Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[DragonFlames]

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Yeah that definitly looks a bit blurry, even for a PSP game.

Indeed.
Even the text box is, now that I look at it again.

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

By the way, the first Shining game wasn't actual an SRPG. It was a dungeon crawler and there is one other game in the series that is like that. But for the most part, the series is either SRPG or ARPG.

Oh, that's interesting!
Now I wonder when the first game came out for some reason...

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Oh, that's interesting!
Now I wonder when the first game came out for some reason...

Shining in the Darkness, 1991

[DragonFlames]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Shining in the Darkness, 1991

Two years before I was born then. Interesting!
Thank you! 🙂

[Interdimensional Observer]

Trials of Mana's plot out of nowhere got very rushed.🙁The crunch was the crunchiest crunch I've ever seen. And yes, I'm counting Xenogears. Call it "individualized character stories", that doesn't excuse this at all, especially not in a modern remake. I don't mind a breezy game that isn't drawn out, but this breeze is the wrong kind, the kind you feel when your roof gets blown off while you're taking a shower during a tornado. I concede this is hyperbole coming from a gut reaction.

 

I'm finally getting the ??? Seeds that I can turn into 3rd tier class items. Although the first one I used turned into the item for a class I didn't want. Reading online how it works, it seems it'll give you a class item for one of the two classes you can become from your chosen second-tiers for your characters (not sure what would happen if you didn't take up second-tiers, but why wouldn't you have one unless you reset your classes later?). However, the game can give you duplicates of the same item because the one you change class, the item is consumed (but you have no incentive to reset classes unless you really want to, so it's no loss if you plan in advance). There appears to be a trick though for getting around this- saving your ??? Seeds until you have 6 of them and then using putting them in a flower pot all at once, that apparently keeps the game from giving you duplicates unlike planting a lesser quantity. And, I can grind for additional ??? Seeds off of common enemies in certain dungeons currently available. This system won't be a chore because I went online to understand it, but it is objectionable.

I've slain the first of those Benevodons of yore the game has long been mentioning, and thus you know you'll have to fight them. Who names a world-destroying giant bipedal goat monster whose body is so big you only fight the arms and head "Dolan"? Its attacks were a little hard to dodge in time, but it was a fairly quick kill. I was told afterwards that the Benevodons get stronger over time, which I take to mean that after each I slay, the remainder get stronger. I can manage this, no problemo.

[Shrimpica]

:pog:

i don't even play Feh, but Julia is looking nicccce

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Trials of Mana's plot out of nowhere got very rushed.🙁The crunch was the crunchiest crunch I've ever seen. And yes, I'm counting Xenogears. Call it "individualized character stories", that doesn't excuse this at all, especially not in a modern remake. I don't mind a breezy game that isn't drawn out, but this breeze is the wrong kind, the kind you feel when your roof gets blown off while you're taking a shower during a tornado. I concede this is hyperbole coming from a gut reaction.

 

ngl i felt it would be like that just from playing the demo.

[Acacia Sgt]

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Trials of Mana's plot out of nowhere got very rushed.🙁The crunch was the crunchiest crunch I've ever seen. And yes, I'm counting Xenogears. Call it "individualized character stories", that doesn't excuse this at all, especially not in a modern remake. I don't mind a breezy game that isn't drawn out, but this breeze is the wrong kind, the kind you feel when your roof gets blown off while you're taking a shower during a tornado. I concede this is hyperbole coming from a gut reaction.

What rushed part, the Mana Sanctuary part?

2 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

 

:pog:

i don't even play Feh, but Julia is looking nicccce

Gotta say, have to admit with some other post I read that the snowflake trim pattern makes it look kinda ragged.

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

ngl i felt it would be like that just from playing the demo.

I'm stilling liking the game, it might a little too simple for some, but I'm finding it fun. I'll consider it a great game for fanfiction, because the heavy early presentation provides good kernels of characters and to a lesser extent the world. Writing up a Tales of Mana or Mana Quest or Final Mana out of what's given could be very fun if you felt like it.

