In the 18 years since its original release on the Nintendo 64, Pokémon Snap has continued to be a cult favorite among series fans. And replaying it on the Wii U Virtual Console gives a good reason why - it’s still pretty fun to play all these years later. After all, who can resist taking pictures of cute Pokémon! While a few things age it a bit Pokémon Snap’s intuitive gameplay and simplicity proves to be a fun experience that’s worth exploring.
The goal is to climb aboard a cart that will take you around seven levels and let you snap pictures of Pokémon for Professor Oak to inspect. The levels themselves take about five minutes at the most to get through, though a few things unlocked later allow you to take pictures of even more Pokémon. For example, after you earn apples, you can lead a Pikachu to a surfboard for maximum radness . The gameplay is pretty straightforward, though it's kind of a hassle to use the joystick to take pictures. It's not bad enough to hamper my experience, but the unnatural feel is noticeable.
Presentation wise, Pokémon Snap does a great job of creating a relaxing atmosphere, even though sometimes the scenarios you’re involved in (like a constantly moving river, or an active volcano area) are anything but. The music is a bit underrated, as each level has its own theme and fits in well with the scenery and location. Graphics are cleaned up for this Wii U re-release, all the while retaining the Pokémon series’ vibrant and colorful aesthetic. Unfortunately, on a technical level, the text and pictures look faded, a result of compressing images into a Nintendo 64 cartridge (and the poor emulation on the Wii U).
Pokémon Snap is a fun, somewhat brainless game that allows you to take pretty pictures of Pokémon, and not much more beyond that. It's only around three hours long, with a little replayability. The content isn’t much, but the atmosphere and gameplay separate it from a wide variety of other Nintendo 64 Virtual Console games. As a quiet, simple game that doesn’t take long to beat, it excels greatly.
It's the first episode of the new year, welcome to the year 2017 and Connectivity 217.
This week a new staffer joins the Connectivity fray, Kelton Rice. Alongside him, Matt West hosts along with Adam Abou-Nasr and Bryan Rose.
The feature topic is all about the year 2016, the guys go over the various happenings from Nintendo over the past year, along with a bit of discussion about the upcoming Switch event.
The musical selection this week is a medley of Nintendo tracks performed by the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne, FILMharmonic Choir.
We also had a hiccup with the recording this week, so apologies if the recording quality is a bit lower than usual.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
This week Bryan, Matt and Adam discuss their thoughts and experiences with the latest Pokémon games. If you have not completed the game or have not gone super deep into it, tread with some caution as the gang don't hold back on later events in the game.
Merry Christmas from the Connectivity gang and we will have a new episode out early next year, thanks for listening.
The musical selection this week is the Pokémon Christmas Bash.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
This week's show features the return of Carmine, Andrew, Adam and Bryan, the topic of discussion is all about the various toys to life games and pieces of plastic.
From Amiibo to Lego, this group of staffers have possibly poured an unhealthy amount of time and money into tracking down their favourite characters in molded plastic form. Will their investments pay off years down the line? Who knows, but for now these guys sure can talk about them.
The musical selection this week is the Astral Observatory track from Majora's Mask.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
I always liked the idea of the fusion system in the Dragon Ball universe. Combining two of the Z Fighters into one superhuman being definitely has its appeal - could you imagine what it would look like if, say, Krillin and Piccolo were to merge into one? That’d be pretty awesome! So when Dragon Ball Fusions was announced, I was ready to jump to the helm. What I got was a pretty fun role playing game that perfectly captures that Dragon Ball essence. Dragon Ball Fusions is not without its faults, but the charm of the series and the fun battle system helps overcome most of the obstacles that come with it.
One of the big positives right from the get-go is that the game’s story does not follow the manga or anime series like most other Dragon Ball games, giving it a more leeway in what it can do. Not that it differs radically from other stories, but the new scenarios for established characters is a nice touch. The story has your custom character (which you can design and name) and your ally, Pinch, gather the dragonballs and wish for the greatest tournament ever. Shenron grants the wish, but not before you go on an adventure to recruit and gather fighters from the various Dragon Ball sagas in order to assemble a great team for the tournament.
