General Nintendo Discussion V5 - The Future of Nintendo - Games

So I've been terribly sick lately and my medicine is stronger than coffee in terms of keeping me awake so I wound up plowing through the rest of Color Splash in a insomnia driven craze. I figured I'd give a sort of mini review via disorganized thoughts. If you're curious but don't want to read my 2 cents I think it's a pretty good game on par with 64. Will leave it at that. When the game was first revealed I hated it. I made it known on this forum and others that I was in strong opposition of it and at times I sounded like someone fresh off /v/ with my hatred. As time went on I also made it known that there was a small hope growing in me that I'd enjoy it and well... turns out that the hope paid off. This isn't to say it isn't Sticker Star 2, it is. It totally is. But there's something a million times more satisfying about how absolutely everything is handled. On paper the card system isn't much different than the sticker system yet I never found myself dodging fights unless it's my second (or third) time through a level. The hammer scraps scratched a itch in me that made it all seem worth it even if it wasn't really. When you get enough Hammer Scraps you level up your max paint but honestly, I think part of it's placebo if I'm being honest. Your first level you get +50 to your paint. Next level you get +30 until you reach about 300 I believe... then you hit a hardcap, the EXP for the hammer requirement hits a limit without raising and each time after that you only get +10. I told myself that it would all add up but without solid numbers and with how costly late game cards are I honestly couldn't tell if it was worth it. It's a bandaid on a system that might not work for everyone despite the fact it worked for me. Battles themselves though rarely mixed things up which was a bit of a bummer, most enemies have two ways of attacking you- charging into you or jumping on you. Sometimes they might throw something but that's pretty rare unless it's a Hammer-Bro type enemy. This led to a lot of patterns to learn being same-y. You get a handful of items like the frog suit (lets you jump to dodge attacks until you mess up) but honestly they never seemed useful. By the end of the game I was just tossing them in the trash to make for things that aren't garbage. That being said- the bosses on the other hand are all REALLY fun in the second half of the game (I'd argue starting at Wendy). Morton is a tutorial who has nothing going for him, Iggy gets shut down almost instantly and Ludwig is a tutorial on defense items you'll never use again but the others all start adding gimmicks to the fight and they begin to feel like proper bosses with multi layered attacks and patterns you need to solve. Some of them like Wendy just do interesting things and they're a huge highlight in general. Hell, I'd say Roy's fight is probably a [b]series high[/b]. Yes, they all take Things to beat but there's actual fights before you get to that point. On the topic of Things, they're literally not a problem and you are actually a children if you whine about them holy hell they streamlined them so hard that it's almost impossible to be hung up on where to get them or when to use them. Pop by Port Prisma between levels and a garbage toad will tell you what you need, where to get it, and hell if you already have it in your stock he'll tell you "eeyyy don't worry bout' it you're set for the next stage." and hell, if you're lazy like me you can take 2 steps to the right and another Toad will just hand you whatever you've already found totally for free. It's such a non-issue it's laughable. This could be considered a spoiler I guess, but the thing that surprised me the most was when I finished the game there was a character parade. There was no cameo's from previous games. Nothing super left field like Wart like I was hoping for at least, nothin. As the first set of Toads showed up in the parade I genuinely laughed "Why did they think this was a good idea? It's just going to be the same fucking Toad over and over again." Back in Sticker Star in a interview they joked about how you'll get to know the Toads despite how they all look the same and uh... they actually accomplished that in this game? Via creases or mannerisms I was able to instantly understand which group of mushrooms heads showed up at which part of the games. Same with shy guys and the like. I was genuinely surprised that the writing managed to succeed in that regard- I'm not saying I'm fine with them ditching characters in whatever game they do next again but they proved my stupid ass wrong on that front. The writing in general was just really really strong overall. The plot itself is aware of how stupid and silly the color theme is thankfully and when you learn Bowser's Evil Plan(tm) it'll be hard to keep from smiling unless you're a jaded teenager or something. I'm kinda rambling at this point but I guess what I'm saying is if you feel like you're on the fence about it it's honestly worth a shot. The game feels like a logical peak of this formula and I'm now willing to be cautiously optimistic about whatever Paper Mario game is gonna show up on the NX at some point. When I was a small bab I grew up watching the corny Paper Mario commercial over and over again. I cutout the "free demo" magazine add and lost sleep waiting for the game to come out and it blew me away with all of it's fun characters and designs and it's combat system. After Color Splash got revealed I ran through 64 again to remind myself what the series was and I'm sitting here listening to CS's soundtrack astounded that I think I enjoyed both of them to a similar level. It may not have the unique characters but CS certainly has the soul of the series grafted back into it.

