Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, time for the Garlyle Base.

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, that ploy with the train was quite clever. XD

Reached the Misty Forest. Gonna stop for now.

[Interdimensional Observer]

I like this picture.😄 But it could use a few Omnigears.

[Dayni]

6 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Alright, @Saint Rubenio 's probably gonna make me eat some crow for this, but I gotta say it

Actually got Wendy thru some arena trainin up to lvl 20, and it was a helluva lot less of a pain than that is with Bors or Barthe. She had a double digit crit rate in the arena battles which surprise me

Str-12

Skl - 10

Spd - 12

Lk - 14

Def - 12 

Res - 1

Resistance is low but that's to be expected. Everything else beats Marcus at lvl 20+2

Not too bad

Ah, making Wendy not suck.

I assume she had supports near by for the crit? Because that's pretty much how it is for anyone who isn't in a crit class.

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

My interest in these games I believe owed something to the fact they were developed by Intelligent Systems.🔥😄

Stuff like this and Warioware convince me there's at least 2 dev teams in IS, as someone who doesn't know their internal structures.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

TBF to Simon.:

It's fascinating thinking about how the Belmonts just change hair colour repeatedly, no dominant genes there apparently.

[Armagon]

9 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Curious... Who did the driving?

My dad.

9 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

I've heard stuff about people driving overseas, but how does it work with the license? Do other countries honor an American license?

Generally they do it looks like. I mean people come here and rent a car so I imagine it goes both ways.

9 hours ago, Dayni said:

You also cannot exchange a US licence for an Irish one, which is going to be awkward for the American relatives moving over, should check if they know.

Yeah they make you do the whole exam again.

And Europe is much bigger on parallel parking than America.

Also Transformers One is out now in your region, go watch it.

7 hours ago, Codename Shrimp said:

Anyway, finished. Was a pretty fun game...with one MAJOR Issue

UI.

I switched to the menu after the Echoes list got too long.

[Saint Rubenio]

8 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

Alright, @Saint Rubenio 's probably gonna make me eat some crow for this, but I gotta say it

Actually got Wendy thru some arena trainin up to lvl 20, and it was a helluva lot less of a pain than that is with Bors or Barthe. She had a double digit crit rate in the arena battles which surprise me

Str-12

Skl - 10

Spd - 12

Lk - 14

Def - 12 

Res - 1

Resistance is low but that's to be expected. Everything else beats Marcus at lvl 20+2

Not too bad

Gwahahaha. See? Wendy does not disappoint, if you show some faith.

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

TBF to Simon.:

Yeah, that's all true. I was more referring to the "actually a male outfit that's every bit as sexualized as the average anime girl design" part. I was going to say "eh it's still not as bad" but then I noticed his bulge is tightly wrapped and clearly defined, as well.

In light of that, I almost have to respect it. They actually achieved true equality, for once, as opposed to the usual "woman wearing a strip over her nipples and crotch vs man with his shirt open making 30% of his torso visible, totes the same thing."

Also I am not surprised you like it lmao, hey more power to ya, don't listen to me, you know how it is with me

[Shrimp of the North]

9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

even if you seem to have breezed right through it.😀 

It's a pretty short game. 15-20 hours

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also I am not surprised you like it lmao, hey more power to ya, don't listen to me, you know how it is with me

Me being perfectly okay with Judgment Simon is very very very very very recent.😆

Most of the others are still flawed to some extent, IMO.:

