Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Armagon]

https://www.backloggd.com/u/Armagon/list/ranking-every-game-i-played-in-2023-/

[Saint Rubenio]

Speaking of the deal. @Sooks It's Casttime.

...No but seriously, why are the PC controls so weird? I cannot bind movement to the arrow keys. They're unbindable. I am forced to use WASD for movement in this fucking JRPG, of all games. Typical PC port being wonky, but frankly, I'll take a weird control scheme in a genre where controls are mostly irrelevant over the Switch version's hilariously terrible performance compared to this version.

[Sooks]

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

But we have a deal. I will play Castti before the end of the day. And then I will be owed.

Yes, you will.

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

Osvald is big enough to pass off as an Octopath boss lolololol

I was talking about cocaine lmao.

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Probably just the latter, I mean...

I made the right choice.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Huh? I could've sworn... Huh. Maybe when you play Osvald you can tell me?

You can tell me when you play Castti.

Also, if he’s in jail, did Osvald get any random encounters or was it all scripted? If it was all scripted, they might’ve just restored your SP to be nice. Or because all you had was a mage by himself.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

GARON!?

Garon is present but he’s less cartoonish and less funny.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT'S NOT GARON

It’s (spoilers if you wanna find out for yourself)

Spoiler

A cursed nation

Where a character acting as the ruler is cursed to be violent and constantly trying to use conquest to expand the nation, or it’s heavily implied he’s affected by the curse, anyway. So Garon if Anankos wa as curse tied to the nation. Except he doesn’t talk about seeds, he just rambles about strength and doesn’t do his laugh. He also never adopts anyone.

 

[Armagon]

>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.

[Sooks]

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Speaking of the deal. @Sooks It's Casttime.

Enjoy intriguing mystery backstory, amnesia, and minor plot contrivance.

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...No but seriously, why are the PC controls so weird? I cannot bind movement to the arrow keys. They're unbindable. I am forced to use WASD for movement in this fucking JRPG, of all games. Typical PC port being wonky, but frankly, I'll take a weird control scheme in a genre where controls are mostly irrelevant over the Switch version's hilariously terrible performance compared to this version.

The Switch performance for me has been fine. I mean I’m sure the PC is better but…

Edited February 15, 2023 by Sooks

[Saint Rubenio]

Okay, so I've gotten started on Castti.

Spoiler

I like how she inquires with one of the marineers, discovers that there's a group of apothecaries clad in blue uniforms that have gone around murdering people, and upon discovering she's an apothecary clad in a blue uniform, doesn't consider changing. In fact, she remarkably ignored all the information she gained from the sailors. I guess they felt if she was too bright she'd steal Temenos's thunder or something.

 

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Yes, you will.

Play Osvald Sooks. I'm playing Castti like you said.

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

I was talking about cocaine lmao.

Yes, well, I wasn't.

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

I made the right choice.

So it would seem. Let's see how I like her.

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

You can tell me when you play Castti.

I've yet to arrive at any combat.

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Also, if he’s in jail, did Osvald get any random encounters or was it all scripted? If it was all scripted, they might’ve just restored your SP to be nice. Or because all you had was a mage by himself.

No, there's random encounters in a couple points. Though now that I think about it... ehhh we'll see when you play him for yourself.

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Garon is present but he’s less cartoonish and less funny.

Awww...

4 minutes ago, Sooks said:

It’s (spoilers if you wanna find out for yourself)

  Hide contents

A cursed nation

Where a character acting as the ruler is cursed to be violent and constantly trying to use conquest to expand the nation, or it’s heavily implied he’s affected by the curse, anyway. So Garon if Anankos wa as curse tied to the nation. Except he doesn’t talk about seeds, he just rambles about strength and doesn’t do his laugh. He also never adopts anyone.

 

 

Spoiler

That's more like a certain other FE, but then, you've not played that one... Still, that does seem sucky. Unless they handle it well. We'll see.

 

Just now, Sooks said:

Enjoy intriguing mystery backstory, amnesia, and plot contrivance.

lol

Just now, Sooks said:

The Switch performance for me has been fine.

