dartmonkey

Modest Tech: The NX Generation (Nintendo Switch)

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That's great to hear! I assumed it would be terrific fun with small kids to construct and toy around with. The house minigame was strangely alluring.

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So I got my Switch. I love it to pieces. I was suprised by a few things such as there being no in built browser. I didn't even bother googling it as I just assumed it would. Which according to my posts in this thread it's evident that I assume too much.

 

I bought Super Mario Odyssey as I've never owned a console Zelda game. I really, really like it, but not as much as I thought I would considering how much I loved Super Mario Galaxy. So then I bought Zelda and I'm loving that. I imagine this is what a lot of people experienced when they first played 3D Zeldas as a kid, but now it's fully realised. 

 

Has anyone played Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Could I get into it as a novice JRPG player or is it hopeless?

 

Now where's that new Pokemon game... 

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Yeah I was also a bit surprised by how barebones the Switch "OS" is. Not that I need it to play youtube and Netflix and have a browser, since I already have plenty of other devices filling those functions.

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Nah, me neither. But it is the only thing that's easily connected to the biggest screen in my house. I saw a couple of guides to getting a browser open on the Switch, but haven't bothered yet. Have you tried them? 

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Dosed, about Xenoblade: it's a pretty peculiar JRPG, considering it uses more of an MMO-style of (singleplayer) gameplay. There's a steep learning curve and tons of systems, but I don't think playing other types of JRPGs will prepare you for that. It's more up to your own level of how fast you pick up new systems. If you feel comfortable with that, XC2 is a fine game that'll keep you entertained for a looong time.

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Honestly, in terms of UI or any non-games things, the worst thing about the Switch is the horrible navigation on the store. Would you like a list of every game in alphabetical order, in release order, or just to see the things that are on sale? You have no other options, so I hope one of those works for you. Also, if you put something on your wishlist, it will remain there forever until you remove it manually, even if you buy the game. Trying to bookmark a new release you're interested in until payday? I hope you remember to go remove it once you get paid lest your wishlist get full of things you already own!

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I mean at least it has a wishlist *glares at the PS4*

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Can't you also sort by price, and filter by genres and some other parameters? So it's not too too bad. Could definitely be better though; it's a step down from the Wii U eshop for sure.

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Anyone played Octopath Traveler? I tried out the demo and still got another 2 hours to go with. I really want to buy it, but I'm trying to keep it until next month as a reward for saving money... is that counter intuitive? 

 

I never liked JRPGs as a kid, but my best friend loved/loves them and I finally feel like I'm starting to understand why. 

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I'm playing through it at the moment. It's extremely charming and is scratching the JRPG itch I get every couple of years. Don't expect anything earth-shattering, but there's enough interesting little tweaks with the boost system and the character's non-combat actions to keep me engaged.

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I like Octopath Traveler very much. Combat is interesting enough to be engaging without being too fiddly to stay fun, graphics are pretty and the sound is superb. Ticking all my JRPG boxes at the moment. Looking forward to finishing the sublime Hollow Knight so I can really get into it.

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I got the other big release this week: Captain Toad Treasure Tracker! Missed out on it on Wii U, so I was excited to get it on Switch. It's so charming! Fun little puzzle environments. I'm about a third in (18 out of 50 levels, give or take), but I'm still undecided if this counts as a fun diversion or full course game. I enjoy playing it very very much, but it's rather easy and so far lacks some actual challenge.

 

 

Now that I've reached the Toadette chapter (and I was SUPER THRILLED to play as Toadette), it seems to get a little trickier though. Especially if you play with two people - one operating the explorer, the other the camera and pointer.

 

The only thing I gravely dislike about this game is that they're Charles Martinetting Toad and Toadette up. At the start of each level, Captain Toad announces in his squeeky voice "Let's go on adventure!", and that's the last thing I needed - for him to speak human language in this otherwise completely self-contained world. Their standard gasps and noises are so cute and iconic... I hope it doesn't become canon for Toad to speak. Yeesh.

