Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Armagon]

[Interdimensional Observer]

43 minutes ago, Wartortle94 said:

That's cool🦊 I just looked it up and it looks interesting

It is very lengthy, and not exactly the most strategic of SRPGs I concede. Yet I enjoy the dialogue, the mishmash of stories (despite me not watching any anime), and the music and attack animations are 👌. I love the series.

 

50 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

F

Maybe my classes were a suboptimal blend, maybe the normal enemies had a pinch too much HP. Perhaps they fine-tuned the bosses for the hardcore crowd beyond what they should've. Nexus being a celebration of the entire series means one can imagine that Atlus expected the players would be well-seasoned veterans -but that doesn't make us all experts.

But, I think it part of it was the fact Atlus brought back arbitrary level 20 and level 40 restrictions on skill-learning. It was fine in EOIV, my first entry, but here, some classes are left wanting for certain skills they have to wait on. Ninja really wants its mass-panic infliction skill, having to spend precious early Skill Points to work towards it should be enough of a limitation, as it is in basically every other game, minus EOV sorta. They also lock you into the very easy mode if you ever use it, I don't recall that limitation in the prior games.

I want to get back to Nexus, but I waffled on whether or not to buy the pay-to-win EXP DLC to quickly grind some levels. Now that the eShop is gone, I can't do that anymore. Maybe I should restart with another team, or do some ostrichlation (I have a legal copy of the game after all), start anew there, and see if I can find the EXP DLC online or something. I think it'd get better once I got to lvl 40, in a long game where the postgame lets you raise the level cap to 130.

50 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

And i am kinda in the mood for one atm ngl but the one in my sights still hasn't been tl'd yet

Interesting. Not my cuppa tea, but I can't say angelic/biblical trappings don't interest me from time to time.😇

50 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Uniqueness is usually a big reason, but also music, calculations and game speed.

-You gave me the opportunity.😛

Fan-upscaled b/c the 3DS port went with a new opening & tune. DS1's ost is a bit small and heavy on electric guitar; DS2's is a little bigger, more varied, and softer in tone, speaking of.:

-Though I read and understand your above remarks. I'm not rec'ing these, just shilling the music b/c I can.😝

Edited April 17, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Venger_06]

4 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Me: *searching for something to pass the time*

Shrimpy, play Dragon Age: Origins!

The game will give you the choice of three races and some "origins" and those origins will define what your class will be.

• You can be a human (male or female for all races) of Noble origin, and then you can choose between the Warrior or Rogue classes, or a member of the Circle of Mages, and then you will automatically be a mage.
• As an elf, you can be a city elf (or more specifically, from the Elven Slums) or a Dalishan elf (a wild elf that lives in tribes) and then you'll be a Warrior or Rogue or Mage (but in that case, you'll get the play as the Human mage inside the Circle, but with some differences in the dialogues).
• As a dwarf, you can be a noble dwarf or a common dwarf, and you can be a Rogue or a warrior. Dwarves cannot be mages, as they do not “dream” and therefore do not connect to the Fade.

Each origin makes the game start in a different location and with a different plot, giving the characters different motivations to embark on the journey (some are for revenge, others for answers, etc.), but in all, after a tragic event that changes their life, you'll meet Duncan who says he's in that place looking for the most suitable candidate to become a Grey Warden and recruits the character, taking him to the war camp in Ferelden, where you'll participate in the initiation ritual. 

And best of all: your choices do matter! The characters join or leave you depending on your choices, and each origin will make you see the events with different eyes. Want to be a bastard who sells a child's soul to have sex with a demon? You can do it! Want to be an average goody two-shoes? You can too! But remember that every action will have consequences...

Now, a piece of a review on steam...

Quote

Gameplay

If you ever played "Baldurs Gate" before (Yes even the latest one!) or "Divinity: Original Sin 2" you know how this game works. The game on its own is a really good and fleshed out RPG. You have your dialouges with a sheer amount of possible answers which also change some of the outcomes of quests. The way you play your character and the way you develeop your character is up to you at this point. Like in all other old Bioware games you can be super mean or the hero everyone deserves. The gameplay in combat is also worth to talk about.

