Lord_Brand

Until the next one comes out. *mic drop* Unless the next one has a 3 at the end. Then another five years.

Rare were the developers, but everything developed for SFA (and presumably, Dinosaur Planet before it) belongs to Nintendo, as far as I know. Granted, Rare retained the copyrights to their other original IPs, but once Dinosaur Planet became Star Fox Adventures, everything in it transferred over to Nintendo far as I know. Krystal certainly did. At any rate, my idea is less of a retread of the original SFA and moreso a new game with a similar on foot style of gameplay.

It would be preferable so anyone else reading doesn't have to scroll past it, though I guess it's a moot point now that we're on page 2. Of the Nintendo IPs I've played to a considerable extent, here's how I'd rate them on factors such as gameplay, music, and character designs: The Legend of Zelda Super Smash Bros. Donkey Kong Country Super Mario Metroid Kirby Star Fox F-Zero Fire Emblem Pokemon

Honestly, a new Star Fox in the vein of Assault would probably have been a good use of the pointer, but you know what I really want from Star Fox? A new Star Fox Adventures. That is, a Star Fox game with significant on-foot gameplay in addition to vehicle sections. You could visit various cities on different planets, take on mercenary jobs from NPCs, acquire an arsenal of weapons, and also fight enemy ships in the Arwing, Landmaster, and other vehicles. And of course I'd want to bring Krystal back, preferably by reintroducing her in a capacity that makes more sense for the series and that allows her to take a more active role in most of the game's events. Like, if they still want to have a mission where you rescue her, I'm cool with that, but then maybe let her join Fox on his adventures afterwards, or set out to do her own thing and cross paths with Fox repeatedly. I'd have loved SFA even more if we got to rescue Krystal early on and have her travel with Fox, watching their personalities bounce off one another and letting them save Dinosaur Planet together. Picture something like this: The SharpClaw have captured Krystal with the intent to use her as a conduit for the Krazoa Spirits, only they need her staff as well which just so happens to have ended up in Fox's hands. Through the staff, Krystal is able to communicate with Fox and guide him to where she's being held captive, allowing him to free her and return her staff to her. She promises to reward Fox later for freeing her and sets out to save Dinosaur Planet, only for Fox to stop her and insist that he come along to make sure she makes good on her promise, not to mention ensure she doesn't get captured again. Krystal's a bit annoyed, but relents, marking the start of their new partnership. During their adventure across Dinosaur Planet, the two vulpines butt heads now and then over their different priorities regarding the well being of Dinosaur Planet's inhabitants and Star Fox's payment, but also manage to bond over the fact they both lost something to Andross years ago (Fox's father James and Krystal's entire home planet, Cerinia), and come to see the validity of each others' viewpoints (Fox caring more about the dinosaurs' well being and Krystal accepting that Star Fox really needs the money), not to mention Fox starts to sympathize with Krystal a lot when he learns she's been alone for most of her life since losing her planet. The two also find each other highly attractive of course which leads to some cute or even funny moments where they become a bit (or a lot) more awkward around each other. By the end of the story, a romance has blossomed between them, and Krystal promises Fox a bigger reward for helping her save Dinosaur Planet on top of rescuing her. She asks to join Star Fox at the same time Fox asks her to join Star Fox, causing yet another adorkable moment in which they answer "yes" at the same time as well.

I'm hoping a mod can just delete the arguments and get the topic back on track.

Uh, hey mods, can we get this all sorted out? I'll be reporting my own post here in hopes nobody gets in trouble.

I chose Star Fox. But I'd love to see a modern game starring Takamaru. There's a lot they could do with a Zelda-esque title set in Japan.

