Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Punished Dayni]

15 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Then, upon coming back, I find that there's a random bed in the institute in which I can sleep to restore my pokes. Thanks a lot, game. Truly appreciate it.

I feel like there's at least one of these per game and few are as useful as here.

[Saint Rubenio]

Okay, so gym leader Alana has fallen. It was not as easy as Norman, but it was still very easy.

Can I get my ball-crushing difficult gym leaders back, please? This game is starting to become a chore.

2 minutes ago, Dayni said:

I feel like there's at least one of these per game and few are as useful as here.

Mighty good it did me!

[Codename Shrimp]

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Can I get my ball-crushing difficult gym leaders back, please?

you are playing Pokemon

[Saint Rubenio]

Just now, Shrimpolaris said:

you are playing Pokemon

I know, but... Damnit, Erico and Candela kicked my ass. Maybe I need to be even more underlevelled...

[Codename Shrimp]

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

I know, but... Damnit, Erico and Candela kicked my ass. Maybe I need to be even more underlevelled...

Or

Play mods. There're quite a few mods that up the difficulty.

Some in a good way, many in a bullshit way lol

[Saint Rubenio]

Just now, Shrimpolaris said:

Or

Play mods. There're quite a few mods that up the difficulty.

Some in a good way, many in a bullshit way lol

Too late for that. Timer says I've 30 hours on this game. I doubt that's true, speed up is probably messing with the ingame timer, but... Well, I'm not going to reset five gyms into the game for a difficulty mod.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Seazas said:

That logic would work if it weren't for the fact that Alm is still heavily implied to be stuck in dragon's maw since Jedah still brings Alm up like in Gaiden. The story never mentions Alm backtracking, it's just an attempted QOL gameplay change. There are two instances of him being bailed out by Celica in two different ways. SOV didn't take it away, the factor is still there if Jedah's going to randomly mention Alm like in Gaiden. They put focus on other things now too since in Gaiden: it is mentioned in dialogue that Celica's main mission is still to bring back Mila at all costs.

No, there's no implication of such in SoV. In fact, Jedah's talk about Celica sacrificing herself to save Alm's life is removed.

Judah:
Hehehe… Cellica.
Alm’s trapped in Dragon Mountain. You must want to save him.
If that’s so, then follow after me.
If you offer yourselves as sacrifices to Lord Doma, Alm’s path shall also open up once more!

Compared to:

Jedah: Heh heh heh, Your lamentations are wasted, child. If you truly wish for her release, you know what must be done. You must offer up your soul to Lord Duma!

SoV changed the context of her sacrifice. It's aimed more to Jedah convincing her it's to the gods' salvation. Something it's very possible he too is misguided upon. His desire to save Duma is genuine, but would his plan had worked? Who knows! It's a good change, in my opinion, as it portrays Jedah and Celica as having similar but ultimately misguided views of the gods needing to continue coddling humanity; but it doesn't change the fact it does remove it being done for Alm's imminent safety from the equation. It relegates it to more of a side-benefit:

Jedah: I do. Which is exactly why your soul is required. It is rare and precious—born of Zofian royal blood and marked by the Brand. Such a soul could set Duma’s path to rights and ensure his survival. And with Mila restored to her place, both our peoples might be saved. As for the boy, Alm—if you do this, he could lay down his arms.

As it is, Jedah clears the road without forcing her to do anything but watch Alm continue towards his eventual battle against Rudolf. It changes the context of his words, basically. The suffering changes from "watch him fight for his life against hordes of undead and eventually succumb" to "watch him kill his own father," essentially.

1 hour ago, Seazas said:

Does the damsel stuff matter too much when Alm gets a similar treatment anyway? He gets his strength lessened rather than being peak male fantasy and had to get saved by her more than once. There's a balance here that I'm arguing about. Alm didn't just get good while Celica got bad. Celica got to have impactful things as a character that are equal to Alm's.