While the game’s story is relatively new, most of the game’s characters, including those that you recruit, are completely familiar. A bunch of familiar faces from all three Dragon Ball shows are represented, ranging from Goku as a child to Super Android 17 from Dragon Ball GT. Heck, you can even recruit characters from Dragon Ball Super, which is currently airing in Japan but still hasn’t made its way to North America. Literally everyone and anyone you can think of you can either recruit, or you can come across in some form in this game, giving the game a fan service type of appeal.
Gameplay is similar to that of something like a game of marbles, at least as far as movement goes. You conduct battles inside a closed-off area where you can attack, causing your opponent to float across the stage, sometimes running into opponents/allies for further damage. You charge and attack either using melee, ki powers (which are just blasts of energy) or special powers (moves like the Kamehameha wave, healing powers, etc.), eventually building a gauge where you can use fusion attacks or even use a special fusion move where all five of your teammates fuse into one person, unleashing huge attacks against your foes. I enjoyed the battle system as a whole, as it felt like a true Dragon Ball style battle - you can even send your opponents out of the ring and into a mountain or other large structures, just like you see in literally every episode of Dragon Ball Z!
There are a couple of problems with the game, however. Battles tend to last pretty long - I want to say around five to ten minutes each, which feels a little too long for my tastes, especially if you have to clear a lot of battles to progress through the game. There is also the matter of progression through the story. You need a certain amount of energy in order to move on to the next part of the game. You normally gain energy after winning battles, but obtaining some of the energy is pretty tedious. You need to recruit people in your team by doing a Zenkai Attack during battle, and that is only when the attack is certain to defeat the person you’re trying to recruit--plus, depending on what type of energy you need, the person you’re recruiting needs to be a specific race. Oh, and a person can only be recruited if they have a star next to their name. It's not as complicated as it reads out, but it’s still pretty tedious, especially if you just want to move on through the game's story.
Tedium aside, I enjoyed my time with Dragon Ball Fusions. The game’s battle system is pretty enjoyable, and the story is a nice change of pace from normal Dragon Ball games that just parrot stories from the various sagas. It’s nothing revolutionary, and there are certainly some problems here and there, but Dragon Ball Fusions is a fun game that takes its creative license to create an enjoyable experience.
On this episode, Bryan Rose, Adam Abou-Nasr and Matt West focus on the topic of Dragon Quest. They share some memories and also a bit about the series past, present and future.
The musical outro this week is from the Symphonic Suite album and the track is Melody in an Ancient Town~Toward the Horizon from Dragon Quest V.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
This week, Bryan, Adam and JP Corbran focus in on the Pikmin series. The gang discusses each of the main games, along with Olimar's appearence in Smash Bros, short films, transfer tools and also the upcoming platform game.
The episode format has also changed slightly once again, we are now trying to move to a more focused show with going right into the main discussion. We will still do listener mail when we have some of course.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
The one thing I kept thinking to myself as I played Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is “I’m not completely surprised that Square Enix almost didn’t release this in the west.” This game is super long, one of the longest RPGs I’ve ever played, and that means there is a ton of text to translate. Sometimes that is a bad thing - after all, I have a life and need to pay bills. The world just can’t revolve around Dragon Quest 24 hours a day! But while many games at this length can get to be pretty tedious, Dragon Quest VII never dragged or dropped in quality. In fact, it’s one of the best role playing games on the 3DS to date. Dragon Quest VII is immensely rewarding in presentation, gameplay, story, and so much more.
Dragon Quest VII revolves around fragments of tablets you collect around the various islands you travel to from the past, which are filled with monsters and people with problems. The game’s story is told from the perspective of group of adventurous kids who set out to search for all these fragments, while piecing together a story that goes beyond just discovering new islands, and onto the aptly-named Demon King, who is set on disrupting peace in the game’s modern world. You will come across a ton of people and places during your adventure, which is where the game really shines. Each place feels unique, with its own wonderfully crafted dialect based various parts of real world languages. The overall story takes a while to fully unravel, but the self-contained stories that are told as you traverse all islands are interesting enough that it never comes across feeling like the story is dragging.
