Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Lightcosmo]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I haven't played XS either, so I'm not familiar with their roster. Either I get a non-Mac computer that can run ePSXe2 (I'm not going to try Wine on my new MacBook), or I wait for XS I&II DS to be fan-translated. Until then, I only know K&T and MOMO.

 

Right forgot to mention, but as Armagon has said plenty of times to me, not playing Xenosaga Episode II is probably in your best interest, as the gameplay is really lacking, and you could watch the cutscenes elsewhere. You of course are free to judge for yourself whether or not it's fun, just repetitive uninteresting battles usually don't appeal to people in a good light.

I and III are among favorites and I totally recommend it, though. And they don't make you want to tear your hair out, of course.

Also, isn't the PS2 emulator PCSX2 or something to that like? I don't run a PS2 emulator, so I wouldn't know, just guessing.

[null]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Either I get a non-Mac computer that can run ePSXe2 (I'm not going to try Wine on my new MacBook

Btw, Wine no longer works on the newest versions of MacOS. Apple's introduction of Catalina removed the compatibility with all 32-bit apps.

[null]

Not a big chiptune/8-bit music guy, but this is really good.

 

[DragonFlames]

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

No spoilers of course, but he's definitely one of my favorite side characters. You'll see why. Or you may end up disliking him, who knows?

So far, I think he's really entertaining.

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

Joshua really is an example of a co-protag done right, imo. His personality is a great contrast to Estelle's, without getting overwhelmed by her stronger presence.

Agreed. The two play off of each other really well.

2 hours ago, Julian Teehee said:

Since it has become more humid, it can cool down less at nights.

The worst possible weather which is going to happen right now.

Yup.
At least where I live, it is now cloudy, so it's not as hot anymore. But it feels like a greenhouse due to the humidity.
Fun!

[Caster]

Can't wait to give Trails another shot in 10 years!

If I can even get over my writing annoyance with the small bit of the story I played.

Edited August 9, 2020 by Caster

[null]

9 minutes ago, Caster said:

Can't wait to give Trails another shot in 10 years!

If I can even get over my writing annoyance with the small bit of the story I played.

If you don't mind me asking, what annoyance did you have with the writing?

[DragonFlames]

10 minutes ago, Caster said:

If I can even get over my writing annoyance with the small bit of the story I played.

I'm listening!

---

Also, breaking news: for my area, there are several severe weather warnings with thunderstorms, heavy rain, and hail and all that jazz.
I doubt any of it will reach my city (since this stuff almost never does), but still. What the eff, weather?

Edited August 9, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shrimpica]

Weather going full tsun

[null]

4 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Also, breaking news: for my area, there are several severe weather warnings with thunderstorms, heavy rain, and hail and all that jazz.
I doubt any of it will reach my city, but still. What the eff, weather?

Crap, that sounds bad. I hope everyone is safe over there.

Seems like the weather's been crazy everywhere lately. Weird.

3 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Weather going full tsun

Seems like it.

Edited August 9, 2020 by twilitfalchion

[DragonFlames]

3 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Weather going full tsun

Indeed.

Just now, twilitfalchion said:

Crap, that sounds bad. I hope everyone is safe over there.

I just had a look at the rain radar and it's only a small cell, so I doubt it will cause too much damage.
Thanks for worrying, though!

Edited August 9, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Caster]

1 minute ago, twilitfalchion said:

If you don't mind me asking, what annoyance did you have with the writing?

Note this isn't the reason I dropped it, I dropped it because I was getting so fed up with everyone hyping it up so fucking hard while I just wanted to form my own opinions, so I just stopped playing it, but this part of the writing at least early agitated me the hell out of me, because it's also a very odd complaint and very specific.
 

Spoiler

I was just getting constantly annoyed how several NPCs constantly brought up how much basically "Estelle loves Joshua but doesn't know it" (I know they are officially canon, if they end up being well written in that way, fine), but with a bunch of NPCs constantly bringing it up and when she denied it they basically went "Yea whatever you're just denying it you fucking idiot" basically, like god, just shut the fuck up and let this character form her own opinions, now when it does happen it's just going to feel like to me it's because of all these fucking stupid npcs spouting it and not a natural progression.

 

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Caster said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I was just getting constantly annoyed how several NPCs constantly brought up how much basically "Estelle loves Joshua but doesn't know it" (I know they are officially canon, if they end up being well written in that way, fine), but with a bunch of NPCs constantly bringing it up and when she denied it they basically went "Yea whatever you're just denying it you fucking idiot" basically, like god, just shut the fuck up and let this character form her own opinions, now when it does happen it's just going to feel like to me it's because of all these fucking stupid npcs spouting it and not a natural progression.

 

That makes sense to me.

