits your high score capability as well). It might be worth it to help learn the game though, as it's pretty easy to accidentally kill an enemy, clearing a part of the image you didn't want to & blocking off an area you haven't filled in yet.

There are also occasional boss levels (I stopped for today after the first one). These don't feature an image to unlock, and can be skipped if you have enough gold stars (which are earned by clearing a level with it's pinup art completely filled out).

Nintendo is doing a year in review feature for users in the US & Canada, here's mine:

325 Hours
25 Games
Most Played:
1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
3. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna, the Golden Country
4. Paper Mario: the Origami King
5. Final Fantasy IX

Honestly surprised 3D All-Stars didn't make my top 5 (guess I played Final Fantasy IX more than I thought).

@RR529 Yeah, NoE must be doing it too, but only have a top four. I've played on my Switch more than I thought this year, spending 192 hours and 8 games spread over 151 days. It's not a huge amount all told, and most of it was on Animal Crossing New Horizons. The other games in the top four are Super Mario 3D All-Stars, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

@RR529 @mookysam Something tells me Animal Crossing is gonna be top of a lot of people's lists, whether they realise it or not. It's such a timesink!

Being at my partner's this past week, we played a lot of it, especially in the crescendo before its sanitised, non-denominational "Toy Day" event on December 24. It was typical of the calendar events (some special items to buy in the shops, some immediate objectives on the day itself and then other, lighter fare scattered about the weeks either side) but no less charming. Whatever mystical, otherworldly power they've bottled to make this game so relentlessly adorable should be spread about the whole world; maybe then things would start to look up.

We also played a fair chunk of Paper Mario: The Origami King (because my partner was underway with a playthrough, we decided to stick with it, and therefore didn't get a chance to start his Christmas present, which was a copy of LEGO City Undercover). Some of the battle tactics made me grit my teeth, especially since I hadn't played the first couple hours and so had missed quite a few tutorials, but it still made me laugh and smile a heck of a lot. Very lovely stuff.

@RogerRoger I forgot to check in on "Toy Day" (go figure they'd go all in with the most commercial aspect of the season) until the evening, because I thought the 25th would be the main day, by which time most of the residents of Mooksville were in bed and I couldn't deliver all the presents! The snowy setting is nice and the wintry music is quite soothing. My attempts at making snowfolk have been quite miserable failures so far!

Paper Mario is on my to-buy list. It looks so cute and funny. I got Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for Christmas so shall start that soon.

@mookysam Yeah, the commercialism made me nervously laugh, but it's kinda all they could go with for such an international product, I reckon (at least safely). Irony is that it requires a fully-developed island to experience, and it took place the day before Christmas itself, so all the lucky kids getting a Nintendo Switch would've missed out on all the subliminal messaging. I guess it'll be... what, "Love Day" in February for them next, or "Chocolate Egg Day" come the spring. Keeping the saints and sacrifice out of things!

I made a top-heavy snowperson the other day, and it told me off. I felt such shame!

Fingers crossed you enjoy Age of Calamity when you get around to it. That's the prequel to Breath of the Wild, isn't it? Or am I making that up?

I gotta say, while I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2's sci-fi turn late in the game, so far XC:DE's equivalent hasn't been as interesting, and I think it's because of the areas themselves.

While XC2's sci-fi turn involved the ruins of a relatively contemporary city, and an orbital elevator/space station with a long abandoned artificial biome that looks a lot like the remains of a small American town, the Mechonis' areas have all just been relatively generic sci-fi looking areas with various shades of brown & bronze everywhere. Still with an awe inspiring sense of scale & a few neat set-pieces, but so far they haven't been as interesting as the game's first half nature-esque areas.

@mookysam @RogerRoger It would be brilliant if they did a solemn procession for Easter in Animal Crossing! Tom Nook shuffling along until they reach Golgotha and see the crucifix on the hill. I fear that the commercialised version of these holidays are a lot more universal and family friendly 😅

@nessisonett The special task for the day could be running around the island, trying to figure out which of the twelve discip... er, villagers betrayed him.

I’ve been playing Horace over the last couple of days and it’s really quite brilliant. Admittedly your experience may be hampered without knowledge of Coronation Street, Woolworths and Auf Wiedersehen Pet but the gameplay is also varied and interesting, I’ve had several genre shifts within the first 4 hours. The soundtrack is great, clever use of Creative Commons tunes as this is a passion project from a 2 man team. The writing is witty, sometimes dark and occasionally heartwarming in a stoically British sort of way. It’s well worth the staggering discounted price and I can totally see why NLife gave it a 10. Although I do wonder why it didn’t make their top 10 of the year despite earning a perfect 10. Probably to avoid the ‘ew indies’ comments I’ve seen on pretty much every single article about different writers’ top 5 on this site.

@nessisonett One thing I've noticed in gamer culture online is this sorta hivemindy insistence that everyone play and praise the same small group of AAA blockbusters every year. A lot of people don't step out of that shallow pool at all to explore the wider depths of the industry. And, yeah, you get those sorts of comments if you attempt to highlight something smaller or less well-known.

It's the video game equivalent of someone who watches Marvel movies and ignores everything else.

@Ralizah Yeah, it’s strange that people can so widely write off a whole group of games. It always annoyed me that ‘indie’ is sometimes used as a genre, it’s mad given how varied a lot of indie games can actually be in regards to genres and settings. They can often play with ideas that just wouldn’t make it past the drawing board in a large studio, for better or worse. Obviously, higher production values can result in a great cinematic experience but sometimes, as with all media, they can be beaten by a shoddily put together mess made in a garden shed.