What are you playing on your Switch?

Monster Boy is a fantastic game that has a ridiculous price tag. I tried wonder boy before and loved the premise but it lacked the QoL improvements I needed to push through. Monster boy is all that and more. Wonderful.

I'll give headphones a go on Transistor, sure. Thus far Monster Boy's beating it on soundtracks though - the beach tune is so hummable. But yes, get it on sale.

I've been playing some Pac Man Championship Edition Plus 2P Extra Words Punchy Title because it was super reduced in the spring sale so only cost about £4 (and with points to spend I got it for £2.95) - it's surprisingly good! I've never owned a Pac Man game before and am pleasantly surprised by the way they've modernised it. Compulsive playing! Not sure I'd pay full price for it but that's just because it's discounted reasonably regularly - there seems to be quite a lot to it. Haven't tried local multiplayer (because the world right now) but looking forward to giving that a bash too.

Not got a lot to say about Pac-Man (the specific example or in general, being bobbins at it aged four or so put me off it for life), sorry.  Instead, I've dipped a toe back into the waters of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and... I might sadly be coming around to Andy's point of view.

It's not the combat so much, not at this stage anyway: I'm actually pretty fond of the weird little hybrid system.  It's the dungeons.  They aren't terribly well-designed, but that's par for the course for the genre so I'm not too annoyed; and they're pretty to boot.  However, the latest two dungeons I've tried both have a horrible combination of a encounters it's all but impossible to avoid and are pretty bloody numerous, enemies that slash off a surprising amount of health, enemies that regenerate the moment your back is turned, a flee command that's as reliable as Jay's game completion likelihood, and the 'right' route (so therefore the last one you want to take to raid the dungeon's item stash) being really unclear.  They've been unfun slogs that do a lot to counteract the undeniable charm of the game.  

Someone on GRcade said that it does get better, but I think they might mostly have been talking about the combat.  Can anyone here (not Andy presumably) weigh in?

I've played a little Pacman CE in arcades and it's pretty fun.
Even more fun are the occasional physical Pacman and Pong cabinets I see: little models moving around animatronically in a glass case. Great stuff.

Hmm I feel I'm the other side of Andy as I thought NNK was great throughout.

However I am noticing and I might be wrong but haven't you played a few RPG'S in recent times NNK, TMS, DQXI, FFIX (the best one), Tales of Vesperia (the best one? Symphonia?), Transistor, Digimon with only Digimon the likely least acclaimed being the one you got on with (your 7 sounds about right though).

Now those are from various devs with various battle system etc that I could maybe see someone not liking the Tales series for instance (I think Andy doesn't like Tales but he likes RPG'S as a whole) because of the combat system or something else, even myself I've talked about Xenoblade that might just be the RPG series I don't like out of many I do.

Where this seems more to me that you might just like Pokémon and Xenoblade, I was going to say the Mario one's as well but seen what you think of Sticker Star etc. I can't really remember what you thought of Octopath but don't think it was that positive either.

Basically you're now Cappa

How very dare you.

It's an interesting claim, though.  While I wouldn't say that I was over-critical of all those JRPGs you mentioned (I gave Octopath a 6/10, which indicates slightly positive; I've still got time for Transistor; and I don't think the Paper Mario series can be treated in the same breath since it's barely an RPG series these days), I think you might be right that I'm bouncing off them at an increased rate.  

To look at each in turn:

Yep, there's definitely a theme there (dungeons, unevolved battle systems), but I think there's a broader point.  At a time when I'm busier than ever, I think I don't have the patience I once did for a 100h adventure that's not going to respect said patience.  That means dull dungeons, random battles with high encounter rates, battle systems that haven't changed in decades (looking at you DQXI), and also the slow starts that JRPGs are notorious for.  I don't mind a talky adventure if the dialogue's good (see Nia and Drippy's voice acting, or my fave TTYD's entertaining characterisation); but when it actually gets down to the gameplay, a lot of JRPGs don't really seem to respect the player's time.  

Bottom line is: give me a fun battle system and I'll probably play your RPG, so long as you don't stuff the battles down my throat.  DQXI and TMS fall down on the former, whereas NNK and Octopath fall down on the latter.  FFIX is an older JRPG and, however good its plot may be, stuffs both angles.

But anyway, enough of this JRPG pish.  I'm going to play a football game with a team logo that's a crudely drawn walloper.

I guess it's good you've noticed a theme but it is a lot of different series etc and I think what you're saying is common in the genre like I don't even know from what you're saying if you'd like Persona 4 or even 5 (used as a example as highly thought off and seem to want on Switch) if they came to Switch.

Does though make me intrigued what you'll think of Bravely Default II.

Balladeer wrote:

But anyway, enough of this JRPG pish.  I'm going to play a football game with a team logo that's a crudely drawn walloper.

You should try something different to JRPGs though. I know you've said '(you) know what (you) like!', but nothing what you've typed makes it sound like you enjoy them much, if at all.

Cappa put it better than me

Maybe play a nice platformer like Super Lucky Tale

masofdas wrote:

Does though make me intrigued what you'll think of Bravely Default II.

The Bravely series avoids both of those issues.  The Brave-Default system, combined with a rigorously implemented and interesting job system, sorts the battling side; and you can alter the battle frequency, including reducing it to nought.  It's an old-style JRPG series done right that really highlights where Dragon Quest XI is going wrong.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

You should try something different to JRPGs though. I know you've said '(you) know what (you) like!', but nothing what you've typed makes it sound like you enjoy them much, if at all.