[null]

1 minute ago, Caster said:

Note this isn't the reason I dropped it, I dropped it because I was getting so fed up with everyone hyping it up so fucking hard while I just wanted to form my own opinions, so I just stopped playing it, but this part of the writing at least early agitated me the hell out of me, because it's also a very odd complaint and very specific.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I was just getting constantly annoyed how several NPCs constantly brought up how much basically "Estelle loves Joshua but doesn't know it" (I know they are officially canon, if they end up being well written in that way, fine), but with a bunch of NPCs constantly bringing it up and when she denied it they basically went "Yea whatever you're just denying it you fucking idiot" basically, like god, just shut the fuck up and let this character form her own opinions, now when it does happen it's just going to feel like to me it's because of all these fucking stupid npcs spouting it and not a natural progression.

 

Well, I can understand disliking it, even if I didn't personally mind it myself. I thought it was kind of cute, but I'm a sucker for romance.

I also get wanting to form your own opinions. I agree that it can be a bit difficult, for me at least, to honestly form my own opinions when I hear something be hyped up quite a bit. It's up to you of course, but I do think you'll enjoy Trails quite a bit if you continue with it. But like I said, that's entirely your choice.

[Armagon]

10 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I remember years ago I had this desire to try to obtain every Castlevania game I could and play them in chronological order. From Lament of Innocence (1094) to Dawn of Sorrow (2036). Suffice to say, I never could start such a project. Oh well...

Hey man, i watched every single theatrically released Godzilla and King Kong movie. Nothing's impossible.

3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

You know what I like in Sky FC? You can save anywhere, even in dungeons.

Yeah you can do this in any game in the series.

Save points are so outdated. I remember when i saw Tales of Berseria having save points and i was like "bruh". Except Tales games also have quick saves but these quick saves don't disappear after one use so it's not actually a quick save which makes me wonder why save points are a thing.

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

Especially since the side quests no longer expire after certain story events (thanks for letting me know about that Armagon).

No they still do, they just don't expire after every minor story beat, which is a big improvement. Some still have short durations but it's not as strict as FC.

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

Btw, Wine no longer works on the newest versions of MacOS. Apple's introduction of Catalina removed the compatibility with all 32-bit apps.

Apple removes *feature* is just buisness as usual. 

I don't understand why people choose to get Apple products tbh. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I think I haven't even said it, so better late than never:

Happy (belayed) Birthday 

[Caster]

5 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

Well, I can understand disliking it, even if I didn't personally mind it myself. I thought it was kind of cute, but I'm a sucker for romance.

I also get wanting to form your own opinions. I agree that it can be a bit difficult, for me at least, to honestly form my own opinions when I hear something be hyped up quite a bit. It's up to you of course, but I do think you'll enjoy Trails quite a bit if you continue with it. But like I said, that's entirely your choice.

I love romance, I consider myself a romantic. But I can count EVERYTHING I ship, on one hand, because I think most romance in a lot of games are written like crap. 
It isn't cute to me, it's the equivalent of your friends/parents pushing you to be with someone you have barely known. It's annoying. My girlfriend had her parents constantly try to push her to go out with random people, and I know for sure she didn't think that was cute. So no, I don't agree with you at all, and I won't let you use a sucker for romance excuse, because I am too.

Yea, I want to form my own opinions, that's why I want everyone to shut up!

Honestly, if you want me to play something, 100%, bring it up once, and then never again.

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Yeah you can do this in any game in the series.

This is true.

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Save points are so outdated. I remember when i saw Tales of Berseria having save points and i was like "bruh". Except Tales games also have quick saves but these quick saves don't disappear after one use so it's not actually a quick save which makes me wonder why save points are a thing.

Many save points in Tales, especially the ones at the end of dungeons, actually heal you, so... that's their purpose, I suppose.

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Hey man, i watched every single theatrically released Godzilla and King Kong movie. Nothing's impossible.

Well, getting some of those games nowadays is going to be the borderline impossible part.

Yes, I know pirating is a thing... I won't do that.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I want to cosplay this.

[Interdimensional Observer]

10 hours ago, Armagon said:

The only thing that comes to mind is having mecha-exclusive levels. All mecha in the series are capable of flight so we could have some areial/spacial battles thrown into the mix and it would be the only time you use the mechs in the game. You'd still be leaving out nearly the entire XC1/2/Torna cast for those levels but oh well.

They could relegate the mechs to more of an extra mode outside the main story, that'd make the absence of them among the XC1 and 2 casts more okay. *Trauma of Ganon and Giant Cucco Modes return.* In a more ideal world, they could do it such that, while XC1 and 2 get more of the main campaign spotlight, XS and XCX get more of the mecha adventure to themselves.

Given DW: Gundam exists in three iterations, Koei has experience making giant robots work. Albeit combining them with separate on-foot combat in the same game... thats more resources going into making detailed character models and animations, feels like it'd could cut into the foot roster.

 

As a tangent, in a case where Elma is her lone representative, then I wouldn't even bother including Mira for the stages, a few OC and a bunch of XC1 and 2 would be enough. I'd need at least one more of Lao or Lin to justify giving them any stages. And I'd want to stay away from Primordia actually, because nearby NLA has too many people and would be begging for Vandham and Nagi to appear at least in text boxes, if never physically in the game.

Stage-wise, using HW as the main point of comparison again.:

Spoiler

1. Hyrule Field/Ganon's Tower- Same place, the latter is just a doom and gloom reskinning.
2. Eldin Caves
3. Faron Woods
4. Valley of Seers (It's called "Lanayru Gorge" in every not-English language, why drop the last Golden Goddess region reference?)
5. Death Mountain
6. Lake Hylia
7. Twilight Field
8. Palace of Twilight
9. Skyloft
10. Sealed Grounds
11. Temple of the Sacred Sword
12. Temple of Souls
13. Gerudo Desert

Stages 5-10 are borrowed from OoT, TP, and SS respectively, everything else is set in the Hyrule of the HW dimension.

The DLC added no new stages to HW, I wish it did, Clock Town would've been dope. This said, the Legends port did add two new stages:

1. "Forsaken Fortress"- A mishmash of Godforsaken-Start-of-the-Game Fortress, Windfall Island, Dragon Roost, one generic Great Fairy island, and oddly Star Island.
2. Wind and Earth Temples- The two Sage dungeons of WW fused together.

 

13 or 15 stages? Let me think it out... SPOILERS FOR ALL XENOBLADES AGAIN!

Spoiler

XC1:

1. Colony 9- Argentum is too small, NLA would be the best pick, but again, would be weird with only Elma. This is the compromise.
2. Bionis's Leg- Metal Gaur Plains says it all, and this place is an iconic setting. Maybe combine with Colony 6?
3. Makna Forest- I know dislike this place is disliked, but it's this or Eryth Sea with a perhaps of a fusion of Alcamoth. I want something for Melia, and these two are our choices. Or, we skip the maingame and jump to inclusion of Future Connected.
4. Valak Mountain-Sword Valley-Galahad Fortress- I feel Sword Valley is too linear by itself, but at the same time it's essential to XC1. Adding a small rump of Valak and Galahad to the ends of it might help.
5. Agniratha or Fallen Arm- Something more for Mechonis. Fallen Arm has a very unique shape, but does that work against it and in favor of Agniratha? Mechonis Field feels too vertical and Warriors usually doesn't do multiple elevations from what I'm aware. Central Factory is XC1 filler, so does it deserve a place?

 

XC2:

1. Gormott- If HW gave us Hyrule Field and a Twilight Field that is basically some of TP's Hyrule Field, one redundancy would be fine.
2. Uraya- Might be slightly odd without Vandham around, but if Zeke and Morag are around, we're already well past that point.
3. Mor Ardain- I know it's small, but Alba Cavanich and the environs outside it should make for a more clustered and frantic stage.
4. Leftherian Archipelago- Much easier to navigate than Eryth Sea, so this goes in over it.
5. Land of Morytha- Honestly, I have to resort to this. I can't figure out how to make Tantal and World Tree work because they're vertical.

 

Add 3 OC stages and that makes 13.

 

...I'm surprised to see it was this hard, despite all of Xenoblade's wonderful locations, to assemble a list.

Dangit, if Lao or Lin were in, we'd have two XCX characters and that, considering HW had only Fi and Ghirahim for SS, would be enough to warrant stages. Because Lao is *sigh* he could justify the presence of Ganglion, and if Goetia could be made to work as a giant enemy in the Almandal- because heaven forbid we actually waste character slots on the Ganglion. Cauldros would be visually very distinct from all of the above, so I'd like that, and it'd triple-down on the Ganglion presence. Making NLA work would only require the addition of some ramps to get to the Administrative District, though the Hangar sub-level of the AD would have to be skipped or else a minor issue.

Finding a way to overcome the verticality issue on the UI map would be sublime too, because really I wanted to include Tantal. It's not impossible to work past, but it has to be, because "Stop Enemy from reaching Fonsa Keep!", "Rescue Gwin (totally generic named NPC commander)!", and other such objectives need visual clarity amid the chaos. How can I figure out where Gwin's arse in need of saving is if Tantal had seven layers of height and he is stand somewhere where five of them have flooring? Although, I could for Tantal specifically have Theosoir plummet intact onto the ice field below, that'd give us it and the majority of Tantal's frozen wilderness.

If we resorted to DLC and did include Lora there, a Torna stage would be simple and effective. You could make Auresco one in itself, but I'd say give us everything but the interior- so Lasaria, Dannaugh, and Aletta plus Auresco, maybe it could work.

And again, sorry I know nothing of Xenosaga!

For Xenogears in an ideal world, Shevat? Aveh somehow merged adjacent to Nisan? Solaris? Thames docked alongside somewhere else?

I enjoy some XW speculation.😄

 

 

2 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

Also, isn't the PS2 emulator PCSX2 or something to that like? I don't run a PS2 emulator, so I wouldn't know, just guessing.

I think you're right actually, but whatever it is, there isn't a Mac-friendly version around, and I'm an Apple sheep who had been using an old and reliable one for eight years, and thus didn't feel like jumping ship when purchasing a new computer.

 

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

Btw, Wine no longer works on the newest versions of MacOS. Apple's introduction of Catalina removed the compatibility with all 32-bit apps.

Thank you for shutting down that notion for good. I can safely abandon hopes of PS2 emulation then. But if Dolphin was added to OpenEmu for Mac, then PCSX2 is just a matter of its developers making it happen.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

....i should buy an AC...

How do you Europeans get by without air conditioning? I don't sleep in the summer without the AC on and a tabletop fan for extra comfort nowadays. AC even has a pivotal place in American demographic history. The post-WWII era population shift from the "Rust/Frostbelt" of the northern and eastern states to the Sunbelt of the southern and western states wasn't possible except for air conditioning making southern Florida and deserts bearable.

Although, uh, try not to convince your friends to buy AC- the extra electricity costs may bite into your country's little bit of reputation as environmentally friendly. I want you stay that way, because somebody has to set a good example in this world.😅

Edited August 9, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Shrimpica]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

the extra electricity costs may bite into your country's little bit of reputation as environmentally friendly.

>germany

>environmentally friendly

Haha

[null]

1 minute ago, Caster said:

because I think most romance in a lot of games are written like crap. 

Yeah, that's definitely true.

2 minutes ago, Caster said:

So no, I don't agree with you at all, and I won't let you use a sucker for romance excuse, because I am too.

Well, that's fine. When it comes down to it, we all see things differently I guess.

7 minutes ago, Armagon said:

No they still do, they just don't expire after every minor story beat, which is a big improvement. Some still have short durations but it's not as strict as FC.

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying. I misunderstood then.

8 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Apple removes *feature* is just buisness as usual. 

I don't understand why people choose to get Apple products tbh. 

At this point, I'm convinced Apple doesn't like its customers.

Tbh, if I could go back, I would not have gotten a MacBook. I could have gotten a pretty powerful gaming laptop for less than what I paid for my current laptop actually.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

An air conditioner would kill me.

Would get a cold instantly.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, Shrimperor said:

>germany

>environmentally friendly

Haha

Thats the rather unserious secondary remark of an outsider without a real lens into that which they're commenting on. I entirely concede without embarrassment that it was a faulty perspective (albeit I knew to be tempered a little by virtue of what I once heard of Russian oil imports).

[Armagon]

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Given DW: Gundam exists in three iterations, Koei has experience making giant robots work. Albeit combining them with separate on-foot combat in the same game... thats more resources going into making detailed character models and animations, feels like it'd could cut into the foot roster.

Yeah realistically, i think that being able to board the mecha during the on-foot segments would be bad for Koei's resources. Graphically, pretty much all of the effort goes into the character animations in Warriors games, because that's what people paid to see.

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Given DW: Gundam exists in three iterations, Koei has experience making giant robots work. Albeit combining them with separate on-foot combat in the same game... thats more resources going into making detailed character models and animations, feels like it'd could cut into the foot roster.

Regarding that fifth Xenoblade 2 stage, i don't think that'd be a good idea considering the area itself is a major spoiler.

As such, i think your idea of having Theosoir fall to the lower depths of Tantal would be a much better option. Like you said, they don't neccisarily have to follow the rules.

As for any Xenosaga stages, hmmmm. Old Miltia is a very important location across the entire trilogy so that'd be an easy choice. If not that, the Kukai Foundation+Durandal is another solid option. The Durandal takes the form of a tower when it docks into the Kukai Foundation so i don't see the Durandal itself being part of the map. Maybe the area just outside of it or the first floor.

13 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

Tbh, if I could go back, I would not have gotten a MacBook. I could have gotten a pretty powerful gaming laptop for less than what I paid for my current laptop actually.

Yeah that's the thing with Apple products. You could get a similar or even better product that isn't Apple for less.

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by Armagon