Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Interdimensional Observer]

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This all reminds me of the time we talked about this and I said "fuck it, Caveman FE."

As the sequel to sci-fi FE, naturally.

-Well, a continuation of the bad ending where everything and everyone got nuked, thankfully Plot Lolien's garden of primordial life in a space colony survived the crash onto the planet's surface, the avatar and his/her chosen companion were the only survivors, who thus began repopulating the world. The biological lab component was still-functioning enough to allow for the creation one generation of test-tube-babies before it completely broke down beyond repair, to avoid the issues of incest and an Adam & Steve/Ada & Eve situation.

Fast-forward a few hundred or perhaps thousand years, and Stone Age FE it is. Manaketes are the twisted mutants created in a different lab, they survived being nuked, but with the lab devastated and their creators all dead, the growth process of these experiments did not proceed as their creators planned, some inevitably died as a result, but they managed to survive as a group nonetheless.

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Haha, well, not quite. Picross may look similar on the surface, but it's way different. Basically, you have to break the right blocks to reveal a hidden image. The numbers on the sides let you know how many consecutive blocks you have to break from each row and column - for example, if it says "7" on the side of a row, you have to break 7 consecutive blocks from that row. If it says "2 3", you have to break 2 consecutive blocks and 3 consecutive blocks, separated by at least one unbroken block. If you break the wrong block, you lose time. Break all the correct blocks to form the image, you're winner.

 

You forgot to mention one important rule of picross- you NEVER ever need to guess. Examine the puzzle row-by-row, column-by-column, and no matter how long it may take you to figure it out, there is always another square you can fill in or cross out with absolute certainty. Which in turn lets you make another logical deduction and so forth until the puzzle is solved. Knowing this makes me oddly optimistic when going through picross, if I focus my brainpower enough, eventually I know I'll make the next proper deduction! I resist the urge to give up and blindly guess.

 

19 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

And the Fire Emblem is the when protag loves someone way too much

Atsui no moiyo munenihime/A warm feeling in your heart.

Imada! (Yay!) Hasshin!/Not yet! (Yay!) Swoosh!

Double Impacto.

Futari o tsunagu batosopasu (Hey!)/Baton-passing between two people (Hey!).

Saa moeagare yo/Come on, let's keep it up!

yuujouno enajii/Use your energy!

-Sorry.😛 Talk of sci-fi FE reminded me of these extremely perverted mecha-theme lyrics which I can't quite forget as much I'd like to.😆 Thankfully the second half of the tune stays out of the gutter. 

 

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

However, other things, like the usage of Crystals, remains the same. Because Crystals are part of FF's core identity, not the Medieval Setting.

Actually, I have a bone to pick with that obsession with magic rocks. People claim you reside in the heavens of storytelling above and that the many "plebeian" JRPGs simply incapable of reaching your heights. Yet you cling to shiny stones! Let me grab this one in the snow next to me and knock you out of your lofty abode!

To clarify, I unlike some others in this topic have enjoyed FF games. I just don't think it deserves a rarefied position other than in the history of video games. It'd be better brought down in the present moment -or rather since FFXIII perhaps when its spotless reputation was first shattered- to an equal level with all the other JRPGs out there. One option -one with many of its legendary entries now very old and thus perhaps not actually the best place to start for someone new to JRPGs- among many. 

[Shrimpica]

6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well, a continuation of the bad ending where everything and everyone got nuked, thankfully Plot Lolien's garden of primordial life in a space colony survived the crash onto the planet's surface, the avatar and his/her chosen companion were the only survivors, who thus began repopulating the world

Xenoblade X2?

 

7 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Manaketes are the twisted mutants created in a different lab, they survived being nuked, but with the lab devastated and their creators all dead, the growth process of these experiments did not proceed as their creators planned, some inevitably died as a result, but they managed to survive as a group nonetheless.

Nuclear Dragons Yes

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Thankfully the second half of the tune stays out of the gutter. 

Thankfully or regrettably?

 

[Acacia Sgt]

22 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Actually, I have a bone to pick with that obsession with magic rocks. People claim you reside in the heavens of storytelling above and that the many "plebeian" JRPGs simply incapable of reaching your heights. Yet you cling to shiny stones! Let me grab this one in the snow next to me and knock you out of your lofty abode!