In a simple way: You click on the enemy -> Your character attacks the enemy -> You press skill buttons for cool effect

More complex: You see a group of bad people and you pause the time. You tell your Archer to shoot at the tall guy and blind him while you mage should channel an AOE fire attack on the smaller ones. Your thief should activate the cloak and sneak past the smaller ones to backstab the big one. You on your own playing a tank in this situation. You start a taunt so that any survivng enemy might focus you. But what is that... After you continued the game and all of your allies execute your commands you see that your archer got attacked by an hidden mage of the enemy. Good that you used the optional tactics menu before for your Party (specificly the mage) and set up "IF ally is below 25% HP THAN use heal spell" while your Archer got the task "IF enemy has range THAN attack range first".

And there are many of these things for different situations you can program into your party set up.

Classes

Well there are Mages, Rogues and Warriors! So if you start the game and see "Oh only 3 classes?!" ... Do not be dissapointed, because it gets better! These are just the mainclasses. Each of them has their own subclasses. An example: As a mage you can go full damage or full support and even both. Or you change the way you use your magic in a way you wouldn't think you could do this when you just start the game.

Expand  

You can even make your mage a Tank! And if you want to see people with magic being powers being opressed, you came to right place.

Here's a video, but there are spoilers for the Human Noble origin. Imo the best origin story-wise is Dwarf Noble, folowed by City Elf and then Dwarf commoner.

And here's the best thing: a potato PC can run it! Even Ruben recommends it!

On 12/23/2021 at 9:13 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

You get to make some of the most amazingly despicable choices ever and make 06 angry.

...Ok no but seriously, that's an unironic upside. I am amazed by how much of a dick the game lets you be. That sort of freedom is much appreciated in a game where Your Choices Matter™. That, and the gameplay is fun. It's a sort of like, real time open world-ish RNG where your sidekicks feel like actual folks fighting for you. It's an interesting and unique mechanic, I liked it. Plot's all right, the game world is super brutal.

[Eltosian Kadath]

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Also Sommie just being there is absolutely hilarious.

Lets be honest, Sommie is the reason its showing the top 11 instead of 10, as they didn't want to bump a playable character off the cover.

 

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Will look forward to the final poll results showing that Lindon is the least popular character in the game so I can confirm I am a natural contrarian and that the Japanese have no taste.

Naw, my bet is the bottom will be that one character that I always forget exists, have to look it up (speaking of which, let me look them up again), and only then remember that Amber actually was a character in this game.

 

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

Point is, i feel like "the Switch is underpowered" is just an easy excuse for pirates to brag about how much they love pirating. Switch could be running 16K 120fps natively and there'd still be people like "it's morally correct to pirate Nintendo".

It isn't the best look when pirates are running Switch games at a higher resolution than the Switch can display less than a week after launch.

 

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

Curious as to how the Solm royals aren't there.

It does seem odd as Timerra is so obviously the best character design in the game, and Fogado is Claude mark 2.

 

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

But then depending on the emulator and game, you have to fuck around with the settings and even then. Emulating Nintendo? Easy peasy. Emulating the PS3?

Time to show my age in remembering that N64 emulation used to be the impossible one...

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

And let's be honest, this is a Japanese poll and they are black.

...Yeah I guess that would explain it wouldn't it.

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Probably top 3, yeah. This surprises me, Alfred didn't strike me as top 3 material.

I agree fully, as he is one of the boringest characters, and easiest characters to drop in the game.

 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Like, this is the closest any of these morons came to actually hurting the guy.

I love you, Zelkov.

It is so beautiful that you got to exactly 1 accuracy on the enemies in Maddening Mode.

 

6 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

I wish there were more open world and adventure games that, at the very least on an aesthetic level, took place outside of western Europe.

There are quite a few set in Japan as well, like Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, or Okami. The Far Cry, and Just Cause games tend to be set in other parts of the world as well, but they are far more FPS than adventure, and do tend to have a bit of a white savoir feel to them. Plus fantasy games can be a bit of a mixed bag as well, take the Dark Souls for instance, where a lot of the game has clear Western European influences (like Anor Londo's cathedral clearly being Milan's Duomo), but then you have areas like Lost Izalith based on Anokor Wat (I could add more examples here, but you get the idea).

 

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

It is so fucking funny how DeSantis thinks he can win against Disney. You know, the megacorporation that accounts for like 80% of this State's revenue and quite literally has an army of lawyers, who have their own lawyers.

