Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Interdimensional Observer]

I'm feeling it's time to start my third Trials of Mana run. Duran & Angela this time, Duran as the lead b/c the story seems slightly better to me if you pick the hero-country lead as opposed to the antagonist-country lead. Charlotte takes the third slot for the Secret of Mana vibe. Duran will go Duelist (Dark-Dark) for his class, Angela will go Magus (Dark-Dark), and Charlotte will go High Cleric (Light-Light). All the Elemental Sabers to be applied to Duran, Angela will use Wound Magic to bleed herself out for more damage, and Charlotte will patch her back up as needed.

Part of me wants to do all-male: Duran, Kevin, and Hawkeye with Hawkeye as the lead instead, but no, I have to see Duran & Angela's story first.

[Shrow]

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Most infamously, chapter 13

Ohhh that's the chapter where the player has no setup phrase. And starts with literally with just 2 units.
Yeah I'm lucky my protag had white magic dodging and is enlightened because Claude couldn't fight those guys worth scrap.
Might have been the only time hard was actually hard.

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

however, it started to get tiresome

I've heard that players have recruited nearly most of the cast to their house. If that was the case for you then I could understand it becoming tiresome.
The only character recruited was Bernadetta holyshitIloveberniesomuch very fun little archer girl.

I have like 15 quick dialogues to go through every month so its not too bad. Especially since I really like the characters so I look forward to it.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Shrow

[Venger_06]

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wait weren't you playing Awakening? What map are you talking about? There is no such map...

Well, unless you're talking paralogues here. Then I'll shut my mouth, because I can't speak for how they play.

Kjelle's paralogue. It's literally everything wrong with the game put in one map. It's a rout map with infinite (ambush) reinforcements unless you block the stairs. There's a bunch of archers and mages, so 1-2 is crucial. And worst of all, the map is big and if you don't reach Kjelle fast she's going to be killed.

[Sooks]

Ah yeah, that one was my probably my least favorite.

Took Kjelle to endgame though. Too bad she wasn’t a lord, so she didn’t do anything while they were off soloing.

[Sidereal Wraith]

12 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

It's okay. I've accepted it now.

Dammit all! Another innocent soul is sacrificed to Teehee!

[Acacia Sgt]

It's a shame Steam has region-locked markets.

Otherwise this would be my chance to get both SRW V and SRW X... SRW T on Steam when!?

Edited April 29, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Sooks]

6 minutes ago, Shrow said:

I've heard that players have recruited nearly most of the cast to their house. If that was the case for you then I could understand it becoming tiresome.
The only character recruited was Bernadetta holyshitIloveberniesomuch very fun little archer girl.

I’ve recruited everyone I possibly could at least once on every route.

Didn’t really increase the length of monastery stuff since the only ones I cared about were the ones I was using, but even then I didn’t have to talk to them and the only mandatory time added because of that is at the end of each tutoring session where characters have dialogue if they got a skill up, and I would just leave the ones I wasn’t using on their defaults.

[Punished Dayni]

7 minutes ago, Shrow said:

Ohhh that's the chapter where the player has no setup phrase. And starts with literally with just 2 units.
Yeah I'm lucky my protag had white magic dodging and is enlightened because Claude couldn't fight those guys worth scrap.
Might have been the only time hard was actually hard.

  Ah man, I remember my first time with that map was rough on Hard.

Not that they couldn't fight at all, but they weren't tanky enough to do much reliably (No focus on Nosfertanking for example)

It was an eye-opener for sure.

[Saint Rubenio]

13 minutes ago, Shrow said:

Ohhh that's the chapter where the player has no setup phrase. And starts with literally with just 2 units.
Yeah I'm lucky my protag had white magic dodging and is enlightened because Claude couldn't fight those guys worth scrap.
Might have been the only time hard was actually hard.

Now imagine that on a bullshit hard difficulty that wasn't playtested at all.

9 minutes ago, Maof06 said:

Kjelle's paralogue. It's literally everything wrong with the game put in one map. It's a rout map with infinite (ambush) reinforcements unless you block the stairs. There's a bunch of archers and mages, so 1-2 is crucial. And worst of all, the map is big and if you don't reach Kjelle fast she's going to be killed.

