Nexon has announced that they are releasing the Blue Archive Anniversary OSTs (1-Year Anniversary OST, 2-Year Anniversary OST, 2.5-Year Anniversary OST) on digital streaming platforms. They will be available for YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, JOOX, and kkbox on November 18 at 3:00 AM (UTC).

The track list for each OST is as follows (the format is Song Name – Artist):

1-Year Anniversary OST

1. Constant Moderato – Mitsukiyo
2. Midsummer cat – Mitsukiyo
3. Connected Sky – KARUT
4. Shooting Stars – KARUT
5. Step by Step – KARUT/TSK
6. MX Adventure – Mitsukiyo
7. Irasshaimase – Mitsukiyo
8. Daily Routine 247 – Nor
9. Future Bossa – Mitsukiyo
10. Lemonade Diary – Mitsukiyo
11. Plug and Play – KARUT
12. Water Drop – KARUT
13. Signal of Abydos – Nor
14. Sugar story – Nor
15. ARES – Nor
16. Vibes – Nor
17. Future Lab – Nor
18. After the Beep – Nor
19. Rolling beat – Mitsukiyo
20. Accelerator – KARUT
21. Mischievous Step – Mitsukiyo
22. Mechanical JUNGLE – KARUT
23. Virtual Storm – KARUT
24. Tech N Tech – KARUT
25. Party time – Mitsukiyo
26. Endless Carnival – Mitsukiyo
27. Fade Out – KARUT
28. Alert – KARUT
29. CrossFire – KARUT
30. Interface – KARUT
31. Out of Control – KARUT
32. Mechanical JUNGLE Hard Arrange – KARUT
33. Fearful Utopia – Nor
34. SAKURA PUNCH – Nor
35. Denshi Toujou! – KARUT
36. Kaiten Screw!!!! – KARUT
37. CrossFire Hard Arrange – KARUT
38. Fevertime – KARUT
39. Library of Omen – KARUT

2-Year Anniversary OST

1. Neo City Dive – KARUT
2. Pixel time – Mitsukiyo
3. Hue – KARUT
4. Koi is love – Mitsukiyo
5. Luminous memory – Mitsukiyo
6. Water Drop – KARUT
7. JACKPOT 777 – KARUT
8. Bunny Bunny Carrot Carrot – Mitsukiyo
9. OperationD – Nor
10. someday, sometime – KARUT
11. Colorful Mess – KARUT
12. Vivid Night – Nor
13. Snow Pantomime – Mitsukiyo
14. Barrier – KARUT
15. Black Suit – KARUT
16. Crucial Issue – Nor
17. Formless Dream – Mitsukiyo
18. Oxygen Destroyer – KARUT
19. Undefined Behavior – KARUT
20. GGF – Nor
21. Hello to Halo – Nor

2.5-Year Anniversary OST

1. Midnight Trip – Nor
2. Romantic Smile – Mitsukiyo
3. Guruguru Usagi – Mitsukiyo
4. Hifumi Daisuki – Mitsukiyo
5. Coffee Cats – Mitsukiyo
6. Lovely Picnic – Mitsukiyo
7. Honey Jam – Mitsukiyo
8. Dolce Biblioteca – Mitsukiyo
9. Colorful Beach – Mitsukiyo
10. After School Dessert – KARUT
11. FEEEEVER TIME – Nor
12. Walkthrough – Nor
13. Aira – Mitsukiyo
14. Aoharu – Nor
15. Glitch Street – KARUT
16. NRG FielD – KARUT
17. Alkaline Tears – Mitsukiyo
18. Kyrie Eleison – Mitsukiyo
19. Kaphar – Mitsukiyo
20. Morose Dreamer – Mitsukiyo
21. Agnus Dei – KARUT
22. Blood Stained Faith – KARUT
23. Codex of Omen – KARUT
24. RE Aoharu – Nor
25. Moment – Nor
26. Constant Moderato Piano Arrange – Mitsukiyo

Blue Archive is available now for Android and iOS mobile devices. The global version recently celebrated its 3rd anniversary on November 8. An anime adaptation of the game, Blue Archive The Animation, is available to watch with English subs on the global YouTube channel.

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USERJOY has announced that The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War, a mobile game based on the anime of the same name, is now available worldwide. It is available for Android and iOS mobile devices and for PC. The PC version was announced and implemented for the game’s global launch. Trails of Cold Steel – NW originally released in December 2023 for mobile devices in Japan.

You can check out a promotional video (PV) for the game below.

