[img width=480 height=360]https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2827/33641450201_682af0b661_o.jpg[/img]Over the last several years I've noticed that popular gaming trends have been moving in a direction that largely doesn't appeal to me. That's not to say I don't still get excited for new game. I am beyond thrilled for the release of
Persona 5 in a few days.
Injustice 2 looks like a stellar follow up to the first game.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole seems like it's going to improve on the previous game in every way.
Ni No Kuni II is sure to live up to the pedigree of the first
Ni Nu Kuni. And
Bloodstained already has my money and is working hard to impress.
There is a lot to be excited about even if 90% or more of the AAA releases are for a different audience these days. One thing that is very new to my "Day 1" purchase list is the exclusion of Nintendo franchises. Usually I'm 100% on board for the next Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem and more. But my world got a lot darker on March 17th.......
Back in February I wrote a blog about how I had a positive experience playing
Pokemon Sun/Moon with my Son. I didn't have a positive experience because I loved the game based on the new direction Pokemon was going. I was very disheartened with the game as a whole. It was wonderful seeing my son find so much enjoyment, because I was struggling to find much. This was a little blow to my long time Nintendo love. I've always liked, not loved, the Pokemon series. I could live without more Pokemon in my life if it left me behind.
Within the last 2 weeks, I started digging into a much more beloved series with
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. After getting to Chapter 15, in what so far has been a middle of the road entry in the series for me (That's not to say bad. As I've said before even bad Mega Man is better than everything else and that same logic applies to Fire Emblem). There have been a few annoyances such as spending time building up my unimportant castle, the new options to unlock better buildings in my castle before being able to purchase or forge the weapons I want, and new options that have no relevance to the game, such as collecting food or accessories that simply change your appearance. I'm also not a fan of the character creation at the start. Since the game tells a very linear story, I'd much rather play as a character designed specifically for that story to revolve around. There are items that can be found and purchased that temporarily boost your unit's stats for ONE battle in an attempt to make the game easier. The default mode is casual mode in which your unit's don't suffer from permanent death after being defeated in battle. Many of the missions are full of random elements that make the game far less strategic and more of a slot machine.
But the biggest issue came with a mid-game relevlation......pun intended! After playing up to around mission 13 it sunk in that I had no idea how to access
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation to finish the story after I had played through both
Conquest and
Birthright. After a quick Google search, it seems the only way to play
Revelation after finishing the standard releases is to download the DLC........ something I'm not willing to do. The alternative is to purchase the
Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition. Yeah that one that sold out in hours and was never once restocked. That one that was almost immediately jumped up to scalper prices and barely available to purchase at retail. That one has a special cartridge that includes the
Revelations chapters on it. So the dozens of hours I've sunk into the game is now meaningless as I have to drop around $200 USD (which is about $270) up here. I'm grateful it has a physical version at all, but this is a scary trend for me. What if the next release doesn't? That doesn't seem very far fetched considering what limited supply they put
Revelations out in this time.
And don't get me started on
Fire Emblem Awakening. Easily the worst in the series by forsaking nearly everything that makes Fire Emblem Fire Emblem. With the trilogy of experimental games in the series (
Awakening,
Fates and
Heroes), it's obvious Nintendo is trying different things to see what connects with consumers. The problem is that it is working. The last three releases have easily been the most successful in terms of sales with the worst of them still doubling the sales of the most successful previous release.
[img width=700 height=413]https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2865/33641451021_2224d5a25c_c.jpg[/img]That brings us back to March 17th. The day that I beat
Zelda: Breath of the Wild with my Son. On my scale of Zelda enjoyment, it sits very closely to
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link as one of the least enjoyable entries in the series. This was a similar experience to playing
Pokemon Sun/Moon with my son, with the small exception that the further we got, the more my heart was breaking. Zelda is far more important to me than Pokemon and it was truly devastating to get further and further into this new game and not be given any scraps of a Zelda game to satisfy my desire to play some damn Zelda. No dungeons, no new items to excite me, no heart pieces to collect, no direction, and no story to be told. Surely they added new stuff to make up for that, right? They sure did! Tons of unimportant side quests, 120 shrines, 900 Korok Seeds (think skulltulas from
Ocarina of Time, but to increase your inventory capacity), crafting system, destructible weapons/shields, armor upgraded through item collection, catching and boarding horses. I need baby steps to ease me into change. They just flat out went
Skyrim/
Far Cry/
Minecraft on me and I fell for it. These are all modern gaming trends that I despise and look to Nintendo to be my shining beacon of contrast.
[img width=453 height=640]https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2869/33641448631_2170f7e4d0_z.jpg[/img]As much as people have complained about Nintendo's choices since the N64 days, they've always been able to put out more than enough software on each console to thrill me. It's the reason I've keep sticking with them and throwing money at them like crazy. And seeing such nearly universal praise for all three of the series that I've recently been spurned by blows my mind. These aren't the games I want anymore and it makes me fearful for their other flagship titles.
Mario Odyssey went from something that excited me to something to be weary of. There is a ton of backlog to ensure I'll never run out of games to play, but it's a bit sad to think I'll keep finding less and less in the modern arena that speaks to me going forward.
|
The winds of change are blowing. I'm sure it's not for everyone. I'll reserve Zelda judgement until I take a crack at it.
|
|
I feel the same way man, but hit this wall years ago. There's just a not a lot of new stuff that interests me and as a result, I've always had a reluctance to buy newer consoles. The PS2 was probably the last one I purchased close to launch, and probably the last that I have really enjoyed. Perhaps it's the old man in me talking, but once I get a PS4 (probably a few years down the road still), I'm cutting off buying consoles. I'm not even planning on a WiiU or Xbox One purchase, since there are no system specific games for those consoles that even interest me. Besides, I'm kind of running out of room. I'm sure my kids will have these newer systems growing up and find enjoyment in them, but with so much development gravitating to 3rd person shooting/fighting and lackluster classic series titles, my gameroom will stand pat.
|
|
Good read, man. I had nervous anticipation going into the Switch. Early shots of Zelda at E3, did little to impress me, and I had assumed Nintendo was leading me further astray, from the beloved company which had been such a figurehead in much of my early life.
I had been eagerly awaiting your thoughts, as my first few hours into BotW, I was like "Crabby wont like this much!" Pretty much knew how you felt, but it was still entertaining reading those thoughts. Now knowing what Nintendo has done with Zelda and BotW, I say: "Bring on Sandbox Mario, with Super Mario Odyssey!". Unlike some older gamers, I have fully embraced that style of gaming and look forward to whats next.
As for the Fire Emblem thing, that sucks. Digital downloads are no go's for me, too. Being able to play that FE Fates physically, probably wont be happening for me either.
|
|
The Skyrim aspect of Breath of the Wild is what attracts me to it, but not for the same reason that it repels you, crabby. When I play games like this, I like to put myself into the main role of the character. And, upon waking up in Hyrule, the first thing I would probably do is run around naked, screaming whilst setting things on fire (not on purpose, though). The other stuff? I don't know. To me, the pinnacle of Zelda was Wind Waker, and this game is no Wind Waker. Not even a Zelda II (as you pointed out). In the end I'll just play the game (likely when I get it for my son, who is interested) and figure it out then. I don't even know what Nintendo is doing anymore. I wouldn't call myself a traditionalist, it just so happens that much of what Nintendo does heavily relies on nostalgia (for me). But a Skyrim Zelda game? A Mario game that looks (for the life of me) like Sonic Adventure? I'm not really a Kool-Aid drinker, so I'll just clock myself out and leave. I'm getting the new Ni No Kuni game later this year, anyway. It's coming out for PC.
|
