Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Acacia Sgt]

Now I got reminded. Destiny's Director Cut also had this skit involving the dolls, but instead presented it as a classic body swap scenario. No multi-way swap, just done in pairs (except for Lilith and Leon, since this is after the latter leaves the party so the former has no one to swap with in addition to being optional anyway... now that would've been amusing to see). Too bad I can't find it. Seems the one video in Youtube housing the skit (at least on its own and not part of a playthrough) was removed. Oh well.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Sooks]

This is a Trails in the Sky SC spoiler.

Spoiler

Well, chapter 8 begins with the sky bandits 100% dying for absolute certain, since we only see the moments right before their supposed deaths, so they are definitely dead, because I don’t know about playable Josette at all.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

9 minutes ago, Benice said:

Speaking of Tales, is the Tales of Vesperia remake any good? It's on gamepass, so I may try it out.

Quite long, loads of things easily missed just as the Symphonia-Abyss-Vesperia development team liked making it. The gameplay is typical of the Tales franchise- a blend of action and JRPG. Narratively too it's a typical Tales, a zany anime-inspired cast in a fantasy world with esoteric fantasy jargon Entelexia en-teh-leh-kay-uh! Music by Motoi Sakuraba et al., with the usual cel-shaded(?) aesthetic.

The game is well-regarded within the Tales fanbase, although I personally am not as drawn to it as some others are.

I'm unfamiliar with Gamepass, but I'm assuming it's a subscription and everything on it is free as long as you keep up on your payments. In that case, well it's still long as Tales oft are, but dip into it could tell you if Tales at all aligns with your gaming preferences. I doubt it in your case, but again, if it's free, no harm barring some time wasted in trying.

[Benice]

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Quite long, loads of things easily missed just as the Symphonia-Abyss-Vesperia development team liked making it. The gameplay is typical of the Tales franchise- a blend of action and JRPG. Narratively too it's a typical Tales, a zany anime-inspired cast in a fantasy world with esoteric fantasy jargon Entelexia en-teh-leh-kay-uh! Music by Motoi Sakuraba et al., with the usual cel-shaded(?) aesthetic.

The game is well-regarded within the Tales fanbase, although I personally am not as drawn to it as some others are.

I'm unfamiliar with Gamepass, but I'm assuming it's a subscription and everything on it is free as long as you keep up on your payments. In that case, well it's still long as Tales oft are, but dip into it could tell you if Tales at all aligns with your gaming preferences. I doubt it in your case, but again, if it's free, no harm barring some time wasted in trying.

Thanks! No idea what it is, but I know a few people 'round here like them, so I figure it could be worth a shot.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Beaten Ys Origin.

Will give a short resume later since I'm at work actually rn.

Glad I could beat in time before the main business starts, even if it took me some time to understand how to damage final boss's second phase.

 

[Sooks]

I did some things in chapter 8.

I really like the ZFG mechanic. It’s going to seriously cripple me in monster boss fights in later regions, but I like it.

I just finished the Royal Academy Sidequest, which was great. Sieg was the best once again and I have a feeling Gilbert being a stupid coward is going to become a running joke. 

Spoiler

Playable Kurt and Anelace were very cool to see, though presumably they’re just going to disappear into the realm of nonplayableness for the rest of the game, other than maybe like the final dungeon or something like that. I’m not complaining, I wouldn’t have used them anyway.

Though I seriously underestimated the length of the side quest and it’s 3 in the morning. Oops.

[Shrimpica]

5 hours ago, Benice said:

btw @Shrimperor, I know I'm jumping the gun, but once you get to Like a Dragon, d'you want me to give gameplay tips or warnings (Mostly regarding Class choice for each character) or would you rather be completely blind?

I will ask if i need something ^^

[DragonFlames]

Ys 8 progress report.
Some shit happened, let's just put it that way. Good shit, at that!

So, first things first, we started an offensive on the creature that sank our boat way at the beginning of the game, in which everyone participated raid/hunt style. During the attack, which involved the villagers using bows and catapults to drive the marine creature back to its nest, where Adol and the gang would ambush it and take it down (yes, the fight takes place underwater), Dogi and the over villagers were attacked by dinosaurs... to which Dogi reacted as follows:

What an absolutely badass madman, taking on dinosaurs bare-handed.

While that happened off-screen (booo!), I was tasked with fighting Oceanus.

And I gotta say... eh.
For such a climactic battle that has been a long time coming, the fight itself was kinda lame to be honest.
Cool music, yes, but that's about it. Definitely my least favorite boss in the game so far.

