Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[GuardianSing]

Oh finally, he starts asking sensible questions.

Again, very familiar.

It's actually incredible how this game has managed to get me hooked on the stakes at hand in a way that makes me genuinely tense when news like this comes up.

Like Three Houses just never got me at that same level. Imagine having a story where the villains actually get to win over the heroes for a bit and there is a clear struggle for control.

Listen, you can only show me the whole "Camus general fights for his country even though he doesn't want to" trope so many times before they just start looking like idiots.

Oh hey it's the main character. I'm glad Wormtongue whats-his-face isn't around yet to pry on the insecurities of the king-

Aw, fiddlesticks...

I've made enough revolution jokes at this point

Then again...

 

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, GuardianSing said:

 

You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain.

Congratulations, your Micaiah has graduated from Camus-in-Training to Proper-Camus.

Still... well, you'll see.

[Acacia Sgt]

No one:

Absolutely no one:

My brain: "What if there was a fanfic about at least someone from CLANNAD isekai'd to Fire Emblem..."

I swear, make me focus on something long enough and I can come up with the wildest of ideas...

---

Oh hey, the next chapter is up... and I could actually notice much faster now!

https://mangadex.org/chapter/9b35f918-27b9-4520-8c57-e145f6ef6791/1

Edited September 26, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Yo, as if I needed more proof he's the best.

TIL it has a couple manga too...

Gah, I'm getting distracted too much. Must... sleep...

[Saint Rubenio]

9 hours ago, Armagon said:

The QR code that links to Never Gonna Give You Up took too much of the budget, sorry.

I didn't know they did that. That's neat. These devs are quite cheeky when they want to be. Back in the Payday 2 days, there got a point where people spamming "dead game" became such a meme that the devs themselves embraced it and created dead game merch and ingame items. You can put a charm on your guns that says "dead game" on it, it's hilarious.

...Of course, being funny memers doesn't really change the fact that they promised no microtransactions on PD2 then went back on their word, they promised PD2 was over and then it wasn't, they broke PD2 matchmaking right before dropping it and only half-fixed it later, and ruined PD3 by making it online-only (though that may be the fault of the publisher, Deep Silver) which also led to this absolute hilarity of an unfortunate statement.

And that's not even the first time it happened, either.

...Honestly, Almir should just shut his gloriously bearded mouth just in general.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Although, visually, I'm not sure if it's jiving with me.

Yeah, the maps look really ugly, honestly.

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Also, will agree with the comments I saw about the Caster.

Black, kinda mature, and rather handsome. Not exactly common in Japanese games.

Character variety, in my Japanese game? For shame, where are the 20 identical teens?

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

that Frey has uh, nipple chains on her breastplate. My question is, why?

Ah, there's the Japan I know and... uh, know.

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

Maybe it's my limited selection but i feel Japan's been stepping it up with it's black rep.

All snark aside, yeah. Engage had more black people than I expected to ever see in a Japanese game, and now this? They might just be catching up to the current times. Good for them.

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

If only Titania wasn't so good that she makes both her games not fun. She's too epic to go to the bench alongside Wooden Plank Seth...

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

It's actually incredible how this game has managed to get me hooked on the stakes at hand in a way that makes me genuinely tense when news like this comes up.

Like Three Houses just never got me at that same level. Imagine having a story where the villains actually get to win over the heroes for a bit and there is a clear struggle for control.

Listen, you can only show me the whole "Camus general fights for his country even though he doesn't want to" trope so many times before they just start looking like idiots.

Nice back-to-back commentary lol

[Armagon]

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Engage had more black people than I expected to ever see in a Japanese game, and now this? They might just be catching up to the current times. Good for them.

That and also Xenoblade 3 (like five people not counting NPCs), Ryza 3. It's a start.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

14 minutes ago, Armagon said:

That and also Xenoblade 3 (like five people not counting NPCs), Ryza 3. It's a start.

 

Now they just need to stop treating female characters like eye candy

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, the maps look really ugly, honestly.

