Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Pizzamorg I guess I didn't stress too much about it because you'll always be missing content in any playthrough regardless, just because of the construction of the game itself.

If I had to pinpoint one major flaw of Three Houses I don't see discussed as much, it's how disruptive the recruiting system is to the overall design of the game. On my first playthrough, I recruited basically all of the interesting characters from the other houses before the timeskip, so the second half of the game (in my initial Golden Deer run) really missed out on a lot of emotional impact, because I wasn't usually fighting against characters I'd cultivated relationships with earlier in the game. I think it also makes the playthroughs less unique, because you're not working with a unique set of characters each time, but can basically build your custom army in the monastery section of the game.

The emergent narratives of individual character growth work better within Houses, too. Seeing Hilda's evolve from a pink-haired wastrel to one of the strongest units in the later half of the game wouldn't be as impactful in a non-Golden Deer run, for example.

@Ralizah I just think it was a problem here specifically, because the end points of arcs are largely fixed, so you can miss all the content in the middle and still get the end point like you did all this relationship cultivating, making it so obvious there's this gaping hole in the middle of this. I feel like the game should have been more adaptive to reflect the real relationships you invested in. I'm pretty sure there's even a close ally thing in the stat screen so it's collecting some data somewhere but not using it for anything.

Aww, thanks! Yep, still together, and still wondering how and why he puts up with me every darn day.

He upgraded to a Switch 2 but based on his gaming habits, it hasn't seen much use of late. We obviously played a bunch of Mario Kart for the first week or so (which... eh, it's okay, I guess) and he was more impressed with Donkey Kong than I was, but not enough to go further than its first few hours. He also got the Tears of the Kingdom upgrade and we both nodded at that for ten minutes, noting its improvements and taking a screenshot of a pretty landscape, and then... yeah. That's kinda been it, really.

I'm hoping he likes the forthcoming Animal Crossing update. That might get him back in the zone.

@Werehog Did he just fall off gaming entirely or did you find something else to play?

My partner and me hardly game together anymore. It's given me some more freedom in choosing games. The last year alone I beat do many games they aren't interested in. On the flip side, I do miss spending that type of time together. It's mostly down to them losing interest, but also less games releasing of the kind we both enjoy. It's not like a Red Dead Redemption releases every year.

Currently playing Metroid Prime Remastered on my Switch. I played Metroid Prime 3, but never the OG. So far it's very impressive in a lot of areas, though it also has the same problem every Metroid has for me: I never really know if I'm enjoying my time.

@Herculean Yes and no...? He's never been a play-for-hours gamer guy anyway, but he did get on a bit of a management sim kick and played the Two Point and Jurassic World: Evolution games on his Xbox. Even with those, however, he was (and still is) being a little stop-start with 'em.

I'd always been interested in the Jurassic World games myself, so it was on his recommendation that I got them for my PS5. We live apart, but I obviously play way more games than he does, and so despite his sporadic progress he still pulled ahead but because we're both spoiler-phobic folks, he would refuse to talk about anything I hadn't seen for myself yet. The result is that "Have you fed your dinos yet?" ended up being our new running gag for the year ("No, I'm busy playing Shenmue." "Does it have dinos in it?" "No." "Well, then it's a bad game. Feed your dinos!"). I think he just wrapped up Evolution 3 in the last couple days, while I'm only halfway through Evolution 2.

I'm sorry your partner has kinda fallen away from gaming of late. I recall you mentioning your shared experience of playing Red Dead together before. Do you think maybe Grand Theft Auto VI might be an option for you both, if it offers that same kinda immersion? It's gonna be such a big cultural touchstone that they might not be able to ignore it. And I'm guessing Split Fiction didn't grab either of you? Saw a heck of a lot of buzz around that, it's apparently excellent.

Yikes, that's a kinda damning thing to say about Metroid games (especially one that's all new to you, despite it being a remaster)! Here's hoping it picks up for you.

Made a start on Three Hopes because I have been just so impressed with Age of Imprisonment and it is like... insanely good? Like maybe I need to revist every "franchise as a musou game" spin off at this point, maybe they aren't just gimmicky cash grabs.

