Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Armagon]

10 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

English when

20240.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Just got around to watching the announcement of Martinet's transition to "Mario Ambassador" or whatever. Dang, when did the guy grow that killer mullet? I wish I had any hope for hair like that at his age.

The announcement otherwise sounds to me like they're firing him and sugarcoating it with a symbolic position and a few nice words because he's Charles Martinet, the passionate old man who gave the single most iconic performance in videogame history. To unceremoniously give him the boot out of the blue would've been a terrible look. The whole "he's too old to voice act" argument being thrown around is kinda dumb when you consider his new role has him traveling around the world and going to conventions, a far more taxing activity than voice acting every couple years. More likely, Nintendo took notice of how people have been noticing (and complaining about) changes in Charles's voice - LM3 in particular I remember got quite a few people pointing out Luigi sounded a bit off, and decided Mario needed a younger voice.

Oh well. At least he got to make history (again) by going "wowie-zowie" in Luigi's Mansion 3. If Wonder is anything to go by, they're adopting that as a new Mario catchphrase lol

It's actually more like they're just finding an excuse to keep paying him.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

Germany beats the US of A to advance to the basketball world cup finals. Huh. Did not expect that. I wonder how the biggest 'murican egos will be able to handle that.

(I assume that the top NBA players aren't playing for the US team, at least I think that has been the norm in the past, so I suppose that's an excuse right there)

5 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

This is the 2nd time Germany beats the US this year at a sport the US is much better at.

Let's hope the final won't be a repeat of ice hockey 😅

Ok but how many Superbowls has Germany won? Checkmate.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

Gold (450M)

Did you mean Golf cause i was legitimately confused. I kept getting sports agencies.

[Armagon]

@Lightchao42 i will be pirating this because it looks great for TV but i'm not paying for fucking AppleTV.

I also still need to watch that Kong series.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Armagon

[Interdimensional Observer]

This guy is supposed to be a "Saint"? I’m guessing his name is…

Sebastian?

Now spoilers for space-saving...

Spoiler

Not what I want to see game! I’m here for levity!🥺

Context- Guy that accidentally got fused into a tree when asked he if wanted to be tranquil like one, and a hot spring with palliative but not curative properties. The latter asked the old moral question “Is it okay to lie if it brings hope/comfort?”, albeit lighter than say Days of Ruin’s “Worship the Worm!” battle and a certain XenoNPC who drinks miraculous poison in front of the heroes’ eyes.

(Fun fact- in Europe in the Middle Ages, "hospitals" were barely about medical treatment. They were mostly places for saving prayers, and not institutes for the pursuit of life-saving research and treatment. The Islamic world in the Middle Ages is where you would've wanted to be if you sought serious medical relief.)

Before 2020, this wording would've been nothing worth noting. It unfortunately now makes me think "a pandemic that is just a rumor".

…How is her finger not broken on the ground all squished?🤨

-Might as well view an event or two of her’s for the characterization, even if it’s her brother who shall be the one to strike the Demon Lord’s heart.

...And then I discovered when I tried doing another with Darius that only the very first dating event with each character is lengthy well-written thing?😐 Every subsequent one is a quick three-sentence exchange and resulting affection boost? Say it ain't so game!😦 No wonder I got CGs thrown at me so early! Please tell me there are more bonding events like the firsts, since the nice light anime writing is the redeeming half of this veeeeeeery-budget game. The combat/crafting is total junk (I can tolerate precisely b/c of how mindlessly easy it is).

-Context is "I can't kill the Demon Lord (and awaken into a true Hero like his big sis)... b/c I'm too weak". 

I choose to ignore his stated answer and say it's b/c 💗.😉

Honestly, Darius does feel like he'd be the most natural fit for Killizerk. A Hero who really wants to slay the Demon Lord, and his time in the limelight in this chapter felt rather significant. His sister Charme is too subdued, "legal" beastgirl who is barely bestial Julette isn't my Antitype whatsoever (but I'm not bothered by her platonically as a character), and all-logic no-human-face android M.O.A.V. ...is surprisingly second place IMO?

