Messages

26

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Switch Games that STILL haven't came out yet

« on: August 18, 2018, 09:55:32 AM »

Yuji Horii also said development on the Switch version of Dragon Quest XI was going well earlier this month and hinted at news possibly coming at TGS in September. It has been a bizarre saga, but after the huge success of Octopath Traveler (and RPGs in general) on Switch, I think Square Enix will find a way to make it work on the system one way or another.

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TalkBack / Re: Atlus Announces Western Release For Etrian Odyssey X: Now Etrian Odyssey Nexus

« on: August 17, 2018, 09:17:49 AM »

YES!


Wow, a Nintendo 3DS game release in 2019?  Keep 'em coming Atlus!


I have done bad things to my Wii U lately (and by "bad" I mean "voided my warranty") and am actually replaying Etrian Odyssey III on my Wii U.  So more Etrian news makes my day.  Although to be perfectly honest.... I hope this franchise lives on somehow.  (Switch???)

Atlus recently all but confirmed that the series will continue (they put out a teaser that ended with "to the next stage"). Switch seems like the logical choice, yeah.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 584: Symphony of the Night Trap

« on: August 14, 2018, 12:38:30 PM »

Wow. Great write-up Oedo. My hope for wanting to play Octopath Traveler has gone up again after cratering to zero listening to Syrenne's intricate tale of woe. Could she have been playing the game "wrong"? I hate it when I do that, but that's still a fault in game design, if you can go off the gameplay track that badly and not know it.

Also, I hate to be pedantic here, but this is RFN where pedantry reigns! If you can actually read and understand it, then it's not Old English. Old English is a Germanic language. You could read entire paragraphs and be lucky to decipher more than a word or two. Middle English is like Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Basically readable, but you'll be tripped up often unless you know how to read Middle English. Shakespeare is basically the start of Modern English. Even if you read in the original, you'll be slowed down by some weird spellings and some archaic words that are no longer used, but you probably won't be lost reading it.

An interesting podcast about the subject is: http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/feed/podcast/

To Greg: You mentioned getting a second Switch. Did something happen to the first or is this a chance for the Tubtime phenomenon to cross the Atlantic?

I think it's fair to say that the game doesn't give you a lot of guidance. I thought that was a positive, but yeah, the flip side is that it has the potential to lead to some frustration like this. Maybe she missed that the fourth Warrior support skill increases the damage cap from 9,999 to 99,999 (which becomes important sooner than you would think, particularly for boss fights) or that you really need to be stealing a lot with Therion to get lots of good equipment and items. Buying from shops isn't necessarily the way to go, especially early in the game, and I used shops very infrequently until the final chapters (except for certain healing items, but those don't cost a whole lot). The majority of the best equipment and items in the game will come from stealing with Therion (and/or purchasing with Tressa) and rewards for completing side stories, but yeah, the game doesn't necessarily tell you this outright.

It's got to be something though, because the idea of boss fights regularly taking upwards of 40 minutes or needing to grind for two hours is still wild to me. I don't think any of the bosses in the main 32 chapters took me that long (it would only be the final boss and maybe a few from the optional content), and while I've definitely read and heard about a lot of people who are in Syrenne's position of not enjoying the game as much as they would have liked, her specific complaints are the first time I'm hearing some of this.

Anyway, I do hope she does find something that helps her enjoy the game more (especially if she's determined to play it all the way through). I think they mentioned Guillaume would be back next week, so I'm guessing she won't guest again in the coming weeks, but maybe she'll share her thoughts on Twitter.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 584: Symphony of the Night Trap

« on: August 13, 2018, 05:55:03 PM »

The first character you choose in Octopath Traveler isn't stuck in your party for the entire game: you can switch them out after completing their fourth chapter. Since all chapter 4's have a recommended level of 45, there's no reason not to do their chapter 4 first, so you'll have full control over all four party slots for the seven other chapter 4's and likely the four Shrines for advanced jobs, late optional dungeons, late and post-game side stories, and the final dungeon and final boss. It's a weird restriction to put on players, for sure, but it's there for 1/2 or 2/3 of the game, not all of it.