The Legend of Zelda for me. Zelda has always been my #1 video game series, ever since I was old enough to hold a controller. Link is one of my favorite heroes, Zelda is one of my favorite game girls, the medieval setting of Hyrule really appeals to me, and the gameplay is satisfying. I also like Donkey Kong Country for the scenery and music. Gameplay's good too. I miss the Kremlings though, hope to see them return preferably with a pirate aesthetic like in DKC2. Super Smash Bros. is another favorite for the gameplay, variety of characters, and overall coolness factor of a crossover platform fighter. Especially since more recent entries have been leaning hard into nerd references, like one of Simon's victory animations referencing a glitch from the original NES game. No Star Fox? That's one of my favorites too, mostly for the music and Krystal.

Robin Hood - as in the one with all the anthro animal characters - has always been a fave of mine since childhood. Would love to see it get more attention, maybe even a TV series in the vein of TaleSpin. Rob could translate to a superhero a la Green Arrow really well.

For me, Generation VI. Highlights for me: The first fully 3D mainline Pokemon game. The prettiest female protagonist trainer, Serena. Shauna, one of the best friend characters in the series. The Fairy Type, rounding out the type list at 18 and introducing some fun new dynamics (including a hard answer to the Dragon type). Mega Evolutions, which were not only really cool looking but also gave some underused Pokemon a boost. Trainer customization, allowing you to outfit your trainer with different clothes and hairstyles. Pokemon Amie, a great outlet for feeding and interacting with your Pokemon. Granted, I stopped actually playing after Gen III, but I've kept up with the series since, and my bro has played every generation since III so I've gotten to at least see the later generations.

I am indeed referring to Zelda Universe. And I don't know if everyone there was opposed to the idea, I just remember being shot down by somebody for suggesting a good alternate ending. Right? Best of both worlds! I faced similar opposition when I suggested they make more open-world Zelda games in the future instead of sticking with mostly linear stories like the series has done since Link's Awakening. Or when I suggested alternating between open world and linear games. The most common argument I remember hearing is "If they're spending time on open-world games, that's less time they're spending on linear games and less linear games they're making". So basically, I'm supposed to go without the games I want so someone else can have more of the kinds of games they want, instead of us both getting games we want. I don't remember who said that, and I could be misremembering as it's been a while since I left ZU, but I distinctly recall going through such a conversation there. I also faced such opposition when suggesting a Zelda game set in a futuristic, more modernized Hyrule with cars, bikes, trains, firearms (though moreso beam-firing as opposed to bullet-firing) and even computers. Basically a Futurepunk Zelda, set sometime after BotW. I think we should wait until we see what Nintendo has planned after BotW2 before making that call. Remember that Majora's Mask (Child Timeline) was followed by the Oracles (Downfall Timeline), FS (Child Timeline), TWW (Adult Timeline), and TP (Child Timeline). It's perfectly possible Nintendo will in the future produce a sequel in the alternate timeline following AoC's good ending.

While Final Fantasy VII may be one of the series' most iconic and popular installments, I feel it was unjust to ignore the older entries that helped lead up to VII's release, especially the original game that started it all. In this topic, we discuss what classic Final Fantasy content we'd have liked to see in SSBU and what we'd like to see in SSB6. (Please refrain from posting comments like "SSB6 won't happen" as those contribute nothing to the topic at hand and will be reported as spam.) This post will be updated over time as I come up with new content to add to it or choose to reorganize the existing content. Fighters There are easily a dozen or more FF characters who could make great additions to Smash, but for now I'm focusing on three in particular. Chocobo & Moogle Garland Warrior of Light Stages To go with the three Fighters I've suggested, I have a stage corresponding to each. First is Chocobo's Dungeon for Chocobo & Moogle. The stage is named after and references the Chocobo's Dungeon series. In keeping with the Mystery Dungeon nature of those titles, the stage is somewhat randomized not unlike Minecraft World. Second is Temple of Chaos, Garland's base of operations in the original Final Fantasy. Statues of the Four Fiends are visible in the background, and each one glows for a bit when their respective hazard activates. Third is Airship, referencing another common Final Fantasy trope. The Airship flies around various iconic backdrops from the FF series. Music Items Excalibur - A battering item that deals good damage. Excalipoor - A knockoff of Excalibur that deals piddling damage except when thrown. Ultima Weapon - A Beam Sword-like weapon with a blade that's longer and stronger the closer you are to 0% damage (or maximum starting Stamina). Magicite - This item works similar to an Assist Trophy, except it summons a creature from the Final Fantasy series in specific.