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The voice of Toad in Captain Toad (and in almost every new Mario game I think?) is Samantha Kelly, but I 100% get what you mean by "Charles Martinetting"... that's exactly what Samantha is doing.

 

The best Toad in my opinion was Isaac Marshall in Mario Kart 64. Yes, I acknowledge that's probably due entirely to nostalgia.

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Much like Mario's "threat neutralized" I can't help but hear Toad's "time for adventure" as "sniper adventure"

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Fab, glad to hear you (and a lot of others it seems like) are enjoying this game, I think it might be my next purchase. It's been a long time since I really felt interested in playing a JRPG (iirc the last one I really got into was the Golden Sun series on gba), but the aesthetic and and the positive reception have been enough to garner my interest in this case.

 

How are people finding the story? I certainly like the conceit of multiple self-contained stories with more personal stakes than the usual JRPG fare, but I haven't heard too much about whether they're engaging in of themselves.

 

Changing topic for a sec, I must say I'm not quite finding Hollow Knight as good as some of you I'm afraid. There's certainly a lot to like there, but I'm getting a bit tired of the Metroidvania traipsing around the map you're forced to do if you want to get anywhere, particularly as in some instances the map can be quite misleading Yesterday I went to two different areas that were labelled as crossing points into different areas, but after finding both of them inaccessible I didn't really feel like playing anymore and just gave up for the night.

 

Edit: sorry this was meant to be a reply to Yasawas' post about Octopath Traveller, but I didn't quote it correctly.

 

 

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The tons of backtracking and so forth really suck, yes. Merus tipped me about a teleport earlier, that helps.

 

I found the rest of the game/atmosphere good enough that it compensated for the drawback, and there was the occasional moment where the forced back-and-forth traversal led me to cool little discoveries or aha-moments where I figured out how whatever new skills I'd picked up would help me access something I'd missed earlier.

 

I wrote more about it here:

https://danielreid.github.io/ddgd/6/

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The key to Hollow Knight is that, unlike a lot of games of this type, there's no real golden path. The game steers you towards the City of Tears, but after that the progression gets much looser, and you can probably make every trip be worth something. That's what makes it so magical: unlike most metroidvanias, where exploration is necessary but there's rarely more than one right answer, Hollow Knight is brutal enough and open enough that striking out in a direction can uncover anything from a unique enemy to a useful item to a whole area.

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Yeah, I think it might actually be my favourite Metroidvania now (30+ hour mark, still a bit to go to complete it) although my tastes in the genre are not typical. I couldn't tell you the number of times I've backtracked through an area and found what I thought was maybe a trapped grub or charm room only to discover it was a whole new area of some size.

 

I'm at a boss I might well never bear but I've had my money's worth and then some with this. Glad to hear it's sold very well for them.

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Hollow Knight is certainly my favorite Metroidvania too. I actually haven't played very many Metroidvanias, so maybe that's not the biggest commendation. But I love the game.

 

I've already encountered/attempted a few challenges that I deemed too much for me at the moment, and one boss that I almost gave up on before somehow squeezing in a win. So I'm prepared, emotionally, to accept that I might not have it in me to see the "true ending" of this video game. For a while I've had the option of fighting what I'm assuming is the final boss for the easy ending (a "false ending"?), so I should probably go do that to get at least some sense of completion.

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On 7/20/2018 at 3:08 AM, Goose Malloy said:

Fab, glad to hear you (and a lot of others it seems like) are enjoying this game, I think it might be my next purchase. It's been a long time since I really felt interested in playing a JRPG (iirc the last one I really got into was the Golden Sun series on gba), but the aesthetic and and the positive reception have been enough to garner my interest in this case.

 

How are people finding the story? I certainly like the conceit of multiple self-contained stories with more personal stakes than the usual JRPG fare, but I haven't heard too much about whether they're engaging in of themselves.

