Nintendo Watcher Podcast

Welcome to the second episode of Nintendo Watcher Plays: Final Fantasy, a years-long dive into the entire mainline Final Fantasy series of JRPGS. Justin and Matthew play through the iconic franchise to figure out what works and what doesn’t. In order to understand how the JRPG genre has evolved since the 1980s, the Watchers will play through the entire series in chronological order and discuss their thoughts on each entry. First up: Final Fantasy II (1988) How does this fledgling entry hold up in 2023? Do the Watchers see why it was able to save a floundering Squaresoft? What is the ideal party composition?

The past few weeks have been a lull for new Nintendo Switch games, but things are heating up for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Matthew and Justin get together to talk about what non-Nintendo games they've been playing lately.

In a followup to our previous episode, Matthew and Justin discuss their favorite 3D Zelda games and rank them.

There's something special about 2D Zelda games, and in this week's episode, Matthew and Justin discuss their favorite 2D Zelda games before ranking them.

Matthew and Justin are back to talk about the games they're playing in anticipation of the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including Matthew's recent playthrough of the first six Resident Evil games and his tips for playing horror games as a self-described coward.

For podcast #42, we have a very special guest with us, Raya, also known as the Glimmering Harpy! Raya joins us to talk about Octopath Traveler 2, but before we get into that, we want to learn more about her background with JRPGs and gaming in general. In this Q&A, Raya shares where people can find her online, her first console and favorite console, and her favorite genre of video games. She also tells us about her most memorable or important JRPG. Moving on to the main discussion, we start by asking Raya and the other host if they played the original Octopath Traveler and their brief thoughts on it. Octopath is most known for popularizing the 2DHD graphical style, and we get to hear where they stand on this design choice. Next, we delve into the story and characters of Octopath Traveler 2. The game features eight protagonists, each with their own unique narrative. Before you can see if or how these narratives tie together, you need to make a major decision: who is your starter, and why? Raya and the host share their thoughts on the eight-character system, the lack of connections, and the side stories and travel banter. We then move on to the gameplay, discussing the combat system and the job system. Outside of combat, the game uses path actions to allow you to gain new information on objectives, learn more about the world, and purchase or steal items. Raya and the host share their thoughts on this system, whether it enhances the gameplay experience or feels too forced/contrived. Moving on to world-building and level design, Octopath Traveler 2 has more streamlined dungeons compared to the first game, and the world feels even bigger this time around. Raya and the host share their thoughts on overworld and dungeon traversal, memorable locations, and how the depth of field affects your perception of the world. Finally, we end on music, with Raya sharing her thoughts on the soundtrack. We then get her final thoughts on Octopath Traveler 2, what stands out the most to her about the game, her overall impressions of the experience, and whether she would recommend it to new players or people who bounced off OT1. She also shares the biggest drawbacks and how they impacted her experience. And last but not least, we end the episode with the Game Recommendations of the Week. ======================================== ======================================== Follow Raya: Twitter: twitter.com/glimmeringharpy Youtube: youtube.com/@glimmeringharpy Tik Tok: tiktok.com/@glimmeringharpy Twitch: twitch.tv/glimmeringharpy Kick: kick.com/glimmeringharpy

Leading up to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Matthew and Justin dive into 2004's The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Capcom’s third Zelda game and one of the Game Boy Advance games now available on the Nintendo Switch Online.

The Watchers are back to talk about their reactions to the latest announcements from the Pokemon Company and what's coming next for Pokemon in general. Justin and Matthew talk about Pokemon Sleep, what's coming from the DLC for Scarlet and Violet, the Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic, and more in this wide-ranging Pokecast.

The guys close the pod with a rundown of their favorite Pokemon from three distinct categories: aesthetics, combat, and evolutionary line.

Welcome to the first episode of Nintendo Watcher Plays: Final Fantasy, a years-long dive into the entire mainline Final Fantasy series of JRPGS. Justin and Matthew play through the iconic franchise to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

In order to understand how the JRPG genre has evolved since the 1980s, the Watchers will play through the entire series in chronological order and discuss their thoughts on each entry.

First up: Final Fantasy I (1987)

How does this fledgling entry hold-up in 2023? Do the Watchers see why it was able to save a floundering Squaresoft? What is the ideal party composition?

