Board 8 > Oct. B8 Game of the Month Club ft. Bully, Mega Man, Advance Wars, and Oxenfree

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm working on Advance Wars right now. Hope to knock it out before the deadline; not sure if I will get to Oxenfree.
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This week, I am going to dedicate all of my gaming time to Oxenfree, Bully, Advance Wars, and Pokemon X
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In Bully, the one girl who says "I heard if you kiss once a day, you'll live longer" cracks me up every time
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I am just a few missions away from beating Advance Wars. I have much higher ratings than I did 15 years ago.
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Drawing will probably be on Thursday the 26th.
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Bump
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Advance Wars complete. It really felt like a chore after a while; I generally enjoy tactics games, but the general art style and character design didn't resonate with me.

Anyways, going to put in my 4 nominations (3 for games, one for last month) now and if I can finish Oxenfree before the deadline I'll add for it later:

Mega Man 4
Cuphead
Paper Mario
Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
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KCF has beaten Advance Wars

I had 821 or 871 points (suck it Fenny), and a B ranking. My stubbornness paid off in the final mission. Three times, I felt like I had no chance in winning the battle. All three times, I decided to press on (mostly because I didn't want to admit defeat and waste all the time I sunk into it). I eventually discovered that I needed to trick Sturm by Making a bunch of bombers and fighters with Grit and Sami, which forces Sturm to make a lot of anti-air stuff. Then, I use Andy to make a bunch of medium tanks and missiles to destroy Sturm's forces.
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I also made heavy progress in Oxenfree. I should probably put most of this in spoiler tags

Normally, I wouldn't do a lot of the things Alex did like go into the cave after Jonas and keep tuning the radio in it, but I want to experience as much as possible. When given the choice to go help Ren and Clarissa, I decided to go after Clarissa if only because I thought that I would eventually learn more about her. While I kind of did from side conversations with Alex and Jonas, I was thinking more from the actual source.

Things got fucking real when I thought she was possessed and threw herself off the building at Fort Milner, but her body wasn't there, so I honestly have no idea what to believe about anything in this game. I am currently at some campgrounds after getting off a cable car heading to where Ren is. There has been no talk about Nona since before I first entered that cave.

As an aside, I got 2/3 questions on the test correct. I only missed the last one talking about how many victims. I will not be happy if there are huge consequences from that.
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Is it weird that I don't really want to nom anything other than Super Mario Odyssey this month?
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I feel like I'm getting close to the end of Bully. Had some struggles in the last greaser mission, but the ones since then have been going well.

Haven't done MM6 yet, but I know I can slot that in on a single day sometime.
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Lolo_Guru posted...

Is it weird that I don't really want to nom anything other than Super Mario Odyssey this month?

If you really want a particular game, nominating less than your limit will certainly give it better odds
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I'm now at 89% game completion in Bully, so definitely am very close. Guess I'm gonna try to get 100% while I'm at it.
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More Oxenfree spoilers

I of course soon meet Nona, but given her mental state, I felt like it would only lead to tragedy if I asked her to come along, so I sent her to the comm tower. I later chose for Nona to come with me into town. I actually didn't care about the argument going on between Ren and Jonas, I just wanted to get to know Nona and since she hadn't fully calmed down yet, I felt better if she was with me than with a soon-to-be-high Ren or someone who is completely new to her in Jonas. Ren and especially Jonas immediately made me feel that I made a terrible decision,

There have been a few situations where the entities used my words against me or my reflection telling me things about the future. I am not sure how many of these I got right, but I do know that I was told for Michael to stay with Clarissa, and that's what I did in my past memory or whatever that was.

I eventually felt vindicated for choosing Nona to go into town with me because she got to see Clarissa, and I can only imagine what her mental state would have been if she hadn't got her seemingly necessary dose of Clarissa.

