Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

60 hours deep, I'm dangerously close to saying XC3 is my new favorite game of the year, and one of the best games on the system overall. It might have taken a while for the trademark emotional gutpunches to start coming, but they're pretty spectacular when they arrive. The game addresses the majority of my issues with the previous entries, too.

@Ralizah I typed this up earlier and forget to actually submit it, so here it goes again... Thanks for the info about the SMT V's difficulty and the tips. I will likely put it back on my list now, but it will be quite a while before I ever end up playing it. I'm still playing Xenoblade Chronicles (Chapter 8, Melia's chapter), and after a palate cleansing to break up the long JRPG experience, I plan on playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses after that. Then there's still Breath of the Wild, another really long game.

I have my doubts I will be getting BOTW2 anywhere near release because of all the other games I want to play, but I'm ok with that.

@KilloWertz Not like SMT V or BotW2 are going anywhere. You could probably comfortably spend a year just playing those three games you mentioned.

Sounds like your Switch plans are booked well into the future. I remember you saying you were disappointed by TLOU Part I (or the way Sony communicated about it, at least). Any other Playstation games on the horizon you're looking forward to?

@Ralizah The Switch Pro and DualSense feel very much alike. The DualSense is slightly bigger, a bit heavier, and has larger triggers and shoulder buttons.

@Ralizah Probably. It's nuts in a way, but it's also obviously a great thing. I like long games, especially when they are really engaging, so obviously I'm very pleased with the future there.

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed with the fact that they basically came off as lying about what The Last of Us Part 1 really is. At least gameplay wise. People will defend it, but I don''t really see the changes as being modernized gameplay, and they literally said it was going to have that. I guess you could to an extent, but you would naturally expect more than what the system itself gives you. Oh well I guess.

As for future PlayStation games, not a whole lot from Sony themselves. I'll naturally play God of War Ragnarok at some point, if for no other reason so I can have my own opinion on it, but I'm one of the few people in the world that prefer the old God of War games to the 2018 one. Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine obviously, but they are a ways off. The immediate future... Gotham Knights, Ys VIII if the PS5 upgrade is worthwhile, Callisto Protocol, Forspoken (I've been looking forward to that more than some people), and Resident Evil 4 Remake. I'd also consider Saints Row or Soul Hackers 2 at some point if either turns out to be good.

Sorry for the late reply once again Ral!

I'm actually experincing this myself at the moment... Technically in reverse? I'm finding Divinity Original Sin I quite a bit goofy compared to Original Sin II. OS II had some lighthearted moments for sure but playing OS I I do feel it's perhaps a bit too goofy at times.

Oh yeah Xenoblade Chronicles X... That was a Wii U exclusive right? I forgot that was a thing. That's cool that you could play some missions online with other people.

I've also never played Phantasy Star in any of it's forms. In fact the only space-y themed RPG I've ever played (both japenese and western) is Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time. No Mass Effect or Kotor or... whatever other space rpgs there are? 😅

I... just don't buy DLC in general unless it's packaged with a game or is a free content/free update. That's how little I care about most of them 😄

I still haven't even played Frozen Wilds yet for Horizon despite getting that digital version of the complete edition for free...

They don't half waffle on in that Xenoblade 3 cutscene Ral!

The accents do give it a certain charm and uniqueness though (And that's not bias despite being english and all).

I know Dragon Quest has done that too since VIII, the Souls games use British va's quite as well and Divinity Original 1 & 2 seem to use a lot of british actors too 😄

XC3 has taken over my life. 70 hours in now and no signs of stopping any time soon.

@HallowMoonshadow Interesting. That actually makes me a little more interested in OSI, if I'm being honest. I've grown somewhat tired of deathly serious WRPGs, so the idea of one that engages in a bit of goofiness sounds right up my alley.

Yeah, XCX is currently stranded on a console only purchased by 15 million people. Which is a shame, because it was gorgeous and technically ambitious.

