Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Armagon]

(I already knew what her deal is, it's just funny).

Basically, Cindy Moon a.k.a Silk was bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker. And as a result, when the two are in close proximity, they uh.....go into heat. Yeah. So they have to physically stay away from each other otherwise their spider DNA starts acting up.

4 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Ok it bothers me how he's flicking the sword to put it in the sheath.....and it just teleports there. 

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by Armagon

[Eltosian Kadath]

Oh boy...this fella is going to be trouble. Giving me some real Redd White of Bluecorp vibes already

Edit: Ans the buffoon is just randomly quoting Hamlet while he is at it.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Eltosian Kadath

[GuardianSing]

Look who's here, Khmer!

Wait I already made that joke ages ago

 

[Shrimpica]

22 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Ok it bothers me how he's flicking the sword to put it in the sheath.....and it just teleports there. 

 

30 FPS vs. 60 FPS

[Eltosian Kadath]

And like that, I reach another save point, and an obvious break point, just before the trial.

[Shrimpica]

 

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The thing is overflowing😛

That's like

Paper

From discarded drafts though

36 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Basically, Cindy Moon a.k.a Silk was bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker. And as a result, when the two are in close proximity, they uh.....go into heat. Yeah. So they have to physically stay away from each other otherwise their spider DNA starts acting up.

Imagine they decide fuck it, go for it, and then the DNA acts up again and she starts cannibalizing Peter halfway through.

32 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Oh boy...this fella is going to be trouble. Giving me some real Redd White of Bluecorp vibes already

Edit: Ans the buffoon is just randomly quoting Hamlet while he is at it.

He seems like a real big deal, doesn't he?

9 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Like all things Engage, it fixed them in gameplay, ruined them otherwise by making it the Hounds five times each. Where's my 20 chumps with the same unpleasant personality?

Edited June 10, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[GuardianSing]

Wait...I can just do this?!

The requirements to do this are astonishingly simple for something that would probably be damn near impossible to do for most empires in the 14th century.

My Tsar just got blasted drunk on Vodka, spent all night reading about Athens, and the next day decided "You know what, I'm going to dramatically shift the power dynamics in Eastern Europe"

There, it's done. The Tsardom just barely lasted 100 years.

Victoria 3 is going to be so fucking funny

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Guys... I'm doing it.

I'm making GBA Sommie.

There's probably a GBA Sommie someone else made already, but I wanted to make my own.

[BrightBow]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Like all things Engage, it fixed them in gameplay, ruined them otherwise by making it the Hounds five times each. Where's my 20 chumps with the same unpleasant personality?

Or memorable personalities like Amundsen. A guy so charming everyone thought he just had to be recruitable.

[Saint Rubenio]

Yep, I'm definitely having way too much fun.

[Shrimpica]

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yep, I'm definitely having way too much fun.

>Sommie getting doubled

[BrightBow]

2 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

I was expecting this to be the usual thing of "Did a Tear Ring Saga thing, except dumber". But like... Elixiers in TRS weren't even a good mechanic.
But at least the "dumber" part still applies. Because it was tied to an item. Being a "boss" wasn't a status that magically gave you special powers.

And yeah, bosses moving alongside an escort... abilities to deny counter attacks... How original.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, GuardianSing said:

Wait...I can just do this?!

Average Tears of the Kingdom player.

[BrightBow]

It's weird how the Acrobat skill's effect to set all movement costs to 1 doesn't work on houses. And I mean, it really works on every single other terrain type. Even during Armory Situation with the snow terrain. Now the skill is unused of course, but I can't help but be curious if this was a deliberate design decision or if there are some weird global variable shenanigans going on.

The unused Warp orb is also pretty interesting. It has a hard range cap of 10 hexes. But it not only prevents you from placing the target on impassible terrain, it prevents you from placing them on any terrain they normally couldn't reach. This means not only no warping past closed doors, but also for example you cannot teleport Derrick onto an ordinary plain hex that is surrounded by cliff hexes because while Derrick can cross Plain hexes, he cannot ever cross cliff hexes. You have to at least be theoretically able to access the target location without assistance and no actions other than normal movement.
With the game being as is, it would still break a lot of things if it were actually used. Like all those escort missions that could be effortlessly cheesed. Still, there was an impressive effort made to counteract the usual ways in which Warp breaks things.

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, I think I'll mix it up. Will put XC1 on hold and start Chapter 15 of CF.

[Lightchao42]

It's been eight games and this song is still around.

"Oh, dear, you're right. I'm turning 25 this year. Death is swiftly approaching..." -Sharon

In regard to the mandatory Summer Festival quest:

Spoiler

I appreciate how the game gives you another opportunity to use most of the guest characters, it's nice how they get another shot at being playable (before everything inevitably goes to Gehenna at the end of the game). It's also a pleasant surprise that Lechter becomes playable, especially since Patrick and Towa weren't when they briefly accompanied the party.

Though he may have looked up Kloe's skirt five games ago, my respect for Lechter increased when he used his Spell Card craft on the Supreme Giant Isopod and immediately killed it on the second turn. One could say it took the L.

 

12 hours ago, Armagon said:

I am so glad that fusing the Master Sword to something only slightly changes it's appearance.

There go my dreams of forging the Master Bokoblin Guts.

Now that you brought it up, do you have to follow the plot beats to fight the final boss, or can you run straight there after the tutorial like in BotW?

Edited June 11, 2023 by Lightchao42

[Armagon]

My Hero's Path after beating the game

Oh and also

yeah that's the torch Zelda drops at the beginning of the game. I completely forgot about it lmaooooooo that's a nice touch.

34 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

Now that you brought it up, do you have to follow the plot beats to fight the final boss, or can you run straight there after the tutorial like in BotW?

You can jump down right after leaving the Great Sky Islands. But it's a lot tougher. In BotW, you could just scale the walls of Hyrule Castle. In TotK, you have to fight/run through hordes of tough monsters and when you get to the final door, four mandatory enemy mobs will charge at you in waves. And then, like in BotW, you have to kill the five story bosses on your own and the only then can you actually fight Ganondorf. And this Ganondorf looked at all his other incarnations, calls them pathetic, and shows them how a boss fight is really done.

Like it's not even a question, TotK Ganondorf fight obliterates every other Ganondorf fight, let alone any other fight in the series. Actually the best final boss in the series, didn't think Demise would be topped.

 

[Armagon]

Alright now time to write this long-ass review encompassing my thoughts on peak.

[Interdimensional Observer]

And now I'm at Scenario 10, I think it's two waves of Radam, then the Death Army? Whatever they are, I'm stopping before I trigger the first set of reinforcements. I'll pick up there tomorrow, want to be fresh when I see the stuff I missed by going with the Archangel on the first split.

Touya is already at 81 kills, he hit exactly 50 by Scenario 6's end. (My first run by contrast didn't see Calvina reach Ace status until the last encounter against Gale.) I blame it on the Granteed, the raw power of a Super Robot when almost every other mech you have is a crappy Real is incredible (helped by all the opposition being flimsy Real grunts). Not surprising, ComV and MazZ are my distant second and third places. This 100% Super run is going to be soooooooo easy. Maxing non-favorite Armor upgrades on the Maz and 'teed, sure help too, add in Melua and the Granteed has reduced some Radam Beast attacks to the 10 damage minimum. I don't mind overfeeding Touya this early, being favorited means that's 81 kills with +50% funds gained, soloing with him -to a point- enriches everyone else.

The battleships are about 15 kills each so far. First playthrough informed that the AI prioritizes being able to hit over the damage dealt, so they loooooove attacking the flagships, which unlike some other SRWs, are quite good here, especially Nadesico. Way more useful than merely providing Command, and they sure don't need Guard & Strike/Bullseye to have a good single-turn of enemy-phasing. Since J has the oddity of letting you swap the first battleship sub-pilot into the lead slot, I decided to play with this now. On my first run I didn't notice this and left Yurika in charge, she does have superior Will gains for a battleship, which is good for a quicker Phase Transition Cannon, and she does get Command 3 while Ruri reaches only Command 2. Supers like accuracy sure, but the primary use for Command in this game is evade for Reals, so on a pure Super run, I've swapped Ruri into the lead, her stats end up being a little higher than Yurika's once the Image Feedback System kicks in. Unfortunately, while Ruri continues issuing commands, Yurika falls almost silent in battle dialogue when Ruri takes control, that's a letdown.

I've half a mind to skip or limit playing SRWJ tomorrow and instead freshen things up by going over to RF5. -But I can't truly resist J, not so soon.😆 

...You know, if they wanted to try re-resurrecting Sakura Wars, they could make a Gaykura Wars spinoff. They could keep the emphasis on theatre troupes just fine, drag is a thing, and I'm aware 1920-30s Germany had clubs -ones even mainstream celebrities visited- with men in drag (and 30 told me Taiga has that Peppermint alter ego, the dead franchise already touched on it). All I'd ask is that the playable cast of men partaking of the masquerade be of varied physiques and varied interests.

 

23 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

There's certainly a reason for it. So you will be finding out, hehe.

Something to do with "Fate" I speculate. It has dawned on me that Calvina's pre-upgrade theme- "Revenger" obviously relates to her rage against Al-Van for destroying Ashari ("Ashley" as Akurasu calls it)-Kreutzer Industries, so Touya's recurrent dream must be related to some notion of fate. 

I thought on this as I was comparing the two starter themes for J. Revenger is more combative and upfront, Fate is more subdued and perhaps "dire", Fate also feels like it blends better with Moon Knights. -Will wait another 29 fights before comparing the post-upgrade themes.

11 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Being Ibis is suffering.

Get Suzuka through a Cross Gate. She can teach Ibis how to be confidently flat. And considering the g-forces the Aste/Altair-lion/Hyperion likely go through, lacking the extra upper chest weight ought to make piloting that thing less physically taxing.

 

11 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

And all Ys Heroines i like tend to die/get sealed in some way, what will her fate be lol

Karja- "Adol the Red, I have come for your soul at last. Vaharra welcomes you."

???- "Excuse me? Adol, pinnacle of the human species (and one crimson fox in your silver years might I add ^_^), she might've turned into a psychopomp, but don't forget what I am."

Karja- "Silence I say. You're overrated, and a carbon copy knockoff of that girl from two games before. Adol, there are roasted boars in the eternal mead hall more worthy of your attention than her, and with more meat on the bones too. I'm sure she already got deflowered by that redhead childhood boyfriend of her's, or did the lady-thruple come first? I've preserved myself f- *ducks under a thrown giant wooden club, jumps over two katars, and then gets grazed by two crescent blades, drawing blood. Before being swallowed whole  by a rampaging dinosaur, which fifteen seconds later she splits wide open from inside, freeing herself with a confident and sadistic smile on her face.*"

???- "Oooooooh! That. Is. It! Cry at the fate that shall befall you! Adol, side with this slanderous wench and I will slap you so hard you'll forget she ever existed!"

*Chaos unimaginable unfolds.*

Adol- *Pretends to be silent.* "This is why I never settled down. Girls can be scary. Yo, Dogi, now that we're both dead, wanna scratch my leg?"

 

11 hours ago, Armagon said:

So i just have to play other games now? In a post-TotK world?

Any ideas what you're up to next? Anything on the backburner that needs resolution? Anything new?

 

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Wait...I can just do this?!

Well, there goes any point to starting as Novgorod.

Reminds me of the time the last tsarevich became the first leader of the newfound people's republic, and without murdering/imprisoning his father.

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, got three paralogues and one sidequest battle. I think I am at the point where I don't need to keep doing the Rare Enemies battles. Even the stuff I'd want most, Umbral Steel, I have plenty of, considering I've yet to need to use the Relic weapons. During the War Phase at least, as I took advantage of the free repair given by the Time Skip (plus the additional one the Sword of the Creator gets when its upgraded).

Okay, I'll do the Rare Enemies ones if I can spare the time to.

[Armagon]

Zelda Team......I kneel (Tears of the Kingdom review).

I'm not even sure where to begin for this one. Aounuma and Zelda Team really just put out peak fiction like it was nothing. Tears of the Kingdom expands on all of Breath of the Wild's strengths, as well as strengthening the main story tropes found throughout the series.

