Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Sidereal Wraith]

1 hour ago, Codename Shrimp said:

Welcome to the Squad of Worm Victims, Karja.

You mustn’t fear Shrimp-kun, for fear is the mind killer.

Edited Wednesday at 05:15 PM by Sidereal Wraith

[BrightBow]

Summoning high level man-eating plants and having them instantly swallow enemies and slowly chew them to death before chucking them down is very satisfying.

It sure is a good thing that the Zelda series does not treat Moblins as people, despite them being clearly sentient and having human-level intelligence.

Not that I think swallowing is necessarily a good combat strategy in this game. If the plants get hit while they are still chewing, the enemy is freed.
But you know, it's fun.

[Dayni]

8 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

also calm down y'all

Hence I said last OST. Yeah;

"Remain calm"

People keep reacting

"Remain CALM"

15 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

Remember when Falcom ost could hype you up even during shittiest times 😭

So there's a consistent problem these days?

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, Codename Shrimp said:

...this fish ain't cursed?

No more than Adol.😛

Though not every modern Scandinavian likes lutefisk apparently, even though the pH isn't 11~12 after you cook it.

2 hours ago, Codename Shrimp said:

Welcome to the Squad of Worm Victims, Karja.

"Hel" -well they got the spelling right for the occasion.

2 hours ago, Codename Shrimp said:

So, Demo impressions are very positive.

🤞 for the full game for you.😀

 

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

I told my dad that if we road tripped the Netherlands, we'd see like the entire country within a week.

I don't think you're supposed to drive the Netherlands, bike it!🚲 Small, flat and green combined with sufficient public investment has made the Netherlands very cyclist-friendly I think I heard says a guy who lacks the balance to ride one.

 

16 minutes ago, Dayni said:

So there's a consistent problem these days?

I can't exactly answer this myself. But nothing from Ys IX remains in my brain, while Ys VIII's ost does. It could be First Game In Series Bias, but I recall writing here that my problem with Ys IX's soundtrack was that the compositions were "spineless". No offense to invertebrates, it was like all the rockin' sounds were sounding, but there was no central column from which they extended, it was disorganized. As a result, the music lacked true concentrated force and memorability.

[Lightcosmo]

Next to be nuked is Roy’s Advance skill. It’s good in theory, I just don’t think it really works in Engage.

[Armagon]

29 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

don't think you're supposed to drive the Netherlands, bike it!🚲 Small, flat and green combined with sufficient public investment has made the Netherlands very cyclist-friendly I think I heard says a guy who lacks the balance to ride one.

Speaking of bikes and the Netherlands, I've heard about an incredibly pretentious transit YouTuber called NotJustBikes and he basically just sucks off Amsterdam and made a really controversial post saying that North Americans should just give up on the continent simply because the transit isn't as good.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

So once this Calvard arc — however long it ends up being — is complete, the series itself, overall, will be about 90% complete.

https://www.pushsquare.com/features/interview-falcom-president-talks-all-things-trails-daybreak-2-and-kai-in-our-biggest-interview-ever

He has -changed- his phrasing?

More snippets...

Is ending such a long-running series a daunting prospect?

The first thing I felt was... boy it's difficult to end a series! We got so good at thinking about how to continue the series that we never kind of had a chance to stop and think about "okay, how are we supposed to end this thing?"

🤔

And so with the end now in sight, is there anything that you and the team look back on and think... it's crazy that the Trails series has come this far? Did you ever envision that the series would last this long and evolve so much?

No at the beginning, even though we had the idea — while making Trails in the Sky — that we wanted to do an Erebonian (Cold Steel) arc, and that we wanted to do a Calvardian (Daybreak) arc, we were actually told by older people in the company not to think about creating a series that hasn't even proven itself sales-wise [laughs].

And that was a good point — why were we doing it? But we were so focused on being able to continue doing the series that it was like "oh, it's been ten years!". And after that, before we knew it, it's been 20 years... so no, we never envisioned that it would be going on as long as it has.

Underlined (my emphasis)- be grateful it didn't end up like Xenosaga.

