The Nintendo Thread of Existential Doom

[Octopus Prime]

Honestly, the direct could have just been 40 minutes of them saying "Yep, Tunic is coming to Switch; should have been here all along, but whatchagonnado?" and I would have been tickled pink.

Also a new Fire Emblem. Always happy with that.

 

[JBear]

Between Octopath 2 and the new FE this is actually the most excited I've been coming out of a Direct in quite some time.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Finally home and man, that was a really weak Direct. Remakes and farming games are nice but that's really all they had, huh?

Different strokes, I guess. There are at least three or four things I'm very interested in (Zelda, Octo 2, Fire Emblem, Kirby). It's not a bad lineup for the next year or so, imo.

 

[Violentvixen]

Yeah this might have been the most interesting Direct for me in a while. I don't remember the last time I added four games to our "upcoming games" budget spreadsheet after a Direct that I'm definitely planning to buy. And there are a couple others I'm very curious about and might get as well.

Forgot to mention: It Takes Two is a game I've been curious about, but the setup of parents about to get divorced and the game being the kid trying to force them back together just bothers me on a fundamental level. People keep saying it's tons of fun though, so maybe I just need to power through the opening and move on? If you only need to buy one copy to play on two Switches that's very cool.

I agree on the farming game overload though. Kinda nuts and they're all starting to look the same.

 

[ArugulaZ]

I've milked goats and pulled weeds from a garden in real life. Believe me, this was not an experience I was dying to bring to a video game. "Oh man, I can't wait to do all this tiring, tedious stuff electronically!"

I had no great expectations for the Nintendo Direct, so what we actually got was pleasantly surprising, Aegean stall cleaner simulations aside. A remake of an old Kirby game most people hadn't played! That long, long, looooong awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild! Radiant friggin' Silvergun! I'm happy enough. I do wish Nintendo would cut the crap and just give us Game Boy Advance games on the Switch, though. Don't make me dig up my dust-crusted Wii U and play them there!

 

[balder the brave]

Fire Emblem Engage looks really bad. The primary colors are ugly. The UI and overall graphics are a step down from FE3H? Are there actually re-used voice lines?

The plot is: there used to be a dragon, and now there's another dragon?

What a disappointment.

 

[balder the brave]

Highlights:

Octopath 2 - I feel pretty good that they will correct the issues from the first game. Triangle Strategy was great and I hope this studio can build off that momentum.

Theaterhythm - I loved this game on the 3DS. Maybe nothing super amazing in the gameplay, but the music is obviously timeless and it's fun to collect Vivis and Rydias.

Maybe:

Radiant Silvergun - One of my favorite games, although, I might wait to see if this comes out on the PS4 because I prefer its d-pad. And wait to see if it gets one of those Asian region physical disks.

Disappointments:

Fire Emblem Engage - yikes

Nothing from Atlus? Atlus made so many great games for the DS + 3DS, their lack of Switch output makes me sad.

 

[Patrick]

Nothing from Atlus? Atlus made so many great games for the DS + 3DS, their lack of Switch output makes me sad.

I remember wondering how they were going to do Etrian games in the post dual screen era. Unfortunately, they just stopped making them altogether.

 

[Bongo]

Fire Emblem Engage seemed to have a really bad trailer, focusing on a weak premise and emphasizing a main character design that I really don't care for, but it could probably still be good. It isn't like what's good about that genre comes through well in trailers anyway. Rumor has it it's mainly developed by Gust, the same team that did Blue Reflection, in much the same way that Three Houses was mainly developed by a bunch of Koei Tecmo juniors.

The biggest question here is whether I'm a big enough sucker to preorder Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe.

The second biggest question is whether Octopath Traveler 2 will turn out to be the game that Octopath Traveler 1 made me want Octopath Traveler 2 to be.

Glad to finally have a title and date for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I've been in a state of transcendent hype for the sequel to Breath of the Wild ever since playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. At this point I can't even think about it.