They don't get similar treatments. In Gaiden, each of Alm and Celica are only ever in distress once, and each needs the other to save them. That's a balance. SoV replaces Alm's situation where Celica's help is downplayed. It's less active, less conscious. Meanwhile Celica instead has more instances of distress added to her belt, and adding a second protector to come to her rescue. Far from balance, their situation become imbalanced instead. Celica no longer gets to actively save Alm's life, while becoming the subject of rescue more times than before. Meanwhile, Alm trades his moment of distress from the Dragon's Maw to the Rigelian Border, where Celica's role was made less active, all while still getting to save her directly.

1 hour ago, Seazas said:

That was a mistake, I meant "only Alm benefitted". You seem to argue that's the case and his route got massive positive changes and Celica's are negative... which I can't agree with. There's so many good things that got underappreciated or ignored for the sake of negativity.

Alm certainly has a more positive shift than Celica. The fleshing out of his character to make him less "invincible hero" actually gives him more agency, not less. Like the agency of failure. The mistakes he can commit are more addressed compared to Gaiden. But as it is, the consequences are never dire. The only infighting he causes within the Deliverace is Fernand. While he now has battles in which he struggles, he still comes through. The people doubting him get proven otherwise in the end. Even Clive's outburst should Mathilda die Alm is able to handle tactfully.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Acacia Sgt

[Sooks]

@Dayni Now that I think I’m pretty set on Aesfrost (though will still play both), I’m curious what you thought was such an easy one to for and why. I’m pretty sure I got all the secret info since every dialogue option was unlocked during persuasion, and I also talked to literally anyone.

[Benice]

Man, migranes are quite the pain...

[Benice]

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Too late for that. Timer says I've 30 hours on this game. I doubt that's true, speed up is probably messing with the ingame timer, but... Well, I'm not going to reset five gyms into the game for a difficulty mod.

Wanna know a JRPG that actually has both really challenging bosses and Preparing to Suck?

Nobody tell him that LAd's difficulty spie is in the last 1/4 of the game....

[Saint Rubenio]

Just now, Benice said:

Wanna know a JRPG that actually has both really challenging bosses and Preparing to Suck?

Berwick Saga 2: Revenge of the Derrick?

Just now, Benice said:

Nobody tell him that LAd's difficulty spie is in the last 1/4 of the game....

Oh, dear... That's an unfortunate bit of blank space.

[Seazas]

29 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

No, there's no implication of such in SoV. In fact, Jedah's talk about Celica sacrificing herself to save Alm's life is removed.

Judah:
Hehehe… Cellica.
Alm’s trapped in Dragon Mountain. You must want to save him.
If that’s so, then follow after me.
If you offer yourselves as sacrifices to Lord Doma, Alm’s path shall also open up once more!

Compared to:

Jedah: Heh heh heh, Your lamentations are wasted, child. If you truly wish for her release, you know what must be done. You must offer up your soul to Lord Duma!

SoV changed the context of her sacrifice. It's aimed more to Jedah convincing her it's to the gods' salvation. Something it's very possible he too is misguided upon. His desire to save Duma is genuine, but would his plan had worked? Who knows! It's a good change, in my opinion, as it portrays Jedah and Celica as having similar but ultimately misguided views of the gods needing to continue coddling humanity; but it doesn't change the fact it does remove it being done for Alm's imminent safety from the equation. It relegates it to more of a side-benefit:

Jedah: I do. Which is exactly why your soul is required. It is rare and precious—born of Zofian royal blood and marked by the Brand. Such a soul could set Duma’s path to rights and ensure his survival. And with Mila restored to her place, both our peoples might be saved. As for the boy, Alm—if you do this, he could lay down his arms.

As it is, Jedah clears the road without forcing her to do anything but watch Alm continue towards his eventual battle against Rudolf. It changes the context of his words, basically. The suffering changes from "watch him fight for his life against hordes of undead and eventually succumb" to "watch him kill his own father," essentially.

