Nintendo 3DS (XL)

[Squire Grooktook]

Everyone I've talked to says Nohr is one of the hardest and best balanced entries in the franchise, from hardcore strategy fans to the more casual peeps. I Will say some more when I get around to playing it tomorrow, I suppose.

[ZellSF]

Corpse Party is getting localized. It's getting a physical release too. Sharper sprites (since there was some awful upscaling going on with the PSP port) but a much shitter screen (you can't play this on a Vita). Also some new content.

[M.Knight]

This one is defintely on my radar, and it seems it will be the definitive version of the game, though if the PC version also has a few exclusive things. Will probably import it.
XSEED's tumblr has a useful article by Tom explaining all the differences between the versions. However, I would advise against looking at the screenshots and videos, in case they contain spoilers. (As I have never played the game, I don't know if it is the case, but I would be weary just to be safe)

[soprano1]

Here i was all happy with the Western release announcement of DQVII, then read that it will have MIDI music, due to less space for the 5 localizations? What the fuck, SE?
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/0 ... otten_past

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm finally getting around to buying one of these. I'm always massively late getting these handhelds.

Can anyone recommend some games? Any warnings about anything I have on my list of games to buy?

On my list, I have:

Star Fox 64 3D
A Link Between Worlds (I hear it's too easy, but has a Hero mode)
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Fire Emblem: Awakening (NOT happy about the translations of the FF games, but they're supposed to be good, and I like the series)
Kid Icarus: Uprising (yeah, I know about the controls. Does it handle any better with the C stick, than it did with the Circle Pad Pro?)
Kirby: Planet Robobot (is this any easier than Kirby's Adventure on NES or GBA?)
Dragon Quest VII (Later this year. Really excited about this one. Do they alter the difficulty much, with these remakes?)
Bravely Default
Shantae and the Pirates Curse
Risky's Revenge (want to get these off of the shop. They will look best on handheld, for sure)

Only thing...don't recommend any Mario games. I've had enough. No racing games either, unless they're some F-Zero I am missing. I am getting Smash Bros for the Wii U, so I don't think I would need the 3DS version, either.

[atheistgod1999]

3DS fucking sucks IMO. JRPGs are fine, but I'm not always in the mood for them. Why the fuck do I have to connect it to the internet for OS updates and game patches!?!? It's a handheld console for Christ sake! There are no fucking games for it!!!

[Squire Grooktook]

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Fire Emblem: Awakening (NOT happy about the translations of the FF games, but they're supposed to be good, and I like the series)

I recommend getting Fe Fates: Conquest over Birthright.

Birthright plays more like Awakening, that is its more of jrpg than a strategy game where you're allowed to grind (if you want) as an answer to most problems. Conquest on the other hand, is a linear campaign with no grinding, and much more emphasis on devious and clever level design. They're both good games, but Conquest is the golden one.

The problem with Fire Emblem Fates is that the story is horrible, regardless of which version of the script you read, and regardless of which game you play. Nintendo hired an apparently experienced mangaka to pen a more involved narrative than previous titles...and than threw out his entire script and plot except for 2 pages. The resulting narrative is a mess. It can't decide whether it wants to be a morally grey tale of clashing families, or a typical "the hero overcomes the moustache twirling villain" fe plot, and these two tones clash hard. Characters motivations make no sense, everyone acts stupid as fuck (including the main character), and plenty of facepalm worthy shit like emotional death scenes being forgotten and never mentioned again a scene later.

Its the only FE game where I felt the urge to skip the cutscenes. I would rather have had an excuse plot, at least I could have still liked the characters and imagined things for myself. In comparison, Awakening may have been a cheesy, wacky anime adventure, but it managed to feel charming, personable, and didn't take itself too seriously (also Lucina is a cute). Awakening at least managed to rise to the level of guilty pleasure, which Fates can't even manage.

Story aside though, Fates is a great game. Very polished gameplay that fixes all the slightly unbalanced new mechanics Awakening added. Beautiful soundtrack (perhaps the best in the franchise, which is saying something). Great level design. Great presentation. Shame they dropped the ball on the story, it made me realize how much those things secretly matter to me. The usual deathly struggle to keep my units alive felt hollow when I didn't actually like most of them.

[evil_ash_xero]

3DS fucking sucks IMO. JRPGs are fine, but I'm not always in the mood for them. Why the fuck do I have to connect it to the internet for OS updates and game patches!?!? It's a handheld console for Christ sake! There are no fucking games for it!!!

I would prefer platformers to RPGs, on a handheld. But them's the breaks.

[BrianC]

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Fire Emblem: Awakening (NOT happy about the translations of the FF games, but they're supposed to be good, and I like the series)

I recommend getting Fe Fates: Conquest over Birthright.

Birthright plays more like Awakening, that is its more of jrpg than a strategy game where you're allowed to grind (if you want) as an answer to most problems. Conquest on the other hand, is a linear campaign with no grinding, and much more emphasis on devious and clever level design. They're both good games, but Conquest is the golden one.

