my experiences with the Switch so far

[Tupin]

I don't know if it's up your alley but Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes out March 20 and will probably be the Switch's biggest game of the year barring BoTW 2 or Odyssey 2 coming out.

[IMJ]

Oh geeze... Shinobi. I wish you hadn't said that. Now I'd love to find way to play the original Shinobi arcade game, and then that thought led to how much I would LOVE to play the original Ninja Gaiden arcade. -facepalms-

[Edmond Dantes]

..... I'm so evil for mentioning this, but Ninja Gaiden arcade is also on the Switch....

EDIT: So I kinda want more recommends.

First off... is there any 3D game with high mountains in it? It's just, high places thrill me but every time there's a "mountain climbing" game, its always something like Celeste (where you never get a sense of height, since the game is a 2D side scroller and really more like a fast-paced platformer), or like Minecraft where the mountains are actually pathetically small. The only game I can think of that might help me out is Breath of the Wild. Basically something that really simulates being up in a high place. Especially if it also allows me to fall the entire distance.

Secondly are there any good JRPGs that AREN'T just ports of older games?

[Tupin]

Octopath Traveller.

[Tron 2.0]

By the way ED huge sale going on the e-shop right now and it ends on thursday.All ready bought myself the grandia hd collection

[Edmond Dantes]

Bought myself a JRPG called Bonds of the Skies. Was looking, saw it, its description sounded interesting and it was cheap. I posted thoughts on it in the JRPG topic but to repeat: its fairly typical, but has a few charms--one is that the mechanics are easy to understand and straightforward, the other is the visuals look and feel like they could've been a SNES game (though there is something weird with the water on the overworld any time the screen scrolls), and the script is full of brevity--almost to the point of lines sounding awkward or clunky. But considering it seems to be going in fairly typical directions, I'm happy it isn't wasting my time.

It managed to scratch the JRPG itch and I can see this being one of those games I forget about and plug in every once in awhile, which admittedly are a favorite type of mine--its hard to play something like Chrono Trigger sometimes because I know it so well there aren't many surprises left (or at least I think there aren't... my last playthru revealed I had forgotten more than I realized), but when I go back to a SNES game like, say, Arcana, its gonna always be fresh because it just always falls into that valley. Am I making sense?

Kemco does seem to make interesting stuff.

Also I found out there's a version of Dark Souls on the Switch, which I'm thinking of getting. My only deterrent is I have the feeling I'll wind up becoming a fan of the series, which of course will mean needing to get a PS3 to play Demon's Souls and a PS4 to play Bloodborne... that kinda sucks. I wish they would just put the entire series on the Switch so I wouldn't have to buy another console.

Random thought:.... the Switch honestly reminds me a lot of PC gaming in the MS-DOS days (hell one game I have, Meta Gal, feels like somethin that could have been an MS-DOS game. I know its a Megaman clone but... its visuals somehow remind me of VGA/SVGA-era MS-DOS games somehow. Play it and tell me if you guys see what I'm talking about). Mostly in that the market seems to have a lot of cheap games by small studios which, some are interesting and most are basically unknown. I played this one called Crimson Keep.. and this one really feels like it could've been a PC game (its a first-person dungeon-crawler RPG... trying to think what a good comparison would be. It's like if Diablo was in first person. Yes the levels are kinda-sorta randomized). For some reason it seems like people don't like Crimson Keep, but for one dollar I thought it was all right.

[Aussie2B]

It is funny how some games seem to go in one ear and out the other.

I haven't played that one, but I like Kemco's retro-style RPGs too. I always compare them to comfort food. It still feels like a familiar experience even if it's a game you've never played before, and there's nothing challenging about them (not in terms of the literal difficulty or anything else). You can just sort of shut off your brain and relax with them.

[Ryudo]

First time I ever have seen someone claiming to buy those Kemco shovelware games. I swear they pump them out by the week.

[Aussie2B]

I believe they had a big backlog that was originally mobile-only, so that made it easy to dump a whole ton of them on traditional handhelds and consoles in a short span. They also have multiple developers making them.

