Nintendo Direct 2021 Thoughts

So on February 17th, Nintendo had their first real direct since 2019. We've had Smash directs and Nindie showcases, but it was 2019 the last time Nintendo had a general direct that covered many upcoming games. It opened up with a Smash hitter showing up two new fighters or a two-in-one fighter with Pyra and Mithra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I didn't really care about it. While I was interested in the first Xenoblade Chronicles and X, 2's art style is just too ugly and generic looking for me to play it.

Pyra and Mythra join Smash as a dual character

I now see how so many people see that there are too many anime sword fighters now, that brings us to Marth, Lucina, Roy, Ike, Byleth, Robin, Corrin, Hero, Shulk, Cloud, and Sephiroth. All of these characters are from JRPGs too. Actually, I didn't noticed until I watched someone's YouTube video, but there are hella JRPG characters in this game. Those I named are pretty much it with Joker and the Pokemon being the rest. I wouldn't have ever thought there would be so many JRPG characters in Smash. As for Pyra and Mithra themselves they seem okay. They look to function like Zelda/Sheik in Brawl as you can shift between the two in battle. That's all I really have to say on them.

Oh, and to forewarn you, I'm only going to talk about games that stood out to me because I don't remember them all and as I'm writing this I'm currently unable to rewatch it. So the next notable thing I recall is Famicom Detecive Club. By the sound of this, this was a Japanese visual novel duology that's being remade for the current gen and is finally seeing an international release. Just that prospect alone makes me intrigued and I've still yet to play a visual novel so I might get it once I get a Switch whenever that is, but I also may not considering there are so many other games I want to play before that. There are actually two games in this series coming to the West. One is called The Missing Heir  and The Girl Who Stands Behind. Both are murder mysteries set in Japan.

The New Legend of Mana Remaster from Square Enix

Early into the direct a Legend of Mana remake was revealed and my gosh if that wasn't the most prettiest game I've ever seen! I've heard good things about Mana so I'll definitely get it whenever I can buy a Nintendo Switch.

Skyward Sword is coming to the Switch. That's the one mainline Zelda I don't care about. Is Twilight Princess on the Switch? I feel like it is. It's either Twilight or Wind Waker. This was followed by the presenter stating that there will be no news for the Breath of the Wild sequel. It is weird though. It's been almost four years now since BOTW released and all we've seen is just how Link and Zelda look. If this is using the same engine as BOTW I would think it could be made relatively quick like how Majora's Mask was made a year after Ocarina of Time. I know of course big profile games now take longer to make, but still I would've thought it would have came out by now or at least almost be done.

No further Pokemon Snap updates, but I got a reminder to buy Animal Crossing New Horizons. The Mario stuff looks cute, but I probably wouldn't use it that much unless the warp pipes make fast travel easier. Speaking of Mario, Nintendo just reminded people that Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury recently came out.

Nintendo also showed off footage of the No More Heroes III. It looked rough to me. Graphically, it still looked like a Wii game to me and none of the gameplay footage I saw particulary interested me. The most WTF moment to me during this direct was the announcement of Stubbs The Zombie for Nintendo Switch. I have not thought about that game once since it released during the PS2/Xbox era and I haven't heard anyone mention it since then. It is the most random announcement I have seen in a presentation.

Square's newest strategy RPG Project Triangle Strategy

 

So Square Enix had another game to show during this presentation and that was an upcoming RPG with the working title Project Triangle Strategy. Yep, Square continues with the weird ass names and I feel like this will end up being its final name with just the project dropped like how Octopath Traveler was Project Octopath Traveler when it was in development. Project Triangle Strategy actually has the same art style as Octopath Traveler. That gorgeous mix of SNES pixels with 3D still looks oh so good and still reminds me of Final Fantasy VI. Doubt Square will make a VI remake with this engine though. What they are doing this time is making a tactical RPG in the spirit of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. In the trailer we can see that placement on the grid is very important and they showed off how you can push an enemy against an ally behind them and the ally would immediately follow up with an attack for extra damage. We can also see environmental interactivity as you can create a water area by melting ice and cast an electrical spell for extra damage. 

It's not clear at the moment whether water itself will affect travel across battle maps, but I'd like to assume so. We are also given a very brief glimpse of the story revolving around a long war that started over disputes of salt and iron resources. Typical stuff I think for strategy RPGs. The biggest surprise though was that Nintendo announced that a demo for the game was dropping that very same day. I have no comments on as I mentioned that I don't have a Switch. I will be grabbing this when I do though.

I also recall there is a new Plants vs Zombies game coming. I don't really care. I'm surprised the franchise is still ongoing. This one looks to be in 3D vs the usual 2D. Still not interested though. We also got some weird dodgeball thing that had a confusing intro with some spoof video game characters. They're not in the actual game so I didn't really get the point of it. The game itself that I can't remember the name of, looks generic. Will most likely forget about it soon. 

New Squid in a desert

Aside from Triangle Strategy, the only exciting piece of news in all of this was the final announcement of Splatoon 3. I have yet to play a Splatoon, but I'm still excited for it for some reason. Maybe because it oozes so much style and that it looks fun. From what I can gather in the trailer there's a new hairstyle for your squid and there's a desert environment.

It seems like a lot of people were disappointed on the internet about the direct, me I wasn't expecting anything. I didn't even realize that it had been so long since we last had a proper direct until the last minute so I came in with no expectations. I got four games I'm interested in playing and that's good enough for me. Oh yeah, that DC Teen Superhero Girls game that was just a weird time and place to advertise that game. The general audience who watches these directs are not interested in that game.

And that's all I have for you guys today. See y'all next week.