Yet Game Boy Wars seems to have had a few nice ideas, actually. The ability to carry over units from prior campaign maps, combined with a simple leveling/promotion system, sound like a nice combination. As does the Constructor/Work Car able to construct roads, bridges, turn other tiles into plains, build what Days of Ruin would rename "Temporary Airports", even repair/improve properties. To have Bombers able to do the opposite and be able to downgrade terrain and destroy properties (deny your enemy at least, if you can't take the cities yourself) via bombing. Planes and ships that can refuel other aircraft/ships (the former never has happened, the latter only in Dual Strike), transport aircraft that can carry more than just infantry. Who gets the first strike is determined by a stat not who initiates combat; flanking bonuses. 

-It's a shame all of these ideas are weighed down by the cumbersome visuals.

Also, to see that this released August 30th, 2001. You could count on one finger over two hands the number of days separating GBW3,

from this. So much easier on the eyes. What were they thinking, exactly?🤔 What excuse for making a GBC game that releases half-a-year after its successor portable?

Edited September 26, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Acacia Sgt]

Looking up, GBC games were released as late as 2003.

Seems to be the norm. Specially if the next console/portable is backwards compatible.

Edited September 26, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Ruminating on my idea of last night... First thing that came to mind was: "TH has a five year time skip."

If you know, you know.

So I quickly was like... no. As fitting for an interesting story it could be, I wouldn't go for it... maybe. Ultimately, I doubt this is one idea I'd write down, but it's still fun to explore the possibilities.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Re-Boot- Green Earth Except Its Factory Mission:

Lab Battle:

Spoiler

The last laboratory mission!

I like this exchange.😀

Yeah I know I didn't take full zoom out screenshot, but practically all the map is show here.…I actually forgot to take many screenshots with this one 😅, so I’ll keep it quick.

Nine days to achieve victory, this is the shortest of three non-Orange Star (which really was just a tutorial) lab battles.

You have three bases, one port, and two airports -although the more important one starts neutral. Get a T-Copter up and break through the pipes to capture the lab before Hawke’s reinforcements arrive. Hawke has B Copter squad a few land units in the north, west of the pipes, which your western base and starting troops will have to deal with.

Most of the stronger enemies, all land, are further east, and will prey on the eastern base as early as Day 2. The neutral city tiles away is a trap, you won’t get a chance to take it. Trying to fight back using that base is difficult, if you’re willing to take a Technique hit, make some Infantry or Mechs as sacrifices to distract enemies there that might impede the way to the lab.

Since Eagle has Lightning Strike I chose him. Pipe seam OHKOing Bombers too. You can tell Drake isn’t suited for this map, despite them trying to throw him a toe bone here.

…I didn’t like the way this was going, as shown in the above screenshot. So I started over. I decided to try using Jess instead, since this is mostly a land map.

Eagle says rush to Capture, Jess 100% disagrees.

-The Yield dialogue. I was just one day too slow from a successful capture.

Let’s try Eagle again.

I’m surprised there were no Missiles or other guards waiting in the fog to destroy my T Copter/Infantry.

And I’m surprised I can actually rout this map instead of capture, I’ll do the capture though, feels more thematically appropriate.

I’m enjoy Green Earth’s friendly antagonisms.😄 To post the part of their introduction which I didn't include after the GC and BM Factory missions.:

I do like it that each of the four heroic Advance Wars nations feels distinctive with its trio of COs.😃

• Orange Star is the mascot/poster trio. Nell looms pleasantly overhead, unplayable in any campaign, and her being the Commander-in-Chief of Orange Star means Andy, Max, and Sami are all equals. One balanced foolish kid, one eager muscleman, one tomboy who in contrast to muscleman leans away from raw power to more tactical gameplay.
• Olaf boisterously dominates Blue Moon as Commander-in-Chief. Grit is a quieter, wiser element that nonetheless provides counsel and counterbalance to Olaf. Colin is downright subservient. Feels like the coarsest of the trios, and maybe a semi-dysfunctional family as BHR suggests.
• Gold Comet is (strong) parent who serves as CiC, (smart) child, and a respected teacher/elder. Feels very traditionally morally-societally East Asian/Confucian, befitting Gold Comet.
• Green Earth nominally has Eagle as CiC, but he feels more like a first-among-equals. The three of them together provide expertise in every kind of unit (minus infantry). Yet Eagle & Jess's hot spot of rivalry, mediated by the calm and chill Drake, adds some zest to this trinity.

Back to the above mission's end...

