Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Saint Rubenio]

29 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Women get better fashion i fear

I didn't mean in comparison to male bosses, I meant in comparison to female playables lol

...though, admittedly, male bosses tend to be absolutely hideous. Because only evil men are allowed to be ugly.

24 minutes ago, Hanes said:

HIs affinity is ❤️ lol. What if he's in the closet gay? I mean, his name is Flaer, which sounds like Flare and that's definitely a gay-ish name. Plus, his style... yeah definitely.

Well, I did give that new affinity to a unit I'm characterizing as gay.

As for Flaer, though... Jury's out ok that one. He does kinda look like an 80s porn star, I guess.

9 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Racism in my Atelier game?

Ruven is trying to prevent war crimes. What an idiot.

[Hanes]

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well, I did give that new affinity to a unit I'm characterizing as gay.

As for Flaer, though... Jury's out ok that one. He does kinda look like an 80s porn star, I guess.

Ooh nice.

Yeah, LOL. He could maybe even be the biker guy from "In the Navy" (who is straight but stereotype moment be like, maybe that means it'd instead be the construction worker who *is*)

Spoiler

 

Alright I should chill out

Edited August 4, 2023 by Hanes

[Interdimensional Observer]

34 minutes ago, Hanes said:

HIs affinity is ❤️ lol. What if he's in the closet gay? I mean, his name is Flaer, which sounds like Flare and that's definitely a gay-ish name. Plus, his style... yeah definitely.

Well 💦 is one of the most popular emojis in the 👬 community, up there with 🍆 and 🍑. 

Honestly, why not have a fanhack that changes affinities from being in-universe horoscopes to symbolizing 🏩 kinks/preferences?

4 minutes ago, Hanes said:

Yeah, LOL. He could maybe even be the biker guy from "In the Navy"

That's actually how San Francisco got its 🏳️‍🌈 community. Lots of sailors and soldiers returning from World War II, the military is a very homosocial environment, which meant young adult fellas who liked fellas tended to find out they did on stuck on a boat for months or years. And San Fran happened to be right on the coast where everyone returned to port, where they could huddle together and create a safe community.

 

41 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Don't forget, this is arguably the one Vanillaware game where story is the reason why the game is being played. It's their most ambitious narrative, so it makes sense why you may feel like you want to get the combat over quickly.

True. Still feels weird. Going into 13 Sentinels, I thought I'd get sick of heavy dialogue and be begging to jump into battles. But then, as I indicated above, this experience isn't going as I optimistically hoped it would.

Sorry to prattle like this. I could not have expected this would be how it'd unfold so far. To my disappointment as much it might be to yours' reading my comments. Oh well, I'll continue tomorrow and hope for better.

[Hanes]

11 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well 💦 is one of the most popular emojis in the 👬 community, up there with 🍆 and 🍑. 

Honestly, why not have a fanhack that changes affinities from being in-universe horoscopes to symbolizing 🏩 kinks/preferences?

Hmm having kinks symbolized there would be funny, but having it be orientation instead sounds more... interesting I think. I'd rather do that than the former.

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That's actually how San Francisco got its 🏳️‍🌈 community. Lots of sailors and soldiers returning from World War II, the military is a very homosocial environment, which meant young adult fellas who liked fellas tended to find out they did on stuck on a boat for months or years. And San Fran happened to be right on the coast where everyone returned to port, where they could huddle together and create a safe community.

Holy based. It's very interesting to learn about the history of the LGBT community... they've always existed and most of the time in the shadows. Learning how they have formed safe communities in the past and present is pretty cool.

[Acacia Sgt]

If I recall, it was a thing when it came to long voyages or stays on ships throughout history in general. Part of that had to do being on a secluded place far from anyone (or at least, big enough crowd) who would judge.