Like in BotW, you can do anything you want, except this time they mean it. The Zonai Arm abilities are far more flexible than the Sheikah Slate abilities and not one of them manages to feel useless (RIP Cryonis lovers). Ultrahand is just Better Magnesis, Fuse creates one of the greatest gameplay loops ever while simultaneously improving on the durability system from BotW. Recall at first looks lamer than Stasis and while it has virtually no application in combat, it makes up for with sheer versatility. With unlimited range and no cooldown, there is so much you can do with this ability, especially when combined with others. Ascend is basically the Wall Merge from A Link Between Worlds but vertical instead and just like it, it completely changes how you approach the landscape and how levels are designed. Autobuild just ties back into Ultrahand, allowing you to recreate anything you've built (and i mean literally anything) in exchange for Zonaite, which i'm about to get into that.

Fuse is one of the best gameplay loops in the game. It turns out there's a second gameplay loop that's also just top-tier. The world is far more expansive than in BotW obviously but what's truly impressive is how they all connect to each other on a gameplay level. Transitioning between the Sky, Surface and Depths is completely seamless and they all have things that feed into the other. On the Surface is most of your adventure. This is where the main story primarily takes place. On the Surface you can find Skyview Towers that launch you into the Sky while filling in the map. From there, it's easy access to the Sky Islands. The Sky Islands is where most of the Zonai Dispensers are, literal gacha machines that give you Zonai Devices that you can use to build machines that violate the Geneva Convention. But to use them you need Zonai Parts and to use the Zonai Devices themselves, you need Energy Cells and Zonaite if you want to recreate them via Autobuild. So you jump into a chasm on the Surface to reach the Depths, which is basically just it's own video game down there. It's pitch black save for very few lights, so to see you need to bring Brightbulb Seeds that are found in caves on the Surface. As you explore the Depths, you'll come across Lightroots that are directly below the Zonai Shrines on the Surface, their names being mirrored too. The Depths is where you'll find Zonaite deposits, which you can mine and then head to the.....mines to exchange them for Energy Crystals and Zonai Charges. You then return to the Surface to exchange those Energy Crystals for Energy Cells, which allow you to use the Zonai Devices you get from the Zonai Dispensers that take your Zonai Charges as payment longer and that is a sentence i just wrote. Oh and any Zonaite you have left with you can then be used to replicate those war machines you just built. Actual genius gameplay loop, it just works.

The Surface in particular gets extra points for how it's used. Yes it's the same map as in BotW but there's quite a few geographic changes here and there and i love how the game uses previous knowledge to it's advantage. Central Hyrule Field felt completely new because i hardly spent time there in BotW on account of Guardian threat. Other locations challenge your expectations of what you thought they were, some big, some small. It just works.

The Zonai Shrines are a massive step up from the Sheikah Shrines, both aesthetically and mechanically. While there's more, there's also a greater ratio of Shrines that are actually good and practically all of them can truly be solved however you see fit. The only limit this game has is your imagination. Nothing is impossible. The mechanical complexity of the Zonai Shrines was reminding me of CrossCode which means i really have nothing but praise in this department (keep in mind with the comparison i am comparing a 3D game to a 2D one).

The main story dungeons are improved from the Divine Beasts in every aspect, and i say this as someone who likes the Divine Beasts. What i really like about the Temples in this game is that they all feel like big events rather than just "thing you do because plot". In most Zelda games, accessing the dungeons is fairly quick and easy. Usually it's talking to an NPC for directions but in the 2D games especially, you really just....walk in. In this game, the dungeon sequence feels like a proper story arc, focusing on each of the Sages. From a gameplay perspective, the companion system allows you to use each of the Sages' abilities when you need them while they also fight for you. It feels like an expanded version of the Wind Waker companion system. This time, the Sages actually feel like your companions, more on that later.

