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Yeah, all of this.

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Experiment report: took off my glasses to play an hour of Spire, and while thereā€™s some super-mild occasional blur to text here, itā€™s not nearly as bad as when Iā€™ve played for an hour with my glasses on.

So yeah, note to self: take your glasses off when you play handheld mode. :)

Aaaaanyway, hit me up with Switch suggestions. It can be stuff Iā€™ve either got on another platform or even have maybe played on another platform, since Iā€™ve found that Iā€™d rather play something like Slay the Spire handheld on the back patio, etc. RPGs are one of my go-to genres.

Stuff I have: BotW, Mario Odyssey, Slay the Spire (duh). I also have Animal Crossing, but is that really a game a for a cranky, creaky middle aged dude like me? I dunnnnno.

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Animal Crossing is a delightful comforting experience that doesnā€™t ask much of you but lets you sculpt a very twee little world of pleasant friends and picturesque places that light up and dazzle for holidays and events. Itā€™s not challenging or addictive in a one more turn sense, and if you donā€™t like decorating and arranging and putting together outfits a lot of the largest blobs of content will be a miss for you, but even I, notoriously avoidant of games that ask me to set my own goals or make my own fun, fell in love with it for a year solid.

Mind, I was in a very grim place emotionally for a lot of that, so something unchallenging and kind and beautiful in a very cute way was a potent balm for my soul as it looked at that time in my life, but thatā€™s not to say it wouldnā€™t salve others own sets of woes.

Apart from that and Slay the Spire, Iā€™ve lost a ton of time on JRPG revivals like FFX/X-2 Remaster, Tales of Vesperia, and Dragon Quest XI (I also hear them Xenobladesagagears are mighty good). If you and your friends dig silly party games, the various Jackbox packs work great on the TV, and of course Mario Kart is an all time classic.

I adored the glitzy pop soundtrack and dazzling neon visuals in Sayonara Wild Hearts, and think you might dig parts of that.

Eastward is adorable and engaging and harrowingly sad.

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Diablo 3 and Bloody Rally Show have been my go-to games on the thing.

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Iā€™m not sure if the presentation style will be your cup of tea, but Shin Megami Tensei V is an exclusive RPG with a punchy combat system and memorable futuristic post-apocalyptic open-world. If youā€™re after something thatā€™s less of a time sink, the last game I played was Metroid Dread, a polished exploration-based sidescoller where just moving the character is a joy. Thereā€™s no animation delay so all the inputs feel uber snappy.

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Metroid Dread is legitimately my game of the year last year. One of the most enjoyable movement and combat systems in any game ever.

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Thanks for the suggestions!

I kinda really do want to give a JRPG a shot. Back in the day, I looooved Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast, and Iā€™m not opposed to the interesting presentations of those games.

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I would try some eye drops (tears). I get dry eye and that effects my vision sometimes. I use Retaine. I agree with @BrianRubin to talk to your eye doctor. Does your eye tear after you been playing a long time that would make me think even more so that it might be dry eye.

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How about a tactical RPG like Fire Emblem Three Houses then?

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Dragon Quest XI is a very classic styled JRPG with fancy purdy graphics (somewhat less so on Switch, of course, but still!), nice music, a lengthy but pretty cool storyline, and satisfying very traditional turn-based combat. Not super fancy but itā€™s very pleasant; see that overly long Tim Rogers video about it being his happy bedtime game.

FFX and FFXII are both solid, interesting entries in that series that hold up better than other RPGs from that era. FFXā€™s voice acting can be a bit painful, but the story goes some neat places (and some dumb places). Better yet, you also get the sequel where for unfathomable reasons two characters from the first game form an idol band and maybe do piracy? It was a strange time in the world. XII is notable for its sophisticated programmable AI to essentially automate fights, and given that levelups and unlocks enable progressively more sophisticated automations, that, in a way, becomes the real meat of the combat system thatā€™s pretty cool. The story doesnā€™t hit quite the same beats as other classic JRPGs, which might be a plus in your book.

Sadly, none of them are gonna wow you with airship combat on the scale of Skies of Arcadia, the best game in the genre, bar none.

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Definitely my GOTY too. The extra animation details, like when Samus places her hand for stability against solid structures while continuing to move, demonstrated a lot of love when into the game - itā€™s so snappy! The bosses were so great. Iā€™m usually terrible at 2D platformers, as losing that extra dimension means I struggle to cheese my way through difficult fights by jumping diagonally out of the way, but it always felt like a nice challenge without ever becoming frustrating.

I wish Sega would port Skies of Arcadia to modern platforms. Remains one of my fav JRPGs.

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Iā€™ll not hear a word against Skies of Arcadia, but I will fight anyone about the FFXII story not being as good as literally any other JRPG. Falls off the rails a bit in the third act after the bean-counters kicked Matsuno off the project, sure, but nonetheless it remains the best FF game.

Child of Light is a joyful little thing that I suspect has been on every platform around, but it is delightful on Switch.

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I second Metroid Dread and Shin Megami Tensei V.

Also recommend Xenoblade Chronicles, Atelier Ryza, the Disgea games, Ni No Kuni: The White Witch, and Octopath Traveler. And if you havenā€™t played these on other platforms: Hollow Knight, Hades, Dead Cells, Stranger In Sword City. Final Fantasy XII.

