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Post by Nester the Lark on May 30, 2023 18:51:46 GMT -5
Nintendo Force magazine is having a Kickstarter for their first book project called The Impact of Iwata. Thought I'd bring it up because not only does it sound like a good book, but Fry contributed some artwork to it. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 22, 2023 20:50:05 GMT -5
Here's a heartwarming video of Doug Bowser signing a Bowser amiibo for a disabled fan. Looks like this was during the Tears of the Kingdom launch event at the Nintendo Store.
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 17, 2023 8:54:08 GMT -5
So, a few things... Tears of the Kingdom has sold 10 millions units worldwide in three days, making it the fastest selling Zelda game ever. Other things of note: What happens when you give players an unprecedented amount of freedom in a Zelda game? They will: - Crucify, burn, and otherwise cruelly torture Koroks- Reign havoc over Hyrule by building tanks, mechs, and orbital strike laser cannons- And of course, make giant "appendages" ( NSFW) Aside from all that, I mentioned that I was concerned about the absence of Teba in the pre-release trailers. As a fan of the character, I braced myself for the worst. So, I finally made it to the Rito Village, and, well... Spoilers: Teba is alive and well, and he's the new village elder! Phew! That's a relief!  Also, Cristine Vee Valenzuela confirmed the she did, indeed, return to voice Tulin. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 16, 2023 16:37:58 GMT -5
Some former Irem/SNK devs have been joining Twitter lately, and yesterday, they announced that they were collaborating together on a new indie game. It's a side-scrolling run-and-gun tentatively called "Black Finger Jet," and it will mix 2D pixel art with 3D graphics. No gameplay has been revealed, but it's implied that it will be similar to Metal Slug. They're currently looking to expand their team. Official site.Trailer: Currently only announced for Steam with other platforms being considered. I wonder if they're planning a Kickstarter. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 16, 2023 11:09:25 GMT -5
The English version of The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails confirmed for September 19.
At the very least, this will help hold me over while I wait for Ys X (for the next couple of years, probably).
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 14, 2023 16:25:03 GMT -5
I've been playing a whole lot of Tears of the Kingdom the last couple of days, so I've decided to write my first impressions.
So, yeah, Tears of the Kingdom is basically Breath of the Wild 2.0. That's not really a bad thing considering I was still playing BotW as recently as six months ago, so this is just more of that, except bigger and with new stuff.
I'll start with the negatives.
Unfortunately, my concerns about the crafting were warranted. A lot of the puzzles, especially in the new shrines, rely on crafting things, and I don't really enjoy that very much. As much as I ended up not caring for the shrines in BotW, I actually kinda hate them here. I fumble around trying to figure out how to solve the puzzles only to barely eek by, and I feel like I ended up cheesing my way through, which is neither fun nor satisfying.
As we knew, weapon durability is back. The devs' "solution" to the complaints was to add crafting to "fix" the weapons and increase their power and durability. At best, this is just a band-aid, but at worst, well, it's just makes things worse. The problem with the weapon durability was that it was an annoying extra thing to have to fiddle with, and adding crafting just doubles it. On top of that, the in-game explanation for why weapons still break is so weak and contrived that it almost feels like the devs are deliberately insulting people who complained about the weapon durability before.
Finally, I don't find the sky islands particularly interesting. Admittedly, though, I haven't gone back to them once I finished the tutorial area and made it down to the surface, so maybe there's more interesting things happening up there than I'm aware of.
On the positive side, however...
There is an underworld, and it's huge. I was wrong when I assumed that an underworld would not be vast. It's also super creepy, but also really compelling. Getting to it involves jumping down certain cavities in the surface, and it's almost as far below the surface as the sky islands are above it (EDIT: Ok, not that far, but it seems like a long way), so you're plummeting down a really ominous hole for several seconds. (Yeah, it's probably hiding the loading time, but it does a great job giving a feeling of depth.)
The enemy variety is much larger. This was an old complaint about BotW, and it's definitely been addressed.
I like how they've handled the towers this time. In BotW, you had to climb towers and activate them to fill in your map. Here, the towers are in different locations, but you don't have to climb them. You simply enter them, and a mechanism launches you really high into the air so that your "Purah Pad" (this game's version of the Sheikah Slate) can collect data to fill in the map. It's largely a cutscene (although you can use your descent to look for certain things), but soaring into the sky so quickly is fun and exhilarating, and it's the kind of thing that strikes me as very "Nintendo."
So, anyway, I have my positive and negatives thoughts. But I've barely scratched the surface of the game so far, so my opinions on things could change.
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 11, 2023 14:59:15 GMT -5
Here are the last two parts of the interview: Part 4: What makes the game "The Legend of Zelda-like"Part 5: If players think they can do it, they can!I guess my takeaway from Part 4 is that I don't have to worry about being overwhelmed by the crafting aspect. I'm not good at things like that (I ran out of ideas for Mario Maker levels rather quickly, and actually making the levels was tedious), so it's nice to know I can just do the minimum if I want. But then again, I might end up loving the crafting part, so who knows. These interviews also basically confirm what many have suspected: that being able to create your own contraptions was inspired by all the videos fans posted of trying to create things in Breath of the Wild. Apparently, Hidemaro Fujibayashi also liked to do this, and wanted to have better tools for it. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 10, 2023 15:54:05 GMT -5
Oddly (again), there will be a Treehouse Live stream showing gameplay mere hours before the game is actually released.
I don't plan on watching because... well, what's the point? I should be playing it myself very soon anyway. It's a bit too late for me to be interested in something like this.
Additionally, it seems that some major retailers are already breaking street date, and people are already playing legit copies. As of now (two days before release), review embargos aren't even lifted, so there aren't even any "official" reviews available. Just "unofficial" YouTube videos based on pirated copies of the game. (And as for "official" reviews, Nintendo has apparently been really picky with who they sent review copies to.)
I mean, what is Nintendo even thinking? It's like they're trying to maintain some kind of strict control over the game, but in the process, have completely lost all control.
EDIT: Kit & Krysta made a short video discussing the abrupt reveal of dungeons and Nintendo's marketing:
In short, they still think it's the devs that are in control of the marketing but they don't really know what they're doing.
The awkward reveal of the dungeons so close to release has also upset some people that consider it a spoiler.
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 10, 2023 9:20:06 GMT -5
Part 3: A world connected all the way to the skiesThis part confirms something that I and many other fans were hoping to hear: the return of traditional themed dungeons! This gives me reason to feel a little more excited about this game. It feels weird to say that. The game is just two days away, but I've had trouble getting genuinely hyped up for it. I guess it's just me, as clearly most people are really excited for it. I'm sure my mental health plays a part, but also I just haven't heard too many things about this game that I'm enthused for. On that note, is it just me, or has everything leading up to the release of Tears of the Kingdom been a bit of a mess? I know we all assume the game will sell itself, and likely will, but that's kinda my point. This should've been the easiest slam dunk for Nintendo, but somehow, it seems like every little thing around it has been a bit off the rails: the price increase, the weird marketing, the extra early leak that drew a lot more attention to itself than usual, the poor relations with media outlets, and Nintendo's poor handling of it all (which, in turn, leads to it drawing more attention to itself).
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 9, 2023 11:17:34 GMT -5
Here are the first two parts of a new "Ask the Developer" series for Tears of the Kingdom. Part three is due out soon. Part 1: What to change, and what to keepPart 2: Linking handsSo, in part one, they say that it was decided from the beginning that Tears of the Kingdom would use the same world from Breath of the Wild. This is what I've been concerned about. One of the main appeals to me in BotW was exploring a huge, unfamiliar world. I've replayed that game multiple times since then, and I'm so familiar with that world that I can look at a screenshot or see someone else's gameplay and recognize exactly where they are. So, I don't think Tears of the Kingdom will provide me with that same experience, no matter how much they've changed. It's all still built on the same foundation. Not that it will necessarily ruin the game for me, but as of now, I don't expect TotK to hit me as hard as BotW. The sky world (and also, potentially, an underworld) will certainly be a new place to explore, but I don't expect it to be as vast. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 9, 2023 10:25:40 GMT -5
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is at 1.86 million units after eight months, which I think is really good. That's more than what Definitive Edition sold in more than twice the time. (1.68 million after 19 months.)
Fire Emblem Engage is at 1.61 million units. I think that's pretty good, all things considered, but I guess that's less than what Three Houses did in about the same amount of time. (1.61 vs. 2.29 in two months?)
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 8, 2023 11:03:20 GMT -5
Just wanted to post this fan art that I thought YL would appreciate.
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 6, 2023 18:25:55 GMT -5
Thanks, Fry.  It's weird for me to look back at them, because I don't remember writing most of them. (I wrote about Guitar Hero??) So, it feels like someone else wrote them, and I can read them from a completely different perspective. Of course, I can say that about any of my really old forum posts here. It's a trip for me to dig through the archives, find things I don't remember, and think, "Did *I* say that?" |
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 5, 2023 19:10:51 GMT -5
Always good to see you drop in, Fry!
I noticed the new homepage no longer has a link to the forum. Wasn't sure if that was intentional or an oversight.
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Post by Nester the Lark on May 2, 2023 9:53:07 GMT -5
So, I've finished Future Redeemed, and dare I say, I think I like it more than the main game. While it is a prequel, and thus doesn't address the issues I had with the main game's ending, it does improve in other ways.
I can't really say much about the story. A lot of it references not only the main game, but the entire trilogy, so it's basically filled with spoilers. But the way it ties everything together and pays tribute to the rest of the series really makes it feel like a culmination. In some ways, I almost wish *this* was the main game, but I can understand why it was more appropriate for it to be DLC, and let the main game stand on its own.
I love the casts of every Xenoblade game, but I have to say, I think Matthew is a much more interesting, colorful protagonist than Noah. Noah has his moments, but he can feel a little bland. Matthew, however, has a rather strong personality, and his banter with other characters is often quite funny.
If you've watched the trailer, then you know that Shulk and Rex appear in this game, though a good bit older than they were in their original games. They're extremely well handled in terms of making them seem familiar, yet older and more experienced. It was great to have them along for another adventure.
I am, however, a bit disappointed that Rex's original English voice actor wasn't brought back, but I guess they needed someone with a deeper voice. His Japanese voice actor did return, however.
Naturally, a lot of music is brought over from the main game, and even some from Xenoblade: Definitive Edition, but the new original music for Future Redeemed is incredible. It has that awe inspiring "Xenoblade feel" that I felt was missing from the main game's soundtrack, and it stuck with me even when I wasn't playing the game. Also of note is that the final vocal song is performed by Joanne Hogg, who was also the singer for the vocal songs from the original Xenogears and Xenosaga: Episode I.
Similar to Torna, the overall game is more focused and balanced than the main game, but I think that's just an inherent outcome from being a smaller, shorter experience.
Overall, the game is a fitting sendoff for the trilogy's story arc. Indeed, it feels like the end of an era for the entire "Xeno" series, as fans have noticed allusions to "gears" and "saga" as well. But just in terms of Xenoblade, it's definitely something you would want to save for last if you're playing through the whole series.
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