Board 8 > April Game of the Month Club ft. Batman Telltale, Cosmic, Severed, and Valkyria

(+) Yeah! (+)

Batman Episode 2

You and 70.4% of players eased Falcone's pain with morphine.
You and 21.5% of players didn't try to kiss Selina.
You and 57.4% of players chose to visit Mayor Hill as Bruce Wayne.
You and 91.2% of players continued to fund Harvey's campaign.
You and 37.9% of players saved Harvey over Selina.

Like I said, I'm sticking to my priorities. The ONLY one I thought over at all was how to visit Mayor Hill, which I thought about for a very long time. I ultimately decided to go as Bruce, to preserve Batman's reputation.

Damn this is getting dark though. And I'd expect no less from Telltale.
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Just read through the topic looks like KCF, Cody and myself all made the exact same set of decisions for episode 2!
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I'm about 8 hours into Cosmic Star Heroine, and agree about the battle system. The characters are all pretty unique, and the recharging of attacks forces you to think everything through and plan ahead. I've also found that every time I seem to have a solid pattern to follow in battles, I get a new ability or there's some new enemies and I'm forced to learn something new.

The storyline isn't amazing, but it's working well enough that I'm fine following it to where it goes. It helps that I want to keep fighting more battles and advancing to the next section.
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Batman Episode 4

Denied the Joker a favor
Stopped the fight instead of following Joker's plan
Paid off the Enforcer
Talked to Harvey as Bruce
Stopped Harvey at Wayne Manor

There was absolutely no way I was going along with the Joker or his plans. I figured I was getting out soon as well, given my connections and wealth, so I was trying to avoid causing any trouble until help arrived. I had no qualms in giving the bribe in that instance, in my opinion it beat running over people with an angry mob turning against me. I also decided to go talk to Harvey as Bruce because I didn't want to ruin Batman in Harvey's eyes at that point, even though there was no way I could talk sense into him at that point. The final decision was tough, protecting your tech from Penguin is obviously crucial, but I went with my heart and wanted to make sure Alfred and Lucius were OK. I got Harvey, but Penguin and Lady Arkham are still out there. I'm predicting episode 5 starts with me dealing with Penguin at a disadvantage to wrap up that choice.

Some other things of note, I had the game completely crash during my final fight with Harvey. The good news is the checkpoint system meant I barely lost any progress, the bad news was that instead of doing the cool finisher takedown I had earned it defaulted to the lame one instead (although it was pretty funny, I just shot Harvey in the chest with my grappling gun). Also my final decision was to tell Gordon whether Harvey should go to Blackgate prison or Arkham Asylum. I nearly clicked prison because I thought it would be better, but then Gordon essentially explained that prison was the cruel choice and the asylum was actually more merciful and could potentially help him out. I don't really think Arkham Asylum is "good" but I went with that anyway because he needs help more than punishment.
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Underleveled posted...

Just read through the topic looks like KCF, Cody and myself all made the exact same set of decisions for episode 2!

We can't all be wrong!
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Okay, so the whole time I've been thinking Falcone's voice sounds very familiar... is it Sully from Uncharted?
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IMDb says yes it is
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Yeah, I realized that too. Lucius is also Lee from Walking Dead S1 and Bluebeard from The Wolf Among Us.
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Severed is $4.50 for Vita on US PSN through the weekend
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP2045-PCSE00589_00-SEVERED000000000

The game is not PS TV compatible
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I meant to give an update earlier on Valkyria Chronicles, but I just forgot. I last played this in like 2010. I didn't love it as chief among its flaws were some terribly designed missions scattered throughout, but I was a big fan of its core gameplay. I decided to get the Remastered version though last year as I wanted to give it another whirl in the future and the steelbook edition was like $10.

I am up to Chapter 7 now, and I am about to embark on what I remember being the worst mission in the entire game. I happened to fail Chapter 3's fight six times, but I'm optimistic I get get through this crap mission in one go.
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Batman Episode 3

You and 60.8% of players chose to back up Montoya and let Harvey face danger alone.
You and 32% of players were provoked into striking Oswald.
You and 65.4% of players asked Lucius to remain at Wayne Enterprises as your "inside man."
You and 9.6% of players chose to maintain a platonic relationship with Selina.
You and 84.7% of players refused to physically attack Harvey.

Fuck Oswald, man it's been a LONG time since I've found a video game villain this incredibly loathsome. I mean he is an incredibly effective character in that regard. But damn.

