Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Codename Shrimp]

I think Thracia would work as one part of the crossover randomizer, with the other game giving you stuff like Keys, staves, weapons and Scrolls. While FE chests/Bosses give you thr items needes to advance in the other game....wonder tho what other game would work here....

Castlevania?

[Codename Shrimp]

 

[Acacia Sgt]

I keep forgetting to post my endgame team.

But that team is kinda already gone because since then I've buffed them up further. Oh well.

[Armagon]

Fifteenth's got drip

[Saint Rubenio]

This is the stupidest thing I've ever done in Berwick Saga.

The fact that it's not even the first time depresses me.

[Shaky Jones]

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

We have to cook, Ochette.

You are my assistant now.

What the fuck

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Incredibly based team, Shakes. I would have expected no less.

You can always rely on Shaky Jones and his saucy takes. 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Brought a tear to my eye, it did.

So Spaniards CAN cry. Good to know.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

already seen a couple warrior Rosados in the discord servers where I lurk lol

And good for them.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

the man who can cast a fireball despite his fingers being bro

Bro gonna cast fire 2.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Meanwhile it's like three characters off of my team

Half of me still wants to see your team because it's like looking in a mirror, fueling my ego.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

am just amazed at the strength on the man. Goodness...

I urge everyone to use Lindon. 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Thank goodness you're here. I'm too terrible to offer solid advice like this.

Yeah, you recommend Trachina.

[Sidereal Wraith]

6 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

What the fuck?

I ask myself that very same question many times while I’m reading this thread.

[Elina]

I just spent an hour decoding those ‘ancient texts’ in fates. Wow. Just wow.

[Sooks]

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

Link to the Past. And I know that game is very "we will not tell you anything" so I'm just gonna rip it off now and get it over with.

Zelda 1 when?

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

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I really don't get why Malaya isn't joining as my temp party member. She's right there lol. Her voice actress's mic is terrible, too. She sounds so much worse than everyone else for some reason. What happened here, Square? You're fucking huge, couldn't you give this gal a better microphone to use in your big AAA production?

Also, the townsfolk really changed their tune fast, but I suppose chapter 1 would need to be way too long for their turn to trusting Castti to feel natural. Still, I must say, I don't really see all the contrivances you talked about Sooks. It's a bit rushed, but it's not horrible. Though maybe my standards are just low.

The boss was kinda tough, because I ran out of dark seeds and then Doron ate his friend and I had no way to break him... until I remembered apothecaries get a random-ass icicle spell. That did the trick, thank goodness. A fun boss, but definitely would've benefit from having a second party member. Y'know, Malaya.

Spoiler

About Malaya: THANK YOUUUU. I knew that there would be temporary party members before I started so I was unendingly confused why she wasn’t a temporary party member. Now that we know what they were gonna do with her, they really should have made her playable and given her an actually existing (and likable, for the sake of the twist) personality but they didn’t do that because… ??? And her audio is so bad it makes you really question what happened there.

I thought the boss was great. I didn’t have much trouble because I barely used dark seeds, so…

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

I think I just realized why characters recover their HP and SP after battle too. It probably happens when you level up - pretty sure the same thing happened in Octopath 1. Since EXP gains are super high in these lower levels, the characters level after every battle, so it feels like they automatically recover everything.

Oh. Good point.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm also enjoying the little alternate animations when attacking, and the fact that they made some boss dialogue for every fight instead of it being limited to one random final boss like in the original. Nice little improvements to the first game all over the place, so far.

What alternate animations?

Also, what did Castti say in the boss fight, if you remember? I didn’t notice anything special, but I played Hikari’s chapter and it was absolutely there.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, about Castti's first chapter... Ehh, I'm kind of disappointed, to be honest. There were some... very heavy-handed implications here and there, but they're mere set-ups to be resolved in future chapter. This first chapter has been a pretty mundane "kind medic saves town" story, not unlike... well, all of Alfyn's tales. The way Sooks and people on the Octopath subreddit were talking, I exp̷̭͋̈́͒e̷̹̯͛ć̸̱̼͛̎t̴̨̪̭̃ë̵̤̲͚́̈d̷̟̦̀̕ ̴̃ͅm̴̙̈́̈̚o̸͈̪̤̐̄͠r̷̦̳̀͘ḛ̴̻̈̿̊ ̷̱̀͐̄o̶̲͍̝͑ũ̵̡̜̳̓̏ţ̴̯͂́͘ ̷͇͖̐o̷̳͙̰̊̋̕f̷̯͈̠̏̾ ̸͈̓̔͛t̸̮̺̐͌̍h̸̪͌i̷̻̎͜s̴̻̻̜̔̊

