What are you playing on your Switch?

Downloaded it last night! (arena of valor, that is) and I think it's great. I've not played League Of Legends in years but going back to what is basically a lightweight version of the same game it's really satisfying to use the strategies of yore to literally destroy newcomers to the genre. Currently maining Butterfly who is basically Katerina and I lover her.

Balladeer wrote:

I'll be you when SSBU comes out Jas.  At least you don't have the 'let's start a new game - ooh I know, how about a massive Japanese adventure' problem too!

That's going to be my problem too... just as I'm finishing up with Octopath, I'll get TWEWY in the post no doubt!

I've still got Okami to play through!

Ultimate Chicken horse, Towerfall, Dragon ball look I have a Z as well

I'd love to play Towerfall as I've heard great things, but it seems to be local only.

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk. It's rare for me to be utterly engrossed by a game from start to finish but Nippon Ichi Software's take on the dungeon crawler has done just that.

I got the normal ending on Friday evening, and have run into a wall with the true ending - my party just isn't good enough.

It's a great dungeon crawler that turned out to also be more subversive than I expected (in the first hour you gain the ability to knock down walls!). I guess the Disgaea team tackling the genre was going to add some wackiness. The characters, level design and surrounding story made this one stand out to me. The labyrinth design was up there with Etrian Odyssey IV - the game focuses more on the connections between floors rather than moving through floor after floor. And the characters aren't who they appear at first, which I liked. And I can't really think of any that fit any otaku tropes, which was rather refreshing. Tropes are fine, but tiresome when you know what to expect.

There's a demo on the eShop, but be warned that it has quite a slow start. Doesn't pick up until the game's introduced you to all the core mechanics. The demo is rather generous, though - you get to play right through to the end of the first labyrinth. I spent four hours on it and never saw the end before my copy of the game arrived.

Anyway, highly recommended if you're looking for a meaty RPG on the Switch with a lot of individuality to it. Give the demo a shot.

Balladeer wrote:

Yes, that does sound pretty- (backlog groans accusingly)

...applies again here I'm afraid!

I have bought Towerfall though. I'm down for supporting MMG, and also for having a new local multiplayer gem to play at my book clubs.

JayMoyles wrote:

I'd love to play Towerfall as I've heard great things, but it seems to be local only.

Any sort of network latency or lag would kill the multiplayer anyway

I bought it, got it free on PS+ so they deserve my money!

OrangeRakoon wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

I'd love to play Towerfall as I've heard great things, but it seems to be local only.

Any sort of network latency or lag would kill the multiplayer anyway

Now I've never played it but not sure I agree on that when you have online fighting games that rely on quicker buttons inputs than this game seems to have.

When I think of Towerfall, I can't but help think of the poor Ouya and what was it's one good game.

Towerfall is great fun but yet another port...

Is anyone else suffering from serious port fatigue right now? I know we get Pokemon and Mario Party soon but man I think like almost everything (aside from Octopath, tennis, Kirby) thats come out this year I have been able to play elsewhere for a while!

I know Fronk has mentioned it along with myself and was one of the reasons why I was thinking about selling my Switch and barely used this year.

Thankfully the last direct convinced me otherwise, with what looks like a decent game a month starting with Pokémon in November.

EofGizmo wrote:

Towerfall is great fun but yet another port...

Is anyone else suffering from serious port fatigue right now? I know we get Pokemon and Mario Party soon but man I think like almost everything (aside from Octopath, tennis, Kirby) thats come out this year I have been able to play elsewhere for a while!

I've said on here as well that they should calm down a little bit with the ports but that's a drawback of a system being really popular, isn't it? The worst thing about ports in my book is they get a better spotlight compared to brand new games because folk already know if it's good or not.

If you dig a little deeper though Switch still has some pretty cool new stuff as well.

It is true and its not like the ports are bad games! My problem is mainly that I bought pretty much every big Wii U release and I really can't afford to double dip on stuff!

As for finding good stuff, the eShop desperately needs better curation. There needs to be an editors choice section or something to highlight the better smaller games.

Yeah I wouldn't worry or bother about double dipping at all (MK8 deluxe is the only wii U port I own) & I think the eShop is much better than it was at launch as well, the discover menu especially does a good job of highlighting all sorts of games.

OrangeRakoon wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

I'd love to play Towerfall as I've heard great things, but it seems to be local only.

Any sort of network latency or lag would kill the multiplayer anyway

I bought it, got it free on PS+ so they deserve my money!

The_Jaster wrote:

OrangeRakoon wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

I'd love to play Towerfall as I've heard great things, but it seems to be local only.

Any sort of network latency or lag would kill the multiplayer anyway

Now I've never played it but not sure I agree on that when you have online fighting games that rely on quicker buttons inputs than this game seems to have.

