Guide Zelda Social: But also the FE Heroes Internet Cafe

[EODM07]

So, I just checked the newly added descriptions for the sandcastle Pokemon. God damn, they are creepy af.

Sandygast - A Sandygast emerges when the grudges of Pokémon and other creatures soak into the sand after they fall in battle. In essence, it’s a possessed lump of sand! If you heedlessly grab a Sandygast’s shovel, you’ll fall under the Pokémon’s control. A Sandygast uses its power to manipulate children into gathering sand to increase the size of its body. If a Sandygast loses its shovel, it may put up a tree branch, a flag, or another item in its place. These Sandygast are wanderers in search of their own shovels. The tunnel-like mouth of a Sandygast can suck the vitality from people and Pokémon. Apparently it’s a test of courage in the Alola region to put your hand in a Sandygast’s mouth.

Palossand - Palossand controls human adults, making them build a sand castle that provides camouflage and also raises its defensive abilities. Unlike Sandygast, if Palossand loses some of the sand from its body, it can restore itself on its own. When moving about in search of prey, the shovel on top of Palossand’s head revolves. It’s said that the shovel could be serving as some kind of radar. Palossand loves the vitality of Pokémon and drags small Pokémon into its body so it can steal their life force. Its sandy vortex swallows them up in a heartbeat! Pokémon dragged into Palossand leave traces of their ill will behind. It’s thought that this negative energy may be the starting point of new Sandygast...

Also, its ability is kind of like Weakness Policy, except it only gives you +2 in Defense when hit by a Water Move. Still sounds pretty good, hopefully Palossand gets a recovery move other than Rest.

 

[Eddie The Pacifist]

There are only 12 episodes of OPM though

Oh.
Why?

 

[EODM07]

Oh.
Why?

Too many episodes of One Punch Man would've been WAY too much for us to handle.

 

[BJN39]

I hope they introduce new ways to evolve Pokemon like they did in X and Y

Evolving Inkay by turning your 3DS upside-down while it levels up was super cool

Wait, you really had to do that?

I never knew that but that is the most awesome thing.

 

[Buddhahobo]

> Plays Wii U version for first time in months
> Decides to learn Bowser Jr, goes onto For Glory after ten minutes in Training mode
> Goes 2-0 against a Wario
> Really Feeling It
> Goes 1-9 against a Corrin

But seriously the dude was really nice to stay in for so long.

 

[Burgundy]

Before any of you wonder about Crabrawler not having water typing, it's based on a coconut crab

I was about to post that and feel smart
Dangit

On the topic of Metroid
Confession: Other M was my intro to the series. And I was young so I didn't really noticed the lame characterization, so I didn't understand why people hate it so so much because I had fun with the gameplay.
Totally get why now though, but I don't think OM should stop us from getting a Samus with more characterization or a more in-depth story

 

[ElderLolz]

Just ordered two more amiibo. I need help.

 

[Chez G.]

Just ordered two more amiibo. I need help.

Once you're in the amiibo game, you can't escape. I have nearly 60 amiibo and just sold some recently, so you're fine.

I also heard about the demo for Metroid Prime Blast Ball. Opinions are mixed and from what I heard and seen, it's likesome FPS version of Rocket League. What's the consensus here?

And I heard about Konami's "attempt" to continue the Metal Gear Solid series. My reaction in a nutshell:

They may as well be.... "Left 4 Dead."

 

[ElderLolz]

I currently have 13 amiibo, all of them Smash related except for the Wolf Link one. I ordered Marth and Mewtwo and I'm looking to get Cloud as well. Maybe Bayonetta too.

 

[Chez G.]

I currently have 13 amiibo, all of them Smash related except for the Wolf Link one. I ordered Marth and Mewtwo and I'm looking to get Cloud as well. Maybe Bayonetta too.

Good luck waiting for the last three.

 

[EODM07]

I have almost 30 amiibo now.

 

[Rizen]

Well, how wide spread are you defining "party style"?