I'm kinda surprised you never touched Mass Effect. Not interested, or just haven't gotten to it yet?

"They don't half waffle on in that Xenoblade 3 cutscene Ral!"

You have no idea. Xenoblade protagonists are the chattiest cathies you'll ever encounter in an RPG. They pretty much never stop talking. They'll remark on environments you walk across. They'll intermittently just... strike up conversations for no discernible reason when exploring. They loudly shout the names of their attacks when battling (now imagine seven people doing this simultaneously, as your crew in XC3 is generally composed of six main party members and a guest character who battles alongside you). They also have post-battle dialogue after every fight (and, occasionally, post-battle conversations that take a surprisingly long time to quiet down). Thankfully, the human enemies in XC3 don't seem to yell out canned phrases in battle quite as often as they did in XC2 (or maybe I'm just numb to it at this point).

Actually, thinking back, there was an enemy type in XC2 that was SO annoying with their battle dialogue that the developer actually patched out most of the voice lines a month or two after launch.

It all usually winds up being more charming than irritating, though.

And yeah, the variety of non-American english accents represented in these games is fantastic, especially since they don't usually see a lot of representation in this medium.

XCX actually had a primarily American voice cast, as I recall, but considering the game feels tonally and structurally distinct from the mainline entries, and since the cast is probably technically descended from Americans anyway (the giant hub colony you work for is literally called "New Los Angeles"), it didn't end up being a huge deal.

@KilloWertz finally , someone else who likes the old GoWs better !

@nomither6 It's a small club, but I'm ok with being in it. It's not that I thought it was bad. From a technical standpoint, it's a masterpiece. It was a bit of a bummer to see it transformed into the current PlayStation mold when it was something different, but that wasn't my real problem. It was Atreus. I could have accepted it in the end as it is actually a pretty good game, but he ruined it for me.

@Ralizah I'll ask you about this, as I came across something about XC3's early part of the story when watching a review that has me wondering if it will hurt the game for me. I'm ok with the spoiler since it's really early in the game, but I'll put it in spoiler tags anyways...

@KilloWertz The ten-year lifespan isn't some gimmick to make the game 'dark' or 'sad' or anything. It's just one aspect of the larger setting of this world, and is initially regarded as just a fact of life by these characters, since it's all they know. There is some light drama related to this aspect of the game throughout, but it's not milked for cheap tears or anything. Rather, the game heavily explores themes related to tribalism, war, structural exploitation, friendship, trust, and finding meaning and purpose in the midst of a world seemingly designed to cause endless suffering and death, and the ten-year lifespan is an integral aspect of the overarching plot in this regard.

The setting is undeniably bleak, but that's offset somewhat by the fantastic chemistry these very likeable characters develop as they learn to trust one-another. This game is pretty much the peak of the series in terms of how well-realized the character relationships are.

@Ralizah Thanks for all that. The concerns I had are gone now. Someday I'll finally experience it.

I'm still knee deep in Xenoblade Chronicles (still on the so far really good Chapter 8), but I decided to give the other game I bought alongside that a try for the heck of it yesterday (Fire Emblem: Three Houses). It was only for a half an hour or so yesterday since I will play it "properly" down the road, but it has a chance to be something else. Definitely really good graphics for a Switch game, the voice acting was great, and the story is a bit weird but in a good way. I know you're already very aware of all that, but I still wanted to mention it anyways. The combat will take a bit of practice, mainly because I thought I understood chain attacks (or whatever they are called), but it didn't work the time I tried it. Maybe I just read the tutorial wrong. I should love it when I play it for real.

@KilloWertz Hmm. The original version of XC1 I played didn't have chapter breaks, I think, but knowing how long the DE is, I'd wager you're somewhere near Alcamoth, right? If so, then you're finally getting to the part of the game where the story properly picks up again.

You're definitely making good progress through it.