Well—

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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And then the glitch happened. That was an awesome bit of fourth wall breaking, love this kind of thing. I did kinda figure Malaya would be the woman from the start, but I'm glad they've gotten it out of the way quickly. Leaves more room for the true mysteries. Like why the journal in the axe girl's satchel is covered in blood! Overall, a nice little chapter, though I did not enjoy it as much as Osvald's two-parter.

Yes, now I can get into my opinions on this chapter. Also fuck you for pulling a Castti moment with the text before this spoiler box, but you played her chapter so all is forgiven.

Although I will say, about Osvald, I wouldn’t be surprised if his beginning is the best in the game. However, the last game also had a character focused on revenge whose first chapter was arguably the best in the game, and her story completely peaked there with the rest being ehhhhhh, so I’m not gonna pick him solely based on that. As you’ve seen, Castti leaves a lot of intrigue for her future chapters, so I’m going with her. That’s not to say I think Osvald will be bad, I really hope he improves on Primrose, but fool me once and all that.

Anyway, about Castti

Spoiler

So yes, it is a cool moment, and I had zero indication it was coming. Before this it was literally just a super basic Octopath chapter, as you said it could have fit right in with Alfyn’s story if you cut the amnesia. She shows up to a town, there’s a problem her unique talents are good for solving there, and egads, a boss monster is behind it all! Better take it out.

Anyway, about the twist, good on you for figuring it out. I took one look at Malaya, at her slightly plain design, her lack of personality, and her not becoming a guest character and was like “oh yeah, she’s definitely evil” to the point where I never considered any possibility for her and got caught completely off guard with that. I mean I guess she could still be evil but… I wanted to see if the twist was obvious to someone who didn’t have their head so far up their own ass they could only think of one thing.

The glitch is a nice moment, that sort of effect makes me optimistic for her story. Did you catch the music that plays during that flashback scene? I really love it, it’s such a nice track.

So anyway, the contrivances. The whole plot revolves around the fact that inquiring with Malaya triggers a memory about her which seems totally believable (not that I know much about memory loss). This memory leads her to realize Malaya knows much more than she’s revealing and try to question her but, conveniently, at that moment her whole body starts hurting and she halfway collapses to the ground and can’t walk over to Malaya, and presumably her voice is affected as well since she doesn’t scream or anything. Okay, but 30 seconds before then Malaya happens to know to start walking away with no indication that Castti is remembering her (at least that we’re aware of), which makes the whole thing rather convenient. Then, right after that happens and Castti is like “man, if only I could go on a journey to figure out what happened” she happens to find a “hidden compartment” in her satchel that she’s had to look through for at least half a day with no idea who she is. And she just randomly happens to find the book then. The book is soaked in blood but it’s okay because two town names weren’t covered, and it’s just like, okay guys, she’s getting pretty luck here…

I don’t mind that much though, because the glitch thing is good enough that I can look past this and the rest of the chapter being a little generic, and plot contrivances don’t really bother me when they’re not resolutions to actual conflicts.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Not quite.

Oh… oh……

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It does seem like the kind of thing some people notice and others don't. Me, anything above 60 FPS is pretty minute differences, but I find the difference between 60 and 30 to be pretty stark. But maybe it's because I mostly play games on PC. Console games almost always get capped at 30, so if you're used to that, you'll likely not think anything of it. When you grow accustomed to a smoother performance, it's easy to notice.

...Besides, having it on PC I don't have to cart my Switch from my old home to my new home and viceversa. I just let Steam Cloud do its magic. It's just more convenient.