[media]https://twitter.com/BDFF_OFFICIAL/status/785755103714082816[/media] [quote]It’s Bravely‘s four-year anniversary! We apologize as news has been scant recently. There may be something soon….!?[/quote]

I'm excited to see whatever the announcement would be. They've previously said that they'd love to make another game, even if it's not a sequel. [sp]And we still got that juicy little teaser at the end of BS[/sp]

[QUOTE=Sift;51187015]-lots of text-[/QUOTE] In regards to the Battle System, i've notice some things that definitely would have been better implemented and hopefully improved to the sequel. Take this area for example from the beginning: [t]http://1u88jj3r4db2x4txp44yqfj1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Paper-Mario-Color-Splash-4.png[/t] Behind the last Koopa Troopa there's a wall, so if you use a Shell Card, it will ricochet and hit you. That's clever, as it makes you thing about using certain stuff or it will backfire. I actually had a Shy Guy steal my card while i was looking at the Gamepad to select a card, which reminded me of Thousand Year-Old Door with the crowd either throwing you rocks or mushroom. [IMG]https://roseredprince.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/paper-mario-sticker-star-image-2.jpg[/IMG] Sticker Star did something similar on the desert area, Mario kept sinking and Game Over you if you didn't perform an action. Here's my wish on the what Paper Mario's Leveling Up should have been: Defeat enemies and you get Hammer Scrap, get 100 and you can select from either adding +5 to your Deck Size (FP), +10 HP, or +20 Max Paint (BP). Kinda like what TTYD and 64 did and will make the battles actually matter, because you can still skip a lot of the battles on Color Splash (You can skip all of them in Sticker Star, aside from Event Battles).

That would be fine by me really. That being said I have some fun stuff to share via the in game art gallery. Did you know the art style and plot was originally slated to walk it back to TTYD's somewhat? I sure am depressed to learn this! Toad's Designs: [t]http://i.imgur.com/nohIeVo.jpg[/t] The Roshambo Wizard was going to be either a Toad going around as a Duplighost or a Lantern Ghost in general [t]http://i.imgur.com/xpquxdo.jpg[/t] Huey was a actual partner as a paint bat, then as a kind of goomba looking guy (check out those macho grubba shades) [t]http://i.imgur.com/GLB7XFY.jpg[/t] The main villain wasn't going to be Bowser but instead a new villain made of black paint? [t]http://i.imgur.com/j9oYkbW.jpg[/t] Semi spoilers [sp]if I'm being fair, the black paint still shows signs of being it's own thing but you never actually confront it or anything so w/e[/sp] Man why is this in the game to taunt me.

An interjection to the Paper Mario discussions: Does anyone else feel like the level design in Super Mario 64 is pretty garbo? I'm not sure how controversial this is because we all have fond memories of it, including myself. But the levels have these eclectic layouts that don't make cohesive sense even in the context of a painting. A lot of the boundaries are either abysses, or invisible walls on top of hills. Whomp's Fortress, for example, is this mess of moving parts, jumbled architecture, and random polygons. You know those little steps in front of the sleeping Piranha Plant, and how they're randomly textured like marble, in the midst of all this stone? Or Shifting Sand Land, or Lethal Lava Land, where the layouts are just squares with no physical walls, just the end of the environment, with invisible walls. So often you can see that the hills that bound, say, Bob-omb Battlefield, or even Peach's Castle, are flat planes that just end abruptly at a certain height. Pretty much the only environments that I can believe are Big Boo's Haunt, because you're trapped in a cage, and Tick-Tock Clock, because you're inside the thing (even then, why doesn't it have a floor?) But say, Wet-Dry World is like a damn fever dream with its boxy container layout, disjointed structures, and random sometimes-underwater town-like place that you have to get to through an underground tunnel with a high gate around it. The weird icing is the skybox, which is this creepy repeating image of a village of adobe homes on a terraced hillside. Where are these things in relation to us? Are we supposed to be in a coastal village? What is this environment? Again, it's like a fever dream. It's all quite fun to explore and jump around in--which i guess is all that matters--but it unnerves me looking back. So much of it is just mishmashes of world geometry. Can you imagine if Bob-omb Battlefield was, well, an actual field with a hill, and not a strangely bowl-shaped cutout of a green countryside? Or if Jolly Roger Bay had the rocky coast of an ocean surrounding it while you explored the sunken ship? Or Shifting Sand Land in the middle of an actual desert that stretched to the horizon. It wouldn't be impossible for the N64--many of them could be redrawn skyboxes not obscured by random hills--you'd just have level boundaries like in other games that use fences, tree lines, floating buoy lines in the water, rivers, rock walls, etc. etc. I think one of the reasons Super Mario Sunshine feels like such a different game, despite sharing base gameplay, progression, and movement systems, is that all the locations are grounded in real space on the island (discounting the FLUDD-less block jumping sequences). The environment is tangible and believable. In 64, they at least tried with the exterior of Peach's Castle, making it seem like a valley somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom. It'd be nice to see that extended to the levels too.