I think you're the first person I've talked to who hasn't trashed the graphics of Three Houses. I think the utter lack of anti-aliasing and noticeable pop-in really bothers some people. It is a big step up from its predecessors in terms of scope and presentation, though. Also, the soundtrack is really, really good. And it has the best cast in the series. I think you'll appreciate where the story is going when you get 40+ hours deep into the game and the shape of the narrative begins to form, too. Map design isn't great, but you probably won't care if you haven't played older games in the series that had much tighter maps.

Even with its flaws, it was my 2019 GOTY.

Out of the three lords you meet at the start, who would you say most immediately grabbed your attention?

@Ralizah Yeah, that's where I'm at. It's probably my favorite chapter since early in the game.

I was going through it at a pretty good pace for the first two weeks, but it has slowed down a bit for various reasons. One being personal issues this week, and the other being that I started playing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 like I already mentioned. I usually only play one game at a time. I'm likely going to go back to just playing Xenoblade Chronicles for the most part again though, so the pace should pick back up. I think I've only played it for a few hours so far this week at most, which is really low.

Maybe my opinion of Three Houses' graphics is because I played it for less than an hour, or that I'm still relatively new to the Switch? Seriously though, other than the noise on the characters on the battlefield taking away from being able to fully see what would probably be beautiful graphics on more powerful hardware, I had no real complaints. I didn't notice the lack of AA or the pop-in, but the latter is very likely actually because of me only playing it for a short time. As long as it's not as bad as Scarlet Nexus in that regard (still enjoyed the game regardless), I should be ok. Yeah, the map design shouldn't be an issue since I've never played a Fire Emblem game before of course.

You are the second person that I've talked to about the game that has said it was their 2019 GOTY. As for the three lords, I can cheat on that one since I had already decided which one I was going to side with before I bought my Switch. That would be Edelgard.

@KilloWertz Having seen how some of Koei-Tecmo's PS4 games look (they co-developed Three Houses, and seem to have been primarily responsible for the character models and environments), I'm guessing it wouldn't look tremendously better on more powerful consoles.

The cool thing, though, is that Koei-Tecmo's Three Houses musou spinoff game looks eerily similar to the actual game, and shares a lot of game design elements with it.

BTW, if you've somehow managed to remain unspoiled about what happens in Three Houses, even vaguely, then I urge you to be careful what you google about it. Nintendo themselves arguably spoiled one of the game's most interesting twists in their trailers.

... Well damn! Good to hear you're still enjoying it Ral. Better then Triangle Strategy?

I can understand that.

It's just the balance of light hearted/goofiness seems a bit skewed to me.

I think I'm honestly noticing/bothered by it more because of the fact I'm not as engaged with the main story. The companions are completely flat too. Combat's still good though I prefered the armour system in the second game and I seem to trigger enviromental effects unintentionally at times compared to the sequel.

I pretty much played D:OS II non stop yet I've been breaking up D:OS I with Yooka-Laylee & The Impossible Lair and haven't even touched OS I in well over a week.

Bit of Column A, bit of Column B.

I honestly never got the praise Bioware got for Dragon Age: Origin when I played that back in the day.

It looked ugly, the story was super generic with the darkspawn, the bloody deep roads and I didn't like the combat much either. Medieval Fantasy is more my jam too so... I just never bothered with Mass Effect as I'd fallen out of favour with Star Wars too.

The fact ME is hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread... I also fear another FFVII, NieR A and so on situation and I'll absolutely hate it

I wouldn't mind giving it a try but... Yeah 😅

... I honestly got a bit exhausted just reading that from how much they supposedly blather on 😥

The fact there IS so much dialogue is cool though and probably helps flesh out and endear you to the cast more...

Oh that's cool, I really like that. Adds a nice detail to things.

Don't think Final fantasy XII can ever be topped by the level of detail to the localisation/dubbing. The American voices for the Rabanastre folk, British for the Arcadians, Spanish for the Rozarians, Sri Lankan for the Bhjuerbans, Icelandic for the Viera ... So good even to this day

@Ralizah I don't think I've played any of their PS4 games, so I didn't have anything to go on. I guess at most there might have been a bit more clarity to the image, who knows.

