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 spent the end of 2024 binging Dragon Quest, and boy am I glad for it. I kicked off my marathon with the exceptional Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (you can read my initial thoughts on it here), which was a thoroughly charming adventure the entire 50 hours I put into the base game. As I mentioned before, I only ever really played the original Dragon Warrior on NES, so revisiting this classic with a facelift just gave me newfound appreciation for how well designed the game was back when it first released. It’s not the most compelling story ever, but it didn’t need to be. It was comfy and familiar, and I found myself wanting to play it almost every waking moment because the gameplay loop was so fun. I loved talking to all the NPCs, I loved the quirky localization flourishes for each town, I was enamored with the aesthetic. It’s just an overall great package that felt both nostalgic and fresh and I am very much looking forward to Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake when it releases. I might even go back and do post-game stuff when I’m not busy with other games, work and family, which is something I very rarely do.
Immediately after beating DQIII I jumped into Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age. This is a game I’ve been meaning to play for years but just never got around to, but DQIII scratched an itch that I hadn’t realized I had, and I wanted more of it. I’m about 20 hours in after just a few days of playing and I can honestly say I’m hooked. The cast is great, the world is fun to explore, and the storytelling – while not particularly exceptional – is well-done and compelling. It’s been interesting going to the most recent game in the series after playing a remake of one of the earliest and seeing how much DNA of the series has remained, especially when I compare it to my memory of NES Dragon Warrior. I get such a kick out of hearing familiar sound effects and music cues. Despite being vastly different styles of game, DQXI and III are undeniably part of a shared lineage. It’s been tough putting the game down, especially when I have finally acquired my indisputable dream team. I would die for Jade.
That being said, playing XI S with Japanese voices does make the changes in names a lot more obvious (it was a problem with DQIII but not to the same extent). They aren’t so bad I can’t play, but they are a bit immersion breaking and take me out when I’m distracted by Erik being referred to as Camus. This is not unique to Dragon Quest, but every time it happens it makes me scratch my head in confusion. Some changes are less egregious than others (Sylvia to Sylvando for instance), but wholesale changing names bugs me. Still absolutely loving this game regardless and can’t wait until my next play session.
In non-RPG news, I’ve also been completely addicted to Balatro for the past couple months and find myself playing it every chance I get (even when I probably shouldn’t be). What an elegantly designed gameplay experience. I finally beat the Violet Vessel blind legitimately instead of using Mr Bones as backup, which I was so happy about I took the above screenshot. I love the flexibility the various Jokers provide, giving every run a new feel. Finding a combination of Jokers, celestial cards, enhanced cards and bonuses makes for a unique experience despite the core concept being poker hands, and it’s thrilling seeing your mults stack up for massive scores. It’s definitely the “purist” game I’ve played in a long time, with the focus solely on gameplay loops and mechanics rather than a blend of interactivity with narrative, and it’s immensely satisfying. The fact that there are zero micro-transactions only sweetens the pot. If you’ve got a few bucks lying around, you owe it to yourself to give this one a go. – Leah
Recently, I’ve been continuing to slowly make progress on that second Nintendo game I got a while back for review. It’s quite a bit longer than The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which I finished my review of a few weeks ago. It’s just not as much of a quick pick-up and play game, so I definitely haven’t been getting through it very quickly. Nonetheless, I am making progress on it and now that I’m not busy with the holidays I’m back to making somewhat regular progress.
I feel like I’ve been doing a lot more review games this past year than I normally do, so I haven’t had much time for other games. However, I’ve recently started playing Star Ocean: First Departure R on the side. I bought it a few weeks ago for a little over $6 in the eShop during a sale and not long after, I got Star Ocean: The Second Story R for Christmas. The games aren’t completely new to me since I played the PSP versions years ago, but I have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Star Ocean. Overall, Star Ocean is always super fun for me. I enjoy the characters, the stories and I like exploring underdeveloped planets as beings from more advanced civilizations, it’s simply a fun franchise. What always gives me problems though, are the incessant difficulty spikes throughout the series. It seems like every single game has at least one spike to deal with and because of this, I haven’t actually fully beaten many of them. I completely played through and beat Star Ocean: The Last Hope and I thought I had also beat First Departure on PSP the first time I played it, but I’m not so positive about that these days.
Anyways, my other issue with the series, is that it’s hard to fully enjoy playing it blindly. What I mean by that, is that a lot of the games contain more characters than you’re allowed to recruit and until the SO2 remake, none of them had the option of new game plus. Not to mention, because of the difficulty spikes, it feels like you have to focus on very specific skills right from the start and/or craft very specific equipment. Crafting this specific equipment in particular, always seems to take an eternity. Because of these aspects, I’m always feeling the need to look stuff up when playing anything Star Ocean. Back in the day, I played relatively blindly on PSP, but I feel like I probably missed out on a lot of cool characters and took whoever they threw at me first. My last memory of First Departure, from when I played it more than 10 years ago now, is of running back and forth trying to recruit Welch. I feel like I idiotically was trying to get her after I had already filled up my party and I didn’t realize it, so she never showed up at her cabin. This time, last night actually, I made sure to get Welch on my team. I’ve always wanted to use her and I’m not sure I ever had the chance before. Now my next dilemma at the moment, is whether or not I should dump Mavelle for Erys. At this point, both a new physical attacker and a new magic user feel equally redundant because of the characters I was required to pick-up to unlock them.
Ultimately, I’ve been having a ton of fun replaying an old Star Ocean game which I had a blast with on PSP so many years ago. It is a bit annoying not being able to replay it completely blind and carefree, but I’m still having fun regardless. Also, since Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness was on sale recently on PSN for less than $10, I grabbed it with a smidgen of cash I already had sitting in my PlayStation account. I know SO5 is quite controversial and a lot of people hate it, yet it’s the only Star Ocean I’ve never played to some degree and I figured while I’m sucked back into the series, I might as well try it out eventually. I mean, before SO5, The Last Hope was the modern hated entry and I absolutely adored it myself. So I figured you never know, I may as well try SO5 someday and it was the only one I didn’t own in some form before now. – Jenae
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