I got that the entities wanted everyone's bodies to use them to live through. Alex was somehow exempt from that. What I didn't get until they spelled it out for me was that the entities are actually the deceased sailors from the sunken WWII sub. That just raises a dozen more questions.
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I am not an achievement hunter, but I was surprised when I was so seemingly late in the game and one popped for the first time. It was for jumping a very long gap. Jonas' reaction to me doing that was spot-on.

Right near the end, Ren said that I (Alex) haven't been acting like myself. This was a complete tonal shift from what was just being discussed. I didn't know how to interpret this. Did I make mistakes along the way? Did my collection of choices and dialog options seem schizophrenic or was Alex already a completed character and I messed with that? Have I and continue to be possessed by the ghosts the entire time?

I elected not to tune into the radio in the bomb shelter. It seemed like an obvious trap. Even if it wasn't, I don't really care. I also didn't take the ghosts, as the kids call them, on their offer to sacrifice Clarissa. Everything seemed to work out in the end though. The rift was seemingly closed and everyone came out alive and not traumatized. Mission accomplished?

KCF has beaten Oxenfree
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I'm going to go ahead and nominate games now. There's no way that I am beating Bully prior to the deadline.

Another World
Hue
Monkey Island 2
Odallus: The Dark Call
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Monthly Progress
Bully - scarlet
MM6 - Lolo, KCF, paper, scarlet
Advance Wars - Fenny, scarlet, KCF
Oxenfree - KCF

Nominations
Fenny - Cloudbuilt
KCF - Another World, Hue, Monkey Island 2, Odallus: The Dark Call
Lolo - Super Mario Odyssey
scarlet - Mega Man 4, Cuphead, Paper Mario, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

Drawing will be on Thursday, Oct. 26th
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I played and beat Oxenfree today, so put me on the board. I've lurked before, but this is the first time I've played a game from the month.

It was a fun little game. I think I got the same ending as you KCF. Everyone was alive and didn't hate me, although I was still stuck in a time loop at the very end, so I think I could do better. I didn't grab any of the letters, which might lead to a better ending for Alex. I'm tempted to play the "continue timeline" option, which I believe is a sort of new game plus, to try for a better ending.

On the whole, I liked the spooky sci-fi mystery vibe the game had. It kept me interested throughout. I wasn't sure if the ghosts were going to be malevolent or not for a while, and I thought that Clarissa might have been influencing them for a while too.
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nominate PixelJunk Shooter 2
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Nee has beaten Bully

and not only that, but I got 100% on it! A lot of the extras needed for 100% weren't too far out of the way, or I could just work at them while killing time for other things.

And brace yourself for this one: this is the first 360 game I've got all the achievements on (third overall game, I did this with two Steam games, though The Witness only had two achievements anyways). I normally don't care enough to get these things done in games, but I guess Bully's random stuff was fun enough for me to keep doing?

Will get some noms soon.
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played Advance Wars last night and got up to the second Kanbei mission

I don't remember the game being this short tbh
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Hey, just realized I had a holdover nomination from last month. Gonna throw it to Soul Calibur II.

Working on Oxenfree. Pretty interesting characters, although I'm not too interested in the overall plot. It moves at a pretty quick pace which is nice.
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Arti posted...

played Advance Wars last night and got up to the second Kanbei mission

I don't remember the game being this short tbh

There's about 20 campaign missions, which I think is in the ballpark of the other three games.
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Cody11533 posted...

I played and beat Oxenfree today, so put me on the board. I've lurked before, but this is the first time I've played a game from the month.

It was a fun little game. I think I got the same ending as you KCF. Everyone was alive and didn't hate me, although I was still stuck in a time loop at the very end, so I think I could do better. I didn't grab any of the letters, which might lead to a better ending for Alex. I'm tempted to play the "continue timeline" option, which I believe is a sort of new game plus, to try for a better ending.

On the whole, I liked the spooky sci-fi mystery vibe the game had. It kept me interested throughout. I wasn't sure if the ghosts were going to be malevolent or not for a while, and I thought that Clarissa might have been influencing them for a while too.

