Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I on the other hand have a great deal of Symphonia's OST still lodged in my memory

who doesnt like fighting of the spirit!? Xd

[null]

I need to play more Tales after Arise

Staring with Abyss, since I never finished it >.>

[Interdimensional Observer]

17 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

who doesnt like fighting of the spirit!? Xd

That, a certain other boss theme, A Snow Light (Flanoir theme), the Rheaird flight music, Full Force (the Sylvarant normal battle theme), and the Renegade base tune, are all happily stuck within me to the end.

Edited September 12, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Acacia Sgt]

Weeeeeeee

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, twilitfalchion said:

I need to play more Tales after Arise

Staring with Abyss, since I never finished it >.>

There is no shortage of options. A quick primer:

• Phantasia- The game that started it all! But, the only official English version is the GBA one, and that one can be "you can count the frames" slow. A fan translation of the PS1 port exists IIRC, but it's language can be... "11-year-old who has learned sex exists and is cool!" juvenile.  It's also not exactly the best aged in neither gameplay, nor story, nor characterization. 
• Destiny, Eternia, Destiny 2- The 2D combat Tales that followed Phantasia. Never played 'em myself, so I don't know much about them. Destiny 2 never left Japan, and Eternia was rebranded Destiny 2 confusingly enough in the West.
• Symphonia- The breakout title that went 3D. Pretty by-the-numbers story looking back on it, and maybe the cast is a bit too big. Best for puzzles in dungeons, which gradually died afterwards. But the first game to go 3D in combat, it has aged the worst in this regard.
• Rebirth, Legendia- I don't know much about these, other than being 2D Tales after the franchise went 3D. Rebirth is Japan-only.
• Vesperia- Loved by some as the greatest Tales. Me, I'm not hot on its story, and overall the cast has highs and lows, I find Abyss and Symphonia to have smoother ones. Fairly similar to Abyss in combat.
• Tempest, Innocence, Hearts- Portable Tales, all very inaccessible. Tempest and Innocence are Japan-only, Hearts's Vita version is its sole English one. Tempest was so bad that they downgraded it to an "escort" -meaning "spinoff"- title.
• Graces- The gameplay alone is good, quite loved by some, and it makes itself fairly distinct from Symphonia-Abyss-Vesperia. Story winds up being incredibly safe and unimaginative, despite the interesting premise. The cast is lacking by Tales standards.
• Xillia- Interesting choice of dual protagonists, although the story differences are mostly minor outside of three rather small sections of the story. I liked it overall.
• Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, and Xillia 2- Sequels to games that did not strictly require them from a story perspective. The old crews return, but the focus gets placed on new playable characters, a spineless moody boy & a girl who adores him in the first case, a silent male protagonist and NPC girl in the second. Asset recycling happens in the former case, I haven't played the second, but I'd expect some recycling there too. These have their defenders, like all games do, but tend to get flak.
• Zestiria- Usually heavily criticized for its gameplay. The cast and story haven't gotten much love either from what I've glimpsed.

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

• Phantasia- The game that started it all! But, the only official English version is the GBA one, and that one can be "you can count the frames" slow. A fan translation of the PS1 port exists IIRC, but it's language can be... "11-year-old who has learned sex exists and is cool!" juvenile.  It's also not exactly the best aged in neither gameplay, nor story, nor characterization. 

Yeah, just to clarify, the infamous fan translation was for the SNES version. The PSX has more faithful and... tasteful fan translations.

Also, official and available, since the mobile port also got translated... but the less we speak of the mobile version the better. It was a travesty...

This just makes it more jarring that for all the remakes and ports Phantasia got over the years... we only got the worst ones...

Edited September 12, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Venger_06]

me irl rn

44 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

Staring with Abyss, since I never finished it >.>

Abyss za besto

10 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yeah, just to clarify, the infamous fan translation was for the SNES version. The PSX has more faithful and... tasteful fan translations.

The Snes one is fun

[Acacia Sgt]

Also, no Tales of Narikiri Dungeon game ever got translated! Also a bummer.

[Benice]

 

[Benice]

WHY IS THE SLOT CAR MUSIC SO GOOD?!

[Armagon]

Alright so CP in Arise is very cringe. I get that it basically serves as MP for healing and support artes but there is deadass no way to recover it without using items or resting at an inn. So guess who had to backtrack from the tower dungeon because they ran out of CP and could not progress because CP is also used as HMs essentially.

