Messages

126

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 100 - FAMICREW, OUT

« on: March 31, 2017, 04:02:14 AM »

Oh man. Super glad the show is still continuing, but it's a bit sad to see it leaving NWR. It was on the RFN feed at the time, but I'm fairly certain that an episode of the Famicast was the first NWR podcast I listened to and what introduced me to the site.

Good luck, guys. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take things from here.

127

Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2017: REGGIE GOES BIG

« on: March 30, 2017, 07:24:30 PM »

I'm wondering if Smash 4 Switch will be a sequel or an up-port.  The rumor was that we'd get a port right?  I'd certainly like a sequel though, but with Sakurai, that could take years.  A port with a handful of new characters would be plenty (at the right price).

I think Smash 4 Switch still makes a lot of sense. There's a gap in Nintendo's first-party lineup between Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey which it could fill (though the aforementioned Pikmin 4 also seems like a great candidate for that), and in some ways I think it's an easier sell for Wii U owners than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I doubt most people bought the majority of the DLC for Smash 4 Wii U, given how expensive it was, and if they include a handful of new characters and stages on top of it, it's easier to justify double dipping on that game (at least for me).

128

TalkBack / Re: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch) Review

« on: March 30, 2017, 07:07:15 PM »

Can't wait! The single-player doesn't sound as robust as I was hoping, which is a bit disappointing, but I weirdly had not even considered playing this game online much, so hearing that there's rankings and a lot of customization there (which hopefully means good matchmaking) balances things out for me.

129

TalkBack / Re: Atlus Announces Strange Journey Remake, Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2

« on: March 27, 2017, 06:30:20 PM »

Yes! Super excited for Deep Strange Journey! Strange Journey was my first MegaTen game and, for me, still has the best story and setting of any game I've played in the series so far (though that's far from every game). I'm not going to spoil anything, but if you played SMT IV and IV:A and thought the setting and premise of those games felt suffocating, you're in for a treat with Strange Journey. This game is on another level.

I also thought the gameplay struck a balance between punishingly difficult and outright unfair extremely well, so I'm a bit saddened to read elsewhere that the difficulty is going to be toned down. However, some of the brutal dungeon design towards of the end of the game and having save points in an already difficult RPG is just not going to fly in 2017, so I understand why they're doing it.

Syrenne mentioned on RFN a while ago that SMT IV:A did well in North America, so I'm hoping that means the odds of this getting localized are good (even if it means an early 2018 release in North America).

130

Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2017: REGGIE GOES BIG

« on: March 27, 2017, 06:20:45 PM »

I suppose it comes down to what you consider a "big" E3, but I was pleased with Nintendo's E3 last year and Reggie's comments here don't seem that unreasonable. I go back and forth on whether Nintendo is going to come to the show with a slate of huge, new announcements, but showcasing a variety of exciting games and having a great showing that way? Yeah, I can believe that. These are the Switch games Nintendo has announced which should have a presence at the show this year:

Splatoon 2
Super Mario Odyssey
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Fire Emblem Switch
Fire Emblem Warriors
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Expansion Pass)

Even if there are literally no new announcements, I'm pretty stoked just to learn a lot more about these games. With the exception of maybe Fire Emblem Warriors, all of those are huge releases and figure to be great games. And, in reality, there will almost certainly be new announcements as well.

131

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Splatoon 2

« on: March 25, 2017, 07:53:44 PM »

X was the jump button in the original game. What button is it now?

It's the B button now. The X button brings up the map.

132

TalkBack / Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) PAX East Preview

« on: March 25, 2017, 07:49:33 PM »

Will there be download play available so that we don't have to purchase multiple copies of the game for local multiplayer?

I feel like if this were a feature, they would have announced it already. It would be a pretty big deal and would make the value proposition a lot more appealing for people who are on the fence about double dipping (at least if they're in a position to take advantage of local multiplayer).