1. Aeon the OC is fine. The chef from OoE's real identity is wild.
2. Cornell is good or even awesome as most generally agree.
3. Golem is a golem/10.
4. Trevor overdoes it on the bondage and leather, but that's a minor flaw in the grand scheme of Judgment. Brown leather is associated with the traditional Barbarian Belmont design, so while Simon looks more savage, Trevor is still in a different way classically barbaric.
5. Maria's personality aside, her Judgment appearance isn't so bad.
6. Sypha, yeah it has the one questionable design element on what's otherwise a skintight yet conservative design. Pretty mild by anime standards.
7. Alucard's one real issue for me is his face, not sure what it is exactly, but it's too ugly. (The face is also -not judging whatsoever- ambiguous enough that I could think it the face of "Alucardia".)
8. Grant's major issue is his thighs are too fat, creating a top-to-bottom figure that looks weird on the eye (but that could very well be intentional).
9. Dracula- His official artwork makes him look too feebly old and soulless. His ingame model though, that's fairly good.
10. Eric- To make him a child was a choice. A debatable choice, probably done solely to add variety to the roster.
11. Carmilla, yep, it's a radical redesign of the Circle of the Moon lady who wrote a pink & read dress. -Who turned into a clothing-free lady resting on a giant skull when she was fought in CotM.
12. Shanoa- I know Portrait of Ruin had nun equipment b/c Charlotte needed to wear all three pieces to get the Heal spell. OoE I don't think brought these back? Regardless, the gentility of the habit and her facial expression undermine the cold, tool-like fierce female warrior Shanoa is, so I don't like it. Maybe if this was Shanoa the beloved Wygol Village matriarch 40 years after she defeats Dracula, I would be fine with this -but it isn't.
13. Death- KILL HIM! GIVE HIM THE SWEET MERCY OF THE END! WHAT DID HE DO TO DESERVE THIS!?! This lanky, tip-toeing, mechanical doll.🤢 Where are his robes with which he could hide his hideousness?

...There.😆 Draw a tier line after Golem and before Ralph, another after Mathias and before Mr. Lecarde. And place Simon in the top third.

-It's October, so I don't mind speaking of Castlevania.🎃

 

6 hours ago, Dayni said:

Stuff like this and Warioware convince me there's at least 2 dev teams in IS, as someone who doesn't know their internal structures.

In Anno Domini 2004, IS put out PM:TTYD, FE:SS (which they admitted to hiring freelancers to help with), WW: Twisted and WW: Touched. The year prior had given us FE:BlazB, AW2:BHR, and WW Inc.: Mega Party Games. While the year after '04 bestowed us with FE:PoR and AW:DS.

Their productivity has very much slowed since then, not sure if IS has received any cut or it's solely the costs of modern game development. Yet at its early aughts heights, IS certainly had at least two internal teams, easily more. Path of Radiance being developed at the same time Sacred Stones (with PoR seemingly the true chronological FE8 in terms of when development started, SS caught lesser IS FE employees by surprise because they thought they were done with the GBA after Blazing) indicates this by itself.

[BrightBow]

 

[Dayni]

I await the day AI becomes advanced enough to do this but actually force people about

48 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Yeah they make you do the whole exam again.

Well, there are some that are accepted, even from outside the EU.

For some reason only the Quebecois have to do it again out of Canada.

9 minutes ago, Armagon said:

And Europe is much bigger on parallel parking than America.

Funnily enough, it's not on our driving test.

9 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Also Transformers One is out now in your region, go watch it.

So I got to watching it this afternoon.

S'fine.

 I have a feeling Transformers Two is unlikely if the audience doesn't grow from here

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Their productivity has very much slowed since then, not sure if IS has received any cut or it's solely the costs of modern game development. Yet at its early aughts heights, IS certainly had at least two internal teams, easily more. Path of Radiance being developed at the same time Sacred Stones (with PoR seemingly the true chronological FE8 in terms of when development started, SS caught lesser IS FE employees by surprise because they thought they were done with the GBA after Blazing) indicates this by itself.

Wonder why they went for SS then.

[Sidereal Wraith]

Now that’s the stuff of nightmares.

[BrightBow]

Heh. Poor Marcel.

The new Bonacel is most certainly better than Marcel could ever hope to be. For one thing, the skill no longer penalizes the user in any way. Defense and avoid remain unchanged.
But also because you get to move all your units at once. If you leave a squishy exposed in Berwick Saga, chances are the enemy will punish you for it before you get the chance to do anything.

