vanguard333

I can certainly see at least a few good potential reasons why: it's a great game that stands the test of time, it's quick to get into as there's little tutorializing, and it doesn't take hundreds of hours to complete (unlike RPGs as you mentioned). I know what you mean, but it's less that I drop them and more that other things come up, and yeah; some RPGs can take a very long time to finish. How does it tend to feel when you finally do come back and finish a game after going a long time without playing it?

For context: I recently set up my old GameCube and finished Ocarina of Time on the Collector's Edition that came with the GameCube. I figured that it would be a good idea to then move on to Majora's Mask. I haven't played the game since I was a kid, but I don't remember there ever being any problems when my brother or I played it. However, when I decided to look online to see what people had to say about the Collector's Edition, I saw a ton of complaints about Majora's Mask on the GameCube randomly freezing and crashing, which is especially bad for a game like Majora's Mask since you save by going back to the Dawn of the First Day with the owl statues enabling the player to suspend-save the game. I don't have another copy of the game (though I could probably get one via Wii U virtual console, but then I'd have to set up my Wii U; ah, the pains of moving), so I want to know: was it really that bad? Did it really have these kinds of problems, and, if so, then how frequently does it occur? Was the freezing caused by anything in particular that could be avoided, or was it completely random as I've seen quite a few people say it was?

I am a fan of The Legend of Zelda; it and Fire Emblem are my two favourite video game franchises, and I've been a Zelda fan for far longer than I have been a Fire Emblem fan. I became a Zelda fan when I was very young and my family got a GameCube and, with it, the Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition, which had the original game, Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask. I didn't like the first two games, and Majora's Mask gave me nightmares, but I played Ocarina of Time a lot, and it's safe to say that it made me a Zelda fan... which is the reason it has bugged me to no end that I never actually finished the game, or even came close to finishing it. A couple years ago, I sat down, started a new file, and set out to finish the game. I made it all the way to the Spirit Temple before having to move, and then I never even got the GameCube set up before having to move again. But now, I have finally sat down and finished the game. I have to say... it's kind-of weird; going back to the game after all this time, and thinking about what I thought of it then and what I think of it now. I mean; can you really call it nostalgia if you never actually played a significant chunk of the game until fairly recently? What I can say is that, outside of graphics, the game has aged remarkably well (and even then, certain moments still look decent). I tried Mario 64 on the Switch via 3D All-Stars, and while it is certainly still a very functional game today that has aged well in most places, it took a while to get used to certain quirks about Mario's movement that later games got rid of (like him turning in a wide circle if turning 180 degrees from stop instead of simply turning around in place). With Ocarina of Time, I can't really think of anything except that the Wii U and the Switch have made me too used to gyro aim and going back to aiming with just a stick is rather annoying in comparison. But that's not really the game aging so much as the console and controllers aging. So... yeah. Anyone else have this experience of having a game for a long time and never actually finishing it until years later?

Thanks. I already knew about a lot of that stuff like the original NES Metroid not aging well and lacking a map thanks to some videos I've seen dissecting the series (a particularly good one was a video about the series by a YouTuber named Nerrel; I found out about his channel because of a video he made on the Majora's Mask remake). Thanks. As I said though, I feel like it would probably be better for me to try the one with the less fluid controls first since I know I'm going to be trying more than one game in the series. Plus, that idea of telling the story using pure atmosphere sounds really neat. The main reason I'm interested in trying the Metroid series right now is that I want to try something dripping with atmosphere where I can explore and get lost (while also experiencing some more classic Nintendo titles that I somehow never played). So, in short, the list of ones to definitely play is: Super, Fusion, Prime (either the trilogy or just the first one), and probably Dread after it releases. Thanks, everyone.

I'm not a fan of the Metroid series, and in fact I've never actually played a Metroid game before, but I'm somewhat familiar with the series and I think it's cool that Metroid is finally getting a brand new game. Metroid has received almost as many accolades as Mario and The Legend of Zelda, but it's never had the widespread success that those series have had. Perhaps this will be a big first step in the series having greater success (or at least regaining some of the success it used to have). I might get this game one day, but probably not on day 1 or even close. I know they said this game would be a good starting point for new players, but I still feel like I should play Super Metroid first simply because it and Prime are the two Metroid games that keep appearing on "top ten games of all time" lists. Plus, it's probably good to start with the older games since I know I want to try them, rather than play them after playing a newer game that probably has more refined controls and stuff like that.

