General Switch Discussion

[Jonnas]

@Ganepark32 For a Final Fantasy recommendation, I'd easily go with Final Fantasy IX. It was my first-ever RPG... and definitely in Top 3 RPGs ever.

FFXII I haven't played, sadly, so I can't give an opinion on it.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Jonnas

[Aperson]

I know it's getting remade, but the original FFVII is still one of the strongest games in the series. I'd say it's among the top three entires in the entire franchise. Final Fantasy IX is another entry on the Switch that is very highly rated. FFX has a good story but I really don't like the map design in that game. It's still a good game overall though.

 

If there is any FF game I would recommend above any other it's my all time favourte game, Final Fantasy VI. VERY good game, hits so many beats on the right note, the characters are great, Kefka is one of the best villains in video gaming ever and the team building in terms of party members you can do in this game is one of the best in the series with 14 different party members by the end of the game and no-one is ever locked in to the point where one character is much higher levelled than the other. The only problem is that this game is not available on the Switch... there is a mobile version but that version has some problems regarding DRM and the graphics look a bit weird compared to the original game. The original graphic style I think is only available as an experience on older consoles, with the GBA version being the most complete version with extra content and an additional post-game dungeon.

 

Also, you can suplex a train, you can't do that in any other Final Fantasy game. Enough said.

[Glen-i]

9 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

If there is any FF game I would recommend above any other it's my all time favourte game, Final Fantasy VI.

[Ganepark32]

Thanks for the input everyone. As I say, as someone who has only had very fleeting experience with the mainline Final Fantasy games, and one of supposedly the weaker entries in 13, it's a bit daunting to know where would be a good place to jump in.

I think I'll possibly look to try and grab X/X-2 rather than 12 if the combat system in the latter is kind of MMO like and because I'd rather have a more character focused narrative go start with. Shame that it's as expensive as it is for them on the Switch when they're less than half the price on the PS4 but I'm wanting something long form for the Switch given that there's not much in the horizon that I'm looking forward to (and because I've got the demo for FF7 Remake downloaded and ready to go on the PS4 so I may end up picking that up if I enjoy what I play there).

I'll definitely give a look in to some of the older titles, such as 8 and 9, down the line though. See how I get on and go from there.

[Sheikah]

Thanks for the input everyone. As I say, as someone who has only had very fleeting experience with the mainline Final Fantasy games, and one of supposedly the weaker entries in 13, it's a bit daunting to know where would be a good place to jump in.
I think I'll possibly look to try and grab X/X-2 rather than 12 if the combat system in the latter is kind of MMO like and because I'd rather have a more character focused narrative go start with. Shame that it's as expensive as it is for them on the Switch when they're less than half the price on the PS4 but I'm wanting something long form for the Switch given that there's not much in the horizon that I'm looking forward to (and because I've got the demo for FF7 Remake downloaded and ready to go on the PS4 so I may end up picking that up if I enjoy what I play there).
I'll definitely give a look in to some of the older titles, such as 8 and 9, down the line though. See how I get on and go from there.

I'd agree with others to start with FFIX. FFX is great but it's really quite different in feel to the PlayStation era Final Fantasy games, which are all essential plays in my opinion. FFIX is also a lot shorter.

[Aperson]

FFXII is kind of like Xenoblade before Xenoblade in some ways, the styles are somewhat similar although the way battles play out are quite different. I got it on Switch as I had already played or experienced most of the strongest entries in the franchise already by that point.

 

Final Fantasy really reached it's peak quality in the 1990s. The ATB era in general is when the games in general got really good, starting with Final Fantasy IV. I haven't played V but I hear that that game is very much focused around the job system and if you're not invested in that there isn't much else.

 

FFVIII is generally considered to be one of the weaker entries in the series though it still has it's own fanbase. Unfortunately the game's unconventional mechanics such as the Junctioning system and Drawing were not as refined and user friendly as previous mechanics resulting in an overly convoluted game that actively discourages levelling up. Also the story has a few plotholes and the romance the story is based around feels rather unnatural. Soundtrack is still amazing though... then again throughout all of Uematsu's Final Fantasy games the general quality of the soundtracks have been excellent. I haven't played the game personally though I did watch a complete playthrough on Youtube of the game... it was at the time where I was under the grounds of the fact that I was a Nintendo only gamer and wasn't likely to get to experience the game because of it, not taking remake opportunities into account in the future.

