It’s interesting to see the impact that Yamauchi had on Nintendo as a whole. Generally Nintendo games focus on gameplay, with graphics and story built towards servicing the gameplay first. Say what you want about exclusives (not a huge fan of them really) but from the ground up when you buy a Nintendo game it’s generally gonna be what you expect from the previews.
Now I hope they push for better specs in the future but that seems like a pipe dream. A game like Zelda BOTW/TOTK is completely held back by the Switch and that’s not good considering how fucking amazing it was to play them
Nintendo’s hardware strategy has always been to use old, less expensive components to make a console that generates a profit. Something I haven’t seen mentioned too often is that Sony and Microsoft sell their consoles at a loss with the expectation that they will make money on software and services. Nintendo sells a console that makes a profit but they have the absolute worst services and their online store is not good for shopping, only buying.
Because of this focus on profitability for games and console, Nintendo will never make a console that keeps up with the performance of the other two. Nintendo is good at fudging the graphics, as long as you don’t look too hard at how the system renders stuff, such as the world detail in BotW or Mario games. But they will never be cutting edge.
I wouldn’t say always. The Super Nintendo, N64, and GameCube were more advanced in terms of graphical capabilities compared to many of their competitors.
Yup, the Wii is when they started the “withered technology” thing. One nice side effect is that their consoles are pretty easy to emulate because the hardware is so outdated.
Something I haven’t seen mentioned too often is that Sony and Microsoft sell their consoles at a loss with the expectation that they will make money on software and services.
This was always the case up until the PS4/XB1 generation, when they both made a conscious effort to be break even on day 1 - which is why the hardware has been so lacklustre since then.
I don’t really get that argument.
We did get Breath of the Wild. It’s right there.
“How fucking amazing it was to play them” but… What? What part of the amazing experience was ruined, and by what? What would have been substantially better if the graphics had been slightly better?
the framerate is pretty all over the place, better hardware would allow for 60 fps a good amount of the time. games are amazing, just irks me that i have to watch a slideshow every camera pan
not exaggerating? i pan my camera in a field and i can see the framerate drop to sub 20, using explosive arrows and fire fx also tank it to sub 10 at points
i love botw, played 170 hours of it. but its no secret that it needs a more powerful device to at least maintain 30 fps
I guess you had to grow up playing Zelda games after Link to the Past in order to enjoy the gameplay. Coming from other systems, it was very unintuitive, uncomfortable, and basically unplayable since we couldn’t remap the controls. Also, the world was just kind of dead?
Valid complaints. As far as the world being dead, two points. Story wise, it was supposed to be a world somewhat in ruin due to the events 100 years prior to the game. Also, again, switch being underpowered meant they couldn’t necessarily just pack the world full of npc’s and unique monsters.
I feel you on that first statement a little bit, but my biggest gripe of the Switch was they went away from the linear dungeon design of the Zelda’s from Link to the Past and forward. It’s not gods gift to gaming, nowhere close.
I picked up BotW once the TotK started up. Everyone told me it was amazing and I had a few months between beating Elden Ring for the fifteenth time and when BG3 came out.
I’m glad people had such a good time playing the game and I’m very happy for them. However, it’s just not for me.
To be fair, I was an early Zelda fan. I played the hell out of every one of them up to Ocarina of Time when I was a kid (yes, even Adventures of Link) so I’ve probably got some bias at play.
you arent alone really there us a subset of zelda fans who dont really like the direction zelda has gone. and its not that i dont think botw/totk is a bad game, its just a bad zelda game if you were looking to play zelda.
its like playing Halo or something, and when Halo Wars was released, it became the main game(in an alternate universe). Halo Wars itself isnt a bad game, its just if you came in expecting Halo of previous past youd be slightly disappointed.
I beat BotW, and started TotK but couldn’t bring myself to play it for more than 3 or so hours. TotK was mostly just more of the same from BotW, and I found BotW pretty dull.
Man, I must have picked up BotW at the exact right time, because I started playing it when Covid lockdowns started and the whole “solo in the face of a world altering event” aspect really got to me.
I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it before or after, even though I know many people did.
Twilight Princess slaps tho, and I’ll fight anyone that disrespects it.