Prototype the USSR built during WWII. It didn't work out so well.

The problem with building a flying tank, is that aircraft need to be lightweight to be able to fly, ideally built as thinly as possible. Tanks need to be thickly armored and heavy to, you know, tank stuff! A flying tank risks being failing its job because weaponry and armor aren't enough.

...Anywho, not a perfect score, I shouldn’t have baited with the southern base so much. Still, I’ll take this.

Drake's Second Mission:

Spoiler

 Drake’s other campaign mission is built around a simple concept- naval units vs air units.

Lash is in a mostly good mood again.

The problem here? It’s not a real competition! B Copters and Bombers can attack naval units, but only Cruisers can attack air units. And beyond this the mission has no real plot, it’s an overly simple, unexciting scenario compared to what other missions have done.

The map itself is a pretty simple deployment map. The seas up north do permit a nice naval presence, that’s good for Drake.

...I did end up losing all three starting Cruisers, whoops!😅

At least it gave me an early use of...

The one buff Drake got in Black Hole Rising was his CO Power and new SCOP halving current fuel supplies on all enemy units. More annoying than a serious threat. Unless we’re talking a sea/air unit going a long distance, players will keep APCs on hand against Drake, the AI will get their units destroyed too soon for them to run out of fuel. Typhoon also applies Rain to the map for one turn, Rain is +1 Movement cost on Plains and Woods for Treads and Tires, though Drake is immune, an inferior version of Snow. Drake is still on the weaker side overall.

GBA AW, the AI can’t realize certain properties are key to winning specific maps. They take whatever properties are close, without regard to type, or the fact that they can wait forever on capturing them b/c they in home territory and that the borderlands are what demands infantry priority.

AI build a B Copter right next to my Anti-Air.😆

Controlling the center means the rest of the map is easy. Tanks, Mid Tanks, AAs, Cruisers, and a few Battleships to break through the chokepoint bridge. Hawke built many B Copters here, but no Bombers, and far too few Tanks. I win on Day 24, but it felt short.

Humility is admiralble trait.🚢😛

Woe is Drake. He really got stuck with the mediocre missions in BHR, neither battle was outright good. One bad, one okay; one had a lacking map, the other a rudimentary plot scenario that the gameplay didn't even execute very well.

Eagle's Second Mission:

Spoiler

Eagle meanwhile gets the chance many guys in love want, a chance to rescue the person he’s infatuated with.

This is Adder’s last battle, it’s befitting for him, and Adder is less annoying than fighting Hawke to boot. 

I wonder what Adder's reaction to Sami's response was.

The game gives you a choice- capture the HQ, or destroy the four Laser Cannons. Unlike the Gold Comet map, Adder won’t step into Laser Cannon range here, which now fire daily. Destroying the Lasers with Bomber OHKOs is the easier victory condition here for certain.

There is the additional defeat condition of Sami losing all her units. Luckily, Adder doesn’t move in as quickly as he could. First he’ll send air, then he’ll slowly send in the ground troops. Even so, Sami is guaranteed to bleed units quickly...

...Once Adder’s initial air forces have been destroyed, send Eagle’s Fighters to Sami’s aid after destroying Adder's air units headed towards Eagle. Eagle's Bombers can follow later -or they can win the map and spare you the effort of fighting the anti-Sami land force.

While this huge map has deployment facilities scattered all around, Eagle starts with only a tiny few properties in a distant corner (Adder much the same). You won’t need really any manufactured units to win, Eagle’s starting air force is sufficient. It’s not difficult to keep them alive either, many of Adder forces are stationary around Sami or in the northwest corner, what opponents Eagle’s army encounters can be exterminated with minimal damages.

A Day 7 victory.

Adder unfortunately says nothing at the end. He quietly recedes into the shadows now. And it's otherwise just Sami saying "sorry for being a burden, I meant to bring supplies", and Eagle tells her not to feel bad. Nothing entertaining.

Jess's Second Mission:

Spoiler

That's a new enemy- nature itself not caused by the brilliance of a Commanding Officer.

This exchange explains why thought Flak was the enemy for this battle, nope, his unceremonious last missions were the first Kanbei and second Olaf, the ape man gets no Green Earth encounter.