At least based on these early few hours, it fixes a lot of the storytelling issues I had with Three Houses (although it has some pacing issues of its own), does some serious fleshing out of the world, characters, all the stuff happening in the background in Three Houses as footnotes and flavour brought into the foreground here. Just have such a firmer grasp on place, on who everyone is and their dynamics and motivations with one another. Some of that is obviously helped by my pre-existing knowledge from Three Houses, but it has also helped shine a light and add clarity to things that will enhance any future playthroughs of Three Houses as well.

It is also a reminder for me that while it is a taste thing, I forgot how much I dislike unvoiced protagonists in games, I feel so much attachment to Shez in just a few hours versus hundreds with Byleth, as she / he stares silently and the characters have to exposition dump back to me what my character was meant to have said and done, meanwhile Shez actually gets to act out the dialogue choices I pick fully.

I do prefer turn based games overall, but they have also got the game feel of these games down to a fine art, like with AOI, the weaving in of the Fire Emblem bits feels well done and thoughtful rather than gimmicky and running at 60 fps on Switch 2 probably helps in a big way too.

@Pizzamorg How does it look undocked? I know it's unpatched, and some some 720p games don't look... very good on the 1080p screen.

Tells you how good the Three Houses cast is, though, that it's enough to support an entire game on its own.

@Ralizah it retains the look of Three Houses, to the point where I wonder if it reused a lot of the assets. I think Three Houses is a really ugly game, with it's flat, jaggy, PS2 looking graphics and so this has all the same problems by default.

@Pizzamorg Oh, yeah, I expected that. It should look like Three Houses tbh.

I just mean some unpatched games look very... fuzzy on the screen because of the higher resolution. Some don't. Was curious where this fell for you. The texture work obviously won't be any better, though, and I don't really need it to be.

I only played the demo (did buy the full game on sale, though), but really appreciated how much thought it put into trying to feel like a proper Fire Emblem experience (with completely different combat, obviously) as opposed to merely a Dynasty Warriors game with a FE coat of paint. One of the best things about Switch 2 is how any of the uncapped games seem to just enjoy automatic and dramatic performance improvements. Makes me wish Age of Calamity had been uncapped, too.

@Ralizah It is weird, because I am very sensitive to FPS. I am one of those who will tell you 30 fps is borderline unplayable for certain genres, but I am for some reason not very sensitive to blurry visuals for some reason.

I know the knock on PS5 performance mode titles is often how blurry it apparently looks versus the quality mode and try as I like, I just cannot see it for some reason. Maybe I sit too far away from my TV or whatever.

I think the first Switch 2 game where I noticed actual blurriness, not just like artifacting or some equivalent from really low resolution being packed down by the Switch, is weird the performance mode on Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. It is mostly in the open zone sections, it looks exactly like how the world looks without my glasses on, in that I have like a circle of clarity all around me, and then a few steps forwards everything is very blurry. Like the Switch 2 performance mode is an aura around my characters and the rest is the Switch 1 version, and it only gets worse when played in handheld, for some reason.

Hyrule Warriors DE and Three Hopes both had an uncapped Framerate which lets you hit 60 on Switch 2 without a patch, AOI is 60 as standard, I think the other Fire Emblem Warriors Game and AOC were both 30 locked so won't be able to hit 60 without a patch. I heard that first FE Warriors game wasn't great, but I hear AOI was very good, but I just can't play a game like that in 30 fps.

@Pizzamorg I can't think of a type of game I couldn't play at 30fps. Even Crash Team Racing at 30fps was fine for me. I also kinda struggle noticing higher framerates than 60fps.

But terrible resolution scaling will absolutely destroy a game for me. Which is just one reason why the 1080p screen on Switch 2 IMO isn't my favorite choice. I also feel like it underperforms with some games because it's dumping resources into maintaining a higher resolution. Steam Deck is 800p and I've never really thought it needed to be higher resolution.

This might not be a popular idea, but Switch 2 would have been a DOPE 720p handheld. No need for patches to improve resolution, and, frankly, the system isn't even hitting a native 1080p docked with some of its more demanding games. Thinking about it, it's a little more powerful than a PS4, and even that console struggled to hit that resolution consistently without having to worry about a lower-powered handheld mode.

