I'm a Switch, I'm a Lover, Talk About It With Each Other

Only two Baten games which do use cards, also you're right PSOEIII has card system, also From Software's Lost Kingdom.

GameCube is the best.

Yep, I'd answered my own question before I even finished typing it.

I've never really clicked with a digital card game. I like the tactile feeling of playing with real cards, and if I'm playing a videogame I don't need to pretend to be playing a card game about pretending to battle monsters or whatever; the double layer of abstraction feels weird to me.

Guess with those games you're a real life Yugi or something and seeing your cards come to life in the battle mechanic of those RPG'S instead of a sword or magic, where a MTG Video Game is the same as if I was playing at home but with cool animations.

I do like a digital card game mainly because how many people do I know in Real Life want's to play the Final Fantasy TGC.

I generally prefer playing a board game in their authentic setting, but I do appreciate the automated maintenance of a computer game.

We play Legend of the Five Rings, which is a living card game (and we'll probably get into Arkham Horror too). They're both great but once you start picking up a few expansion packs you're inundated with cards. It becomes a bit of a hassle trying out different decks because you've got to keep things organised. I might feel differently if there was a local scene for that game though, as it stands it's all Magic the Gathering here which I'm not really into.

Games like Slay the Spire are able to add a bunch of elements that would be a pain to implement in an actual board/card game because they let the computer handle all the maths. I like the abstraction in deck building dungeon crawlers because of the way it lets me build a unique variant on an archetype each go, but then again I've always liked turn-based games because they give you time to think.

Can't beat that new card/board game smell though.

I'm not usually one for card-based video games myself, but Slay the Spire is ace and definitely warrants further attention.

Apart from some standard card games like pontoon and Scabby queen I wasn't into them as much until I properly tried Gwent in Witcher 3 but now if you pair that with roguelite elements then you'll have my interest.

Slay the Spire is honestly one of the best games on Switch.

I did cave and buy Monster Train on steam in the end. It's really good. I'd say that Slay the Spire is still better, but Monster Train is a good game in it's own right and each run seems faster to me which isn't a bad thing either.

What I like about deck-building RPGs compared to a real-world game is the combination of the plot/context and levelling up of an RPG combined with the fact that you don't have to shell out stupid amounts of money for a deck. Also I get really competitive playing real people. Sometimes you just want to use your deck to smash mooks you can challenge as many times as you want, y'know?

Anyway I shouldn't talk like an expert, I've only played the one. Would still recommend Steamworld Quest to anyone, particularly those who don't want a stupidly long JRPG to eat hours of their life but don't mind some turn-based battling and writing focus.

I will also chime in and say SteamWorld Quest is good from the few hours I've played

It's not a deck building game but on the subject of SteamWorld, SteamWorld Heist is incredible. Basically 2D XCom with Robots in space.

Yes! I enjoyed SteamWorld Heist a lot.

Also shooting robots hats off then taking said hat never gets old.

Absolutely. As good as the game is on its own merits, I would wager that it's the best video game where you collect hats.

It's just struck me that Mario Odyssey would probably like a word (as would A Hat in Time for that matter!). Anyway, I came into the thread to carry on what I was saying in the old Direct thread:

Balladeer wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

I think we are just used to Nintendo consoles usually having a much slower start whereas we have had all the big hitters much much earlier for Switch, also I think the system will have a much longer lifespan than the typical Nintendo system as well so stuff will just have to be spaced out a little more because of that.

That is definitely part of it - we had a belting first year which 'set the tone', only it actually didn't. I disagree that we've had all the big hitters (especially if you don't include remakes and ports), but we certainly had a hell of a lot of wonderful games in 2017 and the other years haven't quite matched up. There's also another big contributing issue to this...

...which is that we no longer have two consoles running in tandem. It used to be that when the home console had a dodgy year the handheld could back it up and vice versa. Remember 2016? The year the Wii U died a slow agonising death? The 3DS actually had a fair few good releases in that period.

Now, we don't get that so much. Part of the problem with the current one machine set-up is that all Nintendo games 'need' to be HD home console experiences, meaning we don’t get the second tier of portable-esque releases. That has a knock-on effect (which the entire industry's seeing) that every game requires more resource, both time and money, to make than your average 3DS title; so overall we get fewer Nintendo games than we would have got over two machines in previous eras. That has an amplified effect in that I'm a picky bastard. Previously it could well have been that I wouldn't have liked the two main releases in a year and I'd still be able to pick up a small Nintendo title or two. Now if I'm not overly keen on the first two major releases in a year, that's my lot until at least September.

You could say that Nintendo’s line-up takes the place of the home console whereas indies take the place of the handheld. That would be a very fair point, and there are undoubtedly more good indies than there were second-tier Nintendo titles. What I miss from those is the excitement, the buzz, the discussion. Very few indies get that - I can only think of Untitled Goose Game and Hollow Knight really of late.

