Monthly in a Month #19: The WTF Edition

Reply here once done.

Apologies if this has been answered before, but I was wondering about games that have been in a Monthly or Choice but no Steam keys were provided (e.g. ENCODYA, Disjunction or even Assassin's Creed Origins), are they still valid for this event if we own them on Steam?

I finished the previous event so fast I forgot I had! September, here we go!

Thanks for making it an absolute delight to slay games in my backlog, CJ. I don't think it would exactly be a chore but I'm notoriously hard to keep motivated to follow through on things.

bump

Bump! Only have 2 HB games so I'll have to skip this month. Good luck everyone! <3

Sorry for sliding in ultra-late under the closing door.

Here are my games:

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest (achievements - "Rooted" is a possible ending achievement) (ending "results screen" screenshot, some spoilers)

Opening with a short game was nice, but this was made a bit awkward by the story Heart of the Forest wanted to tell. You are introduced to a whirlwind of characters in a rather rapid-fire fashion and it's hard to really pick up on any of their likeable or detestable qualities before your character goes through a bunch of werewolf rituals and it's on to the climax. Minor spoiler: I ended up getting most attached to the human companions you meet early on, and they barely factor into the late game storylines.

I do like the interface the developers went with for this one as it feels the closest to what reading a physical CYOA novel felt like.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York (achievements - Good Ending, Bad Ending)

This game lays it on thick with real-world current-events commentary and pop-culture references. Incredibly thick. I'm not against this on a conceptual level; I thought Coteries of New York managed it decently, but I feel the relentless barrage of references reminds me I'm playing a video game and not actually role-playing a would-be vampiress, which detracts from the immersion I generally want from visual novels. Where Coteries felt like an introduction to a New York City vampiric underworld, Shadows feels like some kind of meta-commentary talk show that airs after Coteries.

Some of the jokes do hit, like when a random mugging somehow becomes a debate about UFC fighters. And on that note, this may be the first video game I know of that makes the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns part of the plot, although it ultimately doesn't affect anything beyond a few lines.

Some spoiler-ish thoughts on the endings: A lot of people say the bad ending feels like the good ending, and I agree with that. I suppose that's part of the author's intent to make you wonder what "good" means in the context of power-hungry vampires.

Family Man (achievement - "The End?")

A Steam review sums up Family Man's appeal perfectly:

By all that is holy, no matter how low my karma is, no matter how many shady jobs I accept...

I WILL read my daughter a bedtime story every single night.

On the bad side, the ending I got felt pretty unsatisfying, even as I went in knowing I got lazy and had bad karma, and I don't really have confidence the harder-to-get endings meaningfully clear anything up.

Anything with timed gameplay makes me feel uneasy, but admittedly the town is small enough that once you get your bearings it's not that bad.

A Case of Distrust (achievements - "Master Sleuth")

Apologies for once again calling upon one of the mainstays of Monthly in a Month, but all things considered it's not too bad a game. The presentation oozes with style, and everything immerses you into the 1900s with a deft balance of imagery and occasional sociopolitical commentary. Some of the detective segments can feel like you're shooting in the dark to figure out what you need to investigate someone, but it's not too difficult a game overall.

Aviary Attorney (screenshots)

(Screenshots created with Dropbox and uploaded using steascree program, as the normal F12 does not work)

The inspiration from the Ace Attorney series is obvious, but adding another game in that genre is another welcome addition in my book. One interesting mechanic it adds is you don't get a game over even if you lose a trial, which is counterbalanced by having limited visits to other locations while you investigate and gather evidence. That means a bad investigation can doom your trial to failure, which doesn't feel great when it happens. On the other hand, the autosaves are pretty generous in the event you do want to erase a mistake. And after all, how many games set themselves during a French Revolution with all humans replaced with dapper animals?

Path of Giants (achievements - "Archaeologist," "Pathfinder")

Cute puzzle adventure reminiscent of Monument Valley and She Remembered Caterpillars, although much less difficult than the caterpillar game. Overall, the difficulty was just right for me, because I often felt stumped for a few minutes until something clicked and it all made sense. I'll have to try some of the bonus levels to see what kind of ramped up difficulty I could be in for.

Thanks again for the event will try with:

Verlet swing
The Suicide of rachel foster
elderborn
Indivisible
bloodstained: ritual of the night

haha went to finish some other games first so will not finish the event this time! Probably will only get bloodstained done ^^

Hype! Idk how much stamina I have after last month but I love participating! This month has some solid games and thanks to this event I have an excuse to get to them straight away!

I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to finish this month due to some personal stuff but I have a few new wins after joining Pandora so now's a good a time to try as any! Swapped out Verlet Swing for Warhammer Vermintide. I was having fun, vibing to the the Verlet Swing's atmosphere when out of nowhere, bam! Level 90. Ended up looking at someone doing it (the quick method is kinda dumb and I cannot find any videos of the 'normal' way), spent about as much time on just level 90 as I did on the other 89 levels of the game, took a break and looked at the other levels (especially the final level) and immediately noped out. Twitch reaction stuff is not my forte and I read someone spent at least 6 hours on just level 98.

Also had to swap out Styx with Tacoma due to certain issues with my laptop, rip.

Didn't manage to finish last month..Try again this month!

Now that Heaven's Vault is in a bundle, I should probably get around to playing that.

1. Indivisible December 2020 #13 Completed(29/29) / Screenshot / 22.8h
2. Ageless March 2021 #16 Completed(12/12) / Screenshot / 19.6h
3. We Need To Go Depper August 2021 #21 Played(20/35) / Screenshot / 19.8h
4. Wildfire March 2021 #16 Beaten(31/60) / Screenshot / 12.8h
5. Trine 4 February 2021 #15 Played(8/39) / Screenshot / 3.5h
6. Carto August 2021 #21 Completed(20/20) / Screenshot / 9.6h

I'm in.

i'm pretty busy with my backlog recently... but death's door kinda convinced me. i'll try to list some.

Oh! I will join!
Will edit the games in as I beat them

Since it was kind of a busy month I had to go with a bit shorter games this time

1. Aviary Attorney
2. Framed Collection
3. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
4. Kill It With Fire
5. Röki
6. Superliminal

Bump

I'm starting play at first game 1st september, it's okay? Does the countdown start from the 1st?

Hiya CJ. Hope all is well. Ill try to play enough games this month to make this happen. :D

Question: I learned to speedrun Hollow Knight, but have put 0 hours into it on my Steam copy. If I play it on Steam, does that count or does it go against the spirit of the event? :P

ok, i gave up on the last one, but this is definitely getting finished.
(nothing done, just suggestions for myself)

• the occupation
• simulacra 2
• the sexy brutale
• wildfire
• planet of the eyes
• owlboy
• night call
• the flame in the flood
• a hat in time

Framed Collection
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
The Dwarves
The Red Solstice
Narita Boy
Minoria