Board 8 > March Game of the Month Club ft. Bloodstained, Adios, and Hi-Fi Rush

(+) Yeah! (+)

Marchs Games:
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/iOS/Android/Luna)
Adios (PC/XSX/S/Switch)
Hi-Fi Rush (PC/XSX/S)

Games of the Month of the Year:
Mass Effect (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3)
Mass Effect 2 (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3)
Mass Effect 3 (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3/Wii U)

What is Game of the Month Club?
Game of the Month is a community project open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a select few games every month. The games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck)

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

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every featured game that you beat
- Each game you nominate has to be unique from all other nominations and cannot include a game that has already been selected for GotM
- 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 games but before the end of the month
- You have 9 supports you can use throughout the year. Your only limitations are that you can't support your own nomination, and you can only use one support per game per month

Just-for-Fun Top 20 Standings
KCF - 162
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 99
Mr Crispy - 95
Lolo Guru - 70
Cody - 58
KnightOfNee - 35
MegamanX - 28
ViolentAbacus - 25
Wickle - 25
Arti - 23
FakeAccount - 23
scarletspeed - 23
Seanchan - 23
darkx - 18
GreatPaul - 17
Fenny - 16
MZero - 16
Suprak the Stud - 16
tazzyboy - 14

Spreadsheet with history
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM/edit?usp=sharing

Additional noms this month
Cody - 1
Crispy - 1
VI - 1

Bloodstained is on sale for $14 USD on Xbox
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/9p9k78101lcw

Bloodstained is on PS Plus Extra

Hi-Fi Rush is on Game Pass for Console and PC

Should be starting Hi-Fi Rush tonight!

what is Adios?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1271400/Adios/

It was free on Epic earlier this year

The description for Adios is wild, I have no idea what to expect from the gameplay.

I have a spare steam key for Bloodstained if someone is going to make an honest attempt to play it for this topic.

Started on Hi-Fi Rush. LOVE the look of the game, just a lot of style. I've done a decent job of staying on rhythm so far, at least thru the first chapter and a half. We'll have to see how that holds up as things get (probably) more complicated.

Kenri has beaten Bloodstained

I did Aurora mode, which is mercifully short because Aurora is super OP. Honestly I did not like Bloodstained the first time I played it and if anything my opinion of it is even lower now. Even though I played on Switch both times, I feel like the performance is actually worse now than the first time I played it, with a constantly unstable frame rate and frequent dropped inputs. Right around when a boss' death animation caused the whole game to look like a video streamed at 144p, I realized I had to look this up and find out what the fuck was going on -- and sure enough, lots of people report the game's performance has been notably worse since at least the Child of Light update, if not earlier.

I'm not sure I'd like the game even on another platform, because it's ugly and buggy and the controls feel very sluggish, but I can definitely 100% anti-recommend the Switch version right now.

Sorry this was so negative! I know lots of people like this game and that's fair, it just isn't for me.

Will be getting a new PC, so whether I play Hi-Fi Rush or Adios (I figured that of all things would be able to run without my PC freezing up. No such luck.) depends on if/when I get everything in, and set up.

KCF has beaten Adios

It was fine. I will say that it is more interesting subject matter/had better voice acting/writing than other games like this. It bugged me the entire game that I had heard the voice of the hitman before. After seeing the name on the credits, I looked him up and he also voices a character in a game that I'm currently playing (the coach in Persona 5).

After losing most of the weekend to non-gaming stuff, I'm back on Hi-Fi Rush.

It's been a game where I haven't felt compelled to play it for long stretches, while at the same time being a game that you really need to play for long stretches. It took me a bit of time to literally get back into the rhythm of things after a few days away.

Battles have gotten more complicated with the the grapple, parries, and the sidekick attacks. It honestly feels like a bit much at times, despite the fact that this probably isn't truly any more complicated than other action games. But you throw the rhythm element onto that and suddenly that timing element really messes with your head. I've mostly been getting A ranks from battles, despite taking a lot of hits; I haven't quite gotten the hang of parrying while in the middle of an attack string.

I will go ahead and nominate:

Lil Gator Game
Pyre

Support Pyre

The only Supergiant game I haven't played!

Kenri posted...

The only Supergiant game I haven't played!

It's their worst one! (But it's still fun enough to be worth playing!)

Seanchan posted...

It's their worst one! (But it's still fun enough to be worth playing!)

It's my favorite of theirs! I think Transistor is the worst of theirs

I have played them all except for Pyre.

Transistor and Hades are outstanding. In both, I loved the plethora and variety of abilities and mixing and matching abilties to see what worked best/was a blast. It has been like I decade, but I remember thinking that Bastion is a fine isometric action game that suffers from hiding the best weapons until like the final third of the game.

KCF0107 posted...

I have played them all except for Pyre.

Transistor and Hades are outstanding. In both, I loved the plethora and variety of abilities and mixing and matching abilties to see what worked best/was a blast. It has been like I decade, but I remember thinking that Bastion is a fine isometric action game that suffers from hiding the best weapons until like the final third of the game.

Probably why I remember immediately replaying Bastion back in the day.

But your point about Supergiant Games design philosophy is spot on. They manage to do what few games do and make you experiment with different approaches, rather than just sticking with the "tried and true" or min/maxing a particular strategy. That remains a strength in Pyre as well, I just wasn't quite as high on the general gameplay.

I started Bloodstained, clicked early on and then after the first couple dungeons got lost so I went and explored and now am back on track >_>

I will nominate A Plague Tale: Innocence and Ghostwire Tokyo before I forget

Beat Adios

There's not much to it but I thought it was interesting for what it was.

Just saw Adios is free on prime gaming if anyone has Amazon Prime

Hi-Fi Rush beated!