Then again, Nintendo's has seemed to defy logic with a lot of their Switch marketing so maybe it'll be a throwaway line in an upcoming press release.

133

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Splatoon 2

« on: March 25, 2017, 12:22:59 AM »

Well, that was fun! Honestly, I don't think these two new stages are great (and hope that they aren't indicative of Nintendo's overall design philosophy with the new maps), and was a bigger fan of the ranked game modes than Turf War in the original game, but the core gameplay behind Splatoon is still so darn great that the hour I played in the afternoon felt like it flew by. I'm hoping to hit the two later sessions tomorrow as well.

Also, I think the Pro Controller is going to be necessary for this game. The triggers and the layout on the Joy-Con aren't bad, but I think the small face buttons and the tiny analog sticks are a tough match for the gameplay. Hopefully Nintendo sorts out their supply issues between now and the release of this game. They really ought to do a Pro Controller bundle.

Any one get a chance to play in the first testfire?  I didn't, but I plan to be on tonight.

Impressions I saw on twitter seemed very positive with people having trouble adjusting to the jump button because Zelda.

I had trouble adjusting to the jump button, but I felt it was more because the original game had it mapped to the X button (and less because of Zelda). The controls are so similar to the original game that muscle memory is naturally going to kick in, and for the first few games I kept getting the map when I meant to jump. I got used to it pretty quickly though.

134

TalkBack / Re: Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology Coming To 3DS

« on: March 23, 2017, 05:24:18 PM »

Finally.  Dear Atlus Please Please Please Please Please release this in NA too.  Oh and by the way, you know the game called Etrian Odyssey 5?  Please Please Please Please Please get on the ball and release that in NA too.  Thanks!  ^_^

Yeah, I want to get excited about this news (I never played the original game on DS, so this would be the perfect excuse to finally get to it), but their silence on Etrian Odyssey 5 is starting to become conspicuous and I'm starting to feel like this game's localization isn't guaranteed either. Hopefully they announce both of them during the livestream in a few days (or at least make an announcement coinciding with the event, if they're keep the stream to news for Japan only).

135

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Splatoon 2

« on: March 23, 2017, 05:12:57 PM »

Ahead of the GT tomorrow, Nintendo has released some videos for the weapons that are going to be available. I won't post all of them, since there are a lot (you can see the main weapons and the new subweapon here), but here are the special weapons (which are all new in this game):

The Splashdown looks ridiculously powerful when you consider the fact that you can use it during a Super Jump, especially in a mode like Tower Control (assuming they bring it back, which I hope they do). I guess you could kind of do the same thing with the Kraken special weapon in the first game, but you actually had to be in contact with the opponent and hit a button to splat them in that case. It seems like you just have to be in the vicinity of the Splashdown to get splatted by it once it's activated. I'm sure there will be ways around it though.

There's also going to be a Nintendo Treehouse stream of the GT tomorrow starting at 12 PM pacific/3 PM eastern. Maybe they'll get bodied by an NWR forum poster, live on camera!

136

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: March 23, 2017, 04:40:23 PM »

I'm surprised to see Monster Hunter XX come in that far below previous entries, but I think a considerable drop was expected. The writing is on the wall for everybody; not only is this not Monster Hunter 5, it's the second version of a game that already heavily leveraged older content from the series, on a console whose successor may have launched a few weeks ago. At this point, even Capcom is barely trying to hide the fact that they're already working on bringing the series to a new platform.

137

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Switch Game Announcements

« on: March 21, 2017, 04:03:49 AM »

At the very least, hopefully they include English language options for the first two games in the Japanese release. If Nintendo really wants to ingratiate themselves with niche gamers, they could step in and make it happen by offering to translate and publish it in the West (like they did with seemingly every Square Enix 3DS RPG that eventually came out here). I don't know how much work that would actually entail for the third game though.

