Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Ryoku SMT V is a much more modern game with a tremendously different approach to level design and exploration, features tons of QoL improvements, etc.

That's not to scare you off buying Nocturne HD, of course, but the games are different enough that one doesn't function well as a stand-in for another.

@Ryall Nintendo Switch misses out on probably 90% of AAA third-party support, and the same will likely be true of the successor except for titles designed around the specs of the system like Monster Hunter Rise. And, honestly, that's fine, because it gives the huge number of non-AAA devs a space where their games can enjoy more appreciation.

Crucially, that also characterizes the majority of notable Japanese game developers.

Brilliant Diamond just arrived. Got it a little bit cheaper in the end as well (£40).
Glad to be working from home today 👀.

Finished Metroid Dread (woohoo), and am wondering if one of my (four-month-old) joy-cons has some issues. I was having difficulty spin jumping in many instances throughout the game, with Samus jumping straight up as though I wasn't tilting the stick at all. I couldn't figure out why, but after switching to the pro controller for the final boss, had no issues whatsoever.

@mookysam that sucks! Mario aces did for my first set of joy cons. It got so bad that I kept charging the net every shot! Are you in warranty? I'm UK based and it happened within 12 months of me buying the system and I got a free nintendo repair. Hopefully you get the same treatment. How did you find dread? It's been one of my favourite games this year, mechanicly tight with some really fun boss fights.

@Ryoku It's unavoidable with a company that primarily trades in exclusives and splits its development efforts between two different ecosystems. I don't mind too much, personally. Atlus exclusives give me a good excuse to buy Sony's consoles, and usually I end up finding other stuff I enjoy on there as well.

My Atlus collection is split between six different systems: PS2, PS4, Vita, NDS, 3DS, and Switch. Although I guess you could simplify that to five, since the NDS games all run on 3DS.

So I just finished Pokémon Shining Pearl at 40 hours of playtime and overall, I thought the game was really good. But I did notice towards the end that having to adapt to the EXP Share by using a rotation of Pokémon made me severely under-leveled for the Pokémon League. In fact, I actually lost to Cynthia during my first try. The problem is that you feel so over-leveled throughout most of the game and then you reach the Pokémon League and the Pokémon there vary greatly between level 50 to 70 and most of my team were in the early 50s. I guess you could look at it like the game is actually offering a challenge, lol. Because even if my Pokémon were at higher levels, the Pokémon that the Elite Four and Cynthia have are actually rather tough to defeat. A lot of them have berries that reduce the damage of a super effective hit, moves that cover types they are weak against, Pokémon that aren't the type they specialise in and so on. I don't think they were this tough in the original game, so at the very least it was a good challenge.

At this point, I think I'm pretty much done with the game. I don't feel like catching most of the legendary Pokémon because I've caught them so many times throughout the games and it feels like a waste of time. The only ones I might consider catching are Shaymin, Darkrai and Arceus just because they're event Pokémon. I've actually never caught an Arceus in-game before (I don't think you could even do that in the original game). Moreover, filling the Pokédex is also a waste of time because I already did that in Platinum. I might check out the post-game areas that have unlocked now just to see if there's anything interesting there. But yeah, I definitely think I got my money's worth from this game with the 40 hours I spent playing it.

@R1spam They really are the flimsiest little controllers. I think it's a six-month warranty as they're the Zelda joy-con set. It doesn't seem too noticeable with other games, although if there is an issue it may get worse with time. Metroid Dread was excellent, although I rather disliked the E.M.M.I.!

It's been a week of Switch-related strife, because my unit has now warped to the point it doesn't easily fit into the dock. 😬 It's possibly owing to how hot it gets playing Shin Megami Tensei V, because that's all I played yesterday.

I gave in and got new Joy-Cons. I could only get really f***ing horrible purple and orange ones though. They’re gross but they don’t drift yet.

@nessisonett The joy cons are without a doubt the worst controller I’ve ever used. I had to replace the padding on my left one about a month ago.

I’m about 10+ hours into Brilliant Diamond. It’s very good. I’m way overlevelled but I’m messing about a bit much more- mainly to fill out the Pokédex. I also love that very early on you get 2 of the coolest legendary’s depending on your saves… . I will say the issues that I thought would have remain.
I’m about 10+ lvls ahead of the 3rd gym. The affection animations slow things down, so I’m saving some of my best Pokémon till I can properly EV train. Loving the Grand Underground, but so far so good. BD/SP is definitely the best Pokémon game on switch.

@Fight_Teza_Fight After several replaced sticks and other parts, I just had to get new ones. Joy-Cons really are absolute trash.

