Skyward Sword HD is fun. Play the Groose game starring the best Zelda, Groose.

There's a lot of stuff coming to Switch and Mario Golf looks cool but as per usual I came away kind of disappointed. Obviously Skyward Sword HD as a stand alone release is the big disappointment, especially if it's $60. Galaxy was bundled with Sunshine and Mario 64 so you'd think Zelda would at least get something else with it.

I am not a Splatoon fan so that game didn't hit for me. It's a good game, I just don't really enjoy it that much.

But there's a lot of stuff here so it's hard to argue Nintendo doesn't have a strong lineup. Lots of RPGs, lots of games overall, definitely worthy of a direct, just didn't bring it for me personally.

Mario Golf looks cool.

Other than that, it looks like BotW2 won't be out until 2022 at the earliest. I guess that's ok, since I still haven't finished the first one.

Overall, that was very underwhelming.

Skyward Sword and Legally-distinct Fire Emblem Three Houses (which is hopefully better) were really all that interested me.

Oh, and I'm actually pretty into Age of Calamity DLC, assuming I feel like playing it again by the time it comes out. I put a LOT of time into that game, and am also going to play P5 Strikers, which might be more Warriors than I can handle.

I'm not MAD about the Xenoblade people for Smash, just kinda sad that if they were gonna do another JRPG character they went the cheap route (a character they own) vs. what way more people want (a Tales character).

Does Age of Calamity still run like the shit of a dog with stomach issues who got in to the fancy cheeses?

Love OG HW (might have bought that three times...) but I can only deal with so much horrible performance.

I'm excited for those Famicom Detective Games, those seem sweet and like something that we shouldn't be getting. Also, having never played Skyward Sword, as maybe the only mainline Zelda game I haven't played, I'm excited to get a chance.

Didn't expect to come away from this Direct with Mario Golf being the only notable first party game I'm interested in, but what can you do.

Skyward Sword is a bad game.

I think mario golf and the trpg looked good. Wanted a release date for smt3, you know a game thats supposed to be out this year.

I want to play Ninja Gaiden 3 but would rather seek out a used copy.

@gundato: I'm admittedly WAY less sensitive to "performance issues" than most people on these forums, but I didn't really run into anything in Age of Calamity that was noticeable until like the end/post-game stuff? There are some characters with way bigger/wilder moves that made it dip for a little bit, but definitely nothing as bad as what you're describing.

@gundato: It hasn't gotten any patches for it so at the least it's as you remember it.

Aside from wishing it ran as nice as HW:DE I didn't find it all that bad.

@trh5001: It's February and this Direct was focused on the first half of the year (though obviously there was a lot of stuff coming out later too.)

I wouldn't assume that SMT3 not being mentioned is any kind of bad sign about it coming out in 2021.

They used to do like 4 Directs a year. I don't think they'll do that in 2021 but I would assume we'll get some Origami King style Twitter drops and other things. Plus SMT3 isn't first party so it may be that there are other non-Nintendo publicity plans.

I will say that it's pretty clear BOTW 2 isn't coming this year.

The fact that they decided to Majora's Mask it and it's STILL going to take about as long as the first BOTW did to develop is kind of mind blowing to me. Yes, Covid played a role, but still. They built the first game, as epic and huge as it was, from scratch, for two platforms (including a brand new one!) and this time they had an engine and assets and maps.

Of course maybe BOTW 2 will be mind blowingly huge and that's why, but my guess is it's going to be a great game but we're all going to wonder why it took 5 years.

hmm. an outer wilds port seems neat i guess. i now know what to get my nephew for his birthday!

otherwise nothing terribly exciting. was hoping to get a 1st party surprise, but nothing shown really did it for me.

oh well, here's hoping for something later this year!

That was awfully underwhelming.

@bigsocrates: Yeah. If it were anyone but Nintendo I would love to get a deep dive on what the hell is going on in that studio but... we'll never know

But BOTW1 was basically like a year 2 Wii U title? And it ended up being a launch Switch title that ran like ass?

If this were any other publisher/super-developer we would be wondering how troubled the development was and how many horses they insisted on motion capping.

@efesell: Considering DE was already kind of on the edge of tolerable for me... But thanks

@gundato: BOTW 1 was in many people's views (including mine) one of the best games ever made, and it totally remade the Zelda formula. It was Nintendo's first experience with a massive open world, and all the physics stuff, and it ended up being made for a new system, and it was so chock full of content and massive that I don't really see it as a troubled development. Great games and innovative games take a lot of time, and Nintendo focuses on iteration and polish. It not running great was a combination of its ambition and just the fact that the Switch hardware was new for the team. Lots of launch games are technically suspect.

But BOTW 2 was supposed to fix all that because of the experience and the assets and engine etc... from BOTW 1. Ocarina took a long time too, but Majora's Mask was quick because a lot of Ocarina's development time was spent figuring out how to make Zelda work in 3D and coming up with Z targeting and the engine etc... Majora's Mask was just about taking that material and constructing a new game out of those pieces.

That's why BOTW 2's extended development time seems so much stranger than BOTW 1's to me. For BOTW 1 they were making a whole new thing that they didn't know how to make and making it for new hardware. Then they tried to make another one of that same thing, on the same hardware, and it took just as long.

Is it possible that BotW 2 is taking longer than expected because Genshin Impact came out and ate some of its lunch? But honestly, who knows what goes on in the black box of Nintendo development.

I wanted to be excited for No More Heroes, but man that was not a good advertisement for what sounds like a busywork gameplay loop. Certainly wasn't expecting a Disgaea-like to be my most anticipated game of the showcase.

