Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Armagon]

14 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

I was caught off guard by how well this fits with the gif.

[Dayni]

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nah, I was fine with the original. And I can bear with Nomura's character designs, from Shiki's accentuated "loin lines" to Neku's antiquated MP3 player sometimes mistaken for a women's hygiene product. 

  Not gonna lie, I had no idea that was supposed to be an mp3 player. I certainly didn't think that though.

I just remembered you felt awkward about the music moreso. And yes, I do have thoughts on that in Neo.

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

While that gaming laptop I'm still waiting on will cost a great deal, I'll grab NEO sometime later for sure. Along with Bravely Default 2, it's a Square game I've an interest, but not overt enthusiasm in getting.

It's probably out early 2022. The real thing to mention is that it's EGS exclusive. Whether that's permanent is where I'm curious.

As it stands the Switch version runs fine. Not fantastically, I've had some instances of slowdown in battle and the lower framerate in certain contexts is true, but it's not really caused me consternation. Again, I'll go into what does in the review. I'd probably say PS4 to those who can but I don't think there's that many here who have it.

[Spara]

3 hours ago, Dayni said:

  And to further wade in Battle for Wesnoth did day->night cycles first. Because of the alignment system being affected by this it's actually a big deal.

I assume it'd be spoilers, but does HSoS have maps decrease vision at night?

No, HSoS has no Fog mechanics. Also, I have BfW in my steam library, I just need to get around to playing it. 

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Blazer one-upped Kaga at his own game. Who woulda thought...

If Kaga didn't do it first, Blazer did (except with some story stuff in FE9 where IS did it first)

[Dayni]

1 minute ago, Spara said:

No, HSoS has no Fog mechanics. Also, I have BfW in my steam library, I just need to get around to playing it. 

Okay.

I just installed it from the software application on my OS when I did have it myself. There's also a lot of community mods for BfW as well, which can either be installed from the website or in game.

[Sooks]

Actually, the varl from Einartoft might survive. Maybe I will go for the same ending as last time.

[Saint Rubenio]

I like how casual everyone is about the horrible thing that happened. A heinous crime has been committed, someone is missing and everyone is like "hmmm this reminds me of a puzzle."

Also, I lost track of time lol. I usually dine between 20:00 and 20:30, but it's almost 21 and I was still here finding puzzles.

1 hour ago, lightcosmo said:

Damn, your right, I forgot! Sorry about that! 

No problem. Try to remember though, I'd really like to see it. Now that you've seen my team, it's only fair!

1 hour ago, Sooks said:

Huh, so Gunnulf doesn’t speak perfect English. I wonder what that means for him. It could imply his first language was another language, but iirc no languages other than horseborn have been mentioned existing in this universe. Maybe he wasn’t exposed to a lot of language growing up? But do varl even “grow up” if they were made directly by a god and don’t reproduce? We’re never told that baby varl are a thing, but they’re probably made fully mentally developed. Maybe. Hmm…

You know, now that you mention it, I'm not sure why Gunnulf's speech is weird like that. Considering the idea of alternative languages is never brought up, I'm thinking Gunnulf might just have a speech impediment.

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Tbh, Valkyria Chronicles' plots aren't that different from what's in Fire Emblem (well VC1 and 4 anyway).

4 is a bit more anime but the stories are pretty grounded. Also most of the villains suck, just in like Fire Emblem.

Wait, wait, hold up a moment. I need a longer answer here. Do they suck like most of them where they're just kinda boring, or do they suck like Garon where they become the funniest shit ever because they're so incredibly bad?

...I kinda hope it's the latter. It would speak poorly of the quality of VC's writing, but Garon is the best, so...

1 hour ago, Sooks said:

Gunnulf and Alette are so OP.

Have you even gotten Overwatch yet? You don't know what OP means until Alette gets Overwatch.

10 minutes ago, Spara said:

No, HSoS has no Fog mechanics. Also, I have BfW in my steam library, I just need to get around to playing it. 

Another reason we need a translation for it.

10 minutes ago, Spara said:

If Kaga didn't do it first, Blazer did

No kidding. The Shura choice, day and night cycle, dancer lord, heavily armored man named Frederick, brave tomes, edgelord main character... Blazer and Kaga are where it's at!

10 minutes ago, Spara said:

(except with some story stuff in FE9 where IS did it first)

The bad parts?