I do plan on playing Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes someday. Obviously not for a good while, but I had already planned on it since it has some connections to Three Houses.

Ok, thanks for another tip. I would imagine all I would Google about it in the future would be if I happened to get stuck on something or to look up tips for anything else (like best weapons to use or stuff like that). As far as I know off hand, I never got anything spoiled for the game as I completely ignored Nintendo stuff until I was considering buying a Switch this year. Thankfully I never watched any of the trailers for the game as I was already sold on it from the praise somebody else gave it.

Just pre-ordered Splatoon 3. I've been going back to 2 quite a lot in recent weeks. Raked up another 50 hours or so. Found out that I still hadn't beat all levels in the Octo Expansion, but I've been mainly doing multiplayer. I should be back in shape when 3 comes along. Hopefully.

@Ralizah I think it's fair to say that Xenoblade Chronicles has got to be one of Nintendo's most impressive franchises right now. The scope of these games is just incredible, I genuinely can't wait to sink my teeth into this series.

@LtSarge Monolith Soft has definitely proved to be an impressive developer, and a massive asset to Nintendo in general. Their issue in the past when they were releasing on Playstation was always not having enough money and time to realize their ambitious projects (Xenogears disc 2 being the way it is; Xenosaga being three games instead of six; etc.), but that doesn't appear to be the case now that Nintendo owns them.

@Octane I've thought about returning to Splatoon 2 in order to get back into fighting shape, but given how long it has been since I last played it, I think I kinda just wanna go into S3 completely fresh. I always start with the single-player campaign anyway, which will allow me to reorient to the controls.

@KilloWertz The cool thing about games like Three Hopes and Age of Calamity is that they don't feel like musou titles based on a certain game. Rather, they feel like someone took that exact game and just changed up the genre (and story). Three Hopes is basically: "What if you took Three Houses and made it an action game instead of an SRPG?"

Oh nice. Yeah, the game has some really cool twists and turns, but Nintendo advertised one of them so heavily that almost everyone knew about it pre-release. It was a great experience, but going in almost completely blind would have been even better.

@HallowMoonshadow I think both games are amazing for what they are. With that said, I'm more of a JRPG person than someone into SRPGs, so I'd probably give the nod to Xenoblade.

In fairness, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a ton of fun (honestly better than the majority of DKC games it's clearing emulating, tbh), so I understand it overtaking something else you're playing. Sorry to hear Original Sin I isn't fully doing it for you. That can always be an issue when games feel exceptionally different between entries.

Yeah, if you do go into Mass Effect, best to leave the massive hype behind it on the side, as that can spoil experiences you might otherwise have enjoyed by elevating your expectations too high. I loved the first one and was disappointed by the second, so when I eventually play the trilogy, the third one will be completely new to me.

They did something similar with the XC2 dub. Americans tended to voice the Blades, Gormotti were voiced with Welsh accents, Ardanians were all voiced by Scottish actors, etc.

I need to go back and fully replay FFXII. Really loved that game back in the day. Not sure how I feel about the changes made to the remaster, but we'll see.

@Ralizah I did try the demo for Age of Calamity last weekend. I didn't play it very long, so my opinion of it probably isn't very valid, but it seemed a bit cartoonish. Not the look of the game, as I know what they are going for, but the fact that you just keep spamming the combos and a bunch of people just go flying. I imagine it is a better game than that (same goes for Three Hopes), and that my main problem is that I didn't play it long enough. It was mainly just a test to see what it looked like, as I did plan on playing it someday along with Three Hopes after I play Breath of the Wild.

It's weird that Nintendo didn't realize what they were doing. I guess it's possible they thought that would get even more people interested in the game if it's something dramatic, but flagship titles like that don't really need the extra push to sell.