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Monday, July 20, 2020

What Happened in the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase | July 2020

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Not sure why this got ratio'd.

I obviously missed the opportunity to do a “live reaction log” to this, since I'm now watching it approximately 12 hours after it aired. I blame Nintendo for announcing at July 20 at 00:00 that “On 7/20 we'll debut the first #NintendoDirect Mini: Partner Showcase, a series focused on titles from our development & publishing partners. We'll share a few updates on a small group of previously-announced #NintendoSwitch games. Check out the full video release at 7am PT.”

Turns out I already had plans for 10:00 Eastern today. Made last week. You can't just expect everyone to have a clear calendar when you announce things 10 hours in advance. Sheesh. Anyway, it's clear from the tweet to expect announcements that are NOT from Nintendo's own studios, but from random third-parties. Personally, I expected more information on No More Heroes 3. Instead, we got this (with promises of more presentations like this throughout 2020):


I guess I'll go headline-by-headline here. Note: Unlike a reaction log, I've seen plenty of people's opinions on this before actually getting to watch it, including that I shouldn't bother watching it. Based on the Like:Dislike ratio (81k to 65k) I'm expecting that Nintendo announced another partnership with another communist Chinese company or something... (And we're against that.)

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda DLC Packs


Ah, an interesting way to open up a Direct dedicated to third-party partners... with a collaboration involving one of your treasured first-party franchises. Now, if you haven't tried out the Cadence of Hyrule demo, you should. Of course, these DLC packs require you to buy the full game. The full game is $25, while the Season Pass (including all three packs) is $15. You can buy each pack individually for $6.

The Season Pass has three packs:
  1. Character Pack (available today), featuring
    1. Impa
    2. Aria
    3. Shadow Link
    4. Shadow Zelda
    5. Frederick
  2. Melody Pack (available later)
    • 39 songs will be added (toggle-able in-game)
    • Compare that number to the official site saying you can “move to the beat of 25 remixed classic Legend of Zelda tunes.”
  3. Symphony of the Mask (Pack) (available later)
    • Play as Skull Kid in a new map and a new story with new mask-based abilities
There is also a PHYSICAL version of the game launching October 23 that has all of the game content included, meaning the third pack will be available by then, I guess.

I mean, so far, this Nintendo Direct Mini is good. It seems like this season pass is basically a mini-sequel, so perhaps that justifies the price. And I can confirm the base game is good (well-made), at the very least. It's not unreasonable that I might want to buy that physical game.

Rogue Company


Oh, well, this seems groovy. There's a dude in a hoodie walking down a street, and this is basically giving me Watch_Dogs 2 vibes. (At least, I think it is. I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to find what I'm talking about and I need to write the rest of this article. It's something about the guy in the following screenshot.) It's an online multiplayer third-person shooter from Hi-Rez Studios. It has cross-play, so I guess other systems have it too. I don't care about it, I just want to be vindicated that it has Watch_Dogs 2 vibes:


Rogue Company Gl1tch Wrench Watch_Dogs 2 cute masks hackers emotes
Left: Gl1tch from Rogue Company.
Right: Wrench from Watch_Dogs 2.
I don't know anything about either of them, other than that they have the same energy with their emotive masks.

The game has completely nutty monetisation, with three ways to get it:
  1. Rogue Company: Starter Founder's Pack at $15
  2. Rogue Company: Standard Founder's Pack at $30 or $40—the official site ($40) and Nintendo's site ($30) contradict one another on what the price even is
  3. Rogue Company: Ultimate Founder's Pack at $60.
I'll go with nothing for $0.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds


Coming out September 18, this features “WWE action” that I don't care one bit about. It apparently features four dudes in one ring fighting it out. I dunno.

At this point, the narrator asked me, “How is everything? This next one will be our last announcement.” I gotta say, it started off great and then it's been ehhhhhh. So what's last?


Shin Megami Tensei V and Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster


One of those is a remaster of a game from 2004, and the other is a brand-new game coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch. Both in 2021, with Shin Megami Tensei V getting a worldwide simultaneous release. I'm not sure why the series has such long gaps between numbered entries. And I don't know how to commentate about it, besides the fact that the airport scene had no social distancing, and this:

Shin Megami Tensei V order crumbled chaos reigns Nintendo Switch
Well, hey, that's just how Splatoon 2 ended.
(We're totally for chaos over order, you know.)


There's few things to care about in this presentation (well, few things period), but I don't understand why it's so rampantly disliked. I'd think people wouldn't dislike it, but would rather be...neutral towards news that doesn't affect them. I mean, there's no dislike-inducing Chinese communism in sight, besides the disclaimer at the beginning about how Nintendo's hearts goes out to all of those impacted by the Chinese Communist Party Virus.

Meanwhile, the Japanese version was substantially longer and had much more stuff, but it's all gibberish to me so I can't comment on it. It did have something called Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (which I assume is a typo of Sakura, because Japan loves the name Sakura?) and whatever an Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy is. Those are both coming to North America, too, so I don't know why they were excluded.

I assume that'll be part of the series of these mini presentations to come. 


Ludwig noticed by the end that there's nothing about No More Heroes in this presentation, but he doesn't think a lack of news means it's cancelled or anything. He just figures that they'll show it in a future presentation, and he should just wait and enjoy the games he currently already has, like Paper Mario: The Origami King, which is in one of his claws as he is typing this sentence with his other claw, although that's a really annoying posture so he's going to put the game case down and type normally. ...Oh, well, the article is already over.


Ludwig thinks the Nintendo Direct Mini compared favourably to an in-depth look at Bakugan from Nintendo Treehouse: Live | July 2020.
The previous Nintendo Direct Mini was in March 2020, though it didn't have a third-party-only focus, and it was almost 29 minutes long.
Nintendo would then produce a Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase | August 2020. Ludwig joined people disliking it, and here's why.
The September 2020 Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase was the best one yet.
The October 2020 Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase finally had No More Heroes 3 in it.

8 comments :

  1. "Ludwig thinks the Nintendo Direct Mini compared favourably to an in-depth look at Bakugan from Nintendo Treehouse: Live | July 2020."

    I mean...an announcement of a Buy 2 Get 1 50% Off Sale at JCPenny's would compare favorably to an announcement of a new Bakugan game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buy 2 Get 1 50% off is a pretty lame deal!

      Delete
    2. That's exactly my point--that a deal as lame as that STILL compares favorably to announcing a new Bakugan game. Like, you set the bar so low with that one that the bar is on the floor.

      Delete
    3. oof

      Bakugan probably still better than the WWE game.

      Delete
    4. You mean, the one that was glitched out to the point of being unplayable, or close to it?

      Delete
    5. uhhh

      The one in the Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase. >_>

      Delete
    6. ...Oh. I apologize. Wrestling games are in the category of games that I have such a lack of desire to even try that they're totally beneath my notice. That category also includes non Mario series sports games (e.g. Madden,) Digimon games, games based on movies or TV shows (with VERY rare exceptions) and WOULD include MOBA and FPS games if they weren't so good at clamoring for everyone's attention to the point that I notice them even when I try not to.

      Delete
    7. It has its own header and everything in the article! Sure, it's the shortest section by far and I have nothing to say about it (and half of the section was talking about the intermission), but it's a whole quarter of this thing.

      Delete

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