Monthly in a Month #12: The git gud edition

I like this project :)

1. Still There December 2020 Choice #13 Beaten(20/23) / Screenshot / 4.7h
2. We Were Here Together August 2020 Choice #9 Completed(22/22) / Screenshot / 14.2h
3. We Were Here Too October 2018 Monthly #36 Beaten(19/20) / Screenshot / 4.1h
4. Supraland June 2020 Choice #7 Beaten(48/98) / Screenshot / 16.5h
5. Children of Morta December 2020 Choice #13 Completed(45/45) / Screenshot / 23.9h
6. The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game December 2020 Choice #13 Completed(6/6) / 0.8h

Well, since this event seems really healthy for my backlog, I'm gonna try again ^^
I've kept exactly 6 games from this month HC, so I'll go with them:

1. Feb 2021: Outward | Played
   I'm conflicted on this one. I really liked some aspects of the game and some ideas, while I really disliked some others. I liked how immersive the exploring part of the game is and how the maps/dungeons were designed. I liked the story, even if I have only a partial idea of the picture having played it only once (so I know just one faction's story). I liked how some mechanics have been handled, i.e. the lantern or the backpack system. On the other hand I'm not a great fan of survival games, so I've just tolerated the continuos sleeping/eating/drinking/crafting/etc. which I always percieve like a huge waste of time. I liked the concept of the combat system, but not so much the realization: beyond the kinda steep learning curve, it feels unpolished and too much forgiving/unforgining based on what build you play and 90% of the times it's just better not to fight at all. I didn't delve too much into the magic system; the runes seemed original enough but I can't really give an opinion on that matter (I went far a phisical damage build). I really hated how slow you can collect money. Oh, in the end I liked to fool around a bit with the debug console too. As a whole I recommend the game, but I realize it might not be for everyone.
2. Feb 2021: Valkyria Chronicles 4 Complete Edition | Played
   Little premise: I'm not a fun of J-style characterization in general, with a few exceptions. Luckily here the characters aren't too much over the line. The story has its good moments, but it has plot holes, it's often contradictory or a bit nonsensical. I hated the extent of its fragmentation in sub-episodes, forcing you back to the menu just to press "go on" every 5 lines of dialogue. The animation during dialogues is really cheap, if not nonexistent. Gameplay-wise at the beginning you end up using always the same 2-3 characters, the missions are easy and a bit repetitive, but later on, once they get harder, you have to really plan every single move before-hand and make them count and that's when the game gets really fun (that's 20+ hours into the game though). The enemy AI is quite forgiving, maybe too much: when it comes down to "bosses" in particular, they would have the potential to wipe your entire team out in 2 moves, but they usually don't, in fact it's not rare to see them go repeatedly back and forth doing nothing; that's a weird way to balance things out. I liked how the potentials (= characters passive bonuses) evolve with the progression of the story or by doing side quests. In the end I'd still recommend the game, but be advised that it can be a bit slow and overly time consuming.
3. Feb 2021: Valfaris | Played
   I must say I didn't like this one. I didn't like the graphic style, even though I usually like pixel/retro style; I disliked the choice of colors and I couldn't find the monster/character design appealing. I didn't like the story, which I found totally uninspired and put there just cause you need one. I didn't like the gameplay in general; the boss battles in particular were kind of tedious and not rewarding. Furthermore I was forced to play it with mouse+keyboard, cause I couldn't make my controller work (even if it should be fully supported) and the controls felt a bit stiff.
4. Feb 2021: Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest | Played
   Really, really, really well written. I finished it in just one sitting. I really liked the story, most of all the first part, up to the important event (no spoiler). After that it seemed like the margin for taking different paths was really narrow, but most likely it's my fault for taking too many consecutive bad choices and running out of willpower (a stat you need to take hard actions). That surely gives the game replayability. The only downside is that I expected there would be more character development after the aforementioned important event, but the story wrapped up quite fast after that and it felt a bit cut short. Maybe I should check out the tabletop game on which it is based to know more about this world.
5. Feb 2021: Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince | Played
   It was a nice relaxed challenge, a good break from the frenetic games I usually like. The puzzle part wasn't too hard to solve and luckily the backtracking (for collectibles left behind) was really fast thanks to the checkpoint system. In addition the graphic and the music were pleasant. The story isn't anything memorable, but that's not the main focus of the game. I enjoyed it overall.
6. (Edit since Endless Space 2 is not allowed)
   Jul 2020: Metal Unit | Played
   You have a decent idea for a game (gameplay-wise), but you have absolutely no idea how to build a story around it; this game is a perfect example of that. The gameplay is nice, there's a decent variety of equipment that allows different playstyles. The mastery system is original and combined with the roguelite elements of the game makes up for the inevitable repetitivity required by the game. I would have made ep.5 bosses harder, considering they're easier than the ep.4 one and that you can fight them again right away if you die. The animations are really low quality, most of all during cutscenes, the characters aren't at all as appealing as they appear on the game cover. The story after the ep.4 boss fight untill the very end of the game is utter illogical trash (and I'm trying to be polite).

Will try this month:

• Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
• EARTHLOCK
• Shadows: Awakening
• ????????
• ????????
• ????????

• Children of Morta - 0/45 - Choice December 2020
• Minoria - 0/15 - Choice January 2021
• The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines - 0/24 - Choice January 2021
• ?
• ?
• ?

Update #1 (08 February): Beaten Moving Out. I'll play it a bit more in the following days, but the main story is done.
Update #2 (17 February): Completed The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game.
Update #3 (18 February): Beaten Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard.
Update #4 (21 February): Completed The Turing Test.
Update #5 (02 March): Beaten Mr Shifty.
Update #6 (03 March): Beaten Felix the Reaper. There's a bug with the achievements where they only unlock when the game is closed. Challenge completed.

I'll just put my HB monthly games for now.

CJ, I'm having an issue with a particular game.
I want to play Aegis Defenders but it looks like there's an achievement that pops up as soon as you open the game so I have an achievement unlocked already, just from checking if the game was starting back when I won it.
I know you have an inflexible policy on games that already have achievements unlocked but I thought I'd ask anyway since it's only an auto-achievement with no gameplay at all.

Can I? Pretty please?

Good on you for making something like this happen, Cjcomplex.

I don't think I'll be making it as I just started Final Fantasy 10 yesterday, and that + the sequel will take 100+ hours, and even though I am dying to play nioh 2, it wouldn't feel right just blindly rushing through 6 visual novels or whatever short games are in the bundles that I have zero interest in playing. Still, I absolutely love the concept of this.

Edit: Ok, after having thought on this some more, and going through my backlog, I realized I do actually have quite a few games from previous monthlies that I want to play eventually. It's still probably going to be impossible to meet the deadline unless I drop FFX, and I'm not too keen on that. I'll have to think on it some more, but perhaps I'll join the challenge when I've narrowed down exactly which games I want to try my hand at beating.

Edit 2: Ok I'll have a go at it.

Well that was a bunch of awesome games. I'm so glad I did this. I've rarely had such focus in completing bundle games. These were all either pretty decent or straight up amazing titles.

Thoughts on the games I beat:

Trine 4: It was pretty alright. I really liked the first Trine, but thought both 2 and especially 3 were not very good (with 3 just being full on bad), so I was a little hesitant to play this title. I'm glad I did though, as it was an enjoyable, and very chill experience.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun: Such an awesome Commandos type game. It's definitely up there with both Commandos 1 and 2. I'm super glad I played this one. No idea why I waited this long to get to it, but I'll be sure to check out the other game from the developer in the same genre, although set in a western environment.

Valfaris: What an utterly fantastic experience. I didn't like their first game, Slain: Back from Hell, but they made this game just right. It's difficult, but not soul crushingly so. Good boss fights, and constant action. I liked that it wasn't longer than it was, because the game requires complete focus in order to progress, and as that can be fairly draining with a long game, I found that this game was just short enough to not outstay its welcome.

I look forward to the next game from the developer. I wouldn't mind seeing a direct sequel to this one, but I'll be sure to check out whatever comes next regardless.

MO: Astray: This was quite alright. A nice little story with mostly just relaxed gameplay. There were some really annoying sections where the controls just failed to provide a good platforming experience, but those were very minor sections, so I did not mind overly much. It was also a very relaxing game, which I sorely needed after the intense full focus required experience of Valfaris.

Blasphemous: Definitely worth playing through, although it's nowhere near perfect. Platforming is a right pain, especially in the graveyard of the peaks, and some enemies are just plain old BS, but honestly it's still worth playing through. The graphics are gorgeous, and it's a competent 2D souls-like metroidvania. In the beginning I didn't like it. I'm actually not sure if I wouldn't have just uninstalled it again after an hours time if it hadn't been for this challenge.

Kero Blaster: I would never have given this game the time of day if it hadn't been for Matthewmatosis doing a review on it. It's not very long. It took me 3 hours and 42 minutes to beat, which was pretty slow going, but I had a blast with it. It's incredibly well designed, and has super tight controls. I would encourage everyone to check it out.

This sounds fun! All my games have been idled for cards but are otherwise unplayed. If that's okay, I'll throw my hat in with:

Decided to switch The Hex to Valkyria Chronicles 4 since I'm waaaaaay ahead of where I expected myself to be at and want to try it out.

I'll try with:

• Little Nightmares
• The Beast Inside
• Hellblade
• Override Mech City Brawl
• Goat of Duty
• Trine

I might change them later.

I'll try with the following:

I already started Valfaris before making this post, but it's after the event started, so I hope that's OK.

Reviews:

do they have to be from the same month?
answer: no they don't

if anyone knows how to add a table that would be great* thanks whoosh for the link

I played a game on feb 1 can I use it in this challenge? (it was from humble monthly)
answer: You cannot have any play time or achievements prior to the start of the event. The only exception is idle time from farming Steam cards. [I played till two achievements, so the answer is NO]

I'm done with my 6 games as of February 14th. Here's my post with the proof required :)

Hey CJ. Reminder that the new HB releases tomorrow. Question: If I pick up the HB and wanna play Control tomorrow, would that count or do I need to wait until the post?

Done with the challenge, thank you.

Done with the challenge

Youropa November 2020 Humble Choice #12 - Screenshots - Achievements

The Occupation September 2020 Humble Choice #10- Screenshots - Achievements

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair September 2020 Humble Choice #10- Screenshots - Achievements

The Swords of Ditto: Mormo's Curse May 2020 Humble Choice #6)- Screenshots - Achievements

Turing Test May 2017 Humble Monthly #19- Screenshots - Achievements

Planet of the Eyes August 2016 Humble Monthly #10- Screenshots - Achievements

Thank you for yet another great event ✌