Yeah, those sweet, sweet 30 FPS. Smooth 60 here.

[Sooks]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Okay, so I've gotten started on Castti.

  Hide contents

I like how she inquires with one of the marineers, discovers that there's a group of apothecaries clad in blue uniforms that have gone around murdering people, and upon discovering she's an apothecary clad in a blue uniform, doesn't consider changing. In fact, she remarkably ignored all the information she gained from the sailors. I guess they felt if she was too bright she'd steal Temenos's thunder or something.

This is why she’s the best detective. Fuck Temenos.

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Play Osvald Sooks. I'm playing Castti like you said.

I’m busy right now, and will be for at least a few more hours… but eventually.

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

  Hide contents

That's more like a certain other FE, but then, you've not played that one... Still, that does seem sucky. Unless they handle it well. We'll see.

New Mystery?

Spoiler

I mean, it’s more the curse that’s the problem. Takes away character agency.

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, those sweet, sweet 30 FPS. Smooth 60 here.

I… can’t notice that difference unless I’m actively comparing them or directly switch from one to the other.

[Acacia Sgt]

Can't say I've got much luck differentiating between the two either.

[Sooks]

Oh yeah, one another thing to note about Hikari’s story is there’s a very intriguing optional item. It’s actually sorta well hidden, I would’ve missed it if it wasn’t right next to a chest. It contains some lore that’s relevant to the story but the connection is only implied, his chapter 1 never explains (or mentions) it. Still, interesting that it appears to be completely optional.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Link's Awakening is fantastic. A good game enhanced by it's ending (this is why endings are important).

9/10

I was expecting 7/10 given your little criticisms before. Glad to see they didn't ruin the fun.

What's next on the Zeldalog? Are you going to take a deep breath and wait, or are you still shedding tears over rupees and will choose something else instead?

 

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, those sweet, sweet 30 FPS. Smooth 60 here.

For a turn-based JRPG.🤨

I'm another one of those people who can't see the difference in Funky Pokemon Sweets as long as it's stable and not "objectively" laggy/skippy, so it doesn't matter to me anyway.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Armagon]

9 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

What's next on the Zeldalog

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.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Oh no.

I think Kenny's a generic civilian.

If I had a nickel for every 2023 game with Kenny in it, you know the rest.

Anyway, Castti done. Some impressions I wrote as I went.

Spoiler

Awwwwww Castti holds her satchel in her running animation! Oh that's such a cute detail, I love that!

"I'm going to help everyone I can" first thing she does when I get control: Drug a random person in front of someone else. I see path actions are every bit as ridiculous as they were in Octopath 1. I'm glad.

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.

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.

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.

 

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

Spoiler

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.

 

6 minutes ago, Sooks said:

This is why she’s the best detective. Fuck Temenos.

Fuck Temenos. Even if I do find him rather lovable.

6 minutes ago, Sooks said:

I’m busy right now, and will be for at least a few more hours… but eventually.

Fine.

6 minutes ago, Sooks said:

New Mystery?

Not quite.

6 minutes ago, Sooks said:

I… can’t notice that difference unless I’m actively comparing them or directly switch from one to the other.

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Can't say I've got much luck differentiating between the two either.

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.

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

For a turn-based JRPG.🤨

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.

[Armagon]

My laptop replacement charger was delivered literally 10 minutes after I left for uni.

[ping]

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.

My own team thus far:

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

Knuffel-Cthulu, which unfortunately is a bit too long to use ingame. Very knuffelig. Caught on Route 29, between the first two cities.
Naive nature (+Spd, -SpDef)

BEEP BOOP. I didn't really intend to use the Beldum I caught on Route 31 (east of Violet City), but its nature was too good to pass up on. I'm sure it'll grow up to be a nice and humane supercomputer.
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)

My little piglet, caught in the Dark Cave after defeating Falkner, so he has a bit of catching up to do. I don't think I've ever used a Swinub because iirc, they're only catchable fairly late in both Johto and Sinnoh, but I like the evo line.
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SpDef)

--

The only road blocks thus far have been a gym trainer with Poliwrath (which knows Bubblebeam and Submission even at this low level) and, more brutally, a Garchomp on a random trainer south of Violet city, which one-shots everything except Alear with Dragon Rage. I've avoided the trainer for now, maybe Alear can do something about it after evolving.

