Board 8 > February Game of the Month Club ft. Astalon, PARANORMASIGHT, and Titanfall 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Februarys Games:
Astalon: Tears of the Earth (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch)
PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (PC/Switch/Android/iOS)
Titanfall 2 (PC/XB1/PS4)

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 obviously 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 also have the option of supporting 1 game each month. Your only limitation is that you can't support your own nomination.

Just-for-Fun Top 20 Standings (will edit for January update)
KCF - 181
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 112
Mr Crispy - 103
Lolo Guru - 70
Cody - 62
KnightOfNee - 35
Seanchan - 35
ViolentAbacus - 31
MegamanX - 28
Wickle - 27
FakeAccount - 26
Arti - 23
scarletspeed - 23
darkx - 18
GreatPaul - 18
MZero - 17
Fenny - 16
Kenri - 16
Suprak the Stud - 16

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

Astalon is on sale for $10 USD on Switch
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/astalon-tears-of-the-earth-switch/

Titanfall 2 is on EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate/PC via EA Play

Titanfall 2 is on sale for $4 on PS4
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0006-CUSA04027_00-TITANFALL2RSPWN1

I've started Astalon.

Plays well and I've enjoyed the hour or so that I've played. I've mostly been sticking with the Archer so far, so that's where I've invested my stat increases. Feels weird mechanically that you have to die to level up.

I was stuck on the first boss as the archer for like an hour and a half, despite using most of the resources I got to upgrade her.

then I switched to the knight and beat it on my first try despite not upgrading him at all lol.

(IDK if I'd stick with it though)

Mr_Crispy posted...

I was stuck on the first boss as the archer for like an hour and a half, despite using most of the resources I got to upgrade her.

then I switched to the knight and beat it on my first try despite not upgrading him at all lol.

(IDK if I'd stick with it though)

I went into my 2nd attempt with half health and came up just a few hits short. I think (fingers crossed) that it'll only take 1-2 more attempts.

Not planning on playing anything this month.

Noms:
Gravity Rush
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Yeah the knight is the way to go for the first gorgon for sure. It seems like Kyuli (the archer) should have an advantage against that boss but she's just too slow. In general she's pretty underpowered at the beginning of the game IMO.

If I can give one general piece of advice (in spoiler tags just in case, but I wouldn't call it a spoiler whatsoever): make sure you grab the elevator key before straying too far from the Gorgon Tomb (the first area, light blue on the map).

Anyway Kenri has beaten Astalon

I beat the main game like a week ago but I went through it yesterday on Monster Mode, which I was hoping would let you swap between three monsters but no, it's just the gargoyle. I basically went straight to the final boss only to be not quite strong enough to beat it without a lot of retries, so I had to backtrack through the whole castle (forgot the elevator key earlier lol) and grab some upgrades.

I'll try Titanfall 2, but won't promise that I'll beat it.

paranormasight is a roughly 15 hour game fwiw (give or take)

Kenri posted...

Yeah the knight is the way to go for the first gorgon for sure. It seems like Kyuli (the archer) should have an advantage against that boss but she's just too slow. In general she's pretty underpowered at the beginning of the game IMO.

If I can give one general piece of advice (in spoiler tags just in case, but I wouldn't call it a spoiler whatsoever): make sure you grab the elevator key before straying too far from the Gorgon Tomb (the first area, light blue on the map).

Ha, beat it first try today with the archer! Only because I had some extra HP from going to the top floor first and picking up 2 +5 HP power ups, but still I certain sense of satisfaction.

Seemingly about halfway through Astalon (the area after the Hall of Phantoms.) I have complaints (The game could really use more shortcuts, and especially some map markers. I also wish the item that lets you switch characters on the fly was just available from the beginning, but at least that isn't a problem anymore) but have been enjoying it so far. I haven't struggled with any of the bosses yet, but that's probably in part to not using Kyuli unless necessary. She seems significantly worse than Algus and Arias (especially after the mirror blade.) I'm probably not going to bother investing the orbs to level her up, at this point.

I'm about 1/4 through, based on map and item percentage. The game really opened up a bit after the first boss. I spent a good chunk of time exploring right and down, rather than up, which I think wasn't the "preferred" direction of exploration based on the number of dead ends I've encountered with my present set of abilities.

The relative lack of shortcuts is annoying (I'm assuming you've run into the non-elevator one?) but at least you're still able to grind money for upgrades running through rooms again.

Funny thing, I've invested most of my upgrades into the archer. With the critical hit and combo powers, she's very powerful and can hit things from across the room, which is very useful. I tore through one of the Black Knight encounters with her because of that.

I've focused on getting attack speed upgrades and the cheaper special abilities for all the characters. Not sure if that's the best thing to do. I haven't bought any of the non-character upgrade things as I'm not sure what they do. The game is intentionally a bit obtuse with the descriptions, so I'm not sure if those are permanent upgrades or things you're buying to temporarily juice up for your next run.

Most are permanent upgrades. I think the temporary upgrades for the next run are called Inner Flame and Death Wish but don't quote me on that.

I highly recommend buying the non-character upgrades. Some of them are much more helpful than they seem, doing things like marking your map or making item descriptions more informative (annoyingly, only in your inventory). There are also several you need to unlock the best ending, but those are fairly obvious when they appear.

No plot spoilers here, just under tags in case you want to play completely blind.

I was on the verge of just looking at a guide anyway for the shop, so no worries.

What's odd is that I found an item that marks uncollected items in rooms you've visited. I also found a "winged feet" item that I had no idea what it did until I accidentally hit A as the knight.