The amount of farming games demonstrated in that presentation is hilarious to me, and the more I think about it, the more hilarious it becomes.

Honorable mention to Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star for being the most perfect product.

There's probably something I forgot to mention.

 

[balder the brave]

I can't believe that there is a game called VARIOUS DAYLIFE

Donkey Kong = Continuous Monkeybarrel
Street Fighter = Colorful Punchmatch

 

[Issun]

A lot of cool stuff already mentioned, but Tales of Symphonia on Switch is also pretty neat.

 

[ArugulaZ]

I can't believe that there is a game called VARIOUS DAYLIFE

Donkey Kong = Continuous Monkeybarrel
Street Fighter = Colorful Punchmatch

Oh man, those are keepers. But I will say this... Mario used to be named "Jumpman!" Roll that one around in your head for a while.

 

[Becksworth]

Honestly, farming overload aside, it seemed cromulent enough Direct, even if I wasn't wowed (I just beat Xenoblade 3, I need some cool down time on RPGs).

With a name like Engage, I'm betting the new Fire Emblem game is going to incorporate some multiplayer elements a la Heroes, and they are starting with showing off the relatively simple Single Player Campaign first so fans aren't immediately throwing fits.

Fatal Frame 4 is getting rereleased? Wasn't that the game so buggy NOA refused to publish it?

FYI, Various Daylife was a former Apple Arcade exclusive. Still waiting on Fantasian, because this one didn't get a very good user rating over there...

Probably getting Bayonetta 3. Kind of depressing it had to be quarantined out of the Direct because M rating, as that series has a hard enough time with promotion.

Pikmin 4 and release date for next Zelda!

Honestly at this point I suspect the Metroid Prime HD remaster rumor is just a case of Insider Rumor Telephone that has gotten completely out of hand. Personally I can play Prime Triology and Wind Waker HD on my Steamdeck just fine, so those aren't high priorities for me personally.

 

[Violentvixen]

The fun thing is if somebody gave you the title but not anything else you'd have guessed the publisher instantly

Honestly I would assume it came from the Machine Translation Title thread.

I can't believe that there is a game called VARIOUS DAYLIFE

Donkey Kong = Continuous Monkeybarrel
Street Fighter = Colorful Punchmatch

These are amazing.

Oh man, those are keepers. But I will say this... Mario used to be named "Jumpman!" Roll that one around in your head for a while.

This... is valid.

 

[estragon]

The plot is: there used to be a dragon, and now there's another dragon?

What a disappointment.

this is the plot of most fire emblem games lol

 

[YangusKhan]

Make a New Fire Emblem Game That Doesn't Reference Marth Challenge

(okay, 3 Houses... probably didn't do this? I don't remember anything like that, anyway)

 

[Olli]

That Zelda teaser sure has a lot of flying, huh. Not sure how to feel about that. The sky's pretty empty, Nintendo! Almost all of the good stuff is on the ground!

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I am very into Summon Your Friends Fire Emblem. They better have Lucina in there. Actually I have a long list of characters that need to be in there, Nintendo please contact me at your earliest convenience.

I think I saw Micaiah there, so now I'm hoping for Eirika, Tana, Ishtar, and Reginn.

 

[4-So]

A very room temperature Direct.

I've long thought Breath of the Wild isn't nearly as good as people think it is, so I have no great anticipation for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I'll still buy it, and day one, because of course I will - it's a Zelda - but I'm not really excited about it. That leaves me with Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line and Octopath Traveler 2 as my most anticipated games from the Direct but I'll most certainly be grabbing those on PlayStation. What can I say. Performance is usually better there and I love me some trophies.

So, I think by default, my winner has to be Kirby's Return to Dreamland. Forgotten Land was good but I'm ready to try a more traditional Kirb.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Make a New Fire Emblem Game That Doesn't Reference Marth Challenge

(okay, 3 Houses... probably didn't do this? I don't remember anything like that, anyway)

Yep, 3H was completely disconnnected from the FE Marth lore - hell, not much lore, period, beyond the whole deal with, you know, dragons. So I guess it's OK for the Marth fans to get their fix now - honestly, I think I'll skip. I find the character design trying too hard to anime, so reviews will have to be really positive to make me add this one to my backlog.