Edited February 15, 2023 by ping

[Sidereal Wraith]

Spoiler

 

…Why!?!

 

[BrightBow]

Fortunately Marcel is not an armor.
So unlike Derrick he can actually cross sand, among other things.

Too bad he still can't climb cliffs. Because with Knight movement, you need 4 move for that.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour 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.

 

The third game that firmly established the franchise's direction after the early black sheep that was Adventure of Link. Significance to the franchise's history -and perhaps the history of gaming at large- confirmed. The game whose minimalistic opening once held me in its awe two and a half decades ago.

Hopefully the settled dust doesn't infect you with some millennia-old pathogen that laid dormant within the sealed tomb and thus led you to an early death.⚰️🦠💀

Although, I do remember that ALttP isn't great on the puzzle aspect of the Zelda equation, that was still not fully developed.

 

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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.

I get that. It's not like I haven't chosen a PC version before b/c technical improvements, although the issues have to be bigger than 30 vs. 60 in my case. I'm struggling to decide whether to go PC or Switch for EOIII. Mouse = better mapping, yet mouse also = Denuvo.

[Armagon]

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Hopefully the settled dust doesn't infect you with some millennia-old pathogen that laid dormant within the sealed tomb and thus led you to an early death.⚰️🦠💀

As long as I don't soft lock haha  (I hear it's possible in one of the dungeons) (the Link's Awakening hard locks weren't fixed in HD, there's an off chance you could make the game unbeatable if the ball in Eagle's Tower lands on the spikes and it's also possible to kill the game in Angler's Cavern although this one requires a very specific thing to do).

19 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Although, I do remember that ALttP isn't great on the puzzle aspect of the Zelda equation, that was still not fully developed.

As long as it's not key spam like in Ocarina. Cause that was really my bigger issue with it. Ocarina of Keys.

[Acacia Sgt]

I remember once getting into a race with my brother over who would finish ALttP first.

I won, heh.

[Codename Shrimp]

This talk about Alttp reminds me of the Alttp x Metroid randomizer...

And makes me think if FE can have something similar :think:

[Armagon]

3 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

This talk about Alttp reminds me of the Alttp x Metroid randomizer...

And makes me think if FE can have something similar :think:

Every time a unit initiates a battle, you have to play a Star Fox level.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Every time a unit initiates a battle, you have to play a Star Fox level.

Well, we got Wyvern Ride now...

[Interdimensional Observer]

18 minutes ago, Armagon said:

there's an off chance you could make the game unbeatable if the ball in Eagle's Tower lands on the spikes

Hmm... any chance the revival potion grants temporary invincibility and you could grab the ball and throw it back onto safe ground? B/c I remember you could use revival invincibility from the potion to enter Turtle Rock without the Mirror Shield (as you can walk through that totally random flamethrower). 

18 minutes ago, Armagon said:

As long as it's not key spam like in Ocarina. Cause that was really my bigger issue with it. Ocarina of Keys.

Hmm... I wouldn't say that's infeasible. But then that's so specific yet general that I can't really recall.😆

 

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I remember once getting into a race with my brother over who would finish ALttP first.

I won, heh.

This happily reminds me that ALttP was the first Zelda game I ever finished. I'm 95% sure of it.

4 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

This talk about Alttp reminds me of the Alttp x Metroid randomizer...

And makes me think if FE can have something similar :think:

How does that randomizer work again? Would it require FE have another SNES SRPG to cross-pollinate with?

[Codename Shrimp]

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

How does that randomizer work again?

https://samus.link/

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Would it require FE have another SNES SRPG to cross-pollinate with?

Does it even have to be a srpg? I can imagine a genre mix would be fun

Edited February 15, 2023 by Shrimpy -Limited Edition-

[Acacia Sgt]

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This happily reminds me that ALttP was the first Zelda game I ever finished. I'm 95% sure of it.

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