crispy4000

That's the one character so far I never appreciated. He reads his lines so slowly, and is unlikable from the start. ... After playing more, there's some parts of DQXI that people adverse to JRPG tropes (and Japanese games in general) would absolutely hate. If the game wants to tell a story, it has no problem taking the reigns and trying to force you to care, even if its unrelated to the larger quest or even your party. That said, the localization is so good, and clever, that it's often easy to get caught up in it. The game is well paced around those moments too. Lots of exploration, stat tweaking, mini-games, etc, to pad them before and after.

All of this crap is still worse than what the Wii U did online for free. ... Or Valve. But I guess people have grown accustomed to turning a blind eye there.

Like with the PSP/Vita, the PSone FF's should be nice to have on a portable screen.

Games are up. Re:Core and Super Lucky's are both $20, as with the Microsoft store. https://store.steampowered.com/app/537450/ReCore_Definitive_Edition/

Along with a few others.

The NES thing isn't as bad as some of the headlines make it out to be. Basically, you lose access if you don't connect to wifi after a week, but will retain all local save and download data. Just don't plan on taking a month vacation in the woods and still playing your NES games on the go.

Excluding ports, I'd put their Switch output roughly on par with the Gamecube or Wii at this point in their lifecycle. Gamecube might edge out both.

The Switch doesn't have incredible 3rd party support. Progress has been made, but large segments of the industry still ignore it. It's been good for indies and the occasional soft-AAA remaster that fits the portable form factor. But there's also less 3rd party exclusives than 2+ gens ago. (... At least there's Octopath Traveller.) I've never said the Wii U and Switch were in analogous positions. Only that the Wii U did have a solid library at this point in its lifecycle. And that the Switch's output, while improved, still has some obvious sore spots.

On the contrary, almost all of this could apply to the Switch. There still isn't much to get hyped for outside of ports and Nintendo's properties. The Switch had a great 2017 line-up, but 2018 hasn't been stellar for Nintendo's original games. Q1-3: Mario Tennis, dialed in Kirby, Xenoblade 2 & Splatoon 2 DLC. Q4: Smash, Mario Party, dumbed down Pokemon. Not their worst, but far from the best. Metroid still isn't in sight, lol. It's even more of an unknown than BoTW was at its first teaser. Same goes for the real Pokemon. Will we even see it in 2019? Lastly, let's not do revisionist history: Wii U had 2+ Mario games in its first year. (Super Mario 3d World, NSMBU & Luigi U DLC) They never stopped making new games because of Wind Waker, or the farmed out TP port for that matter. Those were the extent of their port jobs that gen.

I like the lending idea most, which is the primary reason for me. I tend to buy local multiplayer games on disc so I don't have to lug the console itself around if my friend owns the platform but not the game. (though Switch simplifies that) Discounts probably come second. It's no secret that going all digital is more expensive on consoles. Walled gardens. Buying physical at retail, new or used, is often the cheapest way to go. Though typically not as cheap as PC digital.

Again, the Wii U had a solid library of original Nintendo games after a year and half. To say there was "very little other reason" to buy one is overly dismissive. The Switch's library is worse off for people that owned a Wii U. A lot of those ports are in fact, amazing games. For most Switch owners, they aren't padding.

Xenoblade 2 is worth seeing through. No regrets for finishing it on my end. I still need to go back and do more of the blade sidequests. A few of them ended up being a lot more substantial than I thought they'd be. Plus I still want to max out Ursula at some point. ... I might be in for Torna eventually. I like that it's shorter and self contained, and adds some interesting looking DLC to the main game too. But I'll probably need a breather from JRPGs after DQXI.

I'd say as far as Nintendo is concerned, that's simply not true. By this time in the Wii U's lifecycle, it had Super Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, Wonderful 101, and NSMBU + Luigi. That's a solid, if not exemplary output for them. I do prefer the Switch line-up. But beyond the improved marketing, a lot of good will came from a Zelda game releasing at its launch (and BoTW at that). The sore feelings about the Wii U not getting an exclusive Zelda ended up being a small minority. Nintendo knew exactly what they were doing. No one complained about ports because they were too busy with Zelda. Also, because the Switch was an actual handheld and the Wii U was a bust. I think it's clear enough now why they never dropped the price of the U. It was all to get more mileage out of the ports.

Just realized, I'd totally be down for this if they ditched the shitty NES games and brought a digital version of Nintendo Power back instead.

Thread topic always goes into the same tired arguments about affordability, which misses the point. ... I might subscribe at some point if I feel the need. $20 is still a bad deal for the terrible NES library they're starting the subscription with. But more importantly for me, I'll likely never buy an indie game that has any kind of online multiplayer component on the Switch. I'm not paying the Switch tax and a subscription both. I'm pretty much an all in PC gamer now. I now see Nintendo in the same boat as the other manufacturers, where I won't buy their games without a substantial single player component. It's already bad enough that they shut off their servers for legacy platforms, including the shops.

Much more at the link. https://kotaku.com/nba-2k19-is-a-nightmarish-vision-of-our-microtransactio-1828954456

Beating a game isn't about getting to the next game for me. It's about beating a game to take a breather before I start the next. I can't do the multiple games at once thing, although occasionally I do it with a multiplayer one. When I feel like taking a break from gaming, I usually shelf both titles for good.

So, will they upgrade it for previous owners, or will it just be the same port again?

Auto-fight has been part of the series for a while, if I'm not mistaken. I definitely remember it in DQIX. ... I think I might like the forge more than anything else QoL related. It's just a smart way to balance out equipment, and changes up the typical buy-out-the-shop approach you usually take in RPGs this traditional. It's much more interesting than the alchemy pot used in the past.

$48 - https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/valkyria-chronicles-4

Opencritic: https://opencritic.com/game/6114/valkyria-chronicles-4

Neat art style, but we don't even know if it's turn based or not.

Metal Gear Survive was forgettable. I think Days Gone has plenty of potential.

Too busy with DQXI. Love Megaman, but this month is absolutely nuts for new games.

I just don't see any egregious faults here. There's a few cutscenes? It's not overload, and they don't drag on or overly tutorialize. There's typically a good bit of exploration in cities/fields/dungeons to pad them out (unlike say, FFXIII). Which is absolutely true by the first big city, which has plenty to see ransack. The only thing that's bugged me so far is that some of non-party characters take too long to deliver their voice lines. I'm thinking of one specific part maybe 10 hours in.