I bought the two that were released on PSP and all of the ones that got physical releases on Vita. I haven't finished all the ones I've bought thus far, but if I ever get through them all, I'd be up for buying more, probably the digital-only ones on Vita. But when I buy them digitally, I try to get them on sale. I think I got the PSP ones (End of Serenity and Mystic Chronicles) for around $5 each, and I definitely got at least 5 bucks of worth of entertainment out of End of Serenity (simple, breezy RPG that took me around 15 hours to beat, if I remember correctly). I was actually thinking this past week that I'd like to start up Mystic Chronicles.

[Edmond Dantes]

So have you guys ever had one of those experiences where you actually really enjoy a game (Despite it possibly not being that good) BUT THEN you can't recommend it because it has one really glaring, damning flaw?

I had that experience with a Switch game called Crimson Keep. From what I can discover everyone else who ever played it thought it was garbage, but I kinda like it... it basically reminds me of a jankier, more amateurishly programmed King's Field or Ultima Underworld but with semirandom dungeon levels. I was actually addicted to it for a bit.

AND THEN I discovered that it can crash while loading (the loading screens are usually brief, but sometimes they never go away, so I can only assume the game crashed). These loads are every time you transition between levels, and this isn't a game where you can save at will, so if the game just suddenly decides to misbehave that's hours of progress lost right there.... that kinda sucks. Like the game would actually be pretty decent if not for this one glaring issue that just can not be forgiven.

[Aussie2B]

Meh, I'll give people fair warning, but if I think a game is great, despite flaws, I'll still recommend it. Occasional crashing has never stopped me from loving and recommending Star Ocean 2.

[Edmond Dantes]

Yeah but in this case, Crimson Keep autosaves either whenever you close the game or else whenever you exit a level--there is no manual saving (this is also one of those games where your save gets erased if you die). So if you exit the level and it crashes, your save is useless and you have to start the whole game over (quitting and reloading your save doesn't help... the next level still won't load, unless you just have to be really patient or persistent).

Despite enjoying the game this basically dispirited me as it basically said even if I get good and survive, the game could just randomly screw me over anyway.

[Edmond Dantes]

So I wanted to update with some positives.

A long time ago I bought (on sale) a game called Wreckin' Ball Adventure. I don't know why I ignored it for so long, but I played it today and... its actually a lot of fun. It classes itself as a "puzzle platformer" but the main "puzzle" is you're a ball and the game has a physics engine. You start out just able to move around and jump but soon also get a grappling hook/zipline that is really fun to use. I wound up getting addicted to it for a bit.

Another game I bought but for some reason didn't play much until today was Skypeace... or SKYPEACE as its listed on my Switch. I don't know what this would be classed as... it looks like a shmup but you don't shoot, you only dodge enemies and try to maneuver into the path of coins and other pickups, and you get scored on keeping the string of pickups going.... it seems almost like something that would be a mobile phone game.... which, considering the Switch is a lot like a mobile device in some ways, makes sense it would be here. Still, I had fun with it.

My first ever pre-purchase was a thing called Crazy Zen Minigolf, because I had watched various youtubers play PC golf games like Tower Unite Golf and Golf It which all looked fun (this coming from a guy who had no pre-existing interest in the sport) and wanted something like those, but for a system I actually owned. Crazy Zen basically seems like its trying to fulfill that niche. It recently got a patch which improved the performance and fixed some camera issues, although I do think there is room for improvement in the latter area.

So yeah, three mostly-positive experiences...

On that note, Doom 3 on the Switch is actually pretty awesome. I have the original PC release but... well, my XP PC is sometimes kinda choppy with Doom 3, while it plays smooth on the Switch, so it may be my primary way to play. On that note Doom 1 and 2 recently got patched and now you can download custom maps from the Bethesda servers (though you need to make an account first--its free tho). One thing about that is I swear the enemies move faster on Switch than they do in the original DOS version, which is the one I'm most used to. This isn't a complaint.... its Doom on the go, and now finally has Final Doom, so I ain't complaining!