To clarify, I unlike some others in this topic have enjoyed FF games. I just don't think it deserves a rarefied position other than in the history of video games. It'd be better brought down in the present moment -or rather since FFXIII perhaps when its spotless reputation was first shattered- to an equal level with all the other JRPGs out there. One option -one with many of its legendary entries now very old and thus perhaps not actually the best place to start for someone new to JRPGs- among many. 

It's just an example of a franchise that has taken to an identifying mark, considering that the games do change a lot between entries. It's like Fire Emblem. IS could've easily just ditched the Fire Emblem label after Kaga left and had Binding Blade be its own thing. Conversely, Kaga's Emblem Saga was easily accused of being "enough of a Fire Emblem game" to be sued over it. For Fire Emblem to continue to exist as an entity, it needs to have something to call their own. Otherwise it's just a patchwork of games under the same label.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Caveman FE twist: When 2 people love each other so much...Fire is created!

And the Fire Emblem is the when protag loves someone way too much

S support turns into F support. F for fire, and F for protag-kun's d

1 hour ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

We also got Luigi's Dreams in M&L 4. That was coolio

I liked the part where you dive into Luigi's inner thoughts early on. After that I feel they kinda stopped using the framing device to its full effect, though. The rest of the dream worlds tend to be "same area as the real world but weirder and 2D." You even tend to find the same main NPC.

22 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As the sequel to sci-fi FE, naturally.

-Well, a continuation of the bad ending where everything and everyone got nuked, thankfully Plot Lolien's garden of primordial life in a space colony survived the crash onto the planet's surface, the avatar and his/her chosen companion were the only survivors, who thus began repopulating the world. The biological lab component was still-functioning enough to allow for the creation one generation of test-tube-babies before it completely broke down beyond repair, to avoid the issues of incest and an Adam & Steve/Ada & Eve situation.

Fast-forward a few hundred or perhaps thousand years, and Stone Age FE it is. Manaketes are the twisted mutants created in a different lab, they survived being nuked, but with the lab devastated and their creators all dead, the growth process of these experiments did not proceed as their creators planned, some inevitably died as a result, but they managed to survive as a group nonetheless.

I love it. Peak lore. Make it happen, Maeda.

22 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

You forgot to mention one important rule of picross- you NEVER ever need to guess. Examine the puzzle row-by-row, column-by-column, and no matter how long it may take you to figure it out, there is always another square you can fill in or cross out with absolute certainty. Which in turn lets you make another logical deduction and so forth until the puzzle is solved. Knowing this makes me oddly optimistic when going through picross, if I focus my brainpower enough, eventually I know I'll make the next proper deduction! I resist the urge to give up and blindly guess.

Indeed. Pretty neat little puzzle, this.

[Interdimensional Observer]

27 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Xenoblade X2?

If it would FINALLY give me answers to the burning questions I have, then SURE!

36 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Nuclear Dragons Yes

...I did not realize I was writing Godzilla.😆

27 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Thankfully or regrettably?

I did follow those clothed beach scenes I saw two days ago with some smutty thoughts that continued the events because of how smitten I was, but I don't always like being in the gutter. There is a time and a place for that. And it just sounded wrong to hear the Legendary Mecha Anime Singer Guy use his smoother-than-butter voice for such filthy lyrics.🙉 He probably had fun with it though, he certainly put his EN-NAH-GEE! into singing it.

 

8 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It's just an example of a franchise that has taken to an identifying mark, considering that the games do change a lot between entries.

Including the crystals themselves. The "traditional" conception of I-III-IV-V is different from the Magicite of VI and the Materia of VII, to name a few examples. I see that. And then crystals barely show up in stuff like VIII, where it's that one big pillar. With VIII and X, I would say it's not just crystals that define FF, it's the Summons/Aeons/Eidolons that have increasingly become as much the core staple too. And XIII puts the stones & summons about equally on display.

Nonetheless, thinking of XII, Cid obsessing over Man-u-factured Nethecite! and Ashe talking about the Dawn Shard... 🥱 What's so special about the rock? *Casually chucks the Nethecite out a window from an airship and still-yawning cooly watches as Cid go bonkers at me.* As standard JRPG faire, I accept it perfectly fine, just not as storytelling that transcends the JRPG genre like no other franchise can. -I'm not saying FF can't do that, only that it's not head & shoulders above the rest of the JRPG pack in being able to.