Aye, Jas pretty much sums up my stance on that one - most fighting games have a few frames of input delay when playing online which your hardcore fighting game fans usually froth at the mouth over, but most players won't notice it and will find it'll improve the online experience a fair bit.

Towerfall multiplayer pretty consistently comes down to near frame perfect dodging or stomping. It would very quickly start to feel random or inconsistent or even unfair with just a small amount of added latency imo.

You could argue the same with fighting games though - right now, my fighting game of choice is Tekken 7 where in some combos a few frames of delay can change your combo into something else entirely. Hell, competitive players play SSBM online through Dolphin's netplay feature and even with a frame buffer implemented, they get by fine and that game has frame perfect inputs.

I can totally understand the argument of keeping a game local multiplayer only to encourage folks to play with people in the room for a more engaging experience, but I don't buy the latency argument when other games cope fine with it.

I think this is a good article on the subject, and yes it goes into other reasoning like that too: https://www.polygon.com/2014/3/11/5491146/why-you-dont-want-an-online-mode-towerfall

...I'm just going to play it as a fun multiplayer game, latency be damned. Got another pair of Joy-Cons for cheap (after trading in 1-2-Switch, Rabbids, and - sorry Eof - Spla2n) just so six people could join in. I'm glad it got ported to Switch!

OrangeRakoon wrote:

I think this is a good article on the subject, and yes it goes into other reasoning like that too: https://www.polygon.com/2014/3/11/5491146/why-you-dont-want-an-online-mode-towerfall

From reading that article, it seems as though the problem stems from the point of conception as they don't want to lose that "designed for the couch feel", so the game isn't designed from the ground up to work well online, as the author put it. They want their game to be played locally, so the opportunity to easily eliminate the problem of lag is dashed at the very earliest stage of development. Coupled with perhaps the lack of budget to convert such a game to an online platform - the length of time cited to get Nidhogg working online would surely be a drain on time and money - it becomes apparent why some games choose not to go for that.

As I mentioned above, I get that argument, but it'll limit me from ever going for titles like Towerfall or the new Mario Party as I'm unfortunately limited to playing multiplayer games online. I wish it could be different as Towerfall looks like a blast, but it's simply not designed for me.

Why not just give folk the choice and have the best of both worlds? I understand that article mentions choices like this need to be made from the start for them to be the best game they can be, but I've played Runbow for example both locally and online with folk from GNamer and had just as much fun in both settings.

Having a preference of local or online shouldn't force devs into sacrificing one over the other.

Polygon article wrote:

Of course, nobody notices these discrepancies, because it's really hard to see whether or not your enemy's gun barrel is pointed at you or slightly to one side of you, especially when there's simulated blood and screen shake and blurring all over the place. We just accept that we got shot, cry a little bit and move on. Lag compensation works really well in first-person shooters for this reason.

I get this part but not sure I fully agree as if you play an online game long enough some will start to notice this stuff but I personally don't let it ruin my enjoyment because it's something I can't control. Obviously quality of an online game can vary but how will you know it doesn't work until you test it?

The_Jaster wrote:

I personally don't let it ruin my enjoyment because it's something I can't control. Obviously quality of an online game can vary but how will you know it doesn't work until you test it?

Mate, I wouldn't even know the words Refresh Rate and Tick Rate if it wasnt for you mooooooaaannniiiinnnnggg about Spla2n!

Drunkalilly wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

I personally don't let it ruin my enjoyment because it's something I can't control. Obviously quality of an online game can vary but how will you know it doesn't work until you test it?

Mate, I wouldn't even know the words Refresh Rate and Tick Rate if it wasnt for you mooooooaaannniiiinnnnggg about Spla2n!

And I still loved Spla2n it just isn't as good as the first game because of that worse tick rate.

JayMoyles wrote:

OrangeRakoon wrote:

I think this is a good article on the subject, and yes it goes into other reasoning like that too: https://www.polygon.com/2014/3/11/5491146/why-you-dont-want-an-online-mode-towerfall

From reading that article, it seems as though the problem stems from the point of conception as they don't want to lose that "designed for the couch feel", so the game isn't designed from the ground up to work well online, as the author put it. They want their game to be played locally, so the opportunity to easily eliminate the problem of lag is dashed at the very earliest stage of development. Coupled with perhaps the lack of budget to convert such a game to an online platform - the length of time cited to get Nidhogg working online would surely be a drain on time and money - it becomes apparent why some games choose not to go for that.

As I mentioned above, I get that argument, but it'll limit me from ever going for titles like Towerfall or the new Mario Party as I'm unfortunately limited to playing multiplayer games online. I wish it could be different as Towerfall looks like a blast, but it's simply not designed for me.

Very fair reply!