Nintendo Direct 2023 observations
Feb. 9th, 2023 04:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waltzoidAnother winter, another Nintendo Direct to give the once-over and watch Twitter and Reddit melt down over still no new information on Metroid Prime 4.
To my surprise, the presentation didn't lead with a Fire Emblem game like it did last winter (Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes) or last summer (Fire Emblem Engage), but with Pikmin 4, and an expected Splatoon 3 DLC Expansion pass. There's a chocolate-themed Splatfest this weekend that I need to get in on. Team Dark Chocolate, baby!
As expected, the show ended with a trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is supposed to release this spring. I've barely made a dent in Breath of the Wild, as I've only found my way to one of the Divine Beasts, but still only have a max of three life hearts, which is sure to get me killed repeatedly. (I really should do something about that). Anyway, the one thing that's going to make a lot of players unhappy is that Tears of the Kingdom is going to sell for $70 instead of $60 like most big-ticket Nintendo Switch games, being more in line with new first-party PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S titles. (Leave it to Nintendo to be behind the times yet again, amirite?)
The two games that stuck out the most to me are Samba de Amigo: Party Central, which is the kind of game that could only work with motion controls (thank the gaming gods for the Wii Remote and not having to buy expensive maraca controllers that were meant to be played with that game and that game only), and Disney Illusion Island, which appears to be a Metroidvania adventure where you play as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, and carries on the art style of the Wonderful World cartoon shorts (none of which I've watched yet). Unfortunately, the game's official website wasn't open by the time I inspected it, so I don't know who's developing the title.
Speaking of Engage, the second wave of Expansion Pass DLC released after the end of the video, and it includes new chapters for Emblems based on Soren (from Path of Radiance), Hector (from Blazing Blade), and Camilla (from Fates), with the third wave to add Chrom and Robin (from Awakening) and Veronica (from Heroes, sporting her post-Book VI outfit), and the fourth wave will add an extra storyline (sort of what Three Houses did with the "Cindered Shadows" story that added the Ashen Wolves). A few of the friends in the Discord server where I hang out have already finished the game, but I'm still on Chapter 19 and am probably going to take a detour to find out what Hector, Camilla, and Soren have to offer gameplay-wise. It's too bad because I've already complete the paralogues for every Emblem character I have up to this point and was ready to move on with the story (and hopefully get Marth, Celica, Micaiah, and Roy back somewhere down the line).
This also seems to be a year for compilations, as no less than three were announced on the stream: Advance Wars 1 & 2: Re-Boot Camp, which was supposed to come out last year but was delayed due to the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war; the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, which are HD remakes of the first three EO games (but drawing your own maps is going to take longer assuming there isn't a way to draw them in handheld mode), and the Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, which had been rumored for a long time but never got off the ground due to the series not selling well back on Gamecube. I guess Baten Kaitos is "technically" a Nintendo property due to it being developed by Monolith Soft (and Nintendo directly publishing the prequel, Origins, instead of Bandai Namco at the time when they were separate companies).
And just when I thought Level-5 had abandoned the Western market after interest in Yokai Watch had dried up, it looks like they're bringing no less than three new titles to North America this year (barring any outside interference): a weird detective/police-themed RPG called DecaPolice, and sequels to Fantasy Life and Professor Layton. I only have intermittent interest in the Layton series, but I'm on board with the other two games.
To my surprise, the presentation didn't lead with a Fire Emblem game like it did last winter (Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes) or last summer (Fire Emblem Engage), but with Pikmin 4, and an expected Splatoon 3 DLC Expansion pass. There's a chocolate-themed Splatfest this weekend that I need to get in on. Team Dark Chocolate, baby!
As expected, the show ended with a trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is supposed to release this spring. I've barely made a dent in Breath of the Wild, as I've only found my way to one of the Divine Beasts, but still only have a max of three life hearts, which is sure to get me killed repeatedly. (I really should do something about that). Anyway, the one thing that's going to make a lot of players unhappy is that Tears of the Kingdom is going to sell for $70 instead of $60 like most big-ticket Nintendo Switch games, being more in line with new first-party PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S titles. (Leave it to Nintendo to be behind the times yet again, amirite?)
The two games that stuck out the most to me are Samba de Amigo: Party Central, which is the kind of game that could only work with motion controls (thank the gaming gods for the Wii Remote and not having to buy expensive maraca controllers that were meant to be played with that game and that game only), and Disney Illusion Island, which appears to be a Metroidvania adventure where you play as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, and carries on the art style of the Wonderful World cartoon shorts (none of which I've watched yet). Unfortunately, the game's official website wasn't open by the time I inspected it, so I don't know who's developing the title.
Speaking of Engage, the second wave of Expansion Pass DLC released after the end of the video, and it includes new chapters for Emblems based on Soren (from Path of Radiance), Hector (from Blazing Blade), and Camilla (from Fates), with the third wave to add Chrom and Robin (from Awakening) and Veronica (from Heroes, sporting her post-Book VI outfit), and the fourth wave will add an extra storyline (sort of what Three Houses did with the "Cindered Shadows" story that added the Ashen Wolves). A few of the friends in the Discord server where I hang out have already finished the game, but I'm still on Chapter 19 and am probably going to take a detour to find out what Hector, Camilla, and Soren have to offer gameplay-wise. It's too bad because I've already complete the paralogues for every Emblem character I have up to this point and was ready to move on with the story (and hopefully get Marth, Celica, Micaiah, and Roy back somewhere down the line).
This also seems to be a year for compilations, as no less than three were announced on the stream: Advance Wars 1 & 2: Re-Boot Camp, which was supposed to come out last year but was delayed due to the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war; the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, which are HD remakes of the first three EO games (but drawing your own maps is going to take longer assuming there isn't a way to draw them in handheld mode), and the Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, which had been rumored for a long time but never got off the ground due to the series not selling well back on Gamecube. I guess Baten Kaitos is "technically" a Nintendo property due to it being developed by Monolith Soft (and Nintendo directly publishing the prequel, Origins, instead of Bandai Namco at the time when they were separate companies).
And just when I thought Level-5 had abandoned the Western market after interest in Yokai Watch had dried up, it looks like they're bringing no less than three new titles to North America this year (barring any outside interference): a weird detective/police-themed RPG called DecaPolice, and sequels to Fantasy Life and Professor Layton. I only have intermittent interest in the Layton series, but I'm on board with the other two games.