 

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I liked the part where you dive into Luigi's inner thoughts early on. After that I feel they kinda stopped using the framing device to its full effect, though. The rest of the dream worlds tend to be "same area as the real world but weirder and 2D." You even tend to find the same main NPC.

With this I agree. I did back then think that they underutilized Dream's Deep(?) and Dr. Snoozemore(?). It didn't collapse dramatically, it fizzled away, a quiet exit for a clearly-unfinished idea. Shame, because I did like the concept.

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Interdimensional Observer said:

Including the crystals themselves. The "traditional" conception of I-III-IV-V is different from the Magicite of VI and the Materia of VII, to name a few examples. I see that. And then crystals barely show up in stuff like VIII, where it's that one big pillar. With VIII and X, I would say it's not just crystals that define FF, it's the Summons/Aeons/Eidolons that have increasingly become as much the core staple too. And XIII puts the stones & summons about equally on display.

But they are still Crystals nonetheless. A good example of having an identifying mark, but not letting it go stale by making it different enough at times.

Spheres, the Crystals of X, are quite prevalent in the setting and lore, and also on the gameplay with stuff like the Sphere Grid, so I would say they definitely count as being evidence to FF's identifying marks.

Good point on the Summons/Eidolons. Nothing stops a series from having more than one identity mark. Eidolons are just another of FF's.

Just now, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nonetheless, thinking of XII, Cid obsessing over Man-u-factured Nethecite! and Ashe talking about the Dawn Shard... 🥱 What's so special about the rock? *Casually chucks the Nethecite out a window from an airship and still-yawning cooly watches as Cid go bonkers at me.* As standard JRPG faire, I accept it perfectly fine, just not as storytelling that transcends the JRPG genre like no other franchise can. -I'm not saying FF can't do that, only that it's not head & shoulders above the rest of the JRPG pack in being able to.

Ultimately, it's about the identifying marks having a presence. They could've used something else, but they still went for using crystal/crystal-like things. Why? Because crystals are one of FF's identifying marks.

[Saint Rubenio]

There's a nice cycle to this puzzle. Plowing through the free 0/15 rows and columns, figuring out where to start working, seeing all thr multiple possibilities opened up with each hit of the chisel, misclicking, realizing what the image is going to be, and filling out the rest based on that. Being an entirely visual puzzle makes it easier, but more satisfying than sudoku, I'd say.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

With this I agree. I did back then think that they underutilized Dream's Deep(?) and Dr. Snoozemore(?). It didn't collapse dramatically, it fizzled away, a quiet exit for a clearly-unfinished idea. Shame, because I did like the concept.

Being the Year of Loogi and all, they could've made Luigi's dream areas be more, well, about Luigi. I still rather enjoy what they did with him as it is (the detail with the giant battle start animations was brilliant), but it would've been neat to do a literal deep dive into Luigi's character through his dreams. Uncharacteristic for Mario? Perhaps, but it's not like people don't enjoy when Mario goes all plotty. See Super Paper Mario.

[Acacia Sgt]

"Just one path to the head of the Bionis... except it wasn't finished before the game was out, so we'll skip it."

Yeah, I remember reading a certain cut area was meant to be between Makna and Eryth.

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

If it would FINALLY give me answers to the burning questions I have, then SURE

What questions would those be?

[Acacia Sgt]

Turkye's elections are this Monday... I wonder...

[Shrimpica]

7 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Turkye's elections are this Monday... I wonder...

today, actually

First results are even in

 

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

today, actually

First results are even in

 

Ah, right.

Well, here's for the best.

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, can now do some Reconstruction. Let's see...

[Armagon]

Aight but TotK has a weird continuity issue. Like certain NPCs just don't remember you. Even Link's house is now "Zelda's House" with no acknowledgement that Link ever lived there.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Aight but TotK has a weird continuity issue. Like certain NPCs just don't remember you. Even Link's house is now "Zelda's House" with no acknowledgement that Link ever lived there.

Link got evicted.

[Sidereal Wraith]

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know what's legitimately unbelievable? Even though I'm in the lategame, where I usually start having to force myself to beat the FE game on replays, I'm actually feeling the Engage withdrawal. Why is that game so good?

