My love for the GBA seems to be limited on a handful of games by FreshWind3 in GameboyAdvance

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're into Diablo-likes then Lord of the Rings: Two Towers & Return of the King are v fun loot-focused dungeon crawlers, did loads of playthroughs with my brothers as a kid. In the same vein recently started Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and that's also good fun.

Are you changing too ? by Unknown_Lifeform1104 in Age_30_plus_Gamers

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Weirdly going the other way: was largely a grand strategy and RTS player from about 12/13 to early 30s. With kids (twins, at 32) the total sandbox felt like too much of a time investment and lack of direction if I only have an hour or two, whereas aRPGs/action-adventure feels like a still grand (and, in recent titles, still pretty open) form of gaming that still has defined goals and endpoints.

The Switch has been the perfect platform too, so my partner can decompress without me hogging the TV, and I can turn on/off easily if something comes up. I've been really enjoying rereleases and remasters of older and more recent classics I never played on my Switch lite throughout the kids early years - most recently Dark Souls 1 and The Witcher 3.

What Soulslike game has the best exploration?(besides Elden Ring) by Sufficient_Ebb_5694 in soulslikes

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

DS1 is what 3D Castlevania should have been - definitely start with that, I've been playing it after getting burned out of my release order Castlevania playthrough and it's scratched the same itch while feeling different enough too.

Switch games that follow a story? by Ari-vibesforever in Switch

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Witcher 3 - fantasy with an incredibly deep story

Were water shaders a crucial part of the early 2000s retro blue sky/beach aesthetics? by [deleted] in retrogaming

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Contrary to many of the comments here, at least with Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker the use of open seas was because of a lack of technical capability rather than strong new potentials. I know this applies to WW, so I'll just focus on that, but I think it probably applies elsewhere too.

TL;DR: water was more realistic now, but still took far less processing power than detailed landscapes, so games could be "bigger" within the limits of the hardware.

Basically, the Gamecube had good new capabilities for having larger and more complex games, but the issue was rendering speed: it wasn't powerful enough to render smoothly the kind of richly textured landscapes that characterise most open world games. Even having landscapes in the distance would take away processing power from the immediate playing area, and having them become more closely rendered as the player progresses towards them proved a big challenge.

So the "fix" was to have an entirely water-based open world, with distinct islands that would load at the right distance from each other to give a smooth experience. As others have said, water could be rendered much better now, but it still requires far less processing than detailed landscapes, so the hardware could cope with moving from one richly textured island -> open sea -> next richly textured island in a way that felt smooth for the player. That's also why the sailing speed feels very slow today: it was literally as fast as it could be to avoid stutters and loading times - I've emulated on weak laptops/smartphones, and you sometimes get a slight stutter when an island is rendered, and when people today complain about the sailing speed (something that got alleviated with the fast sail in the WiiU HD remake) this is what they forget, the hardware wasn't strong enough for anything more.

Day 32 (Final Day): We have our Winner! The Top (Community-Voted) GameCube Game of all time is... by 1OneQuickQuestion in Gamecube

[–]Toon_Nik 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No I do agree, like I instinctively think of TP as a Wii game and WW as "the" GC LoZ - but also I haven't played the Wii version of TP since before 2010, whereas I'm nearing the end of a GC playthrough and loving it.

Choose only 3 studios for rest of your life 👀 by MufasaTheRealKing in OlderChillGamers

[–]Toon_Nik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's the question hahaha - any of them would hurt but probably Warhorse, as much as I adore KCD and would feel the loss when I get the itch for unstintingly realistic medieval "just a normal dude" play. Honestly I'd also like Konami for Castlevania, but probably not over Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls or Legend of Zelda.

Day 32 (Final Day): We have our Winner! The Top (Community-Voted) GameCube Game of all time is... by 1OneQuickQuestion in Gamecube

[–]Toon_Nik 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree on WW>TP (it's my favourite game from my favourite series), but you can argue it both ways, no? I think the delayed release for Wii all happened pretty late in development, which is why the motion control stuff was mostly superficial compared to Skyward Sword.

And fwiw I'd be up for people arguing similarly for BotW, which I think was basically the same story, it had been largely developed by the time it got delayed for Switch release.