They don't get similar treatments. In Gaiden, each of Alm and Celica are only ever in distress once, and each needs the other to save them. That's a balance. SoV replaces Alm's situation where Celica's help is downplayed. It's less active, less conscious. Meanwhile Celica instead has more instances of distress added to her belt, and adding a second protector to come to her rescue. Far from balance, their situation become imbalanced instead. Celica no longer gets to actively save Alm's life, while becoming the subject of rescue more times than before. Meanwhile, Alm trades his moment of distress from the Dragon's Maw to the Rigelian Border, where Celica's role was made less active, all while still getting to save her directly.

Alm certainly has a more positive shift than Celica. The fleshing out of his character to make him less "invincible hero" actually gives him more agency, not less. Like the agency of failure. The mistakes he can commit are more addressed compared to Gaiden. But as it is, the consequences are never dire. The only infighting he causes within the Deliverace is Fernand. While he now has battles in which he struggles, he still comes through. The people doubting him get proven otherwise in the end. Even Clive's outburst should Mathilda die Alm is able to handle tactfully.

Sure the benefit for saving Alm is sidelined but it's still important for him to be saved. He couldn't continue his journey and was kind of a sitting duck either way. And honestly? Dragons Maw didn't need extensive focus, it's not a punishment for Alm since it was out of his control. He didn't get in trouble from his own rash decision making like how approaching Nuibaba put him in a disadvantage. Or how Celica in Gaiden made the deal that put her in peril. 

Alm doesn't trade it. That's a second time he gets put in danger. He also gets his strength and feats downscaled to turn to more of his allies like how Celica needs to turn to hers in the form of Conrad. Alm is made to struggle more and his allies get credit than in Gaiden. Celica still actively saves Alm's life since the big reason she springs into action is because of that bad vision she saw in both Gaiden and SOV. Echoes even went the extra mile to confirm that without Celica, Alm would've died in the war. She still plays a heavy hand in promoting him and giving him the strength necessary to handle the trials ahead. 

Not at all. The positives are about equal, I've put an entire list of huge changes that benefitted Celica. It is undeniable that she got equivalent changes, with some being bigger than Alm's. Getting the entire lore changed to highlight how important Celica and Mila actually are is a pretty big deal.

Celica got a massive fleshing out of her character too just like Alm, she got a more prominent arc and a huge overhaul in the lore for Mila and Celica to get their deserved credit. Her actively talking and deciding things massively increases her agency if not more than Alm in a way since she does the ragtag Deliverance thing without the need of an army. Shadows of Valentia has went and extended how impressive it was for Celica to take down an entire army of pirates with just a few mages and mercs. Grieth even has a scene about the absurdity and it shows how ridiculously competent Celica is in combat and leading her allies. There's so many big changes. Mila also wasn't even directly shown in Gaiden like the way Duma was. Alm no longer has exclusivity for the big things in the world of Valentia. No more bullshit of him having an exclusive mark of destiny that brought Zeke, along with him having the lord prf weapon while Celica had nothing.

Celica gets her mark too and it ties into the world heavily in its own right. Celica's past and relationships gets significant more touchups, in Gaiden it was a complete one-sided benefit for Alm. We actively only saw Alm's side of the family while the king is off screened and we know a lot less about Celica's family and traumatizing events that led to her being on Novis. That is completely changed in SOV and we even see Celica's childhood multiple times. We see more of how much Liprica went through, we know how she looks like and we know a lot more about Lima and his impact on the world. That's not getting into Conrad and how he repurposes Halcyon to impact more people than just being at Alm's beck and call + we see his childhood with Celica. Which is great, more of Celica's past getting focused on.

With Shadows of Valentia's inclusion, it's the polar opposite of Gaiden. We know now more about Celica's true origins and background than we do with Alm's. We see Celica's parents and their lives, we have a direct sibling of Celica's being an active part of the party, and we see her childhood more than once in memory prisms if we don't count the prologue that applied to Celica and Alm equally. All the while we still don't even know who Alm's own mother is nor do we see her. That's a mystery.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Seazas

[Benice]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, dear... That's an unfortunate bit of blank space.