Sticking with Trails spin-offs, has Falcom ever thought about making a Trails minigame compilation title? A party game, almost, maybe Mario Party-style?

[Laughs] It's something we've never thought of! That's... actually a good idea. It'd be really cool to have one where you can play all the minigames from the past.

Especially for fishing! You could have all the famous fishing characters and have a fishing competition for them. Because obviously all of the main characters love fishing!

🎣

 

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Speaking of bikes and the Netherlands, I've heard about an incredibly pretentious transit YouTuber called NotJustBikes and he basically just sucks off Amsterdam and made a really controversial post saying that North Americans should just give up on the continent simply because the transit isn't as good.

I'll let the indigenous make that decision.

Internet buffoons are going to be rude. And totally ignorant of the average American neither being all that aware of the potential for better, nor the long history of errors that led us here. -Can't do much about them.🤷‍♂️

[Shrimp of the North]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Say it ain't so doc.

the best thing i can say about it is that it could work as a palate cleanser between all the real action stuff?

Speed boost shouldn't have had a cooldown for naval movement tbh

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

So there's a consistent problem these days?

yes

Has been for years now even

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

🤞 for the full game for you.😀

The wait is killing me 😭

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It could be First Game In Series Bias

nah it's not

I have played pretty much the whole Falcom english library If you ignore the last few Trails games, but even then i did give their OST a listen

The quality drop in the music from CS3 onward is very noticeable - and the reasons for it are also known in the fanbase.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

. No offense to invertebrates, it was like all the rockin' sounds were sounding, but there was no central column from which they extended, it was disorganized. As a result, the music lacked true concentrated force and memorability.

a common problem in Falcom's ost from CS3 onwards.

The last good Falcom OST was either YS 8 or TX, whatever came out later

38 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

is complete, the series itself, overall, will be about 90% complete.

yeah, no

2 sept terrions still remaining means it needs atleast 4 more games after calvard, if not 7 or so

60-70% completed sounds more apt

And Kondo isn't known for speaking the truth anyway

38 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Especially for fishing! You could have all the famous fishing characters and have a fishing competition for them. Because obviously all of the main characters love fishing!

The return of that nightmari-sh Trails in the Sky 3rd door

----------------

Trails has come so far in terms of global popularity as well. The series has never been more accessible or as popular, especially here in the West. Is that new newfound success important to you and Falcom?

Kondo: Yeah, for sure. I mean, from a pure sales perspective, you've reached a point where the combined regions of Asia, and the West as a region, the sales are greater than Japan — about 60% of the overall sales. So, you know, the West has become a market that can't really be ignored! For example, nowadays, whenever we release news — even if it's Japanese news — a lot of times, the very first people to comment on a Tweet or a video are foreign players who aren't Japanese. It's really important for us as a company to keep those players in mind, particularly because, obviously you have the sales aspect of it, but also the fact that 20 years ago — especially in the West — JRPGs weren't as mainstream as they are now. Or at the very least, they weren't as widely played. So over the years, we've seen more and more Western players become interested in the Trails series, and begin to give feedback. And that's something that's really special, something that we really want to keep in mind going forward. So, absolutely, the foreign users are very important to the company as a whole, and they are people that we keep in mind as we create the games.

Can you release the games in a timely matter please?

Especially Ys?

Let Trails take 5 years for all i care, but giff Day 1 Ys

So sticking with the topic of action combat, a lot of RPGs — some of which were purely turn-based RPGs — are starting to adopt an action combat approach. Like Metaphor: ReFantazio, for example, which has a very similar system to Daybreak. What do you think is the thought process behind this trend?

Kondo: I was actually speaking to Hashino-san — Metaphor's director — about this. One thing I feel is that players in Japan generally really like the turn-based system, and are completely happy with it. On the other hand, a lot of the feedback that we get from players in different parts of the world is that they'd very much like there to be action. We very carefully check all of the feedback we get from around the world, and I noticed that particular feedback with pretty surprising frequency! And so therefore, I said, is there any way that we can satisfy both types of fans? When you start down one direction it's hard to turn to another, and it's also difficult to fully please all of these people. Generally speaking, the idea for having the current combat system came from just seeing if there was a happy medium we could strike between a fully action system, and a turn-based system. At least for us at Falcom, this is our attempt at trying to cover both bases.