Cause Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, and Super Smash Bros 4 can all technically fall under that descriptor given their co-op nature. Those were all incredibly good 1st party console games.

Pikmin 3, while not really my favorite, was certainly not mediocre, and Splatoon is a massive hit, as is Super Mario Maker. I also personally loved Xenoblade Chronicles X.

sorry for the punctuation, i'm giving my wrist a break and typing 1 handed :/

I did say there were exceptions. party vs non party is many shades of grey. i consider party games to lean towards being made for multiplayer, low commitment, easy to pick up and play; the best example is mario party. non party games have high skill ceilings, rpg elements like customization, ongoing story progression and take time to get the most out of; Dark souls is a good example. neither category is good or bad by definition, just different.

mario kart 8 is kind of a separate category as a racer. it can be picked up but also takes a lot of time and skill to be good at. smash bros 4 i consider a fighter/platformer hybrid. it has a high skill level and takes know how for competitive play.

a good example of nintendo leaning toward party style is 3d mario platformers. take m sunshine as a non party m platformer example, it has story progression (sort of), revisiting environments laterafter getting different nossels to open new areas, big levels with many things to do in a sort of nonlinear order. mario 3d world shows a 3d platformer party style, made with up to 4 players in mind, easy to drop in and play for 15 minutes, no need to keep track of the story or inventory, simple gameplay.
party mario platformers aren't bad but many people wanted a huge m galaxy-esk game. Instead we got another new smb and 3d world.
more examples are the metroid series and paper mario series with sticker star and color splash dropping rpg story elements for sticker/card battles.

what gets to me is the games could have been done on previous console gens. mario 3d world uses the same formula that the 3ds based 3d land did. if i'm paying $300-600 for a next gen console plus $65 for each game, i want them to live up to the technology. the 2.5d levels in m 3d world weren't as impressive as m galaxy. it didn't look great either. it looked okay but compared to how m kart 8 looked, 3d world was lacking. what i wanted was a mario platformer where mario and co could explore worlds that looked like mk8 levels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cPtoVRIJVE
mk8 had great environments.
(i could make a similar comparison with metroid prime vs mpff and other m)

It's not that games like 3d world looked bad but look at what current gen graphics are capable of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF94kUQamZ4
it doesn't have to be ultra realistic, look at rachet and clank in there. games like batman arkham knight blow nintendo out of the water. if they want to keep up they need more 1st party games looking like mkart 8.

the point is, if i'm going to put money down i prefer to go with less party oriented companies. Nintendo's target audience is more and more younger/casual players.

 

[ElderLolz]

I have almost 30 amiibo now.

 

[EODM07]

I'll go even further.

I'll name what I got.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Dr. Mario, Wario, Donkey Kong, Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Greninja, Falco, R.O.B, Palutena, Shulk, Lucina, Roy, Marth, Robin, Meta Knight (Planet Robobot), King Dedede, Inkling Girl, Squid, Callie, Marie and 8-bit Mario (Modern Colours), along with Isabelle (Winter Outfit) and Shovel Knight. A few of them are still boxed.

 

[ElderLolz]

Not even close to 30, but I might as well list mine too.

Captain Falcon, Mega Man, Zelda, Ness, Lucas, Jigglypuff, Ganondorf, Sheik, R.O.B., Game and Watch, Roy, Falco, Wolf Link and technically Marth and Mewtwo.

 

[Rizen]

I have a link amiibo. he used to have a master sword until the cat chewed it. now it's more like a spiky club.

 

[Buddhahobo]

what gets to me is the games could have been done on previous console gens.

A lot of games released today can be made on lesser tech, can't they? A big part of Nintendo's strategy for years was to release superior gameplay on last gen tech to keep costs down and make a profit on every sale.

I did say there were exceptions. party vs non party is many shades of grey. i consider party games to lean towards being made for multiplayer, low commitment, easy to pick up and play; the best example is mario party. non party games have high skill ceilings, rpg elements like customization, ongoing story progression and take time to get the most out of; Dark souls is a good example. neither category is good or bad by definition, just different.