Vicki NOOOOOOOOOOOOO y u do this?! :(
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Monthly Progress
Batman Telltale - KCF
Cosmic Star Heroine
Severed - Ark
Valkyria Chronicles

Nominations
Ark - Pyre, Minit
Cody - Firewatch
darkx - The Last Story, No More Heroes
KCF - Slayaway Camp, Song of the Deep
LotM - Ghost Trick
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Started Episode 4 last night. Nice implementation of the Joker. I was starting to think they'd save him for the next game.
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Up to chapter 10 now in Valkyria. I think that one, or maybe both, of the missions this chapter were awful too, so I'm not looking forward to this.
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ArkOfTurus has beaten Cosmic Star Heroine

I love how many options the gave game you, but a few ended up being so broken that the optional superbosses were jokes, and the final boss died in one hit. Still, I had a lot of fun. I'll probably go back and play on Super Spy at some point.

Nominate Doom 2016
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I'm up to Chapter 13 now in Valkyria. 11 and 12 were a breath of fresh air after the exhausting Chapter 10.
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Batman Episode 4

You and 50.5% of players denied Joker a favor in return for his help in Arkham.
You and 68.8% of players chose to follow Joker's advice and make a phone call to get out of Arkham.
You and 48.8% of players rammed the barricade at Harvey's security checkpoint.
You and 43.9% of players chose to talk to Harvey on a personal level instead of threatening him as Batman.
You and 45.6% of players chose to stop Harvey from destroying your home and risked Oswald taking away your tech.

I knew from the start that there was no avoiding Harvey becoming Two-Face, so it's not a gut-punch like Vicki was, but I still feel like I created a monster. :(
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Nominate this is the police

Cosmic not out on vita til 24th :|
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Bumpers
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MegamanX posted...

Nominate this is the police

Cosmic not out on vita til 24th :|

That's perfect. Just enough time to play it for this
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also, nominate Resident Evil
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I'm up to chapter 17 now. Though it's hard to say, I might be enjoying this game more now than when I originally played it in 2010 or 11. I'm sure the fact that I have been receiving a healthy amount of A ranks after missions is helping.

Unfortunately, due to choosing to play all the extra missions (after paying the reporter a hefty sum) and some of the skirmishes, I am left with one day to play the final few missions on the PS4 version. If I am unable to finish this, which is likely, I will be able to play my PS3 version that has a new game+ file with access to all chapters I could use to cover what remains. If anyone opposes this fallback plan, let me know.
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I'm on what I am pretty sure is the final mission, so I should be good to go. I didn't remember how short the final few missions were.
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KCF has beaten Valkyria Chronicles

It's odd how I A-ranked like 10 of the story missions but none until around Chapter 7 or so. Vaguely remembering some of the fake difficulty that they threw at you, I somehow managed to finish without anyone dying (tons fell in battle, but I had them safely evacuated). I might end up trying to go for completion over the course of my lifetime since the NG+ is nice and they have pretty much all the necessary info among all its tabs.
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Gameking has beaten Batman: The Telltale Series.

Despite my progress being deleted, I had a lot of fun with this. Never played a Telltale game before, and I enjoyed how they told a different Batman story than other games.

My first two nominations will go to New Super Mario Bros. and Inside.
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I will tentatively make my final nom Serial Cleaner
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Oh, so the error didn't fix itself?
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No it didn't. I had to replay the first two episodes. Apparently it was a common issue on the Switch version of the game, but none of the fixes I found worked for me.
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Oh, it's already the 20th. Uh, I will probably draw on Wednesday the 25th
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Batman Episode 5
Distracted Penguin long enough for Gordon to help
Comforted Alfred
Regarded Selina as more than a thief
Revealed my identity to Vicki
Showed up to Gordon's address as Bruce

I figured the Penguin/Two-Face decision from last episode would reconnect here, no surprise there. I comforted Alfred whenever possible so again no surprise, and Selina is definitely more than a thief so I kept that relationship in good standing.

Revealing my identity to Vicki was interesting. It was clearly the best way to save Alfred. She had such a big disconnect mentally between Bruce Wayne and Batman that I figured it might break her a bit.

Finally, I went to Gordon's thing as Bruce. I agree with KCF, Batman is not really a press conference guy. It was a good way to give Bruce some good PR. And then we end with a Joker cliffhanger.

