Nintendo Direct - February 8, 2023

[Moonface]

Here's everything that was shown during today's Nintendo Direct. As the presentation is currently live, for now most points will be simply the game title and incredibly brief information. If you wish to comment as the show is happening you're more than welcome to!

Pikmin 4 | Reveal Trailer
Gameplay trailer. Dog mount/companion and boss fight shown.
July 21, 2023 release date.

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Expansion Pass Wave 3 Trailer
Volume 3 DLC shown off. Releases February 15, 2023.
Volume 4 DLC contents teased.

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Somba de Amigo: Party Central | Reveal Trailer
Dancing game for those unaware of this series. Includes 40 songs across a variety of genres.
Summer 2023.

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Fashion Dreamer | Most Excellent Announcement Trailer
Oh dear lord...
Literally a fashion influencer game.
2023.

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Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania | DLC Expansion Trailer
Another look at the DLC expansion coming to Dead Cells based around the Castlevania series.
March 6, 2023.

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TRON: Identity | Gameplay Trailer
Looks like a visual novel game I think.
April 2023.

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Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective | Announcement Trailer
Summer 2023.

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Deca Police | Announcement Trailer
2023

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Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon | Trailer
Another look at this game since its original reveal.
March 17, 2023.

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Splatoon 3 | Expansion Pass: Inkopolis + Side Order Trailer | Discussion Thread
Expansion pass. Two waves of content.
Wave 1: Inkopolis. Literally just the plaza of the first game and nothing else. Basically a plaza chooser really. Spring 2023.
Wave 2: Side Order teased (no idea what it is). Presumably a campaign?

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Disney Illusion Island | Announcement Trailer
2D platformer with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald. Seems like a Rayman Origins type of game but Disney, including art style.
July 28, 2023.

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Fire Emblem Engage | Expansion Pass Trailer
Wave 2 characters revealed. Soren, Camilla. Available later today.
Wave 3. Chron, Robin, Veronica.
Wave 4: Fall Xenologue story campaign.

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Harmony: The Fall of Reverie | Trailer (NoA...)
Narrative adventure game. Soundtrack by Celeste composer.
June 2023.

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Octopath Traveler II | Demo Trailer | Discussion Thread
Demo of the opening hours available on e-shop after Direct ends.

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We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie | Announcement Trailer
June 2, 2023 
Free game trial for NSO members.

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Sea of Stars | Trailer
Turn-based RPG. Free demo later today.
August 29, 2023.

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Omega Strikers | Launch Trailer
Free-to-play online game based around air hockey.
April 27, 2023.
Somehow this has pre-orders?

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Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection | Announcement Trailer
First three games remastered in HD for Switch. New difficulty options. Auto-mapping option.
Each game also available separately.
June 1, 2023.

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Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp | Release Announcement Trailer
Finally coming out April 21, 2023.

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Kirby's Return to DreamLand Deluxe | Gameplay Footage
Gameplay footage of something to do with a character named Magolor. Some new epilogue available after clearing Story Mode.
Demo available later today on e-shop.
February 24, 2023.

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Nintendo Switch Online + Game Boy | Trailer | Discussion Thread
Game Boy games coming to NSO. Tetris. Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. Gargoyle's Quest. Game & Watch Gallery 3. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. Metroid II - Return of Samus. Wario Land 3. Kirby's Dream Land.
Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and Game Boy Color screen filters.
More games coming in future.
Regular NSO membership.

Game Boy Advance games also coming. Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$. Kuru Kuru Kururin. Mario Kart: Super Circuit. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Local and online play supported for compatible games.
More games coming in future.
NSO + Expansion Pack membership required for GBA games.

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Metroid Prime Remastered | Launch Trailer
With Prime 4 nowhere in sight still, Nintendo is tiding us over with a remaster of the first game. New dual stick controls.
Digital version later today. Physical releases February 22, 2023.

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Master Detective Archives: RAINCODE | Trailer (NoA...)
June 30, 2023.

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Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster | Announcement Trailer
Summer 2023.

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Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time | Reveal Trailer
A new entry in a series I've never heard of. =D
2023.

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Professor Layton and the World of Steam | Reveal Trailer

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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Wave 4 Booster Course Pass | Discussion Thread
Booster Course Pass Wave 4 teased.
Yoshi's Island (new track).
Birdo character added.
Spring 2023.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Official Trailer #2 | Discussion Thread
New trailer! All in-game footage. Far too much new stuff to begin to record it in real-time in this post.
Collector's Edition revealed. New amibbo figure of Link. Both releasing on launch day of the game.