Holy shit. I was actually tempted to get Kjelle, because female armor knight is always something to look forward to, and she was Sully's daughter, too... Glad I decided not to.

[Punished Dayni]

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Holy shit. I was actually tempted to get Kjelle, because female armor knight is always something to look forward to, and she was Sully's daughter, too... Glad I decided not to.

Awakening doesn't have paralogue enemies scaling levels over the course of the game unlike Fates so on paper you could just go in super overpowered to wreck it. It's still one of the more difficult ones.

[Benice]

30 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Show me that there's like 8 titles in it, and then tell me that like the 3rd instalment is the best. It's what happened with The Witcher. It's an overarching story, but apparently the first two games are like, worse... So I ended up never playing it. Still sitting in my library. I very much doubt I'll ever touch it. Well, there's also the fact that I watched some gameplays and I did not like what I saw, but I digress.

Lucky for you, 0 is the best!* In fact, the 3rd installment is generally considered the worst. (I really liked it, but the gameplay is allegedly Ç̵͕̙̦̲̙͓͇͑̀̉̃̌̈͐̓͒́͐́͘̕͘͜R̵̟̼̲͖͇̤̦͔̫͙͖̰̭̮̈̃͆̏͛̈̀̀̈̔͑͌͘̕͜Î̵̢͎͚͖̠͖͓̯̣̠͖̗̇̌̔̀̿̍͛̏ͅͅS̷̢̲͙̥͔͆̀͛̀̀̅̀̔̏͝P̶̨̩̩̱̮͉͖͇̠̍͗̉͜ͅY̴̡̧̛͎̩̼̠̺̍̐͋̏͊͂̚͘ͅ)

*IMO, at least. I haven't PLAYED a Yakuza game, I just love the stories. And this is coming from a "gameplay first" guy.

30 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Still, I'll bite: How is the gameplay in these games, anyway?

I'll start with the exception to the rule, with Like a Dragon. I can give a brief explanation on each game if you want me to, just so you know what I think.

Like a Dragon is a turnbased JRPG with a timing-based blocking mechanic. I know basically nothing about JRPGs, but Like a Dragon looks pretty cool. It's a really quick battle system with flashy animations and whatnot. There are seven playables, and you can have up to four in your party at any given time. As a whole, the main combat looks like a really good time. There are a few minor problems with it, though. Still, I'll provide more info on inquiry.

As for side content, (Since Yakuza games are generally about 40-60% side content) Like a Dragon seems to have a ton of really fun minigames. It's got the management one which looks really cool, Dragonkart which is basically Mariokart except with a middle aged man, a theater minigame which is...Special, a can collection minigame which looks fun, lots of classic arcade games like Outrun, Space Harrier, Virtual fighter and more, and a myriad of card games like Mahjong, Koi Koi and more.

Reasons I can give for you to play this one first:

• There is a plot-important garbage bag-wearing group.
• The main three characters are middle aged.
• Story and cast is quite strong overall. I'd put it just below 0, but still a masterpiece.
• Music slaps.
• New take on Yakuza combat.
• Despite being the eighth mainline series title, it is mostly self-contained.
• Ichiban's hair.

Reasons for you not to play this one first:

• A rather slow start. I would not call it "bad", the game just takes a while to fully open up and let the player explore the massive open world.
• It's much more expensive than the other games.
• It is mostly self-contained, but there are several nods, references and scenes that will make more sense if you've played some of the other Yakuza games.
• Spoils the end of The Song of Life.

Now, for every other Yakuza game:

They are open-world beat 'em up games, I think. They're set most often in Kamurocho or Sotenbori, which are incredibly dense and feel like real places and are seeping with things to do.

Each "era" looks and plays a little differently, but the meat and potatoes are roughly the same. You fight in a third person view, where you can have strong attacks, weak attacks, use weapons, block or quickstep, as well as using heat actions. In Yakuzas 0 and Kiwami 1, the playable character(s) each have four fighting styles with distinct characteristics-A blue "balanced" mode, a pink "Fast" mode, and a yellow "Tanky" mode, as well as an optional Legend fighting style. I haven't played them yet, but the combat looks extremely satisfying, 'least to me.