Anyhow, there was a big victory celebration afterwards, during which Dana got depressed about having to say goodbye to everyone (and making me depressed about that in turn - namely the fact that Falcom will never bring back the best character they ever created), and not wanting Adol to bother helping her regain her lost memories, when he should be focusing on getting people off the island (in her mind). Of course, Adol has none of that.

And the next portion in Dana's time deals with what actually caused her homeland to go under.
The big secret. The big reveal. The BIG thing that turned a prospering kingdom into a ruin, and a castle into a giant chasm in the sea? A perfectly normal meteor. Yep. Just a regular old natural disaster.
Which I do have one issue with.
Not the fact that it is a meteor that did it (in fact, I am surprised at such a realistic outcome, in fact, I welcome it), but what the effects of that meteor were. Because... you know... a meteor allegedly wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the planet around 65 million years ago. You'd think the surrounding area would look a bit more... desolate after the impact. At the very least, the city would not be in that good a condition anymore, no matter HOW well it's built.
A fallen piece of space rock that is capable of creating this:

How likely is it for a city directly next to the impact site to still be in such good shape?
I'd say it's close to zero. Yes, they had a magical barrier, but that is why I only bring up the city itself, since that was the area that was protected, and the meteor in question punched a hole in it, and was thus inside the barrier when it made this giant-ass hole. Suffice to say, anything in that area would have been dead instantly were this real life. Which I know this isn't, but knowing the effects of meteors irl, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the depiction and execution of it here, particularly with how relatively realistic everything else in the game was.

HOWEVER!
There may be one salvation for this gripe yet, because... as it turns out, the meteor shower also involved some weird fog suddenly appearing, implying that the "meteor" that trashed the castle may not have been a natural disaster after all.

Persona 4 style, y'know.

There was also a boss battle that made up for the somewhat stinky Oceanus one.

Also, Dana got a shiny (literally) new form, which is incredibly fun to play around with!

In any case, using the new form, Le-Kyanos is beaten, and a weird cloaked figure shows up, gives some cryptic advice and vanishes again.

Flame Emperor? That you?
They're using the same voice changing effect, at any rate. Methinks whoever this is is at the very least a female.
And I have a theory as to who it could be.

See that woman next to Dana? That's Sarai, one of Dana's friends since childhood.
And the person underneath that cloak. Calling it now.

Back in Adol's time, Dana has vanished suddenly, but she is found and re-recruited quickly (thank god), and we are then dropped once again into Dana's time, where we get this little tidbit of dialogue I find quite intriguing:

Also, it's snowing. They really do run this whole dinosaur theme the whole nine miles, don't they?
They even depict what is thought to have been part of the extinction event.
Which admittedly makes me wonder even more just how that city is still standing, or how in the name of heck these two, or anyone else in that city, for that matter, are even still alive.

I fear this might be Falcom failing to be consistent and consequent again, or in other words, like with the bonding in Trails, wanting to have their cake (a meteor strike ushering in the end of a prosperous nation) and eat it, too (not ending the story right then and there by having Dana and the rest of the Eternians die in it, even though they by all rights should have due to being so close to the impact when it happened (again, look at the crater in the screenshot above. No one in a direct vicinity to an impact capable of creating that should survive, magical barrier or not)). But we'll see. I'll keep an open mind and wait for an explanation, which I hope there will be one, because this bugs the hell out of me.

Anyway, back to something more positive, the next boss down in the Ys Origin-style crypt was fun!

Man, am I looking forward to that boss rush. xD

[Shrimpica]

18 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

But we'll see. I'll keep an open mind and wait for an explanation, which I hope there will be one, because this bugs the hell out of

Yeah keep playing^^

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Shrimperor said:

Yeah keep playing^^

Will do, will do!
The circumstances around this whole meteor business are way too weird to be a coincidence.
The fog, that weird creature that summoned it, spirits disappearing from Dana's time, that cloaked figure... something is going on in the background, and I can't wait to find out what it is!

[Shrimpica]

 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Break time, so time for a little Ys Origin review:

First of all it has been my first Ys game I have finished yet because unlike the others this gave me the motivation to do it. The controls were better than in I, the 2D graphics are more clear than 3D for me, a short but well enough told story only focussed on the essential. Having different characters than Adol was also a refreshment for me. The bosses were hard, even on easy mode, after taking a bit time to see their attacks, they were absolutely managable even for a Ys noob as I am. However the most notable aspect of the game is its music. I only have played a bit of Ys 8 (whose OST didn't impress me), but Origin's OST was a masterpiece. Only the music was already motivation enough for me to play it through. 