[Acacia Sgt]

lolololol

Also, Chapter 6 of the Engage manga is finally up.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Hanes]

16 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

If I recall, it was a thing when it came to long voyages or stays on ships throughout history in general. Part of that had to do being on a secluded place far from anyone (or at least, big enough crowd) who would judge.

Makes sense.

[Armagon]

I have obtained the best ending.

Unlike modern Atelier games, Marie goes off a priority system with it's endings.

54 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That's actually how San Francisco got its 🏳️‍🌈 community. Lots of sailors and soldiers returning from World War II, the military is a very homosocial environment, which meant young adult fellas who liked fellas tended to find out they did on stuck on a boat for months or years. And San Fran happened to be right on the coast where everyone returned to port, where they could huddle together and create a safe community.

Yeah

 

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sorry to prattle like this. I could not have expected this would be how it'd unfold so far. To my disappointment as much it might be to yours' reading my comments. Oh well, I'll continue tomorrow and hope for better.

It's alright. Not all games do it 100% for us.

 

[Acacia Sgt]

 

[Armagon]

Atelier Marie Remake review

It's not every year that we get two new Atelier game in a row except i see this becoming more likely but shhh but in addition to Atelier Ryza 3, Gust has gifted us with a remake of the very first Atelier game, Atelier Marie. Now i went and played the original a few years ago, the PS2 port specifically. I immediately realized how dated it was and decided to cut my loses early. So when the remake was announced, i was pretty excited. A game that has never left Japan being localized is a good time and a modernized remake on Atelier Marie would only be good. Was i right on that? Well, yes.

To get things out of the way, the game is a very faithful remake. The main difference it has compared to the original is a brand new artstyle, actually explorable areas (the original game was very menu-based), and an actual sense of direction. Aside from that however, the game is basically the same as the original but these differences go a long way in enhancing the experience. And, to be honest, with how different it is from modern Atelier, it might as well feel like a new game. Crafting is still the central mechanic but it doesn't at all have the depth of the modern entries. Equipment functions like normal game equipment, without any modifiers you could add to them. Items in theory have a lot of use but the combat is so piss easy, it's literally just spam Marie's skill until the enemy dies. It really goes to show that this was the first game in the series, given new life. And hey, to be fair, this game (and at least this early in the series) was much more of a sim game than an RPG game, so it's understandable why the combat in particular wouldn't be as fleshed out as the later entries.

One thing i noticed was how the tone of this game was a bit different from the modern entries. Not by much but noticeable for this series. While it still maintains it's slice-of-life elements, i was surprised to see the game touch on topics of war, causes of banditry, racism and even hints of trafficking and enslavement. All of this is told, not shown, it merely informs the backstories of certain characters, but the fact that Atelier characters can have these backstories at all is just wild. This isn't to say modern Atelier didn't get heavy with it's topics, it's just not in a way like this. Even the Dusk trilogy, which took place in a declining world, did have a, uh, lighter tone, to put it that way. The original premise of Atelier was "what if in a world of legends, you played as just a normal person", a premise that modern Atelier has pretty much abandoned. It was interesting to see the series' roots.

What surprised me the most with the gameplay was the time-limit. This game has a five-year time-limit, similar to Atelier Totori, Meruru and Ayesha. And yet, i was surprised by just how lenient it is in this game compared to those. My experiences with the latter three had soured me on this form of the series' time management (i'm fine with the more segmented approach of Atelier Rorona and Escha & Logy) so i opted for the remake's Unlimited Mode, which removes the time-limit. I uh........didn't expect fulfilling the main objective to be so easy. It's such a general requirement that you'll meet it without trying, and that's not counting the other requirements for the endings. I'm definitely gonna replay this game another time but the way it was intended, especially since there's specific events that for fundamental reasons cannot occur on Unlimited Mode.

I do think this game was a bit too faithful in regards to it's RNG. Certain events have a chance of occuring, sometimes as low as 10%. For a game about time-management, that's pretty awful but i was still fortunately able to get most of them way before the five years were up. I imagine an Atelier Elie remake is not off the table. If and when it comes, i do hope Gust does away with the RNG trigger for events. Remove them and it only changes for the better.