USERJOY describes the game as follows:

■ The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War – Game Introduction
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War is a cross-platform game that USERJOY developed based on Falcom’s classic Trails series. Set between Trails of Cold Steel II and Trails of Cold Steel III, it focuses on the dramatic events of the Northern War. Players will uncover the unexpected truths of the Northern War through the perspective of the protagonist, Lavian Winslet. Experience the full narrative of the anime and join beloved heroes from the Trails series, such as Rean Schwarzer (voiced by Koki Uchiyama) and Alisa Reinford (voiced by Yui Horie), along with new companions in an exhilarating new story and adventure.

■ Classic Strategy for Exciting Tactical Combat!
This game features the classic strategic elements of the Trails series, including the well-known Orbment system. Players can enjoy the familiar Quartz and employ formation strategies to enrich battles with endless strategic challenges. The characters’ S-Craft abilities are also faithfully recreated with unique 3D animations, providing a cinematic visual experience that makes players feel like they’re on the intense battlefield of North Ambria with their favorite Trails characters.

To celebrate the launch, new players will have the chance receive up to 100 free draws, an SSR selector, and even a free SSR Tio Plato. You can check out more details on the launch celebrations below.

■ Launch Celebration! Generous Newcomer Rewards – up to 100 Draws and 16 SSR!
To celebrate the launch of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War, the team has prepared abundant newcomer rewards. Just complete specific tasks to receive 100 free draws and an SSR selector box. Additionally, clearing the main chapters will also earn players up to 13 more SSR characters, making a total of 16 free SSRs and over 120 draws!

• Launch Celebration Rewards:
  Day 2: Receive SSR Tio Plato
  Day 7: Receive SSR Selector Box
  Special Tasks: Complete the Newcomer Contract for 100 free draws!
  Special Tasks: Complete the Elite Gathering for 20 special draws and an SSR Selector Box!
  Complete Main Chapters: Earn up to 13 SSR characters!

■ Take advantage of the 7-Day Login Rewards! Get the Popular SSR Character Tio Plato and another SSR Selector Box!

The team has also prepared generous 7-day login rewards. Log in for seven consecutive days to receive the highly popular SSR character Tio Plato from the Trails series, an SSR Selector Box, 10 gacha tickets, and 10 attribute gacha tickets! These special rewards are exclusively for new players! Download the game now and start your adventure in Zemuria!

 

• 7-Day Login Rewards:
  Day 1: 500 JC
  Day 2: SSR Tio Plato
  Day 3: 10 Gacha Tickets
  Day 4: Special Quartz Selector Box III
  Day 5: Purple Equip Set Selector Box
  Day 6: 10 Attribute Gacha Tickets
  Day 7: Special SSR Selector Box

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War is available now for Android and iOS devices and PC. You can download the game from the Google Play Store, App Store, and from the official website. For more information, you can follow the game’s official X account.

SOURCE: Press Release

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Lately, I’ve been playing a ton of mahjong and hopping between a couple of other games. A few weeks ago was the Whale Cup tournament in Riichi City, which I joined last year and yet again signed up for this year. I feel like I possibly did even worse than last year. However, Riichi City‘s helpful tip features, dora tile highlights, winning tile wait hints, etc., being turned off for the tournament, I didn’t find much of an inconvenience at all this year. Last year, that was a bit odd for me and I more significantly felt that change from how I usually play. This year, it didn’t really matter to me much at all. So I suppose in some ways I’ve improved. Although, I have been having horrendous luck in mahjong overall, all year.

Not only did I do miserably in that tournament for the second year in a row, but I’ve also managed to recently lose my rank in Mahjong Soul. I went from an Adept 3 star rank, back down to 2 star. I wasn’t even a high rank to begin with, but I just haven’t had much luck lately. Some of it is my own fault. Nonetheless, these last couple weeks I’ve been using the efficient discard method to try and rank back up and I haven’t been making significant progress without eventually losing it all simply due to bad luck. Sure, occasionally I’ve taken a risk or two and those losses have been my fault, but in the majority of my matches I’ve been making myself play efficiently and it’s been going extremely slow. I already felt like Expert 1 star and the gold ranked rooms were quite far away, now I feel like I won’t even ever rank back up to where I was. I’ve pretty much been losing all my points this year in both Mahjong Soul and Riichi City.

Other than mahjong, I’ve done a smidgen of console gaming here and there, but not a lot lately. Finishing up Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, has been going a bit slow. I’m nearing the end, but also trying to finish up various side adventures. I’m attempting to not simply rush through the end like I did Gaiden, back when I wanted to finish it and be ready for Infinite Wealth right at launch. I mostly want to finish Infinite Wealth simply because it’s been months now, in addition to the fact that I finally got my hands on Persona 3 Reload a while ago during a sale and have been anxious to start that. Persona 3 was always my favorite Persona. Also, this past week I managed to get my hands on Endless Ocean Luminous as well, thanks to Nintendo. I’m playing that with the purpose of reviewing it, so I won’t say too much about it now. I’ve gone on some solo dives, made a bit of story progress and have done some online dives as well, plus I checked out the first online event this past weekend. But once again, if you want to hear more about my thoughts on Endless Ocean, you’ll have to wait for my future review. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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SaGa Emerald Beyond brings together the core combat and free-form scenario elements of the RPG franchise to deliver the ultimate SaGa experience to fans and newcomers alike. Players can look forward to deeply strategic combat, diverse characters with thrilling backstories, an evolving choice-driven narrative and much more. The latest title in the SaGa franchise sees the return of legendary series icons including SaGa creator Akitoshi Kawazu, composer Kenji Ito and illustrator Satoshi Kuramochi, who have taken what fans of the series love and built it into a game that returning and new fans alike can enjoy.