 

DeSantis is a real nut, and I hope Florida can find a way of shaking him off their throats. It seem uncomfortably like an extension of the Florida Man meme, as he is the kind of leader that would inspire all those inanely comedic criminal acts.

 

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It isn't the best look when pirates are running Switch games at a higher resolution than the Switch can display less than a week after launch.

I mean, PCs will always out preform consoles at the highest level. Course, you can't emulate PS5s but the highest end PC is still better than the PS5.

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

and I hope Florida can find a way of shaking him off their throats.

One small problem. A bunch of anti-vax/mask boomers moved down here in 2020. So Florida went from being a swing state to a red one.

My main hope for the future is still that boomer will die eventually and Gen Z has quite frankly had enough of their bullshit.

[Acacia Sgt]

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

One small problem. A bunch of anti-vax/mask boomers moved down here in 2020. So Florida went from being a swing state to a red one.

My main hope for the future is still that boomer will die eventually and Gen Z has quite frankly had enough of their bullshit.

Do you think ripples have already been made now that he signed the six-weeks abortion ban into law?

Edited April 18, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Alright, time to begin... Aria of Sorrow.

... I'm reminded of one of the few fanfic ideas related to Castlevania that I have. Perhaps one day...

[GuardianSing]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

There are quite a few set in Japan as well, like Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, or Okami. The Far Cry, and Just Cause games tend to be set in other parts of the world as well, but they are far more FPS than adventure, and do tend to have a bit of a white savoir feel to them. Plus fantasy games can be a bit of a mixed bag as well, take the Dark Souls for instance, where a lot of the game has clear Western European influences (like Anor Londo's cathedral clearly being Milan's Duomo), but then you have areas like Lost Izalith based on Anokor Wat (I could add more examples here, but you get the idea).

Ghost of Tsushima has been on my radar, a fiction piece is one thing, but a historical samurai game about actual historical events is a rarity.

It's a PS exclusive though, so I'd have to weigh my options.

47 minutes ago, Armagon said:

My main hope for the future is still that boomer will die eventually and Gen Z has quite frankly had enough of their bullshit.

Trumpism truly was the best thing to get the GOP to collasp upon itself.

There's a quote aimed to mock Mussolini that I think about a lot. "He had no ideology, only rhetoric"

[Acacia Sgt]

Now gotta be careful the collapse doesn't have a lot of collateral.

[Acacia Sgt]

You're not fooling anyone, "Arikado"!

I like the effect of how outside the castle gate it looks like we're high in the atmosphere, but inside it has the typical "outside grounds" look. Okay, time to venture through the Castle Corridor.

[Acacia Sgt]

I see farming the souls will be as fun as it was with the DSS cards... ah, of course.

I see the door to the first boss already. That was quick. Well, gonna stop for tonight. Will fight the boss tomorrow...

Also, seems I was wrong. It was a large lake with distant mountains, not the planet below. Guess it fooled me, hahaha.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Ace_]

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It is very lengthy, and not exactly the most strategic of SRPGs I concede. Yet I enjoy the dialogue, the mishmash of stories (despite me not watching any anime), and the music and attack animations are 👌. I love the series

I might try it sometime. 🦊 it sounds great

[Saint Rubenio]

8 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Just making jokes out of vaguely worded thread titles.

Dammit, man! For a moment there I thought I had to bring war to Wartortle, but it turns out no, he's right.

...ehhh VS2 kinda ruined Hilda, anyway. Penneloupe is the new best Vestawaifu.

8 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Ruben atm trying to create an Engage team

I am still stumped at making Jade the new Etie and dropping Citrinne. I just don't have anyone to drop for Seadall. Drop one of the old people squad? Fuck that! I will have to think this over with the team in front of me.

8 hours ago, Wartortle94 said:

How's it going man?

Currently trying to make up my mind on how to handle Engage's really low deployment slot total.

I am having trouble.

8 hours ago, Sooks said:

x = Timerra

(Zelkov + 4 levels) / martial arts = Funny

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

How much of a slog wordiness is can vary from game (series) to game (series). I just criticized the amount of early text in Triangle Strategy, but there is a very good reason most Super Robot Wars don't have fan translations. And I simply can't get enuf of the banter.

Meanwhile I've eaten TriStrat up twice but fell off SRW two hours in because the banter was putting me to sleep. As you said, ultimately, it is a matter of tastes.