The localization it is probably my favorite script in an RPG in a long time. It shows the difference between Dragon Quest and other RPGs out there today in terms of execution. Even though both are based on fantasy worlds, Final Fantasy has characters and stories can come off as awkward, stilted and convoluted. Dragon Quest VII’s localization never felt like that at all. There is a real warmth and humor to it, perfectly executed in every way possible. The characters shine and come off real and relatable in their conflicts and issues. The game is so old- school in it’s simplicity that in 2016, it comes off as fresh and rewarding.
Gameplay wise, Dragon Quest VII doesn’t really deviate from the standard JRPG formula. You have basic, equippable weapons along with skills and spells that each character learns up until around level 15. From there, you can go to Alltrades Abbey (which is about 30 or so hours into the game) and start learning the class system, which is just the job system from RPGs, including Dragon Quest IX. It’s fun to mix and match between the various characters, all while learning to master moves and unlocking new classes. It doesn’t rock the boat, but then again Dragon Quest games usually don’t.
Another thing that hardly changes is the presentation, but when you have wonderful, colorful artwork by series mainstay Akira Toriyama, superb music by Koichi Sugiyama and the wonderful localization, what needs to change? Dragon Quest VII famously received a major upgrade from its Playstation roots in just about every way with a big, colorful map full of people. It wasn’t so much “charmingly old-school” in 2001 as much as “cheaply produced.” Some NPCs tend to look the same after a while, but it’s no big deal and perfectly in-line with other DQ games. There is always the right music to fill the mood, which the game manages to pull off perfectly when the right scenario or setting is in play. I hardly ever felt that the game was a sixteen- year- old remake of a Playstation title.
There is one issue I had with the game, though, and it was the camera in the overworld. I prefer to rely on the map on the bottom screen so I would know where I was going, but when you add a manual camera, it can be a real chore. Not enough that it hampers the experience, but it was the one blight that was noticeable early on and kept bothering me as I continued to play the game. I never really got used to it.
In the end, I’m very glad that I got the opportunity to play Dragon Quest VII on the 3DS. I didn’t think it was ever going to be released here since it came out in Japan back in 2013, but it did, and the experience was genuinely awesome . It’s certainly a long game, and that can be daunting to many who just want a pick -up -and -play adventure. It also doesn’t change or revolutionize the RPG formula, but I would argue that it didn’t need to -; its simplicity is one of its best attributes. If you can put the time and effort into it, you’ll find that Dragon Quest VII is a charming, wonderful game that is full of heart - something that, in many ways, only a Dragon Quest game can accomplish.
Hello and welcome to episode 209 of Connectivity. Nick's internet was still out as of the recording date, so Daan assumes the host's chair again. He is joined by Bryan and a relocated Adam.
The first segment is an extended What We've Been Playing segment. Adam has been concentrating on Pokémon matters with a Go update as well as a look at Pokémon Omega Ruby and the many misadventures that ensued. Bryan is currently waist-deep in Metal Slimes, as he received Dragon Quest VII for review just before the show, and escaped with the Epoch in Chrono Trigger (DS version). Daan has been subjecting himself to some of Skunk Software's finest, because someone had to. Thankfully, the new StreetPass Mii Plaza games prove there is some quality left in this industry.
Following that, it's a look back at the September 1 Nintendo Direct. Though upstaged by recent mobile news, the Direct did provide 3DS owners with fun and a bit of mystery going into 2017.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
Mario Sports Superstars is the latest Mario sports title announced for the 3DS.
There will be five different sports to choose from: Soccer, Baseball, Tennis, Golf, and Horse Racing. There will also be a tournament mode, as well as online and local mulitplayer.
Mario Sports Superstars is scheduled for a spring 2017 release.
A new line of Zelda amiibo are coming on December 2.
These include 8-bit Link, Link from Ocarina of Time and a two pack featuring Link and Zelda from Wind Waker. They will all be scannable in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, out in 2017.
Additionally, Nintendo also announced that Dark Horse Comics are working on 3 Zelda books, including one titled Arts and Artifacts.
Originally scheduled for a 2016 release, Dragon Quest VIII has been delayed to 2017. No other details were announced in today's Nintendo Direct.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is still scheduled for a September 16 release in North America. Today's Nintendo Direct announced that if you preorder on the Nintendo eShop, you will obtain a 3DS home menu theme for free.
A new Ratatta form, as well as a new Munchlax event spearheaded today's Nintendo Direct.