FRICK

Okay, there are a couple of hard bosses in the first part of the game, but it's good that the difficulty's not front-loaded, isn't it?

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Berwick Saga 2: Revenge of the Derrick?

If Berwick Saga 2 has a Vacuum that can run businesses, then yeah.

[Interdimensional Observer]

When a body receives fewer calories, it must prioritize essential life support systems over any function not strictly necessary for the body’s immediate survival. Sexual desire falls into the latter category, as does high-level abstract thought. A body that restricts food and increases exercise believes it is undergoing a famine, which is not an ideal time to reproduce.

I think I've lost my desire to lose weight. But then, doesn't excess fat decrease testosterone production?🤔

The Internet stuff you stumble into reading about when you feel like playing nothing, because you're too depressed about how pathetic you are. Which cyclically feeds into itself.

[Saint Rubenio]

9 minutes ago, Benice said:

FRICK

Okay, there are a couple of hard bosses in the first part of the game, but it's good that the difficulty's not front-loaded, isn't it?

Hmmmmm...

9 minutes ago, Benice said:

If Berwick Saga 2 has a Vacuum that can run businesses, then yeah.

Yakuza is such a bizarre thing.

[Punished Dayni]

29 minutes ago, Sooks said:

@Dayni Now that I think I’m pretty set on Aesfrost (though will still play both), I’m curious what you thought was such an easy one to for and why. I’m pretty sure I got all the secret info since every dialogue option was unlocked during persuasion, and I also talked to literally anyone.

Me deciding how I'd handle that vote and which decision I'd go for. Kinda RP'd it.

The reasons I went for Hyzante was based on the character interactions Frederica had with her siblings alongside it looking like Wolffort had less direct interactions with figures there based on geography and the political interactions going on between Aesfrost and Glenbrook. i.e. I played it like Seranoa was trying to work around his betrothed (who wanted to go there to learn of her mother's past and due to recent interactions with family wouldn't be thrilled to deal with the twins if she can help it) and get familiar with people he was less likely to have had interactions with politically to improve relations. I wish I could say the other demo didn't influence things but that was also a factor.

It does seem like the info was easy enough to get for this one, wonder how tricky it might get.

21 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think I've lost my desire to lose weight. But then, doesn't excess fat decrease testosterone production?🤔

It's not mutually exclusive. One is due to a shift in hormone production, the other is because in a famine context the body is focusing on subsistence and thus reduces what functions are surplus to requirements.

21 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The Internet stuff you stumble into reading about when you feel like playing nothing, because you're too depressed about how pathetic you are. Which cyclically feeds into itself.

I wasn't either, though this evening I'm after coming back from seeing my granny for the first time after she left the hospital.

She's definitely not as strong willed as she was say last year, more tired after it and needing more physical assistance, where she could walk freely up until the incidents that led to her having to go. The idea of her and my grandpa dying feels pretty real this year. In fairness they've lived long, so there'll probably not be much talk of it as a great tragedy, especially with the grandpa having been very mentally diminished for a good while.

Mortality is never far enough away, but what we do in that time allows us to make some indent past that mortality (no matter how much the second death argues otherwise, some are still remembered for their actions many decades after their death, flanderised as people they can be). I can't say I've been much good on this, I took a listen to something recapping a few weeks ago and it reminded me of how little I've been active in areas I arguably should be, but feel like I can't get people to hear me out adequately either from issues with myself or the surrounding discourse.

I'm not in a fog of depression here, just reminding myself of my own flaws.

21 minutes ago, Benice said:

If Berwick Saga 2 has a Vacuum that can run businesses, then yeah.

You what?

Okay, that's curious.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Dayni

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Seazas said:

Sure the benefit for saving Alm is sidelined but it's still important for him to be saved. He couldn't continue his journey and was kind of a sitting duck either way. And honestly? Dragons Maw didn't need extensive focus, it's not a punishment for Alm since it was out of his control. He didn't get in trouble from his own rash decision making like how approaching Nuibaba put him in a disadvantage. Or how Celica in Gaiden made the deal that put her in peril. 