My main games at the moment are Animal Crossing and a Metroidvania (I've kind of got into Monster Boy - it's just so darn charming), and I wouldn't have Transistor/Tales/NNK if they weren't at a huge discount/co-op enabled to play with The Lady/something I'd enjoyed when I played it for the first time on the PS3 ages ago (respectively).  It's fair to say that I'm scaling back on the genre.  However, I do fundamentally like the whole 'numbers go up' thing, and seeing my fighters develop and gain new skills.  I reckon I do still like JRPGs if they're done right!  See comment above.

masofdas wrote:

Maybe play a nice platformer like Super Lucky Tale

You and that game, Mas...

...except, er, I was thinking about SLT earlier today independently of this.  I reckon it might well be my next purchase once I finish or formally retire my next game.

Because Super Lucky is good

What you're saying about done right I sort feel about FPS as I've said before back during the OG Xbox then into the 360 ear that's all I played and I played some games of questionable quality.

Now I barely play the genre and even ones like DOOM 2016 which people seem to love, I've played first two levels or so and wasn't overly fussed. Oddly I did just start playing an FPS and can see me playing maybe one or two more like Halo this year that sort I feel like Cappa with Pokemon it's a JRPG he likes and Halo is an FPS I like but maybe not the genre as a whole any more.

On playing Switch, it's still Animal Crossing mainly but did try the Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel III Demo to keep on the JRPG topic. That series from the outside I feel is one that doesn't review that well but people play love and seem to have a passion for the series.

The demo hasn't sold me on the game, the combat was neat enough yet I seemed to be chucked right into it and the worst thing was the text I just couldn't read any of it. So I might have been told have combat works, just I wouldn't know, you may go well you're playing on Switch Lite Mas it's your own fault still I feel stuff like that should be optimized for what I'm playing on.

I do have the first game on VITA that I might see what that's like and if that's readable then I do feel it's a bad job as that's a smaller screen.

Also, it looked dated, it was fine on the smaller screen of the Lite but on a TV I'm not so sure.

'Numbers go up', developing characters, gaining skills...that's FIFA Career Mode there.

I'm probably similar to Balla in thinking of myself as a fan of JRPGs, with some of my favourite games of all time being JRPGs, but actually persevering with very few. I think it's the game length - much easier to see an average 5 hours shooter campaign (or whatever) through than a 60 hour jrpg. It's like sitting through an okay film versus sitting through multiple series of an okay tv show - the former is much more likely.

There's a lot of truth in that. Recently I finished (sorry Mas) The Gardens Between despite thinking it was a solid 5/10 because it was short. You wouldn't see me doing that with a JRPG unless I had very little else to do. I could probably take one or two more of NNK's dungeons, but we all know it'll be a lot more than that.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

'Numbers go up', developing characters, gaining skills...that's FIFA Career Mode there.

It also really helps if JRPGs have likeable relatable characters in.

Anyway, I think the next game that I'm really going to get sucked into is Monster Boy in any case. It's got past the point where I'm thinking it's pretty with underwhelming gameplay, and into the point where it's feeling really good to play. Unlocking a couple of transformations (I'm loving the tiny angry snake!) has opened the world up really nicely in a hugely satisfying way. There's huge amounts of time for it to poop the bed, but at the moment it's a game where, if I had more time and less to play, I could see myself 100%-ing it. Belting music too, which never hurts.

Makes sense but the RPG's that I used as a example's objective as it can be with a Metacritic, not just my Subjective view NNK then them being 5's.

masofdas wrote:

Cappa put it better than me

Maybe play a nice platformer like Super Lucky Tale

This. I don't think I praised it as much as I should have at the time, it's just so pleasant to play and it's probably about the right length, doesn't outstay it's welcome so manages to do enough new stuff and it does it well.

Wow.

Hollow Knight is good isn't it? I was up until 3am determined to beat a boss (that one with the needle on a string) and whilst challenging, it was SO rewarding. I never really explored the Metroidvania genre outside of Steamworld Dig, but Hollow Knight is something special. I heard it was good, but 6 hours in, I can't wait to chip away some more.

I need to get back to that at some point. I got a fair ways in, beat a couple of bosses, but would probably need to start again at this point. Even though I let it slide it was exactly as you say, a real cracker.

Buskalilly wrote:

masofdas wrote:

objective as it can be with a Metacritic

DING, DING, DING!

gjones wrote:

Wow.

Hollow Knight is good isn't it? I was up until 3am determined to beat a boss (that one with the needle on a string) and whilst challenging, it was SO rewarding. I never really explored the Metroidvania genre outside of Steamworld Dig, but Hollow Knight is something special. I heard it was good, but 6 hours in, I can't wait to chip away some more.

Oh yes

Am I missing something, I know Meta still subjective but thinking more about take a BotW my Subjective view it's shite but the Majority of people's view of is it's best game ever, that what saying about the RPG's.

masofdas wrote:

take a BotW my Subjective view it's shite

I don't think I've ever heard Breath of the Wild be called 'shite'. In fact, in no situation can it realistically be considered 'shite'. Objective or subjective, because mechanically and aesthetically, it's a expertly crafted achievement. Most people that didn't praise it, either didn't like the open-worldy take on Zelda, or had quibbles with parts of the game (ie. the weapons).

Well you have now

I'm still playing Animal Crossing, also gone back and played some more Murder by Numbers think I'm close to doing case 2.

Calling BOTW shite is absolute hyperbole