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!
A couple months ago, I went on a trip to France and while I was there, I decided to go on a little video game hunt. One of the main games I was looking for was Disaster: Day of Crisis, a Monolith Soft developed game that predates Xenoblade and has quite the history behind it. I won’t get into that too much but this is a Nintendo Wii game that Nintendo of America was allegedly very hesitant to release out here – a story that we are way too familiar with on this site. However unlike Xenoblade, this one never actually made it over here and remains exclusive to Japan and Europe. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t until more recently that I remembered the game even existed and so while in France, I told myself that I will go look for a copy. Thankfully, I managed to find one and for fairly cheap too, so I did what any sensible person would and modded my Wii to stream the game. What’s nice is that despite this being a French copy, it not only supports English text and voice acting, it also has a 60hz mode. So playing this on my Wii felt like I was playing a normal North American release. I got about halfway through it and so far at least, I’m really enjoying it.
Some of you may be expecting RPG gameplay, but you’re not getting that here. Disaster is what would happen if Monolith Soft tried to create a Hollywood action blockbuster in video game form. There’s guns, explosions, car chases, campy and hilarious voice acting, screaming, the president getting involved in this crazy plot involving natural disasters and nuclear weapons. All fun stuff. If you’ve played other Japanese games that try to capture the “American experience” like Metal Wolf Chaos or Deadly Premonition, then you’ll understand the vibe they went for here and it’s an entertaining time for sure. You play as Raymond Bryce, a former Marine and member of the International Rescue Team. His partner Steve, sacrificed his life in order to save Ray before falling in an incident at a volcano in South America. Steve also entrusted Raymond with an antique compass to give to his sister Lisa. A year later, Raymond is recruited by the FBI to investigate and aid them on a raid. Their target is an organization called SURGE, who have taken seismologist Dr. Davis and his assistant, Lisa Hewitt, hostage. Yes the same Lisa that Raymond was meant to give the compass to. Thus starts Raymond’s “Hell of a day”. Each level is split up into different sections, you can explore and find items granting you health, stamina or even points for upgrades. The animation where he munches on the giant burgers or watermelons you find in crates, will never get old. You’ll occasionally get into on-rail gun fights where you can point the Wii Mote at the screen and shoot or take cover with the Z button. Eventually, a bunch of natural disasters get thrown in the mix such as, earthquakes, tornadoes, or tsunamis, to wreck the city you’re in. In those moments, you may find innocent and injured bystanders who you can rescue for additional points and upgrades. These can play out in a variety of ways, such as tending to their wounds, moving them to a safer location, or putting out fires. The game makes heavy use of the Wii Mote and Nunchuck and honestly, it controls pretty well all things considered. The motions are simple and quick so they don’t feel too intrusive. The occasional driving sections are played with Wii Mote turned on its side and you have to rotate it like a steering wheel. This sounds annoying but again, I actually quite enjoyed it, the sections are brief and the controls actually work. However, there are some instant death scenarios, so they may take you a couple tries to get through. Still, with some practice it’s not too bad. Playing Disaster: Day of Crisis really takes me back to the days of the Wii, when I saw motion controls and thought they were cool even if they could be wonky at times. We simply don’t get games like this anymore and that’s probably for the better, but it also makes games like this stand out that much more and feel unique. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story in this goes. – Justin
I played a little bit of a few different games this past week. First, I made a bit more progress in the first Suikoden. I’m still enjoying myself, though it is a somewhat of a much simpler RPG than I expected. So while I did make progress, I put it down and didn’t completely finish it just yet. Here I was, expecting to eventually move on from the boat and get an airship later in the game, which we all know is a tradition in a lot of old RPGs, but I’ve now been told, I’m already almost at the end of it. I do hope the sequel has more going on and is quite a bit longer. Not that I’m not enjoying Suikoden, it just turned out that it’s much, much shorter than I was expecting. Anyways, I didn’t get a lot further, but after unlocking the castle home base, I finally figured out where I was supposed to go next and I collected a few new party members. I believe I left off right about at the dwarf village, I just got there when I stopped playing.
After I put down Suikoden for a bit, I decided it was a good time to get back into the original Octopath Traveler. Like I mentioned last week, I did intend to fully finish up the first game before I play the prequel, since I heard it has some connections to the original game. However, I was reminded this week of how tough the Chapter 4 bosses can be, right as I went back to the game. I died a few times, but ultimately was able to beat the boss at the end of H’annit’s story. However, I had a lot more trouble with Alfyn’s. I didn’t think they were that tough before though, or at least not my memory of Primrose’s final Chapter 4 boss, which I had already beaten the last time I played, years ago. But I guess they’re a lot tougher than I realized. Well also, I’m sure I’m super out of practice and probably forgot how I did battles before, like when to defend and charge up my BP, which attacks were best, that kinda thing. I need to get back into the flow of things. Ultimately, after a lot of fails, I decided to switch out just one character from my main party and work on one person at a time from my backup party. I figured if I work on the other four and their earlier chapters individually, each of them still at Chapter 2 I believe, then at least three of my main people will get even higher leveled. In the end, that hopefully will help me out with their Chapter 4 bosses I’m now stuck on and I’ll be getting my lower leveled characters, closer to their final chapters as well. Although, I did start to think maybe I should just enjoy Octopath Traveler 0, get into the new game fresh and not worry about finishing the original first.
Octopath Traveler wasn’t the only game I jumped back into and am trying to finish so I can finally enjoy the new game I got for Christmas. A few days ago, I actually got a late gift and thus, was fortunate enough to finally got my hands on Bustafellows Season 2, an otome sequel I’ve been dying to play. Originally, I planned on going back to Bustafellows a long time ago and finishing the last couple routes I missed, because I had hoped I would get to review the sequel when it came out. Sadly, that did not come to pass. Also, now that Season 2 has been out for some months now, I heard the sequel has no recaps whatsoever. Since much like Octopath Traveler I haven’t played Bustafellows in years, I decided I’m going to completely replay it, instead of simply returning to the second to last route I was working on previously.
Now if this were an RPG, I would not bother completely replaying it. Because it’s an otome, I figured it was a good idea to refresh my memory on each love interest’s route and remember exactly what happened before I start the sequel. Also, as I just said, I never completely finished the game the first time. Last time, I did Scarecrow’s route, Shu, Limbo and Helvetica, but I never got very far into Mozu’s route and after his route, is the final main story route which is supposed to wrap things up. Starting over, I’ve been reminded of how absolutely fantastic the atmosphere is in Bustafellows. It’s not the most romance filled otome I’ve ever played, but the style and atmopshere is great and it’s just overall a really fun one. I’m looking forward to getting further into my replay, and eventually finally starting Season 2. Shu was my favorite the first time around by the way, in case anyone was curious. The game does still have some issues though with missing subtitles for certain types of scenes, which causes you to have to check the log afterwards. I’ve also heard there’s an instance of that in the final route’s last cinematic scene, and you obviously have no more log after that one to check. So I’ve looked up where I can read the translation of that when I finish, just so I’m ready in advance. – Jenae
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
