Board 8 > May's Game of the Month Club ft. Star Wars Jedi, Sonic, and Kraken Academy

(+) Yeah! (+)

Almost done with Fallen Order. Just have the last area to go.

Still experiencing lots of technical issues. Got stuck in the geometry when I missed a jump; had to do some force moves to knock myself free. The last few hours the audio has been completely out of sync; more annoying than anything else. Had a convo with Cere on the ship where she was like "thank god Greez is outside...as he's standing right in the background. Then was talking with another character and she kept standing up randomly even though she was supposed to be sitting down.

Nearly done with the villains side of Sonic Adventure 2.

I'm getting almost 0 enjoyment from it, so why I keep playing it I'll never know.

Fallen Order beated!

I ended up dropping the difficulty down for the last fight, because after a half dozen attempts I was ready for it to be over. That final sequence was...interesting.

Overall, the game was fine. Not terrible, not great. An average game that I will have no desire to ever play again.

Two games have three users each beating them and neither are Sonic. I would not have expected that.

Monthly Progress
Star Wars - KCF, Fake, Sean
Sonic -
Kraken - KCF, JONA, Ark

Nominations
Ark - Everhood, Cave Story
Fake - King Quest '15, Infliction
KCF - TOEM, No Straight Roads, Ghost of a Tale

Supports
darkx - Cave
KCF - Everhood

Drawing in a week

I beat the villains side in Sonic, was all happy because I thought I was done, and then a hidden last mission appeared.

Abacus has beaten Sonic Adventures 2

That was a rough one.

Nominate F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch & Alice: Madness Returns

After about 5 game overs on Final Rush, finally beat the Hero side, started Dark side last night while I was grumpy about Final Rush so a few levels done.

Started up Fallen Order, made it to Zeffo. Having not paid much attention to it prior to starting, I was surprised at how slow and methodical gameplay is. I thought it was closer to Force Unleashed then a Dark Souls style. I've had a learning curve but so far so good with the combat.

Also, nominations:
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna The Golden Country (This one is standalone!)
Batman: Arkham Knight

Monthly Progress
Star Wars - KCF, Fake, Sean
Sonic - Abacus
Kraken - KCF, JONA, Ark

Nominations
Abacus - F.I.S.T., Alice Madness
Ark - Everhood, Cave Story
Cody - Xenoblade 2, Batman: AK
Fake - King Quest '15, Infliction
KCF - TOEM, No Straight Roads, Ghost of a Tale

Supports
darkx - Cave
KCF - Everhood

Drawing on Wednesday

Cody11533 posted...

Batman: Arkham Knight

I'm debating on if I want to support this or not. On one hand I've tried to play it and did not like it at all, and on the other hand I want to be able to say I've finished all of the Arkham games & this would give me motivation to get through it.

I actually started Arkham Knight many years ago but fell off halfway through, although I wasn't having a bad time with it. I had played the whole series in a row and felt a bit burned out.

I ended up playing Fallen Order as well. Should finish it soon.

And done
Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order EA (PS5) as the title screen seems to indicate.

Okay, I'll stay consistent for now.

Nominate Pokemon Black/White 2

Nominate:
* FEAR
* Pikuniku

Alright, did it. I beat Sonic Adventure 2
Not my first time doing so, but I mean, it had been 4 years since so decided to try to go after it again. Not gonna do noms since I need to finish a few things I've already started instead next month.

Hero side beated, working on villain side now. Wont finish before the draw but Ill be done before the end of the month.

Nominate OFF and Yakuza 2 Kiwami

Last call for noms, changes, and supports

Noms, changes, and supports are now closed. I will draw soonish

Your June Games of the Month are...

Cave Story (PC/Switch/Wii/3DS)
Pikuniku (PC/XB1/Switch/Stadia)
F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch (PC/PS4/PS5)

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

Aye, FIST finally got chosen!

I've almost started it a few times before this.

Will try out Pikuniku.

Pikuniku is available on Game Pass for Console and PC

For those who don't subscribe to Game Pass, I also have a Steam key of Pikuniku available for someone who wants to play it and would promise to make a concerted effort to beat the game (it takes like three hours, so you better).

Will definitely play Cave Story (probably twice.) I'll need to look into the other two.

Pikuniku is short enough and in my Steam library already so I'll give it a shot.

Pikuniku was given away for free on Epic Game Store at one point. It was also part of one of those big itch.io bundles. So you might already have it if you're like me and like to claim cheap or free games.

Cave Story is a great game. I haven't played it in a few years but should be a good one to revisit.

Seanchan posted...

It was also part of one of those big itch.io bundles.

That is very good to know. I just need to remember my itch.io login.

Cave Story+ was also free on the Epic Game Store at some point.

(Regular Cave Story is freeware, if anyone didn't already know.)

I'm getting so salty. I worry about Kings Quest since it is a dlc episodic game and I hope I get around to playing it before it's all delisted.. I might not be able to wait anymore since I have had no luck getting it picked.

If you really want to play a game, I'd suggest just playing it. There was a time in the past that I saved a couple of games in hopes of being selected for this because, well, usually it was the case because I had extra Steam keys lying around, but sometimes I was excited for the possibility of others playing it at the same time as me. Even as someone who has beaten more games in this project than anyone else, thus having far more potential nominations than anyone else, the RNG does what it does best. I've never been one to nominate the same game multiple times in a short span though.

