Messages

501

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem Fates

« on: March 14, 2016, 04:55:36 PM »

Revelation and the special edition are things I can understand people being upset about. I would have bought two paths as DLC if I didn't get the special edition, but I'm the only one in my house who is going to play this, so it isn't a big deal to me. If you've got multiple people in the same household wanting to play, the release format is definitely a problem.

502

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem Fates

« on: March 14, 2016, 01:05:02 AM »

It makes no difference to me whether or not someone is interested in playing these games. If I was trying to convince people who weren't already on board, "you'll probably love this if you loved Awakening" isn't exactly the best sales pitch. I've just seen a lot of criticism thrown Fates' way that, after playing the two main games, is either greatly exaggerated or patently false.

503

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo World Report @ Nite: The Zelda Buffet

« on: March 14, 2016, 12:21:32 AM »

I'm hoping those single player stats moving over to online play were for friendly matches and not ranked. I remember Ty saying the game was DOA in arcades on the Famicast because they did the same thing with that release (and people had the same experience as Donald of getting their ass beat simply because they were underleveled). They're trying to market it, at least in part, as a competitive fighting game, with the EVO spot (which no doubt required a big push from Nintendo) and all the invitational stuff they're doing with people from the FGC, so I'm going to hold out hope that this isn't the case for ranked. Guess I'll find out soon enough either way.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem Fates

« on: March 13, 2016, 03:15:50 AM »

Finished Birthright and Conquest, so I thought I'd address some of the criticisms surrounding these games.

Birthright and Conquest are, in fact, different games. They have different stories, different consequences for your decision, but most importantly, they *play* very differently. Birthright in ways is easier than Awakening and an entry point into the series. Conquest is more difficult than both Birthright and Awakening, and demands a more varied and thoughtful approach to the battles. If you don't want to play Birthright, you don't have to; like I said the stories are different and you're not going to glean much insight into Conquest's story by playing Birthright. They re-use elements like settings, music, and some characters, but that's reflected in the price. The fact is you're getting two different, lengthy gameplay experiences if you pay for both games and that's the important part when it comes to charging you twice.

The six chapters of shared content end up being two hours when you convert them to game time. Both my save files were around 35+ hours, so you're looking at two hours of shared content against 70+ hours of distinct gameplay. You can start your second or third path right from this point, so it's not as though you're playing through it multiple times either.

I'm pretty sure this was the case in Awakening as well, but the support conversations are completely avoidable by pressing start at the beginning. If you don't enjoy the "dating sim" aspect of the game you don't have to see it and you'll still get the stat boosts and paralogues. There's little benefit to using most the other features, so you can avoid those as well. The only way this is an issue is if you're offended by it being in the game in any capacity. Otherwise, you can almost completely avoid the "dating" aspects and be no worse off for it in a gameplay sense.

Unfortunately, it seems as though there is some merit to the argument that you need Revelation to get the complete story. I've only just started (currently at Chapter 10), but even as early as the first couple of chapters there's a "revelation" that goes a long way in explaining one of the more interesting questions that remains mostly unanswered in the main games. A lot of motives are likely going to be explored in much greater detail in this path.

All in all, if you loved Awakening, you're probably going to love Fates. I'm over 100 hours in when you count restart time and Revelation is still the only thing I really want to play.

505

TalkBack / Re: Rumor Cats: March Nintendo Direct Leak Edition

« on: March 02, 2016, 04:29:15 PM »

I would be pretty excited about SNES on the New 3DS. I don't know if it's because my experience with SNES style games is mostly on the GBA and DS, but those games have always felt right at home on handhelds for me.

506

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 465: Pump Down the Jams

« on: March 02, 2016, 04:05:58 PM »

In playing birthrite on normal and classic mode and it's not as easy as James says. I'm playing to keep everyone alive and it's far more difficult than "self punish". Your decisions hold far fsr more weight. I restarted chapter 10 10 times last night cause I kept losing someone. That's not easy.

Those chapters where you have to reset a few times aren't really indicative of Birthright's overall difficulty. Chapter 10 was one of them, but I only ran into a handful of those throughout the entire game. Even on hard/classic it felt like I could get away with the "let the enemy put itself in a position to be destroyed" strategy too often, so I can see how James would think normal was a cakewalk playing that way. It comes down to how you approach the battles more than skill or anything else.

Fire Emblem has always been like anime.  It just depended on what type of anime was popular at the time of each game's release.

I've been curious about this for a while since I only really got into the series with Awakening. I'm assuming the older games also involve dragons, magic, and grandiose storylines, so I can't see them being that much less anime. It would be nice if Nintendo would release Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn on the eShop, as I'd really like to find out for myself.

It's not that the game is hard on normal but one of your weaker guys can get ganged up on and they might die which will cause me to reset.