I'll try not to mention why Skyward Sword was such a disappointment, and instead hope others can find joy where I did not. Yes, I'll avoid mentioning its overall severe lack of content. I won't discourage people by referring to its "Simon Says" style of momentum-halting combat. I won't criticize its character design that looks like it was done by a five-year-old. I also won't imply the reason there are no dungeons in BotW is because the dungeons in Skyward Sword were so underwhelming that the director gave up on the concept completely. I won't lament over the fact the worst storyline in the series is the de facto canonical origin story. And I certainly won't call attention to Fi's actual character being worse than any embellishment or false memory of how annoying Navi was. No, I will let people celebrate the Legend of Zelda's anniversary by attempting to enjoy Skyward Sword at their own risk.

[Edit: Yes, the person with a Zelda avatar happens to have strong opinions about Zelda games. But this is just, like, my opinion, man. It reviewed well, so please go out and be your own judge if you haven't played it yet.]

@doctorfaust: Considering they felt the need to reivnent Far Cry 2 and what we know about the Nintendo management structure: Genshin and the various Ubi open worlds have no impact whatsoever on development.

Excited that we're getting a new Mario Golf.

I've never played Skyward Sword so I'll give that a shot too.

I was hoping for more, but that'll do for now.

@doctorfaust: Very much doubt that it has anything to do with Genshin Impact. I also don't think Genshin Impact ate any of its lunch. The Zelda franchise is a strong IP and Genshin Impact is a VERY different game than BOTW, despite obviously borrowing a lot of mechanics. It's much more of a traditional action RPG (fused with Gacha of course) and much less a survival game. For example it has nothing comparable to the shrines.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising was much more of a direct BOTW clone but that also had no impact on BOTW 2. Nintendo don't care.

My guess is that it is taking this long because they are iterating and polishing away. Building shrines and testing them and tweaking stuff etc... Maybe a lot of that stuff was done while the tech was being built for BOTW 1 so having the tech and even assets in place didn't actually save much time.

Or maybe BOTW 2 is just a much bigger and more ambitious game.

Part of me also thinks they are holding it back to launch beside the Switch Pro, whenever that happens.

I'm a fan of all the RPG announcements and Mario Golf looked neat. I don't think it was a bad Direct, especially considering we're still coming out of the Hell Year.

I played enough of that Octopath-esque SRPG demo to know I want to play it

Thumbs up for Mario Golf! Game seems solid. the SALT IRON game could be neat too. Hope that splatoon added a solid singleplayer story to the tried-and-proven multiplayer. Otherwise this might feel more of a half-step to Splatoon, after the half-step that Splatoon 2 was.

That said, there were some grimy games on display here. No More Heroes is such a colorful stylish title, it's a shame that it looks so put together on a stringbudget. This footage looks visually worse than Deadly Premonition 2, despite it trying so hard to establish a flashy visual style with the quasi-cell-shaded look and all the video-gamey aspects.

Stubbs the Zombie is a niche title so i guess you can't expect a huge overhaul, but man i have a hard time imagining someone coming to that for the first time in 2021 and appreciating that typical desaturized grey/blue look of the mid 2000's.

Those Famicom Detective Club games look gorgeous and seem like something we usually wouldn't get localised so I'm pretty excited to play those.

New Mario Golf also looks to be exciting, though I really wish they hadn't committed to using Miis for the story mode, though I understand why they did in their weird Nintendo logic world.

Pleasantly surprised to see World's End Club get a Switch release since I don't have an Apple device to otherwise play it on, hopefully it's priced reasonably.

NMH3 looks disappointingly grimy in a way that doesn't look intentionally stylised. Hopefully it cleans up better a bit closer to release.

Also the TRPG looks good and as a reminder to everybody, Octopath Traveller was originally revealed with the working title of Project Octopath Traveller so here's hoping we really end up with the new release of 2022 Triangle Strategy.

Overall a lot of stuff in this direct and quite a bit of it personally exciting to me.

I'm down to replay ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 again. What a wonderful surprise.

It is I, the man that is giddy with excitement to see Xenoblade Chronicles 2's Pyra and Mythra getting in to Smash Ultimate. While the Xenoblade series is a arguably a series of diminishing returns, I still enjoyed Xenoblade 2 enough to be happy to see the Aegis Blade pair get an invite in to Nintendo's bruhaha.

The Famicom Detective Club remakes coming over is really cool. I've been curious about those games ever since a trophy of the main character was in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

This Direct was a big 50-minute shotgun blast from a shell marked, "mixed bag". I got my 2-5 things that got to me, but I get how this show was a big and long miss.

Heh, maybe this is an argument that 2020's Direct slate of smaller and (slightly) more numerous Direct Minis, Partner Showcases, and singular-focused Directs might be better for the internet's health. I've read a comment that this big 50 minute show could've stood to be separated to a Direct Mini and a Partner Showcase.

As soon as I heard it was mainly for games for the first half of the year I knew to temper my expectations. I still saw plenty I’m excited for. I will absolutely play those Famicom mystery games and love they’re bringing that kind of stuff to switch. Cannot wait for a Tactics style game with Octopath visuals. Mario Golf is a definite yes. I’m ready to play Skyward Sword again. Oh and Outer Wilds.

I’m hoping we see some more Zelda stuff and at least a mention of Metroid in the next one. With the last year being what it was I absolutely didn’t expect BOTW 2 stuff. Would’ve been great to see another trailer or something but oh well.