[Sooks]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Have you even gotten Overwatch yet? You don't know what OP means until Alette gets Overwatch.

That sounds vaguely familiar but I don’t quite remember what it is. Did Oddleif get it or something?

[Spara]

9 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The bad parts?

I mean, FE9 may have a pretty lame set of lategame maps, but the story is at least good. Plus, with the whole merchant group, I guess IS was first in doing fleshed out vendor NPCs as characters not named Anna.

[Interdimensional Observer]

I finally got to Byzantine Emperor Basil II, I'd been waiting for it. The man I've seen mentioned offhand as "After Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Empire ~900 years, including some moments of strength, like Basil II".

Honestly, it was a bit of a letdown, his epitaph's claims are overblown. Basil II's nickname is "the Bulgar-Slayer", which he got from writing really funny poetry that made Bulgarians keel over with laughter -or engaging in acts such as blinding 99 in every 100 of the 15000 Bulgarian captives he had, leaving the remaining individuals to guide the unseeing. I can't remember which. But the Bulgarian emperor had a heart attack two days after whatever the event was, maybe from the pure shock of what he was told.

And yet, the historian describes Basil II's reign as one of caution, he was a man at the top very reluctant to add any territory to his realm, despite having the well-oiled killing machine that could've gotten it. He, so it is written, wanted peaceful and loyal client states as neighbors, and an empire with secure boundaries. 

Considering Justinian I overreached nearly 500 years prior when he conquered Italy, some of Northern Africa west of Egypt, and a pinch of southern Spain, I can understand Basil's caution. And to his benefit, not overreaching limited his failures, which is good for the historical record. Basil's restrain is quite unusual to me, I had expected a world-conquerer.

His Civ VI incarnation is definitely inaccurately aggressive knowing this, thematically, Georgia is a much better fit for him. His immediate predecessor emperors Nikephoros II and particularly John I Tzimiskes had the impression of being much more expansionist and hence suited to the Civ VI version of Byzantium. 

 

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

It's probably out early 2022. The real thing to mention is that it's EGS exclusive. Whether that's permanent is where I'm curious.

I understand your error. I intend to get it on Switch. But the ~$1500 prior to taxes gaming laptop is going to chew up a lot of my gaming funds in the short term

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

Not gonna lie, I had no idea that was supposed to be an mp3 player. I certainly didn't think that though.

I think it is, what else could it be? The iPhone had been released but one month prior to TWEWY, so iPods and the like would've been how people listened to music (my how time passes!). And what is Neku's signature piece of attire, the thing Beat nicknames him for? Headphones, which are useless without a musical device. 

At least it isn't Devil Survivor 2, the game uses flip phones when it released in 2011, years into the rise of the smartphone. I don't get it. Particularly when the first Devil Survivor entrusted demon-summoning to not-Nintendo DSes, which still would've been in use and soon updated with nearly-visually-identical 3DSes.

 

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

I was caught off guard by how well this fits with the gif.

I'm not entirely sure, but I once saw it said in video comments that the M&L SS battle theme is a remix of the classic Starman/invincibility theme.

 

33 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also, I lost track of time lol. I usually dine between 20:00 and 20:30

Not the ordinary thing for me to see someone using military time. Although I am empathetic towards forever abandoning AM/PM in favor of it.

33 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Do they suck like most of them where they're just kinda boring

Sad it to say it, but the comments I've usually seen on it say it's more the boring type.

But, boring villains would almost certainly be better than you experiencing Valkyria Chronicles 2. It opted to use the ever-popular high school setting.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Saint Rubenio]

24 minutes ago, Sooks said:

That sounds vaguely familiar but I don’t quite remember what it is. Did Oddleif get it or something?

No, you must be mistaken. Overwatch is an ability that only Alette can get, and it makes her utterly broken.

That's the second redhead sniper in green robes that is overpowered and has an ability called Overwatch I've seen. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

18 minutes ago, Spara said:

I mean, FE9 may have a pretty lame set of lategame maps, but the story is at least good.

I'll have to take your word (and the fanbase as a whole's word) for it. Past the point where I quit in my run, my only exposure to FE9's story was a screenshot LP I read once a crapton of years ago. I can hardly remember any specific details.

