Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Metroid Dread reviews are out and the game is sitting on an 88 on Metacritic as well as Opencritic. It even got a 10/10 on NintendoLife, which granted is rather generous with their scores but it's still awesome to see that this game delivers. I'm actually getting quite excited now to play it on Friday.

@johncalmc I was like yeah I’ll platinum the first game, I haven’t played it in a while. Then I looked at the trophies. No chance.

@nessisonett At least they fixed the difficulty trophies on PS4. On the PS3 version you had to play it on easy, normal, and hard because they didn't stack. On PS4 you could just play on hard and get all 3, or as I did, play on easy and do all the side action, then beat it on hard mainlining the story for the platinum.

Or perhaps the best option - just don't play Kingdom Hearts at all.

@johncalmc The problem isn’t even difficulty, it’s the one where you speedrun the game. I hate trophies like that.

@nessisonett no way I don't even remember doing that. I hate speedruns too so I'm surprised I did that.

I can't even remember what games I've played and what I've done.

@LtSarge Sounds good. Though with NLife reviews it's usually best to dock a point or two when it comes to Nintendo games. Maybe we need a PushSquare review, and take the average of that

No just kidding. I've pre-ordered the game. I think it's the first Switch game in a while I've bought. The last one was Animal Crossing I think.

@johncalmc You need to beat the game in 15 hours apparently. The problem is that I wouldn’t want to waste a playthrough of that game doing it as quickly as possible. If I’m going to play it then I 100% it.

@nessisonett I really don't remember doing that. That's crazy. Yeah I wouldn't bother with it. The trophies are a bit annoying. I'm pretty sure that's why I got burned out on Kingdom Hearts when I tried getting the platinum in them all.

I've ordered myself some metroid dread as I have a confession to make, I've never played any of the metroid or metroid prime series!. I like the look of the parry system, hope my timing is decent.

Got Metroid Dread in the mail today and played it for about an hour. So far my impressions are very positive. I like that the game is more cinematic than previous Metroid games. Combat is also very satisfying with the parry mechanic from Samus Returns and just the overall traversal. The whole aspect of being chased around by the robot EMMI is very cool. These sections remind me a lot of the Zero Suit Samus part in Zero Mission where you're being chased all over the place and you can't defeat the enemy. It definitely makes this game feel more like a horror experience, which is refreshing for a 2D Metroid game. However, people with OCD are definitely going to find these parts annoying as they can't take their time to explore every nook and cranny, lol. So basically, be prepared to run away a lot and leave the exploration for later when you've dealt with the robot.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this game and it's so cool to be playing a brand new 2D Metroid game in 2021.

Metroid Dread just played straight off the cart. Nice.

I almost never repurchase games, but I went ahead and dropped another $30 on Tetris Effect on Switch. I'm just not going to play my PS4 version after having finished the campaign. I've only played Tetris 99 on the TV once.

Tetris is a handheld series for me.

@nessisonett Definitely getting physical, then. I really do love when a game just ships out complete. Especially considering Switch is the last bastion of true physical gaming on the market.

The courier buggered up the delivery of Metroid so now I have to wait until Monday. Boo and hiss. I’m now going through Metroid Fusion instead, and forgot just how great it is. It’s interesting seeing the elements of Fusion that have been expanded on in Dread (based on the trailers, anyway), such as the horror and sense of being stalked. Fusion is certainly more streamlined and structured than other Metroid games, but this isn’t to its detriment, and I like that there’s a bit more emphasis on story.

@mookysam Ugh, that's why Friday releases are the worst

Played the first hour or so of Metroid Dread. Really like it so far.

Beat the first area in Metroid Dread and I just have to say that I really enjoy the boss fights in this game, particularly the final one in the first area. It was very engaging and required you to use all kinds of moves instead of just shooting like with typical 2D Metroid boss fights.

The only thing that's a bit disappointing is that once you beat the final boss of the first area, you can't go around and explore. The majority of the areas will be blocked off and the only thing to do is go to the next area. Hopefully you'll get access to it again soon because I really want to do some casual exploring and see what I've missed.

I started this game last night and I am completely hooked. This game is absolutely a 10/10 for me. I picked up an SWOLED too and it looks phenomenal.

@Kidfried Oof, that sucks. I've not had a Switch game crash on me yet (although Xenoblade 2 did some really funky stuff near the end that was pretty much as bad as crashing), but I imagine that must be hugely frustrating.

You'd think they'd configure it to autosave after finishing chapters of the story.

Does it at least have a FF function so that you can quickly skip through the bits you already read?

@Ralizah - Hope all is well, and you can perhaps assist me with a current Switch debate I am having with myself... I think I have seen you post before about your love for SMT/Persona, and perhaps you can advise

I'm travelling more with work again now, and am working to build up my Switch catalogue to keep me going. I have Dread on backlog currently, and will also 100% sign up for the N64 upgrade for NSO.

I've been hearing a lot of hype about the forthcoming SMT V... but I have had literally 0 exposure to SMT/Persona series in the past...