How is he the last playable character/romance candidate?😐

Yeaaaaaaah I'm sticking with sweet boi Darius, or the android.

---

Surprise Xenosaga talk time!

During play of Maglam Lord, I came to the out of nowhere realization that I might be experiencing U-DO contamination. Laying in bed all day as I have aligns with Shion’s mother; fear of the unavoidable end has driven other people (not myself) into raging desires for godhood. While some are driven to less reasoned madness even with medication (I can think of two individuals who count here), and all Shion yearns for is eternity with them. -Is this a way of me joking?🤔 I don’t know what adjective to use to describe my creation of this comparison.

It’s a positive I was playing anything at all. I haven’t touched a video game in days that feel subjectively long. I simply hadn’t the will to do so, not even video game music could console me. Playing ML, the darkness was only barely submerged, but beneath the surface it remained. I actually feel more neutralized emotionally typing everything here and making this little log. Is this the kind of mental effect that drove people to write in personal journals/diaries for centuries?

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Did you mean Golf cause i was legitimately confused. I kept getting sports agencies.

I'm 99% sure he meant "golf". Dunno what a German keyboard looks like, maybe those brilliant Europeans fixed our hideous typewriter-inherited QWERTY layout supposedly invented to slow typing speed to reduce typewriter-jamming. But staring down at my own keyboard "D" and "F" are right next to each other, easy typo.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sebastian?

Now spoilers for space-saving...

St. Sebastian, one of the twice martyred saints, with his first being when they tried to execute him with a shooting line of arrows, which made him the patron saint of archers, and pin-makers (as he was made a pin-cushion 😛 ), but eventually he was martyred again by being bludgeoned to death. More relevantly, he was also believed to be a saint capable of protecting worshipers of plagues, so that might be why they have that speculative pandemic talk going around.

 

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It’s a positive I was playing anything at all. I haven’t touched a video game in days that feel subjectively long. I simply hadn’t the will to do so, not even video game music could console me. Playing ML, the darkness was only barely submerged, but beneath the surface it remained. I actually feel more neutralized emotionally typing everything here and making this little log. Is this the kind of mental effect that drove people to write in personal journals/diaries for centuries?

I am just glad you are finding something to stave off the gnawing emptiness (at least that is what I tend to think of it as). I hope it passes soon, and just remember there are people who care about you.

[Armagon]

I just spedrun some assignments and even submitted one at the literal 11:59 due date (it was like some easy study guide questions no worries) because i was playing Ryza 3 and i forgot i had assignments (all my other classes have the last day be on Sunday).

I was literally planning on going to bed half an hour earlier but oh well.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

…How is her finger not broken on the ground all squished?🤨

She's built different.

[Acacia Sgt]

Is that Lilly from Katawa Shoujo?

[Interdimensional Observer]

WHY DOES SF KEEP CRASHING ON THIS COMPUTER?!?!

Only on my Mac, only this website. Nowhere else. I have to write out some lengthy responses for the third time!

 

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

St. Sebastian, one of the twice martyred saints, with his first being when they tried to execute him with a shooting line of arrows, which made him the patron saint of archers, and pin-makers (as he was made a pin-cushion 😛 ), but eventually he was martyred again by being bludgeoned to death. More relevantly, he was also believed to be a saint capable of protecting worshipers of plagues

It was a little academic jest- pretty face, casual demeanor, some exposed chest, being referred to as a "Saint", yet not looking like what one may conventionally assume a saint to look like. Nowadays -the various Churches may disagree- Saint Sebastian is apparently thought of as an unofficial millennia-old sex symbol, being consistently visually depicted since the High Middle Ages as youthful, handsome, almost-nude, and tortured. Christ at the Crucifixion aside, is there any other Christian holy man shown in such a sensual form time and again? 