Atelier Marie Remake was a fun way of finally experiencing the series' roots, filled with charming characters, a good gameplay loop that allows for easy replays and of course, Gust's signature great music. It's obviously simple by the modern entries' standards but i think it does accomplish what it set out to do well.

8/10

________________________

I was flip-flopping between a 7 and an 8 for this. I was considering a 7 because well, it's alchemy and combat isn't fleshed out at all. But i realized, of course it isn't, because it was the first game and in the combat's case in particular is because that was never really a selling point. If alchemy had me making modifiers for my items and equipment and the combat was still "spam Marie's skill" then yes i would give it a 7 (that's what i gave Rorona). 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Armagon

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Yeah

 

Funnily enough, I had actually read an article within the past year or so, wherein a gay guy (in a much different environment than the present day one) described how growing up, he closeted-ly interpreted Top Gun in a very gay way. And nobody suspected anything b/c it was such a patriotic badass film that it was perfectly fine for a young man to love it.

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Atelier Marie Remake was a fun way of finally experiencing the series' roots, filled with charming characters, a good gameplay loop that allows for easy replays and of course, Gust's signature great music. It's obviously simple by the modern entries' standards but i think it does accomplish what it set out to do well.

8/10

Glad you quite enjoyed your history lesson!🤓

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

I imagine an Atelier Elie remake is not off the table.

I'm sure you're more curious than I how Hypothetical ElieMake would/will reveal the gradual development of the Atelier franchise. Was the reign of Queen Elie more or less a continuation of her predecessor's policies? Were there any differences worth noting? Let's not talk of LilieMake, or the evolutionary debate over whether Homo Gramnadus constitutes a separate species from Homo Salburgus.

From a sales perspective, I ponder if ElieMake would make a little less than Marie. Not like Atelier is a big seller or anything, and longtime franchise fans will buy it no matter what. But, Marie was the original Atelier alchemist, Elie is second fiddle, without massive renown to overshadow the older entry. And, a one-time resurrection of the old stuff is novel, but a second time? Maybe not so much?

[Saint Rubenio]

9 hours ago, Hanes said:

Yeah, LOL. He could maybe even be the biker guy from "In the Navy" (who is straight but stereotype moment be like, maybe that means it'd instead be the construction worker who *is*)

lol you're right, that is the stereotype.

9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well 💦 is one of the most popular emojis in the 👬 community, up there with 🍆 and 🍑. 

Honestly, why not have a fanhack that changes affinities from being in-universe horoscopes to symbolizing 🏩 kinks/preferences?

Fire: top

Thunder: dom

Wind: bottom

Ice: power bottom

Light: Sub

Anima: Switch

Dark: Sadomasochist

Water: G A Y

8 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

lolololol

 

Finn is a noob. Everyone knows you capture Shiva for his sword, but don't let him go so he still reappears later on.

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

I have obtained the best ending

I like how the best ending is the ending where a dude's getting stepped on. Series knows its audience?

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

Yeah

 

Oh hey it's Ben Shapiro.

[Lightchao42]

Pikmin 4

Spoiler

Spoiler

It returns...

[Lightcosmo]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like how the best ending is the ending where a dude's getting stepped on. Series knows its audience?

Ruben, you haven't seen Trails yet. XD

[Saint Rubenio]

If two characters who had a support in vanilla get a support, the game finds the ID of their conversation in vanilla and plays it. This means that, while most supports don't work, a select few do. This is bad because I can't stop this from happening and removing the entire conversation softlocks the game. That, and I've been writing optional conversations to compensate for the lack of supports... replacing support conversations.

This means not only did I have to nuke Chad out of existence to be able to create an invisible portrait to create a workaround for this, but also all of the optional conversations need to be moved, because there's a chance some of them will randomly play when two unrelated characters support. And I've written like, 28 by now.