Yeah, but I listed out 15 different Wii U First Party titles, and that was ignoring 1st Party Published-Only games like Pokken, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, or Wonderful 101 (Hyrule Warriors was co-developed, right?).

You said:

Nintendo's current generation of intellectual property, with a few exceptions, has been mediocre, party style rather than hard core games that take advantage of the improved technology.

This simply isn't true. Nintendo's current generation of IPs have not been party games as per your definition of the term, much less mediocre. The ones that have been mediocre have, with few exceptions, been part of pre-existing party IPs that have been mediocre for multiple iterations now.

And, again, everything I'm saying is true even more so when you factor in the wealth of quality 1st party 3DS titles; very few of which, again, are party style.

But let's look at the 3DS now, because I think it has a lot of games that fit some of your definition, specifically "low commitment, easy to pick up and play" in some of the digital only games, such as the Box Boy series, the Pushmo series, and the Brain Academy game, among others. I think we can both agree that both of these are all pretty good games that still fit your descriptor, but that doesn't make them mediocre.

more examples are the metroid series and paper mario series with sticker star and color splash dropping rpg story elements for sticker/card battles.

And on the flip side of that we got two geometric SRPGs with Fire Emblem, the Kid Icarus Reboot, two of the best Kirby games in years, a new strategy IP in Codename STEAM, the entirety of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, Pokemon changing around it's formulas, etc.

Your "more examples" amounts to two IPs that amount to,as at the moment as we don't how how good Color Splash will actually be yet, two games vs a dozen counter examples. All that shows is that Nintendo leans towards having a diverse genre portfolio.

There's a give and take to things, Nintendo likes to experiment with different ways to play and then looks for a pre-existing IP to dress it up in; that's how we got KI: Uprising, after all. When Sakurai was coming up with the battle system, he originally thought he's make it into a Star Fox game.

party mario platformers aren't bad but many people wanted a huge m galaxy-esk game. Instead we got another new smb and 3d world.

3D World was well received and arguably the best game of the holiday season that year. You can't knock points off a game for "Not being Mario Galaxy 3". =/

what gets to me is the games could have been done on previous console gens. mario 3d world uses the same formula that the 3ds based 3d land did. if i'm paying $300-600 for a next gen console plus $65 for each game, i want them to live up to the technology. the 2.5d levels in m 3d world weren't as impressive as m galaxy. it didn't look great either.

It wasn't the same type of platformer as Galaxy though.

And I don't really know what you mean about how it could have been in the previous gen. 3D World was one of Nintendo's first attempts at HD game. What Wii title were you playing that was a buttery 60 fps at 720p? With due respect, 3D World looks very nice, quite frankly.

If we're going to talk about specs, I'd much rather have every game I own be at 3D World level quality than a good amount of the can't-even-stay-at-30-fps-much-less-60 1080p current gen games.

Look at Shovel Knight for instance. I mean yeah, it wouldn't actually be able to run on an SNES. but it still looks like one; sprite based game and all that, same with Super Mario Maker. Games don't have to push the hardware to their limits to be good, much less platformers.

the point is, if i'm going to put money down i prefer to go with less party oriented companies. Nintendo's target audience is more and more younger/casual players.

The only thing you really showed though is that Nintendo does not make games as graphically powerful as other companies, not that it's a party oriented company, though.

 

[ZephyrZ]

Oh jeez, I thought names like Seel and Boldore was bad. But now we have a pokemon named Crabrawler that's both a literal crab and a literal brawler? I'm done Gamefreak. I'm quitting Pokemon forever. I'm going to need ot find some new mains now....how about Zelda? She seems like top-tier material. She might almost even be as good as Zard.

I have a link amiibo. he used to have a master sword until the cat chewed it. now it's more like a spiky club.

