Glen-i

Probably to encourage people to build their own team. Anyway, my Galar Only Team is ready for the Online Competition in over two weeks time. I'd like to take them for a test spin, so would anyone be up for a doubles battle sometime after the Smash Livestream?

Nah, it would be strange for it not to be third party franchise at this point. We're still in the Fighter's Pass. There's still more characters after this one getting revealed, so I expect some Ninty ones in the future.

You'd get 2 points. One for predicting Waluigi, and one for the point I took away from you when Waluigi was confirmed as an Assist Trophy. You basically shot yourself in the foot by only predicting one new character. We're way higher than that now.

Didn't expect Hippowdon to work well. Tyranitar is normally the go-to Pokémon for Sandstorm Silliness. Probably threw a lot of people off just by it showing up. Which is always great.

Oh man, that would be amazing. Instant top tier character if that happened. But let's face it, the amount of work that would require would be astronomical. Not to mention that Smash is for good boys and girls and some of the armour in MonHun is, um... not. Especially for female players.

That Chikorita longs for death...

I'm pretty sure one of the characters had a doctor outfit in the WiiU version. (Or it might have been an evil scientist, been a while)

I mean, there is a real chance that it's a character that none of us predicted and the scores won't change. It happened with Joker.

I challenge anyone who doesn't want folders to find a specific game on @Dcubed's Switch. Because that'll change your mind.

I can provide one later on, if you're available.

Nope, Zacian. Or, get this, how about Monster Hunter's unique feature being an AI controlled Felyne acting independently from them? You control the Monster Hunter who uses all sorts of different weapons for each attack (Great Sword for Side Smash, Dual Blades for the rapid attacks, etc.), kinda like Inkling. Meanwhile, the Felyne is trying to get some cheeky hits in with claws, traps, bomb barrels and other Felyne shenanigans. Of course, the Felyne would probably have to be easier to knock out than the Hunter, (probably twice the knockback) and there'd only be one per stock. And it wouldn't attack too frequently, to avoid being unfair. But a good player would be able to protect the Felyne and coordinate with it for some combos. I think it's a great way to implement Monster Hunter, get the Felyne there and get the idea of co-operation, which the series thrives on, into Smash in one fell swoop.

I really doubt Microsoft is getting a second character in the same Fighter's Pass. So I doubt Master Chief or Steve is happening tomorrow. Same logic applies to Atlus, Square and SNK. As mad and amazing as it'd be to technically get a Disney rep through Sora, we've already had Hero from Square. After that, though? Who knows where this crazy Smash Train will travel? I do expect some Nintendo characters after this pass is done, Rex has been denied for too long now, and there's some great new sources from Switch titles to work with. Byleth, Toxtricity, the Astral Chain twins and the Ring Fit Adventurer are just a few that pop off the top of my head. (I saw a suggestion that the Ring Fit Adventurer could attack with more traditional exercises like squats and such compared to Wii Fit Trainer's Yoga attacks, but also have some Bayonetta-style giant fists and legs for Smash attacks and I want it) I was torn between betting on Namco or Capcom. Mostly because Namco are working on Smash and still only have Pac-Man, they deserve another character at this point. I'd also want it to be Lloyd, mostly because @Ugh first aid has been hoping for Lloyd since Smash 4 confirmed that Namco was working on it and she'd freak. But I went with Capcom because that Resident Evil spirit event is too suspicious for me to ignore. (It won't be Resi Evil though) Given the choice, I'd want Phoenix Wright to be the Capcom character. I wouldn't mind Monster Hunter either. Smash needs more Monster Hunter music, especially White Fatalis and Valtrax, those songs are great!

Nah, that's his dream. Totally different thing.

You're like @Dcubed, he insists that if Capcom gets a new character, it'll be Joe. My argument is that Joe is about as niche as you can get. Capcom has way bigger series going on that still aren't in Smash. You're right about him being rad though.

I can't help but feel not having a Meowth in that team is doing it wrong.

Well, it's only two days away, I think we can trust other N-E peeps to keep that kind of discussion out of here. I know I'm staying away from other sites until then. EDIT: Oh, before I forget, my money is on some kind of Capcom character. Not sure who though. But I just have a feeling.