Something worth noting is that street battles are most often quite easy, but story battles are much tougher. If the game is just a button-masher at the start, (I don't know if it is) I can say with confidence that it doesn't stay that way.

 

If you want advice on which game to start, I'd say that 100% Yakuza 0 is the way to go. It's the prequel and is my favorite of all eight Yakuza games. The eight different fighting styles offer a lot of variance, the story is fantastic, and there is a metric ton of things to do. To wit, both final bosses are considered to be some of the most fun in the series, only beaten out by 3's. There's also the "final challenge" bosses, which are allegedly absurd.

You can just rush through and get to the end in about 30 hours, but you're missing most of the game. To 100%, it's about 138 hours, so you are literally missing 100 hours of side content if you skip everything. Plus, the generally comedic side content balances out the dark and serious main story.

The only real reasons not to start with 0 are that it's best enjoyed with a controller you can plug into your computer and that it has the most...Weird minigames of all the Yakuzas. At least in magnitude. (I think that there are...Three? Give or take two.) They are all optional, and maybe you'll like 'em...But I highly doubt it. Oh, and this game isn't great at having good first impressions for characters. The start isn't terribad, but it gets SO much better later on.

Finally, one last note: If you don't end up liking the combat, there is so much to do in these games that you could just set the difficulty to easy (which IIRC is basically just an autowin for the player) and look at everything else in it.

AND IF THAT DOESN'T SOUND APPEALING, I WILL DO ANYTHING TO CONVINCE YOU PLEAASE

Edited April 29, 2021 by Benice

[Saint Rubenio]

1 minute ago, Benice said:

Lucky for you, 0 is the best!* In fact, the 3rd installment is generally considered the worst. (I really liked it, but the gameplay is allegedly Ç̵͕̙̦̲̙͓͇͑̀̉̃̌̈͐̓͒́͐́͘̕͘͜R̵̟̼̲͖͇̤̦͔̫͙͖̰̭̮̈̃͆̏͛̈̀̀̈̔͑͌͘̕͜Î̵̢͎͚͖̠͖͓̯̣̠͖̗̇̌̔̀̿̍͛̏ͅͅS̷̢̲͙̥͔͆̀͛̀̀̅̀̔̏͝P̶̨̩̩̱̮͉͖͇̠̍͗̉͜ͅY̴̡̧̛͎̩̼̠̺̍̐͋̏͊͂̚͘ͅ)

*IMO, at least. I haven't PLAYED a Yakuza game, I just love the stories. And this is coming from a "gameplay first" guy.

I'll start with the exception to the rule, with Like a Dragon.

Like a Dragon is a turnbased JRPG with a timing-based blocking mechanic. I know basically nothing about JRPGs, but Like a Dragon looks pretty cool. It's a really quick battle system with flashy animations and whatnot. There are seven playables, and you can have up to four in your party at any given time. As a whole, the main combat looks like a really good time. There are a few minor problems with it, though. Still, I'll provide more info on inquiry.

As for side content, (Since Yakuza games are generally about 40-60% side content) Like a Dragon seems to have a ton of really fun minigames. It's got the management one which looks really cool, Dragonkart which is basically Mariokart except with a middle aged man, a theater minigame which is...Special, a can collection minigame which looks fun, lots of classic arcade games like Outrun, Space Harrier, Virtual fighter and more, and a myriad of card games like Mahjong, Koi Koi and more.

Reasons I can give for you to play this one first:

• There is a plot-important garbage bag-wearing group.
• The main three characters are middle aged.
• Story and cast is quite strong overall. I'd put it just below 0, but still a masterpiece.
• Music slaps.
• New take on Yakuza combat.
• Despite being the eighth mainline series title, it is mostly self-contained.
• Ichiban's hair.

Reasons for you not to play this one first:

• A rather slow start. I would not call it "bad", the game just takes a while to fully open up and let the player explore the massive open world.
• It's much more expensive than the other games.
• It is mostly self-contained, but there are several nods, references and scenes that will make more sense if you've played some of the other Yakuza games.
• Spoils the end of The Song of Life.

