@e_zed_eh_intern Still looking into this, but they've released a new tweet, deconfirming the previously confirmed offline local multiplayer it seems? Going to try to look into this more for exactly what it means, because you should still be able to play with multiple people with Switches in person locally, since that was a big feature of their last presentation.

Well, they've basically confirmed THIS works, but I guess it connects through online?

This tweet confirms you can play Online with either Friends or Strangers:

And this tweet claims they greatly increased the Inventory Limit for the Remaster:

So yeah, it seems they've cut the offline local coop. So there's still online coop with crossplay even and offline single player (with a Moogle companion, although not what I'd recommend), just no offline local multiplayer sharing a screen or not. You can still get together in person with your devices and play together, but it seems that will be functioning through online, so unfortunately it'll come with all the usual drawbacks of playing online versus playing something locally. For sure a bummer, but I planned to play this online anyway. Hell we're in Covid times so who the heck could even play locally if it was available anyways?

@Ozymandsss

@Chocobop What about like Fallout? Always felt like those had a good balance. Combat focused doesn't feel nerfed compared to the stealth option.

@capnbobamous I don't think you read this topic very well if you think that. Having digested a handful of the reviews, feels like people are just sliding some of the really awful aspects completely aside because the presentation around them is nice. I think it is much more complicated than just looking at a score for this title.

@dipset said:

how could they consistently release such poor game entires in a Nintendo IP?

Honestly, Sticker Star is the only bad, bad, bad one on all fronts.

It's just strange that something can release so fundamentally flawed.

Outright refusal to return to a working formula and instead recklessly plowing forward with "innovation".

There must be other good aspects of the game. It legit looks like a ton of fun based on the videos.

There are good aspects, but the problem is the combat system is so fundamental to the entire experience, which is why you see most critics trying their best to juke battles to largely erase that part of the game to get to the rest which has decent writing, environments to explore, lots of one-off minigame type parts, great music, etc. which make the game enjoyable enough to be averaging 80ish right now despite the flawed combat system, very similar to how Color Splash was good in spite of the baggage from Sticker Star. Except I honestly think this new combat system is even a major downgrade from the Color Splash one, with the exception of thank fuck "Things" are gone as mandatory solutions to combat encounters you have to hunt in the world that cause you to outright lose battles if you don't have them. They at least finally got away from that!

@bard91 said:

Guess I'll want to look into Bug Fables :/

Regardless of how your Origami King impressions end up, absolutely do look into Bug Fables. Even lacking first-party Nintendo polish, it is absolutely worth your time to check out, delivering something very close to, but not exactly identical to the classic Paper Mario experience with a whole interconnected world of fun characters to discover and interesting boss battles to pick apart.

@dipset said:

Is the battle system really that bad?

Yes. The puzzle part is the entire focus, and the part after where you're attacking is a complete afterthought with almost nothing put into it, just using different strengths of boots and hammers with durability, with your weak ones always to fall back onto, and with the occasional other item. Even worse, the puzzle part supposedly starts to become repetitive with reusing the exact same puzzle configurations.

Even though people initially got excited to see "partners" in this game, they rotate in and out with each chapter, you don't at all control them during battle, and all they do during battle is occasionally do a basic attack that can even miss the enemy. Also, it sounds like very few of the partners have a function outside battle in the world too, so they're kinda just there to be characters who supposedly don't get fleshed out enough and then get pseudo abandoned for the next in line for the next part of the game.

@bard91 said:

I was really hoping they were able to get things back on good track

Yeah, this definitely isn't that.

@E_Zed_Eh_Intern said:

but the battle system is a chore

Well least you don't need to fill in attacks with paint to strengthen them, but yeah it just trades that tedium for potential puzzle tedium with no meaningful reward for doing said battles.

Just watched GameXplain play the first 30 minutes, and they confirmed you can get infinite Confetti just from smacking trees, so can't even really pretend Confetti is a worthwhile battle reward at all.

@e_zed_eh_intern Most critics have been saying they just run from battles now, which should be alarming to hear. Color Splash had Hammer Scraps you earned from battles that upgraded your paint reservoir at least. This game supposedly rewards you for winning battles with confetti to fill in holes in the world, but you can also get tons of that just out in the world too, and it doesn't upgrade the amount of confetti you can hold either like it would if Origami King was closer to Color Splash.

Meta Critic 80~81 rn Open Critic

Listening to some reviews. Sounds like critics are desperate to "be fair" to the game despite very obvious shortcomings that effect almost all of the gameplay.

@tokyoslim Well I did poorly. I blame them splitting their showcase into two, with another later this year, even though that has nothing to do with most the bets I got wrong.

Re:Zero is back. So many people tried to watch it when it premiered that Crunchroll was having trouble handling the load.

And that's all I need to say about it.