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am just glad you are finding something to stave off the gnawing emptiness (at least that is what I tend to think of it as). I hope it passes soon, and just remember there are people who care about you.

I might be past the worst of this bout now, although deep lows can follow hopeful highs within a matter of hours, so I won't say for certain. 

The seed of depression this time was planted on the 31st of the prior month, it has been about a week. Eventually I get burnt out of being supersaturated with existential dread and personal-global-universal sorrow. Nothing necessarily changes in my state of being or surroundings, I just stumble out of the crashed plane and continue living. Perhaps spending yet more days afterwards sensitive to the presence of death over many things, sensing the fleetingness of everything, and still wondering how everyone else I see can go through life without being crippled by the same thoughts as I. But I can manage in such a recovery-but-not-normal-again phase.

...Losing a week of "productivity" (if I had a job or a household to manage), plus a few more of recovery would be taken rather seriously -if it had a visible wound I would think. So I think I can see why mental illness is insidious/could be belittled, unless you're straitjacket-raving mad, people don't really see the "wounds" of it. (This is particularly true in my case, I don't show a lot of emotion on my face or in my voice normally, and I can restrain any little depressive physical urge until I'm alone. I can appear normal (or feign normalcy without anyone ever noticing just fine.) Despite it feasibly appearing to me that mental illness could result in same-size productivity losses as that of physical ailments.

 

46 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I just spedrun some assignments and even submitted one at the literal 11:59 due date (it was like some easy study guide questions no worries) because i was playing Ryza 3 and i forgot i had assignments (all my other classes have the last day be on Sunday).

I didn't realize you could alchemize irony.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Interdimensional Observer]

17 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Is that Lilly from Katawa Shoujo?

I do remember randomly hearing of this VN a long time ago. Guy with a heart problem ends up in a class with girls with their own differing disabilities. For some reason considered a classic in the dating-sim VN pantheon, though I don't recall why. And I know it has censorable h-scenes, but how does the protagonist do it if he has cardiovascular issues? DON'T tell me! Would be possibly soooooooo fragile and sweet if he did it with a guy, but as he doesn't the answer I DON'T want would be gross.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I do remember randomly hearing of this VN well over a decade ago. Guy with a heart problem ends up in a class with girls with their own disabilities. For some reason considered a classic in the dating-sim VN pantheon, though I don't recall why. And I know it has censorable h-scenes, but how does the protagonist do it if he has cardiovascular issues? DON'T tell me! Would be possibly soooooooo fragile and sweet with if he did it with a guy, but as he doesn't the answer I DON'T want would be gross.

I think it is because practically the entire cast is considered disabled one way or another, which makes the setting quite unique. And also because it actually takes it seriously, though admittedly not without some levity as well. Though admittedly, it's been long since I looked it up, so I can't really tell you exactly.

Alright then...

Edited September 9, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

XD

 

[ping]

6 hours ago, Armagon said:

Did you mean Golf cause i was legitimately confused. I kept getting sports agencies.

Golf, yeah. 'tis a funny typo, so I didn't edit it out.

(the best typo of that sort unfortunately happened in a German footsoccerball arena handout, and it doesn't really translate into English. The team colours of Borussia Dortmund (Black and yellow, or Schwarzgelb) were turned into Schwarzgeld (black money))

[GuardianSing]

I like that Haar is just here with us now

The two genders

So apparently someone at IS thought it was really necessary for Marcie's entrance here to be a secret reveal

You'd think for a defense map they'd have a command to...you know...defend

I also see that this game makes staves a weapon that you can equip and hold which will definitely not be annoying down the line

Shout out to 3D map Fire Emblem games in which my terrible eyesight is subject to soldiers that look damn near identical if I'm not paying attention to each one, thus failing to notice archers

Wow! you were certainly eager for this

Not with that short noose she will

Hey look it's Gordan

Admittedly, I did feel really gitty during this whole cutscene

"I got a cool haircut, so it's win win"

Also there was a line that Elincia said that I forgot to screenshot about "Being the one true queen and the people will just have to accept that" and man, as someone who spent the last few days studying the Russian Revolution...