 

The same thing unfortunately happened with FFIX and I really regret that as that is a game I would have loved to have played spoiler free without knowing what happened... but no, I just had to watch that game on Youtube.

 

X's still a solid game and the quality is overall still good but in my opinion it's the start of the series' decline. A lot of people like X though and it does have a lot going for it.

 

There are a lot of videos on which game to play first that you can find on Youtube mind:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drahkon]

One of the two DLCs for Tangledeep will be coming to Switch for free  According to the dev on reddit it is set to release around the 26th of March (along with the other DLC which will probably be 5 bucks). Good. Gives me time for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX and Super Mario Maker 2  

The music in the trailer is awesome. 

[Dcubed]

Err...

https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/09/reggie-fils-aime-gamestop/

What a plot twist!

 

I guess he sees it as a fun challenge? I mean, if anyone can turn them around; it's this guy.

[Ike]

24 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Err...

https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/09/reggie-fils-aime-gamestop/

What a plot twist!

 

I guess he sees it as a fun challenge? I mean, if anyone can turn them around; it's this guy.

GameStop to publish Mother 3 confirmed!1!

Spoiler

 

[Nicktendo]

Good luck to him. Even though Gamestop have a horrible reputation, if anyone can turn them around, it's Reggie. He's been in the business long enough. As much as I hate Game in the UK, it'll be a sad day when they finally depart. The world is definitely better with dedicated game shops, no matter how crappy they are. I think they just haven't adjusted with the times and their pricing models certainly leave a lot to be desired. I'm intrigued how this will turn out, and slightly hopeful he can do something positive. 

[MindFreak]

News from Nintendo have been really slow the past month. Next to nothing has been announced and communication on their Twitter is just meaningless. It seems like a Direct has been planned but scrapped and instead of announcing stuff from it, they just keep it to themselves.

I remember back when Iwata died, there also was a news drought and suddenly, a few games were announced out of the blue - it was probably a Direct that had been cancelled. Why hasn't that been the case now, then? And if the Direct is not cancelled, why don't they publish it? Occam's razor implies that it's probably because they haven't got enough content and games to announce to warrant a Direct (the simplest solution) but I certainly hope that isn't the case. What about the Direct Mini that suddenly released out of nowhere two years ago? I didn't like the surprise format they went with there but at least there were news.

[Ronnie]

13 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

It seems like a Direct has been planned but scrapped and instead of announcing stuff from it, they just keep it to themselves.

Where is this coming from?

They had that big Animal Crossing Direct a couple of weeks ago. That game will likely sell 15 million copies, they probably want that out the door first. Or a Direct will show up next week, who knows.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Ronnie

[Dcubed]

Well, we can say with certainty that some sort of announcement HAS to be happening within the next week or so; because Nintendo currently have zero first party titles with a release date after Animal Crossing New Horizons launches...

 

They aren't going to leave their Switch audience hanging with literally nothing to look forward to.  Even if it isn't a full blown Direct, I fully expect something to be announced very shortly (probably a release date for Xenoblade Definitive Edition next - and I'm gonna guess that it's slated for May).

[Helmsly]

It does seem very odd that we've not had a main Direct since September 4th, a good six months ago.

I certainly get the feeling that a Direct was planned to have come out at some point and was delayed/cancelled for some reason. Even in the past when they've had Mini directs that focused on one game, there were still main directs in the months after.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Helmsly

[Ronnie]

As an aside, I ordered an Animal Crossing Switch (because I'm weak and need those joy con colours), and so I'm planning on selling my current launch Switch + the Animal Crossing dock + a couple of joy con... if anyone on here is interested. I need to work out a price for eBay but I was thinking like £200 for both. Maybe that's too much, not sure.

[MindFreak]

38 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Where is this coming from?

They had that big Animal Crossing Direct a couple of weeks ago. That game will likely sell 15 million copies, they probably want that out the door first. Or a Direct will show up next week, who knows.

Speculation from my part.

I don't care about AC - at all. I know, that's on me, but still, they should announce something that could release between now and August. And as Helmsly says:

24 minutes ago, Helmsly said:

Even in the past when they've had Mini directs that focused on one game, there were still main directs in the months after.

I don't think announcing games that come out after AC will hurt the sales of AC.

[Hero-of-Time]

They should drop a Direct today, what with it being Mar10 and all.  

[Helmsly]

I’m assuming Mario themed Lego sets are due to be announced rather then something game related, but pretty cool nonetheless.