18 minutes ago, Spara said:

Plus, with the whole merchant group, I guess IS was first in doing fleshed out vendor NPCs as characters not named Anna.

Yeah, that at least was neat. Fleshed out vendor NPCs is a neat idea.

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Not the ordinary thing for me to see someone using military time. Although I am empathetic towards forever abandoning AM/PM in favor of it.

Well, when talking I tend to use AM/PM but when typing I tend to use military time. I do feel military time is more self-explanatory.

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sad it to say it, but the comments I've usually seen on it say it's more the boring type.

Damnit, is it so difficult to find another villain that T-poses on top of a throne for no reason...?

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

But, boring villains would almost certainly be better than you experiencing Valkyria Chronicles 2.

Hey, now, let's have some faith, I'm sure it can't be that b--

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It opted to use the ever-popular high school setting.

 

[Acacia Sgt]

IDA School rules.

[Spara]

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

I'll have to take your word (and the fanbase as a whole's word) for it. Past the point where I quit in my run, my only exposure to FE9's story was a screenshot LP I read once a crapton of years ago. I can hardly remember any specific details.

How far did you get in that run? I can understand giving up on some it due to how easy it is. If only MM actually made enemies scarier past the earlygame instead of basically doubling their bulk. Thank you IS, very cool.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 minute ago, Spara said:

How far did you get in that run? I can understand giving up on some it due to how easy it is.

Without a King. That was the chapter where I finally went "wow, this is the most boring videogame I have ever played, let's go do something else."

Seems like I didn't have that much left of the game. 8 chapters, one of them a two-parter. But I honestly couldn't handle it anymore. The game was already kind of a slog, but around Crimea Marches my army became completely invincible and the game turned into the embodiment of boredom. Slow, too, oh so slow.

1 minute ago, Spara said:

If only MM actually made enemies scarier past the earlygame instead of basically doubling their bulk. Thank you IS, very cool.

Yeah, at one point MM piqued my curiousity... Until I discovered that it was the exact same thing, except there's twice the enemies, so the boredom lasts two hours instead of one, which was already way too much. No, thanks.

[Spara]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Without a King. That was the chapter where I finally went "wow, this is the most boring videogame I have ever played, let's go do something else."

And to think that chapter is one of the better ones in the lategame. Mainly for the first parting forcing you to play at least somewhat fast to not get slept and make your pace absolutely glacial. Trust me, you lucked out in getting to avoid maps like the PoR Pitfall Bridge (which has the same amount of pitfalls as the RD version, but you're not guaranteed fliers to help with the pitfall stuff and is loaded with killer ballistae instead of just stonehoists. It's a slog), the Boulder Map, or Clash.

[Dayni]

Seems accurate.

11 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I understand your error. I intend to get it on Switch. But the ~$1500 prior to taxes gaming laptop is going to chew up a lot of my gaming funds in the short term

When you said you were getting a pretty high end laptop, I felt it right to mention it had a PC version announced.

I assume you have the library for it though?

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think it is, what else could it be? The iPhone had been released but one month prior to TWEWY, so iPods and the like would've been how people listened to music (my how time passes!). And what is Neku's signature piece of attire, the thing Beat nicknames him for? Headphones, which are useless without a musical device. 

At least it isn't Devil Survivor 2, the game uses flip phones when it released in 2011, years into the rise of the smartphone. I don't get it. Particularly when the first Devil Survivor entrusted demon-summoning to not-Nintendo DSes, which still would've been in use and soon updated with nearly-visually-identical 3DSes.

I just wasn't sure what it was. Come to think of it, Neku's there with wireless headphones in 2007, pretty uncommon I'd expect.

2011 was the point where I had a low end smartphone, my previous old-style Nokia having suffered a case of entering the sea.

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I finally got to Byzantine Emperor Basil II, I'd been waiting for it. The man I've seen mentioned offhand as "After Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Empire ~900 years, including some moments of strength, like Basil II".

Honestly, it was a bit of a letdown, his epitaph's claims are overblown. Basil II's nickname is "the Bulgar-Slayer", which he got from writing really funny poetry that made Bulgarians keel over with laughter -or engaging in acts such as blinding 99 in every 100 of the 15000 Bulgarian captives he had, leaving the remaining individuals to guide the unseeing. I can't remember which. But the Bulgarian emperor had a heart attack two days after whatever the event was, maybe from the pure shock of what he was told.