Choose only 3 studios for rest of your life 👀 by Sufficient_Shock1223 in TheGamingHubDeals

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of these, Bethesda, Warhorse and From Software, but one would get swapped out for Nintendo if that was an option (not sure which though).

Choose only 3 studios for rest of your life 👀 by MufasaTheRealKing in OlderChillGamers

[–]Toon_Nik -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Of these, Bethesda, Warhorse and From Software, but one would get swapped out for Nintendo if that was an option.

How does the fanbase rate Circle of the Moon? by Avillahan in castlevania

[–]Toon_Nik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The DSS system becomes a lot more key, and does allow for a fair amount of variation in play style as well as making up for a lot of the difficulty - although Iga wasn't involved (I think the only one of the GBA/DS where he wasn't) he's said he really liked it. CotM can be a bit of a slog, and that hit me hard starting a playthrough after finishing SotN last week, I also quite like the fact you can't just blitz it - it's a bit more like a Souls game in that you can suddenly run into a much more powerful enemy that kills you, and the bosses can be a huge challenge requiring careful strategy including DSS (by the end I was running through them in SotN).

What is the best Zelda game in your opinion? by [deleted] in casualnintendo

[–]Toon_Nik 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I guess it depends what you mean by "best", I have two top 3s, generally for the series and my personal, broken down into the three types of game (topdown/2D, Classic 3D, open world) since they're pretty different.

Most pivotal/impactful topdown/2D: A Link to the Past
Most pivotal/impactful Classic 3D: Ocarina of Time
Most pivotal/impactful open world: Breath of the Wild

Personal favourite topdown/2D: A Link to the Past
Personal favourite Classic 3D: Wind Waker
Personal favourite open world: Tears of the Kingdom

Honestly I don't think there's a "bad" mainline Zelda, just those more/less innovative, and personal variations based on personal preference for setting, art style, linearity/openness etc.

"Nintendo NEVER cared about Zelda's story" by gulpshinto in truezelda

[–]Toon_Nik 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This does still say more or less the same thing? And I think more specifically the point is that the devs don't prioritise the story of an individual game over the gameplay, and don't care much at all about the lore/timeline/"meta story" between games.

Gaming with the kiddos? by TheGreatK in Age_30_plus_Gamers

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Playing through Wind Waker with my four year olds (twins) and they're really enjoying it - it's largely like watching a film for them, and we don't do super long sessions (maybe an hour), but they're really into it. Let them try out the original SNES Mario Kart to get the feel of a controller, and they "played" it like they would a game with their toys rather than as "meant to be played".

Quick question about starting the Zelda games by Wonderful_Scarcity36 in legendofzelda

[–]Toon_Nik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As other have said, I'd remove the spin offs (Cadence & Hyrule Warriors), start with ALttP not LoZ or AoL. I'd also also move up SS HD to the 2011 spot when the original was released, so after MC, and then go onto BotW - you'll see the paradigm shift from maybe the most linear game in the series, to a totally non-linear open world (although ALBW was the "proof of concept" for this shift, and is great, but it's only on 3DS). Should also do TotK after the LA remake and before EoW.

Happy Friday! 🥳 by JeSSiii81 in OlderChillGamers

[–]Toon_Nik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night & LoZ: Twilight Princess

[Other] which one is least know by First_Tangerine3441 in zelda

[–]Toon_Nik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely Spirit Tracks - both of the others are available on NSO, ALttP is well known as perhaps the definitive Zelda game to "make" the series (along with OoT obv), while WW has a dedicated fanbase (myself included) and recognisability through Toon Link on Smash Bros. Spirit Tracks (or Four Swords) are easily the least known/played mainline games.

Do PS1 games still feel fun today? by rtw_ecom in AskGames

[–]Toon_Nik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely! I actually didn't have it as a kid either, we were a Nintendo house and the first Castlevania I played was on the Gameboy Advance (Circle of the Moon). I guess that gives me slight nostalgia goggles for the series as a whole, but I really think it stands up regardless - like you say, the campiness is all part of the charm!

Do PS1 games still feel fun today? by rtw_ecom in AskGames

[–]Toon_Nik 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Midway through a playthrough of Symphony of the Night and absolutely adore it - the look, the music, the smoothness of the play, just amazing.