Give it a listen and find out.

Plus, Justin and Matthew discuss their game recommendations of the week.

For episode 39 of the Nintendo Watcher Podcast, the Watchers sat down to talk about what might be the most well-rounded Nintendo Direct we've ever seen. Justin and Matthew are joined by Jake Martin of Bitbloggist.

In this week’s episode, Justin and Matthew sit down to talk about the heyday of 16-bit JRPGs and what it takes to make a successful nostalgia grab in 2023.

The Watchers take a deep-dive into the 2022 indie darling: Chained Echoes. They discuss what makes a successful 16-bit JRPG, how Chained Echoes innovates on tried and true genre tropes, and whether or not it is possible to capture nostalgia without feeling cheap.

The first half of the pod is light on spoilers, but the Watchers would recommend that you play the game first before you listen to the back-half.

In addition to Chained Echoes, Justin and Matthew give their early impressions of Fire Emblem Engage. Does it live up to the success of Three Houses? Where does it stack amongst the other games of the series? Will we see it through to completion, and is it okay to play on Casual mode?

Matthew and Justin talk about their ten most anticipated backlog games of 2023.

It's been an unbelievable year for Switch gamers, and in this extended episode of the Nintendo Watcher Podcast, Matthew and Justin sort through the Switch's 2022 catalog to give you the best of the best. The Watchers talk about the best JRPG Switch ports of the year, honorable mentions, games they missed in 2022, and finally, the crew's top ten best Nintendo Switch games of the year.

As temperatures around the country continue to stay unseasonably warm, Justin and Matthew have decided to rank their top three gaming winter wonderlands! So come along with the Watchers as they dive into the world of wooly mammoths and frostbite.

In this week’s Nintendo Watcher Podcast, Matthew and Justin talk about the latest “Switch Killer” on the market: Valve’s Steam Deck!

The Watchers have put the better part of a month into their new Steam Decks and wanted to test whether the rumors were true. Is Nintendo under threat from a real competitor? Will the Switch lose a place in the Watcher’s gaming rotation? Are horizontal thumbstick placements back to stay?

Well… not quite.

Matthew and Justin discuss the triumphs and failure’s of the latest high-performance handheld, a system that serves as the perfect complement to Nintendo’s flagship porta-console. If you are a Nintendo fan looking to expand your gaming library, but you can’t get ahold of a PS5, XBOX, or don’t want to shell out the money for a brand new PC, the Steam Deck is the perfect addition to your library. Heck, even if you can get ahold of one of the above items, Valve’s new handheld just might be the best addition of the bunch.

Find out more in this week’s episode of the Nintendo Watcher Podcast, and stick around to the end of Justin and Matthew’s Recommendations of the Week.

On this week's episode of the Nintendo Watcher Pod, Matthew and Justin discuss their Pre-Zelda Playlist!

With a stacked lineup of new releases between now and the release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the Watchers decided now was a perfect time to discuss their most anticipated upcoming games.

Here are the rules: 1. No repeats between lists 2. Three total games 3. No more than one 1st, 2nd, 3rd party, or indie. Turns out, it was harder than the Watchers thought to narrow down their selections.

So what three games are Justin and Matthew most excited to play ahead of May 13, 2023? Tune in to find out!

Welcome back to the Nintendo Watcher pod! In this episode, Justin and Matthew talk about how it feels to be a squid AND a kid! It’s Splatoon 3 week!

Before they get into their thoughts on the latest Nintendo sensation, the Watchers discuss the September 13th Nintendo Direct. While Matthew had some thoughts on the Fire Emblem Engage reveal, Justin shares his excitement over life on the farm. The Watchers also struggle to decide whether it’s Tears of the Kingdom or Tears of the Kingdom.

For the main event, the Watchers discuss their initial impressions of Splatoon 3! Spoiler alert: it is pretty great! Justin expressed a newfound love of Turf War, and the Watchers everything from story mode to Salmon Run (and the much-maligned connection errors plaguing many players). This leads Matthew and Justin to an important question: what does the future hold for Nintendo’s online presence? Have conditions improved with Splatoon 3? Has Nintendo made it into the modern age of online multiplayer? Tune in to find out!