I think the best way for me to go about this is to split it up into different categories where I can compare the two. Graphics Surely, Xenoblade 2 comes out on top here. Dragon Quest XI looks like a bloody SNES game! Well, my Dragon Quest did, probably because I played through the entire thing in 2D mode. Didn't even touch 3D. Real talk though, whether you play Dragon Quest flat or not-flat, Dragon Quest is a stunning looking game. I played the demo, which forces 3D mode and it's one of the best looking Switch games out there. 2D mode is no slouch, sporting some gorgeous spritework for the monsters you encounter. They're not animated however, (apart from a couple of exceptions) so it doesn't quite reach the heights of the DS remakes for me. Xenoblade 2 can't really compete here, due to the not very good resolution during hectic battles. It's perfectly fine, but you're going to notice the shortcomings when they happen. Soundtrack Dragon Quest XI has a perfectly servicable soundtrack that feels distinctly like Dragon Quest, but the original tracks aren't really too memorable. I'm just thankful the Switch version has the symphonic soundtrack option, because the songs sound a bit rubbish synthesized. As a whole, Dragon Quest has done better before. Xenoblade 2 on the other hand has some proper bangers. They got the original composers from the original game back. So no stupid, lame, Xenoblade X raps here. Field music, battle music, it's all good! Smash Ultimate should have ripped more tracks out of this game. Plot Dragon Quest has a relatively straightforward plot sprinkled with lots of little vignettes that have a tendency to involve a few gut punches. It's got some really neat twists to the formula, but it still feels somewhat familiar. Not a bad thing, mind. Dragon Quest has always been a good source of traditional RPG comfort food plot. It's hard for me to comment on the characters, because I played 2D mode, which removes all voice acting (Even when a 3D FMV starts playing). And most cutscenes aren't as dynamic as they would be in 3D. So I had to use my imagination a bit when it came to their personalities, they're likable enough though. From what little I've seen from the 3D demo, the voice acting is good. Lip syncing is really good as well. Xenoblade 2 is a game where I don't like more than half of the main characters, which is problematic. We've got big load of nothing Rex and his cringey adventures with Boobface Pyra. It applies to a lot of characters, unfortunately. Morag and Super Welsh Nia are the only good female characters, the rest are just awful. As for males, Dromarch is fine, but Zeke is the star of the show, the game would be better if he was the main character. The game is a good showcase of everything bad about anime. Fanservice up the wazoo makes it a bit embarrassing really. And this is coming from the guy who enjoys the plot of super Japanese game, Tokyo Mirage Sessions. The difference with TMS is that it revels in how insane it's premise is and plays up to how silly it is, and it makes it a lot more fun. Xenoblade's is not even a quarter as fun as TMS. That said, Xenoblade 2's expansion story, Torna: The Golden Country is a million times better as far as the plot goes. Definitely give that a go if nothing else. Gameplay - Outside of Battle Dragon Quest, like always, is very traditional. There's a big world map with various areas dotted around. And the plot dictates a pretty linear path to get to the end. I'm always of the mind that linearity is not a bad thing. And Dragon Quest pulls it off great. Each new area is fun to poke around in and the dungeons have plenty of hidden treasures to find. There's plenty of side quests too, if that's your thing and there's even a neat place that takes you to various areas from the past 10 Dragon Quest games. Xenoblade 2 is much more exploration based. It's not truly open-world as the plot will gate you off before doing certain things, but each area is chock full of exploration to do. I think Xenoblade 2 manages to strike a great balance between openness and linearity that so many open-world games fail to strike for me. Then again, the first game did that as well, so it's not too surprising. Gameplay - Battles Is it fair to compare these two? Probably not, but I'm gonna anyway. Dragon Quest is about as old school as you can get. Dragon Quest has always been about as old school as you can get. But if I had to compare it to another DQ, XI seems to follow more closely to DQ VIII. Mostly because each character has a skill table where you can spend points you get by levelling up. So you have some freedom over how to build your characters. It's not completely old-school, mind. There's some QoL features that stop it feeling too antiquated. Xenoblade 2 is pretty much the polar opposite. Real-time battles where you're deciding what moves to do on the fly. The thing is with Xenoblade 2 is that it's a lot more complex. It can be overwhelming at first, but if you stick with it and pay attention to the tutorials, you'll start to get the hang of it and then it really starts to shine as you start pulling off combos and racking up the damage. Late-game boss fights are an utter joy in this game and it's where Xenoblade truly shines. The BLADE system can provide some nice replayability factor, as you'll probably get different Rare BLADE's, which will tweak how you play, but the random nature of it can make going for 100% feel like a bit of a chore. It's a slow-burning game, even by RPG standards. Dragon Quest is much more replay friendly thanks to the Draconian Modifiers, which provide various tweaks to the game to make it more difficult. Stronger Monsters, No Shopping and various random unlucky occurences are some of the ways you can handicap yourself. You can mix and match these as you like to make things feel fresh and challenging. Not to mention the option to switch between 2D and 3D greatly changing repeat playthroughs. So all in all, Xenoblade has higher highs, but much lower lows while Dragon Quest is consistently great. So I'd have to give it to Dragon Quest.

You're joking, but even when Ultimate doesn't devote that much effort to a Fire Emblem character, it still manages to get slack for that. Chrom didn't stop people's favourite character getting in. I'd be surprised if a Three Houses character didn't get in eventually though. Not now, but in the future.

Well, it's about time the Zelda series got a new character!

HERE WE GO! That's 2pm here in the UK.

I wish I could help. Alas. I have Shield, so I'm no use here.

Maybe so, but the Switch eShop is still a step back compared to the 3DS and WiiU one. It's no good being faster, if it can't even provide as nice an experience as previous eShops. And the searching capabilities suck, it's hard to find a particular game, especially if it came out more than a few weeks ago. If you didn't add something to your wishlist, (a feature that's easily missed, it's so small) good luck tracking it down in the future!

Cheers, found one still in stock. Off to get it now. An hour trip, but totally worth it.

He's right. Physical games just aren't as common compared to previous Nintendo consoles. And that's before we even get to the whole "Physical case includes download code for half the game" some companies love to do.

My recommendation for the ability is dependant on the format. If you're doing Single Battles, definitely go for Solid Rock. If you're doing Doubles, consider whether you want to go for Lightning Rod instead, just be careful not to have Rhyperior's teammate rely on Electric moves, otherwise Rhyperior will just absorb your own Pokémon's moves and that's no good.