The problem with Fire Emblem Fates is that the story is horrible, regardless of which version of the script you read, and regardless of which game you play. Nintendo hired an apparently experienced mangaka to pen a more involved narrative than previous titles...and than threw out his entire script and plot except for 2 pages. The resulting narrative is a mess. It can't decide whether it wants to be a morally grey tale of clashing families, or a typical "the hero overcomes the moustache twirling villain" fe plot, and these two tones clash hard. Characters motivations make no sense, everyone acts stupid as fuck (including the main character), and plenty of facepalm worthy shit like emotional death scenes being forgotten and never mentioned again a scene later.

Its the only FE game where I felt the urge to skip the cutscenes. I would rather have had an excuse plot, at least I could have still liked the characters and imagined things for myself. In comparison, Awakening may have been a cheesy, wacky anime adventure, but it managed to feel charming, personable, and didn't take itself too seriously (also Lucina is a cute). Awakening at least managed to rise to the level of guilty pleasure, which Fates can't even manage.

Story aside though, Fates is a great game. Very polished gameplay that fixes all the slightly unbalanced new mechanics Awakening added. Beautiful soundtrack (perhaps the best in the franchise, which is saying something). Great level design. Great presentation. Shame they dropped the ball on the story, it made me realize how much those things secretly matter to me. The usual deathly struggle to keep my units alive felt hollow when I didn't actually like most of them.

If bing translate is any indication, I noticed that JP Amazon reviews were more harsh on the game than the US reviews. From what I could tell from the poorly translated text, they basically said the story isn't good, the fan service is a bit much, but the gameplay is great, but still gave two or three star reviews.

I like Kid Icarus, but the CPP is limited to left handed play. As far as I know, the C-Stick on New 3DS is no different. Even if it did have proper support (which I'm sure it doesn't), the analog nub is more awkward to use than the stick on the CPP.

I enjoyed Kirby Triple Deluxe quite a bit, but I only just Started Planet Robobot. I'm finding it enjoyable so far, but Kirby games in general aren't very difficult.

I'm finally getting around to buying one of these. I'm always massively late getting these handhelds.

Can anyone recommend some games? Any warnings about anything I have on my list of games to buy?

I noticed none of the SEGA 3D Classics are on the list. I definitely recommend picking up some of those if you are interested in ports/emulations of older games. The retail collection is worth it for Puyo Puyo 2 and Power Drift and also includes Thunder Blade, Galaxy Force II, Fantasy Zone II W (the arcade style remake, not the SMS game, though that's here too), Sonic 1, Altered Beast, and three SMS games (Fantasy Zone, Fantasy Zone II, and Maze Walker, the JP version of Maze Hunter 3D).

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah. I read some of the fan translation, and even without the localization changes, the story is still fucked.

I'll back pedal a bit and say that there are a few decent moments throughout, but as a whole its a total mess IMO and a big disappointment considering how much the story was hyped and how such a jaw-droppingly gorgeous presentation is wasted on it. The first 5 chapters give hope of a whimsical fairy tale adventure with a theme of familial sacrifice, but once you actually pick a side it goes downhill hard and fast.

But like I said, gameplay is still probably the best in the series. Probably tied as the all out best Fire Emblem game in terms of pure tactics, and I 100% recommend it for srpg fans, regardless of its missed atmospheric and thematic potential.

[BrianC]

As silly as this sounds, I'm under the impression that some of the JP dialog was so much of a mess, that some of the US changes are actually an improvement.

[iconoclast]

My favorite 3DS games are Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (haven't played Generations yet), Devil Survivor Overclocked (hands down the best handheld RPG I've played), Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Mario 3D Land, and Pokemon Omega Ruby. The Zero Escape games and Sayonara Umihara Kawase are good too, but there's no point playing them on a 3DS if you have a Vita or PC.

[BryanM]

Here i was all happy with the Western release announcement of DQVII, then read that it will have MIDI music, due to less space for the 5 localizations? What the fuck, SE?
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/0 ... otten_past

MIDI's an excellent file format!!

[evil_ash_xero]

Anyone have any opinion on any of the other games I mentioned? Would love some input, before I break out the cash.

I recommend getting Fe Fates: Conquest over Birthright.

I can get Conquest as DLC, and vice versa, correct?

[BulletMagnet]

Link Between Worlds is indeed easy (even Hero Mode isn't too tough), but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Only played a bit into Bravely Default, but its battle system is a lot of fun IMO, though apparently there's a lot of recycled content as you get further in.

Not sure if you're into dungeon crawlers, but the system has a bunch of those (Etrian Odyssey, SMT 4, 7th Dragon, Persona Q, etc.).

I'll second Rhythm Heaven Fever if you like those types of games (though like other entries in the series there's a fair amount of reused minigames as you progress; also unfortunate that it's digital-only in the USA); Theatrhythm Curtain Call and Project Mirai are good too.

[evil_ash_xero]

Thanks for the advice, thus far.

What do you guys think of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate or Generations? I've never played any of them.

[BrianC]

Anyone have any opinion on any of the other games I mentioned? Would love some input, before I break out the cash.

I recommend getting Fe Fates: Conquest over Birthright.