138

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Switch Game Announcements

« on: March 21, 2017, 03:46:24 AM »

Turns out the Seiken Densetsu 3 tease from yesterday is the "Seiken Densetsu Collection," which includes the first three Seiken Densetsu games. Square Enix announced that it's launching in Japan on June 1 for 4,800 yen (both physical and digital). Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3 support multiplayer with up to three people, which seems like a perfect fit with the the Switch.

It doesn't seem like people are too hopeful for a release in the West, but, **** it, we region-free now. This is going to be my first import game. The box art looks gorgeous!

Oh yeah, and possible Radiant Historia on Switch is neat too, I guess. The DS game is still on my RPG list of shame. I've had the game for years without playing it.

139

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (The early days)

« on: March 20, 2017, 03:10:41 PM »

Seiken Densetsu 3 (a Mana series entry which never got localized) is running on the Switch. I've seen some people lavish praise on this game, so I'll be interested even if it's Japan only.

140

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (The early days)

« on: March 17, 2017, 03:13:27 AM »

Takashi Mochizuki of the WSJ is reporting that Nintendo plans to at least double their production of the Switch for the upcoming fiscal year (April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018), which would bump it to at least 16 million. Initial sales have obviously been strong (which isn't surprising for launch, yeah), and I think Nintendo is rightly confident about the broad appeal of the console and their software planning this time around, but for this to be true I think Nintnedo would need some big E3 announcements like Pokemon and/or Smash lined up. That's a big number for a company that has tended to play it safe recently.

141

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 513: Qbby in the Wild

« on: March 14, 2017, 07:13:13 PM »

Props on the Breath of the Wild segment. I was a bit hesitant to listen to it, even though you guys do have a good track record of avoiding spoilers, but you all did an excellent job of avoiding spoilers while still having an interesting discussion about the game. I hope you do end up recording a Xenoblade Chronicles X style spoilercast for this game in a couple of months.

142

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Splatoon 2

« on: March 14, 2017, 05:37:08 PM »

The GT download is live on the North American and Japanese eShops. Can't do much in it right now, obviously, but they do have the awesome music from the reveal trailer playing when you open it!

143

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (The early days)

« on: March 13, 2017, 06:39:41 PM »

So the Switch does have a sort of Activity Log on the system after all. It seems like a week after you play a game on your system for the first time, the "first played (insert number) days ago" message on your profile changes to display the number of hours you've played that game (increasing in increments of five hours). Between this and the parental controls app, it's pretty clear that the system is tracking your playtime for each game, so hopefully a more fully-featured Activity Log is one of the apps that will come later in the year. The Activity Log was one of my favorite smaller features on the 3DS and Wii U, so I do really hope that ends up being the case.

Turns out the system displays how many hours you've played a game after ten days, not a week. I knew I played a lot of Zelda, but somehow I was still kinda surprised when I saw just how many hours I've already put into it.

144

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Pro Contoller

« on: March 13, 2017, 06:26:22 PM »

I got to try it for a bit and really liked it, but I just can't justify the purchase right now. I have a feeling Splatoon 2 is going to benefit from it significantly and I'm going to play that game a ton, so that's likely when I'll pick one up.

145

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (The early days)

« on: March 08, 2017, 05:29:08 PM »

So the Switch does have a sort of Activity Log on the system after all. It seems like a week after you play a game on your system for the first time, the "first played (insert number) days ago" message on your profile changes to display the number of hours you've played that game (increasing in increments of five hours). Between this and the parental controls app, it's pretty clear that the system is tracking your playtime for each game, so hopefully a more fully-featured Activity Log is one of the apps that will come later in the year. The Activity Log was one of my favorite smaller features on the 3DS and Wii U, so I do really hope that ends up being the case.

The Switch's WiFi signal is annoyingly weak. The system sits at arms length from my router and I cannot get full bars on my signal. I would need to sit them right next to each other to get a full signal. I know it's sitting next to all my other game consoles and my computer but that's really no excuse. Even in my office where my Mac Book Pro gets just over half a signal on the company's public wifi, the Switch will struggle to find that signal. Not good for a system dependent of WiFi.