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Just came back from a funeral. My father was helping carry the casket, and didn't want to bali from the church once inside, so we all ended up attending the service. It is the first time I've been at mass in seven or eight years.

I gotta give props to the priest. He tried. When it came to masses for the dead, my town's priest only ever hastily mentioned the person in question a grand total of one time per mass. Must've literally had a blank spot in the book where he wrote the names in pencil, and he never, ever deviated from the speech. This one gave a small, personal speech in regard to the man of the hour, which was nice.

Anyway, apparently the creator of Drums of War worked on Dream of Five back in the day. This will mean nothing to anyone who isn't well-versed in the history of FE fangames - not that I ever played it either myself - but it's one of the fun facts of all time, to be sure. I think I'm definitely making this my next FE after Engage. Read a write-up that described some worrisome things about it (namely, story good), but it's on the shorter side and you can recruit most of the bossmen. Like, that's a mechanic literally made for me, I can't not check it out.

For now though, I have more picrossing to do. I discovered you can shut off the soundtrack, which is nice, because... well, it tries its best, but it's Gameboy. This will do better.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Acacia Sgt]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, apparently the creator of Drums of War worked on Dream of Five back in the day. This will mean nothing to anyone who isn't well-versed in the history of FE fangames - not that I ever played it either myself - but it's one of the fun facts of all time, to be sure. I think I'm definitely making this my next FE after Engage. Read a write-up that described some worrisome things about it (namely, story good), but it's on the shorter side and you can recruit most of the bossmen. Like, that's a mechanic literally made for me, I can't not check it out.

More hacks, I take it?

Hmm, the latter sounds familiar...

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

More hacks, I take it?

Yeah, I mentioned Drums of War a few days ago. It's a hack where the (apparent) main gimmick is that at the each of each chapter, you have to choose between recruiting the bossman or ransoming them for cash. This really appeals to my affinity for generic bossmen, so it naturally piqued my interest the moment I heard you can do that.

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Hmm, the latter sounds familiar...

I wouldn't be surprised. Dream of Five is the single biggest FE hack that never was. Back in the days when Kelik's Edgy Adventures and Good Story Requiem were the only finished hacks in existence, it was the one whose development everyone followed closely, as it looked to be the next big thing. Unfortunately, it only ever got to I believe the end of the first act before the team behind it was fractured and the hack entered dev hell before it was officially cancelled a few years later.

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I wouldn't be surprised. Dream of Five is the single biggest FE hack that never was. Back in the days when Kelik's Edgy Adventures and Good Story Requiem were the only finished hacks in existence, it was the one whose development everyone followed closely, as it looked to be the next big thing. Unfortunately, it only ever got to I believe the end of the first act before the team behind it was fractured and the hack entered dev hell before it was officially cancelled a few years later.

Oh! Now I remember!

I worked on that hack. I think I was there when the idea was born. However, I left quite early. Like, still 2011 early I think. Or maybe I lasted up to 2012 at least? Point is, don't expect me to have much to say as I barely remember much of anything.

[Lightcosmo]

36 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Dream of Five

I still have this mod!

[Saint Rubenio]

31 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Oh! Now I remember!

I worked on that hack. I think I was there when the idea was born. However, I left quite early. Like, still 2011 early I think. Or maybe I lasted up to 2012 at least? Point is, don't expect me to have much to say as I barely remember much of anything.

Oh, that's interesting. Not that surprising, with your fondness for writing and how long you've been around.

5 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

I still have this mod!

I never tried out what did come out. Was it looking to be good?

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, that's interesting. Not that surprising, with your fondness for writing and how long you've been around.

Ah, now this brought me back.

Though I had lurked SF for a while now, what actually compelled me to make an account was the hacking section. I liked the idea of helping make a game, so the drive to wanting to join a project brought me to make an account. That one was one such project I joined up.

Yeah, even back then, I was more into the story side of things. I think what few work I did for DoF (before it even got renamed to DoF, natch), was help with the story and make a character or two. By the time it got cancelled, I doubt much of what I supplied remained, so I don't think you'll see my footprint there, heh.

Well, back then I wasn't that into writing, but I suppose helping on such things helped to spark it up I guess.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Alright, reached Frontier Village.

[Lightcosmo]

48 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

never tried out what did come out. Was it looking to be good?

Its... Alright.