[Armagon]

Yeah, imma have to grind against Ganabelt here. I get him to half health and then he does is unavoidable cheat move and then it's just a loss from there.

[Benice]

When you remaster a game but add in a glitch that causes you to teleport out of the boss arena.

[Acacia Sgt]

Not yet midnight here, but it already is for most of my country, so might as well!

September 12, a day of Memorialization of the Saint Patrick's Battalion. Buckle up for this is a long one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Battalion

So, the Mexican-American War... not much to be said about it, at least for now, but even as it waged on it had been a very controversial subject in the US. One of the consequences of this was the deserters. Suffice to say, back then, and sometimes even today, if you weren't a WASP in the US, you might as well be a nobody. Unless you were a slave, in which case you were property. As such, it should not come to a surprise when quite a few number of soldiers found themselves deserting the US Army... into the Mexican one. Thus the Saint Patrick's Battalion was born, led by John Riley. Composed mainly of Irish, hence the name, it also included other groups including but not limited to French, Germans, Swiss, Poles, Italians, and I believe even some escapee slaves. There were a few reasons for this. Chief among them... religious differences. Most if not all of these deserters were Catholics, who had suffered various degrees of discrimination from the Protestant US... and also for not being Anglos... and some of them like the Italians and Poles weren't even considered White back then. So basically, for being non-WASP's. Second, some had no former allegiance to the US... because there was none to begin with. Many of them were immigrants conscripted into the army almost as soon they had disembarked from the ships they had arrived from. So much for the Land of Opportunity... to die. Third, another factor was the... less than stellar conduct of the American soldiers, who would discriminately kill civilians, scalp some, and even raped the women. Such appalling behavior wasn't exactly an invitation to stay with them. But the largest factor that invited them to desert, and the reason why it was the Irishmen who made the bulk of the deserters, was... the war was hitting too close to home. An Anglo Protestant country attacking their Catholic neighbor? Yeah, the Irish totally identified with that. Thus the San Patricios came to be.

The battalion only fought in like about five battles in the entire war, but they gave as good as they got. Their last stand was at the convent of Churubusco in late August 1847, and yes, I do mean last stand, for once the American forces won the battle, the battalion was scattered. Many managed to flee, but others were captured. Branded as deserters (literally, branded with hot iron a D on their cheeks), those that deserted before the war began were whipped but otherwise let go after the war ended, while those that deserted afterwards... were executed by hanging. Though some scattered executions happened through early September, it was about the 12th and 13th that the execution was done in bulk. The nooses were set up so they'd have a direct view of Chapultepec Castle, right as it was under siege. The moment the American Flag was being hoisted up at the castle... the deed was carried. This was done deliberately so the sight of the flag rising atop the castle would be the last thing they'd ever see in life.

The battalion was disbanded not long after the war. While some the survivors did returned to the US, many stayed here in Mexico instead. The Mexican government had promised them lands and money to settle down for their services (and as an enticement to defect), and while not all of the grants were given, many did. As such, every September 12 is a day of commemoration of the foreigners that came to our aid... when no one else did. The San Patricios are thus a symbol of that. I say a day of commemoration since there's two of them. The other being, naturally, March 17. As such, my pfp is the symbol used in the battalion's flag. The harp with the label "Ireland Forever" under it. The Irish may have been far from their homeland, but saw the Mexicans as being of similar kin, and fought with them for what would've been their home far from home threatened by the usual adversaries. Thus, their service, and that of the other groups, is not to be forgotten.

To wrap this up, a music video of a song I like that is about the Battalion.

The clips are taken from a movie about the same.

[Shrimpica]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Yeah, imma have to grind against Ganabelt here. I get him to half health and then he does is unavoidable cheat move and then it's just a loss from there.

?

After half health a cutscene should happen, and his ''cheat'' move he only does at like 2k HP and you have alot of time where he charges it and for you to burst him down

Edited September 12, 2021 by Shrimperor

[Shrimpica]

[Saint Rubenio]

7 hours ago, Sooks said:

The finale of Omori really is true kino, Ruben was right.

See, everyone? Endorsement! It's not just me!

7 hours ago, Sooks said:

Ohhhh, so that’s the toy box. And all this time I was thinking it was a choice.

Game good.

Spoiler

I didn't want to say this before so I wouldn't clue you in, but... If you examine walls or stuff that doesn't have any relevance, the game doesn't say anything.

However, if you examine that particular part of the wall, a textbox pops up saying "there is nothing there." I thought that was suspicious, and was convinced there'd be something there at some point.