I love my dog, but I don't trust her farther than I can throw her. She'll chew her way through anything short of steel if you don't keep an eye on her. I keep all of my amiibo in a box, and I only ever bring them out when I want to use or look at them, or else I fear my dog will chew them to pieces.

 

[ElderLolz]

Zelda is as top tier as Mewtwo is bottom 10 my boy

 

[Buddhahobo]

27 amiibo for me.

Luckily, there aren't that many more amiibo to come out to tempt me...I hope. =/

List: Zelda, Ganondorf, Midna, Marth, Ike, Palutena, Wii Fit Trainer, Samus, Zero Suit Samus, Shulk, Captain Falcon, Fox, Falco, R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, Bowser, Bowser Jr, Yoshi, Inkling Girl, Inkling Boy, Inkling Squid, Mario, Callie, Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo.

I was really optimistic about the entire toy brand when it was announced, thought it was a great idea and...Super Smash Brothers ended being the first and only real game to utilize them outside of skins and the like. And even then, Smash amiibo support could really have used some more content.

It's a real missed opportunity imo that they never released some sort of Amiibo-centric game, a Nintendo Disney Universe or the sort that used all of them. I was honestly holding out hope that they had something like that in the works all the way to E3 this year, even if the amiibo craze caught them by surprise.

 

[Cress!]

Here's my collection from this time last year:

Spoiler

In the picture I have Sheik, Dedede, Mess, Luigi, Robin, Dark Pit, Toon Link, Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Kirby, Toad, Yoshi, Inkling boy, girl, and squid, and most importantly...

Since then I've gotten Lucina, Mii Gunner, Lucas, Chibi-Robo, Callie, and Marie.
So that's 23. I plan on getting Bayo and Corrin whenever they come out.

EDIT: 26, I forgot my 2 yarn Yoshi's (green and blue), and Olimar.

 

[Burgundy]

I keep all my amiibo under my bed in two shoeboxes
i probably have 30+
I've slowed down though until Bayo is finally released

 

[ElderLolz]

I keep all my amiibo under my bed in two shoeboxes
i probably have 30+
I've slowed down though until Bayo is finally released

You can't hide the shame of spending $~450 on plastic under your bed


But at least you're not hiding other things made out of plastic under your bed, eh?

 

[Burgundy]

You can't hide the shame of spending $~450 on plastic under your bed


But at least you're not hiding other things made out of plastic under your bed, eh?

One day I'll keep them out in the open for everyone to see
Interpret that as you will

 

[Lorde]

The amiibos I have are , Toad, the 3 colors of Yarn Yoshis, and Wolf Link. Not too interested in amiibos anymore, but I'll buy the upcoming Bayonetta and Boo ones.

 

[McKnightlíght]

I have a link amiibo. he used to have a master sword until the cat chewed it. now it's more like a spiky club.

Mine used to have a head.

Now my Zelda holds his head in her hand after she dropped the rest of Link's body off of the TV stand.

 

[ElderLolz]

Everyone here has such a nice waifu collection among their amiibos, I'm impressed.

Mine used to have a head.

Now my Zelda holds his head in her hand after she dropped the rest of Link's body off of the TV stand.

Okay, I NEED a picture of that.

 

[Y2Kay]

Ash Greninja is awesome. Didn't feel his design at first, but once I saw him in action I loved him.

I don't know why you guys are giving them a hard time about having some of his attacks DBZ - esque.

 

[ElderLolz]

It's an out of place concept for Pokemon and looks more like something you'd see in a fanfic.

 

[Rizen]

QUOTE="Buddhahobo, post: 213985 A lot of games released today can be made on lesser tech, can't they? A big part of Nintendo's strategy for years was to release superior gameplay on last gen tech to keep costs down and make a profit on every sale.

why pay the full price for last gen material? They cost the full 65$.

Yeah, but I listed out 15 different Wii U First Party titles, and that was ignoring 1st Party Published-Only games like Pokken, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, or Wonderful 101 (Hyrule Warriors was co-developed, right?).