So... I'm currently borrowing a set of joy-cons from a sibling that has their own Switch (cleaning my joy-cons failed, so I'm going to have to send them in). However, I promised to only play a game that would be "gentle" on the joy-cons, so no Monster Hunter Rise. Instead, because there's a sale on the Nintendo e-shop, I decided to purchase a game I'd been meaning to get, and at half price: Valkyria Chronicles Remastered. It's a tactical RPG, so it should be "gentle" on the joy-cons, and I'd been meaning to play the original Valkyria Chronicles because I really enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles 4. I have to say, it's always interesting trying an earlier game in a series after starting with the later ones. I expected stuff like there not being grenadiers or APCs, but I did not expect stuff like not being able to redo story missions, or being asked if I want to play on easy or normal for each optional skirmish rather than being asked that once before starting the story campaign. @Shanty Pete's 1st Mate Thanks for the suggestions. By the way, is it possible to get the joy-cons fixed for free even if the one-year warranty has expired? I once heard from someone that it's possible because of the current lawsuit, but I've been having trouble finding anything to verify that, and I'm concerned because, well, the one-year warranty has probably expired by now. I do have a GameCube controller adapter because of Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it's not plugged in right now and I'd have to find it (I'm still unpacking after my recent move).

And not just the hug; don't forget all their adorable victory high-fives, them holding hands at the end of the game, or Zelda telling Byrne, "When [Zelda and Link] are together, no one can defeat us!" before she and Link then look into each other's eyes and blush... completely failing to notice that Byrne is ignoring them and leaving the room. Yeah; every now and then I see someone try to claim that Skyward Sword was the first Zelda game to give Link and Zelda's dynamic an overtly romantic tone, and I keep having to point out to them that Spirit Tracks not only did that before Skyward Sword, but went even further with it than Skyward Sword did. I suppose, though I usually prefer when they break away from various old tropes like those. To be clear, a fully-restored Ganondorf would be cool to see. That said, if we do get a fully-restored Ganondorf in the game, I hope we get to fight Mummy-Ganondorf first since it's such an interesting concept with a lot of potential.

Well, she was a spirit in most of that game. Also, you could directly interact with her outside the Spirit Tower, though admittedly only to the same extent as other companions (i.e. talking to them). I see what you mean; Spirit Tracks was great, but something that went even further in terms of them adventuring together would be great. I've never played Ico, but I've heard of it, so I know what you mean. I was even thinking of stuff like Link and Zelda helping each other up ledges (though they don't really need that thanks to the climbing mechanics), or Zelda grabbing metal objects with magnesis so you can shoot lightning at those objects for aoe damage and such. The two of them resting under a tree like that does sound adorable and like something the Link and Zelda in Spirit Tracks would've done if Zelda had been corporeal in most of that game. I could see something like that, though villains using Zelda's lifeforce to restore/empower their own is a bit of an old Zelda trope (Vaati in Minish Cap, Bellum in Phantom Hourglass, Demise in Skyward Sword, etc.).

Agreed; there's almost-certainly going to be a Pokémon direct within the next couple of weeks. I'm perfectly fine waiting, as I've been more looking forward to Monster Hunter Stories 2 news, which we did get. I'm looking forward to the demo (as well as the actual game). Speaking of which, did anyone else watch the treehouse for Stories 2? The person playing the game said that the late grandpa is the protagonist of the first game, but not only did Capcom say that that was not the case, but there are characters in Stories 2 that are from the first game and they've only aged maybe 15 years at most; most notably Lilia, who was the same age as the Stories 1 protagonist and is a teenager/young-adult in Stories 2. The person playing the game really should've fact-checked.