Nintendo will distribute a Munchlax upon the games launch through January 2017. It will come with a Snorlian Z crystal that, upon evolution, will allow Snorlax to unleash a new Z-move.
Meanwhile, Ratatta is the latest Pokemon to have a new Alolan form. It will be a Normal/Dark Pokemon. The story goes that Youngoose were brought to the region to free it from these pesty Ratattas.
Pokemon Sun/Moon will be out November 18 in North America.
In the Legend of Kusakari, your objective is to avoid enemies at all costs. Beating them is up to other heroes - your real goal is to make sure the grass is all nice and cut. After all, the real heroes are spending time fighting enemies but someone has to keep the gardening up to par! Spanning fifty levels, this puzzle game will have you running across busy battlefields, ensuring each blade of grass is trimmed before moving on to the next level. It’s not a revolutionary game by any means, but Kusakari is a simple, fun game that’s easy enough to have a fun time with.
There are two modes. The first is the aforementioned mission mode, which takes place across fifty levels of avoiding enemies and cutting all the grass before your health runs out. The gardening hero is armed with a scythe for grass removal, and can also do a spin cut that will wipe out all the surrounding grass, similar to Zelda games. It’s easy to get the hang of things, and shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to beat. And even once you complete the game, there’s always room to improve your times. Trying to obtain the Greenthumb Almanac items that you receive by completing a certain task in each level will also keep the grass flying.
The other game mode is an endless mode, which will last as long as the hero’s energy does. Hitting enemies or running out of time will drain energy, but cutting blue grass will restore energy. The game cranks up the pressure by steadily lowering the maximum health the longer the run lasts. It’s nothing fancy, but easy to get into, and there are even online leaderboards to see how you fare against other gardeners.
I enjoyed the overall presentation of the game for what it was. Graphically, it’s reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which gives it a nice retro look. It doesn’t look as colorful or vibrant as LTTP, but it doesn’t’ look too gaudy either. I think what I gained most from the game is that it doesn’t take itself seriously, especially when you consider the overall premise,. Even though the presentation itself is nothing special it makes up for it with charm that isn’t normally seen in other games.
The quirkiness of The Legend of Kusakari is probably its best feature. It doesn’t take itself seriously and that’s a major part of the fun. It isn’t a blow away awesome experience, but it’s a nice, simple game that doesn’t take that long to beat. With good replay value, a pretty neat endless mode and a charming aesthetic, Kusakari is an easy recommendation for those looking for something to just pick up and play.
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of NWR Connectivity. This week's episode is hosted again by Daan, accompanied by Bryan and Andrew.
An expanded What We've Been Playing opens the show as Andrew is diving into Senran Kagura Burst, then relaxing a bit with Ultimate Angler/StreetPass Fishing and Pokemon Shuffle before wrangling larger monsters in Shadow of the Colossus. Bryan caught some more Pokemon in Pokemon Go and has been cruising the wide galaxy in No Man's Sky. Daan is playing Dragon Quest VII as it crosses to Europe for the first time ever, picked up episode 1 of Life is Strange and is grooving to the music in Tadpole Treble, by Matthew Taranto. After the games, the gentlemen discuss big changes in Pokemon Sun and Moon as well as some NX rumors.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
Hello and welcome to episode 207 of Connectivity. This week's show is hosted by Daan, Bryan and Carmine.
In non-Pokémon GO games, Bryan has been playing Super Mario RPG, but since we'll probably talk about that later he tries his hand at becoming the next Dana White in World of Mixed Martial Arts 4 on the PC. Carmine is giving away some amiibo (rules can be found here) but also has plunged into the quirky eShop titles The Battle Cats POP! and Unholy Heights (along with nonTendo mobile game Tiny Tower). Daan has been fighting off blocks in Tumblestone and dealing with the number one threat to Europe and Australia in Teddy Together while dealing with other larger threats in Monster Hunter Generations.