You said:



This simply isn't true. Nintendo's current generation of IPs have not been party games as per your definition of the term, much less mediocre. The ones that have been mediocre have, with few exceptions, been part of pre-existing party IPs that have been mediocre for multiple iterations now.


xenoblade isn't a 1st party title, 3d world I explained, splatoon is a party game, mario maker was a good idea but didn't have anything that couldn't be done on previous consoles. mario kart 8, ssb4, Dk tropical freeze, pikmin, and wolly world i agree with. i forgot about kirby. breath of the wild looks amazing but was delayed to launch with the nx.

And, again, everything I'm saying is true even more so when you factor in the wealth of quality 1st party 3DS titles; very few of which, again, are party style.

But let's look at the 3DS now, because I think it has a lot of games that fit some of your definition, specifically "low commitment, easy to pick up and play" in some of the digital only games, such as the Box Boy series, the Pushmo series, and the Brain Academy game, among others. I think we can both agree that both of these are all pretty good games that still fit your descriptor, but that doesn't make them mediocre.

Like I said, party has many shades of grey but look at nintendo's heavy hitters: new s Mario wii u- same game design as all the other new smbs with 4 players, 3d world- levels designed for 4 players, metroid- only mpff. pikmin-multi player, zelda got a party game in triforce warriors, animal crossing became a board game, mario tennis/party/and sonic at Olympics were always party games, splatoon a multiplayer shooter primarily, ssb4 has party elements in certain modes, paper mario lost its rpg elements although not a party game. Nintendo is more and more of a family gaming company.


And on the flip side of that we got two geometric SRPGs with Fire Emblem, the Kid Icarus Reboot, two of the best Kirby games in years, a new strategy IP in Codename STEAM, the entirety of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, Pokemon changing around it's formulas, etc.

Your "more examples" amounts to two IPs that amount to,as at the moment as we don't how how good Color Splash will actually be yet, two games vs a dozen counter examples. All that shows is that Nintendo leans towards having a diverse genre portfolio.

where are you getting these numbers? anyway idk fire emblem but doesn't it have a dating simulator and rubbing characters? KI was a stylus controlled 3rd person shooter in anime style. I agree pokemon's a big hitter for nintendo. if you want a good explanation for the negative reaction to color splash watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JBbcaLsyZI




3D World was well received and arguably the best game of the holiday season that year.

So was Frozen, don't get me started with that movie. my point stands that they could have done a better 3d mario platformer but chose the party direction. mk8 had better graphics and the levels were 2.5d hallway styles to accommodate multiplayer.
what did the mario galaxy/sunshine/sm64 fans get?



It wasn't the same type of platformer as Galaxy though.

And I don't really know what you mean about how it could have been in the previous gen. 3D World was one of Nintendo's first attempts at HD game. What Wii title were you playing that was a buttery 60 fps at 720p? With due respect, 3D World looks very nice, quite frankly.

3d world was the same formula as 3d land but with multiplayer. the high def graphics were new to nintendo only. having 2.5d individual levels is what previous consoles were restricted to due to memory and processing limitations. This was why other m was criticized too; hallway levels are a step backward from open worlds.

If we're going to talk about specs, I'd much rather have every game I own be at 3D World level quality than a good amount of the can't-even-stay-at-30-fps-much-less-60 1080p current gen games.

that doesn't apply to all games to be fair.

Look at Shovel Knight for instance. I mean yeah, it wouldn't actually be able to run on an SNES. but it still looks like one; sprite based game and all that, same with Super Mario Maker. Games don't have to push the hardware to their limits to be good, much less platformers.

that's true. shovel knight only cost $10 iirc and I wouldn't pay $65 for it. Mario maker was a good idea; building your own levels (like rom hacks have for a decade). nintendo has good ideas, sometimes but often thinks they can fall back on ideas alone. it wasn't enough, the wii u isn't selling well.