And yet, the historian describes Basil II's reign as one of caution, he was a man at the top very reluctant to add any territory to his realm, despite having the well-oiled killing machine that could've gotten it. He, so it is written, wanted peaceful and loyal client states as neighbors, and an empire with secure boundaries. 

Considering Justinian I overreached nearly 500 years prior when he conquered Italy, some of Northern Africa west of Egypt, and a pinch of southern Spain, I can understand Basil's caution. And to his benefit, not overreaching limited his failures, which is good for the historical record. Basil's restrain is quite unusual to me, I had expected a world-conquerer.

His Civ VI incarnation is definitely inaccurately aggressive knowing this, thematically, Georgia is a much better fit for him. His immediate predecessor emperors Nikephoros II and particularly John I Tzimiskes had the impression of being much more expansionist and hence suited to the Civ VI version of Byzantium.

He's definitely nicknamed that for the blinding unless you're joking on purpose.

I forgot the Byzantines got as far as Spain. I really wouldn't think of that.

3 minutes ago, Spara said:

And to think that chapter is one of the better ones in the lategame. Mainly for the first parting forcing you to play at least somewhat fast to not get slept and make your pace absolutely glacial. Trust me, you lucked out in getting to avoid maps like the PoR Pitfall Bridge (which has the same amount of pitfalls as the RD version, but you're not guaranteed fliers to help with the pitfall stuff and is loaded with killer ballistae instead of just stonehoists. It's a slog), the Boulder Map, or Clash.

I didn't realise he hadn't even seen those maps.

@Saint Rubenio, I rescind your sainthood for not having the patience of a saint to face the pitfall map.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Spara said:

And to think that chapter is one of the better ones in the lategame. Mainly for the first parting forcing you to play at least somewhat fast to not get slept and make your pace absolutely glacial.

...What? I remember playing like, two turns of that map before having enough. It was the same as all the others: place my units forward, then watch the game play itself slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwly before doing the same thing again, over and over until everyone is dead. Add to that the narrow hallways preventing fast progress, and well... Yeah. I had enough.

2 minutes ago, Spara said:

Trust me, you lucked out in getting to avoid maps like the PoR Pitfall Bridge (which has the same amount of pitfalls as the RD version, but you're not guaranteed fliers to help with the pitfall stuff and is loaded with killer ballistae instead of just stonehoists. It's a slog), the Boulder Map, or Clash.

The RD version of the pitfalls was already boring, if the PoR version is even worse I 100% lucked out.

Just now, Dayni said:

I didn't realise he hadn't even seen those maps.

@Saint Rubenio, I rescind your sainthood for not having the patience of a saint to face the pitfall map.

Well, what can you do. I already call it the worst FE game I've ever played - imagine if I got there. It'd... still be the worst FE I've ever played, but probably even more so. So let's be glad I didn't get there, eh?

[Acacia Sgt]

Does that mean he missed best boss?

Neo General Bolt Axe

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Does that mean he missed best boss?

I eventually discovered the meme while reading a LP.

...Of the fangame FE Green.

[Spara]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...What? I remember playing like, two turns of that map before having enough. It was the same as all the others: place my units forward, then watch the game play itself slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwly before doing the same thing again, over and over until everyone is dead. Add to that the narrow hallways preventing fast progress, and well... Yeah. I had enough.

Maybe you just didn't get hit by them, or my army was res-screwed, or I just had shit luck. But I remember one of my units getting slept turn 1 and going "oh better pick up the pace here." Or maybe it was turn 2. Either way, that map actually tries to threaten you and has treasure for side objectives, even if that's a pretty overplayed one.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Spara

[Sooks]

Chapter 6 completed. I was originally going to abandon the dredge baby since I’m making different choices but I just couldn’t do it. Since I’m getting all 5 trips to Arberrang (or, will try to), having the dredge there might actually make a difference, so I probably should open the gate again this time.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Sooks

[Saint Rubenio]

7 minutes ago, Spara said:

Maybe you just didn't get hit by them, or my army was res-screwed, or I just had shit luck. But I remember one of my units getting slept turn 1 and going "oh better pick up the pace here." Or maybe it was turn 2. Either way, that map actually tries to threaten you and has treasure for side objectives, even if that's a pretty overplayed one.