 

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

What rushed part, the Mana Sanctuary part?

Yep.😉

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Interdimensional Observer said:

Yep.😉

Well, it's kinda by design.

The three antagonist factions duke it out, only one emerges victorious. Which depends on who you chose as protagonist. The other two become loose ends that are wrapped up to various degrees, which I guess will depend on who else you have on your party.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, it's kinda by design.

The three antagonist factions duke it out, only one emerges victorious. Which depends on who you chose as protagonist. The other two become loose ends that are wrapped up to various degrees, which I guess will depend on who else you have on your party.

I know it's by design, but that doesn't make it excusable design. I think it's bad design. I like the idea of dueling villain groups, but for it to end just like that? Why couldn't they have figured out a way to prolong the game and include the other villains better? I've never even stepped foot in Altena or Nevarl, or met Mr. Vampire in-person I think.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I know it's by design, but that doesn't make it excusable design. I think it's bad design. I like the idea of dueling villain groups, but for it to end just like that? Why couldn't they have figured out a way to prolong the game and include the other villains better? I've never even stepped foot in Altena or Nevarl, or met Mr. Vampire in-person I think.

The idea is that you eventually play through all three stories.

Though yes, perhaps it may have been handed better. Though at least back in the SNES version, it was already pushing the boundaries of what they could do. And for the remake they decided that the new content should be Heroes of Mana related instead.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Lightcosmo]

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Now that Tora has Poppi QT and Morag has joined, Blade Combos have become so much easier to pull off. The main issue early is that Tora is locked to Poppi Alpha for the first four chapters and normally this isn't that much of an issue but because BoC mode reduces the Blade Combo durations, Poppi being Tora's only Blade actually became a legitimate issue. Pulling off Fire Blade combos was actually nearly impossible because the order had to be: Pyra -> either Dromarch or Crossette -> Pyra again but getting that last stage was always the hardest part. But now, with Poppi QT, who is by default a Fire Blade and Morag, who has Brighid, pulling off Fire Blade Combos is much, much easier.

Anyways, i've just started Ch.5 and here's what the squad is looking like

I think i'm gonna let Tora sit out for a while. If had gotten Poppi QTPi during the previous run, she would've carried over in NG+ the moment Poppi QT is obtained but because i didn't, i don't have her (remember, QTPi is an optional Blade). 

QTpi ruins challenge runs anyways, so your better off.

[Interdimensional Observer]

42 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

The idea is that you eventually play through all three stories.

Reexamining some posts here on SF from months ago when this game first released, someone suggested the average casual first playthrough will be about 25 hours, which I'm feeling will be accurate for me. NG+ could accelerate subsequent runs, but it'd still take a while to see all three stories. 

As for how they could've amended things narratively... the biggest issue is preserving the choice of any three characters you want for gameplay. I'm thinking a compromise would've been...

• The addition of several named and visually-distinct NPCs who are there to "do the background stuff" of their playable companions if you've recruited her as someone else. A Valkyrie named Silmeria to do the stuff Riesz should be doing, with the help of an unseen mass of grunts, if she and Hawkeye were both put on Angela's team.
  • As the Hawkeye statement implies, the paired protagonists would eventually meet up offscreen and become close enough that they'd be willing to look into the other's business if they weren't around.
• In case you wanted to lead with Charlotte but pair her with Angela and Riesz. Kevin would still be around as an unplayable fourth character for the sake of story scenes.
• Instead of having the other two villain groups die at the Sanctuary of Mana, the new thing would be to have them get away with different things. Whichever main duo you chose has their villains doing the worst, but the other two still do bad stuff in need of being addressed. This would then open up two optional dungeons you could complete before pursuing your villains, and during said dungeons the two characters opposed to villains who lurk inside would be present even if they weren't on your team.
• If instead of a fixed trio all game, as I'm suggesting that only one character should be fixed for a playthrough, then where to recruit those that aren't currently with you? How about a bar or even a post office, you ask, and they send away for the person you want, after you've met them at some point early in the story.