The only thing you really showed though is that Nintendo does not make games as graphically powerful as other companies, not that it's a party oriented company, though.

what i said was Nintendo's target audience is more and more younger/casual players. i gave several examples of nintendo's focus shifting to casual/party styles for what were hardcore gaming franchises. that doesn't mean it's completely party oriented. nintendo proved they can have awesome graphics in their 1st party franchises with games like mk8 but often chose not to. this was the tech demo showcasing the wii u's capabilities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Lf4uVuE50
they often didn't live up to it.
QUOTE

 

[kenniky]

I have but haven't touched any of them for a long time

 

[Y2Kay]

It's an out of place concept for Pokemon and looks more like something you'd see in a fanfic.

He fits in just fine in a region rampant with mega evolved pokemon.

 

[Lil Puddin]

I think I have 26 Amiibos atm. Zeldoo n Peesh were my first 2 tho.

Also vote for Chillary Killton:

This is pretty much a concentrated video of QP Overwatchers.

Overwatch note: My Tracer is top 8% of all Tracers in terms of objective time. I was like "haha yeeey" until I realized I should be mostly behind enemy lines and nowhere on the payload or a capped KoTHnpoint... whoopsiedoo.

 

[Cenizas]

I just noticed that the mouth on Moe's hat makes the same expressions as his mouth. help

 

[ElderLolz]

He fits in just fine in a region rampant with mega evolved pokemon.

Mega Evolutions are a weird concept in general, but turning Greninja into some weird Ash-hybrid thing just because Ash is Ash seems even sillier to me.

 

[Buddhahobo]

xenoblade isn't a 1st party title, 3d world I explained, splatoon is a party game

What are you talking about? Of course Xenoblade X is a 1st party title. Did you think Shulk was a 3rd party character?

I would be legitimately impressed if people were actually playing Splatoon as a party game. Kinda need couch co-op for that.

why pay the full price for last gen material? They cost the full 65$.

You're essentially stating that the value of a video game should be proportional to it's polygon count and/or required processing power, which is ridiculous from both the consumer end of the spectrum and the business end of it.

I gave several examples of nintendo's focus shifting to casual/party styles for what were hardcore gaming franchises.

And I gave examples of other games taking their place.

That specific IPs change with time or with a couple of games just means those IPs have changed direction for at least some time.

But you're taking shifting of some very specific IPs and using it as evidence for shifting focus of the entire company. And when you do that, which means the specific IPs you pointed out don't matter, the system's catalogue does. And you can't just handwave 90% of the library away as the "few exceptions" when they're the majority.

it wasn't enough, the wii u isn't selling well.

3DS is doing splendidly with those good ideas, I'd say.

Mega Evolutions are a weird concept in general, but turning Greninja into some weird OC just because Ash is Ash seems even sillier to me.

Honestly...Greninja's transformation because Ash is Ash makes more sense than alternate dimensions and mega evolutions, when you think about it.

Ash has saved the world, what, two,three dozen times? Been brought back to life at least a handful, too.

Dude's canonically been the Chosen One of the Pokemon world since season 1. And it's not like all pokemon that literally created the universe and every in it don't owe him one.

 

[Lavani]

Ash has also been 10 for 19 years now so he's clearly achieved eternal youth

 

[ElderLolz]

Okay, if you put it like that, that does make a bit more sense. But then again, the writing in the pokemon anime and movies is...

how do I say this?

 

[Buddhahobo]

Okay, if you put it like that, that does make a bit more sense. But then again, the writing in the pokemon anime and movies is...

how do I say this?

It's a cartoon based off a video game series about sending 10 year olds into the wilderness to enslave eldritch abominations and engage in dog fights with them to effectively run the entire world's economy.

Yes, the writing in the anime and movies is awful...but in their defense, it's not like they ever had anything of worth to work with on that front.

 

[Y2Kay]

The pokemon anime isn't about winning awards, it's about getting kids to buy the games.

They've done a pretty good job obviously.