That said, the party chat mode could rehabilitate a bunch of underrated games from the hated Wii U, and Nintendo should absolutely take another swing at asymmetric gameplay.

Assuming, of course, that chat isn't a half-baked gewgaw that gets ignored by developers (looking at you, Joy-con IR sensor).

It's definitely better than nothing. As a question of perfect vs good, I'll take it. But it's also important to highlight the "bare minimum" aspect of it. Like you said, this should be the start of something more substantial.

My complaint is that Booker seems to have deliberately timed his speech to cause as little disruption as possible, and therefore to incite as little repercussion as possible. Engineered to look like a huge sacrifice while simultaneously being almost no sacrifice at all.