Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@JohnnyShoulder Just think of save points as bonfires and you'll be fine.

I somehow got lost for like half an hour in Metroid Prime Remastered despite having played it several times over the years. Those purple door icons can be bloody impossible to spot on the map!

@nessisonett I had a similar thing happen to me in the original "RE4" yesterday, mate. Weird.

I thought I'd have time to actually enjoy Advance Wars before Tears of the Kingdom took over my life. But Nintendo apparently decided less than a week after AW was a good time to release the expansion to Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

@Ralizah This just solidifies my feelings about Sony’s current strategy. You’ve got Nintendo releasing a remake of a cult game followed by a giant DLC comparable to Burning Shores and then a long-awaited sequel to their most critically acclaimed game of the generation all within what, a few weeks at most? Nintendo are absolutely killing it and I say that as somebody who honestly hasn’t used their Switch all that much and has fallen off a lot of Nintendo series this gen.

@nessisonett Pooling their development resources and putting them all toward one platform has certainly been paying off. We've been getting an average of one exclusive a month on Switch since last year. Still, releasing a highly-anticipated 20 - 40 hour JRPG half a month before what's looking to be the biggest and most ambitious title they've ever developed, and less than a week after the Advance Wars remakes is stacked to the point of cartoonish excess, jfc.

I'm actually glad I don't own a PS5 right now, since it'd mean Burning Shores would be a factor I'd have to consider as well.

I just got a powerful new GPU, and will be using it for jack-all for the next few months,.

@Ralizah Guess you could always use that GPU for toasting marshmallows 😂

@Ralizah huh, that’s cool and unexpected. However, XBC3 ruled my life for about 6 months last year and given current commitments along with Zelda coming up think I will have to get this later on. I still have plenty of side/hero quests to finish in the base game too.

I have been thinking about putting it on recently, mind you…

Been quite a dry gaming year for me to be honest, been doing very little gaming by my standards, with most of my gaming coming an hour or two before bed on the Steamdeck. Thankfully this weekend changes that, I've got Dead Island 2 to play on my PS5 and it looks like Advance Wars is an easy grab via an Eshop Voucher this weekend too.

My question is, those Pixel Remasters seem pretty crazy expensive for what they are, but would you recommend them on the Switch anyway? Especially as we have got AWs straight into TTK to take over our Switches.

@kyleforrester87 I've seen a bunch of people saying they'll be waiting until sometime after Zelda to jump into this. Not to mention you'll also have Final Fantasy XVI this summer.

I don't think you played Torna either, right?

@Pizzamorg The digital bundle amounts to $12.50 for each Final Fantasy game in NA. Less if you buy credit via some sort of online discount.

With that said, there's so much releasing right now that it'll be a while before I have any interest in these.

@nessisonett The GPU is surprisingly power efficient, so it won't even be useful for that. 😂

@Ralizah I did, I got very far into Torna but I didn’t enjoy it as much as you did (I know you rate it highly). I struggled a bit to get invested in the new characters to be honest, even as I got near the end. Bit worried it’ll be the same here. And frankly I almost dislike Shulk lol

Yeah I think they work out between 9 and 13 quid each (with some of the later ones being more expensive), but then a bundle of all of them works out to 65 quid, so I think that works out slightly cheaper overall to buy the bundle if you plan to buy all of them? Although I hear Six is the best one, so am I better off just buying Six only?

Was going to finally get Return to Dreamland Deluxe now that I've finished Prime Remastered, but I'm going to hold off on that now that the XC3 DLC is dropping.

I loved the main game, but this is looking a lot more like what I thought a mashup of the first two games was going to be, so I'm super excited.

Nintendo has been absolutely killing it this year, and we don't even know what their plans for the second half are yet (I can't help but laugh at the people who think they won't have much of anything this year after Pikmin 4. If the second half of the year is really going to be as barren as they think it is, there's no way they'd just nonchalantly dump Prime Remastered & this huge XC3 DLC next to other notable releases as they've done).

As much as I love my Switch, after 50 hours of Octopath 2 on PS5 I decided to have a quick go on the first game on the Nintendo and I was actually pretty shocked at how bad it looked and performed. I expected a good step backwards but even then it really surprised me. Okay, I think it’s running at 720 instead of 4K, 30fps instead of 60fps, no HDR.. all of the things you expect, but when you actually go back and forth the difference was heeeeeuge. I’d say the lack of HDR had the biggest impact, everything looked so washed out and flat. Smear on a coat of Vaseline and slow it all down by 50% and you’re part way there.

Looked better in handheld, though.

@kyleforrester87 I don't dislike Shulk (Reyn makes me want to pull my hair out, though), but I do get tired of people acting like he's this incredible protagonist when he's the most generic hero character I've seen in a Xenoblade game. Monolith had the courage to make Rex endearingly obnoxious at times, and I enjoyed Noah's quiet personality compared to Shulk and Rex's more extraverted bravado.

That might be a downside for you, though, that it seems XC1's plot and characters are going to factor into this DLC pretty heavily. It quite literally seems like the explicit mix of elements from the first two Xenoblade games that XC3 was initially pitched as.

If anything, this might be worse than Torna was for you, since Torna's cast drew heavily from the main game, whereas N & M are likely going to be the only recurring cast members in Future Redeemed.

But yeah, I absolutely loved Torna. In terms of gameplay and tone, it's what I wish XC2 had been all along. I was really excited when I saw that XC3 was swiping Torna's campfire system.

@Pizzamorg IV, V, and VI are all worth playing. The NES games can easily be skipped, tbh; the first one is super rudimentary, the second one is widely regarded as one of the worst entries in the series, and III's good ideas were all expanded on in V.

@RR529 It's deeply weird how they just keep piling stuff in the first half, even though we have no idea of what's coming up beyond July. I totally get why people think they're making space for a new console launch in late 2023/early 2024.

Good to know, I might just wait then and see if any of the individual titles go on sale and do it that way.

@Ralizah yes I think my dislike for Shulk is mainly down to how bog standard he is, and how much others seem to love him - I just don’t get it! I loved Rex, heart always in the right place, gets it wrong as often as he gets it right and doesn’t mind getting ripped on.

I’m sure I’ll find plenty to like in the expansion despite not loving what I have played or XBC1.

And sure, Torna had some cool stuff like the campfire system. Would like to see them expand on that. The clothes washing thing, for instance.. nice little bit of world building but perhaps a few more systems like that, or just add some depth somehow. I really liked hearing rumours and then going back to camp to discuss them to initiate quests, very cool. Small party interactions like that are excellent, one of the best things about the Bravely Default games are the skits.

Right, I’m getting back into playing the Switch, I need recommendations. Preferably left-field ones like indies that are a good fit for the handheld mode. Quite enjoying Tunic and obviously loved Hades, Hollow Knight and stuff. Due to being a long-term Nintendo fan, I kinda know what’s out there on that front so it’s probably more the smaller games or ones that might have passed people by!

@nessisonett I'd say give Paranormasight a go. It's a visual novel Japanese horror game. I haven't finished it yet but the few hours I've played have been great stuff. The scares are very effective. NL scored it 9/10: https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/paranormasi...

@LtSarge Haha, can’t guarantee that I’ll give it a go because I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to horror VNs but we’ll see!