I grew up on turn-based RPGs such as FF, and have also enjoyed other games like Xenoblade. These days I enjoy a mix of 'challenging' games (Sekiro / Returnal) as well as more mainstream items. My taste is fairly diverse, and I even actually quite enjoyed Sword&Shield (don't judge!).

This year my biggest surprise and enjoyment level was probably Hades, which blew me away.

I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to games, and quite enjoy learning new mechanics. You might shoot me here, but I believe SMT is perhaps a more 'mature' Pokemon/collection JRPG - but with a greater challenge curve?

As someone new to SMT/Persona, could I pick this up and competently play? Also, I would like some form of difficulty curve... my biggest issue with Sword/Shield being they were far too easy.

Be keen to know your thoughts, thanks!

@CJD87 Atlus' game design style is one of very conservative improvement over time, so I'd expect the game to be the most polished/user-friendly entry in the series. Additionally, I do think it will probably be fairly beginner-friendly, because Atlus knows this is the first SMT game in ages that is going to actually be exposing a ton of new people to the property.

While the series has a reputation for extremely hardcore difficulty, Atlus has embraced multiple difficulty settings over the years, so the game will probably vary from 'kick-you-teeth-in hard' to 'easier than Pokemon,' given what you choose. Although unless you go with the lowest difficulty settings, most SMT games have a certain baseline difficulty to them, because, unlike other JRPGs, they're not usually ones you can blow through by grinding. Leveling will only get you so far. Given the series' innovative battle system, which gives combatants extra turns in battle (or takes turns away) depending on how well they exploit the weaknesses and avoid the resistances of enemies, possessing a variety of skills across your various demons ends up being far more important than what level they are. This is one of the few JRPG series where buffs are actually important as well: if you're playing on a higher difficulty setting (it's unknown yet which difficulty will be the "baseline" experience; given you can decrease the difficulty setting as you play, I'll probably start with the hard difficulty setting and drop down to normal if it ends up being absurd like SMTIII's hard mode), you MUST buff your party and debuff enemies. You made the pokemon comparison, so allow me to work off of that. Imagine if Pokemon made you engage with most of that series' combat system mechanics to win gym battles, and even random Pokemon battles were dangerous enough that you needed to be mindful of what Pokemon you had out at any one time. Sounds fun, right?

The fun thing about SMT monsters is that they're not just random 'pocket monster'-style beasties. They're almost all based on actual mythological entities, which gives them a neat connection to real world legend and allows Atlus to maintain a high level of quality when they add new 'demons' (which is just a catch-all term for the mythological entities in this game: Zeus, Thor, Vishnu, etc. also show up in the series). For example, one of the new demons that was recently revealed to be appearing in the game is the Manananggal. I'd never heard of this thing, but it's apparently a pretty well-known monster from the Philippines, and there was a decent amount of excitement online from Philippinian SMT and Nintendo fans that their region had a 'rep' in the games now.

When it comes to demons, it's probably worth mentioning that the way you "acquire" them is actually rather unique. Most demons you'll be able to acquire through negotiations, where they'll ask you questions (ranging from bizarrely trivial stuff to deeply philosophical enquiries), ask you for money/materials/etc. It's unknown if they've made any changes to negotiations in this game, but it can take a while before you get the hang of it, since certain types of demons have preferences for certain types of answers, and there's also an element of randomness to it (because not all demons of the same type will be exactly the same in terms of how they like questions answered). Over the course of the game, you'll need to fuse tons of demons. Demon fusion is the process of taking two or more demons to the "cathedral of shadows" and fusing them into a new type of demon that can inherit skills from both of its parents. Demon fusing is the 'secret sauce' that makes the entire balance of the series hang together, because fusions are primarily how you'll be shaping the skill loadouts and resistances of your demons, and also how you'll be acquiring most of the higher level demons in these games. Learning not to get too attached to your demons, barring plot important ones, is part of the process of becoming adept at the series: in general, as soon as a demon has learned all of its useful skills, you'll want to fuse it away and turn it into a new type of demons that can learn new sets of skills. Of course, that's also contingent on what's happening in the game. If you're about to go up against a boss that primarily relies on force magic, and you have a demon that repels force skills... maybe hang onto it?

Another thing to keep in mind is that the series has traditionally been dungeon-heavy. Now, early footage of this game confirms that it's going to have far more open, sprawling overworld environments than its predecessors, but Atlus has also said that themed, gimmick-driven dungeons will also be returning in this entry.

SMT V is probably the place to start with this series if you want both polished, player-friendly game design AND an actual sense of challenge to the game (I love the Persona games, but Persona 5/Royal is really easy even on the highest difficulty setting, lol). As a long-time JRPG fan, it's pretty much the perfect mixture of elements I love from the genre: amazing music, challenging battles, addictive monster-collecting gameplay, atmospheric environments, fascinating lore, etc. The one thing to keep in mind is that these games aren't usually heavily story-driven. They have interesting plots, but, unless something has changed with this entry, they're extremely gameplay-focused.

Hope that helped!