(game of the show for me was, of course, Teathrythm or whoever it's spelled - great title choice there, Square. I am a bit bummed the only way to get all songs is by purchasing a Digital Deluxe edition but I do want that "A Long Fall" XIV track only available there, so I'm biting)

 

[Phantoon]

Fatal Frame 4 is getting rereleased? Wasn't that the game so buggy NOA refused to publish it?

Easy enough to fix when remastering it. It's one of the best selling Fatal Frame games, so it'll be good to get a proper release.

That Zelda teaser sure has a lot of flying, huh. Not sure how to feel about that. The sky's pretty empty, Nintendo! Almost all of the good stuff is on the ground!

Here? Yes. Hyrule? No.

 

[Regulus]

The closest thing to 'Marth-lore' that I recall in Three Houses is the Archanean Regalia (Mercurius, Gradivus, and Parthia) + Hauteclere that you can recover from rusted weapons.

 

[Sprite]

I remember wondering how they were going to do Etrian games in the post dual screen era. Unfortunately, they just stopped making them altogether.

They had a teaser image in 2018, but have had no details since other than confirming in 2021 that the project still existed. So there’s hope!

 

[WildcatJF]

I think I saw Micaiah there, so now I'm hoping for Eirika, Tana, Ishtar, and Reginn.

Here's all of the lords shown at the intro (one per game save New Mystery):

 

[jpfriction]

Can’t wait to help an invasive species of little plant dudes ruin the ecosystem again.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

The deluxe version of Kirby Return to Dream Land looks neat. I only got into Kirby this year after Forgotten Land, so I never played the Wii original.

Maybe I should also give Pikmin 3 a try before 4 comes out.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Also I can't get over the title "Various Daylife". That's just so bad.

I can't believe that there is a game called VARIOUS DAYLIFE

Bravely Default was a bad title, but SE managed to keep making them worse! I even forgot about "Flying Fairy" which was extra bad, but at least there was (moderately clever, moderately stupid) little twist to that one.

Bravely Second End Layer was like the first one, but the second! But then it wasn't Bravely Default 2 either.

Octopath Traveler is practically poetry compared to the rest of these but pretty bad on the surface of it. Travel 8 paths! Sure, whatever!

Triangle Strategy is the worst case of "Let's really just use the project codename as the title, it's fine" I've ever seen. One of the only cases in fact, because jesus christ give your game an actual title

VARIOUS DAYLIFE.

I wasn't even thinking about all the Kingdom Hearts games either but yikes, they really got it bad, huh

The thing is I think these are just failures of localization strategy from the JP side. They're using these English words as katakana titles for the JP releases too, which hits different in Japanese than just some nonsense words in English. But the layers of "idea (bad) -> bad English translation of idea -> English release uses the title as-is (certainly under direction of the parent company wanting to be globally unified)" cycle are just...whoof. Shit's brutal. It's hard to look at, like watching a seriously mismatched fight or something. You just have to wince.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Triangle Strategy is the worst case of "Let's really just use the project codename as the title, it's fine" I've ever seen. One of the only cases in fact, because jesus christ give your game an actual title

what, you don't like the song?

 

[muteKi]

Octopath Traveler is practically poetry compared to the rest of these but pretty bad on the surface of it. Travel 8 paths! Sure, whatever!

I mean given that the title has its roots in Buddhism (though I can't speak to the degree to which the game actually develops around the concept as I've not played it), yeah, it kinda is poetic in comparison

 

[estragon]

i think various daylife is a just a good title, full stop, lol

does it sound like natural or native english? no, but who cares, it's a title

is it a memorable brain worm? yes, and precisely because it doesn't sound like natural/native english—native/natural is not necessarily better, and this is a case where it's a better title as is than whatever a localization would flatten it into