Also speaking of Tsardom. Does any FE game actually mention the like...legal ramifications for their monarchy? The divine right of kings almost never comes up so I wonder how they justify their family rule.

"He also opened a really shitty chain restaurant."

13 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't consider myself that intelligent. I lack the ardent devotedness to do the hard work of assembling primary source materials and distilling? creating? history out of them.

During graduate studies, I did a comprehensive exam instead of a thesis. There was simply no singular topic which interested me to the point of doing my own original work, and doing so appeared waaaaaay too daunting to me. I consider it that I had taken the easy way out.

There is saying "standing on the shoulders of giants", but those who do so build ever taller the tower of generations of effort. All I can do is give guided tours of the lower floors of these edifices, whose walls and pillars are the holy bones of humans greater than I. And even then, others can do this job much better than me, even those without a history degree.

We live in a world where -blessed be this fact- nobody can possibly claim to have a comprehensive knowledge of everything. The world is simply too big and too interconnected now for that. Go wide, or go deep, into whatever one wishes. None of us can -sad to say it- know more than a grain of sand.

It's the fact that you understand how little you know that makes you intelligent. When someone gains vast amounts of knowledge they open the flood gates and quickly realize just how much there is to know, and how much farther there is to go, while many of the most uneducated remain in their bubble, believing that they already know everything.

In fact it's very common for folks who know a lot about something to overestimate how much the average person knows about that thing, it's easy to doubt your own knowledge because you are painfully aware of how much you don't know, when in reality, to many people you're already speaking Greek.

So don't sell yourself short because while it's true that there is much knowledge that is lost to us for now, and may be so for the rest of our lives, that just means that no matter how long you live, there will always be something new to study, a new perspective to analyze. There is no end to the pursuit of knowledge and that is the true beauty of it. Like most artistic and humanistic endeavors, it's not about being perfect or accumulating the most points, it's about the shared collective experience between billions of people and what we can achieve and learn together.

12 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Something something...

Ew, should've made it so every country is a star

[Codename Shrimp]

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

20240.

😞

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

WHY DOES SF KEEP CRASHING ON THIS COMPUTER?!?!

Serenes has been really really laggy for me lately

no full crash, but slow af

 

[Saint Rubenio]

12 hours ago, Armagon said:

It's actually more like they're just finding an excuse to keep paying him.

That's the optimistic take. Personally, I find it a bit difficult to believe that a multimillionaire corporation that does stuff like refusing to fix the known issue with their controllers so people have to pay to get them fixed would want to give money to a guy for no reason beyond the goodness in their hearts. I think it's more likely that they know Martinet's name will continue to carry weight and goodwill forever, so they want him to keep doing marketing work for them without "sullying" the games themselves with his aging voice.

Still, I'm glad things seem to be working out, one way or another. Martinet seems like a swell dude who doesn't deserve being corp'd by the big corp. If he's fine with his new role, that's all good.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Spoiler

 

How is he the last playable character/romance candidate?😐 

 

Oh I like him.

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Shout out to 3D map Fire Emblem games in which my terrible eyesight is subject to soldiers that look damn near identical if I'm not paying attention to each one, thus failing to notice archers

I had a bigger problem with Volug in this game. That dude permanently looks like he's waiting, I swear.

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Wow! you were certainly eager for this

When RD fans talk about Elincia's Gambit being their favorite map, this is the part that they like to pretend doesn't exist. The part where you demolish the notion of the "desperate last-ditch defense effort" by taking your flying, effective damaging protagonist to the boss and bullying him.

Shame. It would be such a fine defense map if it didn't rely on the honor system to get you to actually play it.