I admit that a big chunk of this is my problem. I'm a picky bastard who, a lot of the time, prefers talking about games and hyping up games to actually playing games. I also wonder if I've got rose-tinted glasses thicker than Buskalilly's frontlog on, and I'm forgetting long periods where there were no big 3DS or Wii U titles out or on the near horizon and I was actually bored to tears. Feel free to say so - I'm sure some will also feel I'm doing a massive disservice not having got hyped about 51 Worldwide Games. I still reckon there's a decrease in the overall frequency of Nintendo titles from last gen. to this, however 'successful and fresh the Switch has been (and how[ever] pish the Wii U was)'.

It's interesting as sure games have to be HD but the other two have one system, which was evident in the recent Xbox Showcase it had few big titles such as Halo, Fable but also showed a bunch of smaller game's such as Dusk Falls, Tell Me Why as part Xbox Game Studios.

And we know Nintendo have done that in the past, so don't know why they can't again with Kirby, Pocket Jockey, SNES Mix or something

@Balla - Not saying that Nintendo can't fill the gaps a little better but I definitely think it is your picky nature shining through more than anything else.

@mas - You could quite easily argue we are getting stuff like that though, things like Tetris 99, 51 worldwide games (as Balla already mentioned) Ring fit adventure and Cadence of Hyrule to name a few off the top of my head. That last one still blows my mind a bit when I sit and think about it, as who ever thought Nintendo would let an Indie dev make a Zelda game?

Yeah you're right that could be Balla picky nature and myself finding those muh

Balladeer wrote:

...  I still reckon there's a decrease in the overall frequency of Nintendo titles from last gen. to this, however 'successful and fresh the Switch has been (and how[ever] pish the Wii U was)'.

I wonder how true this is; was it true before the pandemic?

Pre-covid, I feel like Nintendo should have been creating more titles, but that's a lot like saying I want more of that shaggin please, Louise. I've genuinely got no idea what the relative rate of releases is to their historic work [last gen and prior], would be interested to know.

Would argue that all the console makers seem to be much more reliant on third-party publishers and indies these days. I'd speculate that the longer a console is out for, the more third-parties are relied upon.

Haven't really given this stuff much thought though, I've got more than enough to play but I do need that F-zero game gosh darned it.

Muss wrote:

I wonder how true this is; was it true before the pandemic?

Yes!  Nintendo Life's crunched the numbers so I don't have to.  Also makes me more confident that my pickyness, while being a factor, isn't the main one.  And of course I'm inclined to cut them some slack because COVID: this entire conversation was around the hypothetical world in which COVID wasn't a thing.  It's a thing.

(Another contributing factor to my whole stance, and Mas', is that we were both Wii U owners.  Jay's got a much better Switch outlook than we have.)

I'm probably rather unique among Nintendo fans in that I don't care that much about the lack of F-Zero.  The franchises I'm most sad that we haven't seen yet (anew) on Switch are 2D Mario, an all-new 2D Zelda, Rhythm Heaven, Mario & Luigi (despite my apprehension about the series' direction following Paper Jam), and Donkey Kong - ideally 3D but that feels like a pipe dream.  Also Kid Icarus but that was never going to happen.


On a more positive note, I feel like Twoka-Laylee is the first game I've started in a long time that I'm actually looking forward to playing, as opposed to thinking, 'I should probably play one of my games now huh.'

Yeah I feel if I didn't have a WiiU and in turn 3DS I'd be way more excited about the Switch but I've played Smashes, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros U, Bayo 1 & 2, Wonderful 101, Breath of the Wild even if I wanted to name a few

Muss wrote:

Would argue that all the console makers seem to be much more reliant on third-party publishers and indies these days. I'd speculate that the longer a console is out for, the more third-parties are relied upon.

I was actually going to bring this up as well and it's actually a smart thing to do considering how long games take to make.

Looking at purely the number of releases is completely meaningless, though? Are we assuming a Starfox Guard, a 51 Worldwide Games, a Breath of the Wild and a Dillon's Rolling Western are all worth the exact same value?

Numbers are for nerds and bankers. Don't like them, don't want them. I'd be happy if I never saw another number in my life.

I might be putting words in Balla's mouth but he knows they're not the value but would like that B tier game next to a BotW type thing, and would think he'd be happy if this year Animal Crossing was the big game, just where's everything else.

Where's everything else? On the eShop waiting for you to take a chance on it.

On the eShop that's a total mess to look though and still that's not Nintendo games.

Sorry to be that guy but I buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games, and that Nintendo Life article points we've had less games from Nintendo then you can take more off with the port's such as Mario Kart 8