I must have not have taken that close attention to know if I was still stuck in a time loop at the end, but now that you mention it, there might have been that visual cue when Alex was narrating at the end. I also couldn't find any letters. I clicked on just about everything, so I am curious as to where those all are. It bugged me because there they are mentioned in the pause menu. This isn't the kind of game that I would replay, but I greatly enjoyed my time with it.
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Noms:
Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator
The Swapper
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KCF0107 posted...

Cody11533 posted...

I played and beat Oxenfree today, so put me on the board. I've lurked before, but this is the first time I've played a game from the month.

It was a fun little game. I think I got the same ending as you KCF. Everyone was alive and didn't hate me, although I was still stuck in a time loop at the very end, so I think I could do better. I didn't grab any of the letters, which might lead to a better ending for Alex. I'm tempted to play the "continue timeline" option, which I believe is a sort of new game plus, to try for a better ending.

On the whole, I liked the spooky sci-fi mystery vibe the game had. It kept me interested throughout. I wasn't sure if the ghosts were going to be malevolent or not for a while, and I thought that Clarissa might have been influencing them for a while too.

I must have not have taken that close attention to know if I was still stuck in a time loop at the end, but now that you mention it, there might have been that visual cue when Alex was narrating at the end. I also couldn't find any letters. I clicked on just about everything, so I am curious as to where those all are. It bugged me because there they are mentioned in the pause menu. This isn't the kind of game that I would replay, but I greatly enjoyed my time with it.

At the very end, after she does the narration about her friends with your choices, the screen does the static effect. She then begins talking about the beginning of the game, getting ready to take the ferry with Ren and Jonas as if the game hadn't happened.
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Something else about Oxenfree. At three points in the game, you get spooked by a ghost Alex who gives you advice. I couldn't make out the names at the time, but the credits showed that it was people off my friend list who had played the game. Then at the very end you get to be the ghost and pick what to say, which I assume could affect any friends who play it in the future. I thought that was a neat touch, even if it meant that you weren't necessarily getting the best advice from them like I thought. One of them told me to not let Jonas talk to his mom, which made me shut him down hard whenever that song came up.
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Monthly Progress
Bully - scarlet, Nee
MM6 - Lolo, KCF, paper, scarlet
Advance Wars - Fenny, scarlet, KCF
Oxenfree - KCF, Cody

Nominations
Arti - PixelJunk Shooter 2
Fenny - Cloudbuilt
KCF - Another World, Hue, Monkey Island 2, Odallus: The Dark Call
Lolo - Super Mario Odyssey
Nee - Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator, The Swapper
scarlet - Mega Man 4, Cuphead, Paper Mario, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Soul Calibur II

Drawing will be on Thursday, Oct. 26th
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Cody11533 posted...

Something else about Oxenfree. At three points in the game, you get spooked by a ghost Alex who gives you advice. I couldn't make out the names at the time, but the credits showed that it was people off my friend list who had played the game. Then at the very end you get to be the ghost and pick what to say, which I assume could affect any friends who play it in the future. I thought that was a neat touch, even if it meant that you weren't necessarily getting the best advice from them like I thought. One of them told me to not let Jonas talk to his mom, which made me shut him down hard whenever that song came up.

I played offline, so I wonder if my things were just RNG'd
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I will nominate Hitman (2016).
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WickIebee posted...

Definitely doing my own nom in Advance Wars... And of course, I'll... start with the other nom I was going with last month of

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team

Missed me do this, but I'll fix it so it's actually readable.

Nom: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team

Trying to do Advance Wars, I'm in Kanbei's missions. Won't finish before tomorrow but should finish before the end of the month.
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yeah I haven't played aw any because culdcept revolt / tears to tiara 2 / ron paul / etc.

