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The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally out, and after this long wait, Many people are picking up their switches for the first time and being shocked by all the new improvements and the different feel of the console. So here is a rundown of my first a couple hours with the switch and and my thoughts on the changes.
The Look

Contrary to some opinions the Nintendo Switch 2 does have a unique look when compared to the original Switch console. First and foremost, the screen is a lot bigger and that is instantly apparent. That’s probably the first thing I noticed when I saw the switch 2 in person. Next, the joy-cons are slightly bigger and feel better in the hands of a bigger person.

Gone are the days of squinting to see what buttons need to be pressed and tightening your palms around a miniature plastic kazoo. As for the UI, It has had a pretty significant overhaul as well. There are a few more buttons at the bottom of the screen, but because of the new found 4k Ability of the new Switch, 2, The pictures of the games seem to pop against the background. Maybe this is just my perception, because I’ve been staring at the original Switch, user interface for so long. But it definitely seems to be more appealing to the eye, while going through the menus on the Switch 2.

The E-shop, though, is where we have a problem. I can’t say for sure, because right now I’d imagine that so many people are downloading games and going to the E-shop on their Switch 2 because they have too, As stated before in a previous post, there are a lot of game key cards available for the Switch 2.That is a game where the physical cartridge will be taking them to a download of the game instead of having all the game info on said cartridge, so there will definitely be a lot of traffic on Nintendo servers right now. With that said, the E-shop experience is faster and snappier than the previous Switch E-shop, but there is a lot of slowdown, and I’m guessing we’ll have to wait at least a week before we can see if it’s because of the server load or It’s a programming issue.

I was visiting my family back in New York city when my little cousin asked what games I am playing. I say little, but all my little cousins are near 20 now. I usually give him a run down of everything I’m playing in great detail. This time however I was at a loss for words. I knew what game i was playing and I knew how to describe them but I also knew that whatever game I mentioned was a tacit endorsement for what ever game I was playing and in that moment i realized that I didn’t really feel comfortable recommending them a Gacha game.

Now what is a Gacha game? As popular as they are, it’s still a sort of Niche type of game. I say type of game and not genre, because the gotcha are not a genre of game. It’s actually any game that uses luck base mechanics for gaining something in the game with the option of using real world currency to pay for more chances. Add gaming said item. Or character, you can think of it as loot boxes in short, you pay 2 have a chance to win an item or character in the game.

You can use real world, money or you can use in game currency. But either way, you need one or sometimes both of these things to have a chance to win you’re desired Character or item now this system has been heavily criticized for having unfair and even predatory practices.

There are numerous cases of people spending thousands of dollars on these in game items. Only 2 come out with nothing in return. In fact, they had to change the laws to make it so That if you spent a certain amount of money, you were guaranteed the item. Yes, they had to put laws in place to protect people from these games

With all that said, why would anyone play one of these games was when they seem so Dangerous and possibly addictive? Well, income games like Genshin impact and Honkai Star Rail, and Wuthering waves these games without the gotcha mechanic are fun and great games.

I have actually spent hundreds of hours playing. I’ve gotcha games, and i only started playing within the last few years. I think this gives me enough experience to talk about why these games are so popular.

I don’t think many will argue with me when I say that the Nintendo Switch has been the home for the JRPG player for a few years now. It has over 300 physical rpgs. Enough to keep your backlog packed for years to come. In my time with the system, I have acquired stacks of those games digitally and many more physically. In fact,one of the biggest draws I have towards the Switch as a collector of video games and a JRPG player is that the full game is usually located on the physical cartridge. That may sound obvious and self evident, but That’s not always the case with modern games.

When you get a new Xbox game, you may have to download the full game from the internet before you can play. PlayStation games usually have the core game on the disc but with both PlayStation and Xbox a series of patches and updates bust be downloaded before you can play the game. Unfortunately, these downloads can be quite sizeable. This can result in hours of waiting before you can actually play the game, depending on your internet speed.

The most important aspect of the game data being on the cartridge is that with the Nintendo switch you actually own the game. Meaning that all the data required to play the game is in your possession. So years from now if you decided to hook up your Switch, it will be able to play your game regardless of the status of Nintendo servers. The game is yours to play at your leisure. Unfortunately, seemingly inherent property of Switch games is all about to change with the Switch 2.

For you understand how important this collectors edition was for me, you have to remember that Final Fantasy XV was announced in 2006. It was being called Final Fantasy Versus XIII at the time and was a slated to be a PlayStation 3 title. So in 2016, when the game was finally going to be released, I had a decade of anticipation built up for the moment I could finally purchase the game. I wanted to go big and get the collector’s edition. I said to my self, if any game warranted a collector’s edition pick up, it’s this game that you have been waiting for all these years. When I went to purchase the game the site crashed

It said i just had to click confirm to finish my purchase. I clicked confirm, thinking the next page was going to be, “Your purchase is complete”, but instead, the site crashed and I had to reload the site. Of course, everything was sold out by the time I reloaded the page. The situation upset me so much that to this day I have not played Final Fantasy XV. I picked up the “Royal” edition a few years ago,but i still have not played it. The wound is still too fresh.

