3DS OT: 1 Platform, 2 Screens, 3 Dimensions

Looks like I need to pick up yokai watch 3 sooner than later. I’ve yet to see a copy local to me.

Got a reply form a seller, I was told it works but “a bit jumpy or something on some with 3d on” : /

There are too many to remember them all but Shinobi definitely needs a mention. It’s the best original game of its type on the system.

Picked these up due to the recent fan translation of the 1st game.

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I have the sneaking suspicion the physical edition of Jake Hunter is cancelled in Europe. The pre-order from the Aksys website is gone, it’s also removed from the release schedule and the place where I pre-ordered my copy doesn’t have the game in it’s database anymore.

Oh snap, I knew I was forgetting something! I noticed this last week - it’s basically gone from all retailers who were stocking it, which is a shame. Death Mark on Switch has been delayed to June as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was eventually cancelled considering it released on the eShop last September.

It’s a shame it’s been cancelled, I can see it being the last third party 3DS release with a small print run. Etrian Odyssey Nexus has been overprinted by Deep Silver, to my surprise, and I can’t see Persona Q2 being scarce either.

Somebody had asked about it from Aksys on Reddit and it has indeed been cancelled. :frowning:

I’m still playing Kid Icarus Uprising, going for those golden wreathes in story mode. The game is still really impressing me. The way it mixes up the narrative with gameplay is just really well handled.

It says a lot that as soon as you start the game in chapter 1, you’re almost immediately handled control of Pit and the game stays that way throughout. Even with the differences in gameplay styles between the land and air sections everything is consistently connected.

Somehow I missed this! Gutted, was looking forward to picking it up. I guess that leaves Persona Q2 as the last major release, anyone bothering with it? I didn’t think Persona Q was particularly good - the Persona-infused elements took away from what makes Etrian Odyssey great - but I am tempted for it being the last notable boxed 3DS game…

Well yes, it’s the other 3DS game I have pre-ordered. I must confess I hardly played the first one, but I did like it. I like Etrian Odyssey as well, reminds me I have to continue with 5 and play Nexus, but I just don’t have the time for these long ass games. Still, I keep buying them… :crazy_face:

Man, even though I love the Switch, 3DS is still my go to platform when traveling. Really thought the Switch would overtake it, but the huge size of it really is a detractor for anything outside my apartment. I basically use it the same way I used my Wii U (mostly on the HDTV, and occasionally in portable mode in bed or when the GF and I are watching something).

I just haven’t found a compact enough way to carry it. Wearing a blazer/jacket with a breast pocket for the console and side pockets for the joycons is the closest I’ve come. It fills my bag too much when using a case.

It really does feel more like an evolution of the PSONE concept in some ways along with its inherent limitations for how I use it.

Long live the 3DS. Can’t believe just how much I’ve played this platform over the past 8 years. So far, I’m my humble opinion, it hasn’t truly been succeeded yet.

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This is what frustrates me with discussions other places. Being told to “move on/3DS is dead/Switch is the one true successor” is tiring. Yes, a Switch is a “handheld” device, but in the portability area it falls far short of what I’m looking for. I travel internationally for work and space is a premium. If it can’t fit easily in my laptop bag, or ideally in my suit coat pocket, it’s just not going with me. Unless the next Switch version is a mini, I’ll be traveling with a 3DS for many more years to come.

Honestly you may want to stick to your 3DS or DS or older handhelds.

A Switch mini sounds nice until you remember that all games released so far were designed for a 6 inch screen. So a smaller display will mean smaller UI elements, text, gameplay just feeling pinched. Even some games now feel weird on the small screens, with UIs clearly designed for large TVs and not a tiny display.

Even worse, very few games try to account for the need to be able to play in sunlight, whereas most 3DS and older handheld games tend to use brighter pallets or even neon coloring to make things visible outside.

I don’t mind the Switch’s size, but it does feel like it makes what we’d previously be happy playing on handhelds feel like a poor fit.

I’d much rather pick up and play a Sega Ages Puyo Puyo release on 3DS than Switch for instance

My wife’s brother visited the other day, and brought his switch.
I came home from work, and they were playing some New Super Mario Bros. Wii U Switch version (this title is too long) , and my wife remarked that she liked the switch (presumably for its “cute” controllers, and light-hearted, modern Mario games).