I don't think any character in this game is useless. Alfyn is the only one that's more geared primarily towards boss fights, but the others are all useful in a lot of different situations. Primrose is the only character in the game who can use dark magic naturally and her buffs are important for boss fights. Tressa is the only character in the game who can use wind magic naturally and gives a lot of weakness coverage in general because she can also use spears and bows. With secondary jobs, you can make them even more useful. I never really had problems with rotating my party or having more of a support character locked into my party (I started out with Therion). The game is extremely flexible in letting you freely assign different roles to different characters.

When a boss powers up after recovering from Break status, you're not really supposed to just take their next attack. When they enter a more powerful state, that's your cue to Break them again before they can act (not restart the boss battle lol). If you have a Hunter with Leghold Trap (which you absolutely should for pretty much every boss fight), it's a trivial matter to Break them before it gets to that point (the Shield Points do increase, but the flip side is that you should know all or most of this weaknesses by then). After you Break them again, they usually return to a normal state. If the battle lasts long enough for them to power up again, you just Leghold Trap + Break them again.

That's probably why boss battles are taking you so long. Otherwise, 35-40 minutes makes no sense (especially if you're five levels over what's recommended). The majority of them are certainly not designed to take that long. I would say 35-40 minutes is more accurate for the entire dungeon exploration, boss fight, and post-boss fight cutscene cycle as a whole. Even then, I didn't always find it to be that long.

Getting to the final dungeon and the final boss isn't nearly as obtuse as you were led to believe. It really comes down to clearing all the chapter 4's, doing a couple of side story lines, and that's it. If you were doing all the side stories in the game anyway, you would not miss it. The side stories in question are also not "unmarked." The only maybe obtuse thing about the whole process is that the final side story needed to open the path to the final dungeon is outside of the towns, but again, it will still show up as an orange icon on your mini-map when you enter the right area (it's not unmarked). The game also does hint at the true ending fairly heavily through certain common elements showing up in a lot of chapter 4's and being left open-ended. Also, you do get credits after you clear either your first chapter 4 or your chosen character's chapter 4 (I'm not sure which it is exactly because I did my chosen character's chapter 4 first). You also get a nice illustration to finish the epilogue after each chapter 4 too.

To be honest, I'm not sure how you're playing the game to be running into a lot of these issues. Outside of the Shrines for the advanced jobs and the final boss, I thought the game was relatively tame in terms of difficulty and very fair overall. Once I learned to really make use of secondary jobs and the Break and Boost mechanics, I didn't have a problem going into areas or dungeons five levels underleveled and getting through just fine. You can starting ending boss fights comically fast when you really start experimenting with different job combinations and support skills too. In any case, it sucks that it's been such a drag for you so far.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 583: Scarface's Sedative Summer Sabbatical

« on: August 07, 2018, 04:54:19 PM »

Game Freak has explicitly ruled out more main Pokemon games on 3DS (saying that Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon would be the last ones on the platform). Regardless of how Pokemon Let's Go performs, we know Gen 8 is coming to Switch late next year, so it doesn't really sense for them to go back at this point either. With how consistent the series has been over the past 15 years and Game Freak seeming like they are putting a lot of effort into adapting to the hardware, I don't think it's going to matter much in the end anyways (especially for the Gen 8 game, as you would expect at least one of the price or form factor of Switch to improve by late 2019).

Also, didn't know David was a fellow Canadian!