[Interdimensional Observer]

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/10/metaphor-refantazio-shipments-and-digital-sales-top-one-million

The Atlus brand is doing well. Reviews have been greatly positive (8-10 territory) too.

(Though this is only one-third the sales of last year's Final Fantasy XVI. -Albeit no doubt Metaphor had much lower development costs. And Sega & Atlus are likely satisfied by these numbers, whereas Square was disappointed. Metaphor hasn't been out for a even a week yet either, it has time to catch up to FF.)

I did -without intending to look for them- encounter comments on Atlus's handling of LGBTQ matters in Metaphor. According to said initial observations into the game by professional reviewers, Atlus chose to sidestep the matter altogether, queer people don't appear to exist at all. I suppose Atlus can get away with that in a fantasyland, whereas they can't with modern day Japan. (Yet, couldn't they have in Persona 1 and also Soul Hackers 1? 1996/7 were well before the global s/s marriage push got underway. Atlus chose to add iffy representation back then. Nocturne's (2003) questionable shopkeeper wasn't really needed either.) We'll have to wait on P6 to see if Atlus can overcome its thorny little problem.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/10/nintendo-hits-snooze-on-surging-alarmo-sales-in-japan

...Speaking of brand power. A $100 clock, and Nintendo makes it sell out instantly.⏰💸

 

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

Wonder why they went for SS then.

Your guess is as good as mine.

SS was made to be a tribute to Gaiden -but that doesn't have to explain why it happened. Could've been "lets make another GBA FE" and then they chose to use Gaiden as the basis.

IS had two games of GBA assets, so SS wouldn't been expensive to make by recycling like that. -Yet the NDS released in Japan a little more than a month after SS's Japanese release. Advance Wars: Dual Strike didn't exactly recycle pixel-for-pixel all of AW1&2's assets -but it sure didn't look rebuilt from the ground-up either. So, why couldn't Sacred Stones have been "Divine Stones"? An early DS game that's basically an enhanced GBA game? It has dual protagonists even!

[Armagon]

Tomorrow's the day where I finally set foot in Wales and I am so fucking excited (even if it's just for one day).

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

For some reason only the Quebecois have to do it again out of Canada.

Deserved tbh.

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

have a feeling Transformers Two is unlikely if the audience doesn't grow from here

I will kill to have Transformers Two.

Imagine, if you will:

Transformers One

Transformers One Shall Rise

Transformers One Shall Fall

Peak trilogy

15 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Atlus chose to sidestep the matter altogether, queer people don't appear to exist at all.

Finally, a non woke game /s

15 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Speaking of brand power. A $100 clock, and Nintendo makes it sell out instantly.⏰💸

As someone I follow on bird app said, I'm glad Nintendo is still doing wacky stuff.

[Interdimensional Observer]

-Not as cute as usual, but still, they're Chao.

 

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Tomorrow's the day where I finally set foot in Wales and I am so fucking excited (even if it's just for one day).

Glad to hear you're energized.😀 I struggle to imagine that many would express eagerness at such a prospect. No offense to little & overshadowed Wales.

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Finally, a non woke game /s

Sounds like there are single and adoptive parents though. Not sure how that will do with the crowd that dislikes barren nekomatas.

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

As someone I follow on bird app said, I'm glad Nintendo is still doing wacky stuff.

True. They began as a toy company, and this is in keeping with that spirit. Means their success has yet to drive them into certain problematic megacorp attitudes. (I'm not ignoring Nintendo's liking for issuing C&Ds, but that's different from what I mean.)

[Capt. Fargus]

16 hours ago, Dayni said:

Ah, making Wendy not suck.

I assume she had supports near by for the crit? Because that's pretty much how it is for anyone who isn't in a crit class.

