Switch Discussion Thread

[ESauced]

Oh I’ll definiteky be getting the Arcade Punchout when it comes out too. I’ll also probably pick up Mario Bros at some point.

It’s funny that they’re not releasing the arcade Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr in this series.

[Reprise]

So I finally picked up Xenoblade Chronicles at the weekend, since it was reduced on Amazon, and so far I'm really glad I did. I'm not too far, but just beat the first boss after you go on your first proper mission before

there's some sword, some weird girl and then that dude kills you for some reason and you wake up in a field (yeah... you can tell I'm paying attention to the story here. Woops.

I was hesitant to buy it, as I mentioned before that I struggled to get into the Wii original and X on the Wii U, but for whatever reason this one is clicking more with me so far. I think part of it is the Japanese language option (oh man, is that a saviour!), as I hated the voices in the Wii original and have heard they're just as bad in this one. The other part is the controls and gameplay mechanics seem more streamlined and finally, the story is engaging (even though I admit above that I obviously haven't followed it well enough) and that's good, since my main criticism of X was it's lackluster, borderline non-existent story.

[Xeogred]

Xenoblade 1 was dual audio too though...

Glad you're liking 2 (I'm assuming you mean that one, not sure if you specified though). It has the best gameplay by far. Although I haven't played X, it looks more similar to XBC's system with you having to cycle through a bar to get through specials. Streamlining this all down to just different buttons is a game changer. I sunk 80 hours into 2 straight and never got bored, absolutely loved it.

My suggestions:
- Sell accessories when you have more than 3 of a type
- In Enhance Arts, use X to switch in and out the 4th ability (I didn't know about this until the END OF THE GAME, apparently others on reddit didn't either haha)
- Also in the previous menu use X to use items (rare) for WP
- Get timing of attacks down, Arts can be timed too. It gets pretty fun and will boost your affinity/combos quicker.

I never successfully had a party setup or whatever to do this whole breakdown but...
Break -> Topple -> Launch -> Smash

I usually just toppled guys which was pretty easy.

Also Gormott Province can be pretty intimidating, but try not to stress over it too much. It's the biggest area in the game. The rest are a bit condensed and it's still a linear structure for the main story, which I prefer. Sounds like X is more truly open world which doesn't really excite me.

Might want to bookmark this for when you get to chapter ~3-4, some stuff you can do to permanently increase your walk speed.


Beat this game like a month ago and still can't stop thinking about it. It has some tough walls once or twice in the story, myself and others can probably help you if it comes to that. There might be a few things to look up from time to time, but the research and effort was totally worth the amazing experience. But regardless I absolutely loved this game and hope you dig it. As my Nier Automata brother, I'm sure you'll love this OST too. One of the best casts of characters ever, my favorite next to Yakuza 0 for something I've played more recently. I think you will be surprised by the awesome pacing of the story, if you're already liking it it's pretty much nonstop awesomeness and always progressing at a good pace. There are things I still like about the first game more, but 2's intro is definitely better and I liked the pacing more.

[Segata]

Switch is the fastest selling console of all time now in its first 10 months. Pretty insane. 14.86 million. Mario Odyssey sold 9 million. Zelda is closing in on 7 million and Xenoblade 2 sold over 1 million. A first for Xenoblade series and did it in a month.

[Reprise]

Awesome, it sounds like I'm going to really enjoy the game the more I play. Thank you for all the tips Xeogred! I'm sure that's all going to come in useful, as I'm certainly struggling to keep up with the combat tips and tutorials the game throws your way (I understand the special arts, but didn't really understand the combos it mentioned after that).

As my Nier Automata brother, I'm sure you'll love this OST too.

Yeah, I love the OST! Funny you mention Nier Automata as I immediately thought of that game's OST when I heard some of the music in XC2.

Edit: Also, how the hell did I not realise that the first game had the Japanese language track!?

[dsheinem]

The Switch has taken 10 months to surpass lifetime Wii U sales: http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/ni ... 202682831/

[Stark]

The Switch has taken 10 months to surpass lifetime Wii U sales: http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/ni ... 202682831/

Pretty crazy, but shouldn't be surprising, it's the best Nintendo console since the SNES.

[Tanooki]

Yeah it really isn't. Nintendo may have been kind of panned before it arrived greatly due to the failing of the WiiU, but also because they killed off their console R&D/dev tems and merged it into the other they had for handheld as some big mistake. Nintendo saw the writing on the wall beyond WiiU that consoles are becoming more of a hard sell and are just morphing into closed PCs anyway basically as more and more 3rd parties just put their best efforts on PC (Steam) anyway. Handheld was their backbone, their true spine since the GB, and despite still losing cash the 3DS was doing so well in the WiiU years it was a hell of a lifeboat against cataclysmic financial failure for them.

The Japanese on tech are always a good jump ahead of us here and more and more were going mobile in steps with phones, tablets, and gaming a generation before us, and they took the jump and did it with the Switch and Nvidia being the key with their Shield tech. You get a PS3 or so level output in a little flat easy to go (or not with HDMI) design and it works. Not only did it work, it worked well, so well beyond even their own expectations time and again with upwards revised outlooks a total 180 from the circling the bowl lowering for years on WiiU.

I think the bigger story here actually considering who they are is not how long it took them to utterly destroy their two biggest home system failures (VB and WiiU) but how long until their profitable good stuff that didn't give them red numbers on the financials in the past are overcome.

Here's a fun chart to follow. Anyone want to place harmless bets on when the nexts on this list get kicked off?

The Switch using NCL's own site lists 1/1/18 14.86M units sold so far.

21.74M - Gamecube
32.93M - Nintendo 64
49.10M - Super Nintendo
61.91M - Nintendo
71.99M - Nintendo 3DS (As of 1/1/18)
81.51M - Game Boy Advance
101.63M - Wii
118.69M - Game Boy/Pocket/Color
154.02M - Nintendo DS

Just for non-Nintendo refernce PS2 still on top, just barely, at just under 155M units sold.

[marurun]

The Japanese on tech are always a good jump ahead of us here and more and more were going mobile in steps with phones, tablets, and gaming a generation before us, and they took the jump and did it with the Switch and Nvidia being the key with their Shield tech..

That old chestnut that the Japanese have better/more tech than we do hasn't been accurate for at least a decade, probably longer. I mean, the Switch is using tech from a company headquartered in CA. None of the current consoles use core tech from any Japanese companies, AFAIK. And honestly, the mobile transition occurred in Japan early because so many Japanese people live in urban environments with limited space. You can't really accrue stuff. In fact, all "traditional" consoles have been slipping in sales in Japan for some time now. The 6th generation was the last time consoles really had a safe market in Japan. That's part of why Japanese devs lost a lot of money and presence during the 7th generation. Consoles just weren't selling well in Japan, and those developers really struggled to develop games that were westward-looking. That focus on mobile tech was a focus on the Japanese market. And then Apple released the iPhone and turned the West into the land of the smartphone, and actually caught a lot of those Japanese companies off-guard. With Android following, native Japanese mobile platforms are largely dead.

The Switch, being a console/portable crossover console, is really something of a compromise that recognizes the reality of the console market in Japan and attempts a compromise vision in regards to the rest of the world. The West, with it's obsession with large screens, can play the Switch on a TV, but Japan, with its mobile-heavy market, can continue to view the Switch as a portable.

[Segata]

Japan still has the 1up on the west on robots and those suits they wear to lift the elderly in and out of bed.