I see...

On the localisation and publishing side of things, what's actually changed to speed up the whole process?

Alan Costa, NIS America Associate Producer: Because I don't think it necessarily serves anybody — neither Falcom or especially the players — if we run the game through, you know, ChatGPT or something and then throw it out there. Who needs that? That doesn't do justice to the games, and at the end of the day, even if a game does come out faster, no one's happy about it because you lose all the glory and the beauty of what's in the original. So, we've found a way where we've really been able to cut this [localisation time] down. The goal right now is, essentially, we want no more than a year between the Japanese release and our release for the Trails games. And if we can continue to get that down even more, we will. And then for the Ys series too — if you look at the Japanese release for Ys X and then Western release, it's about a year. But the goal someday is we'd like to get that down as small as possible — and if we could do six months, that'd be great.

Kai 2025 pretty much confirmed?

Edited Wednesday at 08:27 PM by Codename Shrimp

[Interdimensional Observer]

 

Half-unintentionally, I slew Jormungandr on the 8th day of the month of Uroboros.🐍 Etrian Odyssey Nexus is completed!😄 Well, minus the postgame.

I spent 101 hours on my one playthrough, this game indeed felt unending.😑 When Etrian Odyssey X (Nexus is the international name) was first unveiled, it appeared to be a glorious celebration of the entire franchise.🤞

Nexus began on a fairly strong footing, despite a few hiccups. Yet the end, the game overextended itself, it was simply too long. 13 Labyrinths and 9 smaller Mazes. About triple the length of the typical Etrian Odyssey. Atlus didn't choose to bring back all the best ones either, not a single one from EOV (nor NPC like all the other games got), and three of the lush green forest first Labyrinths (though EOIII's Waterfall Woods was beautiful). The new Labyrinths were the four Shrines -but they all shared the same music, same graphics, and the same elevation gimmick. I was hoping the final, 13th Labyrinth, the Yggdrasil Labyrinth would match the series's wonderful standards ...it was a recolor of the darned Shrines, the music the same too!🤬 The three later Shrines and final dungeon thus brought on the fatigue each time one came up. -And taking a glimpse, the postgame is another recolored Shrine, where is the traditional postgame horror theme?! Atlus overextended themselves.

...Thankfully, I really really really enjoy the all-gameplay, plot-thin EO loop of dungeon crawling.😄 While you do get a Memory Conch accessory that lets benched guild members earn halved combat EXP very early in EON -something no other game did- I stuck as usual to one single team for the entire playthrough. Imperial-Shogun-Protector / Sovereign - Zodiac (the Sovereign later took a Ninja subclass and cloned itself during FOE/boss battles). As I had planned, the team had great synergy, though it did get boring later due to relying on the same tricks for sooooooo long. -I admit I cheated a little after the 10th Labyrinth and grabbed the ultimate Drive Blade before the postgame, it basically doubled my Imperial's Atk.😅 Great Warrior + Swift Justice + Attack Order + Eroding Miasma + Charge Edge + Unified Effort + Final Decree > Accel Drive = CHESTOOOOOO! OHKOs even on Expert difficulty, the final boss died in two of these. But I don't regret cheating because I really wanted to finish this game, and all it did was speed up my existing win strategy.

I love Etrian Odyssey, and are praying that Atlus is still working on that successor title they teased years ago but have since said nothing about.🙏 Considering the EO HD Collection, and Metaphor having a dungeon that's outright copied straight from EO, I don't think they've canceled it.

I do intend to do a second, NG+ run of Nexus at some point (I'll skip the postgame). Not now, I've had my fill. But I totally will. This team had zero binds & ailments and I very much missed those. With 18 classes taken from across the franchise plus the new Hero, it feels like a tragic waste not to use more of them.

This said, Etrian Odyssey V remains my favorite. Nexus will have to settle for a tie with IV for second place. (IV's problem that keep it from trouncing Nexus being that three of the ten classes don't unlock later, Imperial is really late.)