7 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

And then Engage just came and actually i can't have fun with most games (even non  SRPGs) atm lol. 

I checked yesterday. Unless I missed it, you still cannot set Engage as your fav FE. Clearly there is a conspiracy among the higher spheres of Serenes. Three Houses traitors, the lot of them.

6 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Shrimpy, play Dragon Age: Origins!

There he goes.

6 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Even Ruben recommends it!

The recommendation: "You get to make 06 angry!"

I really was way too chipper about that, wasn't I. Poor, poor Alistair... And then the fucker had the audacity to come back for the DLC, I should've fucked him harder

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Lets be honest, Sommie is the reason its showing the top 11 instead of 10, as they didn't want to bump a playable character off the cover.

The fact that they had to do this.

...Sommie has a chance of winning next CyL, doesn't he. Beautiful.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Naw, my bet is the bottom will be that one character that I always forget exists, have to look it up (speaking of which, let me look them up again), and only then remember that Amber actually was a character in this game.

Amber is young, handsome and has a really out-of-left-field gimmick. That all makes him at least somewhat memorable for some people. Enough to save him from absolute bottom, I'd say.

On the other hand, Lindon... Dude, have you seen the sheer volume of people who didn't even realize Lindon was recruitable? So many folks online claiming to have murdered him without a second thought. Because apparently enemy recruits are a foreign concept now. And, of course, he just isn't sexy enough to be recruitbale.

How can the least popular character be anyone but the crotchety, unwaifuable old fossil that half the playerbase didn't even realize they could get?

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It isn't the best look when pirates are running Switch games at a higher resolution than the Switch can display less than a week after launch.

Or worse: BEFORE launch. Engage, for example, was available for all through piracy a solid 5 or 6 days before the game even came out.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Time to show my age in remembering that N64 emulation used to be the impossible one...

Nah I remember that too. The good ol' days of playing Paper Mario with massive visual glitches. The world kept blinking in and out of existence, and somehow 8 year old me just accepted it as a fact of life and went on.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It is so beautiful that you got to exactly 1 accuracy on the enemies in Maddening Mode.

There's not even any intricate set up of skills here, that's just Zelkov with Lyn and two levels standing on a forest tile. Truly *impressive*.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I agree fully, as he is one of the boringest characters, and easiest characters to drop in the game.

Hey! Not boring. He is the sweetest moron and I love him. Of course, if I love him, that means he shouldn't be popular.

Diamant is the really boring one, he's just "strong, heroic prince that is too stoic for a personality." Yawn.

Now watch me read some supports and find he is actually cool.

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Also, seems I was wrong. It was a large lake with distant mountains, not the planet below. Guess it fooled me, hahaha.

Imagine if Aria of Sorrow started, and Soma just instantly died because he is in the vaccuum of space.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Saint Rubenio]

Ohhhh I just realized, the title of the thread says "not in order", so Alears, Alfred and Diamant are bigger for... really no reason lol

Holy shit then Sommie could be winning for all we know.

[Shrimpica]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

just shilling the music b/c I can

I always welcome shilling music

Especially if the are good like these OPs 😄

I am surprised by how...different these ops from each other, but both still good!

7 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Dragon Age: Origins!

It is on gamepass

hmmm

59 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Alears, Alfred and Diamant are bigger for... really no reason lol

most likely top 3

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Clearly there is a conspiracy among the higher spheres of Serenes.

They are cult-kun?

[Saint Rubenio]

Oh wow, TIL Zelkov has some of the best base build in the entire game. It just goes unnoticed because he starts in the class that has the least use for build in the game.

...that would make it a massive waste to make him a qi-master, but then again, I am not known for my good ideas.

19 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

most likely top 3

Diamant wins, then. Japan did always have a fondness for boring men. Boring men, disproportionate women and lolis - the holy trinity of the rising sun.

19 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

They are cult-kun?

Yes. They hide behind the Serenes façade, but they wear garbage bags to the last. I demand to be able to set Engage as my fav, as it deserves!

[Shrimpica]

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

but they wear garbage bags to the last.

[Saint Rubenio]

Oh wait, I couldn't make Zelkov a qi-master without DLC because staves! Man, Jesus fucking Christ, the amount of fun reclassing shenanigans you cannot do because they hold half the game's proficiencies hostage at a 30€ ransom.