[Moonface]

Well, the Direct is over! Overall it had a lot more than I expected, although I also didn't care for a lot of stuff here. There are things I specifically want to comment on though:

• Splatoon 3's expansion pass is an utter joke for Wave 1. It's literally just the lobby of the first game but all the stores sell the same stuff as the normal lobby, so it's just a glorified skin chooser for what your lobby looks like. No idea what the pass costs overall but the only thing of value is Wave 2 and we know barely anything about what it'll be to determine its worth.
  
• Octopath Traveler II demo is hype even if it should've been obvious one would come. Not sure if I'll give it a go or not since I still haven't finished the first game but it is presumably standalone from the first so I could give it a bash without worries.
  
• Nice to see NSO getting additions, although I can not believe there wasn't a single Pokémon game included and the only one I saw teased as coming in the future was the TCG entry. As someone not attached to anything in the offerings to get swayed by nostalgia I don't feel like there was really any bangers in there to entice people in.
  
• Prime 4 is missing still but at least the first game got a remaster out today. Probably a good way to drum up interest in the Prime games for people who haven't played any of them before in the absence of Prime 4 to have a demo for it.
  
• Wave 4 for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe didn't show enough to excite me much, but I wanna go find out if that course shown is actually new or just a new track from Tour. Every other new track has been from Tour so I expect that one is too.
  
• Zelda looks like it'll address a lot of what was wrong with BotW's world and if it does then I'm gonna be so hype when I boot that game up.
  
• Also, the e-shop page is saying $70 for TotK but every other game coming out after it is $60, so not sure what's going on with Nintendo and pricing. Maybe they're picking and choosing what gets a higher price based on how big the franchise is. Guess it might be a while before we get an answer unless a news outlet gets a direct answer from Nintendo about this.
  

That aside, I have to say I don't know how some of these games sell enough units to make a profit. Fashion Dreamer was painful to watch.


UPDATE: So apparently the Japanese Direct had a few extra things, one of them being an announcement for a remake of Atelier Marie: Trailer

[Dragon Lord]

Holy shit, they actually got me. The announcement of Etrian Odyssey Origins is just YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES. I was so afraid EO was going to die after the 3DS, but thank god it's still alive. They definitely took their sweet time with it though. The fact that it's also coming to PC so I can get it on a better platform is just the cherry on top of it all.

Atelier Marie Remake also knocked me over. I've been hoping for so long for them to go back and remake/remaster the earlier Atelier entries since I never got the chance to play them, so I'm hoping this is just the beginning of the remakes. Glad that it's also coming to PS4/PS5 so I can get it there instead.

Well, despite the fact that I won't actually be getting any of this on the Switch, the Direct did manage to deliver a couple of big surprises for me.

[Mr EliteL]

Majority of the Direct I had no interest in, just a handful of things took my notice but still I likely won't doing anything with them. Already got Octopath 2 ordered but will try the demo to get me started. New wave for MK8 Deluxe, nice. Good to see some returning franchises get their games coming to Switch (and other platforms) being Etrian, Advance Wars and Baten Kaitos, plus some GB and GBA games to Switch Online.

[Maniakkid25]

Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster
Summer 2023.

AY YO, WHAT THE F***?!

Well, I feel silly buying Baten Kaitos Origins for $110 a couple years back, don't I?

They better not mess with the soundtrack.

[Moonface]

Atelier Marie Remake also knocked me over. I've been hoping for so long for them to go back and remake/remaster the earlier Atelier entries since I never got the chance to play them, so I'm hoping this is just the beginning of the remakes. Glad that it's also coming to PS4/PS5 so I can get it there instead.

I don't understand why this game in particular was kept out of the Western Direct when other Atelier games have been featured in past Directs outside of Japan. Seems like such a weird choice to keep that out while a game like Fashion Dreamer stays in.

Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster
Summer 2023.

AY YO, WHAT THE F***?!

Well, I feel silly buying Baten Kaitos Origins for $110 a couple years back, don't I?

They better not mess with the soundtrack.

According to the brief Q&A on Bandai Namco's website, it sounds like the soundtrack should be staying the same:

There is no additional content for this title, but there is also no deleted content. This is a remastered title that combines two games, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins into one title.

Seems the only changes being made is QoL stuff and the visuals to bring it up to more current standards, but otherwise is staying true to the original Gamecube versions.

[Maniakkid25]

GOOD! That soundtrack is easily in the top 3 JRPG soundtracks of all-time, and is arguably Motoi Sakuraba's best work. Which is saying a lot for a man whose work spans the Tales series, Golden Sun, and GODDAMN DARK SOULS! As long as they retain the ability to listen to the soundtrack pieces you've experienced already, I'm happy.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, I don't know why it was kept out of the English Direct, but I'm just glad that Koei Tecmo didn't take too long to confirm on Twitter that it'd be coming Westward as well. It's going to be funny watching all of the people who started with the Ryza games hop into Marie expecting it to be as easy as Ryza, only to be met with a brutally strict time limit that doesn't allow for much screwing off, if any.