[S.C.G]

On 03/03/2020 at 5:21 PM, S.C.G said:

The Nintendo Switch is three years old today.

We were going to have a news article up about this earlier but that didn't happen because I only remembered this afternoon.

However, we were going to post an article this evening and I'd like to include thoughts from our staff and forum members.

If you have a favourite memory from all the time you've owned a Switch, maybe a paragraph or two that you'd like to see included in the article, then please post it in here and we'll include it as part of a general celebratory news post; or if there's anything you'd like to see improve with the Switch, post that instead.

All comments welcome.

The same as this time last week, except this week it's MAR10 Day!

Any favourite Mario memories? Or anything to do with MAR10 Day.

Will get the finished article uploaded later with a list of Mario games etc and any comments which are in this thread related to Mario.

[S.C.G]

Happy MAR10 Day from N-Europe

In the absence of anything else, I decided to trawl through our past reviews, firstly looking for reasonably high-scoring or entertaining reviews...

...then I thought it would be good to do the same for old editions of VC Weekly to fill in some of the gaps for older Mario games.

I started at #400 and worked back to #246 as that's as far back as I can go to get most of the reviews, after that it's a bit of a mess, something I'll address at some point.

Anyway, enjoy... highlights for me were my review of Mario Smash Football or how not to review a Football game.

(It's from 2006... so make of that what you will, I'd like to think that I've written a few better reviews since then)

Also it was interesting going back through some of the later editions of VC Weekly as it's something I really very much used to enjoy writing.

Happy Mario Day and if you've got any anecdotes about Mario games from any point in time then why not share them?

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Nintendo Direct rumours seem to be cropping up at various places.

Quote

The UK-based retailer GAME may have lifted the lid on a Nintendo Direct presentation ahead of schedule. Now, to add to this, VentureBeat staff writer, reporter and verified Twitter user Jeff Grubb has published an article claiming a Nintendo Indie World video will "likely" be broadcast on 18th March, and a proper Nintendo Direct is expected to follow it on 26th March.

"It’s in the final stages of putting the video presentation together. That’s based on what we’re hearing as well as some other indicators."

So, just to make it clear, not one – but two – video presentations are expected to air before the end of this month. While Jeff says he "can't confirm" the first-party titles that will be shown, he does say the next presentation will take a much "broader" look at Nintendo's upcoming software line-up.

The company is also expected to continue to rely "heavily on remasters and ports" and will bring in more support from third-party publishers and developers. He goes onto state that it's "definitely happening" and thinks we'll hear more about it early next week.

"Nintendo is deep into the process of putting the event together based on what I’ve heard. It has decided many of the third-party games it will include in the event. So it’s definitely happening — and almost certainly before the end of March."

I'll get my Toy Story picture ready.  

[Dufniall]

The coral switch lite is coming to Europe:

 

[Hero-of-Time]

New developments in regards to the lawsuit filed against Nintendo over their joy-cons.

Quote

A federal judge in Washington has rejected Nintendo’s request to have a Nintendo Switch console defect class action lawsuit dismissed.

However, U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly did agree to Nintendo’s request that the claims should be handled in arbitration. Instead of throwing out the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con console class action lawsuit entirely, he merely stayed the case while it undergoes arbitration.

Although the judge sent the case to arbitration, he refused to dismiss the Nintendo Switch drift problem class action lawsuit. Instead, Judge Zilly decided to put it on hold until the outcome of the arbitration had been established.

Per the court’s direction, the customers and Nintendo will file a Joint Status report within 14 days of completing arbitration, or by Dec. 31, 2020, whichever deadline is earlier.

Very happy to see the case not being completely dismissed. It's crazy that they are trying to defend this and are still making joy-cons with the same builds. I think it was @Nicktendo on the latest podcast who mentioned that he watched a few breakdown videos of Switch Lite models and they appear to be just the same builds as normal joy-cons. 

[Nicktendo]

 

[Dcubed]

The fundamental problem is that they’re packing too much into too small a space.  If the sticks weren’t clickable (or were clickable but bigger), they probably wouldn’t be grinding away and drifting.

 

It’s a fundamental design flaw that they currently have no solution for.  Else they would’ve fixed it years ago.

 

Their next console will have to fundamentally redesign the analog stick to get around the problem.  Either it’ll be bigger, non-clickable, or it’ll have to use an entirely new mechanism.