I think the shop item marks campfires and portals, or maybe I'm mixing it up and thinking of the same one you found in the wild. There's also a shop item that replenishes the health restoring lamps found throughout the castle which isn't exactly temporary for one run but isn't a permanent character upgrade either. I never bothered with buying it.

Second boss was easy peasy with the archer.

Bought a whole bunch of the non-character upgrades, which was definitely the right idea. Love not having to chase orbs around any more, at the very least.

About 2/3s thru Astalon now. Gotten lots of new powers, beat a couple of bosses and even got two more characters. I'm in that phase where there's lots of avenues of exploration and the money is rolling in and I can buy lots of stuff.

The Wizard has definitely taken over as my "main", with the Archer stepping in when I need long range sniping.

Algus definitely became the late game powerhouse for me too. I felt like the two other characters were largely superfluous but I didn't try to make them work.

Not plot spoilers.

Around 90% in Astalon.

It took waaaay too long to find the item to break those damn gold blocks.

I know I've got at least one area left to explore, along with mopping up all the rooms I can now get to with the green gem/key.

Titanfall campaign seems fun so far. I only just got the robot but wall running and double jumping has some real energy; doing it in a first person view is a trip and somehow makes doing these typical game activities a lot of fun lol.

As usual I'm terrible at stealth though; most of my combats begin by some guy a million miles away seeing me and me going "oh, the shooting started again."

Astalon: Tears of the Earth beated!

Pretty damn great Metroidvania. Got 100% of the items and map. Somehow missed 2 enemies in the bestiary. Dipped my toe very briefly into the extra modes but I think I'm satisfied with this one.

There's a secret enemy near the bottom of the map, it's the best place to grind for upgrades too because the enemy drops a shitton of orbs. Not sure what the second enemy you're missing is.

Kenri posted...

There's a secret enemy near the bottom of the map, it's the best place to grind for upgrades too because the enemy drops a shitton of orbs. Not sure what the second enemy you're missing is.

You can kill the big worms near the top of the tower with Kyuli's special, that might be the other one you're missing now that I think of it.

I had already found the gold knight, after looking up what was up with that room (standing in place for 10 seconds, really?). Took me a bit of work to get in there since I didn't have the magic block ability at the time and had to drag a block over from multiple screens back.

You're correct on one though with the worms. Never ended up buying her special though!

The other was one of those floating enemies, Visage, in the Catacombs. Not sure why I missed that one.

I'm a couple missions into Titanfall 2.

The feel, sound, and impact of the guns is really nice. That said, the AI on normal is pretty fucking dumb.

I'm playing on PC and I'm not sure what's going on but some of the textures just look awful. Like the game is failing to load in the higher resolution texture or something.

Seanchan posted...

I'm a couple missions into Titanfall 2.

The feel, sound, and impact of the guns is really nice. That said, the AI on normal is pretty fucking dumb.

I'm playing on PC and I'm not sure what's going on but some of the textures just look awful. Like the game is failing to load in the higher resolution texture or something.

I'm old and lazy and I like winning. lol.

I like to be able to run and gun like in the old shooters rather than crouch behind chest high walls all dauy

ArkOfTurus has beaten Astalon

Finished at 100%. A bunch of little annoyances added up to me feeling a bit negatively towards this. Not a bad game overall, though. Don't think I'll do any extra modes.

KateMarsh posted...

Not planning on playing anything this month.

Noms:
Gravity Rush
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Change Gravity Rush to Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure.

Was planning on checking Gravity Rush out of the library but one of several things I gave up for Lent was buying new games and I feel like renting/borrowing is cheating.

Titanfall 2 beated!

The campaign was fun but at the same type I don't think it lived up to the hype. Effect and Cause had a pretty damn cool mechanic though.

I even played a couple of multiplayer matches and managed not to finish in last for a few of them.

I really do need to get around to Astalon

Not sure if I'll get to Titanfall. Been heavily addicted to Tekken and Infinite Wealth

The Titanfall 2 campaign is not that long. The back 1/3 or 1/2 also has a momentum to it that'll keep you going, as there's not a lot of down time.

We'll see if I beat Astalon before the drawing. For now though, I will nominate

Pizza Tower

Monthly Progress
Astalon - Kenri, Sean, Ark
Para -
Titan - Sean

Nominations
darkx - Billy Hatcher, Rhapsody Musical Adventure
KCF - Pizza Tower

Supports

Drawing will be on 24th

Nominate:
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
The Last of Us: Part 2
Doors: Paradox

I just streamed the finale to my Astalon Tears of the earth playthrough tonight; so I'll take my point. One of my favorite games.

drawing on Saturday

Nominate Rain World and Environmental Station Alpha

Still plan on playing Titanfall 2. Just haven't gotten around to it.

I've started into Paranormasight. Finished chapter 1... I assume based on achievement completion I'm about a third through the game?

It's a lot simpler than I was expecting.

Nominate Unicorn Overlord

I have Titanfall 2 installed... But doubt I'll finish it before the drawing. Have a pretty busy weekend

I will support Masupilami - Hoobadventure

Started Titanfall 2 and beat a few missions in it. Pretty good so far!

Cody11533 posted...

Nominate Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Support

Last call for noms, changes, and supports

Everything is closed. I will draw momentarily

And your March Games of the Month are...
Marsupilami - Hoobadventure (PC/Switch/XB1/PS4)
Doors: Paradox (PC/Android/iOS)
and Pizza Tower (PC)

Congrats to Abacus, Sean, and myself for having their games selected!

If you are someone who collects free games on Epic, you might have Doors: Paradox in your library as it was given away this year.