....which makes it doubly stupid that, when I ran into the jumpscare, I completely forgot and just ate it lol.

 

6 hours ago, Sooks said:

Wait, what? That’s it? That’s the end? I mean, don’t get me wrong, that was all incredible, but I would have put that fade to black a little later.

Spoiler

The reactions aren't important. It's the fact that he finally did it.

Quote

@Saint Rubenio

ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE OMORI PLOT SPOILERS, LIKE RUINS THE ENTIRE PLOT IF YOU READ THEM TIER SPOILERS

Well okay, maybe it’s not that big, it wouldn’t ruin the plot, but all of you should absolutely experience this for yourself.

I concur. There even is a good ending, if you're worried about the depression!

Quote

  Hide contents

The ending I got started with Omori in the hospital, surrounded by flowers because I got the universally loved achievement, meaning I got every flower from every NPC that I could. After leaving the room, I eventually came across a hallway where dreamland Hero, Kel and Aubrey walked one way and dreamland Basil (the shadow version) walked another. I followed dreamland shadow Basil to the bottom of that direction, where actual Basil stood outside of a door, so I opened that one. When Sunny went in, Aubrey, Kel and Hero were standing at Basil’s bedside and the screen cut to Sunny, then went black while saying “I have something to tell you” and that was it. That was the ending. The credits rolled, and after that a little cutscene played that showed Sunny with the eye monster behind him, smiling at Basil, who had the tentacle shadow monster thing behind him on his pillow. Basil smiled back and then it disappeared. Was that the bonus scene for watering the flowers? I mean it involved Basil and came after the credits. Anyway, that was the ending. So was that the best one? It seemed good, at least, but considering the cut to black I can’t imagine it getting any better than that.

That whole section was incredible. I can’t really say a lot about any specific part, because I would really just say “it’s good” in a longer way. My favorite part was walking around and getting the photos that showed what really happened to Mari, that section was phenomenal in every sense of the word. The fight against Omori was really good too.

Also Ruben, you madman, I don’t know if you remember, but way back when I was considering playing the game after around the 5th time you mentioned the time you stayed up until 2 am playing it, I said I read a spoiler for the game and that it was that the main character pushed his sister down the stairs and she died from her injuries, but I was a little shaky on who specifically was involved (I was sure on the stairs part) because I read two different spoilers. That was the big spoiler reveal of the plot, and I read it before ever touching the game. I asked if that spoiler was a big deal, and after you dodging the question twice you said it was wrong and that she killed herself. The crazy part is that I believed you! You’d think I would have learned not to do that… but anyway, yeah, looking back that was awesome, so thanks.

Looking at my achievements I have one called “One more day…” that says “reach the good ending” so I guess I got the best ending? Maybe possibly?

Oh also, now that I feel kind of a little certain that I got the best ending, what was that choice you were talking about that you said I had a high chance of messing up? Prepare for a lot more Omori questions when you respond to this, by the way. I’m curious about like every alternate path.

 

Spoiler

Yep, that's the best ending. Well done on the cheevo!

Remember when you were so convinced Sunny would end up in the hospital due to self harm? Looks like you didn't count on Basil's gardening shears. That is such a brutal scene.

But yes, this is the best ending. Sunny decided to stop running from his past and confess. How his friends react isn't revealed, and really, it's up to you to decide how you believe they will react. It's not important. The game is about suppressing your emotions and running from your mistakes. As he stops doing that, Sunny's character arc comes to a perfect close. Watching Hero have a mental breakdown would only make things unnecessarily sad.

And yes, I do remember how I lied to you. I remember quite well. I'll admit, when you weren't convinced by me dodging the question, I panicked a bit. So I decided to try a bit of a gamble - lying to your face in order to steer you into believing the red herring like the rest of us. I hoped the game telling you she committed suicide early on would confirm the lie in your mind and make you forget about the spoiler.

I am so glad it worked. I learned telling lies was bad in preschool, but... Well, the end justifies the means. Or something.

I'm not sure when I ever told you there was a high chance you'd mess something up. I didn't intend to, so either you misinterpreted me or I expressed myself poorly. But if you're curious, I can tell you about the bad endings... Later. I'm on my phone now. Typing out all of these paragraphs has been tiresome enough. But well, I had to say something as soon as I read your final impressions.

...oh, and yes, the scene with Sunny and Basil at the end is the secret scene. You did it after all!

