Nintendo Switch

It’s criticism of the game, so...that is on-topic.

I think CGS might have misinterpreted "I'll punch you once and you'll die" as an attack at me rather than a comment on Hollow Knight.

I'm going to have to veto Hollow Knight myself. I've never played a Metroidvania before but I've heard they're super hard? I prefer games that are more relaxing and if not that are relatively easy. Part of the reason I wasn't enjoying Mega Man 11 was that I was struggling with the game even on its easiest difficulty.

Is Journey on the Switch?

Ah. In that case then yeah you're better off avoiding Hollow Knight. It is pretty brutal.

I think that's a Sony exclusive.

What about Minecraft, have you got that yet? Another game owned by the competition, but this one still on a Nintendo platform for some reason.

Little Dragons Café is fun and relatively cheap. It's kinda like Harvest Moon meets Diner Dash.

I've heard Hollow Knight is fun but I'm wary of Metroidvania titles. I'm a Metroid fan who isn't fond of actually playing the games. The only Metroidvania games I've tried are the first Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 2, and Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. I know the genre is popular, but I can't get into it. It's too difficult with all its backtracking and twisted maps. I like straightforward games. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror is unplayable levels of confusing, which is weird because it's Kirby for crying out loud.

I'm not a fan of Metroidvania games, but I actually enjoyed Hollow Knight. I thought it did a good job of establishing its atmosphere, and while it's tough, I didn't find it particularly unfair. My main gripe about it is that while it has a map system, it's annoying because you have find the guy who sells them first, and then you have to fill in all the crap he didn't finish.

But even with that, I've found it easier to find my way around in that more than in most Metroidvania games. Each area has a unique aesthetic, and within the areas, there are usually enough landmarks that the different rooms that they're relatively distinguishable, as opposed to the "these five rooms are all identical aside from location" method that some games use.

I mean, if you don't care for those kinds of games in general you should probably give it a pass, but as far as games of that type go, I'd say it's one of the more well-executed ones.

Edited by JapaneseTeeth on Jan 20th 2019 at 9:34:30 AM

It's tough yet easier than other Metroidvania titles? So, that would mean most Metroidvanias are super tough?

Not a fan of Minecraft and I’ve heard Little Dragons Cafe isn’t very good. How’s Hyper Light Drifter? I’ve heard good things about that.

I honestly don't know. I'm just going by the handful of them them I'm familiar with.

Metroidvanias usually aren't that hard. Indie titles that also adopt roguelike elements tend to be harder (Dead Cells), but the actual Castlevania titles in the genre are usually pretty easy. I've even done a no hit run in one of them to give it a sense of challenge. Metroid varies. Shadow Vomplex is another one that's fun, but not difficult.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Jan 20th 2019 at 2:24:05 PM

All of the Metroid games are pretty easy overall except for the NES original, Fusion, and Prime 2.

I don't know what you're talking about, Other M was one of the hardest games I ever played. I didn't even make it through the cutscenes before I had to smash my Wii with a claw hammer.

I'm playing Hollow Knight now and while it is definitely difficult (half of its inspiration seems to be Dark Souls after all), I haven't found it particularly unfair (aside from certain optional boss fights), and unless you're playing on the "Deletes your save once you die" mode, the game seems designed with the expectation that you'll die a lot.

That said, I can see why Hollow Knight would frustrate some people. I generally avoid "purposely hard" games unless I hear really good things about it. Which is why I have Hollow Knight and why I'm considering Celeste (but will probably pass on it).

Hyper Light Drifter felt like it was similar in difficulty to Hollow Knight btw. Both games are considered damn good in presentation and gameplay, but that's only if you can tolerate their inherent difficulty in the first place. I remember playing Hyper Light Drifter a year ago with my brother, but unlike Hollow Knight, the inital hour or so wasn't enough to grip me, and the difficulty took me by surprise enough to put me off of it for the time being (I might pick it back up after finishing Hollow Knight though). If you're not into tough games, I can't say Hyper Light will change your mind...

I've seen enough of my brother playing Hollow Knight to know I don't want to play it. Not a particular fan of dark stories, and my gaming time is too limited like to spend it on a game difficult to the point of sadistic.

Little Dragon's Cafe is pretty fun in my opinion. It just has a slow beginning. It's a very redundant game, so if you don't like time management games I wouldn't suggest it.

I heard it had some pretty major glitches. Is that not true then?

Unrelated, but I'm having an issue with my copy of Tales of Vesperia. For some reason it keeps asking me to connect to the internet when I booted it up. It was fine yesterday when I got it but as of earlier today it'll pause halfway through the opening them and pull up the login screen for my school's internet (Since my Switch uses the school's Wi-Fi and that requires you to long in with your student e-mail.). Anyone have any clue why this might be happening and how to fix it? I'm using a physical copy with DLC but even then I don't think digital copies/DLC would require me to be constantly online to play so I don't know why my physical copy seems to. Especially when it didn't before.

I still don't have Vesperia because I couldn't find it anywhere. I thought the digital version was the one with the problems.

Preliminary numbers from NPD data for the US for December 2018:

Switch sold around 1.77 million and has topped the PS 4's 2018 YTD.

Apparently the developers barely played any Dark Souls before the game came out, and it didn't have a heavy influence on the development of the game. The devs attributed it to Hollow Knight and Da S borrowing from a similar pool of influences.

Anyways, I personally really enjoyed Hollow Knight. I haven't beaten it yet but I'm very close to the end and found it very enjoyable. Everything from its foreboding atmosphere, charming NPC's, great art direction, and dense map design appealed to me a lot. I actually enjoyed the fact that I felt a bit lost in the first few hours; it made the world feel more like, well, a world rather than a videogame. I mostly didn't have a problem with it past then, outside of one or two instances where I had to look up where to go.

It is a reasonably difficult game; it's far from the worst I've experienced but definitely tougher than average. That's mostly been a positive for me but if that's not your thing you would be right to skip it.

Switch Indie Highlights video tomorrow at 6 am PST.

Halfway through the showcase, and two big things so far: First, Wargroove is up for prepurchase; release date is the 1st.

Second... Goat Simulator. Yes, you read that right. It's out now, with all four addons included.

Edit: Only other thing of note was the announcement of Steamworld Quest.

Edited by Hunter1 on Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:29:30 AM

Oh boy, new Steamworld! Good timing on that one, I just got done with Dig 2, and now I'm replaying Heist, this time with the DLC character (who's real nice to see with the context of Dig 2).

Downloading Unruly Heroes now. Can't wait for Cross Code.