I eventually decided to no longer save games and just nominate whatever games strike my fancy at that time.

Crispy and their frequent nomination of OFF is probably the most nominated game that has yet to be selected, and I feel like they have nominated it double digit times

ViolentAbacus posted...

That is very good to know. I just need to remember my itch.io login.

https://randombundlegame.com/?sort=popularity

Sharing this because I've found it useful for checking to see what games I have from those giant bundles.

anyway, I ended up buying Fallen Order earlier in the month despite not really intending to because the price was so low, and I've been working on it through the month despite not posting about it.

Got done with the boss fight on Kashyyyk last night, so I assume I'm probably around halfway (depending on how much backtracking I decide to do).

I was thinking about playing SA2 again since I had it on steam, but I already got all 180 emblems in it back when it came out (I consider myself to be pretty bad at games, and getting all the emblems is one of the only accomplishments that's actually something of an accomplishment... the other one is finishing the Extra stage in Imperishable Night.) so it's not really a priority.

I've been getting more invested in exploring in Fallen Order than I expected, which has slowed me down but I'm still enjoying myself. Finding the double lightsaber upgrade in what appeared to be an optional location made me giddy.

gonna try and knock out SA2 in one sitting. I've done it before so shouldn't be a problem

game crashed after I beat the Hero story so I gave up on the one sitting goal

I'll probably still beat it tonight though and beat Sonic too

MZero has beaten Sonic Adventure 2

For all it's flaws I still love it

Sonic Adventure 2 Beated

I remember playing this game quite a lot when it first came out on GameCube. After replaying it now, I can see more of its flaws but it was still a great time.

Finished Fallen Order (and got the platinum)

Decent game, but it kind of feels like it had a lot of content cut (whether for time/budget reasons, or to save it for a sequel). Like I would have expected at least 1-2 more planets... kind of feels like they duct taped together what they had in places (like having two tombs on Zeffo, can't help but think they moved one there after cutting a planet) and threw in a bunch of powerup requiring barriers to disguise the length by breaking it up and making you go to another planet before you could continue. Also the developers clearly weren't expecting you to backtrack, since there's all sorts of really baffling one way paths/shortcuts, doors that get locked but never get unlocked so you have to take some super roundabout path or alternate entrance to get back to where you were if you wanted to go back for what you missed.

The lightsaber boss fights were really fun, and reflecting blaster shots back at doofuses was entertaining but the skill tree was pretty small and generally force powers didn't really seem like using since they eat up force power faster than you could get it back since it doesn't regenerate on its own like stamina you have to hit something to get it back or use a stim (when you get the upgrade). Like they could have had it so that you got all your force back when you killed something (make it an upgrade or something), then the weak stormtroopers and such that die in 1 hit could be a resource and you would have a tradeoff (do you want to thin them out first so you can focus on strong enemies without worrying about getting hit, or do you save them so you can restore your force after you use it up?). And I can't help but think that there was some plans for another lightsaber style but it got cut down to one move (which I used on accident too often because it was mapped to guard+attack) again due to time/resources or to save it as a new feature for a sequel.

Graphics felt kind of off sometimes too. The creatures looked fine, the environments were a bit mixed (some of the organic/outdoor environments didn't quite seem up to par), and then some of the human characters like Cere and Cal just kind of fell into the uncanny valley. The Wookie fur was also a joke.

that covers most of it I guess.

Most, if not all, of the human characters were modeled/had performance capture by their voice actors, like Forest Whitaker and Debra Wilson obviously were for Saw and Cere respectively. I looked up Cal and Trilla after playing, and they certainly were as well.

I didn't mean that they didn't look like real people, I just meant that it kind of seemed like in general with the art direction the developers were trying to shoot at some sort of middle ground between trying to be photo realistic and trying to look like one of the CGI animated Star Wars series (not that I've actually seen any of those), so it seems like they were trying to model a bunch of facial detail in some of the cutscenes than necessary and just makes it come off as more weird/unnatural than anything (particularly since the engine doesn't seem to be that great with hair, and has general problems with texture pop in).

the other human characters don't seem so bad, maybe because they don't get as much screen time/closeups (and in Merrin's case she's supposed to be somewhat alien/unnatural looking).

Cody has beaten Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order

Good game. A bit janky but I enjoyed myself, and after I got in a groove I even enjoyed exploring off the beaten path a bit. I greatly enjoyed the ending sequence as well. Vader appearing wasn't unexpected but was suitable epic. I'm excited to see what they do for the sequel. My biggest complaint was Merrin joining the crew literally right before the final section, I hope we get more of her in the sequel!

Mr Crispy posted...

(which I used on accident too often because it was mapped to guard+attack)

I'm glad this wasn't just me lol. I wasted a lot of force on that move on accident.

Seanchan posted...

Had a convo with Cere on the ship where she was like "thank god Greez is outside...as he's standing right in the background. Then was talking with another character and she kept standing up randomly even though she was supposed to be sitting down.

I had this same exact sequence happen. I was getting real bad audio desync in cutscenes for a while too until I did a full system restart. I didn't run into any other glitches.

Mr Crispy posted...

Cal

Cal didn't particularly bother me on account of looking a lot like Cameron Monaghan so I sort of just saw him when I looked at him. Cere though, she was a bit uncanny valley for me.