@Ralizah honestly I agree, especially if it tanks the battery too. It's a tiny screen in the grand scheme of things I don't need 1080p. Especially if it makes some games look worse too.

@Pizzamorg How far are you into Three Hopes?

While I think it does a lot to flesh out the world, I think it really butchers the story in a lot of ways. In particular I find the game jumps into the war too soon and as a result I find people's motives aren't well explained. I also found Shez to be a very weak character personally, but I get the need to introduce a new self-insert. I still think it's a great game, just find the story to be a step down compared to Three Houses even if I appreciate the alternative canon.

Also re: Three Houses - I kinda get your point about missing things / needing a guide, but to me that's the charm of the game, really. The game is really set up for you to learn through multiple playthroughs, and I personally found playthroughs 2-3 or so to be miles better than my initial playthrough. You are totally expected to miss things in your first playthrough, much like how Persona isn't expecting people to 100% all content in the game. Totally get this is not for everyone though. Personally, the monastery is getting to know the characters is one of my favourite aspects of the game - I really didn't appreciate how pointless the Somniel from Engage felt in comparison.

@Buizel About sixish hours, I would say?

I do think this is a two things can be true thing, because a lot of what you say I don't disagree with, but I also don't really agree with either.

Like, those opening hours of Hopes feel very rushed, but I wonder if they just feel rushed because I watched these events play out once already so glacially in Three Houses, my brain has just decided Three Houses is the default speed.

But like I had no idea what Edelgard's motivations were in Crimson Flower in Three Houses, and I think about all the events in the first half of the game knowing the role she played in them and I just can't make sense of any of those actions, likewise almost all of the betrayals in Three Houses are meaningless because we spend zero time with any of the characters who betray us.

In Hopes, seeing characters like Jeritza and Monica get to be actual characters, Slither actually being in the story directly from the start rather than whatever Three Houses was trying to do with them, like all of those pacing decisions I just like a lot more. I have such a firmer sense of place, who everyone is, what motivates and binds people. I feel like Three Houses was like the footnotes of this story, then Hopes is the one filling in all the details for me, to create an actual complete feeling story.

Same with Shez, if you step back in the canon of gaming of all time, then sure Shez doesn't rank anywhere but Byleth isn't a character, not really, because it is impossible to be when your character has no voice. At least for me. Shez having a voice alone for me makes them a better character than Byleth like basically by default for my tastes.

Also, I think the difference with say Three Houses and a more conventional door close and open style route / choices game, is Three Houses is a fairly static three act story, once you are on your route track, so you can effectively miss out on the entirety of act 2, and act 3 still plays out unchanged.

You don't think about the content you're missing in say a BG3 or something, or at least I don't, because the story is flexible enough to adapt, and change shape, as choices are made, so things coherently flow from choice to choice to create a singular coherent story, that isn't reliant on the player doing specific things and responding to them doing it, even if they haven't.

Student X in Three Houses is going to lament the beautiful life your shared together in Act 3 whether they are Rank S or whether you spoke to them once one time in Chapter 2. The entire middle of Three Houses story is basically one giant, unguided, optional bundle of busy work that can be just entirely missed and leaves a gaping wound in the centre of this that cannot be retroactively closed, because so much of it is time gated. I just don't think this is a good style of storytelling, and I think it harms the argument of replayability, because this stuff only becomes more obvious the more you play it.

@Pizzamorg Great, and I guess you're doing the Black Eagles route again this time?

Note that my memory of Three Hopes is a bit hazy as I've not played it in three years though.

I think fundamentally Three Hopes does a terrible job of showing Edelgard's motivations, even compared to Three Houses. (Mild spoilers for her path, not sure if tag is necessary as it doesn't spoil anything other than the second act:) The game barely introduces the crests and even the church before she wages war on Foldan, so she more or less comes across as a power-hungry, war-waging tyrant, even in her own path. She states her motivation as eliminating a corrupt church and crest system but we see no convincing evidence that these things exist in Fodlan so everything she does comes across as unjust. And it's quite jarring how a large number of her recruits blindly support her in this cause (although not all of them). Although tbh I've never been a fan of Edelgard. Then you have the Golden Deer path, where (spoilers for Golden Deer in Three Hopes) this time Claude joins Edelgard for some reason...with no clear motivation or build-up. And unlike Edelgard, I don't think this move is ever really justified (other than trying to save his own skin in the war) so it is even more frustrating, esp. as Golden Deer had arguably the best path in Three Houses. The only path that I think comes on par with, or maybe exceeds, the original game is that of Blue Lions.

I don't disagree that some characters have been fleshed out a bit more in Three Hopes - that is one great thing about the game. However conversely I think some characters get shafted a bit - particularly the Knights of Seiros. I think generally the game's story suffers from lack of exposure to the Church, as it forms a crucial part of Three House's narrative. On the flip side, seeing the characters in this alternative canon helps us to see them in a new light.

As for Three Houses - I think this is where we just fundamentally disagree. I've not played BG3 so can't speak to that example in particular, but do understand that there's far more flexibility in the storytelling and choices made. That said, while the story in Three Houses is relatively "static" within the pathways, I do think the individual pathways have a lot to offer individually, and tell different parts of the same story. Again, I find this to encourage replays as you will never get the full picture from one pathway. Personally I find it to be one of the most replayable games I've ever played - but again, I totally get that this form of storytelling isn't for everyone.

Still, great to hear you're enjoying Three Hopes. I adore the Warriors spin-offs we've been getting this past decade or so, and am currently having a great time with Age of Imprisonment. I've always been an advocate for these games and would love for them to expand into some of my other favourite series (Mario, Pokemon, etc.)

@Werehog A lot to respond to! But most of the interactions between you and your partner are so very similar to me and mine. I guess there's a difference between the normal human who enjoys a game every now and then, and the crazies like us who hardly go a week without playing.

Hanging around these forums and other sites has always made me feel like a casual. Because I play fewer games than most here, and haven't achieved a Platinum for two years now.

But then there's most people, like my partner. They like a certain type of game every now and again, but they're probably like me with books: I enjoy them, but I don't read daily. Far from even.

They think GTA is too cynical. Which I can relate to, so I'll be playing that one on my own at some point.
We did play It Takes Two, which we liked, but the story we could hardly relate to. As partners we should definitely invest more time in each other, that I can relate. But we don't have kids and most likely never will. We're both not really the fighting types either. So, even though I wouldn't want to call my relationship perfect, it felt a bit awkward to be playing this hateful couple I guess.

I liked the Jurassic Park anecdote. Maybe more than anything because I just rarely share about gaming experiences with anyone ever.

I did get back into Metroid Prime, and actually dug it for a bit. Then I died because I got stuck in the environment, and lost over 40 minutes of progress. And then I got pissed at it again. It's a fun game potentially, though.

@Herculean Wow, you can last a whole week without playing a game...?!

But seriously, you're totally right. It's why I'm always wary when somebody calls themselves a "fan" of anything nowadays, because quite often they mean "I have a casual interest when I'm bored" more often than the decidedly more intense levels of borderline obsession I can (and do) display.

And there's a lot of space between those extremes, too. There's no need to play every release, and platinum trophies aren't everything! The fact remains, you care about gaming as a subject and participate in this forum. [starts thumping his desk] One of us, one of us, one of us...!!

That's actually a fair position to take on GTA. I certainly won't be playing it for myself, either. And it's a shame It Takes Two felt awkward for you both. Sometimes a great game (more effectively than a book or movie) can make you empathise with a polar opposite character or situation, but equally I've found that when they try but miss, they usually miss real wide. At least couch co-op seems like a popular sub-genre right now. Maybe there'll be something coming along soon that suits a little better!

Yeesh, forty minutes is a lot of progress to lose! That's no fun. I'm glad to hear you were enjoying Metroid Prime more right before that, though. I'm curious as to whether you jumped straight back in the next day, or if you're somebody who needs to leave a frustrating experience like that for longer?

Metroid looks great. Locked 60fps, a clean image on a 4K screen, amazing use of HDR, some utterly transcendent art design... yeah, Retro did good with it.

Metroid's very nice. I don't have a 4K TV, but it still looks lovely on either the TV or handheld.

I've also been playing Pokémon Violet (after waiting for the Switch 2 patch) and it's one of the ugliest games I've ever clapped eyes on in places. It runs very well and is nice and clean and jaggy free, though. Quite a jarring contrast with Metroid!