I'm glad to have gotten past that giant catfish years later and done everything that lay beyond it. It felt like such a shame to leave this the final game in a franchise I adored on the 3DS unfinished. That too I'll say.😀

-Yuzo Koshiro ost good will be the final word.🎵

 

1 hour ago, Codename Shrimp said:

The return of that nightmari-sh Trails in the Sky 3rd door

You said water is one of the two remaining Septies? *Cue the giant fishing pole where the ten-thousand heroic hands from across Kiseki all come together to grab onto it at the same time with one heart and PULL!*

[Shrimp of the North]

And now i am going through old Ys tracks again...

This will be one long week

[Interdimensional Observer]

13 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

And now i am going through old Ys tracks again...

This will be one long week

Countdown eagerness can't be a bad thing.😀 Means you have something you're looking forward to!

[Shrimp of the North]

I will just keep facing this guy then 😭

For 8 days to be exact, Karja

19 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Countdown eagerness can't be a bad thing.😀 Means you have something you're looking forward to!

yeah but it's more than a full work week still

[Interdimensional Observer]

8 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

yeah but it's more than a full work week still

My symps, Shrimps.🙂 I'm feeling a really strong desire to try coming-out again IRL right now, but my feelings are so mixed on the matter. Might be giving me a headache, and perhaps the shivers if isn't the cold that's doing that.

15 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

I will just keep facing this guy then 😭

Nordics is taking over the as the third canonical game, no? Why not waste the time rerunning Ys II?😛

[Shrimp of the North]

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Might be giving me a headache, and perhaps the shivers if isn't the cold that's doing that.

Get well soon, whichever the case 😉

But yeah cold seems to be going around lately

9 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nordics is taking over the as the third canonical game, no? Why not waste the time rerunning Ys II?😛

I have been thinking of picking up a Ys to do a fast run of, but i don't like playing different style action games behind each other or together - makes my coordination go whack.  I am now used to Ys X's xD

[Interdimensional Observer]

17 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

I have been thinking of picking up a Ys to do a fast run of, but i don't like playing different style action games behind each other or together - makes my coordination go whack.  I am now used to Ys X's xD

I getcha.😆 And unlike me (b/c Normal), you'll need those reflexes to survive the game.😉

Sorry I can't be of much help.

[Shrimp of the North]

I am good at Ys, i think

51 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sorry I can't be of much help.

All good!

Edited yesterday at 12:47 AM by Codename Shrimp

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

I am good at Ys

You took damage. I expected better of you.😛

...I hadn't actually watched any footage before. The synchronized attack choreography looks tight. Having only two playable characters to program these maneuvers for probably made them possible and possible to look good. (Meaning- you couldn't have done these in the Seven-IX paradigm. You would've needed to program attacks for AdolxDana ...and AdolxHummel, DanaxSahad, SahadxLaxia ....too many to create non-generic animations for all the combinations.)

[Venger_06]

This is both funny and triggering

On 10/15/2024 at 8:13 AM, Armagon said:

Futaba's ain't even the worse palace.

No, but after Madarame the quality is slowly declining

On 10/15/2024 at 6:39 PM, Lightchao42 said:

CHADrioch vs. Persona 5

Jobber

On 10/15/2024 at 6:39 PM, Lightchao42 said:

Nina lore is very important.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXzC5hwXkAA6Oof?format=jpg&name=medium

[Shrimp of the North]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

You took damage. I expected better of you.😛

Very rarely did i beat Ys bosses damageless - Maybe in Celceta i did more than other games considering how easy that game was, but generally i can't do Ys bosses without taking damage

Maybe after fighting that guy daily until full game release i can. Should be possible tbh his patterns are not that hard xD

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, Codename Shrimp said:

Very rarely did i beat Ys bosses damageless - Maybe in Celceta i did more than other games considering how easy that game was, but generally i can't do Ys bosses without taking damage

-If the game gave you medals for successful no-damage runs, would you try?😜

And sorry for the overestimating.😅 -Though you're still much better than me.😉

2 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

Maybe after fighting that guy daily until full game release i can. Should be possible tbh his patterns are not that hard xD

I mean early boss that's a big slow giant should be a breeze!😄 Not like we're talking a *warp* *warp* *warp* *one-second attack* *warp* Bullet Hell Lategame Baddie.