Unfortunately that was not the only time that something like this happened. If you have been collecting for awhile, you probably have many similar stories as well. It’s difficult to get excited for a new release when you know you will have to deal with Scalpers and bots trying to make your purchase almost impossible so that you will be forced to Ebay and other third party methods of acquiring your game and have to pay double or even triple the suggested retail price. It all reached a boiling point for me with Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This was when I really became aware of everything that was going on behind the scenes.

One of the biggest things people have wished for in a successor to the Nintendo Switch was more power and better graphics. I’m happy to say that wish has been granted with the Switch 2 boasting 1080p in hand held mode and an impressive 4k resolution while docked. All of this is accompanied by 120 fps,VRR and HDR support. The screen size has also grown to a surprising 7.9 inches compared to the 6.2 inches of the original switch.

The controls have remained virtually the same,but with a few new twists. For one, the joy-cons now connect magnetically which should reduce the wear and tear factor that arises from constantly removing and reattaching them as many of us did with the previous console and they have added some new features. The new Joy Cons have the ability to be held sideways and dragged across the table like a computer mouse. this seems like a minor addition but my mind is racing just imaging all the first person, isometric and point and click RPGs that will be available with this new control option.

Finally!! GranBlue Fantasy Relink has been released after years of development and anticipation. Since the announcement this game in 2016 excitement has been on the rise. It was an immediate must buy for most Role-playing game fans. But it’s release is now surrounded by a litany of other great RPGs, including the sequel to the mega hit FF7Remake, FF7Rebrth. This is causing many players to wonder if  they need to update their shopping list.

Well I’m here to help make that decision a little easier. In this Installment of first to 10 will be talking about Granblue Fantasy Relink. Lets delve into what to expect and of course, if it is worth your time.

There was a time when you only had one goal during your free time, play your favorite video games. While you pursued that goal, many things happened in life that pinned those games and moments to your heart. Maybe you played with an old friend or relative that you do not see as much any more, maybe it was how you met all of your friends or your significant other. Either way, every time you turn on that game, or those games, a flood of memories race through your brain and instantly carry you on a path down memory lane.

This is the power of Retro gaming. However, the interesting thing to remember is that Retro is not a fixed moment in time. One day even our newest trends will be considered outdated. Even our newest songs will be classical and our newest games retro. All of this seems inevitable, but there is a lot to gain from the study of this transition.

When we go to the root of the similarities we have to spend a little time on the origins of JRPGs. The first JRPGs actually were inspired by Dungeons and Dragons or D&D as its commonly called, Which is a tabletop Role-playing game.

Im a big fan of D&D although ive never played a real game of it. I didnt have a group to RP with in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn of the 90s. So the closest I came was the hours i poured into the Red Dragon Inn on AOL “//roll”ing dice trying to get a critical hit.

While playing D&D players can create there own characters, use them to fight and adventure through fantasy worlds guided by the Dungeon master or DM. These battles include all your favorite JRPG terms and artifacts such as turn based combat, HP and MP, spells and casting times along with all the familiar goblins and ogres we have come to know and love during our world saving campaigns.

We can immediately see the similarities there. all of this combined with the spirit of questing and adventuring only needs a kitten to save and god-like boss to battle and we have ourselves a full fledged JRPG.

What may or may not come as a surprise to many people is that D&D itself was inspired by fantasy adventure. D&D started out as a turn based medieval battle simulator known as Chainmail. It had good mechanics , solid gameplay and a dedicated fanbase that enjoyed the game.

It was played at many hobby shops in the home town of creator Ernest Gary Gygax at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and the war gaming club the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA).

When David Arneson eventually read the added fantasy rules for Chainmail which included things like magic spells and magical enemies. He adapted them to his own game. A fantasy genre inspired world called Blackmor. Eventually the two collaborated to make what we now know as D&D.

Oh the joy of a nice long Jrpg. Hours and hours wrapped up in a wonderful story with an amazing battle system, great music and captivating visuals. Most of us imagine that and feel a little bit of heaven on earth. But for others that, can bring up some scary feelings of anxiety. Even from those who also love Jrpgs. But how did we get here and how has the industry responded?

Rpgs have always been the champion of Videogames run times. When it comes to the value of your dollar, they just can’t be beat. When people would complain that I spend too much money on video games, I would always use Jrpgs to easily explain my reasoning. I’d say that for 40-60 dollars, I’m getting hundreds of hours of entertainment. The value is obviously there.

This expectation became standard in the gaming commuity and is what lead to a length of time when people thought, if an rpg wasn’t at least 40 hours on the first play through, then it wasn’t worth your time.

You see the awesome new DLC for Final Fantasy VII Remake (FF7R) and you want to get into the action. The only problem is the somewhat confusing instructions for joining the ranks in Midgar on the PS5.

It’s not entirely straightforward and depending on your situation the instructions are different, but don’t worry. This mini-guide will help you decide what to do and have twirling, squatting and limit breaking in no time.

First let’s try to make a clear definition Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade . Intergrade
is the name of the PS5 version of FF7R with all of the enhancements.

Enhancements such as improved graphics, loading times and new features like graphics, performance and photo mode. Intergrade aslo has a new DLC called Intermission. This is the Yuffie DLC that is brand new content for the the game.

It’s important to make that distinction because it is possible to get Intergrade but not the Yuffie DLC. Hopefully this mini guide will help you make a decision and understand the differences.