Nintendo Switch Thread

[kingv]

When I think about Odyssey, it’s a refinement of what 3D Mario already does well. It’s very good, but if somebody said they liked Galaxy 2 better, I would really argue with them. I’m not sure I would agree, but there’s nothing inherently crazy about that opinion.


I would definitely this someone is nuts if they told me they liked any 3D Zelda game better than BOTW though. It’s truly an evolution on Zelda and manages to feel pretty much completely fresh. It’s like the first time you controlled Mario in 3D.

[Himu]

I would definitely this someone is nuts if they told me they liked any 3D Zelda game better than BOTW though.

Statements like this is why I’m partially skeptical of BOTW. Although I’ve only played the intro area so far, the game reportedly doesn’t have dungeons in the traditional sense, which have been a series mainstay. It’s such a declarative hyperbolic statement and discounts that others might like certain different aspects about Zelda (i.e. some prefer exploration over dungeons which is why you would prefer majora’s Mask over OoT for example, and vice verse).

[kingv]

It’s true it doesn’t really have many dungeons which is it’s biggest weakness.

But I also think it has a lot easier comparison than Mario Odyssey.

Galaxy 1/2 were great games.

Skyward sword is sort of not well liked because waggle.. Twilight Princes feels really old fashioned, and kind of felt old fashioned when it came out.

Imo, BOTW still has the best designed open world even 2.5 years later. Nothing has matched or topped it. Other games might be prettier, but none are more interesting.

I wish it had more dungeons too... but going back to twilight princess and having to suffer through the beginning of the game with walls of  unskippable tutorial text. It’s just too much.

[naff]

Yeah, that's massively hyperbolic. BotW. Completely fresh.

Hmm.

It devolved into open world rpg tropes pretty quick for me; large areas often feel empty, lots of copy pasta objectives and the dungeons  are boring, overly easy and extremely repetitive after the first 20 or so, cooking was a chore, managing items was a chore. /shrug

I enjoyed the game, not sure i liked it more than TP, OoT, MM or even Wind Waker, but it was different. It took a new approach, and was extremely well polished, but it lost a lot of it's appeal by the end mark for me (~30 hrs in).

[naff]

oh yeah and FUCK those puzzles you have to use the gyro shit to move a ball through a maze 

[Himu]

Does BOTW have dungeon design on par or better than the Spirit Temple? Stone Tower? No? Then saying people are nuts for preferring old Zelda is a laugh in your face worthy statement no matter how “fresh” BOTW is.

[Great Rumbler]

[Himu]

BOTW is super fun

[kingv]

Does BOTW have dungeon design on par or better than the Spirit Temple? Stone Tower? No? Then saying people are nuts for preferring old Zelda is a laugh in your face worthy statement no matter how “fresh” BOTW is.

It’s really hard to compare BOTW’s puzzles to those.

BOTW is more like “That mount doom shit over there looks pretty cool, but all the enemies on the way are fucking me up, how do I get there?” Or “I wonder what’s at the top of that giant tree (or whatever).

No other modern Zelda really has that sort of open-ended puzzles and solutions. I played TP and BOTW back to back and imo there’s no contest what is a better game.

If you’re talking about comparing OOT in its time, to BOTW, in its time then sure I think you could argue that OOT was as big or bigger of a leap over LTTP as BOTW is today over the old formula.

But I don’t think in any context would you be able to show Zelda to somebody whose never played either game and them be like “yeah OOT is better”. It’s a super old game, that feels super old today that runs st like 15 FPS in its original hardware. Without the context of its original release it’s not really that impressive by today’s standards.

[Himu]

Definitely wouldn’t say the game doesn’t have puzzles. Just different kinds. Trying to find a way to get those treasures at the mud pit is total but far more organic

[Himu]

Friends don’t let friends play breath of the wild!!! You are all now enemies!

[Tasty]

Friends don’t let friends play breath of the wild!!! You are all now enemies!

[HardcoreRetro]

Seems like a bad addiction joke.

[kingv]

One more thing I neglected to include in my long carepost nobody read is I love the fact that you basically get markers for the big, "main game quest stuff but a lot if not most of the time you get directions by NPC's and you have to suss out what they mean. It's like everything is designed to be riddles. I fucking love that.

I read it.

[Chooky]

your post is spot-on, wrath.

botw is the first open-world game since skyrim that i felt really does something creative with the set-up. by making the gameplay revolve entirely around physics and stamina the entire world map becomes interactive in a way that no other game has done. the player is constantly forced to asses the situation, and they're given a million different tools to overcome them. the gameplay works so well because there's never a moment where you go "ok, here's this obstacle, and here's how i'm supposed to overcome it." you can play for hundreds of hours and still come up with new, creative solutions to problems, as show by a million different cool video clips online.

also the map design itself doesn't get enough credit. it's fucking astonishing how well it all comes together in a way that makes it almost impossible to get lost. climbing to a high point isn't just a game mechanic; the map is set up so that you can look around and not only get your bearings but very subtly find out where to go next. the main story quests and towns are all nestled into specific areas, but you never hear about people having trouble finding what to do next because the map design eases you into new areas so well. it's probably the most cohesive map i've seen since metroid zero mission, another incredible game that constantly gives you multiple options and secrets while still feeling like it all flows perfectly.

[paprikastaude]

meh, Zelda was good at holding that carrot in front of you, but it ultimately fails like every other modern open world game focused on exploration - you find absolutely nothing worthwhile and shit starts to blatantly repeat itself after a few hours. I replayed a few classic Zelda games afterwards and finding any magic wand or shield was way more satisfying than pretty much all the findings in BotW, be it the billionth arrow or orb, some lame ass fetch quest, the x-th "beat the robot" chamber or just badly textured emptiness. This is still a poor genre that's too bloated to have proper level design. Botw's success was that it was able to mask that fact a bit longer than other open world games, because it at least dropped icon clutter. I appreciate that they stopped rehashing the same formula, but for the new one there's plenty of room to improve.

e: The generic loot also doesn't work from a "I make myself stronger for Ganon"-perspective, because the final boss is a joke.

[Himu]

One problem I've noticed is the amount of weapon bloat. Weapons have low shelf life so the game dishes out weapons very liberally. They're very easy to find and acquire. You'll find lots of chests with weapons and stuff and you'll have a full inventory. It's basically the same exact problem old Zelda games had with Rupees being overabundant except it's with weapons. The good note is that weapons have use. Rupees, in games like Twilight Princess, mostly didn't. But it's still when you solve a puzzle or climb something and it's just...a weapon that breaks in 5 hits.

[demi]

i prefer classic zelda formula and i prefer classic pokemon

can't go wrong with the classics 

oh and since i'm here, fire emblem three houses sucks shit too. bring back classic fire emblem too 

[Himu]

Ha. What’s wrong with 3H?

[demi]

Three branches of story and nothing to show for it. Why would I play a shit story in three perspectives

Schoolhouse simulator that is 3/4 useless padded dogshit

Characters that couldnt be any less interesting

More dumbass waifu husbando bullshit

The whole game feels like one big fuck you to the player

[Nintex]

Three branches of story and nothing to show for it. Why would I play a shit story in three perspectives

Schoolhouse simulator that is 3/4 useless padded dogshit

Characters that couldnt be any less interesting

More dumbass waifu husbando bullshit

The whole game feels like one big fuck you to the player

Glad you are enjoying it 

[Chooky]

going off of what Wrath said, zelda after MM felt increasingly stale to me. everything was Oot - "with a twist!" finding another sword or whatever wasn't that exciting in Botw, but neither was finding the fucking boomerang or hookshot in other zeldas and knowing you were about to do the same fucking puzzles you'd been doing for the last 10 years. Botw didn't have crazy loot but the journey to the treasure chest was a million times more satisfying.

also the whole thing about open world games getting boring after like 100+ hours is lol to me. yeah no shit you're prolly going to be bored are playing the game that long. the fun of a good open world is that you can choose where you want to go and what you want to do. you're not required to do berthing in the game, and if you keep going after you're bored then that's on you.

[team filler]

skyward sword is flawed, but it's some great zelda. wish they had made a direct sequel for it like MM

[curly]

meh, Zelda was good at holding that carrot in front of you, but it ultimately fails like every other modern open world game focused on exploration - you find absolutely nothing worthwhile and shit starts to blatantly repeat itself after a few hours. I replayed a few classic Zelda games afterwards and finding any magic wand or shield was way more satisfying than pretty much all the findings in BotW, be it the billionth arrow or orb, some lame ass fetch quest, the x-th "beat the robot" chamber or just badly textured emptiness. This is still a poor genre that's too bloated to have proper level design. Botw's success was that it was able to mask that fact a bit longer than other open world games, because it at least dropped icon clutter. I appreciate that they stopped rehashing the same formula, but for the new one there's plenty of room to improve.

e: The generic loot also doesn't work from a "I make myself stronger for Ganon"-perspective, because the final boss is a joke.