All in all I enjoyed the series. I am slowly chipping away at my Telltale backlog, but Batman season 1 is much better than all of The Walking Dead seasons except maybe 1 in my opinion. I am definitely gonna play season 2, eventually.
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With that said, Cody has beaten Batman: The Telltale Series.

I will nominate Ratchet and Clank (PS4).
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darkx has beaten Batman: The Telltale Series (Switch)

Episode 5 Choices:
You and 76.9% of players distracted Penguin long enough for Gordon to get the job done.
You and 67.9% of players comforted Alfred that he wasn't to blame.
You and 91.3% of players regarded Selina as more than a thief.
You and 73.1% of players removed your cowl and revealed your identity to Vicki.
You and 61.6% of players showed up to Gordon's address as Bruce.

Looks like I went with the majority on all of these... to me they were all no-brainers as far as how this story should have gone.

Season Overview:
Your Batman/Bruce was...
Compassionate (76%)
Merciful (73%)
Cunning (61%)
Collaborative (74%)

Final thoughts:
Way better than The Wolf Among Us, but still missing that emotional piece that made The Walking Dead (Season 1, anyway) such a masterpiece. I liked that they told a different story that took a lot of risks and a lot of their own liberties with such well-established characters. I liked the final battle and I like how the Joker was introduced as a minor character that set him up to most likely be the main antagonist of the next game while not leaving him completely absent from this one.

I hope Season 2 comes to Switch. I don't see why it wouldn't. This one came out later than on the other systems too.
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Nominate Golden Sun
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When did the game show you that cunning, compassion, and stuff info?
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KCF0107 posted...

When did the game show you that cunning, compassion, and stuff info?

Right after the Episode 5 choices
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I wonder if that is a Switch exclusive because that seriously rings no bells when I played on Xbox One, and Cody didn't mention that when I think he played on PS4.
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KCF0107 posted...

I wonder if that is a Switch exclusive because that seriously rings no bells when I played on Xbox One, and Cody didn't mention that when I think he played on PS4.

Maybe
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By the way @KCF0107 to answer a question you had much earlier in the topic

yes, there are some action sequences in the game where it's possible to die if you miss some or even just one crucial command
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KCF0107 posted...

I wonder if that is a Switch exclusive because that seriously rings no bells when I played on Xbox One, and Cody didn't mention that when I think he played on PS4.

Confirming I did not have anything like that, played it on PS4.
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Just found the father in Severed. I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. The battle system is really unique and shines when you're up against several enemies at once.
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Gameking has beaten Severed.

My final nom will go to God of War 2.
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Monthly Progress
Batman - KCF, gameking, Cody, darkx
Cosmic - Ark
Severed - Ark, gameking
Valkyria - KCF

Nominations
Ark - Pyre, Minit, Doom (2016)
arti - Resident Evil
Cody - Firewatch, Ratchet & Clank (2016)
darkx - The Last Story, No More Heroes, Golden Sun
gameking - New Super Mario Bros., Inside, God of War 2
KCF - Slayaway Camp, Song of the Deep, Serial Cleaner
LotM - Ghost Trick
MMX - This Is The Police

Drawing on Wednesday the 25th
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I really suck at picking out special games. I think that Oxenfree is the only one that was played by multiple people, myself excluded.
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KCF0107 posted...

I really suck at picking out special games. I think that Oxenfree is the only one that was played by multiple people, myself excluded.

If it makes you feel any better, I think I would have played it if there weren't two other games I really wanted to play.
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A lot of games so far that I will/potentially play so far...

Doom (2016), Resident Evil (assuming REmake qualifies), The Last Story, No More Heroes, New Super Mario Bros., Ghost Trick

Also you forgot to add my Golden Sun on the list. So 7 games that I plan on playing if they get picked.

Watch not one of them get picked.
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Underleveled posted...

By the way @KCF0107 to answer a question you had much earlier in the topic

yes, there are some action sequences in the game where it's possible to die if you miss some or even just one crucial command

Did this happen to you or did you research that after the fact?
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KCF0107 posted...

Underleveled posted...

By the way @KCF0107 to answer a question you had much earlier in the topic

yes, there are some action sequences in the game where it's possible to die if you miss some or even just one crucial command

Did this happen to you or did you research that after the fact?

Happened to me
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Out of curiosity, which moment in the game?
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Also see my above post made just seconds before yours (just in case)
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And the one that I specifically remember was near the end when Vicky booby-trapped the Arkham Asylum basement. I wanna say it happened to me in two other places but I can't for the life of me remember where.
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