Topic: Episode 298: How Many Licks Does It Take?

[Pandareus]

The Jonathans are back with vacation stories, and we tag-team both jokes and editing for this special episode!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/31066

This week's show begins with everyone reuniting after both Jonny and Jon were out last week. New Business starts with Jonny's woeful tale of how he lost his 3DS in New York and then missed recording RFN, making for a Very Bad Day in the city of dreams. In happier news, he did recently finish Xenoblade Chronicles and shares a measured response to the ending as well as a glowing review of the overall experience. Jonny also advises against playing through the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut, but not for the reason you might expect. Mr. Lindemann, returning from his own vacation, finds that his bowling skills have severely deteriorated in Wii Sports. He also shares some appreciative thoughts on Lollipop Chainsaw, the latest fever dream of Suda 51 (see also: Killer 7, No More Heroes). James finally catches up with Tales of the Abyss, the robust RPG for your 3DS, and he confirms reports of the game's bizarre storytelling. Guillaume brings it home (rhyme!) with a pair of eShop downloads from earlier this year: the challenging platformer Mutant Mudds, and the depthless Punch-Out clone we know as Sakura Samurai.

Jon had to step out after Now Playing, so the remaining trio digs in for an energetic round of Listener Mail. First up is an extensive look into load times and storage media for gaming systems, including Wii U -- but the conversation also takes a surprising turn towards the apparently highly sought WiFi dongle released for taking Nintendo DS online. Then we answer a desperately terse question about Project Sora's closing (and Namco Bandai's huge push for Smash Bros.) with a massive, James-led exploration of Japanese shadow companies and how the Tekken developer could benefit from this partnership. Finally, we look deep into the ways Nintendo collects feedback from the media, fans, and its own experts -- and how that feedback is used (or not) to direct development of future releases. This segment spans over an hour despite covering only three questions with three podcasters! Keep the magic flowing by sending us your own excellent questions.

We'll be taking next week off due to summer activities, but you can look forward to a big Episode 300 spectacular in just a few more weeks! Until then, you might want to cover the gap by checking out our sister shows, NWR Connectivity and Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition. Also, you can start playing Wario Land 4 and dropping globules of observance into the official RetroActive forum thread -- we'll get to this feature soon after the anniversary event!

[Pixelated Pixies]

Daaaammn you summer activities!

[Glad0s]

Haven't listened yet, but I have to say that I'm SO glad that James picked up Tales of the Abyss. It's a fantastic game, and it seems right up his alley.....now, I shall listen to the episode.






Btw, did anyone else notice that this is the longest non-telethon or Famicast episode since 105?!?!

[Hey Einstein!]

I've had Tales in my Lindy pile since April and had planned to get into it after Warioland 4.
James and Johnny actually put me of it quite a bit this episode. It's the thought of having to play through an epic RPG with a hero character I could dislike so much that puts me off, especially as they compared it to playing The World Ends with You. I gave up on that game because I just hated the main character too much to spend another minute in his company. I get quite upset whenever I see it mentioned in "Best RPGs" lists.


Don't get me started on those stupid zippers!

[KDR_11k]

Your talk about Tales confused me... You talk about being forced to auto-battle: I assume you aren't talking about the part where you play Ash instead of Luke? I recall playing that guy manually though it was kinda annoying because he has some spells on his quick skill slots which are kinda suicidal to pull off in the middle of melee combat. But after that Luke works on not being a total asshole anymore and it doesn't sound like you've experienced that change yet.


On the drives issue, the 360's disc drive was slightly faster than the PS3's but I don't think DVD tech has advanced much since then while the PS3 had a first gen BRD so a modern drive would be faster than any DVD drive. 25GB is the capacity of a single BluRay layer, HDDVD had 15MB per layer with a maximum of two layers (BluRay's theoretical maximum is 8 layers). Due to encryption and copy protection measures the XBox 360 actually had less usable space per disc than the Wii and developers of HD games have frequently complained that the 360's cripple DVDs just don't cut it for HD game development.
Harddrives are of course faster because they spin faster, they have a higher data density, their read/write heads move faster and they use multiple physical discs. The laser head on an optical disc drive slides on a rail while the HDD's read/write head swivels on an arm on a low-friction mount, that greatly reduces seek times (the time it takes for the head to move to the actual data).
Even carts have load times, they simply have a certain data rate and that's it. On the NES and such you'll probably not notice it during normal play but during tool assisted speedruns that load time can actually affect things because the player can sometimes move faster than the system can load tile data and it's not designed to cope with that. One major factor with the lack of load times on older carts is the file size, you simply won't see as much of a load time on a cart that can hold 128 kilobytes (NES) as a cart that can hold 1 gigabyte (3DS).
I don't think USB2.0 would be that big of a problem for an HD system, while it may be slow compared to the data buses inside a PC it's still significantly faster than the <3MB/sec of the 360's optical drive.