Oh don't get me wrong, it's not a big deal, but combined with the convenience of having the game on PC, it turns the choice into a no-brainer for me. I'd definitely enjoy the Switch version as well, I'd just rather have the slightly superior PC version.

 

[Capt. Fargus]

6 hours ago, Armagon said:

>package will be delivered today by 10 PM

>Departed facility (which is in my city btw) at 9:50 AM

>Still in transit, it is past noon

Amazon c'mon. Wish I could actually track where it is but I can't.

Usually takes me 3-4 hours to run my routes once I drive the hundred or so miles to get there. Freight’s a lil bit different animal than package work though

The thing with Amazon is they give a UPS driver’s workload and pay half what a UPS driver makes, so yeah them guy’s wind up workin way late sometimes

[Codename Shrimp]

Excelblem Marth moment

[Lightchao42]

It took 50 hours of playtime, but I properly made a profile card in Engage. (Ch. 22)

Spoiler

Alear and Mauvier are Veyle's hype crew, but she's embarrassed by the attention.

Since the message is fixed, I unfortunately can't say "STOUT SHAKO FOR 2 REFINED" or something like that.

Also I got the Octopath Traveler II demo (despite never finishing the first game), though I haven't decided who to start with. Ochette normally wouldn't be the kind of character I would start with, but she has Rixia's VA and collecting Legendary Pokémon sounds interesting. Wait, but Throné's VA also voiced Rixia...

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

....you know what's funny though? I've been browsing the Octopath subreddit, and they have been making Breaking Bad memes there as well... But with Castti instead. Maybe when I play her chapter I'll find out why.

The only thing I know about Breaking Bad is that Sonic is important to the lore. (spoilers, probably)

 

50 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Zelda 1 when?

Armagon will save the best games, The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon, for last.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Lightchao42

[Lightchao42]

Derp, ignore this. Here's Sommie:

Edited February 15, 2023 by Lightchao42

[Acacia Sgt]

Haven't really fiddled with the Profile Card. Maybe one day...

[Sooks]

7 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

Also I got the Octopath Traveler II demo (despite never finishing the first game), though I haven't decided who to start with. Ochette normally wouldn't be the kind of character I would start with, but she has Rixia's VA and collecting Legendary Pokémon sounds interesting. Wait, but Throné's VA also voiced Rixia...

Castti.

[Sooks]

@Saint Rubenio Idk if you know this but there’s unique dialogue between party members in battle. After Hikari breaks an enemy and Castti moves (which is what I’m guessing causes it) she says “nice work, Hikari”.

[Codename Shrimp]

28 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

profile card

Here's mine

Spoiler

Basically, thought behind it is Alear and Veyle leading an Army to save the world, just like the story of the game

Honestly, wish Lumera was an option as i wanted to do something fun with her, Alear and Veyle. Dragons or something lol. 

Another one i want to make is Diamant in the red coat casing Fire on Sigurd

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Shrimpy -Limited Edition-

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Sooks said:

Zelda 1 when?

It is absolutely vital that I play Zelda 1 before BotW. Which means I'm gonna be playing Zelda 2 first when I get to the NES era.

[Sooks]

The Octopath 2 demo gives you one save file…

That’s, why? Just why? It doesn’t matter because I can just make more Switch users to circumvent it but… there’s no way the full game gives you only one save file, so what purpose does this serve?

[Interdimensional Observer]

21 minutes ago, Armagon said:

It is absolutely vital that I play Zelda 1 before BotW. Which means I'm gonna be playing Zelda 2 first when I get to the NES era.

Making Z1 the penultimate because... BotW is loosely said to be LoZ1 but modern? Want to poetically go from the primordial past to the Future Only Now Made The Present?

I've finished LoZ1- with a wonderful guide ofc. Don't try doing otherwise, it'd be like Metroid 1, maybe a little better. (I never finished the Second Quest though, I think.)

Fun fact if you weren't aware- Oracle of Seasons began as a sort of LoZ1 remake, this idea was dropped later in development.

As for Zelda 2, I got pretty far on the 3DS, to the invisible palace I think. Otherwise, growing up I never really got past the first dungeon. AoL's side-scrolling focus isn't a bad change of pace, just wholly crude and in desperate need of a modern sequel.