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 580: The Best Wrecks of Dr. Stewart's Dream Course Vol. 1

« on: July 17, 2018, 10:25:05 AM »

Game Freak leaves behind features and mechanics as they transition from one Pokemon generation to the next because the games would become incredibly bloated if they didn't. Just using the Gen 6 and Gen 7 examples that were brought up, imagine having a Pokemon and then a Mega Evolution for it, one or more regional variants (i.e. an Alola Form) of it, Mega Evolutions for each its regional variants, and Z-Moves on top of all that. Trying to balance this for casual players who are mostly in it for the main story or for the competitive scene would be ridiculous, and that's before you even talk about layering they new ideas they have for Gen 8 on top of all that again. It sucks that really liked features are often left behind, but starting fresh with each new generation is by far the most sensible approach Game Freak can take for the Pokemon games.

Smash Bros. Ultimate was the most tweeted about game at E3 overall and the release date announcement was the most talked about topic, so I'm skeptical that the fact that it "looks a lot like Smash 4" to some people is affecting the game's ability to generate ton of excitement. It's going to move a lot of Switch units.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (Year 2: Joy-Con Boogaloo)

« on: July 03, 2018, 09:28:05 AM »

I would have to imagine that it's a new Mana game. The producer of the remakes said he wanted to create a new game in the series and include Switch as a platform going forward.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Splatoon 2

« on: June 26, 2018, 11:07:01 AM »

I love this game, but the matchmaking for anything Turf War is just straight up inadequate too much of the time (Ranked isn't the best either). It often seems like the team that loses is the one that got saddled with a player that is way beneath everyone else in the lobby in terms of skill and can't contribute much (and it's obviously not even their fault). It's basically 4 vs. 3 at that point.

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TalkBack / Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Receives Support For Labo In Software Update

« on: June 26, 2018, 09:27:29 AM »

What's most interesting is the part about integration with other software being planned. I don't think this will change Labo's sales trajectory on its own, but if Nintendo has ways to integrate it with a lot of popular first-party titles, maybe we do start to see a boost. The Variety Kit is already doing decently in Japan (still squarely in the top 20 after two months), but any kind of half-way meaningful Splatoon 2 integration would be big on its own.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 576: E3 2018 - Daisy Deviants

« on: June 22, 2018, 01:03:51 PM »

I don't have a stake in "defending" authors of the articles and podcasts I've listened to making that statement of the similarity of the game. 

That's good to know, but I don't know what it has to do with the part you quoted. There was no subtext, if that's what you're getting at.

That said, I do think someone whose actually played the new Smash demos might have a bit better insight as to how big or small the changes are in practice, especially when you're comparing people who play it casually (such as RFN) vs people who visit the smash boards with regularity and attempt to play at a semi-competitive level. 

This is really what I was talking about. Sure, going hands-on with the game can tell you a lot more than watching a video, but not in every case. If someone hasn't played a lot of Smash 4 in a while, saw Smash Ultimate and said "this looks like Smash 4" and/or was expecting it to play like Smash 4 from the beginning, then I don't know exactly how much it really says when they claim that it feels similar. A lot of people were setting this up as more of a Smash 4 port every since it was rumoured, so I don't think it's out of the question that some confirmation bias may be in play.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 576: E3 2018 - Daisy Deviants

« on: June 22, 2018, 10:40:08 AM »

Additionally, Nintendo feeling like they needed to use a healthy amount of their E3 conference outlining all the changes (besides everyone being in the new game) leads me to believe that THEY knew the hands-on impressions might be similar to James' and wanted to get ahead of it to outlined all they've changed. 

If they wanted to do something about hands-on impressions, they might have forced a round of Smash 4 on people before getting to play Smash Ultimate or something. The time they devoted to outlining the differences likely had much more do with all the "is it a port or is it a sequel" rhetoric that existed here and in many other fan communities as soon as the game was announced (or well before that really). They might as well have emailed everyone a bullet point list that they could post on message boards with the way they laid things out.

Have you all played Smash 4 lately?

I think that's a question better asked of people who claim Smash 4 and Smash Ultimate play super similarly, actually.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Sales Panic: May 2018 US NPD Group Results

« on: June 21, 2018, 05:22:28 PM »

With 3DS software sales being what they are, it's hard to tell how good or bad a game did just based on the chart, but I'm glad Shin Megami Tensei was able to do better than everything not named Pokemon. It didn't sound like Atlus sent out a lot of copies, so I was afraid it might not chart at all (like The Alliance Alive, sadly).