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Saint Rubenio

[Shrimpica]

Young bro: ''Shrimpy are you a weeb?''

Me: ''Wut''

Him: ''Ya know, you always play that chess like game and then it zooms in to anime girls on horses''

 

Anyway, Super famous Tales Arte, Arise Edition

Spoiler

Super long cast time tho

Edited September 12, 2021 by Shrimperor

[Saint Rubenio]

6 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Young bro: ''Shrimpy are you a weeb?''

Me: ''Wut''

Him: ''Ya know, you always play that chess like game and then it zooms in to anime girls on horses''

He's got you there.

[Lightcosmo]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Zestiria- Usually heavily criticized for its gameplay. The cast and story haven't gotten much love either from what I've glimpsed.

I can attest to the poor gameplay part, that game's camera has to be one of the worst i've ever seen. Some battles the player literally cannot even see what's going on because the camera is far too zoomed in on a wall or something and you can't exactly resest it. (at least on steam i couldn't).

[Sooks]

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

See, everyone? Endorsement! It's not just me!

Yeah, and I’m not the one that’s known as the contrarian of teehee so it can actually be trusted now.

Quote

  Hide contents

I didn't want to say this before so I wouldn't clue you in, but... If you examine walls or stuff that doesn't have any relevance, the game doesn't say anything.

However, if you examine that particular part of the wall, a textbox pops up saying "there is nothing there." I thought that was suspicious, and was convinced there'd be something there at some point.

....which makes it doubly stupid that, when I ran into the jumpscare, I completely forgot and just ate it lol.

Spoiler

I actually knew that, discovered it in my play through. But I thought it was just related to the jumpscare and didn’t think anything much of it.

Quote

  Hide contents

The reactions aren't important. It's the fact that he finally did it.

Spoiler

I mean, that’s true, but…

Quote

I concur. There even is a good ending, if you're worried about the depression!

You know, I didn’t think about this while I was playing because I was convinced that I was going to get a horrible ending, but after the fact I realized that the story really was depression. Like even on paper the core plot was just so depressing, but I hadn’t thought about it, so the emotions hit me after the fact.

Game good though.

Quote

  Hide contents

Yep, that's the best ending. Well done on the cheevo!

Remember when you were so convinced Sunny would end up in the hospital due to self harm? Looks like you didn't count on Basil's gardening shears. That is such a brutal scene.

But yes, this is the best ending. Sunny decided to stop running from his past and confess. How his friends react isn't revealed, and really, it's up to you to decide how you believe they will react. It's not important. The game is about suppressing your emotions and running from your mistakes. As he stops doing that, Sunny's character arc comes to a perfect close. Watching Hero have a mental breakdown would only make things unnecessarily sad.

 

Fine, those are good points. Yeah leave it up to Ruben to successfully defend Omori, you are right.

Quote

Spoiler

And yes, I do remember how I lied to you. I remember quite well. I'll admit, when you weren't convinced by me dodging the question, I panicked a bit. So I decided to try a bit of a gamble - lying to your face in order to steer you into believing the red herring like the rest of us. I hoped the game telling you she committed suicide early on would confirm the lie in your mind and make you forget about the spoiler.

I am so glad it worked. I learned telling lies was bad in preschool, but... Well, the end justifies the means. Or something.

Spoiler

It kind of did make me forget about it, only because I wasn’t sure on the specifics. When I was considering playing it, I think it had been a little while since I read it, which I was I shaky on the details. Luckily, the details I was shaky on was who was involved, but I was definitely sure that someone pushed someone down the stairs and they died. And I also read a second spoiler along with that (I don’t remember at all what it was now), which I think mentioned Mari as well. Which is why I think I believed you, I just assumed I misremembered. And since I didn’t see any possible way the stairs could fit in, I did just completely forget about it.

…until the part where you’re collecting photos of what really happened (aka the best scene in the game, seriously, so good) and when I got the first one that showed Sunny and Mari at the stairs I started internally screaming lol.

The game doesn’t tell you she committed suicide until the second day, and even then it’s only a moderate implication, not directly confirmed until the third day, so I was actually worried that knowing that was a big spoiler! Hah!

Quote

Spoiler

I'm not sure when I ever told you there was a high chance you'd mess something up. I didn't intend to, so either you misinterpreted me or I expressed myself poorly. But if you're curious, I can tell you about the bad endings... Later. I'm on my phone now. Typing out all of these paragraphs has been tiresome enough. But well, I had to say something as soon as I read your final impressions.