I like the rivalry.😀

Jess’s second mission is a simple all-land deployment battle. The one gimmick is the active volcano in the center, which shoots out lava at the start of the player phase, dealing 5HP damage to anyone on an afflicted tile. The volcano has one set of targets for odd-numbered Days, and one for even-numbered Days.

I wish I had some kind of marker or if the volcano-afflicted tiles left behind some kind of lasting indicator to know which to avoid.

This fight quickly turned into a meatgrinder in the southeast. I certainly played the map wrong, because I took incredible casualties here. Those indirects inflicted many a loss. I’m guessing I shouldn’t have been so obsessed with holding onto the base and instead formed a defense line back by indirect fire west of the base, letting it fall into enemy control and then crushing the enemy in the open allowing me the opportunity to sweep eastward and take everything with less frustration.

Thankfully, I held on, and the AI’s inability to juggle two fronts meant I swept the north almost unopposed. Then, the AI shifted its production output to the northern front and I finally broke through in the south, while bleeding badly in the north (I lost 25 units by the end of this fight, crazy high for me), but the enemy overextended itself and I eventually managed to eradicate them there too. Victory on Day 26.

More tough love in Green Earth.

By the thinnest of margins, an S rank.

 

[Acacia Sgt]

Steelday

[Acacia Sgt]

I just found out...

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/26/trump-and-company-liable-for-fraud-in-new-york-lawsuit-judge-rules.html

[Lightcosmo]

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Now they just need to stop treating female characters like eye candy

What?! Crazy talk. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

49 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Steelday

Jirachi is a legendary. But not exactly a Steely Pokemon.

I mean I get it. Shooting stars on which people have wished are meteors, meteors are metallic. (Meteoric iron was used before humans learned how to separate iron from ore. We have meteoric iron beads from Egypt dating back to 5200 years ago. Iron smelting wasn't discovered until the end of 2nd millennium BC; bronze smelting by contrast had been discovered in the 4th millennium BC. Extracting iron requires temperatures of 2200F/1204C, it wasn't easy to generate that kind of heat. Thus iron, the metal that came from the sky, was regarded as sacred, worthy of being a grave good, for some time in cultures across the world.)

Yet, Jirachi could reasonably pass as a Psychic-Fairy or Steel-Fairy I concede. And it's not like Lunatone and Solrock -also astral objects introduced in the same generation- are Steel. I get something bulky-steely like Steelix or Aggron or Registeel might not gel with Miku, but... shouldn't there be some kind of compromise Pokemon out there? Not so legendary or cute, but not a hunk of metal either?

This said, Miku's "straw hat samurai" (is there a formal term for this?) appearance is nice. Her ponytails both resemble the wish tags on Jirachi, and the one to our left is straight enough to leave an impression on me as if it were a blade.

58 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I just found out...

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/26/trump-and-company-liable-for-fraud-in-new-york-lawsuit-judge-rules.html

The judge didn't let this go before a jury, skipping a lengthy trial, which is not unheard of. Although one should expect appeals. If the appeals fail, then its liquidation of the businesses or properties in New York State, I'm not sure if this applies anywhere else. The titular Tower in NYC, which I've walked passed more than once, may have a change of management soon -although it's a condominium building and the owners of the individual condos will keep their apartments.

[Acacia Sgt]

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Jirachi is a legendary. But not exactly a Steely Pokemon.

I mean I get it. Shooting stars on which people have wished are meteors, meteors are metallic. (Meteoric iron was used before humans learned how to separate iron from ore. We have meteoric iron beads from Egypt dating back to 5200 years ago. Iron smelting wasn't discovered until the end of 2nd millennium BC; bronze smelting by contrast had been discovered in the 4th millennium BC. Extracting iron requires temperatures of 2200F/1204C, it wasn't easy to generate that kind of heat. Thus iron, the metal that came from the sky, was regarded as sacred, worthy of being a grave good, for some time in cultures across the world.)

Considering Jirachi is stated to slumber inside a meteor, I think it's apt then the meteoric iron comparison.

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Yet, Jirachi could reasonably pass as a Psychic-Fairy or Steel-Fairy I concede. And it's not like Lunatone and Solrock -also astral objects introduced in the same generation- are Steel. I get something bulky-steely like Steelix or Aggron or Registeel might not gel with Miku, but... shouldn't there be some kind of compromise Pokemon out there? Not so legendary or cute, but not a hunk of metal either?

