Board 8 > November Game of the Month Club Replay: Return of the Obra Dinn

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What is Game of the Month Club Replay?
Game of the Month Replay is a community project based upon the Game of the Month Club. Much like the GOTM Club, it's open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a bonus chosen game every month. The game featured each month is chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck).

The only catch is, it must be a game that the GOTM Club has already played, so it's an opportunity to replay games you may have missed out on the first time or just want to try again.

The Basics
- Each month will usually feature one game that was chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For beating the game, 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 the current month's game 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 game 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 think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for beating the featured game
- Each game you nominate has to be one that was already nominated for the GOTM Club.
- You can nominate games that have already been selected for the Replay Topic, but not the same game twice in a row.
- 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 game but before the end of the month

Thanks to KCF0107 for giving permission for the GOTM Club Replay topic to exist. Most of the rules of the Replay Topic are the same as the GOTM club. If you're wondering what the Game of the Month Club is, here's the link to the current club; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80114199

Games eligible for this topic; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM

Hopefully Fun Standings
Wicklebee 1
MetalMindStats 1
Seanchan 2
ViolentAbacus 1
Cody11533 1
Suprak 1
HaRRich

Sorry for the delay on getting this topic out; it's complicated and I haven't been online in a while.

I have been playing this off-and-on for a few days. A lot of it is right up my alley as I expected, but I wasn't expecting such an obnoxious game structure. Maybe it will come around to be palatable, but with the game being very rigid and linear with its progression, I am not as willing to play it for a big chunk of time in a single session. I think it would have been considerably more suitable for this to basically be an open-ended approach. From what I have played so far, that would personally make me more invested in solving everything.

Everything I liked and didn't care for from before has stayed the same, so I'm inclined to believe this is a very consistent experience. I will say that the inclusion of these spider monsters definitely surprised me in a positive way. I saw a victim was spiked, and when I included it in the journal, I was perplexed when it auto-filled in "by a terrible beast" or something to that effect. Upon viewing the next victims, I was gathering in my surroundings to a further degree from before. When I first saw someone on top of an odd thing, it was right next to the cow pen, so I thought that maybe this terrible beast was a cow or something happened to the cow. Then just before the screen went away, I saw the long legs and went, "What the fuck?"

That was probably the coolest moment of the game so far for me. Chronologically that takes place before the kraken, so man these people had it rough.

I've been very slow at gaming lately.

KCF has beaten Return of the Obra Dinn

I left the ship with 15 or so fates solved, but I knew I could go back and solve the rest (and I did some of that immediately after and boy are they very nitpicky about things). There's a lot about this game that's outstanding, mostly in the visual, sound, and story department, but I have to say that the linear progression and some related and unrelated obnoxious design choices ultimately have me thinking that that this didn't meet my expectations going in. It is a very good game though.

I will choose as my noms:

Severed
The Sexy Brutale

i'm not a part of this club but I'll chime in to say I played this for the first time recently, got the "bad ending" (think I had only something like 12 fates confirmed) and didn't feel like going back to it. I've read some stuff online about what I was missing in terms of how to play this game, but I felt this should've just been more obviously conveyed to the player. it frustrated me more than it made me feel like re-playing it.

I played Obra Dinn a few years ago and loved it, but the criticisms are valid. It would be great if more games in that sort of genre would build off of it, I'm not familiar with any other games quite like it.

I'll nominate Super Mario Bros. 3

Nominations:
Severed - KCF0107
The Sexy Brutale - KCF0107
Super Mario Bros. 3 - Cody11533
Alan Wake - FakeAccount3000

Beaten the Game:
KCF0107

I think I'll choose two games starting next month to help people have more choices.

Obra Dinn is NOT on sale with the Steam sale. That idea backfired

It was last on sale on Steam in February of 2021, so it probably seldom will going forward. I took advantage of it being half off to celebrate its two year history back in 2020.

Yeah I just bit the bullet and bought it. Wont have time to play until Saturday night, so not sure Ill make the end of the month but Ill give it a try.

Now I await to see what is drawn here to have an idea of what to plan around.

Ive started on Obra Dinn. Its a little overwhelming. 3 fates solved so far, though I suspect those are the easy ones youre supposed to get first.

The Sexy Brutale and Super Mario Bros. 3 are the Game of the Month Replay games for December!

I think Sexy Brutale was on my backlog. SMB3 is the best Mario game.

Gah, too many games in both GotM clubs!

I'm definitely going to replay Super Mario Bros. 3. That's a good one.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is another classic game I can finally get around to playing!

6 fates done in Obra Dinn. I'm in the spider chapter.

I find parts of this game to be very annoying. The aesthetic choice sometimes makes it difficult to figure out what the fuck I'm looking at. Also, trying to correctly categorize the death that I'm seeing.

The biggest annoyance though is how you'll be surveying a scene and then it does that whole "fade out" thing to go to the notebook. I've gotten to the point that I don't even bother looking around until after that has happened. Of course, once that does happen, the game then immediately wants to pull you one step backwards to the previous death. I've accidentally hit the space bar a time or two and found myself propelled to the next (i.e. previous) scene before I was ready.

I guess that's part of what makes it a mystery is seeing things in reverse. But like, I don't know, maybe let me replay a scene from the notebook, so that I could eventually play everything in the forward direction without running around the ship?

Obra Dinn beated!

I also strangely had 15 fates done. I'll probably go back for a few more hours just to see if I can figure out a few more. It's one of those things where it (should) get easier the more you get done.

I think this game is more interesting than it is good. The interface was just sort of annoying at points, in terms making things more difficult than they need to be, though I recognize that some/most of that was likely by choice. For instance, there's times when the game won't let you mark a cause of death yet because their portrait is still blurry. Like, he's dead in a boat with a spear going through him and I know it's this blurry portrait; just let me mark that and figure out the name later!

So I did put in another hour or so and got to 21 fates. ...had a little help from the internet to give me a few hints/answers... But I'm not going to go any further than that. I'm satisfied that I got the gist of the game, even if it didn't fully connect with me. Probably trying to cram it in before the end of the month wasn't helpful for a game that you really need to be thoughtful and sweat the details. But I can now cross it off the backlog, so that's a positive.

I might try to do Sexy Brutale. That one's been in my backlog for a bit.

I've tried to play the Sexy Brutale twice. I've enjoyed it both times, but always stopped for other games. Maybe this time I can do it.