While we here at Operation Rainfall love covering the latest in gaming news and sharing our reviews of titles new and classic, we also just enjoy playing games in our downtime. So with that, sit back, relax, and check out what the oprainfall gaming crew have been up to this week!
Considering how much I loved Lost Judgment, it’s taken me forever to get around to its DLC story, The Kaito Files, so I’ve spent the last couple weeks plugging away at it when I’ve got the time. Kaito is such a wonderful character and it’s great getting to spend time with him without Yagami around. Mystery is afoot when our ex-yakuza detective is approached by a man claiming his dead wife is alive, and he wants Kaito to find her. Turns out this woman is also Kaito’s former lover, so he has a vested interest in getting to the bottom of her supposed disappearance. Too bad he wants nothing to do with it – until her son begs him to find her, too. Lost Judgment is a game with a lot of heart, and this DLC story shares in that, giving us a glimpse at Kaito from before he took up his detective gig, as well as how he comports himself when he isn’t playing second fiddle to Yagami. It also feels a lot more reminiscent of Kiryu’s Yakuza games, because Kaito is an absolute brute in battle. Where Yagami is pretty light on his feet, Kaito is bullish and tanky, captured wonderfully with his fighting styles. Bruiser is a hard-hitting brawler style that feels incredibly satisfying, and tank is exactly what it says on the tin, upping Kaito’s defense and making it significantly harder to knock him down. Weaving between the two feels natural and both fit with Kaito’s personality. The fights as well are tailored to his style, throwing tons of goons at you. Not that fighting is all Kaito does: He gets to sneak around and do his detective thing, too. Our boy isn’t just brawn, after all, and it’s a nice reminder that he’s clever and observant as well as muscle. There’s a lot to love here, especially if you enjoy the Judgment games. I’m mad at myself for taking so long to get around to it.
As for Final Fantasy XIV, I managed to get to Series Rank 25 on my au ra as well as collect all the mogtomes I wanted ahead of 6.2’s launch on Tuesday. I’m excited for the patch and the second part of the Pandaemonium raid, especially, but also the release of Island Sanctuary. XIV has always excelled at giving us little slice-of-life activities, and the Sanctuary looks like it’s gonna be a great addition to that side of the game. We also have the Rising event coming soon and it’s gonna have my boy Emet-Selch as a minion, I cannot contain my excitement. It’s also the 1.5 Year Anniversary for Nier: Re[in]carnation, so I’ve been plugging away at that. I haven’t had a chance to sit down with OMORI or Kentucky Route Zero for a couple weeks now, but I’m hoping to get back to them soon, but I am slowly getting back into Horizon: Zero Dawn, which is definitely a bit of whiplash after Elden Ring. I like both, but Horizon‘s map feels super overwhelming now. I keep forgetting to turn off markers. I really like the world, though, and exploration is probably my favorite aspect of the game so far, even if it does mean I haven’t gotten too far into the story. Combat feels great, though, I just need to find my muscle memory again. – Leah
This past week was more of the same for me. What time I had for gaming, as expected, was spent on more Xenoblade Chronicles 3, a smidgen of Mahjong Soul and a little bit of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In XC3, I’ve now gone from the prior week’s level 52 party to a party up at level 62. I’m also a bit over 70 hours played as well. I didn’t make a ton of story progress however. Mostly I just finished up the last bit of chapter 4 and got to the next important area at the beginning of chapter 5. Once I got through all the early, new chapter story at the latest significant location, I picked up some new sidequests and explored a little bit. At the moment, I’m still in the middle of a small chunk of sidequests. I believe I’ve finished up the few new area sidequests that I only just unlocked and I’ve now gone back to various colonies to do some more of those quests, both old ones I neglected and newly popped up ones. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I’ve been messing around trying to find a kart setup I can work with for 200cc. But honestly, I’m not sure I’ll ever be good at 200cc. Perhaps no one’s good at 200cc and it’s just a mess of speeding through stages and trying your best not to fall off an edge or get hit by items. Hopefully I can eventually find something that works well enough. And finally, as far as Mahjong Soul is concerned, I may be on another losing streak. Although, I only played a few matches. But I’m relatively close to 3 star Adept and trying my best to creep up closer and not completely lose all the points I’ve already earned. – Jenae
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