“2024 marks the 35^th anniversary of the SaGa series. It also marks the first time we’ve been able to release a new SaGa title simultaneously worldwide. Without our fans, this would not have been possible. SaGa Emerald Beyond is the product of 35 years’ worth of innovation, experimentation, and a personal desire to examine what makes an RPG an RPG.  For our longtime fans, I hope you enjoy the ongoing innovations and callbacks to previous SaGa titles. I also invite newcomers to accept the offer of the emerald vision and embark on a new adventure. I hope everyone who picks up this title has an unforgettable experience with it.” – Akitoshi Kawazu, SaGa Series General Director

“As a longtime SaGa fan who now has the honor of working on this franchise, I couldn’t be prouder to present SaGa Emerald Beyond to the players. The things that made me fall for the SaGa franchise are all present in this title, from the free-form scenario system to the challenging strategic combat to the diverse and intriguing characters. Of course, one can’t forget about composer Kenji Ito’s incredible contributions as well. I’m also proud to say that we’ve taken steps to welcome in newcomers with the game’s emerald waves, which are key to the overall story and will guide players on their journey. I hope that through SaGa Emerald Beyond, players will be able to feel the team’s passion and love for the franchise that has kept the series going strong for 35 years.” – Masanori Ichikawa, SaGa Series Producer

Those interested in SaGa Emerald Beyond can still download the three platform-exclusive demos on Nintendo Switch, PS5/PS4 and PC. The demos offer several hours of content from each of the three demo characters’ storylines, giving players a taste of what they can expect in the full game with the full cast. Demo save data is transferrable to the full game on that respective platform.

If you’d like to know more about SaGa Emerald Beyond, visit the game’s official website.

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A new mobile game in the Madoka Magica franchise, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Magia Exedra, has been announced for release in 2024. The game is planned and distributed by Aniplex while Pokelabo and f4samurai will develop it. Pokelabo will handle the game’s operation. No other information on the game, such as its gameplay, story, and staff, have been announced at this time.

Aniplex and f4samurai previously worked together on another Madoka mobile game, Magia Record. Magia Record is currently still in service in Japan while its North American server ended service in 2020. Pokelabo is known for their work on the now shutdown mobile game, SINoALICE.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Magia Exedra is scheduled to launch 2024 in Japan. If you’re interested in the game, you can follow its official X account and check out its official website.

The post New Madoka Magica Mobile Game Announced, Launches 2024 appeared first on oprainfall.

It’s been a while since I’ve gamed, as the urge to play just hasn’t been there for me lately. I’ve been reading less manga too, but have read a few more LNs here and there. However, I had a chunk of time this weekend and decided to replay Aria of Sorrow. I really needed to just turn my brain off and I know I can easily blitz through this game in a sitting or two effortlessly.

Hardly any story to be had, Aria of Sorrow follows exchange student Soma Cruz as he finds himself transported from Japan to Dracula’s Castle, which is currently bound within an eclipse. To find a way out, he must traverse the castle and reach the throne room, utilizing his newly awakened ability to collect the souls and copying the abilities of enemies.

Anyway, having replayed this many times, I know which weapons and souls to go after to mow down everything in the least amount of time. And, well, it’s kinda satisfying, in that it’s a game I can quickly get into, while also being quick for me to complete without feeling guilty for playing it over something in my ever-growing backlog.

After this, I may revisit Dawn of Sorrow, as I’ve only played that twice or thrice, though I distinctly remember enjoying it far less than Aria due to gimmicky touch-screen nonsense and powers that felt lame. Thinking about it as I write this, maybe I’ll do the Julius mode for that so I can play as Alucard instead. – Drew D.