For the main discussion, it's all Pokémon Go. We look at the game's launch and what can be done to improve it, as well as curse the abundance of various wild Pokémon and examine what the runaway success of Go means for the Pokémon franchise in general.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
Mighty No. 9’s story is a fascinating one. From the start, this was a game that was supposed to appeal to those who miss the days of the 2D platformer, the game’s inspiration mainly deriving from Keiji Inafune’s work from the Mega Man series. People flocked and donated to the game’s Kickstarter in droves, verifying that the need for something like Mighty No. 9 was real. So after a year full of delays and broken promises, the game has finally been released. The answer to everyone’s question is that yes, Mighty No. 9 does scratch that itch in providing a competent 2D platformer adventure. But if you ask me if Mighty No. 9 is a fun, competent 2D platformer, the answer would be no. It does everything needed to satiate the needs of those who backed the game, but nothing more.
Mighty No. 9’s story is pretty much every Mega Man story ever, without the character in question. Instead, it is Dr. White’s eight robots that break loose and wreak havoc upon the United States. Along with his associate Dr. Sanada and his invention, a helper robot named Call (as in, Beck and Call), it’s up to Beck, or Mighty No. 9, to take care of the remaining Mighty Numbers before they can do any more damage. It’s a no frills, formulaic story that’s obvious in inspiration, but that’s fine.
The gameplay also borrows heavily from the Mega Man series, with a few new additions. Instead of using a charge shot, Beck can glide across stages. I liked this, as it made the game feel like a bit more modern. The combo shots also felt really good to pull off. The stages themselves are perfectly acceptable, but nothing that you haven’t played before and are kind of drab in execution. The environments don’t break the mold either, with the usual ice, wind, fire and oil stages all present. I didn’t have any real problem getting across stages, though some part of certain stages are cheap, and not in a fun way. I know games like these are supposed to be trial and error, but getting hit once and falling into a one hit KO pit isn’t that fun.
Technically Mighty No. 9 is lacking, in many ways. The load times here are apparent, as it takes quite a while to load a stage, both initially and when you lose a life. There’re a bunch of small, weird bugs too. For example, while playing the wind level, I kept losing many lives as it was my first time playing the stage. Whenever the game would load, there would be a weird static sound that would get louder - this got to be so loud I had to restart the Wii U just to get rid of it. There are also some framerate issues that are quite apparent, especially when I was trying to go through a stage quickly. It’s not enough that it hampers the experience, but it’s very noticeable.
Sound and graphics in Mighty No. 9 aren’t all that great, either. Obviously the Wii U version of Mighty No. 9 isn’t going to look as great as its Xbox One or PS4 counterparts, but there’s a noticeable lack of quality. The game looks decent, but it’s more akin to a nice looking, colorful game from the previous generation of consoles as opposed to something that looks new. The sound is not much to write about, either - it’s perfectly acceptable, but nothing stellar. Full voice acting is in the game, but it’s kind of annoying in execution. White, Sanada, the bosses, Beck and Call talk a lot during the entirety of these stages, and it can be pretty grating at times.
Mighty No. 9 isn’t a bad game, but it’s generic in gameplay quality and suffers from technical issues that hamper the experience. If you wanted a brand new 2D platforming experience in the vein of the old Mega Man games, then this is probably something worth your time. Just don’t expect anything more beyond that, and be ready to restart your Wii U in case of a bug or two.
With Nick out of the way, Adam finally becomes the Captain Toad! Bryan and Donald do their best to keep him on track.
Donald has exciting new review games to tease while Bryan almost tells us about Fallout 3 before being asked about his E3 experience. Adam is playing another random PS4 game (this one available on the eShop) and a board game on iPhone.
After the break, the crew discusses listener predictions for E3 2017 before jumping into their own predictions.
The musical selections this week include Gerudo Valley from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mambo de Chocobo! from Final Fantasy V.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
The Sonic Boom series hasn’t been the most critically acclaimed series of all time, to put it lightly. That didn’t matter to me when starting the demo of the latest title, Fire and Ice, this week at E3. I didn’t think the game was outright terrible, as there were some bright spots with some fun boss battles and mini games. But there are so many mechanics to use during platforming stages it can become a very frustrating chore to play.
The first thing I played when booting up the demo was a boss battle against an enemy that looked kinda like an evil totem pole. The tag team mechanic here was pretty clever, as it has Sonic and Amy (who is making her debut in this game after not being in Rise of Lyric) teaming together and using their special moves to clear obstacles and reach the totem pole’s head to inflict damage. It’s a pretty fun mechanic and worked perfectly once I got the hang of things.