[Shrimp of the North]

7 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

f the game gave you medals for successful no-damage runs, would you try?😜

For the easier bosses maybe

All bosses? No way xD

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I mean early boss that's a big slow giant should be a breeze!😄

yeah pretty much

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

ot like we're talking a *warp* *warp* *warp* *one-second attack* *warp* Bullet Hell Lategame Baddie.

you forgot the disappearing ground xD

[Acacia Sgt]

I only just noticed, but New Spain has the Yucatec Maya as an Accepted Culture. Don't know how that worked exactly, but good to see the colony is turning to be as egalitarian as the Empire.

[Acacia Sgt]

Seems it's Huckebein time in SRW DD.

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

Just throwing some more  random Dread thoughts out here. I think I have come to the conclusion that I find the EMMI section just kind of annoying. What I really like from a Metroid game is that sense of exploration, and collecting upgrades from every nook and cranny, and that just impedes the process. Also, there are some real tricky shine spark maneuvers for some of these items, like this brutal one where I had to make a tricky aerial bomb placement, jump back onto the ledge I morph ball leapt from  to fire four missiles very quickly through the hole I just made before rushing into a tight space to then morphball into position (all while holding the shine spark charge, as the blocks recover too quickly to break them before getting the charge) to shine spark past some tightly place pitfall blocks between the two pairs of missile blocks. There have been at least four that I was shocked this was expected of me for an upgrade, and wondered if the maneuver I was trying was really possible, but I managed to pull them off so far. Admittedly it did lead to me getting some upgrades before the powerup you were intended to use to get it, as one example I shine sparked up to a space I was supposed to grapple beam through, but not all that many. I also find it funny that you can get some upgrades (for what I think are going to be power bombs) before I even have the power (I actually have three of those upgrades, and no power bombs at the moment...). I do also like how the "Central Units" whose power you use to destroy the EMMI are obviously the same kind of creature as Mother Brain, it feels funnily reminiscent of the Metroids secretly being the way to deal with the X parasite. Finally its nice to see Kraid return as a boss here, and in spite of his instant murderous intent he threw at Samus the instant I saw him, I pitied his confinement.

 

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

22 minutes ago, Codename Shrimp said:

All bosses? No way xD

Depends maybe on how easy it is to rush a boss down? Ys I don't think gives you a lot of means to kill a boss super fast, or in a cheaty way.

I was thinking of Order of Ecclesia when I wrote the medal thing (as the game does give you purely symbolic medals for no-damage wins), yet later in that game you get the Light+Dark Glyph Union which: freezes time during the attack's execution, doesn't need to be aimed, and deals a lot of damage. Spamming that if it doesn't kill a boss. leaves them low on health so you won't have much time where you actually have to worry about dodging. Likewise, I actually successfully no-damaged Lenga's four sexy dudes (twice each b/c higher stat versions of said bosses) in Paradiso Guardian recently (doing so unlocked some exclusive equipment and skills) -but again, the game gave me attacks that were too safe and too powerful.😆 (And PG allowed me to re-fight the guys instantly at any time after I bested them the first. I could get extra levels and stuff and instantly replay after any failed no-damage attempt.)

...The point of bringing up other games being- placing restrictions on player offense in an ARPG or pure action game = longer boss fights = more time to mess up = more difficultly succeeding in an immaculate run. I'm in no way criticizing Ys for making what should be difficult, actually difficult.😀

 

18 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Seems it's Huckebein time in SRW DD.

 

Ring!😃

Nice to see the lady in a cockpit again.

Her hair doesn't look the same though. Classicverse difference like 30 Irm?

 

5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I think I have come to the conclusion that I find the EMMI section just kind of annoying.

I dreaded them. Not because of difficulty, but because I'm simply not great with horror.😅 And every time I got caught, I covered the screen and didn't even try to do the last-chance melee counterattack.