 

Rewriting the game into three "Books" centered around each protagonist duo runs in one issue -how to write the recruitment of all the Elementals in a single cohesive story? Faerie as we see had several companions, having three fairies is no problem. But 8 Elementals is not divisible by 3? Easy, everyone can be found in Jadd at the start of the game. Having everyone first stumble into their story partner, together the two find a fairy, and then they stumble into each other and rescue the Light Elemental together. That cuts the Elemental count to 7, who else has to go? Why not have Shadow's ghost ship unite them all unexpectedly at a certain point? There, that cuts down on the Elementals to a divisible 6. As for the Sword of Mana, just retitle the game Six Sword Adventure and have it split its power equally amongst all six protagonists so they're all equally chosen. -But in this path we run into the issue of freedom of gameplay character selection again. And there isn't a good answer.

Or as suggested before, the third alternative is to pack everyone together and ditch the individual isolated stories altogether, that is the easiest option to implement.

...I've put too much thought into this.😅

Edited September 10, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Acacia Sgt]

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As for how they could've amended things narratively... the biggest issue is preserving the choice of any three characters you want for gameplay. I'm thinking a compromise would've been...

• The addition of several named and visually-distinct NPCs who are there to "do the background stuff" of their playable companions if you've recruited her as someone else. A Valkyrie named Silmeria to do the stuff Riesz should be doing, with the help of an unseen mass of grunts, if she and Hawkeye were both put on Angela's team.
  • As the Hawkeye statement implies, the paired protagonists would eventually meet up offscreen and become close enough that they'd be willing to look into the other's business if they weren't around.
• In case you wanted to lead with Charlotte but pair her with Angela and Riesz. Kevin would still be around as an unplayable fourth character for the sake of story scenes.
• Instead of having the other two villain groups die at the Sanctuary of Mana, the new thing would be to have them get away with different things. Whichever main duo you chose has their villains doing the worst, but the other two still do bad stuff in need of being addressed. This would then open up two optional dungeons you could complete before pursuing your villains, and during said dungeons the two characters opposed to villains who lurk inside would be present even if they weren't on your team.
• If instead of a fixed trio all game, as I'm suggesting that only one character should be fixed for a playthrough, then where to recruit those that aren't currently with you? How about a bar or even a post office, you ask, and they send away for the person you want, after you've met them at some point early in the story.

Rewriting the game into three "Books" centered around each protagonist duo runs in one issue -how to write the recruitment of all the Elementals in a single cohesive story? Faerie as we see had several companions, having three fairies is no problem. But 8 Elementals is not divisible by 3? Easy, everyone can be found in Jadd at the start of the game. Having everyone first stumble into their story partner, together the two find a fairy, and then they stumble into each other and rescue the Light Elemental together. That cuts the Elemental count to 7, who else has to go? Why not have Shadow's ghost ship unite them all unexpectedly at a certain point? There, that cuts down on the Elementals to a divisible 6. As for the Sword of Mana, just retitle the game Six Sword Adventure and have it split its power equally amongst all six protagonists so they're all equally chosen. -But in this path we run into the issue of freedom of gameplay character selection again. And there isn't a good answer.

Or as suggested before, the third alternative is to pack everyone together and ditch the individual isolated stories altogether, that is the easiest option to implement.

...I've put too much thought into this.😅

That's actually what happens already. If you have someone in your party, an NPC will do what they would've done if they weren't.

Like, your party is Kevin, Duran, and Charlotte, right? I can't speak for those in specific, but another Amazon does fill in for Riesz in the Lorante scenes if she would've been in your party. Likewise, had Hawkeye been in your party, it would've been Niccolo and not him the one distracting Isabella and rescue Jessica when you went to get the Fire Elemental At least before the Mana Sanctuary, the other PC's are doing their own things, with NPC's filling in if they are in the main party instead.

Ultimately, what you suggest would fill in more a reboot than a remake.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Ultimately, what you suggest would fill in more a reboot than a remake.

True, the two things are not the same, which means some people would be against one or the other. *Sigh* 

Although I'd say "reimagining" over "reboot", because reboot implies to me that you're going to do more with whatever you've established. Tis but a quibble of semantics.

[Emmy]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Now that Tora has Poppi QT and Morag has joined, Blade Combos have become so much easier to pull off. The main issue early is that Tora is locked to Poppi Alpha for the first four chapters and normally this isn't that much of an issue but because BoC mode reduces the Blade Combo durations, Poppi being Tora's only Blade actually became a legitimate issue. Pulling off Fire Blade combos was actually nearly impossible because the order had to be: Pyra -> either Dromarch or Crossette -> Pyra again but getting that last stage was always the hardest part. But now, with Poppi QT, who is by default a Fire Blade and Morag, who has Brighid, pulling off Fire Blade Combos is much, much easier.

Anyways, i've just started Ch.5 and here's what the squad is looking like

I think i'm gonna let Tora sit out for a while. If had gotten Poppi QTPi during the previous run, she would've carried over in NG+ the moment Poppi QT is obtained but because i didn't, i don't have her (remember, QTPi is an optional Blade). 

Yeah that definitly looks a bit blurry, even for a PSP game.

Yep, although they were just called the "Shining" games. Which is a series that has went through many changes.

By the way, the first Shining game wasn't actual an SRPG. It was a dungeon crawler and there is one other game in the series that is like that. But for the most part, the series is either SRPG or ARPG.

I've barely started the game but i do know you get morrag so i'm def gonna just dump tora. I love Tora, don't get me wrong, but Morrag is better.

[Acacia Sgt]

Man, a day or two ago we got some fallout of the California fires. Ash fall warning and stuff, the dull sky, all that...

[Shadow Mir]

16 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

You can pretty much Nosfetank in any FE.

Not in Path of Radiance, where the one user is not exactly a speedster and gets massive AS penalties. Or Three Houses, where Nosferatu runs into the same issues as it did in that, as well as Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones, not to mention a limited number of uses.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'm finally getting the ??? Seeds that I can turn into 3rd tier class items. Although the first one I used turned into the item for a class I didn't want. Reading online how it works, it seems it'll give you a class item for one of the two classes you can become from your chosen second-tiers for your characters (not sure what would happen if you didn't take up second-tiers, but why wouldn't you have one unless you reset your classes later?). However, the game can give you duplicates of the same item because the one you change class, the item is consumed (but you have no incentive to reset classes unless you really want to, so it's no loss if you plan in advance). There appears to be a trick though for getting around this- saving your ??? Seeds until you have 6 of them and then using putting them in a flower pot all at once, that apparently keeps the game from giving you duplicates unlike planting a lesser quantity. And, I can grind for additional ??? Seeds off of common enemies in certain dungeons currently available. This system won't be a chore because I went online to understand it, but it is objectionable.

It was even worse originally - the only way to get ??? seeds was random drops, which meant killing certain enemies last (only the last enemy killed would drop a treasure chest). I dunno how right I am about this, but some of those enemies that could drop them tended to be enemies with NASTY hit-everyone attacks that could take a party that's in otherwise good shape to critical.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I've slain the first of those Benevodons of yore the game has long been mentioning, and thus you know you'll have to fight them. Who names a world-destroying giant bipedal goat monster whose body is so big you only fight the arms and head "Dolan"? Its attacks were a little hard to dodge in time, but it was a fairly quick kill. I was told afterwards that the Benevodons get stronger over time, which I take to mean that after each I slay, the remainder get stronger. I can manage this, no problemo.