 

4 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Oh, same. It was also my first LoZ game. Though it was the GBA port I played, not the SNES original.

I was aware of the GBA version, though I never had it. Meant I missed out on Four Swords (I didn't have any friends so not like I could've played it anyhow) until the 3DS anniversary version, and I never saw that bonus dungeon.

[Armagon]

AY LMAOOOOOOOO

50 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Making Z1 the penultimate because... BotW is loosely said to be LoZ1 but modern? Want to poetically go from the primordial past to the Future Only Now Made The Present?

Yes, exactly.

51 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I've finished LoZ1- with a wonderful guide ofc. Don't try doing otherwise, it'd be like Metroid 1, maybe a little better.

Zelda 1 let you do anything in almost any order so it avoid the "we won't tell you things" issue by default. I'd imagine things would still be cryptic maybe but not "we will impede progress" cryptic.

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

While the world is merely a means to an end like in most Zelda games, this was one where the narrative feels like it's more than it's presented as. This game was Majora's Mask before Majora's Mask existed. You are presented with the moral question of: "is it ok to leave the island if it means everyone who lives there ceases to exist?" Of course the game was originally a GameBoy game so there's only one ending to this whole thing but the presentation of it all makes for a damn good effective ending (the music of the Face Shrine in particular is a highlight for me). I was able to do something I wasn't able to in DX, that is, beat the game without any game overs, and was able to get the extended ending, an ending that cements this game as one of the best Zelda games.

It was the game that showed quite thoroughly, that "its all a dream" doesn't have to be a negative trope. It all being a dream adds nuance to the game's end, the evils of the Nightmares recontextualized as acts of self preservation, while your own acts are leading to the destruction of innocent people. Although that butts in with the next question of if these figments of a dream are people, and what makes them people. All this leads to the final question of the value of remembering their passing. Point being the game has a surprisingly deep story.

 

6 hours ago, ping said:

Another chill, randomised Pokemon adventure to play on the side. Since Johto's rival is going to be "#1 Most Likely To Commit War Crimes" in his college yearbook, it felt appropriate to name him after @Saint Rubenio. Plus, incidentally, he chose to steal a meek Azurill instead of an overpowered Gabite from the professor, which seems like the level of self-sabotage that Ruben would condone.

Baby pokemon are too young, and full of promise for him, especially if the thing has Huge Power, and will become actually good in the end.

 

6 hours ago, ping said:

 

My own team thus far:

My starter Alear. He's a bit of a chicken. Please laugh.
Mild nature (+SpAtk, -Def)

Its funny that you rolled a starter as your starter.

 

6 hours ago, ping said:

a Garchomp on a random trainer south of Violet city, which one-shots everything except Alear with Dragon Rage.

To be fair, I think there is a randomizer option for preventing early game issues with Dragon Rage.

 

2 hours ago, Elina said:

I just spent an hour decoding those ‘ancient texts’ in fates. Wow. Just wow.

Wow good, or wow bad...

 

[Armagon]

3 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It all being a dream adds nuance to the game's end, the evils of the Nightmares recontextualized as acts of self preservation, while your own acts are leading to the destruction of innocent people.

The Nightmares begging for you to not wake the Wind Fish in the latter half of the game humanizes them more than most bosses in the series. Granted, most bosses in the series are just mindless beasts.

Link's Awakening is perhaps the one Zelda game where Link is honestly the bad guy, even if he isn't a bad guy. I've heard the manga version by nature actually dives into Link's feelings as he's faced with the dilemma. I'll check it out....eventually.

[Armagon]

Alright time to see what Wave 3 is all about.

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, gotta start thinking up an outline for when I expand the Ivy one-shot. I consider it a good chance to use certain ideas I already thought before. Like

Spoiler

Lumera possibly dying at Chapter 10 instead of 3.

As a side-though, potentially tangentially related, one thing I've been curious about for quite some time now is... (in reference to a certain event in Chapter 22)

Spoiler

Just how else, aside from The Miracle, can an Emblem come to be? Specially since having more than one spirit/person in the same Ring/Bracelet is totally a thing. So how exactly that comes to be? I wonder...