Nintendo Switch (previously NX)

spronk said:

they are ultra weeb games mixed with 2000s style MMO simple quests (but all single player, no multiplayer at all). i kinda like it, but its definitely an acquired taste. I tend to get bored playing after an hour or so in a session, which is honestly perfect for me as i'm baby sitting grandkids.

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Yeah, the Xenoblade games aren't really my style, they're pretty weeby indeed. Here's my unpopular opinion on them (considering most people like the first one) -

Xenoblade - A fairly typical linear JRPG with lots of melodrama. Wasn't really into it. Rewards you heavily for doing all the optional content, so as someone who wasn't into it enough to do optional content, I kept falling behind on levels and having to grind. The story is good and I like the characters, but all in all I found it very overrated. It was hurt by two things: A) Having nothing to do with the earlier Xeno games (Gears and Saga) and not even any functional similarities. B) Being on the then-outdated Wii instead of an actual HD system, so it looked meh despite the amazing art direction. The Switch version should fix the second thing at least.

Xenoblade X - Was significantly more into this one, since it has mechs/gears ala XG. Totally different from the others, you make your own character and are set loose to explore a giant open world. The mechs don't become a thing until fairly late in the game. Game feels kinda soulless compared to the others, but it also gives you tons of freedom.

Xenoblade 2 - My favorite of the series thus far, I actually got a lot out of this one. The music and story and general vibe all reminded me quite a bit of Xenogears, only without the mechs. There's some really annoying shit in the lategame like how your characters get Pokemon-esque HMs and they become a requirement at some point, meaning the game grinds to a halt if you missed something that leveled an ability enough to open a door or something. However that's the game's only real weakness. Game is also the sexiest in the series, with lots of bobs and legs on display with the various hot-ass outfits the women wear. However be warned that there's also a lot of anime bullshit like hostile women and weebyness.

Torna the Golden Country - XB2's DLC is basically its own game, and had every opportunity to be fantastic. I actually liked it more than XB2 for the first ten hours or so. However they completely fuck it up at the end by locking off the final chapter behind doing basically all of the sidequests. Have to do like 48 of them total, and the sidequests themselves are gated off into these blocks. The whole thing is a massive pain in the ass to deal with and kills all of the game's momentum in the 11th hour. Went from being my favorite thing in the Blade series to my least-favorite thing.

Xenoblade 3 - Haven't played it yet. The characters and their outfits all seem bland and generic, like they decided to make everyone look the same rather than stand out, and I think the outfits might all be genderless weirdness (after how much XB2 got blasted for having sexy women in it).

Anyway those are my unpopular opinions. Xenoblade 2 is worth playing if one likes Xenogears a lot. Xenoblade X is worth playing if one specifically likes the mech element of Xenogears a lot. Xenoblade 1 is worth playing if one wants to just start at the beginning. Torna they just kinda fucked up. Xenoblade X is totally different from the rest, has no real bearing on anything, and is a bit of an odd man out, so playing XB 1/2/3 makes sense if someone doesn't have all the time in the world and just wants to get to the point.

If anyone's got any advice on Xenoblade 3 feel free to post it, since it's at the top of my "still need to play" shortlist with Breath of the Wild and I'm sure I'll get to it sooner or later. Would be sooner if it excited me, which it didn't from what little I played of it.

Yeah performance is ass.

NIntendo kiss ass reviews.

Switch 2 is a pile of shit VRR issues abound between portable and docked which they probably won't be ever to fix because they use shit components.

Vorph said:

The SD Express talk from yesterday got me thinking about BC again. First thought was, "I'm glad almost my entire Switch collection is physical, so if/when I get a Switch 2 I don't need to give a shit about cards that are as retardedly overpriced as Vita/Series X, since what I do own for digital right now would easily fit in the internal storage." Second thought was, "Hold on, what does that mean for load times........" After checking into it, there's still no way to install physical cartridge games to internal/SD storage. Switch 2 carts appear to range from about 15-50% slower load times compared to digital installs. Switch 1 carts take about double the time to load compared to a digital install. That's kind of weird actually; SD Express reads should be several times faster than old micro SD tech, but the Switch 2 clearly isn't able to even come close to utilizing that potential (I guess that's why tests with the cheap and "slow" Onn EX cards show little to no difference between them and the crazy expensive ones from name brands).

It really sucks that they didn't implement some way to copy the data to console storage and just check the presence of the cart for DRM purposes.

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That would require minimal effort. They cannot even get proper VRR to function which my Dog knows how to implement correctly.

Noodleface said:

I loved XC1 and XC2. XC3 was trash. XCX I couldn't even finish on switch 1 hardware.

XC2 is my favorite by far.

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XC2 is really good and generally underrated (then again I think most of the folks shitting on it online just don't like that the women in it show a lot of skin).

XC3 seems to be generally not very well-liked which is a bad sign for me going into it. Then again, most of the people who don't like XC3 also tend to love XC1, which I wasn't crazy about.

In other Switch news, anyone playing Donkey Kong Bananza? Hearing it's basically the Switch 2 launch centerpiece that wasn't. Tried to pick it up at Best Buy, was told I had to order it for home delivery. They're really doing their best to put their physical stores out of business, huh? Anyway I ordered it, still waiting, meanwhile the physical store has them on the shelves again. Whole thing is comically idiotic, not sure why they didn't just get one out of the back, or tell me to come back the next day or something.

Malakriss said:

Since search is working i'll reference what i said about XC3 before


I'm not sure if they patched / improved class mechanics but when XC3 launched being higher level than enemies made unlocking new classes a PITA.

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Sounds like Dragon Quest 6 and 7, which had a class system with a lot of potential, but kinda fucked it up by giving each area a "level cap" where you wouldn't gain any class levels if your character level was above a certain point. It made the class system turn into a pain in the ass later on when you'd have, say, two characters at level 30, one at 26, one at 20, and would be in areas where the cap on gaining class exp would be like, 23, or 27, so you ended up with your characters raising their class levels totally unevenly later on.

I preferred DQ3's way of handling classes, even if there was a lot less to it. Can't remember what DQ9 (the other one with classes) did.

Crisco said:

Picked this up today. Heard the mario 3d team made it so figure it can't be that bad.

Made it through the tutorial level and it controls great and oddly feel like i had to smash everything the first half hour or so. Never played minecraft so can't comment if that is the same feeling but just tearing thru a level was fun enough. Feel from here out I will less focus on carnage and more on the gameplay etc.

Got at costco for 62 bucks, seems worth it. Heard enough about the games not having the game on it and couldn't remember what to look for at the store. Was happy it booted up when I skipped the day 1 patch.

Think the trailer had different stuff could hop on your shoulder. Looking forward to see where they went with mechanics and if it can last a whole game.

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If the Mario 3D World team made it, is it like Bowser's Fury?

Bowser's Fury was REALLY good (for what was essentially a bonus game they made) and used some new ideas, like an open world. There were 100 shines and they were all over the place. I found the game more fun/interesting than Mario Odyssey.