Should I get Minecraft on Switch?

[Gameguy]

If you're going to have a game that's almost entirely focused on the story, the story better be good. That's my take on it. It's basically like those interactive storybooks that came out in the 90's, they can be enjoyable for what they are.

I remember with this Minecraft Story Mode, one of the main characters is a literal pig. Eventually the pig is mortally wounded in some sort of heroic way, and when he finally dies, his body poofs into a literal floating pork chop. It was meant to be taken seriously as a dramatic sad moment. Then pork chop appears. This was not a well made story.

[Nz17]

I remember with this Minecraft Story Mode, one of the main characters is a literal pig. Eventually the pig is mortally wounded in some sort of heroic way, and when he finally dies, his body poofs into a literal floating pork chop. It was meant to be taken seriously as a dramatic sad moment. Then pork chop appears. This was not a well made story.

First of all, a *SPOILER WARNING* would have been appreciated as this occurs very near the end of the game's story. Second, the "poof plus pork chop" is authentic to Minecraft itself. Finally, I agree that even if it was authentic, that it took away from the poignancy of the moment and should have been omitted. When I was playing Minecraft: Story Mode via Netflix, it was difficult not to laugh at the absurdity of that moment, i.e. a serious, grim scene interspersed with a silly thing like that.

[Edmond Dantes]

Still, it all gives a new meaning to "this little piggy went to market"...

So I went ahead and bought Minecraft on Switch. Played a bit but it'll be some time before I can weigh in on how it compares to DQB2.

Well... except for one thing where DQB2 is clearly better: the slimes. Probably not controversial to say Dragon Quest slimes are cute and Minecraft slimes... aren't.

EDIT: Someone recommended Terraria, which... well I'm kinda tempted but I'm not sure how I would like it. SomeCallMeJohnny said he couldn't get used to playing it with a controller... and he was using the more 2D-friendly PS4 controller, whereas I would be using the Switch joycons (I don't have an alternative controller yet so... yeah).

That said, I am interested but more because of the horror elements than as a building game--in the latter regard, I dunno, it may be kinda cool but I think I might feel constrained unless I was literally making a game.

Which on that note, Dragon Quest Builders sometimes makes me wish I could use it as an interface to make actual RPGs. Someone should suggest that idea to a budding programmer.

[Edmond Dantes]

Okay, soooo...

Now that I've played it.... I honestly don't know if I can call one game better than the other, because both games have that effect on me... you know the one: the one where you think it'll only be five minutes but when you're done playing you've missed your entire weekend.

However, I do have the following observations:

1) Minecraft doesn't feel like it explains itself. I had some idea how to do things due to watching Markiplier (because Markiplier is love, Markiplier is life) who used to do a Minecraft series, and also because my niece and nephew are into Minecraft and explained some things to me.

That said, I got as far as crafting chests and beds and my table, making a house, finding some mines (I even found diamond after a long search)... and then I was like, "and then what?" It left me with questions, like what is Lapis Lazuli good for? Or Redstone? How is a Redstone torch better than a normal one?

While Dragon Quest Builder 2's story-driven nature can be a pain sometimes, one complaint I NEVER had was understanding how to do things or how or what things were used for.

2) That said, Minecraft does have the complete and total "I just wanna build, mmkay?" thing going for it.... and another big thing: Multiplayer. DQB2 has multiplayer but in a limited capacity. I might be able to play with my niece and nephew on a shared world next time we're together thanks to Minecraft being cross-platform.

3) Not sure if this counts for anything but I found out you can set the difficulty to "peaceful" in Survival mode, which basically makes it so there's no monsters and you can't really die (I think I managed it once just from a high fall). This makes the game kind of a farming simulator. That said, I find when I jump up to easy, the monsters are a bit... I dunno, they somehow feel overpowered even at such a low level.

So ultimately I think it's a tradeoff... Minecraft offers more freedom but it might be the ultimate example of "requires you to read a strategy guide." Which is probably why there are several published. I'd be happy with one that just tells me what all the items do and what they can be used for.

EDIT: Also, for a game that can be played entirely offline, Minecraft sure seems to expect me to be online a lot. I think not being online actually caused a crash (which wound up erasing a lot of data off my Switch's storage... everything except Dragon Quest Builders 2, ironically, so I kinda wonder if maybe the two games are getting in a fight. Because games are alive, you know). But yeah, the switch release is supposed to have all these texture packs and such but they can only be enabled if you're online and you can't even customize your character's looks without the internet, which is just weird, though I guess it makes some amount of sense. Still, this is a point for DQB2 I feel.