@nessisonett that's the cheapest set I could find when I went for extra joy cons for mario kart 😂 they definitely feel more solid than my launch red/blue pair.

I don't remember the last time I used joycons. Although it took mine three years or so before the started to show any issues, and those were resolved in five minutes with alcohol and a cotton swab, thankfully.

@LtSarge The levels of the Elite Four are the same. The level jump was that great in the originals.

The items, full EV and IV trained Pokemon, held items on every Pokemon, appropriate stat boosting natures, movesrts and even hidden abilities are all new.

@Haruki_NLI Oh wow, they changed the Pokémon that much? Very interesting, I mean I certainly thought they were more difficult than before even if I were under-leveled.

@LtSarge Yeah, the levels and actual Pokemon teams are consistent, and Cynthia was always IV trained.

But each Pokemon having a held item, let alone items that good? New. The strategies used and the movesets? New.

All Elite Four members being EV and IV trained? New. Natures and Hidden Abilities? New.

I only won through cheesing a +6 Sp Atk Spiritomb sweep on Cynthia and even then her Spiritomb was doing 50% of mine in a single neutral hit, which for a Spiritomb is VERY surprising. I also nearly got set up on and swept earlier too.

But just wait until you see the rematches with all the Gym Leaders and the TWO sets of rematches with the Pokemon League.

Now THOSE are terrifying.

@Haruki_NLI Yeah I also had to cheese Cynthia by being cheeky to her Garchomp. It has so much in Attack that it was one-shoting most of my Pokémon, so what I did was I switched in my Luxray and lowered its Attack with its Intimidate ability. Then I switched to my Mismagius with its Levitate because I knew she would use Earthquake on Luxray, so she would miss that attack. Then I would switch back to Luxray to lower its Attack even more and sometimes I would get hit by Dragon Claw, but at that point its Attack was lowered enough for Luxray to withstand its attacks. Absolutely crazy lol, can't believe I actually won that battle.

I didn't have much trouble with Spiritomb personally thanks to my Drapion that had Night Slash, Sniper ability and Razor Claw, which made it an absolute critical-hit beast.

I'm also watching a person on YouTube go through the Elite Four now and she got absolutely destroyed by Flint with the Drifblim Minimise + Baton Pass -> Infernape combo.

But yeah, I did have the rematch against Roark and holy crap, he was absolutely ruthless as well. I'm definitely not going to find out what the others are like lol. If you're looking for a challenge, the Pokémon League and the rematches against the gym leaders are definitely going to deliver one.

As Christmas rolls around again, so does my flirtation with joining club Switch. A couple times a year I think about it and every time I shy away. The thing is — I was compelled by the recent moniker placed on it (I think it was @Killowertz ) who called Switch basically his “Vita 2”, and it got me thinking about the fact that my portable gaming on Vita has become so few and far between, that maybe it’s just because the games left on Vita that I’ve not already played are just too antiquated to spur my interest. The prospect of an actual Vita 2 will never happen, and if Switch will fill the void, then I am once again considering it as a supplement to all my PlayStation hardware. If I jump into the ecosystem then it will be to utilize it as a portable (although the freedom to dock is nice rather than being locked to mobile gaming via the Lite)

Anyhoo…. Just wondering if there are enough games to make it worth the investment. I have no interest in most Nintendo first party stuff except for Breath of the Wild. I’m just not going to play Pokémon, Mario, Luigi, Smash Bros, or Animal Crossing. Just zero interest in the game concepts, art style, or legacy of any of those. No disrespect to those classic franchises, it’s just not in my nature due to years and years of PlayStation only gaming.

Here’s the games I’m interested in (which I can’t play on PS4 or PS5):

BOTW
Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2
Fire Emblems: 3 Houses
Bayonetta 2
Monster Hunter Rise
SMT 5
Octopath Traveler
Astral Chain
KOTOR (I really want to play this before the remake comes, as I never have played it before and want the context)

There’s a few third party ports that are available on Switch and PlayStation that I might rather play handheld, but not much. For the most part, I need to know from that list if any are true system sellers and what people think of those titles above. Or, alternatively advice if maybe I should avoid some of the above titles, as I’m not sure if coming in cold as a non-Nintendo guy that some of these may fall flat (FE, XC for example). And as a PlayStation fan born-and-raised, did I miss any titles that would resonate well with me that you can think of? Or even if there are some multi-platform games that are just better on Switch than the PlayStation counterpart. Also, the Switch ecosystem is still such a mystery to me, can you think of other games, hidden gems so to speak, like Visual Novels, Walking Sims, arcade games, etc that would be under the radar and not on the forefront of the casual community? Does Switch have anything like Uncharted or The Last of Us / Naughty Dog style games? Or any good Western RPGs besides Skyrim and Witcher 3? Good action RPGs besides Dark Souls?

