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!
I finally got my hands on a copy of Octopath Traveler II recently, but I still have so many games I’ve started these last few years and haven’t finished. Thus, I decided I wanted to at least return to Harvestella, the most recent Square game I was playing on Switch and abandoned for a while, to try to beat it first, or at least get through most of it before I go starting Octopath. I don’t know if I’ll actually stay committed to that goal or not, with how often I jump between games these days, but for right now I’ve been playing quite a bit of Harvestella lately. I haven’t been putting in major time on it, but I’ve made a decent amount of progress. When I picked it back up this time, I was at the day after finishing the whole Heaven’s Egg dungeon so I went through a lot of post story and Nemea sidequest stuff first. I’ve also been working on the farm here and there alongside completing sidequests and dungeoning. I don’t tend to stick to one or the other, I simply grow crops for money and whatnot, in between going out to complete quests.
Once I got finished with the bulk of the Nemea quests and main story stuff, I finally went to Shatolla. I’ve been doing each town and solving their problems one at a time. I won’t move onto the next town until I’ve finished the main story and dungeon in the one I’m at. I think this helps with not getting overwhelmed or feeling like I have no time to do anything. Although, it is a bit hectic at the beginning when you first go to a new town and numerous people have some issue/sidequest for you to deal with. I’ve gotten through the bulk of the early Shatolla quests and I’m now trying to focus on getting further in the Coral Shrine dungeon. However, I’m also finding myself low on monolite fragments lately, which I need for making return bells so I can spend more time dungeoning and am able to instantly go back home and sleep before it hits midnight. Along with getting through all the early Shatolla tasks, I’ve made some good progress on my farm as well, having just expanded it again. I’m a bit annoyed I still don’t have a hammer upgrade to take care of the boulders blocking areas of the crop dirt, but I now have a lot more space regardless. Since I unlocked more space again, I’ve started putting up fences around the border where there aren’t boulders in the way and I’m starting to move what machines I can. I want an organized plot with trees and processor machines on one side and crops on the other. However, there is a second dirt plot I’ve seen in the distance at the top of a hill, which I haven’t unlocked yet. I’ve been thinking that once I do, I want to use the original spot for just makers and trees and then do regular crops in that extra area.
In addition to making progress in Harvestella, I also played a little bit of Persona 4 Golden this past week. I’ve been working on Rise’s dungeon lately and I finally went ahead and fought the two bosses at the top. I was a bit worried that I would be underleveled because when I did Kanji’s dungeon, I only barely managed to survive the boss. But I found both bosses in Marukyu Striptease to be much much easier. I think I’m finally getting past the tougher early game portion. I’m still constantly low on funds, but I’m doing a lot better in dungeons now. Overall, I’ve been enjoying replaying P4G. Though I’m most looking forward to getting back to that extra month at the end of the game that was added on in Golden. I really enjoyed all of the new Golden content the first time but I’ve only played through that part of the game once, on my PSTV. – Jenae
My sister and I continue our trek through all things Resident Evil with RE5. We actually hooked up our old PS4 Pro to a second monitor for her while I play on the PS5, and I gotta say, running through this with co-op is a lot of fun. The game has definitely eschewed any oppressive atmosphere for a more bombastic, arcade style experience, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do find myself missing the more exploration and puzzle based focus on RE2, especially. I feel like Resident Evil 4 really nailed the middle ground between the early games and this more action-focused approach. That being said, I’m having a ton of fun. Bosses aren’t quite as inspired as previous titles, and you can tell this is a PS3 game because the bloom blinds me every other frame, but the story is a solid progression from what Code Veronica kicked off. I like how absolutely cartoonish the villains have become, and I’m sad that Irving didn’t stick around long enough to be a proper contender for Alfred. Wesker has gone so anime as to be immersion breaking, but I love him so it’s okay. Again, I don’t play Resident Evil for the plot, so him becoming a super monster in human skin is just very “okay, I’ll roll with it.”
As for the gameplay, I really enjoy how the guns feel here. My go-to has been the Hydra, but I also carry around the SIG P226 and the H&K PSG-1. The Hydra has a nice recoil and satisfying spread that works at slightly longer distances, and headshotting with the PSG-1 is fantastic. I dislike the slight drift with the sniper rifle, but it isn’t enough to turn me off it. Using the environment as weapons is also eminently enjoyable – I never miss a chance to explode a barrel if there’s one available. My favorite environmental kill has got to be the furnace near the beginning of the game. I like how the combat arenas are set up with so many avenues of attack. It lacks the tension from narrow corridors but makes up for it in mob numbers. That being said, I cannot imagine trying to go through this with an AI companion, especially when it comes to covering each other on things like the mounted machine guns. I’m looking forward to our next play session when we can hopefully hit the end and start RE6, even though I’m terrified to jump into Ethan’s games. – Leah
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