[geo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshinori_Ono_%28game_producer%29

Pretty sure Ono still works for capcom.  Maybe you're thinking about his recent illness that had him out of work for a few months, or maybe you're thinking of Seth Killian, the guy who just left for super bot games, the makers of sony all-stars.

[The Ruffians]

Real Talk: this was such a fun episode to listen, had me smiling the entire time.

[Glad0s]

Your talk about Tales confused me... You talk about being forced to auto-battle: I assume you aren't talking about the part where you play Ash instead of Luke? I recall playing that guy manually though it was kinda annoying because he has some spells on his quick skill slots which are kinda suicidal to pull off in the middle of melee combat.

My thoughts exactly! I actually preferred playing Luke to Asch. Also Jonny, you do realize that you can set to the control style to "auto" at any time, don't you? I believe you press "select" when you're in the Artes menu until "auto" lights up.  (Also, I actually had no idea that you could change your main character for battles...thanks, James)


In other news, I really enjoyed the episode, guys. Great, per usual. Also (and I may be completely wrong about this), for some reason I get the feeling that next week's rumored "replacement" may have something to do with a certain Metallica and Treasure-loving Briton.....but I've been wrong before....

[Tlon]

With regard to testing games and ideas, there's a subsidiary to debug and test games which is always credited in Nintendo games called Mario Club.

[broodwars]

I'm surprised to see so much love for Tales of the Abyss.  I played the PS2 version, and after a few hours I just couldn't get into it (around the part of 10+ hour tutorial where they're explaining how you can only use special moves while within the "Fields of Phonons" sections of the battle maps).  I loved Tales of Symphonia, but there was just something "off" about Tales of the Abyss.  Maybe it's the convoluted battle system or that Abyss looks "cheap" and ugly without Symphonia's Cel Shading, but that game (and Symphonia 2) really turned me off from Tales until I played Vesperia on the 360.

Incidentally, I recently finished my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3 (I deliberately waited to play the game until the Extended Cut DLC released), and while I was underwhelmed by the ending I received it was...ok, I guess.  I had more of an issue with the fact that none of the 4 choices you have in that final decision really appealed to me.  3 betray everyone you'd fought for, and the last forces a major change on all sentient life I didn't believe I had a right to make (and looks damn creepy in the new EC cutscenes).  That really turned me off, along with the way a series about not treating people like mere numbers basically determines your ending options by treating people like mere numbers.  The ending wasn't appalling enough to make me pull a Spoony and scream "BETRAYAAAAL!", but it does mean that I feel no compulsion whatsoever to replay any of the Mass Effect games now.

[supergtt]

The reason for the 3ds lengthy load times is that everything on the 3ds is an OS call. Every thing ever goes through the OS. That takes time.

[Lithium]

@1:37, Project Sora discussion

[AV]

Great episode guys. I will miss you next week. I hope Greg will return for 300th, even if its just a segment and not the whole episode.


I tried Wario land 4 two times and never got into it. Maybe its the level structure / menu is complicated and ugly but I couldn't get into it.


I hope Johnny finds his 3ds, and its just misplaced in his luggage or something not lost in new york. I sent you a swap note Jonny so maybe somebody will reply to it and it can help track you down

[KeyBilly]

I bought a cheap card for my PC to add USB 3.0 ports and the speed difference is huge for both USB thumb sticks and hard drives.  Traditionally, I have only used USB storage for backups because it is so slow, but with USB 3.0 the drives are fast enough to run programs from and regularly transfer large files.  It makes external storage much more useful.

I understand your points about Nintendo not being interested in future-proofing and agree, but USB 3.0 would have been a big leap considering how heavily they plan to use external storage.  I wonder how well high speed SD cards will work.

[Ceric]

I'm surprised to see so much love for Tales of the Abyss.  I played the PS2 version, and after a few hours I just couldn't get into it (around the part of 10+ hour tutorial where they're explaining how you can only use special moves while within the "Fields of Phonons" sections of the battle maps).  I loved Tales of Symphonia, but there was just something "off" about Tales of the Abyss.  Maybe it's the convoluted battle system or that Abyss looks "cheap" and ugly without Symphonia's Cel Shading, but that game (and Symphonia 2) really turned me off from Tales until I played Vesperia on the 360.