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Hey look it's Gordan

Admittedly, I did feel really gitty during this whole cutscene

Personally, I thought it was kinda lame that, even when she wins, Elincia loses and has to be rescued by the awesome man that we all love. But that probably has to do with me liking Ike a lot less than most people. I probably would be a lot more giddy about it if Bastian made an appearance instead of being vaguely mentioned as the mastermind of the good guys

4 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Shout out to 3D map Fire Emblem games in which my terrible eyesight is subject to soldiers that look damn near identical if I'm not paying attention to each one, thus failing to notice archers

We seem to have bots again, sadly. Wonder why they feel the need to target this, of all places.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Eltosian Kadath]

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

You'd think for a defense map they'd have a command to...you know...defend

Halt gets them to stop, which kind of works for that...sorta

 

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Shout out to 3D map Fire Emblem games in which my terrible eyesight is subject to soldiers that look damn near identical if I'm not paying attention to each one, thus failing to notice archers

Oof.

So how did you end up liking the well regarded Elincia's Gambit map?

 

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Also speaking of Tsardom. Does any FE game actually mention the like...legal ramifications for their monarchy? The divine right of kings almost never comes up so I wonder how they justify their family rule.

Depends on the game...actually I will probably get into a bit of spoiler talk, even while being vague about it, so...

Spoiler

New Mystery seems to revel in the hypocrisy of the idea, with the first emperor of Archanea being revealed to be a petty thief who stole, and then sold off the gems of the literal Fire Emblem to fund his conquests, only for his descendants bloodline to be considered too high to marry the hero Anri, despite him saving the world, and going on to found a kingdom of his own...

Jugdral has a bit of a hint in it, with the legacy of the Crusaders, whose bloodlines were blessed by the gods of old at the miracle of Darna. Fates similarly has the idea of the two main royal families having dragon blood in their veins to justify their rule. Three Houses has the whole Crest thing. I don't think its ever discussed all that explicitly though, the closest we get is maybe in Genealogy's ending...

 

 

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

"He also opened a really shitty chain restaurant."

10/10, Classic joke

 

[Lightcosmo]

23 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

When RD fans talk about Elincia's Gambit being their favorite map

That excludes me, then! I dislike Elincia's Gambit, personally. 

[Lightcosmo]

Reverie tier list graded on Voice actors:

Spoiler

Rixia was amazing, that is all. XD

[ping]

5 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

I like that Haar is just here with us now

Everybody likes that. He's a pretty OK unit, I hear.

5 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

So apparently someone at IS thought it was really necessary for Marcie's entrance here to be a secret reveal

It's actually kinda bad for her as a unit, since you can't dump any BEXP on her because she isn't available during preps. And if you kept a lot of enemies alive on Geoffrey's Charge, you can go into this chapter with a lot of BEXP.

[Armagon]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I didn't realize you could alchemize irony.

Haha.

6 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Admittedly, I did feel really gitty during this whole cutscene

It was good but what i really needed was for Ludvick to break down when he realizes his plans were foiled. I was denied my karma. Like we just deadass never see him again. The last we see of him is him gloating that he won.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's the optimistic take. Personally, I find it a bit difficult to believe that a multimillionaire corporation that does stuff like refusing to fix the known issue with their controllers so people have to pay to get them fixed would want to give money to a guy for no reason beyond the goodness in their hearts. I think it's more likely that they know Martinet's name will continue to carry weight and goodwill forever, so they want him to keep doing marketing work for them without "sullying" the games themselves with his aging voice.

Still, I'm glad things seem to be working out, one way or another. Martinet seems like a swell dude who doesn't deserve being corp'd by the big corp. If he's fine with his new role, that's all good.

Well i've heard these sort of ambassador programs aren't a new thing. Companies may come up with an honorary role after someone leaves and that's their new "job". It's not often but it's not unprecedented. 

 

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:

That excludes me, then! I dislike Elincia's Gambit, personally. 