So I’ve been waiting ages for The Alliance Alive HD Remastered to go back on sale in the eShop. I loved the game on 3DS and have been wanting to replay it on Switch. Unfortunately, I missed out on the Switch physical copy before it went out of print and I also missed out on the last eShop sale over 10 months ago, not realizing it would be so long before it went on sale again. Anyway, it finally went on sale again a few days ago and I’ve spent this past weekend beginning my replay. I always loved The Alliance Alive. Back when it came out on 3DS, I do believe I had already bought my PS4 and played a little bit of some more recent console games I missed out on for years. But it really hadn’t been that long since the newest RPGs I played and had access to, were all on the 3DS. I was still pretty behind on current console stuff and hadn’t played all that many modern games. I spent so much time on the most wonderful 3DS games for years, which I might not have even noticed if I was distracted by a bunch of fancier and larger console titles at the time.

Replaying it again for the first time in years, now having played tons of flashier RPGs and other games on both Switch and PS4, I see now how simple The Alliance Alive is. The visuals are very basic and the cinematic scenes almost seem like they couldn’t make them quite as HD as the rest of the game in this port, they’re somewhat more blurry. Also, there is no voice acting. However, despite all this, I still find it to be an extremely charming little RPG so far. I don’t think I would pay full price for it today, but I still think it’s a fantastic game to pick-up and get into during a sale.

The Alliance Alive has always felt like it was the answer to the various complaints people had about The Legend of Legacy, its predecessor. Now, I personally enjoyed the time I spent with The Legend of Legacy, but thinking back, it was definitely an even simpler game and the story was something subtle you had to piece together for yourself. Nonetheless, Cattle Call seemed to add all of the features “missing” from The Legend of Legacy when they came up with The Alliance Alive. You’ve got charming characters, a much more present and significant story and a whole world to explore in typical RPG fashion. I’m quite enjoying the time I’ve spent so far replaying the game. I do think they could’ve added a speed toggle on cinematic scene dialogue, it skips ahead a bit quick sometimes. But other than that, I like the simple charm of the game and it’s still a pretty great game. I definitely think it’s an underrated gem a lot of people missed out on, possibly due in part to people’s fear of it being just like The Legend of Legacy and also simply because many people haven’t heard of it before.

Before The Alliance Alive finally went back on sale, I also checked out the Switch version of the SaGa Emerald Beyond demo. Honestly, I didn’t find myself eager to finish it after playing for about an hour or two. My main issue with the game, is it seemed ridiculously cheesy. I think a significant part of what makes it feel so cheesy, is the English dub. For example, in the early game this narrator voice is constantly cutting in during battle to explain basic mechanics, and the way they voice their lines makes it sound like they’re trying to explain to a child how awesome and exciting all of the game’s basic battle features are. Also, the overall game seemed very simple and like it didn’t have a lot going on. Although, it is the very early game, so maybe I judged it too quickly. But typically if it’s a game I would normally play and is actually good, the demo sucks me in relatively quickly and I find myself impatiently anxious to experience the full game. SaGa Emerald‘s Switch demo did not do that for me, at all. Plus, I felt like battles moved a bit slow and I just really didn’t enjoy my time with it. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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I spent most of this week finishing up Unicorn Overlord. I will have a full review coming very soon, and despite the last battle being a bit crazy it was still pretty fun. I’m playing one very familiar game for review on a console I never thought I would see it on. It feels very strange, and I’ll have more to say on this one shortly as well.

I started playing Azur Lane again as well this week. I left cause I felt the designs were getting very boring with every boat being huge tiddy bunny girls, but they added some fantasy skins and new girls to the mix I thought looked very nice. I mean she’s a cute maid, it’s like a moth to a flame! I’m hoping to dig into Yohane the Parhelion – NUMAZU in the MIRAGE later this week. I do love a good card game and Yohane as well so I think I’ll really love it! – Steve 

Last week I finished Stranger of Paradise and had a great time with it but wanted to follow it up with something lighter. Princess Peach Showtime! fit that bill perfectly. This game was oozing with charm and creativity with every level featuring Princess Peach as the lead actor in a play. From decorating cakes to becoming a martial arts master or saving the world from an alien invasion, Peach was allowed to express herself in ways we rarely get to see. The variety here was incredibly welcome even though I can see some of the slower paced plays like the detective one not being as engaging on a replay. Still, it’s refreshing to see her exist without Mario or even Bowser for that matter. They even managed to throw in some platforming sections so the game can still feel like it belongs in the greater Mario series. Princess Peach Showtime! was not an especially long or challenging game, but it was one that had me hooked from start to finish and left me wanting more. Despite there being some decent post game challenges, I do wish there a couple extra unlockable plays or a two player mode as I can see this game being a great one to play with friends or kids. – Justin

This week I dug my teeth in the Stellar Blade demo for the PlayStation 5. The first thing that hit me when booting it up was how Nier: Automata it felt, to the point I started naming all the similarities that cropped up in just the opening sequence to my husband. Scantily-clad female androids? Check. Disastrous decent that leaves most of your squad dead? Check. Trying to reclaim Earth from an alien threat so that humanity can return? Check. Floating drone sidekick? Check. Music? Check. This is not in and of itself a problem – lots of games lean into their inspirations, and Shift Up was pretty open about Nier being one of several influences for this game. But it did end up veering just this side of derivative. The caveat here, of course, is that the demo is just a slice of the game so how derivative it pans out to be remains to be seen, but it constantly tickled the back of my thoughts as I played.