Again, SoV removes any mention of him being trapped at the Dragon's Maw. The benefit of saving Alm is completely changed.

Alm’s trapped in Dragon Mountain. You must want to save him.

Is now instead:

As for the boy, Alm—if you do this, he could lay down his arms.

There's no sense of imminent urgency. Alm is not currently in danger. He's in no active need to be saved right there and then. In Gaiden, Jedah's offer is made once Alm spends trapped in the Dragon's Maw for three "days" (or as equivalent it was in Gaiden without the calendar system). Meanwhile, you can do it in SoV without ever heading there even once.

7 minutes ago, Seazas said:

Alm doesn't trade it. That's a second time he gets put in danger. He also gets his strength and feats downscaled to turn to more of his allies like how Celica needs to turn to hers in the form of Conrad. Alm is made to struggle more and his allies get credit than in Gaiden. Celica still actively saves Alm's life since the big reason she springs into action is because of that bad vision she saw in both Gaiden and SOV. Echoes even went the extra mile to confirm that without Celica, Alm would've died in the war. She still plays a heavy hand in promoting him and giving him the strength necessary to handle the trials ahead. 

Not second. Again, the Dragon's Maw situation is removed. It's not active, since it's her charm given to him ten years ago that does it. Not a conscious decision she makes in the present day. It's not even acknowledged on her end. As you say, the premonition, the promotion, they're still there, but the rescue gets neutered.

7 minutes ago, Seazas said:

Not at all. The positives are about equal, I've put an entire list of huge changes that benefitted Celica. It is undeniable that she got equivalent changes, with some being bigger than Alm's. Getting the entire lore changed to highlight how important Celica and Mila actually are is a pretty big deal.

It's not about whether the positives are equal, it's about on whether the negatives are.

Ultimately, the original conversation was only ever about Conrad's rescues of Celica. So I don't know why you're bringing this all up since it's not relevant.

[Codename Shrimp]

Presley rekt

[Punished Dayni]

3 minutes ago, Shrimpolaris said:

Presley rekt

As someone who hasn't played beyond a bit of Xenogears ages ago I should not have watched this, should I?

Edited February 14, 2022 by Dayni

[Saint Rubenio]

4 minutes ago, Dayni said:

You what?

Okay, that's curious.

I mean, one of the sidequests I played in Yakuza 0 was about teaching a dominatrix how to dominatrix. It's really not that curious, coming from that franchise.

2 minutes ago, Shrimpolaris said:

Presley rekt

Who would've thought. He really was wrong all along: Fire does not solve all of one's problems.

[Acacia Sgt]

 

[Codename Shrimp]

Man, i love how anti-pony i am when it comes to FE lol. Even in hacks i eventually get rid of them and leave them to the bench kek

3 minutes ago, Dayni said:

As someone who hasn't played beyond a bit of Xenogears ages ago I should not have watched this, should I?

I mean, without context it's just XB3 trailer meme'fied

[Punished Dayni]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, one of the sidequests I played in Yakuza 0 was about teaching a dominatrix how to dominatrix. It's really not that curious, coming from that franchise.

I mean, maybe not out there for Yakuza, but I'm curious about if a Roomba's running a transit company or pet minding or something that it would cause absolute terror in.

(That or it's gone full sci-fi on the robotics)

[Acacia Sgt]

Ahahaha

[Benice]

23 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hmmmmm...

I mean, I can't promise that you'll enjoy it-You have particular taste, and it is a JRPG. You may like it, I certainly do, but...

I suppose if you're interested I could explain the combat system, since I think that's what you're most interested in.

23 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yakuza is such a bizarre thing.

 It sure is.

12 minutes ago, Dayni said:

You what?

Okay, that's curious.

There are some real adventures in this series.

btw @Interdimensional Observer, may I suggest trying Yoga out? It's helped me a lot physically and mentally.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Benice