The Nintendo Switch

Heh, you all spend so much time teasing me for *not* starting games that it's a red flag when you concede there's one you never even finished.

https://i.imgur.com/dLoPiuF.jpg

it's rare for me to finish games - probably end up ditching games more often than not. but i find it difficult to struggle on when my enjoyment has ended and the end isn't in sight.

Something nice happened in Ori today, when I hit some point in the game/story and iirc it actually told me I was at the halfway point, which was nice.

nice

if you like 16bit RPGs at all you it to yourself to buy Cosmic Star Heroine as it's currently 70% off at £3.29/$4.49

― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Monday, October 14, 2019 3:47 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this game is sweet! hadn't heard of it before, it's like if they fixed absolutely everything wrong with old rpgs. really digging it. thx for the tip!

one more thing, RE: obra dinn

any screenshot won't do it justice. it is really a beautiful game when seen in motion - check out a video or twitch

"Bloodstained" was years in the making. Began as a Kickstarter in 2015, released four years later this past June, was a mess on Switch. The developers promised patches and fixes, which a) was pretty ridiculous, given the long wait in the first place and b) those fixes have yet to show up. I don't know if the Switch poses its own particular set of programming problems, but this seems to happen a lot - game or port gets announced for Switch, people get excited, game arrives in less than ideal state, developers take forever to fix it, if they bother at all. "Sexy Brutale," for example, was unplayable on Switch, by all accounts, but it's been two years and despite promises I don't think the developers ever bothered.

"Blasphemous," on the other hand, began with a Kickstarter in 2017, showed up around two years later this past September, and just got a massive slate of fixes and patches a little over a month later. That's the way you do it. Even PS4 games get patches super fast, it seems. And a AAA game like "Doom" on Switch got some major patches relatively quickly, including the addition of Gyro, which was awesome (people seem to love Panic Button). But a lot of these indies? The lack of attention on Switch accounts for my frequently reluctance to buy games. I've been burned too many times and have little faith fixes will arrive in a timely fashion.

This is why they don’t take audience Q&A during Nintendo Directs.

games that weren't built to run on hardware weaker than PS4 and then added a switch version due to insane demand for everything to be on switch have a spotty track record with switch performance, i agree with that much. it's pretty easy to just, not buy ports day 1 and wait for performance impressions though

I think if a game like Doom or Witcher can be made to run at all on Switch, let alone much better than expected, then a game like Bloodstained has no excuse.

I think you’re forgetting the “kickstsrter” aspect and what that implies

You mean small studios, limited staff? I guess. But if a skeleton crew can divise something as gorgeous and perfectly calibrated as Hollow Knight, retro pixel games don't have much of an excuse.

My approach to complaining about patches and updates is to wait until I have worked on a game that tons of people are playing before weighing in on how easy it is to fix

ok, that's a tad disingenuous - obv i complain about all sorts of shit that i've never directly had any experience working on.

but...do you have any idea what goes into making a patch and deploying it? i don't.

I assume it's a lot of work! That's not in question. What's in question is releasing a game with issues so significant they take months and months to fix, assuming they bother at all. Like, a lot of these games that people complain about, people complain on or close to *day one*, which means that the developers *must* know. I can only speak for myself, but I'd rather a game get delayed and run right than a game get released prematurely and take forever to get fixed after they've already got my money. Releasing games early (for the cash? to get the max out of releasing on all platforms at once?) is like distilleries that release "white whiskey" and pretend that it is some sort of special thing, or even premium, when everyone knows it's really a quick way to make a buck while the good stuff ages in barrels.

I did, btw, recently find at least a personal drawback to the Switch's biggest pro: I don't need reading glasses, but as someone in my 40s I'm more liable to miss little details in handheld mode than I am when the Switch is docked and on the big screen. I hit a wall (more or less literally) in Ori and had to look up what to do, and it turns out there was a lever right there that I just couldn't see in that particular environment on the small screen. Obviously ymmv, and I'm usually OK with it, but it's a potential strike for some against playing in portable mode. I want to say I've read reviews of Switch games in the recent past that made people complain about things like font size? Maybe Darkest Dungeon (until it was patched)? Octopath Traveler? Something like that.

octopath font was fine, fire emblem was the one that people rightfully complained about

I still have only used the switch in portable mode like, once. I use it docked pretty much daily.