I've been able to get a full signal just fine with my router sitting in a different room, but my Wii U and PS4 are unplugged at the moment so maybe that would change if I had those connected as well.

146

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!

« on: March 07, 2017, 02:32:37 AM »

I also like the way they decided to handle weapon durability in this game. I do agree that there ought to be a few more slots for melee weapons, given their broad range of uses, but I like the idea of having to constantly cycle through an inventory of weapons and having to get creative when things don’t necessarily go your way. It makes for a lot of satisfying moments like hitting an enemy with a sword a bunch of times, getting the prompt telling you that your sword is badly damaged, throwing the sword and smashing it into the enemy’s face, and then picking up the enemy’s own weapon and finishing it off with that. There are times where I’ve had to scramble to change my approach in the middle of a battle, but I’ve never felt like I had a lack of options or that a fight was hopeless. The way they handle durability makes a lot of sense within the overall design of the game.

147

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) Out now!

« on: March 07, 2017, 12:43:54 AM »

When I started playing this game on Friday, I was so caught up in how great it looked on the Switch in handheld mode and how joyous it was to explore the world that it sort of slipped my mind how expansive this game is supposed to be. I spent hours exploring the Great Plateau, thinking it was so big, and it was only a few hours later when I zoomed out on the map that I saw how enormous the world was and remembered “oh yeah, this area that I think is huge is only supposed to be a tiny fraction of the entire game… whoa.” And, man, the world in this game really is gorgeous. I love the art style.

I’m still on the early journey to Kakariko Village to see Impa, so I don’t want to make too many bold claims yet. But so far, for me, Nintendo has delivered on the promise of making this a spectacular open world game and a true, worthwhile evolution of the Zelda formula. I’m really looking forward to playing a lot more of this game over the next month (and throughout the year) and getting much deeper into it.

148

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion Thread (The early days)

« on: March 07, 2017, 12:20:38 AM »

I’m really loving this console after my first weekend with it. Nintendo absolutely aced it with core the design concept. Playing the Switch at a preview event a few weeks ago was fun, but actually having my own console, in my home, is a totally different experience and makes me truly appreciate what this console is. Going from playing Zelda on my TV to sitting in bed and playing Zelda on that awesome handheld screen is something else. HD Nintendo handheld gaming with console-scale experiences is here, and it’s amazing.

Hope everyone had a good launch weekend!

149

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Adds User IDs Ahead of Switch Release

« on: February 23, 2017, 11:35:27 PM »

Wasn't this already a thing? I am confused I feel like I have had my handle for months when I signed up for Nintendo Account..

User IDs were added towards the end of 2016, yeah, but most sites only seemed to pick this news up recently for some reason. That's why so many people are finding that their User ID of choice is already taken; people who logged into Nintendo Account and noticed this before have had months to claim User IDs.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Discussion (Review Embargo 3/1, 3/3 Release Date)

« on: February 23, 2017, 10:49:49 PM »

I'm not bothered by Virtual Console not launching with the system. What's going to make or break Virtual Console on Switch is how much care Nintendo puts into taking it in a new direction and building up the catalogue of games. A Virtual Console with the same old games is going to be a disappointment to a lot of people, even if it launches with the system. If Nintendo launches the service with GameCube Virtual Console and/or something like Mother 3, that would be really exciting and I doubt very many will care about the timing at that point. There are a couple of obvious gaps in Nintendo's first-party lineup this year, like Breath of the Wild (March 3) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (April 28), and maybe Arms (Spring 2017) and Splatoon 2 (Summer 2017) depending on when exactly they launch. They could use the Virtual Console launch with exciting headliners like Super Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Mother 3 to fill one of those gaps. I'm still hopeful.

What I find more concerning is this talk surrounding the Joy-Con right now. I hope Nintendo gets out in front of this and tells us what the problem is exactly and what they plan to do to address it or fix it. And they better do it soon.