 

Spoiler

A little bit after I started playing the game I baselessly assumed you had made a horrible choice in Omori at some point and made fun of you for it, typical teehee fashion. After you understood the joke you said something about “Ohhh there was that one thing Sooks, how could you remind me, oh I hated that” and then when I joked I would get it right you said the odds weren’t high, and then later in white text you said “thought I was going to backtrack in the white text? No, I mean there’s a chance, but it’s not high” so yeah, unless you were joking and that completely flew over my head.

And yes, tell me about all of the alternate endings, please and thank you. If you want to anyway, I guess I can just Google them.

…but what’s the deal with the Hikikomori route? How on Earth can it properly function without the real life stuff?

Also, what actually happened when Basil and Sunny fought? I get that the monster things aren’t real, I think, or are a representation of something, but does that mean Sunny just went in there and beating the living daylights out of Basil or did all that stuff actually happen? I guess Sunny probably thought it did, maybe?

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Sooks

[Lightcosmo]

2 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

Anyway, Super famous Tales Arte, Arise Edition

So which character has Demon Fang this time?

[Armagon]

@twilitfalchion to add to Observer's breakdown of the series, Berseria, Zestiria's distant prequel, is well beloved by fans. Me personally, the plot itself is whatever but the characters are pretty good. Gameplay-wise, it's the first Tales game to ditch the LMBS style of gameplay (the whole "3D ARPG is actually 2D") in favor of a more traditional ARPG battle system. It's not as good as Arise but that's because Arise refined it.

3 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

?

After half health a cutscene should happen, and his ''cheat'' move he only does at like 2k HP and you have alot of time where he charges it and for you to burst him down

Well the first time he does it, you just have to take the hit as I couldn't bring down his mirages fast enough.

After like two attempts, I grinded a level and made some light/dark resist charms and put them on Shionne and Rinwell. There, I won finally.

17 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

So which character has Demon Fang this time?

Alphen.

[Lightcosmo]

Also: seeing as Tales of talk is on hand: my current Tales of character MC Tier list by gameplay:

Milla is the top, i love her melee/magic style coupled with her high speed/attack speed. Her damage output is very high overall, and with magic having no WT thanks to the skill Xillia added where magic cast time goes down everytime you chain a magic arte after an arte. The most enjoyable to play as Tales of character. Gorgeous animations and graphics to look at as well. XD And her gimmick of being able to use a more "physical" style magic gives her sooo many options in combat. i think it's called spirit artes?

Yuri is a very close second, having the most Badass MA to ever exist in Tales of. He has alot of Artes and most of them have use somewhere, so he doesn't get stale to play. His damage output his hilariously high and he wipes any one on one fight fairly easily. He is the only character to be able to chain pretty much any arte into another in Vesperia, so he gets points for that, too.

Jude is actually pretty decent to play as. Fairly good healer for a tank character as well. Very high speed and can dart around helping allies out which is fun. Artes chain fairly well as well so no plain combat. Again, as a more tank style MC, it's unique to him out of the ones i've played.

Lloyd First off, not related but his english VA is very relaxing, lmao. anyways, He has high attack speed and pretty nifty looking artes as well. i don't have much to say here besides he's fun to play because his fighting style is very... lifelike.

Luke: The FoF system gives him soooo many options, and his base artes being decent doesn't hurt. Now Luke i'd say is more offence than offence/speed AKA the powerhouse i guess. He works very well with any magic based character so he always has fun to use options in regards to FoF's. His artes can be hard to find around the world, though.

Velvet: Her gimmick is pretty well done, i can't lie. Changing her finishing arte and the bonuses she gains while fighting (X) type of enemy is neat. And the whole "risk" factor tied to it is neat as well. Her artes take some effort to get down as she kinda flies all over, though. Strongest unit in the game by quite a margin, sadly.

Asbel: This is where it goes downhill, lmao. His artes... are a bit too slow, they usually end up getting beaten out, or the enemy just gets out of the way. His damage is alright, but not what it should be.

Sorey: Yeah... he's just not good imo. His artes are just... plain, and the animations are janky as hell. 

Edited September 12, 2021 by lightcosmo

[Shrimpica]

20 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Well the first time he does it, you just have to take the hit as I couldn't bring down his mirages fast enough.

Oh you mean that attack i posted a while ago

Yeah i had to facetank it with light/dark resist charms

Mirages should've had like 50% less hp

Edited September 12, 2021 by Shrimperor