To be fair, super mario 64 was one of the first game (if not the first) that introduced 3D to platforming games or just video games in general. (sure starfox on the snes was in 3D but it was kinda a mess imo.) Reason back then the level design was kinda meh is because they didn't knew what they were going for when making the transition to 3D. Compare it to other platformers that came after it (like banjo kazooie) and you will see a huge difference in level design.

[QUOTE=Sift;51190772] The main villain wasn't going to be Bowser but instead a new villain made of black paint? [t]http://i.imgur.com/j9oYkbW.jpg[/t] Semi spoilers [sp]if I'm being fair, the black paint still shows signs of being it's own thing but you never actually confront it or anything so w/e[/sp] Man why is this in the game to taunt me.[/QUOTE] Man, Bowser donning a cape would have been an awesome nod to the SMB3 Japanese boxart. [T]http://www.mariowiki.com/images/b/b8/Main_cast_scene_SMB3.jpg[/T]

I still think they could do more with Bowser besides Cat Bowser, Boney Bowser and Giant Bowser. Too bad the RPG / Paper games were where he got most of his real personality and now that's waning.

[QUOTE=RikohZX;51191207]I still think they could do more with Bowser besides Cat Bowser, Boney Bowser and Giant Bowser.[/QUOTE] Don't forget best Bowser. [T]http://nerdmentality.com/m/features/endboss/ysa.jpg[/T] [sp]To up the ridiculousness, he also has a laser cannon strap-on mounted on his belly, which is supposed to be the reason the armor has a pot belly.[/sp] [url=https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjQDCwBSPa0Iqh7U8eLBeY9n4XKAf5W-CkRS24UtuOUak9MhQn]You probably thought I was kidding about that spoiler[/url]

[QUOTE=The Duke;51191264]Don't forget best Bowser. [T]http://nerdmentality.com/m/features/endboss/ysa.jpg[/T] [sp]To up the ridiculousness, he also has a laser cannon strap-on mounted on his belly, which is supposed to be the reason the armor has a pot belly.[/sp] [url=https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjQDCwBSPa0Iqh7U8eLBeY9n4XKAf5W-CkRS24UtuOUak9MhQn]You probably thought I was kidding about that spoiler[/url][/QUOTE] That spoiler grossed me out as a kid. It looked like it was integrated into his flesh and was like "man, you went pretty far to off me, dude."

[QUOTE=The Duke;51191264]Don't forget best Bowser. [T]http://nerdmentality.com/m/features/endboss/ysa.jpg[/T] [sp]To up the ridiculousness, he also has a laser cannon strap-on mounted on his belly, which is supposed to be the reason the armor has a pot belly.[/sp] [url=https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjQDCwBSPa0Iqh7U8eLBeY9n4XKAf5W-CkRS24UtuOUak9MhQn]You probably thought I was kidding about that spoiler[/url][/QUOTE] Yeah I have and beaten this game with my Super Scope. It's fun and ridiculous

Playing Yoshi's Safari 2 player was neat, because you actually could dodge attacks as Yoshi.

[url=http://gonintendo.com/stories/266681-rumor-miyamoto-spotted-at-universal-studios-with-film-crew]Looks like Nintendo was filming something with Miyamoto at Universal Studios Florida[/url].

[i][b]SOON[/b][/i]

[QUOTE=Fangz;51195469][url=http://gonintendo.com/stories/266681-rumor-miyamoto-spotted-at-universal-studios-with-film-crew]Looks like Nintendo was filming something with Miyamoto at Universal Studios Florida[/url].[/QUOTE] Best case- NX hype Worst case- remember that nintendo themepark coming to Japan? This could be an offshoot of that. Either way, consider me hyped.

I kinda wish Nintendo would put more focus on their game development rather than trying to be the video games equivalent of disney. I mean yeah business is about expanding into new markets and all that but it just seems so weird that they're trying to poke their way into movies and theme park stuff.

[QUOTE=Fangz;51195469][url=http://gonintendo.com/stories/266681-rumor-miyamoto-spotted-at-universal-studios-with-film-crew]Looks like Nintendo was filming something with Miyamoto at Universal Studios Florida[/url].[/QUOTE] Maybe he's going to be the Stan Lee equivalent of the Nintendo Film Universe.