There are multiple mini games in Fire and Ice, such as Bot Racing. This has you use a character themed robot to race against friends via local co-op. StreetPass is also implemented in the game; whenever you pass by someone with StreetPass you’ll obtain Ragnium, which will aid you in racing your friends in this mini game. I played another racing mini game similar to the bonus levels in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which was pretty fun. You jump across various parts of the stage in order to avoid walls and traps. It's nothing fancy, but a nice callback to a memorable part of a great game.
My main problem with the demo was the level design in the platforming sections of the game. The SEGA PR rep I spoke to said that there was less of the puzzle solving and exploration and more action oriented things to do in stages. This is true; the stage I played was full of action. But there’s so much action and so many buttons to press all at once, it can be confusing especially if you’re just learning how to play. In one stage, I had to use different buttons to slide through ice using the new ice mechanics, swing through some ropes and hover attack enemies all at the same time using different buttons, all while also making sure to switch between the right characters to use. It all felt like too much at the same time, and can really be confusing.
It’s unfair to immediately dismiss Fire and Ice, as it does seem to fix problems that the previous title had. Sega has listened to feedback, and a lot of the game does feel more akin to an action oriented title like Sonic Adventure, which is a great thing because action is fun! There may be too many different kinds of mechanics in the platforming stages for my liking, but when Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice comes out on September 27 in North America, it may appeal to the crowd who like precision perfect platforming.
Welcome to the latest Connectivity episode. This week Nick, Adam, Carmine and Bryan have the call.
In the opening segment, Carmine talks about some NX speculation on the NWR forums, Bryan chats a little Kingdom Hearts 1.5 without breaking his brain on the series's insane story, and Adam becomes a secret agent man after booting up Strider for the PS4.
After the break we have listener mail. This week's question is all about gaming accomplishments and what ones we are the most proud of.
The main topic this week covers various generations of RPGs, with discussion of some of the crew's experiences and favourite titles in the genre.
The musical selections this week include, Walrus Cove from Diddy Kong Racing, Final Fantasy VI - Kids Run Through the City Corner by the Video Game Pianist and the FF VI opening title song from the FFVI Grand Edition album.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
Welcome to the latest Connectivity episode. This week it's Nick, Adam and Bryan.
Bryan kicks things off by talking about trying to complete a living Pokédex, along with also playing through Pokémon Yellow. Adam chats a little bit about Undertale and also how he has tried and failed to get a younger family member to play and appreciate Zelda Ocarina of Time. Nick finishes up by talking a bit about his most recent play-through of Ocarina of Time, this go around he has been playing the original version with the untouched music and graphics, he also talks a little about Uncharted 4.
After the break the gang answer a listener mail. The question asks how come Nintendo fans seem to ignore indies when it comes to talking about third party support for Nintendo systems.
The final segment features Adam stepping into the hosting position, the discussion centres around the evolution of the combat and gameplay in the various 3D Zelda games.
The musical selections this week include 'Pallet Town' from the Pokémon Reorchestrated: Kanto Symphony album, an 8bit remix of the Oot overworld theme and 'Kakariko Village' theme from the Hyrule Symphony album.
Nintendo World Report is now on Patreon, and high rollers can name their topic for Connectivity, so head over to our Patreon page if you want to support us.
Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show!
2014’s Bravely Default was a great callback to the days of Super Nintendo role-playing games. The Square Enix-crafted adventure was humorous and colorful with an overall fun, vibrant feeling that seems to be absent from modern JRPGs. The sequel, Bravely Second, is just as good as the original game, and in fact even better, as it fixes issues of repetitiveness that bogged down the second half of the original. While the game’s story is less compelling, Bravely Second is still a fantastic RPG totally worth your time, continuing the glory of the original’s likable characters, strong writing, and great battle system full of fun new jobs to master.
The game takes place two and a half years following the events of Bravely Default. Agnes, one of the original main characters, ends up getting kidnapped by Kaiser Oblivion, who has her locked in in the Skyhold, a moveable fortress in the sky. Yew, Anges’ bodyguard, feels it’s his moral duty to save her, and with the help of some of her old friends, as well as a new one, he sets out on an adventure to stop the Kaiser, who has sinister plans far beyond just kidnapping.