That being said, I found the character and enemy designs quite appealing. EVE is lovely, and I’m a fan of the blend of human skin and cybernetic prosthetics. The fanservice itself isn’t even all that in-your-face, at least during gameplay (unless you want it to be), though I did find it borderline distracting during a couple cutscenes. I don’t necessarily need to see an android’s ass jiggle while she’s being impaled, that just comes across as silly and undercuts the horror of what’s going on. It’s not deal breaking or anything, but I do find it a touch crass. (Ogling EVE’s ass while she swings from an overpass is whatever, you do you fellow nerds. Goodness knows I had fun with the camera.) EVE feels great when she’s running around and swinging over obstacles, but water sections were a chore. She’s difficult to redirect when swimming and because she does not latch onto items you need to move in the water, directing them is a struggle. EVE also feels super sluggish in combat, at least when it comes to parrying and perfect dodging. I am not going to completely rule out user error here, but inputs felt incredibly laggy, and Shift Up’s cheeky Tweet about making sure your TV is set to Game Mode was unhelpful. (Mine is, and it didn’t help.)

Overall I enjoyed what I played of the Stellar Blade demo, though I still haven’t done everything it has to offer. I’m concerned about input lag and the game borrowing too heavily from other titles, but I’m also excited to see how the total package comes together. The monster designs are fantastic and I think there’s some really neat worldbuilding to be had here. The lack of a Japanese voice track in the American demo is annoying, but you can download the JP version and not have an issue. Imports of the game will also include English text so if you want the entire package there are options. I’ll be playing the game with Korean VO so it’s not a particular issue for me outside principle, but JP VA contracts are weird.  If you’ve got a PS5 this one is at least worth checking out the demo for. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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I was planning on having something to say for a Week in Gaming article last week, but my copy of Unicorn Overlord came late. I was quite annoyed I pre-ordered in advance with 1-day shipping which should’ve shown up on release day, but I had to wait until last Monday to finally get my copy. Anyway, after the game came I finally went and spent the full amount of time allowed in the demo, before transferring my progress and continuing on in the full game. I think my game clock says I’ve spent around 20 hours or so total, playing Unicorn Overlord. I cleared out most of the early game Cornia battles and built up my army. There are a few leftover battles there still which I’ve been periodically going through and a couple much higher leveled ones I can’t touch until later game.

But now I’m just trying to grind to start getting further into Drakenhold. I decided it made more sense to go there first than straight to Elheim. Elheim, story wise at least, sounded like it continues the main story. Drakenhold sounded more like a good preparation detour, so that’s what I went with. I’m really glad I went there and picked up Virginia. Her little party I put together absolutely destroys enemies. I’ve got her paired with her Drakenhold Swordfighter friend, one of the Warrior class girls and I believe I put a healer of some kind on her team as well. I’ve got a couple units that have worked out really nicely. In the early game, I found I relied on Josef a lot, being that he’s higher leveled. But now I’m finding I’ve got even better units put together and don’t need to rely as heavily on him. I’ve barely gotten into Drakenhold yet, I went back to leftover Cornia battles for grinding, but I think I’ll be ready soon to get further.

I’m enjoying Unicorn Overlord quite a bit so far. I am realizing however, that I need mini breaks during SRPGs more often than other games. Nonetheless, overall I’m having fun with the game. It’s a nice change having an SRPG with an actual overworld map to explore. I don’t know if any SRPG has done it before because obviously, I haven’t played every strategy RPG that exists. But it’s my first time playing one set-up like this. It’s nice being able to explore and collect stuff, not simply go straight from story, to a battle stage and then back to another story bit. It did take some getting used to the battle system at first though. I had a hard time in the demo trying to get multiple parties to move at once. The demo insists on teaching you how to, but I find I don’t even use it anymore since I like to check on my individual units and send a lot of them after different enemies or to alternate spots. I also turned on the setting to automatically pause at the start of battles so I can look around and plan things out, and have thus left it like that ever since. I’m looking forward to getting further, seeing where the story goes, exploring new places and getting to know some of the characters better. – Jenae

I spent most of this week playing Unicorn Overlord, and I’m pretty much addicted to it at this point. The story is your typical prince escapes a hostile takeover of his lands, but there are plenty of plot twists along the way to keep it fresh. Characters get a lot of development as you play through the story, so whenever I get a new companion its great getting to know more about them.