Unless KT gets rid of the time limit in the remake, which would be incredibly sad as then we wouldn't be getting the real Atelier Marie experience.

[Moonface]

I didn't even know really that Atelier was the series name and thought it was always Atelier Ryza until I started seeing Atelier Sophie mentioned. I just looked up the series on Wikipedia and I would never have known it has 24 games, and almost all of them are with a different named character. I assume it's like the Final Fantasy or Pokémon games in that each entry is generally separate to the rest but the gameplay elements have a degree of consistency?

[Dragon Lord]

The series usually goes in trios, but in game in the trio would usually have new protagonists. For example:

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea

The three games happen in the same world, with the same characters but different protagonists each game. Ayesha is the main character of the first game, then Escha and Logy are dual protags for the second game, and then Shallistera and Shallotte (both sharing the nickname Shallie) are dual protags for the third game.

Any of the games that share a similar name pattern are together. That's why you'll often see people refer to the "Arland" trilogy, or the "Dusk" Trilogy. They did break the pattern in recent years though by releasing a fourth game in the Arland series 10 years after Atelier Meruru. Then they did it again in 2022 by releasing Atelier Sophie 2, being a fourth game in the "Mysterious" Trilogy after Atelier Sophie, Atelier Firis and Atelier Lydie & Suelle.

But outside of their group, the Atelier games have no connections to each other. There was a spin-off game that brought a lot of the series Alchemists together (Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World), but of course it's not a "canon" entry in the Atelier series.

[Moonface]

Ah, I see. I wonder if the trio that's started by Marie will get remade entirely or not if that remake sells well. It would feel weird now if only one out of three games gets remade.

Also in regards to TotK being $70 confirmed, for anyone unaware Nintendo said the price of games will be a case by case basis and that not every game will be $70 going forward, which makes sense since Pikmin 4 is $60 but isn't coming out until after TotK. Seems obvious then that Nintendo will just attach $70 onto the big franchises which I expect will end up being Mario, Zelda and Pokémon. I can't see any other games getting bumped up to that though except maybe Fire Emblem but I dunno how well that actually sells compared to the other three.

[Dragon Lord]

Man, imagine paying even more to get what Scarlet and Violet delivered. They're going to make the next Pokemon games $10 extra but then be like, "well, we can't afford to make sure they work right before releasing them!"

As for the other two games in the Marie line, I imagine they will remake them as well. I believe I remember seeing an article where Gust (the developer of Atelier) said they wanted to revisit the older games and be able to bring them to modern platforms. It will be interesting to see how people react to the game, because Atelier Ryza brought a lot of new people to the series who never played any of the past games, so they never experienced an Atelier game with the time limit, and the Salburg games being the first of the series, they have extremely strict time limits. I'm really hoping they don't change that either, because I'd like to have the actual Atelier Marie experience, and not a dumbed down version because "oh no time limits make me anxious waaaaaaaaaah!!!!"

[Moonface]

Man, imagine paying even more to get what Scarlet and Violet delivered. They're going to make the next Pokemon games $10 extra but then be like, "well, we can't afford to make sure they work right before releasing them!"

I'm more conflicted on Pokémon being $70 because of how that series always releases as a pair of games and not a singular one, so a lot of players are already double-dipping on that series to begin with compared to anything else Nintendo puts out. Even if the quality of recent titles wasn't questionable, $140 per Pokémon generation is ridiculously steep. I also wonder if DLC would remain at $30, or if that'll be bumped up to something like $40 instead.

And on that note I also wonder if DLC for any of Nintendo's games that go for $70 will see a price increase. If the game is going to cost more, I can't see why the DLC wouldn't.

[Dragon Lord]

I guess I never paid attention to whether or not DLC prices for $70 PlayStation games was more than it used to be, so I'm not sure on that one.

You bringing up the different versions of Pokemon is a good point. Nintendo needs to stop with the multiple versions of the game, at least as two separate options. They should take the same route that Fire Emblem Fates took: Have the player pick which version they want to go with, and then offer the other version as a DLC for a reduced cost (because we know Nintendo isn't going to just scrap having two versions altogether). How FE: Fates did it back on the 3DS (and I believe I mentioned this in a topic elsewhere before) was that you bought either Birthright or Conquest for $40, and then you could buy the other store route for $20 as DLC.

Pokemon games could easily do the same. Buy Scarlet and then be able to buy Violet as DLC for 50% the price. Of course Nintendo won't do this because Pokemon fans continue to be stupid enough to pay full price for both versions of each gen, but it would be a slightly nicer situation if they decided to do that.