The other Benevodons get rather freaky too. Especially the Darkness Benevodon.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Shadow Mir]

6 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

But, the characters seem likeable so far. Pictured here are the protagonist, Vayne (left), and his classmate Jess (right).
Then, there is Flay, a guy who is basically Vaike (from Awakening) and Zeke (from Xenoblade 2) rolled into one character (Gust did it first), calling himself "The Flay" and swinging around an oversized sword while being a massive chuuni, and Nikki, a Beastman girl (yes, there's different races in this, apparently).

On that last one: a beastman girl who seems to be completely crazy about boys.

[Shrimpica]

8 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Or Three Houses

I did a Nosfe tank byleth before, so...

Sure he wasn't a killer, but he wasn't killed, either

[Shadow Mir]

13 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

I did a Nosfe tank byleth before, so...

Sure he wasn't a killer, but he wasn't killed, either

I still think it's one of the worst games to do this in because half health drain is too low to stay alive on, and the high weight of Nosferatu doesn't help.

35 minutes ago, Emmy said:

I've barely started the game but i do know you get morrag so i'm def gonna just dump tora. I love Tora, don't get me wrong, but Morrag is better.

Hey, are ya havin' fun yet?

[Shadow Mir]

16 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

Here's me Nosfetanking in FE4

Genealogy has to be one of the best games for that thanks to Pursuit being needed to double.

16 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

FE14 tried to rebalance Nostanking after Awakening made it too good. They did this by halving the HP absorption, not allowing proc skills to work with it, and by banning it from doubling to prevent enemy phase slaughters.

Bolded: Wasn't the halved HP absorption a thing in Awakening too?

[DragonFlames]

@Shrimperor @lightcosmo

Seven times the charm, it seems, because I did it! I defeated Veruschka after a change of tactics that involved a crapton of dodges and blocks.
As it turns out - and this is something I forgot about - there is a distinct tell when she'll reappear after going invisible, and she will always reappear near Aluche and unleash a powerful combo that can kill you almost instantaneously, so all I had to do was keep dodging and dodging until her combo was finish and then hit her back.
Having Ruenheid around, who can boost your defenses with her Active Skill and save you from a lethal hit, was life saving, as well, I think.

But, be that as it may, I have reclaimed my questionable honor. And a new party member. Probably one of the most broken ones in the game.

See those Active and Special skills? Yeah.
When "One..." activates (it's a bit random, but it activates frequently enough), it does exactly what it says (it does not kill bosses, sadly), and "Slow..." is really good for crowd control.
Only disadvantage is that her combo attack with Aluche hits only one target, whereas Ruenheid's, for example, is AOE.

Also, she is a man-made half-demon just like Aluche, but the process in which she was made one left her with a shortened lifespan and any attempts at extending her life have been proven to do the exact opposite of that. She also completely lost all emotions, and is lacking in common knowledge (she thinks a pool is a training facility, has no idea what fun means, or what friends are, that kind of thing), as she was created to be a killing machine and nothing else.

---

In any case, with Veruschka defeated, I moved on to Chapter 3, where the next character is introduced: Eleanor, who can be described simply as "the Atelier protagonist that isn't an Atelier protagonist". Although she's a chocolatier instead of an alchemist.

To reinforce that impression, her theme wouldn't be out of place in an Atelier game, either.

You see it too, don't you?

---

21 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

On that last one: a beastman girl who seems to be completely crazy about boys.

Oh boy. XD

[Shadow Mir]

1 minute ago, DragonFlames said:

Oh boy. XD

Sounds about right. If you want to see what I mean, ace your assignments (you only need 6 points to get free time for the rest of the week, which is when you get to learn just how quirky the other characters are. And some of them are really weird).

[Shrimpica]

2 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Seven times the charm, it seems, because I did it! I defeated Veruschka after a change of tactics that involved a crapton of dodges and blocks.

Congrats 😄

Told you you can do it 😉