You expect great artwork from any Vanillaware title and Unicorn Overlord delivers. Every character has a ton of details and each area looks as good as any top tier fantasy movie you will ever watch. The gameplay is great as well with a mix of unit positioning, formation balance and skills. I love finding new ways to take on each different obstacle I have encountered. – Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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This week in gaming I played around with some of my backlog. I didn’t want to start anything too big with Unicorn Overlord coming at the end of this week but I did spend some time with two games I liked quite a bit.

The first one was Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. I love a good Musou game and these are good titles that if you have to take a break from for a long period of time you don’t forget many of the details about them. This game is packed with content, lots of maps to explore, plenty of side modes and other content to unlock as well. I played several maps on story mode, and while I don’t like the amount of running around you do on each map, the puzzle elements they added in really do make it feel like a Zelda title.

The other game I spent some time with this week was Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-. I’ve wanted to try this one out for a while, and I wish I had gotten to it sooner. I love the gameplay here, solid Metroidvania action. I played through the first chapter last night and it went by like a flash. I love that you can get Deedlit all sorts of new weapons, and the each one of them is slightly different than the others. Throw in the bow action and magic and it’s no wonder why everyone loved this one. I hope I can finish it by Friday, and seeing I’m addicted to the gameplay it’s very likely I will. – Steve

At the beginning of the week, I continued on with Piofiore: Episodio 1926. I’ve now gone through each individual guy’s route that’s available at the start. I also did all the little advent calendar scenes which take place after Fated Memories‘ final happy ending route, where you don’t end up with anyone and doing those has unlocked the main sequel, Alternativa route. After unlocking it, I miraculously managed to pull myself away from the otome addiction. Like Steve, I’m also waiting for and excited to play Unicorn Overlord. I’ve honestly never really gotten into Vanillaware games before, though I do have a copy of 13 Sentinels I plan to play eventually. But I enjoy the occasional SRPG and I had fun with the couple hours I’ve spent on the demo so far. It’s definitely unique, being this overworld strategy system, rather than on grid based stages, but it seems like there will be a lot to do and it should be worth getting into. The unit groupings, where you put a few characters together and they move as one, reminds me a bit of Soul Nomad.

I didn’t spend long on the Unicorn Overlord demo because I didn’t want to get too sucked in and then have to wait to keep going. In the end, I’m quite looking forward to that one. Until it comes out, I think I may be spending some time on Smash Bros. Ultimate. I was playing with my nephews over the weekend and I definitely need to practice for the next time I hang out with them. My older nephew was spamming Link’s remote control bombs on me and the younger one kept sending me off a cliff with Steve’s minecart attack. I’m able to keep up because I spent a ton of time as a teenager playing Melee, yet I find that Ultimate feels quite a bit more stiff. I almost feel like the Nintendo brand pro controller has too much stick range, which makes quick movements more difficult and clunky. Thus, mostly I’m using my 8bitdo SN30 pro instead. Overall I’ve spent 60 hours on SSBU, but my in game stats menu says I’ve only spent 28 hours actually in battle. So I definitely still need some practice to get the hang of the newer, more stiff mechanics. I’m also about to finally get the second fighter’s pass which will be another reason to play some more while I wait for Unicorn Overlord to arrive. – Jenae

I finally wrapped up my time with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth after about 120 hours. I’m working on a complete review of Ryu Ga Gotoku’s newest entry in the franchise, but figured I’d give some quick thoughts here anyway. In a nutshell, I adored my time with RGG8, but it does not reach the heights of RGG7. The gameplay is solid and a cut above its predecessor with some welcome quality of life tweaks and additions, but the story lacks the emotional payoff I got from Ichiban’s introduction. That’s not to say Infinite Wealth lacks in the story or emotional investment departments: It’s quite good! But I admit I’m very biased in RGG7‘s favor, seeing as it’s my favorite game in the franchise, and no small part due to Ichiban himself. Infinite Wealth‘s standout moments are definitely in its Bucket List substory for Kiryu and the expanded Walk & Talks and Table Talks that let each party member’s personality shine in ways the main narrative doesn’t really have the space for. I highly recommend picking this one up if you haven’t yet!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out and I’ve been digging into this title as well. I’m about 10 or so hours in and have been enjoying faffing about in the Grasslands just outside Kalm. So far the open world elements of the game have been great, if somewhat bog standard. The area is gorgeous, both visually and melodically, with tons to find while exploring. It doesn’t feel empty the way some open worlds do, with points of interest to investigate, neat little hideaways tucked into off-the-trail locations, and a decent smattering of NPCs to chat with as you explore. The dreaded towers are here, but they’re integrated into the gameplay in at least a somewhat sensible fashion, so I can’t complain too much. Taking a much-needed page from the Star Ocean book of gameplay, Rebirth adds little party chat moments in town where you can build up your friendships with everyone on an individual level. Private Actions are one of the mainstays of the SO series and something I think most RPGs could benefit from incorporating, so I was thrilled to see it rolled out in Square Enix’ flagship series. I’ve been playing on Performance Mode and the game holds up really well, with smooth movement and snappy combat. The pop-in is aggravating, though, and probably the worst I’ve seen since Elden Ring. It’s not game breaking and nothing I would swap out of Performance Mode for, but man is it distracting. I know there’s a patch coming to address some Performance Mode graphical issues, but it definitely speaks to a wider problem with big budget games that we still have to sacrifice graphics for a solid framerate despite the increased technical capabilities of consoles. I’m looking forward to seeing what else the game has in store as I progress, and I’ll hopefully have a proper review of this title in a couple weeks. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Feb 25 – Mar 2 appeared first on oprainfall.