That's why having an option for both paths would have been ideal, so players could experience whichever ending they'd prefer. For some reason, whenever I tried to promote that mindset at ZU - "We can both have what we want!" - I always got shot down by somebody, as if it was somehow a sin for two people who want different things to both get those things. It's almost like people there had this mentality of "Well I don't get what I want unless my opponents don't get what they want". I will never understand why someone would apply that mindset to a video game series. I was actually among those who speculated that the game's final mission would consist of you playing Zelda using her powers to just annihilate Ganon's forces before taking on the big baddie himself. You'd be invincible and unable to lose. I speculate that AoC may have created another timeline split, not unlike OoT. The Child and Adult timelines happened because Zelda sent Link back in time at the end of OoT, right? Well the little Guardian traveling back in time at the start of AoC may have accomplished a similar effect. The future it left behind is the one that leads into BotW, while the new timeline created by the Guardian traveling to the past could lead into something different.

Okay, that does sound rather convenient. Hope one of these days we can get around to finally playing it. Maybe they'll rerelease the trilogy on Switch in anticipation of MP4? I did point out the fact each other town has an associated set of armor that you'll want to wear in the general neighborhood as it protects you from the harmful effects of the environment (or in the case of Zora's Domain, makes getting around a heck of a lot easier thanks to improved swimming and the ability to climb waterfalls). All four sets have defense values good enough that you'll still want to wear them in combat, and three of them provide elemental resistances to boot making them actually better than the armor with higher defense values in some cases. So then, why did they feel the need to force the Gerudo clothing just to enter the dang town? Don't get me wrong, there is a lot I like about BotW. Had they done things differently, it would probably have been my favorite game in the series to date. As is, BotW is about 75% stuff I like, 15% stuff I would like that's missing, and 10% stuff I don't like and would rather change or remove. Thus, I can't honestly call it my favorite Zelda game of all time. But I like enough of it that I'm willing to count it alongside Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past, and the Oracles as my favorite Zelda games. The fact I like so much of the game only makes those parts I don't like all the more egregious. As far as breakable weapons go, no weapon is completely irreplacable so I don't mind it. My main issues are that there are few shops that actually sell weapons (one, to be precise: Kilton's Fang and Bone), there's no crafting system despite the game being set up perfectly for one (unless you count the blacksmiths being able to rebuild the Champion weapons), and the weapon curve is ridiculously lopsided such that you'll likely find Royal weapons well before the comparatively much weaker Rito and Gerudo weapons (never mind the Goron weapons which hit harder than just about anything that isn't Royal). And once you do find the Master Sword, complacency syndrome hits hard as you start to prefer using that to cut down trees and smash rocks despite the game offering weapons designed for those very purposes: axes and hammers. Once you fully upgrade the Sword so it always has a power of 60, it quickly becomes your primary weapon for anything short of a Lynel (which allows you to bypass the durability issue with a quicktime action that doesn't consume weapon durability). For the dungeons, I'll concur that there's less variety compared to past Zelda games, though the prospect of exploring large mechanical beasts was itself quite novel. I'd have liked to see some "throwback" dungeons, like Ruins based on the dungeons from the original Zelda or the three Pendant dungeons from ALttP. The Temple of Time appeared in some form, so it'd have been nice to see the Sage Temples as well. I haven't finished playing through Age of Calamity with my bro yet, but I'll say that I'm actually relieved that the game offers an alternative ending; I would have hated going through the downfall of the kingdom and its champions which we already know about thanks to BotW itself, especially since we spend a good amount of time building those characters up. Not to mention I feel BotW's post apocalyptic setting ultimately hurt the potential it had as an open world game; I wanted to explore Hyrule during its heyday, not at its lowest point since TWW. But I think I would have made the "good ending" optional rather than mandatory. (I remember how much pushback I got over at ZU thanks to my suggestion of a good ending as an alternative to the presumed canon bad ending, and come to find out the good ending ended up being the ending. A small victory for me, I guess?)

