Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Sooks]

Alright, I think they’re pushing Joshua’s skill too far now.

I mean he can just sense traps and is acting like his fellow junior bracer, Estelle, will have absolutely no clue what to do in a bad situation? I mean maybe that’s part of his character, but he really is acting all “I’m a pro compared to you”. But it’s mostly the sensing traps things.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Sooks

[Benice]

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

So I just got to the Yakuza sidequest that was advertised on the Steam page. The one where you're supposed to teach a dominatrix how to, well, dominatrixe.

I am not sure how to feel about the fact that I absolutely nailed it.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Benice said:

 

Gotta say, Kiryu was at his least relatable in that sidequest, guy thought the opposite of what I was thinking every single time, bad character writing 0/10

[Spara]

Random PSA to go play Divinity: Original Sin 2 if you haven't. I've been listening to the OST again, reminds me that I need to go back and play it again. Easily one of my favorite RPGs.

[Dayni]

1 hour ago, Shrimperor said:

Duality of weebs

Yep, sounds about right.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

So I just got to the Yakuza sidequest that was advertised on the Steam page. The one where you're supposed to teach a dominatrix how to, well, dominatrixe.

I am not sure how to feel about the fact that I absolutely nailed it.

Well, it seems to me like you've learned something about yourself today.

2 minutes ago, Spara said:

Random PSA to go play Divinity: Original Sin 2 if you haven't. I've been listening to the OST again, reminds me that I need to go back and play it again. Easily one of my favorite RPGs.

I keep on not picking it up.

As in not purchasing it.

Silly me.

[Interdimensional Observer]

*Sigh* What is wrong with me?

Nearly five months after getting the game, I finally started up the Future Connected story of Xenoblade Chronicles Definite Edition. I had delayed again, and again, and again. It has been hanging over me ever since Christmas, and it is what I've been wanting to play.

As according to plan, I started the game while alone, free of distractions from others, I could give myself wholly over to the game. This was the first, and last, of the things to go right in my initialization procedure.

The first mistake happened months ago, when I said I'd play Future Connected before the maingame for another go at that. That didn't happen, I played the maingame in its new visually update version first, but going against this revised scheme, I didn't even finish it.

Next, I intended while alone to play Future Connected docked on the big screen, take in the majesty of the great Xenoblade panorama on an appropriately large pixel stage. This did not happen. I opted for undocked play instead.

• In part because my one great big TV appears too blue, bright, and blurry now. I don't remember this being an issue at all through the entirety of XC2 and many other games, but suddenly it has become one in the past month or so. Any low-effort attempts to adjust the display results in the screen becoming too dark, dull, or wrongly colored, and didn't address any of my issues. XC1 might not visually benefit from docked play after all. 
• It is also the case that I overwhelmingly prefer playing games undocked nowadays. Perhaps it's a sense of "liberation" -although I always play video games indoors at home. It could be a more pathetic impulse to have the TV on some channel turned on in the background. Like I need to waste electricity on having two screens on at once with one being hardly watched, because I demand more electronic stimuli for the sake of... I'm not sure what exactly.

 

So I turn on the Switch, undocked, go into the menu to Future Connected, all is calm, all is clear, time to begin.😌

*Skips opening cutscene*

NO!

What am I doing? This is so wrong! This never works out well when I start up with this! This will quickly turn into a hollowed-out experience if I let it continue!

-But I felt like I had to do it. I wanted to force myself to sit through it, but I couldn't bring myself to that. It is not that I don't enjoy Xeno plots, I've liked them all. It's that, starting up a story-heavy game, one which I am very much wanting to look forward to, be gently hyped about, is overwhelming. I have to be in the right mindset for it, and if I'm not, it doesn't feel right.

So take a slow, deep breath, and exhale. Relax. Wonderful advice to tell oneself. So I take a deep breath, and a second one because the first wasn't enough, and a third for good measure. But it dawns on me that I could inhale all the oxygen on this planet and it still wouldn't be enough to attain the proper zen. Having a game like this bearing over me is suffocating.

So then play the game without worrying about the story? Nope! Can't do that. I want to enjoy it, I know I would enjoy it if I let myself do so. Being a story-heavy game, it is a fundamental part of the experience, to sever oneself from one aspect of the whole is to undermine the beautiful pleroma. 

I have no shortage of fun with the combat, and for the music, the new battle theme is different from what I expected but fairly good. The new place looks is aesthetically pleasing and I want to exploration. The characters include two whom I do like already. I am in no way forcing myself to like I game I don't actually like. I am a Xenoblade fan through and through.