At this point I am certain that's the only explanation. It is too arbitrary to be a balancing measure. So I cannot change a bunch of ill-suited-for-magic units to mage for kicks until chapter 21, I cannot make anyone punch until chapter 15, but after a mere two chapters I get Ike's axes and can already put Kagetsu in the best classes like warrior and wyvern. If it really was meant as balance, it is very poorly thought-out, uncharacteristically so for Engage... Unless it was meant to sell the DLC. Or, they were so distracted adjusting the proficiencies to the nostalgia-bait to consider the gameplay ramifications. But I dunno, the Edelgard/Tiki/Soren succession just conveniently giving out every single proficiency (even though arts on Tiki makes zero sense) is kinda smelly.

Ahh, well, no matter. Tl;dr: I do have the DLC, so it'll be as simple as having Zelkov cut up a child and a nerd a couple times. And then hit level 21, but he only needs one more anyway.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Lightcosmo]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If it really was meant as balance, it is very poorly thought-out,

*me*

*fakes surprise at the devs not proprerly balancing*

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I see farming the souls will be as fun as it was with the DSS cards... ah, of course.

I think the soul drop rates are higher in Aria than Dawn though. And you need one copy of each soul for it to be good, we didn't need RNG grinding to max soul strength, Dawn.

 

6 hours ago, Wartortle94 said:

I might try it sometime. 🦊 it sounds great

You could start with J, most Super Robot Wars are independent of each other narratively and could be someone's first. However for a beginner's Super Robot Wars, Original Generation 1 on the GBA or the PS2's Original Generations is worth considering as well. Since OG is all original characters with no licensed anime involved, the story of OG1 is easier to follow, while everything retains the same style as found in mainline, non-OG SRWs.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

I am surprised by how...different these ops from each other, but both still good!

Points to the difference in tone between the two games.

Devil Survivor 1 has something of a "typical" Shin Megami Tensei atmosphere, albeit a bit less cold (the game is only rated ESRB T, not M) and the characters feel more mainstream anime in appeal and less flat (an issue I admit of mainline SMT). Certainly makes for a good intro to SMT IMO, it was mine after all.

Devil Survivor 2, well the setting is still apocalyptic, the stakes are still high. But, as I've said before, people sometimes critique DS2 as "Persona-lite". Far more room for silliness and the "survivor" vibe isn't as strong, though the game can still be serious. Some people express preference for the first game as a result, which is understandable.

Where the two games remain wholly united in is the JRPG-SRPG hybrid gameplay (with the sequel having minor improvements), and a one-week narrative structure.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Armagon]

10 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Do you think ripples have already been made now that he signed the six-weeks abortion ban into law?

Well Gen Z becomes more eligible to vote each year and the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade was a big reason why Gen Z fucked up the "red wave".

9 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

It's a PS exclusive though, so I'd have to weigh my options.

Sony has been porting their games to PC recently so there could be hope.

[Lightcosmo]

Finally finished the PotD in Tactics Ogre Reborn (again) 

finally got to the end of CODA just to attempt the final battle!

[Acacia Sgt]

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Imagine if Aria of Sorrow started, and Soma just instantly died because he is in the vaccuum of space.

I mean, it's the manifestation of chaos in physical form currently sealed up in the Saros Cycle 145 of Solar Eclipses. I'd think we could just chalk it up to "magic", for how its inhabitants/visitors wouldn't died due to being high in the atmosphere. Which isn't quite the vaccuum of space yet.

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think the soul drop rates are higher in Aria than Dawn though. And you need one copy of each soul for it to be good, we didn't need RNG grinding to max soul strength, Dawn.

Doesn't Aria also has something like that? A soul effect where the more you have overall, it becomes stronger?

25 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Well Gen Z becomes more eligible to vote each year and the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade was a big reason why Gen Z fucked up the "red wave".

It's amazing how even seeing that some of them are still doubling-down.

Unless, of course, they might know their days are numbered so they want to make as much damage as possible so the other side spends a lot of time undoing it so then they can go: "See? They're not doing enough!" or "Look at what they are doing!" As a slogan to make a comeback.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Shrimpica]

...what is going on in FEH lmao

Seeing the memes is amusing even if i don't know anything kek

[Acacia Sgt]

Even reading up about the actual mythological ones doesn't make it much better, heh. Perhaps somewhat.