Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Ralizah It is an interesting phenomenon that games (in general) depreciate insanely quickly but then (in most instances if you discount shovelware and annual releases like "FIFA" or "COD") start to regain their value again after two generations or so have passed - some PS3 and 360 titles are already in the realms of inaffordability (I was recently taken aback by the price of a weird little game called "Alice:Madness Returns") and Wii U (of all things) prices are expected to spike in the near future. Believe it or not I don't own a single "Pokemon" game despite having a fairly substantial Nintendo collection going back to the SNES (I was just a smidge too old to be swept up in the initial phenomenon so never got the bug) and the only Triple A port I have on Switch is "The Witcher 3" - then only to marvel at the feat of programming that it represents.

@LN78 Nothing wrong with wanting physical copies of things, especially when it's cheapest. I still buy CDs. While I know it's not really supporting the bands unless you buy it from them directly at a show, I still prefer to have a copy of it on disc. I don't buy them as much as I used to, but I only buy movies physically as there's a definite quality advantage, especially when my internet can't stream in 4K.

For PS5, it's physical only unless it's a game that's really heavily on sale (or digital only of course) given that Sony uses UHD discs and games are usually fully on them besides a patch unlike most of the time on Xbox. Obviously I'm undecided at the moment on what I'm doing on Switch. Technically I'm digital only, but I only own two games, and that's mainly because Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is basically out of print in the US. I could still get it on eBay for reasonable prices, but I wanted it right away since it was going to be the first game I played on my Switch.

@KilloWertz I think the deciding factor for the Switch is down to whether you use it primarily docked or handheld. If I was a majority portable user then I'd no doubt buy a hefty memory card and go all digital, but as the farthest my unit travels is generally from the downstairs docking station to the one upstairs, swapping out cartridges every now and again isn't really an issue to gripe about.

@Ralizah You'd think, given how many millions of copies of old Pokemon games there are on the second hand market, the price would be lower to shift them, like all the £3 copies of CoD and such.

But no. For some inexplicable reason, the prices stay high. Same for a lot of Nintendo games. At a completely market price set level, they stay expensive even without Nintendo being involved.

@LN78 I play it docked and have no plans to ever play it handheld. I know tech wise it pails in comparison to the current gen consoles, but I only want to play on a TV.

I already have a hefty memory card as I initially planned to go all digital, and I was going by Amazon thinking that a lot of the games were out of print here in the US, but it's mainly just them where some games are an import version for some reason. Some are of course, like Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 and even Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the most part, but I could get a good amount of games still from Best Buy (and Gamestop in regards to Three Houses). Oh well, it was only $60 (512 GB PNY brand), and even if I go mostly physical, then I wouldn't have to ever worry about getting another one for digital only games.

@KilloWertz I don't think Switch carts are region locked (but don't quote me on that) so it might be worthwhile seeing if you can get a good deal on some imports - I've been finding out recently that buying Japanese versions of certain Sega Saturn games can save me an absolute packet. Oh and if you havent already buy a Switch Pro Controller - they're absolutely fantastic!

@LN78 I'm not sure either. I doubt it, but some of the games Amazon doesn't have anymore can be gotten elsewhere for the most part, so it's not a huge deal. Obviously a random imported version instead would be easier if I was ordering any other games at the same time though.

I still have my Sega Saturn and a small library of games as well. I just haven't used it in a looooong time.

I bought a Pro controller with my Switch OLED since I knew I was going to play it docked at all times, and I knew I wouldn't like the Joy-Cons for gaming. I've thought it was a pretty good controller so far. I especially like the fact that, even though it is a built-in battery like with PlayStation, it lasts a really long time before I have to charge it.

@Haruki_NLI The primary difference is that people are apparently willing to pay insane prices for used Pokemon games, which isn't the case for old Call of Duty games. Although I have to imagine an element of rareness is involved, since, if the games were so easy to find, the prices wouldn't be as high as they are.

@KilloWertz @LN78 Switch games are indeed region free. It was a really big victory for those of us who were (and remain) deeply annoyed by the region-locking that was present on 3DS cartridges. Like, you couldn't take your American 3DS and buy European games to play on it, or visa versa. It sucked.

This has made it a VERY friendly platform for importing games. I rarely bother, but for physical purists, it's a god-send when a game in your region is digital-only.

The Switch Pro controller has a great battery life and decent sticks and buttons, but the D-Pad is almost un-usable if you're playing games where it's the primary control method. That's a huge strike against it for me, since I do often like playing 2D games.

I did end up buying a 8bitdo's awesome Sega Saturn-styled M30 controller for retro games, though, so I'm all sorted.

@Ralizah That's a fair point about the D-Pad - I've heard more than a few hard-core "Tetris" players cursing its very existence. Still, better than using whatever that's supposed to be on the Joy-Con!

@LN78 I genuinely don't understand how the company that invented the D-Pad is struggling with this issue. The Switch Pro has the worst D-Pad I've ever used.

The joycon D-buttons are pretty much perfect for Tetris, actually. It's not like you need diagonal inputs for that game! They do feel a little weird when you're trying to play something like a platformer, though. And they're almost unusable for fighting games.

@Ralizah You know it’s bad when I end up using the N64 controller for the D-Pad on the Switch. And it’s not even as if that controller has a great D-Pad, it’s quite mushy.

I haven't used my Pro controller in a year. It's probably the Switch purchase I regret the most. I play a lot of 2D games, is probably the main reason.

If only the Vita was still getting the games releasing on Switch these days.

I won my first game of Tetris 99 when I finally started using Joy cons,by the way. Never went back!

I will say, though, for 3D games, the Pro Controller is probably my favorite between the big three's main controllers (possibly barring the Dualsense, which I haven't held yet). It's very comfortable, and lacks the overtly concave sticks that plague the otherwise really solid Series X controller.

Interestingly, the Switch Lite actually has a pretty good D-Pad. About on par with the one on 3DS. Until now, 2D games have pretty much just lived on my Lite. Now that I have a SWOLED, though, I'll probably play more 2D games with a Split Pad Pro, which also has a pretty good D-Pad.

So I've wanted to buy some games on Switch and I've been contemplating on which ones. There are so many compelling ones I want to get, but for now I decided to go with Shin Megami Tensei V and AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative.

I'm currently playing Persona 3 Portable and I'm actually amazed at how far I've come with this series since I first started playing it with Persona 4 Golden back in 2016. At the time I didn't care about the gameplay at all, I just wanted to experience the story and hang out with friends. It was the same thing with Persona 5 when it came out in 2017. Then I think the turning point for me came when I played through Persona Q and Persona 5 Royal. At that point I started becoming more interested in the gameplay side of things. And now I'm playing through P3P and I'm having an absolute blast with the dungeon crawling aspect.

I honestly don't care as much about the story with these games anymore. That's why I decided that, since this will pretty much be the last mainline Persona game for me, I want to delve into the Shin Megami Tensei series next since those games are all about the gameplay. I just love the formula of these games and I want to play more of them. I already have SMT III on PS4 and SMT IV as well as Apocalypse on 3DS, so I really wanted to have SMT V as well. I'm also considering pre-ordering Soul Hackers 2, which comes out in almost two weeks, since that's another "SMT"-related title. Not to mention that it's only available on PlayStation and Xbox (not Nintendo), so I might as well get it on Series X and experience more JRPGs on that system.

I've also wanted to get nirvanA Initiative for quite some time since this series has always been appealing to me. I have the first game on Switch but I haven't played it yet. I just want to have both these games ready to go when I eventually get in the mood to play them.

@LtSarge Congrats. SMT V is a blast, and one of the funnest monster-collecting JRPGs I've ever played. The narrative elements aren't fantastic, but if you can look past that, it's one of the best games on the system.

Haven't played Nirvana Intiative myself, but I did have a (mostly) great time with the first game on Switch earlier in the year while on vacation. Really scratches the mystery/sci-fi itch I get every once in a while.

@Ralizah Is SMT V really as frustratingly difficult as some reviewers made it out to be? Back well before I got a Switch, it is one of the games that caught my attention, but then I saw that it was really difficult and erased it from my list.

@KilloWertz Nah. SMT V includes multiple difficulty settings. On the easiest mode, you can basically kill everything in a few hits, and, as such, no thought or strategy is required. Literally babby's first RPG. On the hardest mode, you can easily get wiped by normal demons, and as such, at least at the beginning, there's a constant fear of death.

Normal mode is well-balanced for new players, though. It's probably still challenging if you're not a vet of the series, but rarely to such a degree that it feels unfair or frustrating, aside from one spot in the second half of the game where the average level of overworld encounters jumps noticeably.

And, to be honest, the difficulty of these games is overstated in general. Learn and consistently apply the mechanics (buffs and debuffs matter; fuse demons as often as possible; balance out the elemental skills your exploration party has access to, as well as making sure they're not all weak to similar elements; build teams to resist the strengths and exploit the weaknesses of tough bosses), and you'll be fine.

If you do get it, one thing I'd urge is for you to do as many of the side-quests as possible. Quite a few of the side-quests feel like they'd have been integrated into the main story in almost any other game.

@Ralizah It does help that not only am I enjoying the dungeon crawling/turn-based battles gameplay in Persona, but I also have gained experience with these games that I feel comfortable going into Shin Megami Tensei now with what I know from Persona. Fusing, elemental skills, buffs/debuffs, all that stuff feels natural to me now compared to five years ago. And I'm starting to enjoy challenging games in general now. So I think now's a good time for me to delve into the series. I might play SMT V first though since it's the most accessible one and I need more reasons to play on my Switch.

@LtSarge Yeah, if you're used to press-turn combat in Persona, SMT isn't dissimilar at all. It's just less forgiving. Like, in P4/P5, if you use a multi-target elemental skill, and it hits the weakness of one enemy and is absorbed by another, I believe that's enough to trigger a 'one more.' If that happens in an SMT game, you'll automatically lose pretty much the rest of your actions that turn.

Missing attacks is also punished by a loss of turns in SMT.

The key is that this also applies to enemies and bosses, and can be weaponized against them.

One thing I quickly found, going from P4G to SMTIV, is that because it's so forgiving, Persona has to resort to lazy tactics to make bosses difficult. Bosses in modern Persona games often devolve into dps matches as a result. Whereas SMT's emphasis on everyone playing according to a similar set of rules means there's almost always an effective strategy you can utilize against bosses. SMT III illustrated this with its famous Matador (not really much of a spoiler, but some people are sensitive) boss. When players first came across him, as he's one of the first major bosses in the game, he usually ruthlessly destroys them, and it quickly becomes apparent that level grinding does no good to avoid this fate. Players are forced to dig into the press turn system and realize that the entity can be rendered fairly toothless with an intelligent party set-up. Every game since has featured a boss like this.

I firmly believe the "SMT is hard" crowd goes into these games with the mindset that they're playing a normal JRPG. And, in normal JRPGs, if you're underpowered, you go and level grind, buy new equipment, etc. And that's almost never enough in one of these games.

BTW, if you're feeling brave, you might consider starting on hard mode. I say that because, unlike previous SMT games, hard mode is actually fair and pretty fun to play. Also because you can drop down to normal difficulty at any time, but you can't go up to hard if you start on normal.