Board 8 > Oct. Game of the Month Club ft. Costume Quest, Castlevania, and Vampyr

(+) Yeah! (+)

Beaten Death in castlevania, the underwater/underground area is tough!
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TheArkOfTurus posted...

Not surprised I don't feel like playing Vampyr, but I am surprised I can't work up the urge to replay Aria of Sorrow. I dropped the randomizer idea pretty quickly (the FF4 randomizer may have ruined all the othe ones for me,) played up to the double jump early in the month, and just never felt like coming back.

Kinda want to nominate Baldur's Gate, since that just got a Switch port, but I don't want to hurt this topic's numbers even more, so I'll just nominate Super Metroid again.

the aria rando isnt wonderful you get overpowered so fast
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Due to setbacks, I am still out of town until tomorrow afternoon. I will basically have to forget friends and family exist to finish Vampyr and Costume Quest in a week.
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Balore down.
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As far as Castlevania goes, I'm in the chaotic realm, so I'll be wrapping this up soon.

Didn't get all souls. But the difficulty I was somewhat complaining about was mitigated by claiming the Claimh Solais, and getting through to the endgame was much easier after that, as it trivializes most enemies and bosses pretty well, if you're decent at avoiding attacks otherwise.
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Ok, the final boss went down first try, no potions necessary. Thought it was more difficult than that. (Succubus soul for midbattle healing was enough)

Lolo has beaten Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Enjoyed the play through of this quite a bit, though I too felt like the first half of the game was a bit of a slog (probably because it was given how I was challenging myself to get the early "boss" souls there.) But with the breather, it was good.

I guess I'll look up Costume quest now.
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My first nomination is Final Fantasy Adventure/Sword of Mana

I did purchase Sword of Mana (Final Fantasy Adventure's remake) for myself recently, though I know it is far easier to access Final Fantasy Adventure nowadays given the release of the Collection of Mana for switch. So yeah, whatever it is in this case.
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Looking to start Costume Quest this weekend.

I will nominate What Remains of Edith Finch
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Monthly Progress
Costume
Castlevania - Shonen, Lolo
Vampyr

Nominations
Ark - Super Metroid
Cody - Edith Finch
Crispy - Castlevania: Bloodlines, Murasaki
KCF - Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake
Lolo - Sword of Mana
MMX - Rock of Ages
Paul - Dark Cloud
Shonen - Kirby Star Allies, Quake II
Suprak - Spyro 2

Drawing likely tomorrow

I also want to announce that despite being in the midst of one of our worst months, I am "renewing" my contract to run this in 2020. I have a theme picked out too.
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eh. I would personally consider Sword of Mana to be a different game than Seiken Densetsu 1/ffa, like how the upcoming Trials of Mana is going to be different than Seiken Densetsu 3, or Romancing SaGa for the PS2 is different than the original. And not like the Romancing SaGa 2/3 ports, or SD1/FFA and Adventures of Mana, or Secret of Mana and the PS4/vita version.

(well, I haven't played adventures of mana or the ps4 secret of mana. but from what I hear they're more mechanically similar than Sword of Mana and the original. I'd be willing to play AoM though if it wins.)
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Is it okay if I denom Dark Cloud? I won't be participating next month so I wouldn't want one of my noms to get picked if even I don't play the game.
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Does that mean I should just spend two nominations and nom each game separately because I can do that, lol. =P (I do still have my original Final Fantasy Adventure cartridge)
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Great_Paul posted...

Is it okay if I denom Dark Cloud? I won't be participating next month so I wouldn't want one of my noms to get picked if even I don't play the game.

I mistakenly forgot to remove it in my topic. I copied and pasted the old post and just added stuff. In my master notebook, I did have you down as removing it earlier.
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Well, you can do whatever you want to do. I think it's come up before and I thought the agreement was that there's a bit of individual discression involved when it comes to remakes/ports and if you would consider them the same game then you could go ahead and count it?

though it would probably be a bit easier to get a hold of FFA (in the mana collection) or AoM (digitally) than get a copy of sword of mana since it hasn't been rereleased afaik.
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ok, to be fair I haven't actually played Sword of Mana to see the differences yet.
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It is up to individual discretion, but I do consider expert opinions if such a person exists for the particular situation.

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it's been an eternity since I played either ffa or sword of mana, but the gist of the major points are:

*you can pick between the hero and heroine to play, mostly the same but there's some minor plot/gameplay differences like a different dungeon/boss or two
*graphics/art style overhauled to look like later mana games
*more dialog/cutscenes
*NPC/temporary characters are actual party members, (although it means that you more or less have to babysit them more than they actually help you, since in ffa they couldn't get hurt by enemies but still contributed a little to battle)
*no more having to buy/stock generic keys/pickaxes
*other items/magic are more similar to later mana games
*they generally tried to implement mechanics more similar to later mana games, although with mixed results.

I forget a lot of the actual details though.

comparison:
original -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di5Vhk3AEUc" data-time="
Adventures -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d8ruXTnq5Q" data-time="
Sword -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOqX48KxNQ" data-time="
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Ok, I'm going to go ahead and just nominate them separately, then.

My 3 nominations are as follows:
Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana
Sword of Mana
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
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Beat Aria of Sorrow.

Nominate: Romancing SaGa 3
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Costume Quest beaten.

Nominate The Last of Us and Startropics
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While I won't be drawing for several hours this will be my last reminder to get noms and nom changes in.
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I wont be finishing costume quest until likely sunday
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And your November Games of the Month are...