And yet, I can't focus on any of that! I am skipping the story, that is wrong, I absolutely should not. Why can't I bring myself to watch it? I am so self-obsessed that I am wallowing in self-criticism, to the verge of tears.😢 I can't smile at Nopon antics, because I can't accept what I'm doing.

Nor I can bring myself to overcome the barriers that prevent me from fixing my bad behavior. I'm still unable to muster the mentality I seek for optimal enjoyment or otherwise do injustice to the game.

So but a short half-hour in starting the game, I break with it and come on here, spending probably twice that time, I haven't kept track, writing a lengthy post about my madness. (I also ponder if I'd be more narratively open to that anointed dream that is X2, and I think that narratively I would be for some undeveloped reason, but then the cynic in me says I could crash and burn exactly the same. The magnificent weight would be too much to bear.) 

I spend so much time reading and watching the news, which incredibly depressing, and when I turn to the video game I want to play to alleviate those existential worries over humanity's future, I find myself unable to escape into it. Instead, I flee into myself flagellating about my own little personal faults related to the game, and then turn on the sad news again. 

Indeed, I am pathetic. I accept my normal mediocrity as most humans are, but this is plain pathetic. I have a blissful life where I can easily partake of pleasure at any time no painful strings attached whatsoever, I am so very fortunate contemplating the status of many humans past and most unfortunately many humans present, and yet I squander it over the pettiest of problems.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Sidereal Wraith]

17 minutes ago, Spara said:

Random PSA to go play Divinity: Original Sin 2 if you haven't. I've been listening to the OST again, reminds me that I need to go back and play it again. Easily one of my favorite RPGs.

I've heard good things about the game...but I got to read Robert E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn stories and finish the Gormenghast Trilogy. 

[Sooks]

[Saint Rubenio]

33 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Well, it seems to me like you've learned something about yourself today.

"Learned."

Pfft.

[Acacia Sgt]

Reinforced?

[Saint Rubenio]

Continued.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Saint Rubenio

[Sooks]

Practiced.

[Sidereal Wraith]

Sword to the face. 

[null]

Sanctification.

[Sooks]

Spoiler

Something’s wrong with Kurt? He’s obviously lying about amnesia, no, he’s about to reveal his true identity as BY MY ARTS man and becomes a villain.

 

[Sidereal Wraith]

Emperor do I wish there was still good sword and socerery fiction being penned nowadays. 

[Sooks]

It’s here! Silver Will is back!!

[Sidereal Wraith]

I don't know anything anymore! 

[Codename Shrimp]

25 minutes ago, Sooks said:

ayy grats

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

It’s here! Silver Will is back!!

Silver_Will.mp3

52 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I spend so much time reading and watching the news, which incredibly depressing, and when I turn to the video game I want to play to alleviate those existential worries over humanity's future, I find myself unable to escape into it. Instead, I flee into myself flagellating about my own little personal faults related to the game, and then turn on the sad news again. 

 

F

you need to take a break from the world, it seems.

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Shrimperor said:

you need to take a break from the world, it seems.

At the rate we're going, that would require falling into a coma. But then the world leaves you behind and that just makes it all worse.

[null]

5 minutes ago, Sooks said:

It’s here! Silver Will is back!!

headbanging_cat.png

[Sooks]

Looks like I accidentally played for like 3 hours. Oops.

[Codename Shrimp]

3 hours sounds like a normal play session, not accident xD

Accident would be more like 20 hours

but yeah long play accidents is the norm with Trails, especially late game

[Dayni]

38 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

"Learned."

Pfft.

That you might be a switch instead of an out and out sub smh

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It is also the case that I overwhelmingly prefer playing games undocked nowadays. Perhaps it's a sense of "liberation" -although I always play video games indoors at home. It could be a more pathetic impulse to have the TV on some channel turned on in the background. Like I need to waste electricity on having two screens on at once with one being hardly watched, because I demand more electronic stimuli for the sake of... I'm not sure what exactly.

I get the impulse, rarely having docked mine and never having done so with some games (3H, TWEWY, sadly Smash for three examples), though I don't really like watching something else and playing if I'm wanting to pay attention to both (see as an exception: Me leaving the audio of a video on while trying to play Fates as well), so if I'm using the laptop to get information that's the only reason I'd have both open.

Off those topics and more Tra(va)ils I don't know my day involved helping at market and trying to get a gremlin to clean their domicile. Trying being the operative word.

[null]

Yeah, back in FC I would play something like 4-5 hours at a time, lol.