I don't understand the complaints about the rewards not being good enough, the fun part is supposed to be the part that comes before the loot, the bit at the end is just an excuse to justify the actual gameplay (one of my favorite things about NuNintendo is how they don't give a fuck about "rewarding" players for completing a task, like when you collect all the Koroks and the game calls you a loser with too much free time).

[Himu]

“Ocarina but with a twist” is exactly why I have never played skyward sword. Seemed at the time they were maxed out of ideas. Then Link between worlds came out and tinkered with the formula and I was fine with it again.

Botw didn't have crazy loot but the journey to the treasure chest was a million times more satisfying.

Eh. Depends on the game. I played OoT Master Quest and I doubt BOTW will have as satisfying puzzles as that game. But it also doesn’t need to.

Everyone and their dog gets being tired of the old formula. The problem is saying people are crazy for preferring the old formula. That’s the raving hyperbole I was talking about.

BOTW seems a great game and I’m loving it. But I’ve done all four shrines on the plateau. I haven’t done anything approachingly as in depth as the fucking Deku Tree yet but that’s fine and I’m loving it. I don’t think they need to compete. BOTW does exploration far better. And the old formula does dungeons/puzzles 1000x better.

Combined and it will be the ultimate Zelda.

Win win.

[Bebpo]

I'll jump in and agree BoTW is better than the other 3d zeldas, but the dungeons are weaker. The game excels in the non-dungeon stuff, but the perfect Zelda would be like BoTW with Twilight Princess 8 full fleshed out challenging dungeons.

[Himu]

Give me master quest shit. Those creative puzzles would be awesome with BOTW organic style puzzle solving

[Human Snorenado]

Ha. What’s wrong with 3H?

demi has shit taste and it's too easy

[curly]

Skyward Sword diverged the most from the OoT formula of any pre BotW Zelda the problem was that the biggest change was stripping any sense of free exploration from the formula and not offering anything compelling in exchange. 

[Himu]

BOTW story.

Was on the way to last shrine of the plateau earlier. Saw I was at the temple of time and went “I gotta climb this!”. So I started upward. Then a comet fell? So I changed course and chased the comets light. The light eventually disappeared but the moral of the story is that in BOTW I’m getting side tracked all the time and it’s glorious. One thing leads to one thing which leads to another. Having a blast.

[Chooky]

you get the dlc?

[Nintex]

BOTW story.

Was on the way to last shrine of the plateau earlier. Saw I was at the temple of time and went “I gotta climb this!”. So I started upward. Then a comet fell? So I changed course and chased the comets light. The light eventually disappeared but the moral of the story is that in BOTW I’m getting side tracked all the time and it’s glorious. One thing leads to one thing which leads to another. Having a blast.

This is the genius of it. You start out going one way and you end up on the other side of the map. There's a lot of area's that are simply 'cool' to discover and you run into awesome stuff all the time.
The world also feels mysterious, the "what happened here?" feeling Shadow of the Colossus had.

In this bleak world however, you also find a lot of charming characters in the various villagers, which feels like 'coming home' after a long day of adventuring.
Some of my favorite and most memorable moments and areas had nothing to do with the main quest.

[Himu]

you get the dlc?

No is it worth it

[Himu]

BOTW story.

Was on the way to last shrine of the plateau earlier. Saw I was at the temple of time and went “I gotta climb this!”. So I started upward. Then a comet fell? So I changed course and chased the comets light. The light eventually disappeared but the moral of the story is that in BOTW I’m getting side tracked all the time and it’s glorious. One thing leads to one thing which leads to another. Having a blast.

This is the genius of it. You start out going one way and you end up on the other side of the map. There's a lot of area's that are simply 'cool' to discover and you run into awesome stuff all the time.
The world also feels mysterious, the "what happened here?" feeling Shadow of the Colossus had.

In this bleak world however, you also find a lot of charming characters in the various villagers, which feels like 'coming home' after a long day of adventuring.
Some of my favorite and most memorable moments and areas had nothing to do with the main quest.

Mm hm! Found the old man’s cabin and instantly thought,”civilization!” after nice stretch of wandering.

I’m really loving the game.

People say BOTW isn’t refreshing and there’s other exploration open worlds out there but this has been the most refreshing open world game I’ve played in the past decade. The genre has gotten so bloated and long in the tooth that despite being an early fan of the genre I now find it almost entirely unrecognizable. Open world used to be about exploring and testing the limits of the world. Now it’s about Assassin’s Creed like quests, checklists, and endless fluff/padding. I’m really not seeing a comparison between BOTW and modern open world.

[Nintex]

you get the dlc?

No is it worth it

Yes

[Himu]

How to make comet reappear and did I miss it for good if I didn’t get to it in time the first time

[Chooky]

its rng

[Himu]

Got Mario yesterday as well. Tonight I played up to a chunk of Tostarena.

I prefer BOTW so far at least. With BOTW, when I was living life, I couldn't help but think about exploring the ice mountains fully now that I had the green coat that allowed me nullify cold. In BOTW you're constantly unlocking new things/abilities that allow you to explore and interact the world in a brand new way that gives it an addictive quality.

Whereas Mario Odyssey is more of an execution game. It's great - fantastic even, and a full fledged evolution on the Mario 64/Sunshine formula - but I can't do technical jumps yet without mastering jump -> throw hat -> dive -> jump and most of the regular part of the courses are more plain jane. 3d Mario is best when you can express yourself through completing jumps/levels in your own way. Like, say, cutting through Whomp's Fortress but using an accurate long jump, back flipping on the platforms and jumping to the tower to the star at the top. But in Odyssey your ability to do crazy shit like that has an execution barrier and you need to solve it to get cool shit, which I haven't gotten to yet. Still great, but the cool shit is less in your face than in BOTW.

Both are fantastic though.

This year has completely killed off any skepticism I had towards modern gaming. Between Sekiro, Bloodborne, and now Switch, it feels really good to enjoy games again in a legitimate manner outside of fucking fighting games.

I will say that as Galaxy is my favorite Mario of all time that Odyssey hasn't hit that level yet.

[Himu]

Also I'm SOOOOOOOOO confused by charging Joy cons. I played dockless for HOURS and then I wanted to play on the dock and I take the joycons out and THEY'RE STILL LOW.

I have no idea wtf

Finally, you guys have no idea what it’s like to fall in love with a hobby you missed for so long. I’ve been out of most mainstream gaming since 2014 and this year managed to make me fall in love with single player games again. You don’t understand how happy I am.

[bork]

This year has completely killed off any skepticism I had towards modern gaming. Between Sekiro, Bloodborne, and now Switch, it feels really good to enjoy games again in a legitimate manner outside of fucking fighting games.

Maybe it was more skepticism towards modern western-developed "AAA" gaming that was doing it? 

[bork]

https://twitter.com/198xgame/status/1168841976155914240

[kingv]

Also I'm SOOOOOOOOO confused by charging Joy cons. I played dockless for HOURS and then I wanted to play on the dock and I take the joycons out and THEY'RE STILL LOW.

I have no idea wtf

Finally, you guys have no idea what it’s like to fall in love with a hobby you missed for so long. I’ve been out of most mainstream gaming since 2014 and this year managed to make me fall in love with single player games again. You don’t understand how happy I am.

Joycons only charge up to a certain point when the switch is not on a charger. I think it’s 50% but not sure.

It’s to save battery I’m sure.

[demi]

Also I'm SOOOOOOOOO confused by charging Joy cons. I played dockless for HOURS and then I wanted to play on the dock and I take the joycons out and THEY'RE STILL LOW.

What, 2 hours? The thing is practically dead before you know it playing handheld

[bork]

Cindi got the newer model with better battery life


I've had the joycons not charge up for whatever reason every now and then.  Just take them off and reconnect them and they should start charging.

[demi]

Wasn't "better" subjective and you get at most an extra hour?

[kingv]

Wasn't "better" subjective and you get at most an extra hour?

Officially 4.5-9 hours vs 2.5-6.

So it’s a pretty good bump.