Nominate Solomon's Key
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I'm on mission 20 of Advance Wars. If I don't beat it tonight, then I'll at least nominate Demon's Souls.
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Nee has beaten Mega Man 6

Outside of Mega Man 10, 6 is my least played game in the original MM series. I didn't care for it when it first came out. I think after this playthrough, I feel a little better about it, but it's still not up at the top. I still don't think I'm a fan of the Jet Adapter and how it controls. I'm also not a fan of those dumb transition screens every time you equip one of the adapters. Some of the later stages in the game seemed better than I remembered, so that was a plus. I also think I'm beyond the age of trying to hate things in games, and instead just critical of issues & trying to enjoy games for what they do have and how they play, so I don't have that "grrr MM6" mentality I did 10 years ago when I last played this.

I tried speed running this like I did Mega Man 4 the other month. This was the only NES Mega Man I hadn't completed in under an hour, and keep in mind I have not played it nearly as much as other Mega Mans, so my goal was just to clock in below an hour. My final time for the game was: 1 hr 0 min 40 sec
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Oh yeah, I guess I get another nom. Let's go with Star Fox.
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Oxenfree complete.

Guess I got a not-so-great ending. At the ending, it looked like everyone left happily, but then there was a two-sentence wrap where it sounded like everything was forgotten and they were returning to the island. Overall, fun characters, okay game, unsure of how much I liked the storyline.

Anyways, last nomination I guess? Guess I'll throw a nomination on Wario Land II. Trying to escape that Super Mario Odyssey nomination since I won't be able to pick it up this month.
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Last call for noms and changes
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Nominations and changes are now closed. I will draw momentarily
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I hate to break it to you scarlet, but your November Games of the Month are...

Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Cuphead (XB1/PC)
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (GBA/3DS/Wii U)

Congrats to Lolo and scarlet for having their games selected!
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1. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Cuphead
3. Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
4. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon R/B
5. Hue
6. Wario Land II
7. Cloudbuilt
8. Mega Man 4
9. PixelJunk Shooter 2
10. Star Fox
11. Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator
12. Monkey Island 2
13. Hitman (2016)
14. Another World
15. Solomon's Key
16. Paper Mario
17. Demon's Souls
18. Odallus: The Dark Call
19. The Swapper
20. Soul Calibur II
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Shoot. Oh well, guess I'll have to miss out on one. It happens!
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Oh, sweet, it worked! ^_^
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Well then. I may buy Cuphead next month, but I don't currently own any of these (or planned to have any immediately). Maybe I can find Kirby too? We'll see.
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Got a couple hours into Bully. Wrapped up Halloween stuff and am progressing well with unlocks tied to classes
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I am in Act II of Bully. I am struggling to remind myself to not go for 100% completion as I find myself trying to find rubber bands and related collectibles.
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I got to the final battle in my nom, should finish it tomorrow, just need to not screw up the process.
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Tried playing more Advance Wars today. I cannot figure out what I need to do to beat mission 21. Nothing up to this mission has given me near this much trouble.
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gameking1230438 posted...

Tried playing more Advance Wars today. I cannot figure out what I need to do to beat mission 21. Nothing up to this mission has given me near this much trouble.

Pick basically 2 unit types for each of your teammates to use, who do you have?

As for my side, got Grit and Drake in my final battle and after steadily pushing forward and fearing I might lose, I finally took him down. B Rank, 842 pts.

aka, Advance Wars has been beaten I'll attempt to finish my attempts to complete it by unlocking the rest of the COs (I didn't do Sonja's missions and I played all of the Green Earth ones as Andy, so no Eagle mission) before nominating the sequel, not that I do so this month anyway.
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I have finished up a couple classes and am almost done with Act II
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loaded up my ac file looks like I have grit and kanbei

gave it a shot but andy got overwhelmed quickly, the units start too close and you can't really mech flood your way through like you can on normal so idk what I should do to survive with him long enough to finish up the side battles which otherwise don't seem so bad.
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