It’s interesting to see the impact that Yamauchi had on Nintendo as a whole. Generally Nintendo games focus on gameplay, with graphics and story built towards servicing the gameplay first. Say what you want about exclusives (not a huge fan of them really) but from the ground up when you buy a Nintendo game it’s generally gonna be what you expect from the previews.
Now I hope they push for better specs in the future but that seems like a pipe dream. A game like Zelda BOTW/TOTK is completely held back by the Switch and that’s not good considering how fucking amazing it was to play them
Nintendo’s hardware strategy has always been to use old, less expensive components to make a console that generates a profit. Something I haven’t seen mentioned too often is that Sony and Microsoft sell their consoles at a loss with the expectation that they will make money on software and services. Nintendo sells a console that makes a profit but they have the absolute worst services and their online store is not good for shopping, only buying.
Because of this focus on profitability for games and console, Nintendo will never make a console that keeps up with the performance of the other two. Nintendo is good at fudging the graphics, as long as you don’t look too hard at how the system renders stuff, such as the world detail in BotW or Mario games. But they will never be cutting edge.
I wouldn’t say always. The Super Nintendo, N64, and GameCube were more advanced in terms of graphical capabilities compared to many of their competitors.
Yup, the Wii is when they started the “withered technology” thing. One nice side effect is that their consoles are pretty easy to emulate because the hardware is so outdated.
This was always the case up until the PS4/XB1 generation, when they both made a conscious effort to be break even on day 1 - which is why the hardware has been so lacklustre since then.
I don’t really get that argument.
We did get Breath of the Wild. It’s right there.
“How fucking amazing it was to play them” but… What? What part of the amazing experience was ruined, and by what? What would have been substantially better if the graphics had been slightly better?
the framerate is pretty all over the place, better hardware would allow for 60 fps a good amount of the time. games are amazing, just irks me that i have to watch a slideshow every camera pan
60 fps is good and all but can we stop all the exaggeration? Botw was definitely not a powerpoint simulator
not exaggerating? i pan my camera in a field and i can see the framerate drop to sub 20, using explosive arrows and fire fx also tank it to sub 10 at points
i love botw, played 170 hours of it. but its no secret that it needs a more powerful device to at least maintain 30 fps
Well I have played more than and only remember seeing visible frame drops in some specific areas. Maybe your Switch’s condition is bad?
We got a Switch to play BotW.
I guess you had to grow up playing Zelda games after Link to the Past in order to enjoy the gameplay. Coming from other systems, it was very unintuitive, uncomfortable, and basically unplayable since we couldn’t remap the controls. Also, the world was just kind of dead?
I dunno, it was a big disappointment.
Valid complaints. As far as the world being dead, two points. Story wise, it was supposed to be a world somewhat in ruin due to the events 100 years prior to the game. Also, again, switch being underpowered meant they couldn’t necessarily just pack the world full of npc’s and unique monsters.
I feel you on that first statement a little bit, but my biggest gripe of the Switch was they went away from the linear dungeon design of the Zelda’s from Link to the Past and forward. It’s not gods gift to gaming, nowhere close.
I picked up BotW once the TotK started up. Everyone told me it was amazing and I had a few months between beating Elden Ring for the fifteenth time and when BG3 came out.
I’m glad people had such a good time playing the game and I’m very happy for them. However, it’s just not for me.
To be fair, I was an early Zelda fan. I played the hell out of every one of them up to Ocarina of Time when I was a kid (yes, even Adventures of Link) so I’ve probably got some bias at play.
you arent alone really there us a subset of zelda fans who dont really like the direction zelda has gone. and its not that i dont think botw/totk is a bad game, its just a bad zelda game if you were looking to play zelda.
its like playing Halo or something, and when Halo Wars was released, it became the main game(in an alternate universe). Halo Wars itself isnt a bad game, its just if you came in expecting Halo of previous past youd be slightly disappointed.
I beat BotW, and started TotK but couldn’t bring myself to play it for more than 3 or so hours. TotK was mostly just more of the same from BotW, and I found BotW pretty dull.
Man, I must have picked up BotW at the exact right time, because I started playing it when Covid lockdowns started and the whole “solo in the face of a world altering event” aspect really got to me.
I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it before or after, even though I know many people did.
Twilight Princess slaps tho, and I’ll fight anyone that disrespects it.
Man, I still go back every few years and replay Twilight Princess. Absolute beast of a game.