Ah, interesting. May I ask your reasons?

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Well i've heard these sort of ambassador programs aren't a new thing. Companies may come up with an honorary role after someone leaves and that's their new "job". It's not often but it's not unprecedented. 

Apparently Nintendo has precedent with this. Miyamoto's in a similar position, right? I suppose sometimes maybe they just do nice things and there's nothing else to it. Trusting's just not my first instinct with big corporations haha.

Either way, like I said, whatever their reasons, I just hope there's no drama behind the scenes and it's all really as wholesome as it appears.

[Acacia Sgt]

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

The two genders

Hm? Did you not recruit Callil?

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

So apparently someone at IS thought it was really necessary for Marcie's entrance here to be a secret reveal

Hey, the player is also allowed their ambush spawns.

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

I also see that this game makes staves a weapon that you can equip and hold which will definitely not be annoying down the line

But it is funny when they do have the Str to actually damage... even if still scratch damage.

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Also there was a line that Elincia said that I forgot to screenshot about "Being the one true queen and the people will just have to accept that" and man, as someone who spent the last few days studying the Russian Revolution...

And so, Ludveck Trump's rallied march failed against the forces of Elincia Biden...

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Also speaking of Tsardom. Does any FE game actually mention the like...legal ramifications for their monarchy? The divine right of kings almost never comes up so I wonder how they justify their family rule.

Usually it comes in two flavors:

"Ancient Hero did this awesome thing, and decided to stablish a nation, becoming the leader for having done the awesome thing. Descendants use that as their justification to keep ruling."

"Ancient Hero was blessed by a powerful being, usually a dragon, because they did something to earn the powerful being's favor. They then do an awesome thing with said power, and decided to stablish a nation, becoming the leader because of it. Descendants inherit the blessing, so they use it as their justification to keep ruling."

Granted, there are cases where it's different. Like how Archanea was founded by a thief who became rich selling dragon artifacts and stablished a nation that way. Zofia and Rigel were instead founded by the powerful beings themselves, who then appointed their blessed heroes as rulers, which means that Divine Right to Rule is actually real. And so on.

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

"He also opened a really shitty chain restaurant."

"Somehow, the Black Knight returned..."

8 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Ew, should've made it so every country is a star

I guess the Futurama animators preferred something simpler to draw.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Sidereal Wraith]

 

[Codename Shrimp]

man

The nintendo rumour mill is kinda going crazy atm

[Acacia Sgt]

Hm, what happened?

[Saint Rubenio]

I'm trying too hard to figure out who the four playable characters I've left are. I know there are 28 playable characters in the game, and counting the ones who have departed, I've seen 25. On the list of character profiles at the codex, there's two slots left locked. NPCs are being introduced and not added to the codex, so I imagine those two will be two more tertiary playables, while the last has to be someone I have met before... or the devs just forgot to give a playable character a profile lol. Personally, I'm hoping to get this badass black archer lady I've seen at camp a couple times. Currently aligned against us, but she seemed an agreeable sort. Here's hoping...

Anyway, I'm still getting a trickle of units in chapter 20 of 28, and with aides gaining equal experience as the main units, I believe it would be viable to try ironmanning this game. Once again Lost Eidolons scores an epic win over loser baby Three Houses.

...I know, I'm sorry, I keep going there. I wish I could stop myself, but to be entirely frank, it makes me so very giddy. Three Houses irritated me the most because I genuinely enjoyed multiple of its aspects, but it was brought down by key issues. Now I get to enjoy those good aspects in the framework of a good SRPG, it makes me so happy this has turned out to be Three Houses But Good. So far, anyway. There have been complaints about the final battle... but then, chapter 18 also saw some complaints and I fixed that one just by ignoring the game's suggested strategy, so who knows.

6 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

man

The nintendo rumour mill is kinda going crazy atm

People theorizing about Martinet's departure, I imagine? I also saw some things flying about regarding Switch 2, I believe.