I'm about 40 hours into Dragon Quest XI now. What a lovely game. I can't help but compare it to Breath of the Wild, and while I think it's a worse game than BOTW, I think maybe I enjoy it more? like, playing BOTW was sublime, like ~~~art~~~ in a way I'd never experienced in a video game until then---but that made it, like, harrowing to play: to be too brute was to break the sublimity, to make its lost world recede, whereas its magic was in making that lost world present. You tell its story, you are part of it. But that was work! By contrast the linearity of DQXI is easy and comfortable: nothing is left unsaid, unless you choose not to talk to anyone in the game, I suppose. There have been cataclysms in this world too, and the game too is to unravel it, but it is done more overtly: yes, monsters have destroyed this world before, and will do it again, and you are the light and they are the dark, and you will master the dark; but the ache of this eternal recurrence is absent, whereas it was everywhere in BOTW. And I guess I don't always want to ache when I'm playing a game.

DQXI is the video game equivalent of dad rock

otm

good post euler

agreed, nice Euler

and lol ciderpress. maybe that's why I keep thinking about getting it...

and josh - that's one of the reasons I try to stick to indies on PC (then, PS4) in general

Finished "Ori!" What an absolutely lovely game, start to finish. Maybe a little short, but other than that I can't think of anything that could make this game better.

sequel is out in a few months though i think its xbox exclusive at launch

Yeah, trailer looks nice. Ori was one of those games I just figured I'd never get to play, so the fact that the first one came to Switch was a wonderful surprise (same with Cuphead).

I’m early on with Return of Obra Dinn but I think I’ll be obsessed with this thing.

Sweet didn’t realise that was out yet

Do tell more

it's a very good game if you enjoy actually playing the detective rather than assisting the detective like in most mystery games

I noticed that What Remains of Edith Finch is on Switch. That got a great response, right? I'm wondering whether to get it for the Nintendo or just wait for another PS4 sale.

I played many hours of Obra Dinn yesterday, it’s uh quite good

I beat Obra Dinn! It’s good.

nice

i've been playing it too. it's definitely cool but it's kind of repetitive and i feel like it keeps rushing me along and not giving me space to figure things out.

you can't really figure out too many until you've seen all the scenes. once it starts raining on the boat that's the cue that you've seen everything and it's time to review and solve

“Repetitive” is not a valid complaint about a video game

if i were to buy Obra Dinn is there any reason to buy PC vs Switch or is it good on both?

No technical complaints about the Switch version either TV or handheld. I had to crank the look speed way down to not get nauseous but I was grateful to have the option.

the game is first person view so if you prefer to look with a mouse and not the right stick then it'd be better on PC. i know i prefer that

there's no action though so it's not like an fps where that's actually a gameplay difference

Speaking of which, I bought Doom way back when on Switch, and while I'm not sure how far along I am and it's been months since I played it, I think it's pretty far. From the start, gyro was absolutely essential to my gameplay on regular (which is still pretty tough) difficulty. Still, it was on deep discount on PS4, so I picked it up, curious, knowing the presentation and gameplay would be significantly better, and they are, but because I've gone from Gyro to twin-sticks I had to dial down the difficulty to "what a wimp" or whatever, and it's still pretty tricky to aim (even with aim assist, whatever subtle thing that feature actually does). I'm sure my thumbs will get used to it eventually.

uh oh. am i gonna get this dumb thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIW8g92H-mA

I am one drunken night of sadness away from ordering it

I ordered it after reviews and early impressions were that it was Pretty Good, will report back

basically if one of you guys are like, yeah this is fun, my dumb ass is gonna be doing squats in the living room in boxer briefs to vanquish the hamstring monster
i am a man without will

theres some good twitch clips of it taking out peoples nuts because they didnt follow the directions right

lol Karl i'm in that boat

I'm weeks late to this conversation but I've been replaying LttP on my SNES emulator and it's just the greatest IMO

still haven't gotten a Switch but I really want Mario Maker 2

Very glad Obra Dinn let’s you know whether you have enough info to solve something. Can’t imagine the rabbit holes you’d senselessly dive into.

That said have been digging deep and working hard on some of these mysteries somewhat unnecessarily because I wasn’t aware there were fresh bodies/clues to uncover.

I get how this could feel repetitive if you blast through it, felt fatigue from doing just that early on, but stretching it out now and it’s a real treat.

Ring Fit Adventure: it’s fun, I’m sweaty