Yeah, I remember hearing about the multiple planets. Which does sound like an intriguing idea, the only trouble being that you could end up having to repeatedly travel between different planets to progress as you might need an upgrade found on Planet A to progress on Planet B. How does MP3 handle that? I would love to see Zelda take on the role of mage. Link can handle tools and weapons while Zelda handles magic. Or in the case of BotW, the Sheikah Slate. Really, I love the idea that Link could be more combat focused and Zelda more focused on solving puzzles and serving utility. Of course Zelda being able to help Link out in combat would be nice too, especially since she has in past games. And who knows, maybe BotW2 will allow Link and Zelda to reunite midway through rather than wait until the end of the game.

Neither my brother nor I have yet to play through the game (even though we bought the trilogy for Wii), so I'm not really able to comment on it. I have heard though that it shifts away from exploration compared to the first two. I'd be fine even if Zelda's simply an AI companion, I just want to see Link and Zelda finally explore Hyrule together. I did have an idea for playable segments involving Zelda, but the last time I shared that idea, a big argument started and I ended up getting harassed, so I'm not going to share that idea on this forum. All I'll say is I want Link and Zelda to become more of an adventure couple. Let Zelda be our companion who tells us about stuff and maybe even talks to people. Actually, I'd suggested in the past that Zelda could have been the main playable character of BotW2 with Link as the companion, but the trailers we've gotten suggest that certainly isn't the case. However, I think there is potential for Zelda to get her own playable story parallel to Link's, or for the game to allow us to switch between Link and Zelda. For starters, yes, it is sexist. And if sexism against women is unacceptable, so is sexism against men (and no, I'm not open to discussing political matters; this isn't the place for it, and any PMs trying to start something will be reported to the mods and pointedly ignored). It's also incredibly stupid seeing as they need men from other tribes to reproduce; last thing they should be doing is discouraging men from visiting their home town. One of the Gerudo mentions that the younger vai don't mind because it gives them "an excuse to leave town". What, the sweltering heat and scarce water didn't do that already? Farore's sake, if I was a man living in BotW Hyrule, the Gerudo would be at the bottom of my list as far as prospective girlfriends go, next to the Rito (I'm not into bird people). I'd take a Hylian, Zora, or Sheikah girl any day. Then there's the fact that, yes, it's annoying having to switch into weak armor every time I want to enter the town, even if it's just to buy something. The fact that it's the only town in the game to require doing so just makes it worse. At least if the other towns for some reason required changing clothing it wouldn't make Gerudo Town stand out so much. Heck, Goron City is much more navigable with the Flamebreak Armor, yet I don't mind switching into that as much because it's actually worth a damn in a fight and it's not like the Gorons are forcing us to wear it if we want to enter their city - in fact, they made it as a courtesy to help outsiders survive the volcanic heat of their town and surrounding environment. And really, you'll want to switch into the Zora and Snowquill sets when you visit Zora's Domain and Rito Village respectively simply because they're the most practical sets of gear to wear in those areas. But for Gerudo Town, we already have a set of gear ideal for the desert: Desert Voe Armor. On top of that, I found it extremely grating that the game pushes the whole crossdressing thing down our throats. Not everyone is comfortable with crossdressing, you know? I'd have preferred if crossdressing was something players could do for fun rather than being necessary in order to access one of the Divine Beasts. Not to mention, if femboy fans got to have Link wearing the midriff-revealing belly dancer outfit, why couldn't other fans get to see Zelda wear something similar during memories set in Gerudo Desert? At least then it would make things more even! For that matter, it really chafes me when Urbosa suggests Link wear the outfit for Zelda sometime. Just...gods, Gerudo Town is my second-most hated thing about BotW after Revali (arguably moreso since we only have to put up with him in a handful of cutscenes). And as someone who waited a long time for the Gerudo to make a proper return, that makes the whole ordeal all the more bitter for me. In OoT, they were one of my favorite tribes, but in BotW, they became one of my least favorite. I really hope Nintendo's caught some major flak over the whole deal, and I hope BotW2 does something to fix the issue. If not, I think it'll be time to start a major ****storm across the net just to make sure they get the message. I've gone so far as to propose a mod to the game that removes all traces of the "no men" law, including disabling or even deleting the detection zone that causes you to get kicked out as well as altering or removing every piece of dialogue that alludes to it. Furthermore, I've thought of actually adding more content to the game such as voe husbands living with some of the Gerudo as well as maybe even a matchmaking sidequest. I also think one day I'll design my own BotW-inspired game; at least then I'll have total creative control and can do what I want with my setting and characters. "Inspired IPs" are becoming pretty commonplace nowadays, which tells me fans are growing increasingly discontent with the way the old guard have been handling their IPs.