That's what I mean when I talk about it coming down to playstyle. Since the enemy will engage you no matter what when you're within the danger zone, you can use your stronger units to draw them in and pretty much never put your weaker units in a position to get ganged up on. On normal it makes the game a cakewalk because using that strategy, the enemies are going to die on approach a lot. Like I said, even on the hard difficulty that happened a little too often for my liking and in my rush to get to Conquest I generally avoided grinding altogether, so it wasn't a case of my army just being overpowered. I agree with you on the fact that keeping every unit alive is much more challenging than just punishing yourself if you a lose a unit and pressing on, but the issue is when you play it a certain way there's no real peril of even losing a single unit on normal.

Also, I don't know if you plan on playing Conquest after you complete Birthright, but if you're getting sick of "rout the enemy," Conquest is much better in that respect. I'm on chapter 11 or 12 and I think I've only had one battle with that objective so far. There's a lot more variety in that game.

Fire Emblem has always been like anime.  It just depended on what type of anime was popular at the time of each game's release.

I've been curious about this for a while since I only really got into the series with Awakening. I'm assuming the older games also involve dragons, magic, and grandiose storylines, so I can't see them being that much less anime. It would be nice if Nintendo would release Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn on the eShop, as I'd really like to find out for myself.

But if you're making a game about medieval style battles with magic and whatnot, I'd like the characters to be a bit more grim and grounded than the ridiculous anime tropes they've settled upon.

To be honest, as much as I loved Awakening, I was really hoping they would take the narrative in that direction with the next game. In that sense I can see where older Fire Emblem fans are coming from, cuz my impression of the series before Awakening were exactly what you described there. After playing through Birthright (which I liked, but doubles down on Awakening's tone and story) I'm REALLY wanting to play the GC/Wii games after hearing you describe them that way.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 465: Pump Down the Jams

« on: March 01, 2016, 04:12:11 PM »

In playing birthrite on normal and classic mode and it's not as easy as James says. I'm playing to keep everyone alive and it's far more difficult than "self punish". Your decisions hold far fsr more weight. I restarted chapter 10 10 times last night cause I kept losing someone. That's not easy.

Those chapters where you have to reset a few times aren't really indicative of Birthright's overall difficulty. Chapter 10 was one of them, but I only ran into a handful of those throughout the entire game. Even on hard/classic it felt like I could get away with the "let the enemy put itself in a position to be destroyed" strategy too often, so I can see how James would think normal was a cakewalk playing that way. It comes down to how you approach the battles more than skill or anything else.

Fire Emblem has always been like anime.  It just depended on what type of anime was popular at the time of each game's release.

I've been curious about this for a while since I only really got into the series with Awakening. I'm assuming the older games also involve dragons, magic, and grandiose storylines, so I can't see them being that much less anime. It would be nice if Nintendo would release Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn on the eShop, as I'd really like to find out for myself.

508

TalkBack / Re: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U) Review

« on: March 01, 2016, 03:49:01 PM »

Or they decided motion controls didn't belong in Twilight Princess HD after all and that has nothing to do with whether they're a good idea for Star Fox Zero since, y'know, they're two completely different games and this is a decision that should be made on a case by case basis. Nintendo is showing signs of possibly being introspective and being more flexible in their thinking here... and somehow that's a bad thing?

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TalkBack / Re: Pokemon: Indigo League - Anime Series Rewatch

« on: March 01, 2016, 03:19:01 PM »

I've actually been watching the D/P version of the Anime because I'd heard pretty good things about it and I have to say, it's been a really fun watch.

Diamond and Pearl is awesome. One of the last Sinnoh League battles in particular is the one time I would use the word "hype" to describe the Pokemon anime.

510

TalkBack / Re: Pokemon Sun, Moon Trademarks Appear In European Registry?

« on: February 25, 2016, 06:27:56 PM »

Hard to imagine that this would be a coincidence with the Direct tomorrow. Either way I'm looking forward to some sort of reveal for the next mainline game, whatever it might be. 

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TalkBack / Re: Pokemon: Indigo League - Anime Series Rewatch

« on: February 24, 2016, 11:14:21 PM »

I went back and started watching the anime again in university a couple years ago since I found it to be a good show for study breaks and ended up watching 700+ episodes. I'm sure some of it was nostalgia driven, but like the games it's a really endearing show, especially the first season. Unfortunately my interest waned when they tried to turn Jesse, James, and Mewoth into "serious" criminals and just took the anime in a direction that I didn't enjoy as much.

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TalkBack / Re: Fire Emblem Fates Shattering US Sales Records

« on: February 24, 2016, 04:23:05 PM »

Awesome. There was a lot of criticism aimed at Nintendo when they first revealed this release format (much of it unfair imo), but it seems to have worked out for everyone involved. I'm nearing the end of Birthright and it's nice to know that I've still got a lot more Fire Emblem ahead of me after I finish it.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Account Creation, Miitomo Registration Now Live

« on: February 17, 2016, 12:20:20 PM »

You get My Nintendo Platinum Points just for pre-registering, so it wouldn't hurt to do it even if you don't plan on getting the app. If you're logged into your Nintendo Account, it's literally two button presses on the Miitomo site and you're set.
 

