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I don't know, I never played Smash too seriously. Never thought it was that kind of game. There were games that I played however that needed some kind of "limits" to avoid throwing the balance out of the window. UMK3 comes to mind where me and my friends or whoever played with me had to ban a few characters or some cheap infinites. That game was just broken at high level play. Had loads of fun though. Or sometimes we'd allow anything and don't care about either winning or losing. Sometimes a losing performance was much more celebrated than a winning one like C. Sub Zero defeating Kabal or Human Smoke and such. Smash Bros strikes as that kind of game. I could be very, very wrong though.

Console market in Japan is the way it it's due to most people going handheld. Even more so than in the past. The idea that they stopped focusing on their own market is going too far in my opinion. Sure there're some games focused on the international market but most are very Japanese games. Many great titles have been Japan only lately. Ni no Kuni took forever to be localised, same for Xenoblade and Last Story. Fatal Frame people have no idea what's going to happen. Dragon Quest X never did, Yakuza has been largely ignored. That's not to mentioned the types of games that are usually never localised such as visual novels. if anything they are simply not been localised.

So with people going handheld, stagnated economy and rising costs of the consoles many companies are focusing on 3DS/Vita/Mobile. There's been plenty of good games released for Vita and 3DS that haven't come out outside of Japan yet such as Monster Hunter 4, Youkai Watch, Youkai Watch 2 etc And when they do it takes forever (Bravely Default, Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Collection, Rune factory 4 etc)

To cut it short, market changed and 3DS is where Japanese gaming is (at the moment). That said, there'll be plenty of good games for consoles. This gen is still in its infancy.

I don't have many complaints but maybe it's because my tastes have mostly been satisfied and because I don't need to wait for localisations. Not everything is doing well obviously but that's always true. I miss some things too.

@slag: I think they will bring Dragon Quest VII to iOS/Android too eventually if that counts. They said about something about bringing all Dragon Quests to mobile sometime ago. So there's some hope i guess for those who haven't played. If it's the same as the 3DS I don't know though. That game's too text-heavy and that something they've mentioned as a big obstable a few times. The 3DS version is great. It's a shame they didn't release outside Japan.

It's been confirmed recently the Dragon Quest XI was in the works (also Dragon Quest: Heroes).

So what platform are you guys expecting it to come? Yuji Horii already said it won't be on a handheld. Logical option would be WiiU I guess.

I'm expecting it to not stray too far from the art style of Dragon Quest X (much like VIII). I believe they will keep some online functionality, maybe like IX with co-op downloadable content etc. but will mainly be a traditional single player game. Hopefully they will keep working on the combat system. The Dragon Quest X is pretty decent.

A more interesting skill system would be great too. Anything that makes it a bit fast paced without losing its appeal would be a winner to be. Nothing too complicated, it's always been a pick up and play series and it's important to keep it that way.

Funny how the series was known for bringing new ideas to gaming but is today ironically considered very traditional. With some lucky they will try something new without going too far.

The worrying thing is: square's mostly been a disappointment the last few years so it's hard to predict the quality. It's hard to mess up with Dragon Quest though. Bring Level-5 again and I won't worry about a thing. Especially know with the experience of 2 Youkai Watch games they could surely do something great with the monsters.

Any expectations?

If the psp version is an option I'd go with it in case you want sprites. The game boasts an awful lot of random battles. I didn't remember it being so bad.

Anyway, I think square only just started getting those mobile interfaces right like in Dragon Quest IV (and VIII somewhat). I think until last year they were mostly bad so I'm not sure I'd try even if it's technically better.

@jeust: I can understand that even if I'm not sure which has the better story. I'm still glad they did what they wanted. I'm a bit worried that with the amount of money involved Witcher 3 may end up a bit shallow. They already said that there won't be any branching storylines as they want the player to see and play everything, which is very typical in a game with a large budget. I still have faith in them and from what I've seen it shaping up to be the most fun Witcher game yet. Remains to be seen about the story.

I put around 50 hours in the 1st doing everything and taking my time. For all its flaws I still loved my time with it but I don't think is the kind of experience I'd like to go through again. I'd play the The Witcher 2 again I guess because of the gameplay and pace. But I won't! :P There are other games I want to play and as I get busier I tend to play more on 3DS than PC.

I enjoyed the first Witcher. There are a few things that hold it back though. Even with the Enhanced Edition there was only so much that could be done to fix those things. The combat got tedious really, really fast. There wasn't much depth to it either. That can be ok as long as it's fun enough (like in the Fable's series), has a decent/great levelling/skill system (Elders Scrolls) or simply doesn't overstay its welcome. The Witcher has neither. Also, though the game is obviously linear it wouldn't hurt to have more to do in the game. More and more interesting side quests would come a long way in making the game more alive and less tiresome. It sometimes just drags out. The last third of the game thankfully has a better pace for what it offers. As I said at first, I enjoyed the game. The world, lore, narrative, music makes it a game I wouldn't want to have missed.

The Witcher 2 however fixes many of the problems with the first. The combat especially is surprisingly good and has depth to it. i'm not fan of the rolling mechanic but then again I don't like it either in the Souls games. Just feels out of place. Don't let it overwhelm you though. At first it may seem daunting but stay with it and it will reward the player with a lot of fun. More detailed commands on the game menus regarding the combat would've been nice. I forgot most things right after the tutorial making the first hour of the game more frustrating than it should. Also, the pace is much better. If the story itself is better or not than it's very subjective.

As I see The Witcher 2 is a much better put together game and overall better game as well. One of the best wrpgs from the last generation in my opinion. It feels better having played the 1st one which not everyone will be able to muster enough patience for. But surely The Witcher 2 could've been better optimized on PC though.

I agree with this.

is it just me or half the posts are about an arbitrary game the person dislikes and not so much about padding, at all? ¬¬"

@vaddixbell: I prefer the snes version for the superior audio visual presentation. There's nothing in the gba version that offsets this for me. Same situation I have with Dragon Quest III. My favourite version is the snes remake.