I fucking hate this game.

EDIT: lol 28. I've written fifty fucking two. I have to move 52 conversations. God fucking damn this game.

30 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

Ruben, you haven't seen Trails yet. XD

I mean, I know of its obsession with putting Joshua in dresses lol

Edited August 4, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Codename Shrimp]

16 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

That’s the spirit Shrimp-kun!

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

It is done, my little Engage Ironman has been completed. I even delayed thing in the final battle to see all the Dark Emblems for funsies before the very end. Its a fairly fun game to ironman (on Hard at least). The Emblems give you a lot of outs for salvaging situations, and the quality of future recruits makes it easy to find replacements (assuming you want to keep the older units...which I did for quite a few), and even when I had to dig into my older troops for a replacement, the Roy Emblem seems custom built to keep them alive with Hold-on, and boost them up to be more functional while training with the +5 levels when engaged (I did it with Saphir after my last death at least).

By the end the deaths were Ivy, Rosado, Merrin, and Panette. Also interesting to note that Ivy's death didn't effect the credits artwork (admittedly she is a unit that "retreats" after death), but the other's did.

My final team was Alear* (Divine Dragon w/ Lucina), Etie (Sniper w/ Lyn), Boucheron (Warrior w/ Marth), Celine (Vidame w/ Celica), Louis (General w/ Sigurd), Chloe (Griffon Knight w/ Eirika), Yunaka (Thief w/ Corrin), Diamant (Successeur w/ Ike), Timerra (Picket w/ Lief), Seadall (Dancer), Saphir (Hero w/ Roy), Lindon (Sage w/ Micaiah), Mauvier (Royal Knight), and Veyle (Fell Child w/ Byleth). Admitted some of them were a bit questionable in quality, and I was fairly boring with my choice of classes (with a majority of my Second Seals used to reset levels). Through a fair bit of the midgame Boucheron was kind of underwhelming, although I found he really hits his stride late into the game, once you get Dual Assist+ onto your backup units. Celine felt a bit underwhelming in the combat department, but staff use is really good in this game, so I didn't mind all that much (in fact Framme was on the team for a long time for this very reason). Timerra was a bit underwhelming as well, but I did find a bit of a niche for her in that her personal class's proc skill made her one of the better users of Lief, as each of the Quad Hit has a chance of proccing it (not to mention her being rather tanky even before the Lief boost to that), plus having a more dedicated repositioner gave her a fair bit of utility as well. Some units you might expect to fall off, didn't for various reasons, but mainly due to having a clear Emblem to fix their issues glued to them. My Yunaka was actually a bit Strength blessed, to the point that she actually matched Zelkov's base strength by the time I recruited him, so I think sticking with her was the better option, but I was always going to glue Corrin to one of them due to the power of the Thief Fog Machine. Louis did very well as General with Sigurd pasted to him, and never really dropped off because of that act of favoritism. For similar reasons taping Lyn to the very high might, but underwhelming speed Etie made for a great unit throughout (plus having that very high might 20 range Astra Storm was a really nice thing to keep around to save me from any accidents in an ironman), and she was literally the unit that earned MVP the most.

Edit: I will also note that I hoarded all my stat boosters, instead of actually using them...

Edited August 4, 2023 by Eltosian Kadath

[Hanes]

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

lol you're right, that is the stereotype.

No I meant the construction worker who is gay. Lol.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fire: top

Thunder: dom

Wind: bottom

Ice: power bottom

Light: Sub

Anima: Switch

Dark: Sadomasochist

Water: G A Y

Tag yourself. jk

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I fucking hate this game.

Bahahahahaha seriously. I love how messed up the game is. To be honest, it's par for the course that a lot of times developers just struggle to make something work and when it works, it's a miracle and they just don't touch it.

Perhaps this is why they didn't add Zeiss, the support conversations wouldn't work out hahahaha. 