Now, for every other Yakuza game:

They are open-world beat 'em up games, I think. They're set most often in Kamurocho or Sotenbori, which are incredibly dense and feel like real places and are seeping with things to do.

Each "era" looks and plays a little differently, but the meat and potatoes are roughly the same. You fight in a third person view, where you can have strong attacks, weak attacks, use weapons, block or quickstep, as well as using heat actions. In Yakuzas 0 and Kiwami 1, the playable character(s) each have four fighting styles with distinct characteristics-A blue "balanced" mode, a pink "Fast" mode, and a yellow "Tanky" mode, as well as an optional Legend fighting style. I haven't played them yet, but the combat looks extremely satisfying, 'least to me.

Something worth noting is that street battles are most often quite easy, but story battles are much tougher. If the game is just a button-masher at the start, (I don't know if it is) I can say with confidence that it doesn't stay that way.

 

If you want advice on which game to start, I'd say that 100% Yakuza 0 is the way to go. It's the prequel and is my favorite of all eight Yakuza games. The eight different fighting styles offer a lot of variance, the story is fantastic, and there is a metric ton of things to do. To wit, both final bosses are considered to be some of the most fun in the series, only beaten out by 3's. There's also the "final challenge" bosses, which are allegedly absurd.

You can just rush through and get to the end in about 30 hours, but you're missing most of the game. To 100%, it's about 138 hours, so you are literally missing 100 hours of side content if you skip everything. Plus, the generally comedic side content balances out the dark and serious main story.

The only real reasons not to start with 0 are that it's best enjoyed with a controller you can plug into your computer and that it has the most...Weird minigames of all the Yakuzas. At least in magnitude. (I think that there are...Three? Give or take two.) They are all optional, and maybe you'll like 'em...But I highly doubt it. Oh, and this game isn't great at having good first impressions for characters. The start isn't terribad, but it gets SO much better later on.

Finally, one last note: If you don't end up liking the combat, there is so much to do in these games that you could just set the difficulty to easy (which IIRC is basically just an autowin for the player) and look at everything else in it.

AND IF THAT DOESN'T SOUND APPEALING, I WILL DO ANYTHING TO CONVINCE YOU PLEAASE

Well... not bad. I'll put Yakuza 0 in my wishlist, and perhaps I'll pick it up before the sale is over. We'll see. Thanks for the in-depth summary!

8 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Awakening doesn't have paralogue enemies scaling levels over the course of the game unlike Fates so on paper you could just go in super overpowered to wreck it. It's still one of the more difficult ones.

Pffft.

Deploy the Pannerminator, is what you're saying.

[Acacia Sgt]

Suggesting games... those were the days.

[Benice]

28 minutes ago, Dayni said:

And what song plays in your head?

 

[Punished Dayni]

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

Deploy the Pannerminator, is what you're saying.

  I mean, bunnybomb would probably clear it fine alone.

Considering she's stronger than I had clearing endgame on hard ages ago.

[Benice]

Yakuza Kiwami: Majima everywhere

Yakuza 5:

 

[Sooks]

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pffft.

Deploy the Pannerminator, is what you're saying.

Can she be on eight stairs at once?

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Can she be on eight stairs at once?

Why bother? She can sit in the middle and erase the enemies coming out of the stairs.

[Venger_06]

Okay, I give up. The Knight classline sucks. I think it's time to start Thracia now.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Maof06

[Acacia Sgt]

Ah yes, constantly:

 

[Sooks]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why bother? She can sit in the middle and erase the enemies coming out of the stairs.

Just telling a joke about Awakening’s “difficulty”.

[Sooks]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Ah yes, constantly:

 

This is a nice theme.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 minute ago, Sooks said:

Just telling a joke about Awakening’s “difficulty”.

So am I.

1 minute ago, Maof06 said:

Okay, I give up. The Knight classline sucks.

RIP

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Sooks said:

This is a nice theme.

That's basically SRW's "Enemy Reinforcements have arrived" theme. You're bound to hear it quite often, heh.

[Benice]

...The deal was too good to pass up.

LET'S GOOO

STARTING YAKUZA 0.

Erm, can you take screenshots on steam?