I can get Conquest as DLC, and vice versa, correct?

yes. And it's $19.99 as DLC. However, it doesn't count towards My Nintendo coins.

I liked Bravely Default quite a bit, but the later part of the game recycles too much and is more of a slog to get through than it should be.

Thanks for the advice, thus far.

What do you guys think of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate or Generations? I've never played any of them.

I haven't played Generations, but I enjoyed 4 Ultimate quite a bit. It's especially worth it if you can play online. SP isn't bad, but it's better when you play both on and offline rather than only doing one or the other.

The Zero Escape games and Sayonara Umihara Kawase are good too, but there's no point playing them on a 3DS if you have a Vita or PC.

Wasn't 999 DS only? Not sure if I agree with the sentiment due to the nature of the games, but the 3DS version of Virtue's Last Reward has a major bug that is unrelated to the hardware, so that one at least is better elsewhere (unless the bug has been fixed, which I heard it hasn't).

While Kirby Triple Deluxe is still easy, I did find it to be more fresh than most of the previous non-Sakurai Kirby games and found it to have some of the best 3D on the system. Robobot seems to be following suit (no pun intended) so far.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Can anyone recommend some games? Any warnings about anything I have on my list of games to buy?

Check out Code Name STEAM. It's a turn-based strategy game from a 3rd person perspective, making line of sight important (the AI abides by the same rules) and resulting in some pretty tense encounters. Characters, plot and weapons are pretty whacky but fun all the same.

On Monster Hunter, I got 4 with my 3DS and am playing single player... it's pretty hard going. Not hard as in challenging but in that it seems to have expected you to already be a veteran while patronising you at the same time - a little like how my first smartphone manual went into great depths around how to text and call (the shit you already know because it's the same in every phone ever), but mentions naff all about services, operating system, apps, features, customisation. The game doesn't really explain anything beyond the basics and there's not much crafting early on, so you spend quite a while collecting stuff and killing weak 1-3 hit enemies. The early big monsters also have an absurd amount of health without posing a threat to you, so it's pretty boring to attack, dodge, repeat... then the damn thing runs off and has healed by the time you find it. I assume it gets better later on but honestly it's tough to muster the motivation for a few more fetch 5 mushrooms/bash 5 dinos missions.

[BryanM]

Monster Hunter is a game about constant learning (because the game sure as hell isn't going to explain anything useful to you) and the co-opt mode.

Anyone doing gathering quests and trash mob extermination quests isn't playing it correctly. The game doesn't reward you for that. You're supposed to climb up the food chain to progress up the gear tree.

The trash mobs are there to be ignored. You're only supposed to be reminded that they exist when one pokes you in the back at just the wrong moment for the kaiju to kill you.

As far as arena battlers go it's ok, albeit basic, series. Dragon's Dogma is supposed to be a more expansive execution of the action Rpiggle.

[soprano1]

Here i was all happy with the Western release announcement of DQVII, then read that it will have MIDI music, due to less space for the 5 localizations? What the fuck, SE?
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/0 ... otten_past

I finished watching this gameplay video, the music doesn't sound THAT bad. Serviceable, at least:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84B1ILVn7HI (May have spoilers)

[soprano1]

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/11/15/br ... ots-video/
There will be a third Bravely Default game, on fucking smartphones.
They could at least release it on the Switch.

[BryanM]

Looks like another patchwork game with their Z team again.

It's not necessarily a bad thing to reuse assets, as long as they mix things up elsewhere in other ways. ... Other, good, ways.

[TransatlanticFoe]

It looks like a cruddy typical smartphone game, so a side story rather than a full sequel. Really happy this sort of thing stays there where it belongs rather than ends up on Switch!!

[soprano1]

It looks like a cruddy typical smartphone game, so a side story rather than a full sequel. Really happy this sort of thing stays there where it belongs rather than ends up on Switch!!

Yeah, i guess. But the hopes of seeing a third real game on the 3DS are probably zero at this point in time.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Well the sequel only got a Western release this year, so any full on sequel will be a while off. The 3DS still sells okay, but it's whether they can make moar monies with Switch and mobile. I'd be surprised if we get any full-featured Nintendo games on mobile, the 3DS IPs will probably end up on Switch.

[soprano1]

Well the sequel only got a Western release this year, so any full on sequel will be a while off. The 3DS still sells okay, but it's whether they can make moar monies with Switch and mobile. I'd be surprised if we get any full-featured Nintendo games on mobile, the 3DS IPs will probably end up on Switch.

I'll be surprised if a third game comes out for the 3DS. Will be mesmerized if it's as good as the first one.

[Udderdude]

Anyone tried this Gotta Protectors game? It's pretty fun. I just got it and have been playing through it .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Apnsrwotc

[soprano1]

Need some opinions, Rune Factory 4 or Story of Seasons?

[soprano1]

Need some opinions, Rune Factory 4 or Story of Seasons?

Too casual for this forum, lol.

[dunpeal2064]

Need some opinions, Rune Factory 4 or Story of Seasons?

They are both good games. If you want a pure farming sim, Story of Seasons would be my pick. But Rune Factory offers some rpg/dungeon exploring that Seasons does not, and its farming stuff is still good.