It’s a weird situation in that I love the characters and the world of Bravely Second, but the story itself is often clichéd and boring. It offers nothing really new in the world of role-playing games; essentially, the story is just the usual JRPG trope of someone’s in peril and it’s up to you and your group to stop it. Of course, there are twists and turns along the way, but they’re kind of obvious as they go along. What saves the story is the writing, which is really top notch. All of the characters you meet along the way have their own personal charming quirks, and I always liked coming across new enemies or characters as they always added something new to the game. The dramatic moments come across strong, and the banter between the four main characters is great. Their conversations are filled with humor and a lot of charming mainstream references. The game’s voice acting also adds nicely to the script, as I found most of the voices to be acceptable. I rolled my eyes over one or two, but this isn’t a Final Fantasy XIII situation where every voice is annoying.
Like its predecessor, Bravely Second is a beautiful game. In fact, the world is pretty much the same as it was in Bravely Default, though there are a few new locations. If you played the first game, traversal and exploration feels very familiar. The world map is colorful and bright, and the locales you visit are wonderfully drawn and amazingly detailed. All I kept thinking about as I played the game was just how colorful it was - the vibrancy of the world to me feels like such an important part of the game. It reminded me very much of the Super NES era of RPGs that were just as colorful. The nostalgia value is very high in this way, but at the same time, it retains a modern feel – though that might be because of the micro transactions and other online aspects of the game (you can buy “SP” drinks with real money that give you an extra turn in battle without any repercussions, as well as summon friends who also have the game to attack for you) – but it still feels like a game released in 2016 in a good way. Any game can rely on nostalgia value fully, but Bravely Second’s best quality is that it takes it and blends it into a more modern feel.
The best part lies in its battle system, which has a new dynamic that makes grinding so much easier to manage. If you can clear all of the enemies on a battlefield on your very first turn, you’ll usually be given the option of facing another round of enemies. The more enemies you clear in a round, the higher the multiplier goes as you go to the next round. Once your turn finally ends and the enemy starts to strike, your multiplier ends and you get to reap the rewards following the conclusion of the battle, sometimes doubling your money, experience points, or job points. It cuts grinding time to a very manageable degree and lets you focus more on bigger issues than just running around on a world map for an hour. For someone who always felt bored whenever he had to fight endless amounts of enemies, this was a very welcome change. Add in the fact you can change the encounter rate and set auto battle options any way you like it, Bravely Second’s battle system is not only deep, but one of the most accessible in any RPG you’ll find on the 3DS.
Lots of new jobs are available at your disposal. Working very much like the original, you level up a job in parallel to your actual character level, giving you new abilities as you level up. You can be anything your heart desires, ranging from the typical Final Fantasy jobs of Black Mage and White Mage to “is this really in an RPG?” kind of jobs like Pastry Chef and Catmancer, which gives you cat powers (Since Daan didn’t spoil this in his review, neither will I). Some of the jobs are totally out there, but tons of fun, and add to the lightheartedness of the game.
Many of these jobs can be found in side quests that pop up frequently as you journey around Luxendarc, where both Bravely Second and the original game takes place. It’s kind of amazing just how little has changed since the original, but it is fine as there are still new experiences to be had. With these side quests, you’ll come across enemies from the original game. All of them have a dilemma that requires you to choose a side, and whoever you don’t agree with ends up battling you, with their job at stake. Each side quest is different than the others, but is also structured the same exact way each time you go through one. I didn’t mind this too much, as the way they handled each story was very well done, but it was obvious they were all structured the same way each time I started one. I wish they were a bit more varied as I shouldn’t have needed to make a choice every time, but I enjoyed each story as they unfolded.
Bravely Second is one of the stronger role playing games that’s out there today on the 3DS. It’s not perfect, as the overall story has been done before and the structure of the side quests is a bit repetitive. But the experience I had with the game was a great one. I grew to like all of the main characters and their friends (and even some of their enemies). The battle system is fantastic, mixing classic Final Fantasy with modern day mechanics. And the job system, always a fun fixture in the world of role-playing games, is just as strong as ever, with many jobs to choose from ranging from typical fare to the utterly bizarre. It’s one of the best 3DS role playing games to date and manages to outdo its predecessor in many ways.