As it is, I feel due to the above Jirachi's body is meant to be partly metallic.

If anyone deserved a retype, it's Celebi. The Fairy Pokémon but remained Grass/Psychic...

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This said, Miku's "straw hat samurai" (is there a formal term for this?) appearance is nice. Her ponytails both resemble the wish tags on Jirachi, and the one to our left is straight enough to leave an impression on me as if it were a blade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasa_(hat)

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The judge didn't let this go before a jury, skipping a lengthy trial, which is not unheard of. Although one should expect appeals. If the appeals fail, then its liquidation of the businesses or properties in New York State, I'm not sure if this applies anywhere else. The titular Tower in NYC, which I've walked passed more than once, may have a change of management soon -although it's a condominium building and the owners of the individual condos will keep their apartments.

I mean, regardless, the damage has been done. You think the banks will wait for him to appeal when they can swoop in right now, specially when they could come under fire if it can be proven to be true due to approving loans and stuff under false documentation? I wouldn't be surprised if they quickly try to throw Trump under the bus to protect themselves, future trials or not.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Hahaha, that chain combo. XD

 

[Armagon]

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Now they just need to stop treating female characters like eye candy

Ratio'd by girl who can kick your ass

[Interdimensional Observer]

10 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Considering Jirachi is stated to slumber inside a meteor, I think it's apt then the meteoric iron comparison.

I wasn't aware of that detail.😆

Okay, I stand corrected.

18 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

If anyone deserved a retype, it's Celebi. The Fairy Pokémon but remained Grass/Psychic...

Now that you said it, that's definitely true. The little wings are very Fairy.

How often do legendaries get new variants in later gens? Celebi seems like an easy choice for a Fairy variant. It's Gen 2, if it hasn't gotten anything in so long, I think it'd be justifiable.

11 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I mean, regardless, the damage has been done. You think the banks will wait for him to appeal when they can swoop in right now, specially when they could come under fire if it can be proven to be true due to approving loans and stuff under false documentation? I wouldn't be surprised if they quickly try to throw Trump under the bus to protect themselves, future trials or not.

-Good point! I hadn't considered how banks would respond to this.

[Acacia Sgt]

6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Now that you said it, that's definitely true. The little wings are very Fairy.

How often do legendaries get new variants in later gens? Celebi seems like an easy choice for a Fairy variant. It's Gen 2, if it hasn't gotten anything in so long, I think it'd be justifiable.

Well, we've had...

Megaevolutions

Weather Trio's Primal Forms in the remakes

Spacetime Duo's Origin Formes in Legends Arceus.

Zygarde got its other forms in Gen VII, though revealed earlier enough to show up in the Kalos part of the anime.

Probably others I'm forgetting, but we do have a good track record. Still, chances Celebi could be chosen for one are... hmm...

Maybe if they pull what they did for the Kanto Birds in Galar...

Edited September 27, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, I don't think I can finish Chapter 6 before the month ends... *sigh*

[Saint Rubenio]

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And Max said the Blue Moon boys were dysfunctional.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Hah! Okay, this artstyle's strength is clearly at the exaggerated faces.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I wonder what Adder's reaction to Sami's response was.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Okay no but really they made Lash way too awesome in the remake.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This exchange explains why thought Flak was the enemy for this battle, nope, his unceremonious last missions were the first Kanbei and second Olaf, the ape man gets no Green Earth encounter.

Kind of feels like they just threw him here so he gets a bit more late screentime.

5 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:

What?! Crazy talk. 

Very sane talk, if you ask me. But, what do I know!

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

Ratio'd by girl who can kick your ass

With those noodly limbs? She's more likely to break them hitting me. I don't care what the game says her strength is, she has the build of a generic anime supermodel. Cowardly character designers, afraid of making her "unattractive" in the eyes of the moneymakers.

I am unimpressed. Give me something better.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, good thing games don't exist to please you.

[Acacia Sgt]

Fighting, and there's the leek, haha.

[Saint Rubenio]

15 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, good thing games don't exist to please you.

Did I say they should? Armagon sassed me, I sassed back.