Yeah.... Got B level with Bors and C with Lilina

 

[Acacia Sgt]

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Your guess is as good as mine.

SS was made to be a tribute to Gaiden -but that doesn't have to explain why it happened. Could've been "lets make another GBA FE" and then they chose to use Gaiden as the basis.

IS had two games of GBA assets, so SS wouldn't been expensive to make by recycling like that. -Yet the NDS released in Japan a little more than a month after SS's Japanese release. Advance Wars: Dual Strike didn't exactly recycle pixel-for-pixel all of AW1&2's assets -but it sure didn't look rebuilt from the ground-up either. So, why couldn't Sacred Stones have been "Divine Stones"? An early DS game that's basically an enhanced GBA game? It has dual protagonists even!

I mean, the initial DS models had a slot for GBA cartridges, so they probably weren't too rushed about it (overall, GBA games were still being released well into 2006-2007). Heck, Shadow Dragon came out in 2008, four years after the DS's debut, so yeah. Worth pointing out, 2008 was when the DSi was released in Japan, which finally got rid of the GBA slot. SD was released a couple months before, but it's likely they already knew about the slot removal by then.

[BrightBow]

Come to think of it, I still don't actually know how to move fire from one torch to another. Any attempt to do anything other than throw a fire monster at it only ever resulted in failure. Zelda just sets herself on fire trying to carry a burnable piece of furniture.

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 10/10/2024 at 2:37 PM, BrightBow said:

I do really appreciate that Shanoa is the one Iga character who doesn't enter the castle as an unarmed level 1 scrub. Feels so damn good to go in there and immediately start throwing hands.

At least Alucard came in with some top end equipment, only for Death to strip him of his sweet gear.

 

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

-Not as cute as usual, but still, they're Chao.

What is this from? Is Sega finally releasing the Chao Garden from its in explicable prison after Adventure?

 

So I have decided to push through this Three Houses run, so I have a few comments... OK it actually got long enough that I decided to put it in a spoiler box.

Spoiler

First off I ended up using seminars at this point just to save time, as the between stuff feels like it completely ran out of steam to the point of becoming tedious. Lost items went away a while ago, the only quests left seem to giving Hilda goods I already have, supports are filled up to point that tea loses most of its value, and I am starting to outpace my students in some of the skills I want to raise, so only faculty can train some of them, and I ran out of paralogues to make auxiliary battles interesting. Sorry, probably complained about this already, but it is very present.

Moving on to more positive things, Claude managed to hatch a second scheme. I am tempted to joke it was Hilda's scheme, but Claude did add a little to it by sneaking in some Almyrans (side note, Nader should be recruitable), and faking an attack to sneak them into the fort, but the Death Knight sniffs us out the moment we get in the door, although in a way that was too little too late. It was also funny how cowardly the Death Knight was when we got close to him, but I guess he sniffed out the missile strike as well, which ended up saving us officially from a story perspective. I guess the missile thing deserves talking about, but it just feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. I am alright with the idea of "magic" that is just modern day technology, but if that was the direction they wanted to go with the Slither's magic, I would have liked to see that with their earlier appearance in smaller ways (like Kronya pulling a gun on Jeralt, or Solon talking to his allies over a walkie-talkie or something), or the forbidden time out magic looking a bit more technologically incline before a massive fucking missile drops onto our head. As is, the missiles just fells a little out of place.