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, I know of its obsession with putting Joshua in dresses lol

Conspicuously looks at my discord profiled picture Uh-uh-uhhh... well, if it works it works!


Also on the topic of FE7 ranked, here's how my new and improved second attempt is going.

Chapter Log:

Spoiler

Ch11: 10 turns, 343 Exp.
Ch12: 6 turns, 817 Exp.
Ch13: 10 turns, 1230 Exp.

Total: 26 turns, 2390 Exp. (edited)

I took 2 more turns in Ch11 and 1 more turn in Ch13, also used Marcus way less so this is a ridiculous amount of exp. I mean, Lowen is Level 5, Eliwood is Level 4, Rebecca is Level 3, Matthew is Level 6... I'm optimizing exp like crazy, and turn count will be easy enough, since I finished the game in 276 turns before, and you need 310 turns max for the 5 star in tactics.

[Armagon]

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And nobody suspected anything b/c it was such a patriotic badass film that it was perfectly fine for a young man to love it.

Anything that is "manly" can easily lean into homosexuality readings but just like certain songs, right-wingers get appealed to by "manly" because it's "manly" and they end up missing the potential gay.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Were there any differences worth noting?

According to the Wiki

"Recipe synthesis is synthesis completely according to the item's recipe and blend synthesis allows the player to tweak the formula to their own liking. This can have both positive and negative effects. Mastering blend synthesis is integral to certain aspects of the game, such as the Patissiere-ending. It's also encouraged that the player invest their money in various tools to increase the success rate of synthesis, as well as keeping Fatigue low. Original Synthesis lets the player choose materials and tools all on their own to try to create a brand new item. Some items can only be discovered this way, and it also lets player make items which they don't have the recipes yet for, as long as the formula is on a minimal level correct. This makes it possible to skip over steps such as the complicated process of unlocking the Philosopher's Stone recipe as long as the player is aware of its formula (from Atelier Marie, guides or a previous playthrough etc)"

So by the second game, synthesis was becoming more robust. Original Synthesis reminds me of a similar mechanic the Rune Factory games have, you can make any item if you know how even without the recipe. Although in that case, doing so will kill you.

The game also obviously has more locations, at least two hub towns.

The game also has two bad endings, that's interesting. There's usually just the one.

3 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

It returns...

Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives.

[Acacia Sgt]

8 minutes ago, Armagon said:

 

I'm suddenly reminded of that episode from Malcolm in the Middle, pft.

[Saint Rubenio]

57 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It is done, my little Engage Ironman has been completed. I even delayed thing in the final battle to see all the Dark Emblems for funsies before the very end. Its a fairly fun game to ironman (on Hard at least). The Emblems give you a lot of outs for salvaging situations, and the quality of future recruits makes it easy to find replacements (assuming you want to keep the older units...which I did for quite a few), and even when I had to dig into my older troops for a replacement, the Roy Emblem seems custom built to keep them alive with Hold-on, and boost them up to be more functional while training with the +5 levels when engaged (I did it with Saphir after my last death at least).

By the end the deaths were Ivy, Rosado, Merrin, and Panette. Also interesting to note that Ivy's death didn't effect the credits artwork (admittedly she is a unit that "retreats" after death), but the other's did.