Playing 2 player, undocked on the joy con’s while sitting on the couch felt pretty awkward to me though. The joycons are even less ergonomic than a sideways Wiimote, which I got used to after a while.

I told her, we could set up a wii in the lounge again for NSMB Wii, or she could play the 1st NewSMB game on the DSi XL.
Her complaint of the DS, was that it’s screen is too small.

I think to myself, “Smaller than the dinky little switch screen at 4 feet?”

It’s a different beast in docked mode, but it made me appreciate how the screen real estate is utilised by the DS family.
Also that they have much nicer D-pads.

I really don’t like the rock hard buttons on the Switch joycons, in the same way I don’t like Saturn trigger buttons. I find them both difficult to press without it resulting in pain in the long term. Muscle memory pain.

About finished up with a few things I’ve been working on so finally going to start trying to get a duel IPS new 3ds xl. Anyone know the current going rate and things to look out for? Don’t think I want one with the replacement top ips screen which is what most of them appear to be on ebay when looking.

Well I did the thing (and my own legwork) and got myself a system and the grip I wanted for it, but now have another question.

Does anyone else here have either of the Hori Hunting Gear Grips for the N3ds xl? I love how it feels but wanted to know if the “wobble” it has is normal. Like it seems tight and can shake my system around without it coming out of the grip, but there is a noticeable “teetering” when I press down on either the left or right side, IE, buttons or circle pad.

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I finally got round to playing Labyrinth no Kanata despite having picked up a copy over a year ago. And I’m really glad I finally played it - it’s easily one of my favourite RPGs ever, and one of my favourite Tri-Ace games.

It’s just a very special game both in design and in its conception. It represents a time at the start of the 3DS’s life where developers and publishers were willing to invest money in unique high quality games - like this, the EX Troopers, Kid Icarus Uprising and Resident Evil Revelations.

After cross referencing the staff on Mobygames it seems over 90% of the team at Tri-Ace who worked on this game reprised the same development roles as in Resonance of Fate, including its director. Its producer, from Konami, previously gave us Elebits, Dewy’s Adventure and Tomena Sanner.

Like that game it isn’t afraid to make its own rules instead of borrow from the work of others. The turn-based combat is phenomenal: Simple to control yet one of the deepest I’ve played. The game piles on new mechanics in its first half and many of them shake up how you play the game in a series of eureka moments. Just fantastic. Even better is how the setting - you’re four people playing a retro dungeon crawler who stumble across a girl trapped in another world as your game mysteriously upgrades itself - plays with your expectations at the start. You go in thinking it’s going to be a by-the-numbers dungeon crawler but it’s anything but that.

It’s also a consistently gorgeous game - one of the best on 3DS. The girl who sees your party as a window to another world (just as you see her world) is convincingly animated and environments are lush and packed with detail. Combat happens in real-time during exploration and you’re allowed to move two spaces every turn.

The way the game has been designed around 3DS’s feature-set is impressive too - the combat (which is highly strategic on turn order) absolutely benefits from that second screen, and the ability to immediately tap icons instead of navigate menus. The 3D is phenomenal and used in clever ways. The game showing you a window into another world is cleverly used with the AR cards later on as you find riffs into your world.

It reminds me of why I started playing RPGs in the first place: Every new game would be a chance to discover, learn and master new mechanics or a battle system. That’s the appeal of the golden age that retro throwbacks like I am Setsuna, Bravely Default (and dare I say it, Octopath Traveler) fail to capture in rigidly sticking to a tried and tested template.

Finishing the game left me feeling apathetic to play anything else afterward. I’m sure the poignant ending played its part but it really is a very special game - of a kind that just wouldn’t be greenlit today.

Publisher Konami didn’t really put much effort into marketing it - probably because by the time it released in early 2012 3DS was struggling, but here are two trailers that they did release:

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Did you play it in Japanese or with the English translation?

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You should be a video game reviewer. You always have the best descriptions of games and are able to articulate how and why they’re each uniquely cool. I love reading your posts.

Sucks that it’s Japanese only. Sounds really unique and well polished.