Incidentally, I recently finished my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3 (I deliberately waited to play the game until the Extended Cut DLC released), and while I was underwhelmed by the ending I received it was...ok, I guess.  I had more of an issue with the fact that none of the 4 choices you have in that final decision really appealed to me.  3 betray everyone you'd fought for, and the last forces a major change on all sentient life I didn't believe I had a right to make (and looks damn creepy in the new EC cutscenes).  That really turned me off, along with the way a series about not treating people like mere numbers basically determines your ending options by treating people like mere numbers.  The ending wasn't appalling enough to make me pull a Spoony and scream "BETRAYAAAAL!", but it does mean that I feel no compulsion whatsoever to replay any of the Mass Effect games now.

I only got 3 choices...

[broodwars]

I only got 3 choices...

In the Extended Cut DLC, there's a fourth choice I would generally describe as the "**** YOU!" choice.  You basically refuse to select any of the 3 choices offered, and the result is not good for your cycle.  It's a pity, because the "I refuse to play your game!" ending is the one I picked in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I was generally satisfied with it.  Unfortunately, the outcome is very different in Mass Effect 3.

[zoanthropicfrog]

Damn Johnny, hope you find that 3DS (or at least that you find a cheap interim one).


And thank to you, Jon, I finally have a use for the decapitated head of my boyfriend that's been sitting around taking up space in my freezer. I'm gonna strap it to my hip and SOLVE SOME GODDAMN PUZZLES.

[Hey Einstein!]

The ending wasn't appalling enough to make me pull a Spoony and scream "BETRAYAAAAL!", but it does mean that I feel no compulsion whatsoever to replay any of the Mass Effect games now.

What's a Paladin?

[broodwars]

The ending wasn't appalling enough to make me pull a Spoony and scream "BETRAYAAAAL!", but it does mean that I feel no compulsion whatsoever to replay any of the Mass Effect games now.

What's a Paladin?

Coincidentally, throughout my playthrough of ME3, whenever I got a new Codex entry I couldn't stop thinking "The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom?" 

[Ceric]

I only got 3 choices...

In the Extended Cut DLC, there's a fourth choice I would generally describe as the "**** YOU!" choice.  You basically refuse to select any of the 3 choices offered, and the result is not good for your cycle.  It's a pity, because the "I refuse to play your game!" ending is the one I picked in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I was generally satisfied with it.  Unfortunately, the outcome is very different in Mass Effect 3.

That's interesting.  I didn't get that option at all.
Just watched it.  I didn't think that one was bad.

[lolmonade]

Possible RFN Gap-fillers for next week?
 
- Radio Free Nintendo: Connectivity regulars fill-in, using the RFN "New Business", and then "listener mail" format to the show.
 
Edit: I meant "New Business", not "Now Playing".

- Radio Free Nintendo: Forum Trolls takeover: - The four most-smited forum posters host an hour-long gripe fest about how Nintendo doesn't know what they're doing and have failed the hardcore gamer.

[KisakiProject]

Thoughts for 300

1) Needs to be exactly 300 minutes long.

2) Needs guest appearances by Billy, Chris Kohler & Greg.

3)  Needs to be entirely about obscure Gamecube games.

[broodwars]

- Radio Free Nintendo: Forum Trolls takeover: - The four most-smited forum posters host an hour-long gripe fest about how Nintendo doesn't know what they're doing and have failed the hardcore gamer.

Be careful what you wish for.  We'd probably just troll you by doing a 3 hour podcast about things we like about Nintendo.   :

[Disco Stu]

2) Needs guest appearances by Billy, Chris Kohler & Greg.

Also Karl and Mike!

[Ceric]

- Radio Free Nintendo: Forum Trolls takeover: - The four most-smited forum posters host an hour-long gripe fest about how Nintendo doesn't know what they're doing and have failed the hardcore gamer.

Be careful what you wish for.  We'd probably just troll you by doing a 3 hour podcast about things we like about Nintendo.   : : :

If anyone really wanted to do a Mock RFN for kicks and Giggles.  I am definitely game.  I'm sure Broodwars and I can argue then agree then argue about something if Twitter is any indication.

Possible RFN Gap-fillers for next week?
 
- Radio Free Nintendo: Connectivity regulars fill-in, using the RFN "now playing", and then "listener mail" format to the show.
...
 

Wouldn't that just be Resurrecting NWR Newscast?