[Himu]

This year has completely killed off any skepticism I had towards modern gaming. Between Sekiro, Bloodborne, and now Switch, it feels really good to enjoy games again in a legitimate manner outside of fucking fighting games.

Maybe it was more skepticism towards modern western-developed "AAA" gaming that was doing it?

If you have seen my criticisms towards modern jrpgs this has nothing to do with western or AAA.

[HardcoreRetro]

It's the dang casuls.

[Himu]

Actually, it’s developers who are up their ass with their storytelling bullshit and betraying the fundamentals of their genres while treating their players like total dirt persons who need every decision, every choice place on a platter for you. Even in a genre historically about choice and managing resources. The modern jrpg for instance, in the post-3ds era, is absolute balls.

But this is the era of positivity

Not negativity

Harping on lesser games is pointless.

[Great Rumbler]

Nintendo Switch

[demi]

Wasn't "better" subjective and you get at most an extra hour?

Officially 4.5-9 hours vs 2.5-6.

So it’s a pretty good bump.

This guy only got an extra hour out of BOTW

[Himu]

Damn. Odyssey once you master hat jumping is fucking sweet.

[bork]

Damn. Odyssey once you master hat jumping is fucking sweet.

Wait until you get further along

[kingv]

Wasn't "better" subjective and you get at most an extra hour?

Officially 4.5-9 hours vs 2.5-6.

So it’s a pretty good bump.

This guy only got an extra hour out of BOTW

That kind of sucks... still a pretty good bump over the base though. It’s like 40% longer

Zelda is one of the worst on the system for that for some reason. I’ve noticed that Mario Rabbids chews up battery like a boss too.

But FE and Asstral Chain seem to be surprisingly light on battery.

[bork]

https://twitter.com/198xgame/status/1168841976155914240

It's like barely two hours long and the "games" in it are incredibly basic. The most all style, no substance game I can think of. I recommend anyone save their money until it's "finished" or whatever.

...It's ten bucks. 

[bork]

Wasn't "better" subjective and you get at most an extra hour?

Officially 4.5-9 hours vs 2.5-6.

So it’s a pretty good bump.

This guy only got an extra hour out of BOTW

There's varying results out there. 



DF's battery test with Zelda had the new model lasting longer- they did it at 50% screen brightness on both consoles.

184 minutes vs. 302 minutes.

This guy also got a noticeable increase with Smash.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/new-nintendo-switch-battery-life-tested-how-much-better-is-it

The refreshed Nintendo Switch is officially in stores, promising 4.5 to 9 hours of battery life up from the original model’s 2.5 to 6.5 hours.

But how does that claim hold up in real world use? We bought one and put it side-by-side with our old Switch to find out. For science!

To see how the new Switch’s battery life compares to the old one, we ran an endless, 8-player CPU battle in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on both systems, with all of the items and AI difficulty turned up for maximum chaos. We cranked the brightness to max, and turned auto-sleep and auto-brightness off. It’s not an entirely scientific test, but it did give us a good idea of how each version of the Switch holds up after a long play session.

The new Nintendo Switch lasted for about 4 hours and 50 minutes before going dark on our Smash test, which is nearly double the 2:45 result we got from our old Switch.

[bork]

Direct is tomorrow.

[Tasty]

all the games coming out in 2019

that one game coming out in 2020

[Himu]

I made it to the Lake Kingdom in Odyssey. So far, the platforming is very open-ended. It's less on the tight platforming end of things like Galaxy and more of a make your own challenge sort of open-ended deal.

I love the Lake Kingdom so much btw. I haven't played a 3d platformer with a relaxing pace with exploration focus since the original Galaxy 1 and 2's water levels. This was like 10 years ago. Only 3D Mario can provide a soothing water level like this that's just fun to soak up and explore and I've missed it a lot. The game isn't hard, or even challenging, but I'm loving it all the same. Just a charming, passionate, creative game. I've found myself amass enough Power Moons in each Kingdom so far with little effort and yet I keep gathering more. Fun game loop.

Both Breath of the Wild and Odyssey treat the player with respect. No hand holding. They let the player figure things out. Such an underrated philosophy in this day and age.



LOL right now I prefer Mario Odyssey over Breath of the Wild. I keep flipping between them. They're both so fantastic. FFVIII Remaster on the backburner lmao

[bork]

The challenging stuff in Odyssey is the post-game content, IMO.  Am sure it was still a cakewalk for some here!