I'm indifferent on MP4. I like the soundtracks of MP1 and 2, but Dread's scratching my Metroid itch for now. I'm more excited about BotW 2, though also a little apprehensive about things like the possibility that Zelda's going to be sidelined for most of the game again and the probable return of Gerudo Town and its "no men allowed" law, which I absolutely despised.

Chocobo GP, one of the worst racing games I've ever played. For starters, there's of course the menu screen that you can't change, though that's far from the most egregious offense on my list. The story cutscenes take far too freaking long to play out, and most of the characters are really annoying or otherwise unlikeable. Especially Atla. Seriously, who thought a greedy, lazy, cowardly, manipulative, disrespectful, self-absorbed Moogle with the voice of a 12-year old was a good idea? Trying to replay story missions is a pain thanks to the lack of a very intuitive "Retry" button. If you want to restart the race - say, because you tried and failed yet again to place first on lap 1 - you can only "Go back to story select" or "Quit", which forces you to sit through a bunch more screens to replay the race with the same character/vehicle configuration you were already using. Many of the tracks are far too short, which gives you hardly any time to catch up with your opponents if they get ahead. Even worse is when there are short versions of tracks, which take up space that really should have gone to additional tracks for the sake of variety. The items are horribly imbalanced, with virtually no tiering based on position. Some are borderline useless, like Quake (except when they're being used against you, of course), others are ridiculously overpowered (like the aforementioned Bahamut and warp). Even worse are the character specials, which likewise range from useless (like Claire's invisibility) to infuriating (like Shiva's Diamond Dust). I'm exceptionally disappointed. This looked like Mario Kart 8 just with Final Fantasy characters, but it turned out to be far, far less than that. Team Sonic Racing looks better than this, and I'm not even interested in that one with the vastly superior MK8D and CTRNF available. Worst game we ever bought for Switch. Do not recommend.

I'll acknowledge that ALttP is rather simplistic compared to, say, Ocean's Heart, but I still have fond memories of it and played through it a while back. What are some of ALttP's shortcomings, in your opinion? Metroid Dread does build off of Samus Returns' gameplay. Same developers, I believe. That said, I liked Returns' gameplay and have thus far enjoyed how Dread plays. Much tighter and more responsive than Super Metroid's rather floaty controls.

I recommend The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Metroid: Samus Returns. The former for being a faithful yet modernized followup to one of the most classic Zelda titles, the latter for being Samus' return to form with a remake of one of her most oft-overlooked entries that revamps the mechanics and layout.

Which tells me it shouldn't have been a sequel in the first place. It should have just been its own thing. Earlier today, I had an idea for a completely different plot for Chrono Cross that involves Lynx - as an ordinary demi-human cat man, mind you - simply trying to eradicate humanity in the El Nido Archipelago with help from the six Dragon Gods. No Chronopolis, no FATE, none of that surrealist BS that ruins many a great RPG. Instead of Harle, Lynx would be aided by his daughter, a younger female cat person who wields daggers much like Kid (or maybe whips?), and who takes a liking to Serge despite her father's enmity towards humans. If the game has to push a message of anti-racism and environmentalism, I'd weave those themes into the plot much better. The game would give you chances to choose a more benign path as opposed to an a-hole path, and if you perform six great deeds (which generally involve improving human-demi relationships and helping the environment, and one of which could involve convincing Lynx to relinquish his grudge against humans), you're taught a certain song that you're told to perform before the Dragon God.