Also, Donkey Kong's launch sales got included in last months results (due to the tracking period, I guess), so it's super impressive that it was number 5 again this month. It's already well past its lifetime Wii U sales in Japan too and will easily double them (at the very least).

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 576: E3 2018 - Daisy Deviants

« on: June 21, 2018, 05:01:06 PM »

It's not just faster for people who enjoy competitive player either. Most anyone who spent a lot of time with Smash 4 is going to notice it. Here's a good comparison of Smash 4 Ike and Smash Ultimate from ZeRo, as well as Ganondorf (it should be timestamped for that part of the video). It's a big difference.

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TalkBack / Re: Dragon Ball FighterZ Coming to Switch

« on: June 13, 2018, 10:40:51 AM »

They only just released the third and fourth characters of the season pass which is supposed to include eight characters. The game isn't coming so late that it really makes sense to include DLC.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 08, 2018, 09:57:12 AM »

Pokemon Black and White for Retroactive. Let's go people.

I'll third this. I know the RFN crew has moved away from doing RPGs for Retroactive lately, but you can beat the main game in Black and White and do a lot of exploring in 30 hours or less (which isn't super long by modern RPG standards).

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 07, 2018, 06:31:11 PM »

I feel like BW1 was really the only place a Pokemon game's narrative got remotely interesting because of the questions it raises about the core conceits of the franchise (that it then promptly dumps without any proper resolution because the villain just is using this question of morality as a power grab.) MAYBE Colosseum with trying to do something for .5 seconds with it's protagonist and being in a region that's a madmax dystopian shithole before just dropping everything altogether?

That's not really true. Regardless of Ghetsis's true intentions, N's feelings about those issues were genuine (and continued to be even after Ghetsis revealed the truth), and he did find some answers by the end.

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TalkBack / Re: Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) Hands-on Preview

« on: June 05, 2018, 10:31:18 PM »

I enjoyed the demo a ton. I was originally interested in this game for the normal rules, but I was surprised at how much the other mechanics clicked with me. They're super easy to pick up and flow really well within the normal tennis gameplay. I had more connection issues than I would have liked as well, but hopefully it's something that's sorted out by launch.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 04, 2018, 05:46:11 PM »

I could have been clearer: grinding may not be unavoidable in Pokémon, but it's kind of the whole point of the game for most people. You're building up a team, possibly to face opponents in multiplayer.


Otherwise, the appeal is to collect them all (which I say is another form of grinding), or you're playing for the story, which as I said, I found boring.

There's enjoyment to be had just from discovering and catching Pokemon you like, leveling them up (with or without Exp. Share), seeing them evolve, learning and teaching them new moves, building interesting parties, and exploring the world. It's not unlike other RPGs in that sense. That process and the battle system are satisfying even if you aren't interested in the competitive side or want to catch 'em all. These games couldn't sell nearly as well as they do off the back of the competitive scene (which is a fraction of the total fanbase) or just the story.

I get what you meant now though (and I know you've explained why you couldn't get into the series many times before). If the core gameplay loop I described isn't satisfying for you, I guess it can seem kind of like a grind.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 04, 2018, 12:35:10 PM »

Game Freak's never going to run out of games to remake on their current pace. They've done one remake per Nintendo handheld since they started with FireRed and LeafGreen on GBA. Gen 4 is already plenty old like Greg points out, and Gen 5 (which came out in 2010) will feel plenty old when we're a few years into the life of Switch 2 as well.

I'm a bit surprised to hear that Guillaume had an issue with grinding if he played Pokemon Moon. You get Exp. Share very early in the game and there's a fairly significant exp bonus from Pokemon Refresh too. Since Gen 6, Game Freak has gone to great lengths to ensure people who don't any grinding whatsoever have options to avoid it (to the point where Exp. Share is kind of useless now for people who don't want a lot of their Pokemon to be overleveled).