I did also continue on to the taking of Enbarr, and for funsies I deployed a basically unused Manuela just to get the Goddess Dance. Actually, I think I just missed that battalion last time around, as it is kind of secret, and I feel like I would remember the group dance gambit. I am also amazed that Three Houses had the restraint not to make us besiege Edelgard's castle for a month of down time after taking the city, so in a loving breath of fresh air, I get to enjoy two story maps in a row, which lifted my spirits a bit after deciding to continue on. Although that does bring me to one ludicrous story moment, where Dedeu talks a big game about bring back Edelgard's head on a platter, and then they give him the Mercy skill when fighting Edelgard. He literally can not kill her, with the battle ending when he would have, leaving Edelgard at one health, even if Edelgard started the battle at 1 HP. I went through a bit of effort to setup to see if her starting at 1 HP would make a difference, and I am just flabbergasted at how poorly this was handled. Why even have him show up and talk such a big talk if he is going to chicken out at the last minute like that. Why not make him recruitable if you are going through this kind of effort. I am sure some people will try to act like this is a gameplay improvement, that the green unit can't steal your exp, but Edelgard is not so weak that Dedue is going to kill her on accident, you have to clear the way and set things up for the guy to pull this off, and I wish there was some story payoff for letting him get his revenge.

 

[BrightBow]

24 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

At least Alucard came in with some top end equipment, only for Death to strip him of his sweet gear.

And then Death conveniently forgets how to do that later. It's so silly.

 

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, so, did the time finally arrived? Seems EUIV has finally reached its endpoint. Stuff like merging some of the early DLC into the base game, lack of development diaries for quite a while now (even discounting the fact the summer months are usually devoid of them due to vacation time), that game in the works that seems to be the long-awaited EUV (or not?).

Perhaps now it's finally time to continue my Megacampaign. Which means it's finally time for PLUS ULTRA, baby!

Edited October 12 by Acacia Sgt

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I mean, the initial DS models had a slot for GBA cartridges, so they probably weren't too rushed about it (overall, GBA games were still being released well into 2006-2007).

True. Not like it'd the first Nintendo game to launch at the end of a lifecycle like that -the Oracles having rings that do nothing but acknowledge you played on a GBA spring to mind.

 

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

What is this from? Is Sega finally releasing the Chao Garden from its in explicable prison after Adventure?

Don't get you hopes up. Simply a new Sonic comic.😛

And even if Sega did bring back The Gardens As Legendary As Babylon's And Venerated As Eden, I wouldn't get my hopes up.🤨 It'd likely to be a free-to-play mobile game doomed to EoS before long, since otherwise the "cozy gaming" market would probably fail Sega's profitability analyses. And I don't see them tacking it on to a major Sonic game, since that sounds inconceivable after so long of having no such side modes. Though a certain franchise Sega bought should tell them that some people love massive amounts of peaceful play mixed in with action.🃏 And that lovable optional nonsense-filled franchise that has become Sega's other modern non-Sonic pillar.🐉

[Interdimensional Observer]

https://xenogearsxenosagastudyguide.blogspot.com/p/xenogears-weekly-famitsu-preview.html?m=1

Translation of a not-long 1997 interview from a few months before Xenogears released in Japan.

Snippets:

Interviewer: Seeing the ideas behind the protagonist, Fei, don't they look similar to Cloud from Final Fantasy VII?

Takahashi: Regarding the ideas behind Fei, what became their foundation was a protagonist concept which I submitted in the early days of Final Fantasy VII's development. It was a protagonist who had been administered a mock personality, who breaks away from a society subjected to tight control, and goes on to live an adventure in the world of genesis. Nevertheless, Fei ultimately became an entirely different character from Cloud.

I noticed the one similarity (that diverged in totally different directions) before, so it wasn't a coincidence after all.🤔

Tanaka: He (Takahashi) likes robots, he has placed a glass case on top of his desk at the office, and within it he has a hundred figurines standing in line (laughs).

*Snip*
Interviewers: You sure like robots, don't you? (laughs).

Takahashi: Yeah, fairly (laughs).

So Gears/A.G.W.S./Skells have been a creator's predilection all along.😆

[Sidereal Wraith]

10 hours ago, Armagon said:

Tomorrow's the day where I finally set foot in Wales and I am so fucking excited (even if it's just for one day).

Must resist making obvious joke about the Welsh…

Edited October 12 by Sidereal Wraith

[BrightBow]