Sorry for the vague and open-ended nature of the inquiry, but just feeling an itch for current gen portable gaming and nothing on my Vita is pulling me in. And I know there will be quite a variety of opinion, which is fine, just wondering peoples’ take on the Switch games, coming from a PS background.

@Ralizah Thanks! That gives me some food for thought. I’m at work but I’ll watch the videos later when I have time. The games you mention do seem to be of interest and most of them didn’t come up in my initial browse through the popular Switch titles, so that’s helpful indeed.

Regarding Metroid Dread — I’ve looked at it and honestly it was a large reason for my resurrected interest in the Switch, given the universal praise and GOTY accolades. But when I investigated, I’m not sure it’s up my alley. I’ve never played any Metroid games, that I can remember, and the platforming side scroller shooter gameplay hasn’t traditionally been one of my staples and I’m still warming up to Metroidvania in general. I need to watch some gameplay.

@Th3solution I think it was me you were thinking of with regards to the Vita 2 statement as I wrote that on the previous page. I don't even think @KilloWertz has a Switch, lol.

Anyway, I definitely think the Switch is worth getting now for both first-party games and third-party titles that you'd rather play on Switch than on PlayStation. In general though, it's important to know that most titles that are on both PS4 and Switch such as Persona 5 Strikers and Ys VIII will run better on PS4. Some games on Switch might have frame rate drops here and there, but they are still acceptable versions of the games. If you're fine with that, then you will have tons of games to play on your Switch. Games that you might not have been motivated to play if you bought them on PS4 as the freedom of playing on the TV and on the go with the Switch makes these games more compelling to play in my opinion. I just can't imagine playing dozens of hours long JRPGs in front of the TV all the time.

With that said, I think you already have a good selection of games to play on the Switch. I personally see the system as a phenomenal JRPG/visual novel/indie game machine just like with the Vita, so if you like those games then you're going to find a lot to play on the Switch.

Do you like pure fun action RPGs where you level up in real time? If so, then add Ys VIII and IX to your list. Trials of Mana is supposedly really good too.

If you like visual novels, then I highly recommend checking out the Steins;Gate titles. There's the first game Steins;Gate Elite, the sequel Steins;Gate 0 and the spinoff game Steins;Gate My Darling's Embrace. They are the best visual novels I've played since Danganronpa (which are now also on the Switch if you haven't played all of them already). Other visual novels that are perfect on the Switch is the Ace Attorney trilogy and The Great Ace Attorney duology. AI: The Somnium Files is supposedly a good one as well from the Danganronpa developers.

I would recommend Trails of Cold Steel III and IV, but the first two games aren't on the Switch and I don't know if you've played them or not on the Vita.

If you're in the mood for some classic JRPGs, then the first three Dragon Quest games are available on the Switch as well.

If you're interested in some survival horror games, then there are two Corpse Party titles available on the Switch, including the first one. Detention is also a unique 2D Asian horror game worth playing.

If you like Fire Emblem: Three Houses and find yourself wanting more tactical RPGs, then Mario + Rabbids might be a fitting game for you. It's more like XCOM though.

A game that's available on both PlayStation and Switch that's like BotW is Immortals: Fenyx Rising. It may have gone under you radar when it came out last year. It's honestly not that interesting if you play it on PS4, but playing an open world action game like this on the go on Switch is much more appealing.

Do you like Metroidvanias? Then Metroid Dread is an obvious choice for you. There are also other great ones such as Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge, the Shantae games and more.

Would you consider trying out a very addicting puzzle game? Then the Picross series is for you. I've been playing these games for years and I absolutely love them. It's so relaxing to just lie down and solve a few puzzles. If you find the base games unappealing, how about a visual novel mixed with Picross gameplay called Murder by Numbers? It might help ease you into the series.

I know that most of these games are not exclusive on Switch, but my point is that they're more compelling to play on the Switch since you can play them on a handheld. I can't stress this enough, but playing JRPGs (or even most games) on a console is just so unappealing to me. That's why I've chosen to get a lot of these games on Switch instead of PS4 even if the performance is worse. After all, what's the point of having games with good performance when the main issue is finding motivation to play them. Having the freedom to switch between TV and handheld play is that motivation for me.