What Remains of Edith Finch (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch)
Rock of Ages (PC/360/PS3)
The Last of Us (PS3/PS4)

Congrats to Cody, MMX, and gameking for having their games selected!
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1. What Remains of Edith Finch
2. Rock of Ages
3. The Last of Us
4. Startropics
5. Super Metroid
6. Quake II
7. Romancing SaGa III
8. Sword of Mana
9. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
10. Murasaki
11. Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake
12. Castlevania: Bloodlines
13. Kirby Star Allies
14. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
15. Final Fantasy Adventure
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Well I guess november I'll finally do last of us. I'll replay rock of ages

Is edith finch a scary game? I tried the vanishing of ethan carter and it was too scary
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Disturbing at times but never scary
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Hm I own it so I'll check it out
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What you, and anyone else, should be worried about is their tolerance for dark subject material. This might be the most depressing game that I've played.
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Not sure what, if anything I play this month. Edith Finch is great, but I don't really see much point in replaying it. Still, it's quick enough that it'd be an easy point/nom. Last of Us is great, too, but I don't know that I'll want to replay it. Rock of Ages is in my steam library, but I don't really know what it is.
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What is Rock of Ages?

I might be able to talk myself into playing the last of us but... I dunno. Not super excited about it.

As for Edith Finch... I did like the vanishing of Ethan Carter, so I'll see if I can get a good sale on it.
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What Remains of Edith Finch is on Game Pass for Xbox One only
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Rock of Ages is a tower defense game using a rolling ball that takes place across various periods of history (like medieval and renaissance).
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Rock of Ages is a tower OFFENSE game, you roll your boulder thru an obstacle course to kill historical figures while they try to setup blockades.
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I seriously suggest anyone who owns the game already try it, its pretty short, and has monty python like humor
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Costume Quest will be free via Epic Games Store...on October 31st. It takes about six hours to beat, so it is possible. You may have to ignore trick-or-treaters to do so.
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KCF0107 posted...

Costume Quest will be free via Epic Games Store...on October 31st. It takes about six hours to beat, so it is possible. You may have to ignore trick-or-treaters to do so.

Thanks for the heads up!
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I just downloaded Edith Finch since I got that for free years ago on PS+.

Ive had Last of Us in my backlog forever but there is almost no chance I get to that next month. I dont even know what Rock of Ages is (other than whats been said in this topic) so that is somewhat unlikely as well.

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Wow getting a 3rd party member in CQ is killer
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So I started Vampyr last night, and had a poor first impression. I'm definitely coming around on my second session, but I'm getting the feeling that despite the premise of choosing who lives and who dies and the pros and cons of killing citizens being pretty cool, this might turn out to be the case that it would have been better to have been a linear game with moments of moral decisions.
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KCF0107 posted...

So I started Vampyr last night, and had a poor first impression. I'm definitely coming around on my second session, but I'm getting the feeling that despite the premise of choosing who lives and who dies and the pros and cons of killing citizens being pretty cool, this might turn out to be the case that it would have been better to have been a linear game with moments of moral decisions.

The problem I have with that game when I looked at it was that you need to eat npc blood to survive but that also shuts out quests. Was just not feeling that. Like eventually Ill do it cause I want to finish the ps4 library but yeah wasnt willing to storm thru it
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So far, they have been pretty generous with rats, but granted I am not too far into the game, so maybe that will just be in the early going. I am currently at the hospital.
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Just got the grubbin costume so I think im near done
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Apparently IGN has a never played feature where they encourage readers to play like this game club, and novembers game is last of us
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Cody has beaten Costume Quest

That was really enjoyable. I enjoyed the humor and presentation, and the game was simple yet fun to play. Ended up rocking the Robot/Unicorn/Vampire as my preferred party. I will definitely play the sequel eventually.

In for Edith Finch next month, gonna finally get around to it.
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MegamanX has beaten Costume Quest
I used Robot (those wheels are bomb), Knight and Spaceman for the entire game until the last boss. I then swapped Spaceman for Statue of Liberty for the heals. Counter attack stamps are super busted.
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Combat-wise, Vampyr is a bit limited, but I'm getting into the groove of things there and am content with what is has to offer. However, I definitely feel they should have cut back on some of their ambitiousness in other areas. They said that the health of each district is tied to your actions, but it feels like an arbitrary system right now. I healed everybody that was ill at the hospital, then when I went to sleep in another district for a main quest, 1/3 of the people in the hospital district became sick, so I don't understand what the hell is going on with that.

As for Costume Quest, I am close to finishing up the mall. Having had a such a long gap of time between when I originally played both this and the sequel, having replayed them in the same month has made me realized that there are more differences in combat than I realized. I do prefer the combat mechanics in this game over the sequel. I have been rolling with Knight and Statue of Liberty for most of the game, and I have stuck with the same two Battle Stamps (counter attack and dodge) since this system is working out very well.
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Costume Quest is $2.50 USD on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/115100/Costume_Quest/

Vampyr is $17 USD on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427290/Vampyr/

You can also get the Costume Quest 1 + 2 bundle for $5.

It is probably too late to beat Vampyr this month if starting from scratch, but you can still play what you can and add to the discussion!
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KCF has beaten Costume Quest

I still prefer this to the sequel, but I do appreciate some things that the sequel did more now, though mostly concentrated to stuff outside of battle. Once I had all of the costumes, I rolled with a Pumpkin/Ninja/Unicorn trio for the final stretch. I can't remember my final party preference from eight years ago, but I feel like only Ninja was the only trio overlap.
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I decided to look up how many chapters there are in Vampyr, and I see that I still have 4+ to go. The difficulty is also starting to ramp up quite a bit. I don't know...
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I have a save file from a couple of months ago, but I just checked how much time it would take me to beat it from there and I still have like half the game left.

So...good luck! YOU CAN DO IT.

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