Board 8 > September Game of the Month Club ft. Detroit, Everhood, and Dead Cells

(+) Yeah! (+)

Augusts Games:
Detroit: Become Human (PC/PS4)
Everhood (PC/Switch)
Dead Cells (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/iOS/Android)

What is Game of the Month Club?
Game of the Month is a community project open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a select few games every month. The games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck)

The Basics
- Each month will usually feature three games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For each game you beat, you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next month's randomized drawing
- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the calendar month
- If you beat one of the current month's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so
- Drawing for next month's games is usually on the 25th
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every featured game that you beat
- Each game you nominate has to be unique from all other nominations and cannot include a game that has already been selected for GotM
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a featured game after the drawing for next month's games but before the end of the month
- You have 9 supports you can use throughout the year. Your only limitations are that you can't support your own nomination, and you can only use one support per game per month

Just-for-Fun Top 20 Standings
KCF - 152
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 91
Mr Crispy - 88
Lolo Guru - 70
Cody - 53
KnightOfNee - 35
MegamanX - 28
Wickle - 25
Arti - 23
scarletspeed - 23
ViolentAbacus - 21
FakeAccount - 19
darkx - 18
Fenny - 16
GreatPaul - 16
MZero - 16
Suprak the Stud - 14
tazzyboy - 14
Robazoid - 13
Seanchan - 13

Spreadsheet with history
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM/edit?usp=sharing

Additional noms this month
Crispy - 2
KCF - 1

Dead Cells is on Game Pass for PC, console, and mobile.

Dead Cells and Detroit are on PS Plus Extra (according to MZero).

Will play Dead Cells and Everhood. Going to need to decide if I want to pay for PS+ for Detroit (probably not.)

I'm planning on having October be another special four-game month, and I landed on the theme being an X-titled game to complete the alphabet as some of you have tried to do in the past. There were really only a handful of viable options imo, but instead of me deciding it, I would rather it go to a vote that will end come drawing time. You are free to make a case for a different game, but here are the four that I ended up with:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
XIII (2003 or 2020 would be eligible, though I can't imagine anyone would want to play the latter)
Xeodrifter
Xenoblade Chronicles (original or DE would be eligible)

I would probably give people through the end of the year to beat Xenoblade, as in they would have all of October, November, and December to finish it with it being featured each month. It would not take the place of the normal three drawn games during that time.

I'm pretty sure I know what will have the most votes since this is B8, but you never know.

I'm going to kick off nominations with a pair that is at least somewhat fitting for October.

ECHO
The Mummy Demastered

I tried out Everhood before work, and let me tell ya I died about 10 times in that first tutorial fight before I had to hop off.

Vote XIII (Classic) - I threw this nom in a few times! I expect Xenoblade to probably win it though - which is fine. I've wanted to try it for a while.

Started Dead Cells. It seems pretty cool so far!

Found a Hollow Knight bench and got a nail. This game knows how to speak to me. Also when I found the girl from the beginning ded and my guy just shrugged and kicked her corpse I nearly died laughing. That shrug is extraordinary

Vote Xenoblade Chronicles. I thought about nominating it before but didn't due to the length, so this is perfect

probably won't beat Dead Cells but I might mess around in it some. not really interested in Detroit.

though I saw someone else post this earlier and thought I'd share (spoilers maybe?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw1O6jpASTI

That showed up on my YouTube recommended videos and will watch after beating the game for sure.

I started Everhood before going to bed and did 3-4 battles. While I never died (default difficulty was hard and I lowered it to normal before starting), I was frequently near death and figure that will be a fixture for the rest of the game.

Tag for Detroit this month.

I wouldn't play it myself because I am still going through 3 and would get super burned out, but I would support Xenoblade if other people are interested in playing it.

Not a whole lot of X games out there other than what you mentioned and some random X-Men games that probably aren't good for this.

I'll "vote" for Xeodrifter since it's short and a Metroidvania. But I'd probably be willing to give Xenoblade Chronicles a shot if it was picked. It's pretty far down on my backlog priority but with a 3 month window it's possible I could get that done, especially since it's on Switch and that makes it excellent for "watching sports but actually just having it on in the background as I'm really playing a game".

Everhood is part of a Steam key bundle for $3.49 USD
https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/killer-bundle-23

Just know that Fanatical is based in the UK, so you might be charged a small international fee, unless you live there, if paying by card, but I've never been hit with an international fee when using Paypal.

Also if you don't live in the US, you can check to see if everything will activate in your country.