[QUOTE=Kegan;51195824]I kinda wish Nintendo would put more focus on their game development rather than trying to be the video games equivalent of disney. I mean yeah business is about expanding into new markets and all that but it just seems so weird that they're trying to poke their way into movies and theme park stuff.[/QUOTE] I mean, their brand is gigantic- why not use it to it's fullest potential? And really, the more money other parts of the business bring, the more money the games department will be, and (theoretically) the more games we will get (on top of the fact that I doubt Universal funding Nintendoland would affect how the games are developed). Hell, if Miyamoto works on being Nintendo's spokesperson, he won't have time to fuck up our favorite franchises! (though he did raise quite a few successors) A win-win, I'd say.

I finally beaten Xenoblade Chronicles X. After nearly 109hrs, I finally grasped nearly every mechanic and wrecked the final boss with Overdrive with my janky Dual Guns/Shield setup. I'm happy because it the first JRPG game I finish. Sadly, kinda wish it had more answers. It left too many questions open that I feel could have been explored or explained in the game. I wouldn't lie tho, I kinda what a sequel that closes them. NX maybe? I dunno. Despite the poorly explained mechanics and bits of frustrations, I still had loads of fun. I'll be tackling some post-game stuff.

Give Xenoblade Chronicles (OG) a try if you want a better more finished story Seriously can't suggest that game enough, probably one of if not my favorite JRPGs

[QUOTE=Sift;51202887]Give Xenoblade Chronicles (OG) a try if you want a better more finished story Seriously can't suggest that game enough, probably one of if not my favorite JRPGs[/QUOTE] Sadly, I already spoiled everything by watching an LP. I know it's praised to no end but it's not the same if you know what happens... Thanks for the suggestion tho. I still have a few things I want to do on XCX before I'm content, one of them is finishing Mia's recruitment, Heart-to-Hearts, Affinity Quests and maybe try to tackle some high end bosses I kept avoiding. Maybe obtain a lvl60 Skell in the way.

[QUOTE=alpha00zero;51203301]Sadly, I already spoiled everything by watching an LP. I know it's praised to no end but it's not the same if you know what happens... Thanks for the suggestion tho.[/QUOTE] Even if you've spoiled it for yourself, I'd still recommend you give it a go. It's got a lot of foreshadowing leading up to its biggest plot points, so it can still be fun spotting all those hidden details and how they relate to the bigger reveals and stuff.

Oh boy, now I'm stuck at Cobalt Base in Color Splash because I need to get the Special Prize. Do I really need to have at least 1 of each card? Because I keep getting cards I don't have in my inventory. Now I'm curious if that Snifit that's in the entrance of the base has all the cards you need. [editline]15th October 2016[/editline] Ok, I'm a fucking idiot, the Snifit DOES sell you the whole cards that you need for the game.

I'll try out Color Splash as soon as it becomes available for checking out at the library(employees get first dibs!) Not gonna lie though, if they made a remake of Paper Mario: TTYD with Color Splash visuals and the like, I'd buy it in a flash. Paper Mario would be cool as well.

[QUOTE=WhichStrider;51210063]I'll try out Color Splash as soon as it becomes available for checking out at the library(employees get first dibs!) Not gonna lie though, if they made a remake of Paper Mario: TTYD with Color Splash visuals and the like, I'd buy it in a flash. Paper Mario would be cool as well.[/QUOTE] The Color Splash visuals are beautiful, as far as the world pieces goes, but the flat-colored characters, white borders and three-frame animations are a bit ugly to look at in comparison to its predecessors. I liked how in TTYD through Sticker Star they had multiple pieces for the character's body to rotate, switch and move for animations, rather than pre-drawn frames/sprites. I think Mario's walking animation has the same amount of frames in Color Splash as it did in the original game for the N64, maybe even one or two less.

[QUOTE=Wormy;51212379]A HD remake from the older Paper Mario games would be like a dream come true. Sadly I don't think that will ever happen.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure a fan-made of the original was in the work.

[QUOTE=Merro;51212859]I'm pretty sure a fan-made of the original was in the work.[/QUOTE] I thought that was just a texture pack for emulators.

Well just finished up Color Splash, never though the bosses in the final area were going to be challenging as hell (all the music on that area was fucking amazing, by the way). Still, I enjoyed the game alot.

[QUOTE=KnightRider25;51213670]Well just finished up Color Splash, never though the bosses in the final area were going to be challenging as hell (all the music on that area was fucking amazing, by the way). Still, I enjoyed the game alot.[/QUOTE] Do you think the game has any replay value?