About Ex Astris

An Interstellar Adventure: Embark on an enthralling adventure and discover a mysterious land of eternal day and everlasting darkness in Ex Astris. Explore Allindo, a life-bearing planet in a tidally locked orbit where the sun never sets. Split into two distinct hemispheres by massive ring-shaped storms, this planet is home to bizarre creatures and intelligent beings remarkably similar to humans. Players will take on the role of Yan and join Vi³, investigators tasked with unravelling the secrets of the long lost Allindish civilization and to reveal the truth behind the Astramorphs that inhabit this alien planet.

Combat Combinations: Players can create teams of up to 3 characters for different character and skill combinations. In addition to selecting the best character to deal with the combat situation at every turn, players can also tap a special button on the right side of the screen to switch between the character’s Wave or Particle states. Each of these states come with special combinations of attack skills that allows the character to lift or shatter enemies. Players can also use Obscuran Maneuvers to parry or dodge enemy attacks. The right skill combinations also grant the characters extra action points to execute longer combos. If an enemy is knocked down by character skills, the player can perform skills with downed strike effects to extend the knocked down status of that enemy and recover more action points for the team. Performing 3 consecutive downed strikes or aerial strikes on the same enemy target will maximize the damage dealt to that enemy within a short period of time, allowing players to defeat enemies quickly. Battles become enjoyable challenges as players are free to experiment with different skill combinations and tactical options.

Obscuran Maneuvers: Obscuran Maneuvers are another great feature for combat in Ex Astris. When defending against enemy attacks, the player should react to the enemy’s attack type and either switch to Warding Light or Shadow Shift to parry or dodge the enemy attack. Tapping Warding Light or Shadow Shift at the right timing also generates special Obscuran Maneuver effects. Players can also gather Astrite from battles or exploration. Astrite is the resource consumed for enhancing characters or learning new skills. Both will help the player’s team better handle different enemies. In addition to intense battles and exploration, Ex Astris also features cooking, puzzles, and other mini-games. Players who take the time to find new recipes, solve puzzles, and complete the mini-games will earn various rewards and surprises.

The post Ex Astris is Now Available on Mobile Devices appeared first on oprainfall.

You can read about my thoughts on Pokemon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles here.

You can also find out the latest happenings in Pokémon GO at the official website, on X, on Instagram and Facebook, and on YouTube. 

Finally, you can follow Niantic Inc. on their official website, on YouTube, on Facebook and Instagram, on X, and on TikTok.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Operation Rainfall: My name is Quentin H. with oprainfall, and could you introduce yourself please?

Tiane Bella: My name is Tiane Bella, I am the Senior Marketing Manager for live events here at Niantic.

OR: We are here at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California. What about this location made it perfect for Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles?

TB: We were so excited to be able to host an event in California for the first time. Pasadena is such a gorgeous city- it has been really great working with the Rose Bowl and the city of Pasadena, to build up this beautiful space with a bunch of exciting gameplay and photo ops. It’s just been wonderful.

OR: It’s a little surprising! After all, Niantic is based in San Francisco, I think.

TB: Yes, yes.

OR: It must be nice being in your own backyard, so to speak.

TB: It is so nice. I’ve loved not having jetlag for an event. *laughs*

OR: When did you start planning for this event, and what was the process like?

TB: As many people who have planned events or weddings or things in the past- it is a pretty long lead time. It takes over 12 months to plan our events. Honestly, 12 months is a little on the short side. So there’s a lot of teams at Niantic that are working very, very hard on this for over a year.

OR: There are two more tour events after this one- do you manage those as well? Or do you just focus primarily on this one in Los Angeles?

TB: My team is primarily focused on executing the wonderful physical event here at LA. And then, a related team is helming the Global event next week.

OR: We’ll talk about the Global Event in just a moment. The biggest surprise for me about Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles is that it didn’t focus on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and the Treasures of Area Zero DLC that just wrapped up. We’re looking at the Sinnoh region from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus in the Hitsui region. Why Sinnoh?