Hell if I know, to be honest. I might've gotten hit by the sleep staff, but my entire army was invincible. One more or less made no difference, it was a complete bore either way. Most likely I didn't even care. Though to be fair, I quit really early into the map, when I saw it was going to be just another slideshow.

5 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Chapter 6 completed. I was originally going to abandon the dredge baby since I’m making different choices but I just couldn’t do it. Since I’m getting all 5 trips to Arberrang (or, will try to), having the dredge there might actually make a difference, so I probably should open the gate again this time.

Getting all five trips was easy in my experience. Well, to be fair, it did help that, despite being on a second run and doing everything much better (or so I thought), I got... half a day more than in my first run. So I just did a few more "slow" options than I did in my first run and that was enough.

The fifth return is super epic. Look forward to that.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

. A heinous crime has been committed, someone is missing and everyone is like "hmmm this reminds me of a puzzle."

Perfectly normal reaction. I mean, when a man falls into a river, what you have to do is build the helicopter to rescue him. Just like a puzzle.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wait, wait, hold up a moment. I need a longer answer here. Do they suck like most of them where they're just kinda boring, or do they suck like Garon where they become the funniest shit ever because they're so incredibly bad?

...I kinda hope it's the latter. It would speak poorly of the quality of VC's writing, but Garon is the best, so...

Well the thing is, when your villains are basically just Nazis (Valkyria Chronicles takes place in a parallel Earth version of WW2), they kinda just automatically fall into the badly written section.

....then again JoJo Part 2 does have Stroheim and I still don't know how they made a Nazi both well written and actually likable so Valkyria Chronicles has no excuse now, does it?

Anyways, there's like three decent-to-good villains in the series (well the games I played anyways) and all three aren't Nazis. One of them has enough gigachad energy that he is able to make his troops actually fireproof.

[Sooks]

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Getting all five trips was easy in my experience. Well, to be fair, it did help that, despite being on a second run and doing everything much better (or so I thought), I got... half a day more than in my first run. So I just did a few more "slow" options than I did in my first run and that was enough.

Yeah, that was the plan. I’m not gonna try to sabotage myself with my clansmen or fighters or supplies or anything like that, because I don’t want to go so overboard that I can’t make it to the tower in time.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Sooks

[Venger_06]

57 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's the second redhead sniper in green robes that is overpowered and has an ability called Overwatch I've seen. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

Who's the first?

[Interdimensional Observer]

43 minutes ago, Dayni said:

He's definitely nicknamed that for the blinding unless you're joking on purpose.

I forgot the Byzantines got as far as Spain. I really wouldn't think of that.

Of course I was joking. There are very few reasons you'd get a nickname with "-Slayer" in it.

Basil II had been born royal and was something of a hedonist into his late-20s. But once his two successful elder co-emperors had both passed on, internal conflict over who controlled the puppet monarch ended with him taking control of the government himself. And once he did, he would have no palace intrigue, he never married, possibly thinking a wife would be a reservoir of conspiracy theories. Basil II was suspicious of letting any successful general or civil administrator amass too much power. He tried to curtail the growth of a wealthy and powerful elite of large landowners like his predecessors, and it seems to have worked -for now. Basil II was cruel and he was vengeful, but not rendered foolish with rage.

As for Byzantine Spain, it wasn't that significant.

Maybe 1/5th of the Iberian Peninsula. Visigothic Spain had internal turmoil at the time, and after Justinian and the end to the Visigothic civil warring, the bulge inland went goodbye. The province lasted, perhaps miraculously, for 70 years.

 

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Well the thing is, when your villains are basically just Nazis (Valkyria Chronicles takes place in a parallel Earth version of WW2), they kinda just automatically fall into the badly written section.

Obviously, the solution is to go to the opposite end of the totalitarian spectrum and institute a Proletarian Revolution. -Or so my fanfict ideas have gone.

More likely given snippets of text in VC4, the next game is total change of scenery. From Belgians and Dutch in British service fighting Germano-Russians in the tundra, to WWII's Pacific theater. Good luck explaining the presence of titular Valkyrurs out there. America maybe b/c immigration from Scandinavia, but barring artificial Valkyria creation, what would the lore excuse be for Japanese ones?

 

4 minutes ago, Ghost_06_ said:

Who's the first?

Berwick Saga's Sylvis I take it.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer