Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@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.

@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.

@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 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.

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 !