Playing around the latest Kirby SA update and Oh my ! I'm pleasantly surprised that they actually changed the total course of Guest Star Allies with the new characters :D Feels way more fresh to go through the game now.

But I'm playing Dark Borb right now so we'll see how it goes with the other characters like Adeleine and Daroach !

HAL always on point with it's games !

Edit : I'm a bit further into Dark Meta Knight Guest Star and they actually reusing parts of old Guest Star with a mix of brand new sections that feels meaty. It's fun to see they implemented new sections which have honestly better level design than the main game itself,lol.

If they go into their 2nd game on Switch with this kind of level design, it could end up being a new Planet Robobot surprise as well !

Fair to assume, the core team is already working on the next project, while  some of them do the updates.

Bsically what they did, after the release of Planet Robobot or Triple Deluxe.Some smaller games were made in the meanwhile, but now they've decided to make updates to their latest entry. And I'm also expecting the next update to come out in December to coincide with the Holiday.

It's clear the output here is not stellar, but a case to be made is that it's just free stuff. New characters to toy around (I finished Dark MK route and boy the remix of Dark Mind 2nd phase *drools*).

Team Clash Deluxe was almost a year later of PR while Battle Royale was an holiday title put out before SA in Nov.-Jan.( Pretty sure their smaller team was working on that one).

We'll probably know by E3 next year what their plans with the franchise will be, more little games or will their main and little teams join and put all their effort into the next Kirby entry. A spin-off ? No one knows.

Meanwhile, I've been spoiled about the next wave but that doesn't undermine my excitement of playing my fav characters of this ever expanding franchise :3

Splatoon is a centric multiplayer experience though and their full team were still working on it for the expansion pack, a thing that was out 1 year later might I say. Some of it was substantial, yes. Though it had a cost.

Kirby does only have free updates as of yet (Only 4 months has passed since it's launched), but it's content is just as meaningful as anything that got out on Splatoon IMO. The Dream Friends, remixed music, remixed levels, etc. are definitely doing their worth.

Also, content output shouldn't be the only relative variable in the given price tag. To me, it's totally worth the 60 $, for you it's not, the end.

"I fear Star Allies may turn potential new fans off of the series."

How so ? Right now, it's sales are on a better curve than Triple Deluxe and already crushed PR. Already a job well done, if it can land approx. near SSU. Would be a massive gain from the 3DS era. Done at a higher price point too !

Fair points. But you should ask yourself with what kind of thought process people are into when they buy a game. I don't see much people going the retrospective route with a general "unbiased standpoint".

Also, main story mode in both games are just as long mate. They basically have the same numbers of levels in total and even then SA have actual levels before the bosses before going into the actual battle. The extra mode is also way far superior in SA with the way you can tackle it than just Metaknightmare Returns. While the True Arena in PR is arguably the most challenging one, SA has a lot options to go through with it's difficulty setting and party choices for the run.

Now, where SA obviously falls short are the mini-games, I don't think anyone's gonna argue that :P

And I mean, Triple Deluxe was kinda of a meh game to me, when I first played it before being a fan of the franchise. But yeah, we'll see what the future reserve with it's possible increase/decrease growth now that it has broke the ice.

To be honest, if they follow the same pattern with the 3DS games, I wouldn't be surprise if the next mainline would become the best Kirby entry.

I'm also secretly hoping for Super Star sequel with the same design of multiple games into 1 package

Looks like Square Enix really screwed the pooch on Octopath; apparently the restock next month will be "very little" so the game will likely continue to suffer physical shortages for some time: https://gonintendo.com/stories/314113-square-enix-says-octopath-traveler-stock-replenishment-in-japan-w

They are using the Amiibos tactic :p 

That is also a flawed logic, Team Clash Deluxe lasted me over 30 hours of gameplay and that was a free game, so every Kirby game should be free by default.

Wow. You're assuming my opinion when I stretched no such words ? No, became a fan and I still have the same feeling when I played it again a year ago to 100% it. Just meh. Although, bad it ain't. Definitely not on the same level as PR or SA and RtD though.

Also, if you're just putting significance in the value of your games with playtime then ok ? It's fine. But don't get centered in your own bubble that what you said is a universal truth, not everyone's going to use this sole parameter to judge this game's worth.

Your points are fair but I'm not agreeing with your thought process on the matter, that's just all.