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!
Though I haven’t had much time for gaming this week, I did manage to spend an hour on Bloodstained, specifically a location called The Tunnel. Ominous, I know, though I’m finding this stretch more obnoxious than difficult. It’s another area featuring oversized rooms, so relying on high jumps and Invert are required just to navigate. Then there are giant versions of common enemies, and buffed ones too, normal sized, placed precariously about. The Tunnel also doesn’t have a map, making things just a touch more obnoxious to play through. Not holding my breath regarding the worth of this trek, my efforts were rewarded with a scarf item that’s seemingly less helpful than the one I have equipped…
I also replayed Kirby’s Adventure, as I often do when I just need a purely fun experience, and this game never fails to provide a charming lark. It’s my favorite NES title, looking and sounding as great as always, and never failing to provide plenty of action. And it’s still outshining plenty of modern titles despite its release nearly 30 years ago. Needless to say, I am always impressed when I replay this game. Magical is an understatement.
Lastly, I’ve been contemplating giving the 8-bit Bloodstained games a try. I feel like I should, but I may need a break from Bloodstained after finishing Ritual. I guess we’ll see, perhaps via a mindless rant in this feature in the near future, of course. – Drew D.
Not Only Nine is a game I’ve been following since the developer, Larryzaur, first announced he was working on it, and I am so so excited that the demo is live now. You take on the role of a cat in the afterlife who is trying to save its human. The opening of the demo finds you standing in a void following lights until you find Tod, your spirit guide, who tells you to choose between three swords – Despair, Ambition, and Valor. You have to choose one and discard the other before you can continue. At first, Tod thinks you’re your human, Luke, but is surprised when he finds out you’re actually Lune, the cat. You apparently took the Reaper’s scythe instead of your human, and Tod says that in order to save Luke, you need to ascend The Tower to save both your souls. Once you leave the void you’re in a brightly-lit forest filled with animals. Apparently in the afterlife, human souls take on animal appearances, but you aren’t like other souls. You’re tasked with finding Ursa and heading to The Tower, and that’s all I wanna say about the story.
The demo is very charming. The music is absolutely fantastic, and the character portraits and CGs are gorgeous. There are a ton of fun references and nods to other video games, some of which actually got a chuckle out of me. Not Only Nine feels a bit like a mix of 3D adventure game and visual novel. The exploration bits felt a bit clunky, admittedly, though not so much I couldn’t get my bearings. The demo doesn’t have any camera options so I had to adjust. Considering this is made by one person, I’m more than willing to give a lot of slack, and it is just a demo. I’m excited to see how the final game comes out and plan on jumping back into the demo to see if I can’t discover any hidden bits I missed. If you like supporting indie devs, love cats, or both, do yourself a favor and at least check the demo out! You can download the demo (and wishlist the game) here. – Leah
I ended up deciding to start Star Ocean: The Divine Force this past week. I haven’t quite finished Ishin yet, but I got to the final chapter and then felt like a bit of a break, so I officially started SO6. I didn’t get the chance to get very far yet, but I’ve gotten a feel for the game. I went with Laeticia’s path, eventually got to the first town, saved a guy in a mine in the next town, got Nina added to my party and I’ve headed off again, this time to a port town. I’m not sure yet who I plan to control throughout the game, I really enjoy Nina’s design but sadly, unlike Tales of Arise where the best looking character I wanted to run around as was surprisingly fun and easy to use, Nina just heals. She can’t target enemies and isn’t so great for running around as, when out near enemies.
For right now I’m mostly using Laeticia, but Albaird was extremely useful against an early boss. His ranged attacks seemed to do a good amount of damage and I was able to stay far away from the boss using him at the end to not get hit. I might end up using him quite a bit, until I get more characters at least. I’m glad that for once in a Star Ocean game, I can actually switch the controlled character whenever I want, even in towns, it’s not a battle only mechanic. One thing I’m not a fan of thus far, is how the camera is angled and the fact that you can’t even reposition it further down. I’m not at all surprised though with how things are these days, everyone being so appalled by anyone wanting to look at female characters in Japanese games and whatnot. Of course they would add a bit of a quirkier camera. But overall I’m having fun with the little bit I’ve played, cutest character being no fun to control and wonky camera aside. – Jenae
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