Lastly, the Watchers talk about their Game Recommendations of the Week. We promise it isn’t just more Splatoon.

It’s finally here, an extra-large episode of Justin and Matthew’s long-awaited thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles 3. While the pod was on a brief hiatus, Matthew and Justin spent a combined 200 hours playing through the most recent Monolith Soft offering.

In the first half, the Watchers cover their initial impressions and offer a spoiler-free discussion of the gameplay while gushing over the beautifully crafted soundtrack from Yasunori Mitsuda. They also share their thoughts on the girl with the gall and some rare doodads.

With their spoiler-free discussion out of the way, the Watchers spend the back half of the pod diving deep into spoiler territory. If you want to hear their thoughts on the ending, talk about the connections between all three Xenoblade games, and hear their hopes for future DLC, give this half a listen!

With the Xenoblade conversation out of the way, Justin and Matthew share their game recommendations of the week and discuss the joys of owning a Switch OLED.

Today on the pod, the Watchers dive into Nintendo's Splatoon 3 Direct. Matthew and Justin talk about the biggest highlights of the Direct, Nintendo's insistence on using post-launch content to flesh out their latest games, and what makes this Splatoon game look so good.

Matthew introduces Justin to the SaGa series.

The Watchers look at the career of lead developer and creator, Akitoshi Kawazu, try and explain the difference between the various sub-series and their place in the SaGa franchise, and Matthew makes the case for why everyone should experience at least one SaGa game in their lifetime. 

What is it that makes this series resonate with Matthew? What is it doing that differentiates it from the Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests of the world? And where do we find the series in 2022? On its last legs? Poised for a breakthrough/revival? 

Plus: Matthew introduces the first "official" Nintendo Watcher Game Club entry of 2022: SaGa Frontier Remastered!

Justin will have two months to play his first entry in the SaGa series before reporting back on the experience.

Lastly, The Watchers catch you up on what they have been enjoying with the Recommendations of the Week.

Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers was an unexpected HD remaster. Rather than remastering the original game in the series, Chrono Trigger — or just porting it (a la Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana) — Square Enix remastered Cross, a controversial "sequel."

Aside from criticism about its poor performance, this version of Chrono Cross has been a welcome addition to the Switch lineup for 2022. For many fans, the Radical Dreamers edition is the first opportunity they've had to experience Chrono Cross.

In this episode, the Watchers dive into what makes Chrono Trigger an all-time great game, how Chrono Trigger stacks up, and the weight that sequels are forced to carry.

We're back! After some time off for the holidays, the Nintendo Watchers are back! Matthew and Justin discuss the latest Nintendo 64 games to land on the Nintendo Switch Online service, how Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard affects Nintendo, and our hopes for the new Pokémon game, Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Matthew and Justin look back on 2021, the fifth year in the Nintendo Switch lifecycle. They discuss the good, bad, and ugly games that came to the Switch this year and hand out the highly coveted Nintendo Watcher Game Awards.

Nintendo Watcher Game Awards include:

• Game of the Year
• Most Time-Consuming Game
• Biggest Disappointment

Nintendo is known for its family-friendliness, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few spooky games on the company’s consoles. In the spirit of spooky season, Matthew — CrocomireRock himself — and Justin discuss their favorite “scary” games to appear on Nintendo consoles.

Want more Nintendo Watcher? 

In anticipation of Nintendo Switch Online’s Nintendo 64 launch at the end of the month, Matthew and Justin got together to talk about Time Magazine’s “Machine of the Year” in 1996 — the Nintendo 64.

This week's episode is all about Metroid Dread. Matthew and Justin talk about impressions, what Dread means to the Metroid franchise, and why Dread might be the best Metroid game to date.

We've broken the podcast into two parts — the first section is spoiler-free. In the second half (39:20), we dive into Metroid Dread's story, the boss fights, and the epic conclusion. If you haven't played through Dread yet and want to avoid spoilers, we recommend skipping the second half.

We had some audio issues with the recording, and we're working those out. 

Justin and Matthew discuss their personal histories with the Metroidvania, the hype surrounding Metroid Dread, why it will be huge for Nintendo, and why Matthew needs so badly for everyone to play Yoku’s Island Express.