Here are the key differences: Fire Emblem is built around having a large army of characters. Chrono Cross is not. In Fire Emblem, you can use upwards of ten characters at a time, giving you access to a fifth of the game's roster in most battles. In Chrono Cross, you only ever get to use three at a time, and one of those is fixed the first time through, giving you access to less than a tenth of the game's roster at any one time. With the exception of leads, Fire Emblem characters generally don't have dozens of dialogue boxes outside of personalized support conversations. And the support convos themselves are, with certain exceptions, unique to specific pairs of characters (the exceptions generally being stuff like the Awakening kids' convos with their fathers, which use the same basic dialogue regardless of who their father is save for a few little easter eggs like Virion admitting to Inigo that he's a skirt chaser himself). Meanwhile, in Chrono Cross, 90% of your party members have to share 90% of the dialogue boxes. Even Kid herself isn't immune to this. The bloated roster is very much the reason we didn't get more backstory for the likes of Guile, because the developers chose to focus their time on programming in a talking turnip rather than giving Guile more scenes to tie him in to the game's story. They had to structure the dialogue such that virtually any two characters could be in the party along with the lead (which, along with the small number of unique techniques for each character, reminds one of how FFVII and FFVIII's player characters were practically interchangeable as well, only it's much more exacerbated here). Large rosters work for a series like Fire Emblem because they're designed with such large rosters in mind. You're leading an army, after all. In Chrono Cross, you're leading a small band of adventurers into the wilds of El Nido; not exactly the kind of setup that warrants a huge roster of interchangeable characters. But the developers evidently went "yeah, sure, throw it in" and didn't bother to think of how that would impact the final product. And that sadly is very in-keeping with how Square developed RPGs at the time; if a team member had an idea, they'd use it no matter how well or ill it fit the project. There are a few concepts that didn't make it in, like a party member who was going to be the son of two characters from Trigger (Crono and Marle, perhaps?), but somehow the devs decided Poshul was more important that actual decent tie-ins to Trigger. (I don't think I've ever seen another video game that fascinates me and frustrates me at the same time like Chrono Cross does.) My suggested pathing system would allow for a large number of potential playable characters with the caveat that only a handful will join your party in a given run through the game, which in turn makes the game highly replayable. The game could be designed around that pathing system, ensuring that you pick up a diverse array of playable characters without giving the player too many to manage at once. In a game like Chrono Cross, a roster of 12-18 by the end of the game is plenty, enough to give you at least 2-3 choices for each innate. That's how you manage a large potential roster in a game with a small party size: by limiting how much of the roster the player gets access to in a given playthrough, and doing your darnedest to make sure each path offers something compelling that makes experiencing it worthwhile.

Likewise. I have shared mine on Discord, so I might start a topic for it here at some point.

Well, I know of Rogue Heroes, which is great for co-op while still being enjoyable as a solo outing, and of the upcoming Mina the Hollower which looks to be a combination of the Oracle Zeldas and Castlevania with a cute mouse as the protagonist. You also have other retro top-downs like the classic Metal Gear series and Mystery of Murasame Castle. If you really want to stretch, you can even count titles like Star Tropics, Blaster Master, Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Bomberman, Harvest Moon Story of Seasons, and the Hamtaro games for GBC and GBA, though those really are more general top-down as opposed to Zelda-esque per se. Zelda-esques are a genre, they just never got a term as snappy as "Metroidvania". Incidentally, I'm planning at least one Zelda-esque game myself.

Started playing Ocean's Heart recently, and am liking it so far. Top-down Zelda-esque games are one of my two favorite genres alongside platformers.