My final team was Alear* (Divine Dragon w/ Lucina), Etie (Sniper w/ Lyn), Boucheron (Warrior w/ Marth), Celine (Vidame w/ Celica), Louis (General w/ Sigurd), Chloe (Griffon Knight w/ Eirika), Yunaka (Thief w/ Corrin), Diamant (Successeur w/ Ike), Timerra (Picket w/ Lief), Seadall (Dancer), Saphir (Hero w/ Roy), Lindon (Sage w/ Micaiah), Mauvier (Royal Knight), and Veyle (Fell Child w/ Byleth). Admitted some of them were a bit questionable in quality, and I was fairly boring with my choice of classes (with a majority of my Second Seals used to reset levels). Through a fair bit of the midgame Boucheron was kind of underwhelming, although I found he really hits his stride late into the game, once you get Dual Assist+ onto your backup units. Celine felt a bit underwhelming in the combat department, but staff use is really good in this game, so I didn't mind all that much (in fact Framme was on the team for a long time for this very reason). Timerra was a bit underwhelming as well, but I did find a bit of a niche for her in that her personal class's proc skill made her one of the better users of Lief, as each of the Quad Hit has a chance of proccing it (not to mention her being rather tanky even before the Lief boost to that), plus having a more dedicated repositioner gave her a fair bit of utility as well. Some units you might expect to fall off, didn't for various reasons, but mainly due to having a clear Emblem to fix their issues glued to them. My Yunaka was actually a bit Strength blessed, to the point that she actually matched Zelkov's base strength by the time I recruited him, so I think sticking with her was the better option, but I was always going to glue Corrin to one of them due to the power of the Thief Fog Machine. Louis did very well as General with Sigurd pasted to him, and never really dropped off because of that act of favoritism. For similar reasons taping Lyn to the very high might, but underwhelming speed Etie made for a great unit throughout (plus having that very high might 20 range Astra Storm was a really nice thing to keep around to save me from any accidents in an ironman), and she was literally the unit that earned MVP the most.

Congratulations!

57 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Edit: I will also note that I hoarded all my stat boosters, instead of actually using them...

Gahahaha... Oh, that's so typical. I'll admit, this is one bad habit I've been able to do away with over the years. I do still tend to use them in batches, and I don't like throwing them at one unit to turn them into a juggernaut, preferring to patch up the weaknesses of diverse units, so it's not like I'm the perfect statboosting genius. But it's been a long time since I last got to the endgame with statboosters in the convoy.

23 minutes ago, Hanes said:

No I meant the construction worker who is gay. Lol.

...Oh.

23 minutes ago, Hanes said:

Tag yourself. jk

One can't have multiple affinities.

23 minutes ago, Hanes said:

Bahahahahaha seriously. I love how messed up the game is. To be honest, it's par for the course that a lot of times developers just struggle to make something work and when it works, it's a miracle and they just don't touch it.

That's how tech works, pretty much.

23 minutes ago, Hanes said:

Perhaps this is why they didn't add Zeiss, the support conversations wouldn't work out hahahaha. 

I imagine you mean Galle. And honestly I wouldn't even be surprised, this game is a mess. Though Galle reeks more of them deciding to turn him into a Camus at the last second for dRAmA. His enemy appearance is just so botched.

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fire: top

Thunder: dom

Wind: bottom

Ice: power bottom

Light: Sub

Anima: Switch

Dark: Sadomasochist

Water: G A Y

👏

On this note, apparently there was once a restaurant in New York City circa mid-1800s by the name of "Buttercake Dick's". Not sure what it served, other than oysters (and no, not the Rocky Mountain variety). 

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

EDIT: lol 28. I've written fifty fucking two. I have to move 52 conversations. God fucking damn this game.

Nothing wrong with getting lost in a world of one own's creation, most of the time.

 

32 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Mastering blend synthesis is integral to certain aspects of the game, such as the Patissiere-ending.

Elie fell through dimensions and founded Parnesse, I see. Whose idea was it to throw cooking into alchemy?

Thanks for the info!

[Armagon]

18 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Whose idea was it to throw cooking into alchemy?

Well in the first game you could.....actually yeah you could make ingredients but never full on dishes now that i think about it. Huh. 

[Acacia Sgt]

What is cooking, but combining several ingredients to create a whole new thing.

Sure, you won't get the Philosopher's Stone that way... but eh, it's the same basic principle.

[Armagon]

13 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Sure, you won't get the Philosopher's Stone that way... but eh, it's the same basic principle.

You say that but Lulua cooked up some Philosopher's Stone Curry.