I agree. It is rather obvious that it sold well because of the BOTW connection. I hadn't thought about Zelda having her own side-story. That could be interesting. Same; I much would've preferred a "Link and Zelda travel together" game; that's what I was referring to when I said that I wanted Zelda to be Link's companion and referenced Spirit Tracks. If you're talking about Link and Zelda in general rather than specifically BOTW Link and Zelda, then Spirit Tracks is a Link & Zelda adventure. I really hope she isn't playing her usual role again; especially right after BOTW had her be the one imprisoning Ganon for a change. Anyway, on rewatching the trailer, I just noticed that there's a moment where Link has a flamethrower shaped like a dragon head and it's attached to the shield. On the one hand, I'm kind-of disappointed because the shield's still on the left arm and I was hoping that Link's right arm getting covered in the green stuff would lead to him going back to being left-handed. On the other hand, the flamethrower thing doesn't look like a unique shield and instead looks more like some kind of shield attachment, so that could be really interesting.

I don't know; I saw quite a few people saying they didn't find out it was an alternate timeline until they played the game and that they felt like they got ripped off. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if a large number of people either didn't play the demo, pre-ordered the game, or understandably wanted to avoid "spoilers" until they got the game. I'm not saying that they'd be a majority of the sales or anywhere close, but would the hype and attention that the game got have been nearly as much as it was if not for how it was misleadingly marketed? But I'd honestly rather not keep talking about it. Now that you mention it, yeah; that DLC schedule is very weird.

Yeah; we can only hope. Please don't remind me about the success of Age of Calamity. Normally, I'd be happy to see a Zelda spin-off do well, but with Age of Calamity, I can't help but wonder how many of its sales were from people who were misled by the marketing and wouldn't have bought it if not for the false-advertising.

Yeah; I was hoping for the return of the idea of Zelda being Link's companion; it was easily the best thing about Spirit Tracks and I've been wanting to see it return. I hope it is in the game. Maybe they're separated for a while and then end up reuniting and working together?

I didn't really care for more of the stuff that was shown off. Here are my thoughts on the things that did catch my eye: Smash Bros. DLC Fighter: New Smash Bros. news is cool, but I have no idea who this fighter is. Age of Calamity: the DLC expansion didn't catch my eye until Aonuma said, "More missions in this game that occurred 100 years before the events of Breath of the Wild" The game's been out for several months now, and they're still lying?! At this point, it just feels like they're rubbing it in. "We really fooled most of you, didn't we?" Skyward Sword HD: I find it baffling that they didn't say anything new about the game. Remember how, for Wind Waker HD, they couldn't stop showing off stuff like the swift sail and the other new things in the game, and the same for Twilight Princess HD? Combine that with the only QoL feature they've mentioned so far (besides the stick controls) being locked behind an Amiibo that doesn't even come with the game (unlike the Wolf Link amiibo for Twilight Princess) is baffling. I have less and less hope that there will finally be a left-handed mode that'll enable me to actually play the game. Breath of the Wild Sequel: This pretty much saved the E3 presentation for me. Having floating islands is a great idea, mummy Ganondorf is as scary as it was two years ago, Link's powers now being tied to his arm rather than the Shiekah slate seems interesting and has a lot of potential, and the bokoblins now having mobile bases built on top of Stone Taluses is a really cool idea.

You get sidequests by talking to the NPCs in castaway village. When the game introduces sidequests, it will also add a signpost near the exit to castaway village that will list all the available sidequests. You're making sure to collect everything; that's also good, as you will definitely want to make sure you have plenty of the various materials. Sometimes, though surprisingly rarely, there'll be something you can't get just yet (like a treasure chest that's out-of-reach until you get the double-jump). If you suspect that something's out-of-reach for now, I'd suggest double-checking a walkthrough just to make sure. I should probably mention that I played this game for the first time a few months ago, and the main reason I haven't completed it is that I just moved recently and I still haven't plugged in my PS4 yet. If you ever have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Characters I dislike as characters but enjoy using: Corrin in Fates and Smash Bros.: I dislike Corrin as a character because they're a blatant Gary Stu and just a massive waste of potential, but I will not deny that Corrin is fun to use as a unit thanks to the Yato and their dragon powers, and they're fun to use in Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate. Characters I like as characters but dislike using: Toon Link in every Smash Bros. game except Brawl: I like Toon Link as a character as he's one of the best Links, and I enjoyed using him in Brawl, but he just doesn't click with me after all the changes they made to him in 4 and Ultimate. Minerva in Shadow Dragon: I find her character interesting (as interesting as a character in Shadow Dragon can get), but, while she isn't anywhere close to the worst promoted unit in Shadow Dragon, the game isn't really friendly to using promoted units in my experience. I'm sure there are other characters, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head right now.

Cool. I'm guessing that the new character was a big blue-haired guy with an anchor? By the way, this is one of those games where you should go out of your way to explore each area that you can access, even if there's a level disparity between your characters and the wildlife (in which case avoid/run from the wildlife). I found the game's layout surprisingly linear, but I've spoken to a few people who had the opposite experience. That said, there was one area where things weren't intuitive; it occurred when I obtained access to an optional forest area where you can find a very useful castaway. The thing is that the forest area has both level 30 enemies (no disparity), and level 50 raptor-like enemies. If I hadn't been using a guide to avoid missing the game's permanently-missable sidequests, I might not have come back to this area until a lot later and missed a lot. So, thoroughly explore everything you can gain access to. Another thing: complete all the sidequests as soon as you can; these quests don't last forever, and you can miss a lot if you don't finish them.

I wasn't really talking about the title or naming; I just meant that you can't really market something on being the biggest and most ambitious installment in the series yet, and then market the next thing as being that but bigger and more ambitious; it kind-of undercuts things. It's kind-of like how a lot of movie sequels and such go, "You thought that villain was threatening? This villain is that, but even more threatening than the old villain!" and it doesn't work because it's less interesting than a new villain that's threatening on their own terms and it undercuts the previous villain, which naturally audiences aren't going to like if they liked that villain. By the way, what did you think of the rest of what I said?

Thanks. What did you think of the part where I basically said, "If I had been in Aonuma's position, I would've said this to answer those interview questions... and then told someone in the dev team to add a quick note in the game to make it true."

Link in Breath of the Wild is naturally left-handed, but he was forced to fight right-handed when he underwent martial training, both for pragmatic reasons (if trying to do a formation like a shield wall, you don't want one guy holding his shield in the opposite hand from everyone else) and because of the rigid overly-focused-on-tradition nature of Hyrule at the time. Even after 100 years of slumber and amnesia, he still fights right-handed due to muscle memory. I came up with this headcanon to explain why he seems better with a shield than with a sword (look how awkwardly he swings when holding a one-handed weapon despite canonically being a trained fighter in this game), his extremely powerful shield parry, and the fact that the Links are canonically supposed to be left-handed (with Skyward Sword having been an exception because of the motion controls, and even then it should've been optional). Plus, Aonuma was asked multiple times in multiple interviews why Link was right-handed in BOTW, and each time he gave a different answer that was obviously made up on the spot, suggesting that there was no reason. If I had been in his position, this is the answer I would've come up with, stuck with, and then told a member of the dev team "we need to add a quick reference in one of the journal entries that Link is naturally a lefty so that what I just said in that interview is actually true". Another headcanon I have is for Radiant Dawn; more specifically the duel between Geoffrey and Renning over the position of commander of the royal knights. My headcanon is that Ike, not knowing what was going on, accidentally got himself involved in the duel and soundly beat both of them.

Yeah; the next game is almost-certainly going to be a reboot (though I think the more accurate term in the case of something like a fighting game would be "relaunch" rather than "reboot"). You can't go past "Ultimate" after all, so the next thing for continuing the series would be to re-evaluate, re-organize and rework the series almost from the ground up. This would also give them full freedom with both the roster and the characters' abilities. For example, the old explanation for why Ganondorf has kept being a semi-clone of Captain Falcon has been that that's basically the expectation; that they can't change him too much without upsetting those who actually use him. With a reboot, however, they could rebuild Ganondorf's moveset from the ground up and the context of a relaunch would be enough cover to avoid criticisms along the lines of, "They changed it; now it sucks". It would also make work easier for Sakurai and the team. Contrary to popular belief, just adding more characters to the roster actually takes more work, since each new character multiplies the amount of work (as said character then has to be tweaked and balanced in the context of the rest of the roster, has to be given their own version of classic mode, etc.) instead of adding to the amount of work. Sakurai even said as much in an interview about Smash Bros. 4. Since we're currently looking at a roster of over 80 fighters by the time all the DLC for Ultimate is done, going back to the foundations of the roster and rebuilding from the ground up would probably be easier and less time-consuming than trying to just add more characters to the roster at this point. Extending from both of these is the issue of the abundant echo fighters & semi-clones in Smash Bros. I learned recently that these were never originally supposed to be a thing in Smash Bros.; they were a product of the rush that Melee went through. But now they've become a huge part of the series and have presented multiple dilemmas for both the fans and the dev team. Now, they could be cut out or completely reworked to no longer have derivative movesets without too much complaint. I'm not sure either. For me, trophies were great not because of "flavour" but because of their function as both rewards and as something of a digital museum. Thanks to trophies, I found out about so many games and franchises that I previously didn't know existed, with Fire Emblem being one of them. Apparently, trophies were replaced with spirits because trophies were too much work for the devs; fair enough, but spirits don't have that "digital museum" aspect; they don't actually tell you what game or franchise a character is from or anything about that character. I like the Cards idea, as having the function of spirits while actually having the character's game, franchise, and info would be a good combination.

Thanks. I'll probably just send it in then. That's what I mean; it's amazing that the game ended up as something that's considered to be okay (I'm using phrases like "considered to be" simply because I haven't played it, so I myself can't say anything about the quality). The development troubles went further than that: for just one example, when they rebranded the game and changed directors, Square Enix's executives also ordered that the dev team stop using the Crystal Tools engine to make the game (which was a relief, as that engine was unfinished garbage)… and switch to using the Luminous Engine, which was still being programmed and tested. They were having to finish the game at the same time that they were having to finish the engine that they were using to make the game. I'm not a Final Fantasy fan, but I'd honestly love to see the original Versus XIII idea realized as it looked really interesting. I mean, if Snyder fans got to see a four-hour cut of Justice League, why can't we get a Nomura cut of Final Fantasy?

Thanks. Cleaning the joy-con used to work the last couple of times that this happened, but I tried cleaning it this time and it didn't work. Thanks. I might do that. I'm going to try one more time to look at it and see if I can fix it myself, but if I can't, I'll probably send it in. I remember a time when Nintendo consoles and controllers were the most durable of them all, and I'm not even old. The GameCube was almost indestructible, the Wii and Wii U weren't as strong but they can survive quite well, and it took a lot of accidental drops and multiple moves over the course of more than a decade before my GameBoy Advance died and that honestly might've been the battery that died rather than structural damage. What happened to Nintendo? Anyway, going back to the topic of actually playing games, I'm probably going to plug in the GameCube and finish Ocarina of Time before moving on to Majora's Mask. I've had both games on the collector's edition since I was 5, I call myself a Zelda fan, and yet I've never actually finished either game. So, I may as well finish playing through them. I've never played that game, though I know a lot about the truly nightmarish development it went through. It's honestly amazing that the game wasn't considered to be horrible when it released.

I just remembered an E3 2021 hope that I forgot to put on my original list: I hope for a Valkyria Chronicles 5. Valkyria Chronicles 4 was the game that introduced me to the series, and I thought VC4 was fantastic: the gameplay, the story and the characters were really good, and I'm actually considering getting the remastered version of the first game (once I've finished some of the games that I need to finish) so that I can see how the series began. The game wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it enough that even after I had to stop playing for several months because of university, it was the first game on my list that I went back to and actually finished (I even played the disappointing final mission twice to get the good ending). For a long time, what little information there was about how well 4 sold suggested that it was a flop, and I really hoped that wasn't the case; I finally just started the series; I didn't want it to end after the game that introduced me to it. The good news is that, apparently, it was revealed in June of last year that the game has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. That's pretty good; hopefully good enough for them to make another game in the series. Personally, I'm particularly hoping for a game that takes place over 30 years before the rest of the series and takes place in the first Europan War, as I think there's a lot that they can do with that and they've done most of what they can do with the second Europan War stories. But I'd honestly just be happy if a new game gets announced.

Plus, it's a chapter where you have two units (Kurthnaga and Ena) who will not be attacked by any of the enemy units and who are indestructible on that chapter as a result. I never understood someone going, "Oh, make sure to have this unit for the dragon chapter" as I just can't help but think that it's the chapter where you least need units that are particularly viable for it specifically. Plus, if you really want to bring thunder tomes to the endgame, there's Pelleas, though he can only get up to S rank with it, and I prefer having him use his dark magic because the long-range one packs so much punch (and he gains enough strength, skill and speed) that he can fairly-reliably ORKO most enemies with it after he gains enough levels.