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Preach it, brother!

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An underappreciated aspect of this forum is learning what horrid new ailments will be afflicting me in a decade or so. Fun stuff.

Anyway, even though it seems like you have plenty to occupy yourself with (BotW is massive by itself), but yeah, letā€™s talk about JRPGs, especially since the Switch is the perfect platform for them (and are increasingly what Iā€™m using the platform for). My top four, each of a different style (at least somewhat), would be:

I canā€™t speak to how it performs on Switch (great it seems), but Dragon Quest XI is probably the best JRPG you can play. It is backwards looking in many respectsā€”the combat math is famously largely unchanged since DQ1ā€”but itā€™s not mere blind reactionary nostalgia either. Its designers do a good job of figuring out what JRPG elements are worth keeping and which arenā€™t. It has likeable characters, great animation/character designs, and nice locations to explore. Its towns are excellent and constantly make you think, ā€œhuh, that would be a cool place to visitā€ (an underrated aspect of JRPGs, imo). Itā€™s long, but fairly episodic and easy to come back to. Its combat is good, especially if you opt not to kill everything in sightā€”no random encounters so you can avoid most fightsā€”and fight bosses under leveled. It has a similar ā€˜blue skiesā€™ vibe as Skies of Arcadia, though it does get a bit dark in places, but so did Skies if memory serves.

While I think DQXI is the better game, Shin Megami Tensei V has better combat (the Trails series has better combat still, but I donā€™t think itā€™s on Switch). SMTV is also much less story/character driven, so its tighter focus on combat and collecting/fusing a party of demons could be more your speed. Like demons from various mythologies? Like gothy stuff? Maybe give SMTV a try!

Three Houses is a tactical JRPG and is I think the game I have the most hours with on the Switch. I love it, but itā€™s very different from past Fire Emblems so know what youā€™re getting into. On the other hand, there donā€™t seem to be any modern games in the mold of classic FE. Regardless, itā€™s most certainly the best tactics RPG on Switch (assuming XCOM 2ā€™s not on there).

Not mentioned yet, thereā€™s Dungeon Encounters if you want something minimal and old school. Itā€™s a Wizardry clone, but more modern and considerate. Even so, itā€™s still a bit brutal in places and it rarely holds your hand like you might expect of a modern game. Ultimately, it knows what it is and doesnā€™t try to be much else.

A lot of the other JRPGs Iā€™ve tried on Switch seem a bit second rate in comparison to those, so Iā€™ll stop here. Except to note that, as mentioned, thereā€™s also lots of old JRPGs on the platform. If you want one of those thatā€™s a bit different (i.e., not Final Fantasy), maybe look into moon or the Romancing Saga series. Iā€™m pretty sure the Beamdog BioWare remasters are on Switch now too if you want to revisit those.

Oh, and while not a JRPG, I like to sing the praises of The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa when I get the chance. Itā€™s a 2D brawler / delinquent life sim with a surprisingly engaging and well-written story. Itā€™s a somewhat slight tale of growing up, the friends you leave behind (and more to the point, the friends that leave you behind), and beating rival gangs to a pulp. Great stuff.

Also in the not-a-JRPG-but-is-delightful category: Golf Story.

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Canā€™t go wrong with FE Three Houses!

Iā€™m on my second playthrough myself. First one was using Normal difficulty and it felt very relaxed. Now Iā€™m on Hard difficulty but itā€™s New Game Plus so itā€™s easier than it should be. This game is very much JRPG first and foremost, itā€™s not some sort of XCOM strategy game, not even Final Fantasy Tactics or something. Every character you use has personality and relations with other characters. Very story-heavy, and most of these stories are trivial low-key stories about developing relationships, but you also have your usual geopolitics and ancient evil.

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I quite liked FF12 as an idea. But then it turned out there are two games in it and I didnā€™t like any of them. The first one is about completing the story and you can do it by auto-fighting everything without any effort. The second one is about understanding the combat system completing hunts, but soon after tutorial hunts you start having ones that last for 20 minutes and you just watch your dudes fighting on their own, only getting involved with a potion when the enemy gets a couple of crits in a row.

I like the visual design and the story and even the combat system itself, itā€™s just the easiest way to play this game is very boring.

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If you loved Skies of Arcadia, I highly recommend you play Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. I think you will adore that game like many of us already do.

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I just wanted to say, I was kind of nervous picking up the Nintendo Switch. After the N64 got me into console gaming for the first time, Iā€™ve always wanted to go back to Nintendo, but didnā€™t have good experiences with either the Gamecube (didnā€™t like the controller) or the Wii (didnā€™t like the controller). With the Switch I really was worried that maybe the magic is in using it as a handheld device, since thatā€™s mostly what people praise. But I know from my experience with the Vita that I have absolutely no desire to use it that way.

But after coming up on 5 months with the Switch OLED, itā€™s been just fantastic. The joy cons are great when they work (ie. not blocked by line of sight) and the Nintendo Pro Controller is just a rockstar. Nintendoā€™s games have the sort of fantastic art style that never really lets you feel like the tech is deficient in any way. The Switch has been a fantastic home console for me on my TV, and I am really happy with my choice of picking it over the PS5 this generation.

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One of the fantastic idea is the way the home button overrides any game trying to impose you not being able to pause. Best console ever already for that incredibly user friendly feature.