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo News Report: Let's Go! Star Fox And Eevee

« on: May 19, 2018, 12:19:47 PM »

The rumours about Pokemon Switch only suggest that 1) there will some kind of integration with Pokemon Go, and 2) Pokemon Go will influence the catching mechanics. I'm not sure where the idea that the battle system would see a significant change or that these games wouldn't even really be RPGs is coming from. Game Freak doesn't make Pokemon spin-offs, so this is almost certainly a main Pokemon game even if it's not Gen 8, and I doubt they're going to abandon the core battle system that has been in the series from its inception (even for a one-off). I think people might be reading a little too much into the Pokemon Go angle. There are plenty of ways of integrating it without changing the core structure of the main Pokemon games.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2018 Thread. Update: Nintendo 2018 E3 Site is Live. 28 days to go

« on: May 17, 2018, 01:24:45 PM »

It's apparently the same company that Nintendo used to register the Pokemon Sun and Moon domain. Still not a 100% confirmation of anything, but it makes it more likely that this is legit.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 571: Mandatory Hooligans

« on: May 16, 2018, 11:58:13 AM »

No one's jumping on anything. Just like you're free to offer an opposing view to what the crew or other poster say, people are free to offer an opposing view to what you or I say. There's no hostility, so there's no reason to take things so personally.

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TalkBack / Re: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (3DS) Review

« on: May 15, 2018, 06:40:49 PM »

Got my copy today and played the first two hours in basically one sitting. This game is so good. No game I've played has an atmosphere like this, even among other Shin Megami Tensei games.

With changes like the lower difficulty options and the ability to save anywhere, I hope more people give it a chance this time around.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 571: Mandatory Hooligans

« on: May 15, 2018, 06:36:55 PM »

I know I’m going to ruffle some feathers again but you guys are so damn pessimistic. I mean you start with everything glass half empty.

I also disagree that n64 games have aged bad. Sure some of them did and a lot might have early rough 3D mechanics but tons are still great to play and upscalled actually look pretty damn good.

But just like crapping on the nintendo online I guess the n64 comments are super low hanging fruit. No real anayaist other than to start off pissing on everything.

Sure the service could be disappointing and we only get those nes games but no one knows yet. I for sure would be Cautious but not outright start crapping on it like you guys.

They touched on this several times in the episode, but what they announced is basically what we already knew or expected. If there was some big news to materially change the package Nintendo is going to offer at the launch of this service, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to sit on it: the time to give us such news was last week. What they announced is what this service is likely going to be for the foreseeable future. If it gets a lot better with SNES games (and beyond) and other cool stuff, it's not going to be any time soon. I spend a lot of time playing first-party games online and would really like cloud saves, so $20/year is fine for me, but I don't think the general sentiment among the RFN crew is necessarily unwarranted.

I do think it's a bit strange to devote an entire listener mail segment to this though. Again, what they announced is basically what we already knew (outside of some details like cloud saves and Nintendo's comment on Virtual Console), and these guys have gotten plenty of punches in about most facets of the service over the past year. Doesn't seem like  something that deserves an hour of discussion.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 565: High Stakes Wiiware Gamble

« on: April 06, 2018, 01:34:19 PM »

I wasn't super into The Alliance Alive in the beginning either, but the game really picks up when you finally get a full party, which was around the 10 hour mark for me. Unlike The Legend of Legacy, this game doesn't seem conducive to having just two or three party members (there's a section much later in the game where it actually is really fun, but that part of the game was designed differently with smaller party sizes in mind), and there's barely any resistance from most normal encounters early in the game. Once the party starts coming together, the game really opens up in terms of being able to play around with different formations, putting characters in the roles you want them to be in (as opposed to having to put them in other roles out of necessity due to the limited party size), and getting more of a challenge out of some of the encounters. Where I'm at now, I'm fully on board with this game being a step up from The Legend of Legacy and a really great game overall.