 

Back to Octopath:

I am about 15 hours in. I am really liking this game, but the story has been the least interesting part for me. I have finished the first chapter for all 8 characters, and chapter 2 for Primrose. I am currently halfway through Therion's chapter 2. I actually quite like both of their individual stories so far, though I definitely started with them because I found them the most interesting. I'm not getting the vibe that these stories will link up at all. Actually, it's looking like this may actually just be 8 distinct JRPG short stories that have much more personal stakes, meaning that some will probably hit and some will miss. If you're ok with that, go for it. I will say that this is a very good JRPG and I am enjoying it immensely. At 13 hours I unlocked a job system on top of everything else, and it's completely changed the way that I play. New stuff coming in this late is a good sign. I'm very impressed.

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Who bet that I would be able to hold off on Octopath Traveller until pay day?  Well if you'd read my post about Paladins then you'd have known that was a silly bet. 

 

I'm loving it too Miffy! I'm about 8 hours into it now and I'm glad to hear that there's new stuff waiting for me. I'm loving it so far. I really feel like I missed out on something by not being into JRPGs as a kid. I think a big part of it was unskippable cutscenes back in the day so I'm happy I'm able to skip almost all of them so far. The story feels so predictable to me that I don't even mind just ignoring it. 

 

Who's your main? 

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Last week my gf/fiancée gave the (semi-)surprise of a Switch as an engagement present. I got Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with it, and I picked up Mario Odyssey over the weekend. Both of those games are great! I'm sure nobody needs to be told this.

 

It is early days yet but I'm extremely impressed by the device itself. The interface is much more responsive and user-friendly than the 3DS and Wii U. And I actually appreciate the lack of Nintendo non-gaming bloatware (video chat, AR cards, Face Raiders, etc). It feels less like a toy and more like a serious gaming-specific platform. The build quality seems good - I can feel myself being slightly precious around handling it in a way that I wasn't with the Wii U gamepad. Already I have a little of that new device anxiety; last night saw much futzing around with screen protectors, worrying about the dock scuffing the screen, warping and bending, etc. No doubt in a few months I'll have forgotten about it and it will resemble my phone, which currently looks like it has been through a washing machine full of gravel.  

 

We played a lot of Mario Kart 8 over the weekend. I played quite a lot of that game on the Wii U; she played hardly any of it in those days, but for some reason she is a lot more interested in playing it on the Switch than she ever was on the older system. (I wonder why that is; something to do with the streamlined start up/shut down, perhaps. It just feels easier to get into. Certainly I appreciate that they've ironed out a few things that annoyed me, like how if you started a local multiplayer race in the Wii U version with horizontal Wiimotes, there was no way to turn off motion controls other than by pausing in the middle of a race.)

 

Anyway it occurred to me also that Mario Kart is actually a very difficult game to teach someone, once you get past the basics. The game offers virtually nothing in the way of a tutorial, so to learn about things like drifting, 'holding' items, where you can get boost-jumps, etc - all of which are pretty much essential techniques - you have to go outside the game entirely. (They have added help screens to the new version, but they're fairly cursory.)

 

Once she started to get a feel for how drifting works we found it useful for her to race solo, and for me to watch her and just say things like '…and drift now...' - '...and pop the drift, now drift again...' - '...yo hit that big ass ramp'. Which was kind of fun in its own way, though weird for me; it felt like I was giving driving lessons or something? For my own part I'm all about discovering things for myself in games, and I don't want to mansplain to anyone, but she was insistent that I help. She's picking it up quickly. Soon I will be getting trounced, I hope.

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Games like Mario Kart and Smash Bros seem to assume that players have played a previous game in the series. There are no tutorials with a lot of Nintendo games of this sort, but I imagine they expect you to read the ...wait are there manuals for Switch games? Every Wii U/3DS game had a digital manual...but I just realised I don't know if the Switch have them at all.

 

edit: I can't believe it's taken me over a year to notice the Switch doesn't have digital manuals. I'm ashamed.

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