A perennial cult favorite since its original release in the United States in 1995, EarthBound's fans have gone through long waiting periods just for Nintendo to realize that in fact, yes, there's a fanbase here for the Mother series. Although both EarthBound and its NES counterpart have been re-released many times in Japan, North America didn't get a re-release until 2013 on the Wii U Virtual Console, which also marked the first time EarthBound was released in Europe. At the time of its re-release, Justin Baker gave the game a 9.5, gushing over many aspects of the game, including the battle and control options. As the game expands to New 3DS three years later, three more staff members give their opinion of EarthBound. As time marches on, does the game still manage to hold up?
Bryan Rose, Reviews Editor: The one thing that fascinated me the most replaying EarthBound again all these years later is that there’s a lot of grinding. Almost too much grinding. I spent a lot of hours battling a bunch of enemies just to get to the next area. It’s a lot like the original Mother (now known as EarthBound Beginnings here), which also required tons of fighting. Frankly, it’s so much that I wouldn’t even bother if it wasn’t for the fact that this is one of the most charming games I’ve ever played. That’s all I could feel as I went through the familiar places, faces, and enemies - this game is oozing with a wit and charm that can’t really be paralleled. The writing is top notch, full of humor and references that you would never see in any other RPG. And that’s the appeal of EarthBound and why it’s one of my favorite games to play to this day - this is an RPG that’s like nothing else. Not on the SNES or anywhere, quite frankly - it’s wholly unique in how it presents itself, and that is where the charm lies. Earthbound isn’t an epic story, and can be bogged down by being a grind fest. But its cheerful aesthetic, fun music and excellent writing are really endearing in a time where we could use more games like it.
Matt West, Associate Editor: EarthBound has held a special place in my heart since the first time I played it. To fans like myself, the experience is an unforgettable one; full of charmingly strange characters, a world of whimsy, and a touching story of four kids saving the world. It’s a very unique game, both at the time of its release and in modern day, forgoing the traditional JRPG tropes of amnesiac, sword-wielding heroes set in ages of the past in favor of a tale set in creator Shigesato Itoi’s psychedelic interpretation of early 90’s America. Ness and his friends are nothing like the protagonists of other JRPGs at the time; they’re just average kids who fight baddies with Yo-Yo’s, frying pans, and Bottle Rockets. I fell in love almost immediately with EarthBound’s setting and unabashed willingness to be different.
EarthBound is a complete package, too. It isn’t adored by its fans today simply because of nostalgia. Itoi and his team worked hard to take what worked for JRPGs in the early 1990’s and provide their own spin on those elements. The battle system initially looks ripped straight from a Dragon Quest game, but there are major differences here that make EB’s fights a more active and streamlined experience. For example, the player doesn’t have to wait for all of damage of an enemy’s attack to be inflicted before making their next move; if Jeff is hit with a fatal blow, but you can get Ness to heal him before his HP ticks to zero, he can be saved without having to revive him later at the hospital. In another example, one of the most underrated aspects of EarthBound is the automated enemy encounters if your party is at a level in which battling would be a waste of your time. When running into these enemies, the game automatically gives the player the victory and experience points, which makes the entire experience feel much less tedious than other RPGs of the time. That said, EarthBound is still a 90’s JRPG – for better or worse. You’ll be forced to level grind at certain points if you hope to survive, and there are a couple of fetch quests that are a bit obnoxious (although, the game is hyper-aware of this and even makes a joke about it). But overall, EarthBound is a wonderful game that offers players something unique. It has a lot of heart, and was clearly a labor of love by Itoi and his team (which included help from one Satoru Iwata). It permeates with charm, personality, and joy, and deserves to be played by Nintendo and JRPG fans everywhere.
Donald Theriault, News Editor: Earthbound is honestly my favorite game of all time. That's not to say I think it's perfect – the inventory system takes getting used to, 1/128 odds for major items are a pain and there's a big early game grind. But Earthbound has charm coming out of its ears, with a cast of characters who are an absolute joy to interact with. The sheer ludicrousness of things like Zombie Paper (like flypaper, but for zombies) and Fly Honey still has me laughing 20 years after I first discovered them, and even though the game originally came with a strategy guide, it's still balanced enough that it isn’t necessary. It's worth every bit of the premium pricing Nintendo of America gave it.
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