Of course at the end of each Temple is a boss. And the bosses are so good. Wind Temple boss legit one of the best in the series while the only boss in the game that i don't feel too strongly on is the Water Temple boss. What's great is that in this game you can refight the bosses in the Depths, of which at least one of them drops exclusive parts that you can Fuse (there's that gameplay loop again). The optional bosses you can find in the world are about the same as they were in BotW, except this time Taluses get cheesed so hard by Recall. On the other hand, Gleeoks and Flux Constructs can prove to be a great fight. And of course, the man himself, Ganondorf. Actually the best final boss in the series and it's not even a contest. Bro he broke my Hylian Shield. Ganondorf can Flurry Rush your Flurry Rush. For the first time ever, Ganondorf is actually on Link's level, Link doesn't just curbstomp him like he does in the other games. I was reminded of the fight with Demise in Skyward Sword and this was that but like 10x better.

As for the story, well, which one? Like BotW, TotK does have it's memory flashbacks that you have to find. It's both better and worse executed here. On one hand, it makes a lot more sense contextually, as it feels like another side to the story as opposed to just the story. On the other hand, they definitely shouldn't have let you see these out of order. Ultimately however, the way it's executed allows the main story to still feel like it's happening, which is something that BotW lacked. As a whole, the story is pretty good and at worse, you could just argue there's just a storytelling issue.

But wait, there's more! This game has sidequests that actually matter. I didn't think they'd do it again. It's the thing Majora's Mask did and no other Zelda game did......until now! The sidequests are so good in this game, fleshing out the world for real while tying into the game's main theme: cooperation. In the main story, the Sages fight alongside you but even before then, the four affected regions dealing with their problems are being handled by the people already there. Think about how many times some monster caused chaos in a Zelda game and the people affected by it just go "oh well nothing we can do". Not here, the people are already working to solve their own problems before Link gets there. You see this in the main story but even the sidequests as well. Monster Control Squads patrolling various regions of Hyrule, journalism uncovering secrets and rumors, a musical troupe travelling around bringing joy, an entire town figuring out their future, etc. The Upheaval was a massive event that unleashed hordes of monsters into Hyrule and Ganondorf himself is at his most terrifying in this game and yet, people don't give up. Unlike basically every other game in the series, the people of Hyrule are not sitting around wallowing in misery until the Hero arrives. No, they all do their part. For the first time in the entire series, the people of Hyrule fight back and that makes this version of Hyrule easily the one that i give a shit about the most. It is the most lived in version of Hyrule and it makes this the most lived in game in the series since Majora's Mask (albeit for different reasons, MM admittedly still had Link be the sole savior of the land). Even the Yiga fit into this theme, granted they are working against you but they feel like an actual organization now as opposed to just a throwaway group. With all that, plus the actual greatest Master Sword pull in the series (it legitimately feels earned in this one), plus other narrative beats that i won't talk about, i can pretty confidently say that this game has one of the best stories in the entire series.

Oh and the music? It's pretty good. Most of it is minimalistic like in the last game but when the music hits, it hits. Especially in the Temple themes.

If there's any criticisms i have about this game, it's minor stuff. I did a mostly no fast-travel run of this game but leaving the Depths without fast-travel is very rough. The storytelling could've been done better. The Depths could've had more visual variety and Combat Trial Shrines suck because they slowly teach me things i already know. Why are there like 8 Combat Trial Shrines when there was only one in BotW? At least the Proving Grounds (this game's version of Tests of Strength) are way, way, way better.

I spent 110 hours on this game before i beat it. There is still a lot for me to do left. But now that i've beaten it, i am confident in one thing: this game dethroned Majora's Mask for me. Majora's Mask held on to it's "best Zelda game" spot for almost a decade and Tears of the Kingdom surpassed it. What made me sure of that, after all those 110 hours, was the climax and ending. Actual peak.

Crazy how the two best games in the series are both asset flips.

59 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Anything on the backburner that needs resolution?

Yeah i do need to finish Atelier Ryza 3.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Armagon

[Capt. Fargus]

You live long enough, stuff like this kinda sticks with ya because you know it’s starts ringing true

Spoiler

”What if the choice were between brother and friend? To choose one means abandoning the other. He would come to despise himself whatever his choice” 

~Oswin to Hector

 

 

[Kassie]

A fox showed up on my property earlier today 

[Sidereal Wraith]

8 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Oh boy...this fella is going to be trouble. Giving me some real Redd White of Bluecorp vibes already

Edit: Ans the buffoon is just randomly quoting Hamlet while he is at it.

He’s actually referring to Henry IV Part 2: