NIntendo Direct September 4th!

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Bluie
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I think one of the best things about the Xenoblade remaster is that it's not a port. The 3D models look more in line with Xenoblade 2, and that's great. Expressions will be clearer, emotions easier to show - it's really, really great.

My main issue I had with the first game was the combat, but I think i'm willing to give it a shot again. I really adored XBC2, and with a fresh coat of paint (on not a small 3DS screen), I think I can love OG Xenoblade too.
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Kikki
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Ah haha, yeah, I think that's the concensus, and yet...

I LOVE that the remaster is much higher quality. It DEFINITELY is. XC1 had blurry graphics that had a sort of motion distortion where not all pixels felt like they were moving at the same time.

And yet... I preferred the style in XC1. I never did like the style of XC2, after all, and I don't like that the new XC1 makes Shulk's face more baby-looking with a softer cheek, a little button nose and rounder eyes. I feel he looked handsomer and more mature in the original and that this is a downgrade in how attractive he is, even though the quality is gorgeous.

I'm happy it is getting a quality boost for the move onto Switch, but I'm kind of sad about the style shift. I didn't want XC1, my most beloved game, to shift to look like the newer XC2, which is a game I merely liked. But at least this will draw fans who joined the series with XC2 back to trying XC1. It's a good thing, I'm just a bit sad for my own sake, since it's not really what I wanted for the series for myself. But at least it doesn't go all the way to XC2...it's sort of in-between, in style.

EDIT: BY THE WAY...Nintendo has put up all individual game clips, now.
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On the flipside, it isn't overly anime like XBC2. They look more like slight glow ups than an entire change in style.

This Nintendo Direct has given me a good game schedule for next year. January has Tokyo Mirage Sessions, April has Trials of Mana, and March has Animal Crossing. The 'dead' months in between I can get one of the games from my massively growing wishlist (there's way, WAY too many games coming out at the end of this year). I am pleased with this.

But I can't help but feel next year's summer/fall is going to be a repeat of this yeah considering how many games are slated for 2020 at this point.
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Kikki
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It feels like a big change in style to me, but yeah, the new XC1 style is in between original XC1 and XC2. And he may be softer and more baby-faced, but at least XC1-remastered Shulk doesn't have that oddly derpy look that XC2 gives him. Or that's what I think right now...it'll take seeing the game in action to be sure.

The voice-acting in XC1 was so good that I've always seen it as the game where the characters show MORE emotion (or more emotion that I could empathize with), over what is shown in XC2. I always felt like emotion was very blunted in 2. Be interesting to listen to that voice acting with this character art style and see how that goes. There's going to be pros and cons to this new style for me that I won't be aware of until I actually play.

Well it's a pre-order for me for sure either way. I do wish they'd go for XCX but I never really understood what they meant when they said it would be too costly. They can port XC1 while giving it a big graphic boost, but they can't even straight-port XCX? I guess I just don't understand enough about programming or game engines or something.

I need to watch that sizzle reel again. I don't think it had anything I'm interested in, in it, but it went by so quick that I'm not sure. Animal Crossing didn't show any new features in this Direct, but there were new little things to spot in the footage. Like this GIANT MUSHROOM or these...poppies? Anemones? Looks like a new type of flower you can plant, anyway. And it was good to see fossils confirmed, both with the cracks in the ground and seeing a player dig one up and show it off.

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Was kind've disappointed with the direct as the only things mentioned that held my interest was Luigi's Mansion 3, Pokemon Shield, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the SNES Nintendo online thing. With two of these being a given, and most of the information being a recap...I just really wished they had shown a greater variety of stuff.

And, does anyone know when the SNES Online thing is releasing today? Here, it's already 2:20 P.M. Thanks!
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I'm excited to see the XC remaster. While they did look more mature in the original, I still think for ME they look old enough that I won't feel like I'm controlling at 14 year old like I did when I was playing as Rex. Plus the nostalgia train would probably have banished any issues with how they looked anyway, provided the character designs weren't radically different (which they aren't). Maybe I will finally replay it a second time. The first time, I had to send my Wii U in for repairs, and while the issue had zero to do with the SD card, I accidentally left it in my console, and they wiped it clean. There went my over 130 hour completed file of XC (and did it have a NG+?).

As far as XCX, I feel like it probably comes down to if Nintendo will ever decide it will net them enough profit to port it to Switch. I can only assume they currently want to piggyback on the success of XC2 since it sold over a million units, therefore trying to entice newcomers to the series by making both directly related games available on current gen (or players who only played XC2 and are curious about XC now). XCX being unrelated = maybe not a priority until they see how well the XC remaster sells? Obviously this is all PURE 100% speculation.

EDIT: honestly, if I only played XC2 and never had access to XC, I would be dying with curiosity and probably would be ecstatic hearing the first one is getting ported/make it a day one purchase for sure.

Cool about Tokyo Mirage, but I have to research further to see if it's worth investing in a second time. Also super excited for Trials of Mana.
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Yep! XC1 has an NG+, and it would REALLY suck to lose the chance to play it that way since it's such a long game! Especially if you did really well your first time through with doing all 400+ quests and wanted to breeze through the story a second time around.

Even if you have Shulk leading your party, you spend most of your time looking at him from behind, so how his face looks probably won't be a problem anyway. And I suspect that Reyn and Dunban may finally be good-looking in the remake. They looked really weird in the original...very distorted. I think Shulk got away with it because he was such a pretty-boy, with big eyes and fine features...even when distortion hit, it didn't hit him as hard.

It's hard for me to imagine that there'd be many people super interested in Xenoblade who haven't already played XC1. It was available on Wii, Wii U and 3DS as well, so I guess it'd have to come down to people who got a Switch and promptly sold their 3DS, and then loved XC2 and realized too late that they wanted to try XC1 as well and had no system to try it on.

I really hope they'll think X is worthwhile at some point. It's so different from the other games that I figure it's not considered as much of a draw, but it had the best world and exploration of any game I've ever played. I crave it if I go even a few months without playing it. I've been craving it this whole past week.

I can still play TMS on my Wii U and I started it but wasn't particularly interested, so I don't think it's worthwhile to me to get it on the Switch. But I know a lot of people wanted it.
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I'm glad they have some good games included with the launch of the SNES online console. Just wished we could've sen a hint of some more SNES games coming in the future. I want Harvest Moon (SNES) to be available, because even though I bought it for my Wii U, I barely touched it and would like another chance at it. Also, I can't play my Wii U, because it isn't plugged in.

I'm also hoping for Nintendo 64 games to be available and would like the chance for Harvest Moon 64 to be available again, despite buying it on the Wii U. I barely touched the game on my Wii U as well.

Also, a little miffed they're porting SNES games so soon, because I just bought a New Nintendo 3DS a few months ago, in part, to play SNES games on it. And I totally paid $8 for Super Mario World, and it's included free with the Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Dang it. :(

Also, does anyone else notice they haven't started porting gameboy/handheld games to the Switch console yet through Nintendo Switch's online membership?

I totally wanted to buy Friends of Mineral Town/More Friends of Mineral Town on the Wii U back when I could play my Wii U, even though the remake is releasing in Japan for a few months...I still want the original games re-released again as well.

Basically, I want all the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games from the past 20+ years ported to Switch.
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I'm really excited for Xenoblade... I have 2, but I haven't played the first one, and I'm just one of those people who's a bit like ahhhh I haven't played the first one so starting with the second entry feels off to me. I will get that for sure. I was contemplating getting it for the Wii, but I'll wait now.

Catch me going MIA off the grid to go feral on a deserted island come March 2020. I'm so ready for New Horizons.
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News of Monolithsoft+ keeps hinting at stuff about Xenoblade. They also pointed out the FEATHERS surrounding the 'Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition' title, asking who/what the feathers could belong to. Now I'm curious about the whole 'definitive edition'. We already know almost certainly (not officially confirmed but shown in the definitive edition where it was not shown in the original) that they are restoring some cut material, and now there's hinting that maybe there is DLC or new characters or...something. :eek:

~

I'm really curious about how expanding your island's civilization will work in New Horizons. At the beginning you can clearly only make/buy very basic stuff...and it all looks like camping gear, none of it like real furniture. I was peering at that video (many times!) to see if I could ever spot even one piece of actual furniture, but it was all hammocks and stump seats, campfires and barbecues. I'm gonna be on the track to civilize my island right away! (I haaaaaaaate camping, lol.)

Also dying to know if they will allow us to lay paths with anything other than dirt/clay. I'd like stones, pebbles, pavers, concrete, wood...etc. Though I like the path option either way, as I'm betting this means no more grass deterioration, and grass deterioration was something that made the game less enjoyable for me, always hesitant to walk over grass I didn't want to start getting ugly. And I love that I can put a path down anywhere I want, any time, and cover it over again, too. But it'd be even better if you could customize your paths!

Also looking forward to seeing different island layouts (I'm assuming random layouts is still a thing in this game, though we don't know for sure, yet.) and being able to explore around the entire island to see what's on the upper levels and to the north. I already saw that one new type of flower, so I really hope there's even more new nature...more flowers, trees, grasses, etc.
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They should remake Xenoblade first because the game is older and not in HD. The game also had a very limited run when it was released.
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But it's not limited run on 3DS. Or on Wii U, if you can count Wii U. And I think the original game has always been beautiful. Imo, business-wise XC1 makes the most sense to port to Switch because XC2 is what made Xenoblade mainstream, and XCX isn't truly related to it...only 'spiritually' related. So XC1 makes more sense in that there's probably a lot of fans of XC2 who want to play XC1 now and will be basing their impression of it on XC2 since that's what they played first.

But I still want XCX more. My Wii U is not a reliable machine...already had to send it in once...and if I lost it, I'd never be able to play the game again. But I can always play XC1 again at any time on my 3DS, of which I have two, both still working perfectly with never a blip. And because I know so many people who wanted to play XCX but couldn't because they never owned a Wii U and weren't about to buy one for the sake of one game only. I just wouldn't argue that XCX makes the most business sense for Monolith Software or Nintendo...it's just what I personally want.
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