Here are a few themes:

Ys Origin OST - Scarlet Tempest - YouTube

Ys Origin - Music: Scars of the Divine Wing - YouTube

Ys Origin OST - Beyond the Beginning - YouTube

I must say of all played Falcom games this had the best OST...maybe tied with Trails of Azure.

I needed nine hours (retries not included which would made about eleven), but even for being short, I can absolutely recommend this game to all who like action RPG dungeon crawlers with a marvelous OST.

This game gave me the mood to make me continuning the series with Oath of Felghana.

PS: I will do the other characters's story an other time, same goes for Time Attack (assuming it's a boss rush mode)

Edited July 14, 2021 by Zan Partizanne

[Saint Rubenio]

This is the second hack that's pulled the "surprise, there's actually another map after the previous map!" trick. But at least here there isn't a time limit that takes into account the turns from the previous part of the map.

[Lightcosmo]

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

And I gotta say... eh.
For such a climactic battle that has been a long time coming, the fight itself was kinda lame to be honest.
Cool music, yes, but that's about it. Definitely my least favorite boss in the game so far.

That's never an experience you want!

[Armagon]

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The Heihachi Tales banter was 🤣.

He just casually fits right in haha.

Heihachi's great in this game. I know he ain't a good person in Tekken but whereas Kazuya's like, actually evil, Heihachi is more like the cool grandpa that also just happens to just not give a shit about ethics and stuff.

7 hours ago, Benice said:

Speaking of Tales, is the Tales of Vesperia remake any good? It's on gamepass, so I may try it out.

Well it depends on whether or not you can get past the awkward combat system.

4 hours ago, Sooks said:

Playable Kurt and Anelace were very cool to see, though presumably they’re just going to disappear into the realm of nonplayableness for the rest of the game, other than maybe like the final dungeon or something like that. I’m not complaining, I wouldn’t have used them anyway

Anelace is playable in Sky 3rd.

Kurt is playable in Cold Steel 3 and 4 except actually it's a completely different guy who just so happens to have the same name (you will see this a few times in the series).

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Because... you know... a meteor allegedly wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the planet around 65 million years ago. You'd think the surrounding area would look a bit more... desolate after the impact. At the very least, the city would not be in that good a condition anymore, no matter HOW well it's built.

It would depend on how big the meteor actually was. The asteroid that wipes out the dinosaurs was so cataclysmic because it was massive. The Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear blast mankind has ever detonated, can't even compare.

But yeah, assuming no wibbly-wobbly-magic-magic stuff happened, no way the city would still be standing after that.

[Shrimpica]

12 minutes ago, Armagon said:

assuming no wibbly-wobbly-magic-magic stuff happened

there was alot of magic wobbly stuff xD

[Armagon]

20 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

there was alot of magic wobbly stuff xD

But was it timey-wimey?

[Shrimpica]

 

[Sooks]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Anelace is playable in Sky 3rd.

Ah, nice, at least the bench will always have someone to warm it—

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

except actually it's a completely different guy who just so happens to have the same name (you will see this a few times in the series).

Wha… what?

[Armagon]

8 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Ah, nice, at least the bench will always have someone to warm it—

Yeah, Josette.

8 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Wha… what?

Yeah, in this series, there are two Lloyds, two Tios (in Spanish, this just means two uncles) and two Kurts.

[Sooks]

15 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Yeah, in this series, there are two Lloyds, two Tios (in Spanish, this just means two uncles) and two Kurts.

Oh, but like, they have noticeably different designs? That’s fine, then.

[Armagon]

1 minute ago, Sooks said:

Oh, but like, they have noticeably different designs?

Yeah.

Well I mean, Sky Lloyd and Sky Tio are just random NPCs. Sky Kurt and Cold Steel Kurt are the only shared names who are actual characters.

[Armagon]

 

[Venger_06]

Tfw I just appear on this thread to say good morning or good night

Good morning to everyone btw ^^

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is the second hack that's pulled the "surprise, there's actually another map after the previous map!" trick. But at least here there isn't a time limit that takes into account the turns from the previous part of the map.

What's the name of this hack, Ruben?

1 hour ago, Shrimperor said:

 

They're part of the evil cult™

Edited July 14, 2021 by Maof06

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, Sooks said:

Ah, nice, at least the bench will always have someone to warm it—

Dont underestimate her.