A fun game! Has a lot of style and heart, even if it is sometimes goofy. It kind of feels like a remake of a game that never existed from maybe the Dreamcast/Gamecube era.

I will support Pyre since I own it on Steam

Monthly Progress
Blood - Kenri
Adios - KCF, JONA
Rush - Sean

Nominations
KCF - Pyre, Lil Gator
VI - Plague Tale Inno, Ghostwire

Supports
Kenri - Pyre
MZero - Pyre

I'll nominate The Last of Us Part 2 for now.

With Zelda coming out mid-May, I might have to step away from GotM for a bit until I finish that. BotW took me a few months to play through, so, yeah...

I have 3 additional days off next week, so will probably start & beat Hi-Fi rush then

Adios finished!

Yep, I watched that. Not really much game there. Story was fine; I liked the way they used the grayed out options.

I had some glitches playing this. Not sure if it was just my old ass PC. Certainly the intermittent graphical artifacts were likely from that. But then there was being unable to sit to milk the goats without restarting the scene. And some wacky dialog displays during the phone conversations. Ah well, doesn't really matter. This isn't one I'm ever going to play again.

Nominate:
Spider-man: Miles Morales
OlliOlli World

Seanchan posted...

being unable to sit to milk the goats without restarting the scene

That is exactly what happened to me. I kept hitting invisible walls trying to move to either stool. That was the only hiccup that I experienced.

Very close to the end of Bloodstained

enjoying it but man I feel underleveled haha

ArkOfTurus has beaten Adios

Interesting concept, was an alright experience, but I was hoping for more. Also got the same goat bug on this brand new PC, so I guess that's going to be pretty common?

Bought Hi-Fi Rush, will get to it soon.

VeryInsane has beaten Bloodstained

fun metroidvania, good choice to start with

I started Hi-Fi Rush over the weekend, and I'm waiting for it to click with me. I'm still on the first track though, so maybe I just need to get out of the intro level.

Starting Hi-Fi Rush tonight. Have three days off work this week and am on call, so may end up beating it.

KCF0107 posted...

I started Hi-Fi Rush over the weekend, and I'm waiting for it to click with me. I'm still on the first track though, so maybe I just need to get out of the intro level.

They certainly lay on more mechanics but you'll probably know if it's for you within a few tracks/levels.

On Track 8 of Hi-Fi Rush. I am loving it so far; however, I am atrocious at doing anything to the rhythm... Parrying in particular.

ViolentAbacus posted...

On Track 8 of Hi-Fi Rush. I am loving it so far; however, I am atrocious at doing anything to the rhythm... Parrying in particular.

With the parrying, theres no penalty for hitting the off beats. So if you just tap for every beat, youll be fine.

I feel like being able to do those parries is pretty important for those last stages.

Seanchan posted...

With the parrying, theres no penalty for hitting the off beats. So if you just tap for every beat, youll be fine.

I feel like being able to do those parries is pretty important for those last stages.

Yeah, that's how I got through Korsica

I'm like two tracks into Hi-Fi Rush, and I'm just not feeling it. It definitely feels like a throwback to 00s era action games, but I just find the platforming portions to be on the dull side. It doesn't help that it simply doesn't feel good to jump or dash with Chai. These tracks feel like 15-20 minute levels bloated to an hour. I might give it another track or two, but it I have a feeling that I'm going to drop it.

KCF0107 posted...

These tracks feel like 15-20 minute levels bloated to an hour. I might give it another track or two, but it I have a feeling that I'm going to drop it.

I have loved it, but I do feel the track length can be a bit extreme at times.

Abacus has beat Hi-Fi Rush


I loved it!

I am now on Track 8 on Hi-Fi Rush. The game started to massively improve starting with Track 3, but it also seems to be doing a taking one step forward, one step back approach. The platforming stuff is become more varied/engaging, but the parry element of combat is not good, and having all these flow-breaking interruptions to do some isolated mini-game in combat is baffling.

Played two tracks of Hi-Fi Rush. I'm enjoying it for sure, but I'm not confident I'll beat it by the end of the month (especially by the end of the drawing.)

Nominate Hyper Light Drifter and Neon White

KCF0107 posted...

but the parry element of combat is not good, and having all these flow-breaking interruptions to do some isolated mini-game in combat is baffling.

These two things kind of solve themselves actually since you can parry the "shockwave" that starts up the instant-kill minigame or even just dodge it to skip it entirely. You only enter the minigame if you get "hit". Funny enough I thought that the parry introduction was when the combat system really came together!

Monthly Progress
Bloodstained - Kenri, VI
Adios - KCF, JONA, Sean, Ark
Rush - Sean, VI

Nominations
Ark - Hyper Light Drifter, Neon White
KCF - Pyre, Lil Gator Game
Sean - Spider: Miles, OlliOlli World, Last of Us II
VI - Plague Tale Innocence, Ghostwire

Supports
Kenri - Pyre
MZero - Pyre

Drawing on Saturday

KCF has beaten Hi-Fi Rush

I did end up testing that shockwave parry, and I still had to do it 2-3 times before it would prevent the mini-game. It seems like an unnecessary step for an unnecessary aspect to the game. Other than that and some other relatively minor concerns, some of which I have mentioned, this was a great time! I'm glad I gave it another chance.

It was stylish, I liked the vibes, and it was great getting into a combat sync with the music, especially with...Track 11 I want to say? I was killing it getting my attacks in on the beat. I normally hovered around 60-65% on most tracks, but that one I was well into the 70s.

For my final nom, DOOM Eternal

Abacus beat Rush, not me

Nominate DUSK and Battle Chef Brigade

Support DOOM Eternal