X-Files Resist or Serve
Xena Warrior Princess: Talisman of Fate
X-Men Legends
Xenoblade Chronicles

Those are my x games I know of atm. The X-Men one is basically the precursor to the Marvel Alliance games.

other X games I can think of

Xenonauts
X Morph Defense
Xenon Valkyrie
Xeno Crisis
Xanadu Next
Xblaze Code Embryo and Code Memories
XIIZEAL
X and X-Scape
X-Calibur 2097
Xardion
XI (aka the Devil Dice/Bombastic series)
Xevious
Xexyz

I believe the first two of those games were given out on GOG, the third is one of those shovelwareish games but probably is on sale all the time, the fourth is one of those post market retro system releases but it's on modern consoles too and I think I've seen sales of it from time to time. X-Scape isn't really reasonable to purchase right now due to the 3ds eshop shutdown. XIIZEAL and Devil Dice aren't really suitable for these topics (maybe Bombastic since it has a single player story mode but it's fairly obscure).

out of the original options, I don't have any interest in Xenoblade, since I've already beaten it and not really interested in replaying it since I'm in the middle of playing both X and 2. Xeodrifter I've already beaten and not really interested in replaying it, but I might do a quick playthrough anyway for trophies since it's a short game. I'd probably be most into something like X-COM, XCOM, or maybe Xenonauts since I've only played a few battles in XCOM when it was free on the ps3, but I probably wouldn't play enough to actually finish it in a month.

I never actually beat Xenoblade...it's been a long time since I played it. The Wii version.

Played through 5 battles of Everhood, really digging it so far. I didn't know that the game was heavily influenced by Shpongle, so that was a nice surprise. I started it on hard, but I have no confidence that I'll actually be able to finish it on hard.

After about 10-15 tries I beat the third battle in Everhood. This one is gonna be a rough time for me!

I haven't played since the other day, but when I went to play some Everhood before going to bed, I was stuck on the damn mushroom melody puzzle and just called it a night once that was finally over lol.

ArkOfTurus has beaten Everhood

I was half right about not finishing it on hard. I did manage to beat everything that wasn't optional, but I had to switch to normal for a few optional battles (The pacifist ending (very fun fight), the Dev Gnome ending (a much less fun fight that I switched to easy for), and killing the Light Being)

I loved the gameplay and the music, but the story never ended up clicking for me, even though the concept of a reverse Undertale was pretty interesting. Enjoyed it enough that I'll probably play some more, although I'm never going to touch no-hitting every fight or some of the other achievements.

I again played Everhood just before going to bed, and that was a mistake. I had trouble concentrating and got my ass handed to me in the next two sections.

I finally gave a committed session to Everhood. I thought once I reached the land of doors as I like to call it, it was going to be an open-ended adventure, but I eventually realized that was not the case. I last found all of the mushrooms in the forest/swamp area.

I did ultimately lower the difficulty to easy, or whatever is right below normal, and that feels right to me. Unlike other genres, the specific skillset needed for rhythm games is something that I have seemingly always lacked, so I tend to play them on lower difficulties. I remember my one and only time I played a Guitar Hero game, and I struggled to pass on a song I was very familiar with on easy.

Man Detroit is particularly unforgiving.Do great on ten prompts, fail on the 11th, no second chances you're just dead.

I've been doing it over when I mess something up...but leaving any results even if they are bad for something I intended to do.

Okay that little parade was awesome. meanwhile think I'm nearing the end...

I started on Dead Cells. Fun but difficult so far. Beat the first boss on my 6th or 7th run. We shall see if Im able to git gud enough before the end of the month to beat a run (not sure how long that actually is).

I really need to start Detroit, but I'm just going to wait to start it until after I finish Everhood. In that game, I just recovered my arm and am being tasked to kill the characters who were once human/mortals. Strange turn aside, I'm really into the battles now.

Decided to play Detroit after all, although I'm undecided on how much of it I'm going to play. Not that I don't intend to finish it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to bother playing Kara's section at all (I know she can die very early in the game.) It's my first time playing through it, but I've seen a couple playthroughs, which is enough to let me know how much of a waste of time her section is. I think I'll have a better experience if I just don't bother, but maybe I should aim to complete as much as possible in one playthrough.

Whew, Detroit got pretty intense. I'm glad I learned so much trivia about Hank including his dog's name.

That last bit looking for a rock was tense.

Beat Detroit Become Human.

Nominate King's Quest 2015 and Cthulhu Saves The World

KCF has beaten Everhood

So I was doing what the 8-ball was telling me to and killing the people named. I then got to that village with the shop and trash can and remembered that I had some items I needed to give to whomever was speaking with some sort of device southwest of town. Did that, got a key, and remembered a locked door and chest that were gold-colored. I now had three gems, but no idea what to do with them. I went around killing more characters and had eight or so left when I saw something strange entering the hub world.

It was a statue of a cat, and I could use the gems on it. I did so and faced an excruciatingly hard boss that did not have any checkpoints. It took me way too long to realize that on its third or fourth stage I could absorb and deflect some of their attacks. I ended up lowering the difficulty once more, but I finally got through it and received the developers killed ending I guess.

In all, I found the rhythm battles to be a lot of fun, and the characters were largely interesting/endearing. It reminds me of all those RPG Maker adventure games from the past decade though, so there's plenty of dullness to this game. Second half also felt like a bit of a chore until the weird stuff I mentioned in spoilers.

For my next (and final?) nom, I will do Little Nightmares

Monthly Progress
Detroit - Fake
Everhood - Ark, KCF
Dead -

Nominations
Fake - King's Quest (2015), Cthulhu Saves World
KCF - ECHO, Mummy Demastered, Little Nightmares

Supports

X-Game Voting (only counted officially-worded mentions)
XIII - Abacus
Xenoblade - MZero
Xeodrifter - Sean
XCOM: EU -
??? option -

Drawing in a week

Nominate: OFF, Hylics, and Fire 'n Ice

ArkOfTurus has beaten Dead Cells

Whoops, forgot to post this.

Also, I'll be unhelpful and vote for X-Com

And just to add more to this post, support Little Nightmares and Cthulu Saves the World

Had a good run going on Dead Cells. Same run I beat the 1st boss I also beat the 2nd. Felt like I was cruising, then I ran into an Elite that shredded me before I could heal.

Fucking demoralizing

I feel like I might turn on the Multiple Deaths thing in Custom Mode.

So far I haven't had to reduce it from Normal in Everhood. Currently in Everhood I have two door pieces trying to get my arm back.

Dead Cells beated!

I turned on respawns because life is too short to continually lose an hour of progress. Only had to use it against the last boss (Hand of the King), which took me 3 tries.

Very fun game. Feels great to play.

I will continue playing a bit more, as it seems like some more stuff unlocked/changed after the credit roll. I also seem to be missing quite a few powers or something, as there's been numerous things throughout my runs I've been unable to use (coffins you can rub - probably some sort of teleport, long vertical shafts I cannot get up, doors with circles I can knock on but nothing happens, etc.).

Looking to start Detroit this weekend.

I'll vote Xenoblade to allow others to experience a series I love. I'm still meandering through 3 though so I'm good myself.

I'll nominate Purrgatory

I got to the final boss in Dead Cells (I think) and barely died. Pain

I think I've learned that Roguelikes are not for me. I enjoy the combat and everything but I'm tired of doing the same areas over and over again

Overall they're my least favorite style of game, I think.

Yeah, while I find a lot of roguelikes fun, I rarely ever muster the desire to beat them. Even by video game standards, they can be pretty tedious and sense of accomplishment is a big deal to me, and they way these games are designed definitely cheapens that to me.

I like the idea of roguelikes more than I usually like playing them.

The big exceptions are Rogue Legacy and Hades. Rogue Legacy is so mindless I could do other things while playing it. Havent tried the sequel yet. And Hades is just amazing.

Dead Cells is a damn fine playing game. But when I went back to do another run, I quickly realized I didnt care anymore. Which never happened with Hades. I played dozens of runs just for fun, even after getting the 10 completed runs ending.

ArkOfTurus has beaten Detroit

Pretty much just got good endings (Peaceful revolution succeeded, Connor and Hank are friends and alive, Kara crossed the border(I still probably shouldn't have bothered.)) Entertaining, and I actually liked the QTEs in this (they flowed very well.) There were good moments, but a lot of the writing was, unsurprisingly, very rough.

Nominate Wildermyth, Demon's Tilt, Hyper Light Drifter, and The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game

I'm not sure if I will accept the Demon's Tilt nom. Perhaps you or someone else can chime in what has changed since I last played it about three years ago, but unless there were any subtantial updates/changes, then it is a standard three-ball pinball game, regardless of the mode, with a little extra table stuff.

Oh, cancel the Demon's Tilt nom, then, sorry. Thought it had a story mode, and saw a "main story" time when I looked up How Long to Beat, so I just went with it. My bad.

Nominate Strikey Sisters instead

So I don't forget, nominate:

Hellblade
The Pathless

Nominate Splatoon 3

Seeing as Ive been playing it a bunch but I havent really touched the story mode yet, maybe this will inspire me to.

In Everhood Just got my arm back and did the tutorial for the combat portion. I was doing well in not moving it down to easy... but that may be changing here soon... Going to try to stay on Normal as long as I can, though.

Monthly Progress
Detroit - Fake, Ark
Everhood - Ark, KCF
Dead - Ark, Sean

Nominations
Ark - Wildermyth, Hyper Light, Frog Detective, Strikey Sisters
Cody - Purrgatory
Crispy - OFF, Hylics, Fire n Ice
Fake - King's Quest (2015), Cthulhu Saves World
KCF - ECHO, Mummy Demastered, Little Nightmares
Paul - Splatoon 3
Sean - Hellblade, Pathless

Supports
Ark - Nightmares, Cthulhu

X-Game Voting
XIII - Abacus
Xenoblade - MZero, Cody
Xeodrifter - Sean
XCOM: EU - Ark
??? option -

Double drawing on Sunday