Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Bentleyma XBC3 is amazing, as is SMO to be fair which I know you’re playing (again?) now. I’d probably give Pikmin a punt if I were you, no history with the series but it looks interesting.

God tier games, worth owning a Switch for any one of these:

Breath of the Wild
Tears of the Kingdom
Super Mario Odyssey
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Xenoblade Chronicles 3

@Bentleyma XC3 is a masterpiece. Best game on the system.

Pikmin 4 is a lot of fun as well.

What else you looking at?

@Kidfried I think comparing the prices is fair seeing as the Switch is still Nintendo’s current gen console. I’m definitely going to get Super Mario RPG, but it’s a bit early for me to pre-order it given it’s November release.

@kyleforrester87 Tears of the Kingdom is something I’m interested in, but I never did finish Breath of the Wild. Do I need to beat the first game in order to understand the second? I’d have to buy breath of the Wild again, which I’m happy to do if it’s best to beat that first, but I just feel I’d be getting a better deal buying the newer game.

@Ralizah Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Bayonetta 3 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 have my interest, too. Tbh, I’d say I want about 80% of the games on the list!

Edit: I bought the vouchers and am currently downloading Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I don’t have to use the second voucher right away, so I’m going to sit on it until I decide what I want!

@Bentleyma nah, tbh I didn’t clear BOTW. No drama there.

The Digital Foundry Tech Review of Pikmin 4 has done a good job of swaying me towards buying it.

@kyleforrester87 That’s good to know. I’ll probably just get Tears of the Kingdom and skip Breath of the Wild then. I already own Link’s Awakening, so I should probably finish that before I get another Zelda game.

@Bentleyma BotW is one of the least story-driven games I've ever played. If you know the characters, you won't even miss anything.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a must-own, too. Definitely pick it up at some point. Probably my favorite game in the series, or at least toe-to-toe with Planet Robobot.

@Ralizah Kirby and the Forgotten Land is probably the game I want the most out of those I’ve listed. The reason I’m leaning more towards Pikmin 4 is mainly because I’m currently playing through Super Mario Odyssey and I’m thinking that it might be similar enough that I’ll get burnt out playing it.

Since watching The Super Mario Bros. Movie I now read all of Bowser’s lines in my head in Jack Black’s voice!

Really enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 3 so far. I think it’s going to be one of those games I look forward to playing while I’m at work.

Really incredible how I just have no feelings towards Pokémon whatsoever. I didn’t even have a GBA, it’s not like I’m one of those purists or whatever, the games just keep going with barely any improvements. A shame because Legends Arceus was brilliant but that mini Direct thing felt like a franchise running out of ideas.

A bit late to the party but I finally ordered Tears of the Kingdom. Should be here today, but not sure if I'll be able to get to it until later in the week.

I'm a little imposed by it's apparent sheer size, but hopefully I'll be able to at least work through the main quest by the time Wonder releases.

@Bentleyma How far in are you?

@nessisonett PLA was a shockingly fresh experience, and while Scarlet/Violet have a million issues, they're still the best mainline games in a decade or so. I'm... cautiously optimistic for the future.

@Ralizah Only just reached the part where you get to craft gems, but I can tell it’s a game I’m going to put a lot of time into. I’m really surprised how well the game looks and plays, despite the Switch’s limitations.

@Bentleyma Yup. It's one of the most technically impressive games on the system. The improvements to visual effects and especially character animation make it look almost generationally better than XC2. The game manages to avoid the resolution dips that plagued earlier Switch entries when undocked as well.

Gem crafting... that should be chapter two, I think. The game should really open up soon. And when it does, the game becomes immensely better, because unlike previous games, XC3 actually has a lot of really good side-quests and a ton of stuff to see and do in the open world.

@Ralizah You’ve got me really looking forward to playing more. I have a day off tomorrow, so I’ll be on it all day.

I am really impressed with how good Xenoblade Chronicles 3 looks.

I can’t wait to see what Monolith Soft will be able to do on Nintendo’s next console. I do wonder if Nintendo’s developers envy other developers that get to work on more powerful hardware, while they’re stuck with the Switch.

@LtSarge I loved the first Baten Kaitos back on the GameCube and hope it holds up. The battle system uses cards randomly drawn from a deck, so takes a little getting used to. It’s fast paced and quite unique, but also very enjoyable. Everything in battle uses cards, even potions and consumable food, and some cards change over time. Food/drink such as milk can go off: I don’t remember exactly, so may be wrong, but I think it could then be used to poison enemies. The visuals use beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, which was unusual by then, but meant that more fantastical and detailed themes could be used. I also remember the music being quite nice. Hopefully the backgrounds have been nicely upscaled! One thing I didn’t like was the voice acting, as it sounded like it had been recorded using a phone from 1910 with a thermal sock covering the mouthpiece. In the original it could be turned off completely.

I haven’t played the second one, which is a prequel (although I guess needs to be played second as it will spoil things), but people seemed to like it. Apparently the battle system was simplified a bit.

@Bentleyma Considering how their older games struggled with other publishers, I'm willing to bet they enjoy the security and resources that come with being a first-party Nintendo dev.

Besides, even if it means needing to get a bit more creative with the technology, they're able to stand out on the system relatively easily. XC3 would be a good-looking but not visually remarkable game on Playstation or Xbox. On Switch, though, it really stands out.

btw how're you liking it so far? Seems like you got a fair bit further.

@Ralizah Yeah as it is now it wouldn’t be visually remarkable, but if Nintendo had a more powerful console then it would look a lot better. The reason it looks the way it does is because of the Switch’s specs.

I’m enjoying it a lot. My only complaint so far is lack of proper towns. Every settlement I’ve come across so far is only a camp. I’ve just reached chapter 3, so there could be some decent towns ahead of me for all I know.

@Bentleyma OK, yeah, if that's your main complaint, just keep playing.

I'm actually not in a huge rush for Nintendo to update their specs significantly, since I don't really want developers to chase significantly better graphics for the system. A big reason we're still able to have this consistent pipeline of quality exclusives every year is, IMO, at least partially because of how much more visually simple Switch games are. Sort of like with older consoles, it just takes less time to develop these games.

My hope with the Switch 2 is that exclusives stay largely the same in terms of visual detail, but they hit 60fps consistently and upscaling tech makes them look nice and clean on both the tablet and higher-res TVs. Meanwhile, the beefier tech will make third-party ports of big games easier to handle.

But I don't want a situation where, like, XC4, or whatever they make next, takes significantly longer to develop, leading to fewer games on the system overall.

@mookysam Your description of the series makes me want to play it even more! It sounds like a rather unique JRPG, at least for its time.

Regarding the voice acting, apparently the remasters will only have Japanese VOs. So hopefully that version was better recorded.