Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@LtSarge I loved the first Baten Kaitos back on the GameCube and hope it holds up. The battle system uses cards randomly drawn from a deck, so takes a little getting used to. It’s fast paced and quite unique, but also very enjoyable. Everything in battle uses cards, even potions and consumable food, and some cards change over time. Food/drink such as milk can go off: I don’t remember exactly, so may be wrong, but I think it could then be used to poison enemies. The visuals use beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, which was unusual by then, but meant that more fantastical and detailed themes could be used. I also remember the music being quite nice. Hopefully the backgrounds have been nicely upscaled! One thing I didn’t like was the voice acting, as it sounded like it had been recorded using a phone from 1910 with a thermal sock covering the mouthpiece. In the original it could be turned off completely.

I haven’t played the second one, which is a prequel (although I guess needs to be played second as it will spoil things), but people seemed to like it. Apparently the battle system was simplified a bit.

@Bentleyma Considering how their older games struggled with other publishers, I'm willing to bet they enjoy the security and resources that come with being a first-party Nintendo dev.

Besides, even if it means needing to get a bit more creative with the technology, they're able to stand out on the system relatively easily. XC3 would be a good-looking but not visually remarkable game on Playstation or Xbox. On Switch, though, it really stands out.

btw how're you liking it so far? Seems like you got a fair bit further.

@Ralizah Yeah as it is now it wouldn’t be visually remarkable, but if Nintendo had a more powerful console then it would look a lot better. The reason it looks the way it does is because of the Switch’s specs.

I’m enjoying it a lot. My only complaint so far is lack of proper towns. Every settlement I’ve come across so far is only a camp. I’ve just reached chapter 3, so there could be some decent towns ahead of me for all I know.

@Bentleyma OK, yeah, if that's your main complaint, just keep playing.

I'm actually not in a huge rush for Nintendo to update their specs significantly, since I don't really want developers to chase significantly better graphics for the system. A big reason we're still able to have this consistent pipeline of quality exclusives every year is, IMO, at least partially because of how much more visually simple Switch games are. Sort of like with older consoles, it just takes less time to develop these games.

My hope with the Switch 2 is that exclusives stay largely the same in terms of visual detail, but they hit 60fps consistently and upscaling tech makes them look nice and clean on both the tablet and higher-res TVs. Meanwhile, the beefier tech will make third-party ports of big games easier to handle.

But I don't want a situation where, like, XC4, or whatever they make next, takes significantly longer to develop, leading to fewer games on the system overall.

@mookysam Your description of the series makes me want to play it even more! It sounds like a rather unique JRPG, at least for its time.

Regarding the voice acting, apparently the remasters will only have Japanese VOs. So hopefully that version was better recorded.

@Ralizah I think Nintendo need to improve more than performance and resolution. I think most people will be disappointed if their new console turns out to basically be a Switch Pro. I think we’ll be getting a console with similar specs to a PS4, which I’m ok with. Games like Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted 4 still look amazing if you ask me. I agree that these games will probably take longer to make as a result of the increased fidelity, but I think Nintendo has enough developers under their belt that there will still be a consistent release of Nintendo games.