514

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Selects Line Expanding On March 11

« on: February 15, 2016, 01:35:41 PM »

Wow, no Skyward Sword eh? It's been fairly overpriced for a while now (at least in Canada) and I was really hoping it would show up in the next wave of these. Guess my only hope now is a release on the eShop.

"Master, there is a 34,287 to 1 chance you will regret this purchase."

This is half the reason I wanna play it at this point. After seeing all the criticism its gotten, I feel like I need to see for myself whether it's really that lackluster since I've never played a Zelda game I didn't at least like.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Selects Line Expanding On March 11

« on: February 12, 2016, 06:03:37 PM »

Wow, no Skyward Sword eh? It's been fairly overpriced for a while now (at least in Canada) and I was really hoping it would show up in the next wave of these. Guess my only hope now is a release on the eShop.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Pokken Tournament: Gotta Smash Em All!

« on: February 12, 2016, 05:46:09 PM »

Arcades being popular in Japan is one part of it (though this game in particular wasn't due to some questionable decisions not directly related to the core gameplay), but the arcade version also launched with a very limited roster of eight Pokemon. They wouldn't have been able to get away with that for a full price retail release. If they don't announce any more Pokemon between now and launch the Wii U version will release with a roster of 16, which is a much easier sell.

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TalkBack / Re: Project X Zone 2 (3DS) Review

« on: February 12, 2016, 05:13:49 PM »

It's a bummer this is launching a few days prior to Fates. I would have liked to have given this a go after not playing the first one, even with its returning issues, but I'm not sure when I'll get a chance now with the release schedule being so stacked

518

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 462: The Full Monty Punch

« on: February 10, 2016, 02:23:24 PM »

Possibly my favourite episode of season (insert relevant number since Jonny retired) so far. That was great.

I think Greg is probably on the mark with why Japan isn't as big on Zelda as the west is. Honestly, as much as I like most of the games that I've played in the series, introducing more RPG elements is something I kinda wish they would do as well.

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TalkBack / Re: First Generation VII Pokémon To Be Revealed

« on: February 10, 2016, 02:14:19 PM »

It looks pretty cool, even if it does strongly resemble Diancie.

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TalkBack / Re: The Surprises Will Remain Spoiled

« on: February 09, 2016, 03:45:35 PM »

If you're really upset about a rumour "spoiling" the Direct for you then it suggests that keeping up with videogames news is your actual interest, not playing videogames.

Wanting to get excited about announcements and actually enjoying the games are not mutually exclusive things. I don't understand the intense need for pure, unspoiled spectacle some people have, but at the same time I don't think it's cool to crap on them for it or pull low blows like "do you even like playing games?" Everyone should be free to go about their fandom in their own way. It only becomes a problem when people start acting like their need to not have stuff spoiled supersedes other people's need to get news as soon as writers feel confident about sharing it. 

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TalkBack / Re: The Surprises Will Remain Spoiled

« on: February 09, 2016, 03:06:24 PM »

I can get behind stuff like using spoiler tags, sites using titles like "Next Wave of Smash DLC Leaked" as opposed to "Rumour: Ryu Heading to Smash" two days before a Smash Direct, leaving leaked characters out of thumbnails on Youtube videos, etc. If a site has spoiler tags, I'll go out of my way to use them, even if I think something is even remotely spoiler-y. But the idea that the media or data miners should just sit on what they believe is credible information altogether is completely unrealistic. Attacking them when they don't is taking things way too far.

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TalkBack / Re: Kanto Classic Pokemon Tournament Announced

« on: February 08, 2016, 09:33:23 PM »

Get bodied three times and receive a special Dragonite? Seems easy enough, I'm down.

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TalkBack / Re: Rumor Cats: Wii U in 2016

« on: February 04, 2016, 07:15:28 PM »

I personally don't use them, but by all accounts the motion controls in Splatoon are fantastic. I don't know how much of this is Nintendo or Platinum, but maybe they think they've really figured something out. It wouldn't be the wisest choice to make them mandatory for a good portion or all of the game (whatever the rumour is), but I'm more open to the idea than I was a year ago.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Is 3DS Nintendo's best handheld?

« on: February 03, 2016, 01:46:15 PM »

By the end of its run, I think my 10 favourite 3DS games will rival my 10 favourite DS games. Where the DS has an advantage though is in the 11-25 or 30 range. There are so many games on that system that are great, even if they fall short of being truly amazing. There are so many DS games that I still have yet to play, but want to. When I think about that same space in the 3DS library, it doesn't quite measure up and I'm not sure if it'll ever get there (at least for me).

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TalkBack / Re: 7th Dragon III Code: VFD Coming West

« on: February 02, 2016, 05:41:32 PM »

I'm glad we're getting what sounds like another good RPG this year, but as someone who is probably going to end up playing most (if not all) of these, I'm afraid they're going to start getting bunched up at some point. It really would have been nice if one of these had come out in January. All I've been doing since Xenoblade Chronicles X is going back to easy to pick up stuff like Splatoon and Smash while I wait for Fates.