TB: Our GO Tour events, since launch, have been focused on picking a generation of the Pokémon games and finding a really fun way to bring it to life in the real world. I think throughout the years, the team has made some really, really cool visions to bring that gameplay to life for that specific generation. This year, we’re celebrating Sinnoh and it’s just been delightful to see all that come together.

OR: Let’s talk fish! Specifically: the White-Striped Basculin that first debuted in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Why did you feel like Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles was the perfect spot to make this Pokémon’s debut?

TB: Live events are where the excitement of Pokémon GO comes to a peak. We always want to make those very, very special for those trainers who travel and come in to celebrate together. Exploring Los Angeles is a great piece of the event this year. And adding in some really exciting content for trainers who are taking Routes and discovering new areas throughout Los Angeles county- it felt like a really great way to make sure that trainers have a great time.

OR: Speaking about the Los Angeles section- Spiritomb makes a return from Special Research Events from 2018 and 2019 where you [obtain] it from PokéStops. What made you essentially spin 10 PokéStops to encounter him. What was that creation process like?

TB: Our teams want to make sure each Pokémon is special and cool, and we wanted to make sure that they are highlighted in interesting ways. The team leaned into the exploration-aspect. Trainers are able to encounter Spiritomb at PokéStops in this space, but there are also options throughout the city to continue their journey out there.

OR: There are two Legendary Pokémon whose Origin Forme forms -taken from Pokemon Legends: Arceus- that make their debut also at Pokémon Go Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles: Origin Forme Dialgia and Origin Forme Palkia. The reason I am bringing them up is to talk about Special Rend and Roar of Time, because those Charged Attacks affect the outside gameplay.

Can you talk a little about those, and how it was developing something that actually affects not just PVP or PVE, but other aspects of Pokémon GO itself?

TB: I think the product team would be better able to give you an in depth

“The key thing that delights me about this event is that trainers travel in from everywhere, and you just see so many communities connecting and so many families out playing together.”

OR: There are [several] different areas out there [at Pokémon Go Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles]. I pushed my way through all of them before this interview to ask about them. How did you choose what Pokémon to set and name them?

TB: Our game design team are all absolutely brilliant and wonderful people. They looked across the generation, across the Pokémon that we’re going to be bringing to life in the real world here and made decisions to sort them and figure out what habitat they would appear in if they were to appear in the real world.

OR: I’ve previously attended Pokémon GO Fest in Seattle and in New York City. Something that is fairly unique to Pokémon Go Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles is that at the half-hour mark, the Pokémon seem to ‘flip’ and change due to the [Space-Time Anomaly]. Can you talk a bit about that?

TB: As I mentioned a little bit before, this event focuses on Sinnoh. But we have that little bit of Hitsui flair as well. I’m very excited about how this team put together the gameplay to lean into that- Time/Space Distortion that manifests in the gameplay itself.

While trainers are adventuring around the park, time is distorting around them and they are going to Hitsui and back to Sinnoh, and they are encountering the Pokémon [from] both areas.

OR: This is a long event. I don’t mean timewise, I mean length-wise. It’s a very lengthy event. With that comes crowds, how did you lay out Routes for the event?

TB: We are actually not featuring Routes in the park area itself. Instead, we focused on building Routes throughout the city to help guide trainers are they spend the rest of their time in the Los Angeles area.

OR: There are different structures throughout the [event]- let me show you a picture of one.

TB: Oooh yes, Entangled Ruins!

OR: Can you talk a bit about that?

TB: For our habitat areas, we built photo ops for trainers to enjoy as they are catching Pokémon, to bring those habitats to life. For Entangled Ruins, we had this wonderful archway. It is split in half by this Space-Time Anomaly. So half of this archway is just normal, normal architecture- but half of it is ruins [from] back in time. So that build is meant to bring that habitat to life.

OR: Do you have a favorite Pokémon?

TB: I do! It is a very, very close tie. But Ditto is my number one. Snorlax is number two. Ditto is the best!

OR: I love Ditto too! I loved the miniature Special Research [April Fools’ 2-Oh?-22] from awhile ago.

TB: Yes! Any time Ditto can be involved, I am very excited.

OR: So what’s next Pokémon GO?

TB: Up next, we’re really excited to bring a full week of excitement together for trainers. Starting after this real world event in Los Angeles ends, the Road to Sinnoh begins. Trainers will start getting ready. Next weekend, Global Go Tour will be starting for trainers worldwide! The global event is for two days- Saturday and Sunday- and trainers, no matter where they are, can participate for free.

OR: Will they be able to get their own White-Striped Basculin?

TB: Yes!

OR: Is there anything else you can tell us about the event as we wrap up?

TB: The key thing that delights me about this event is that trainers travel in from everywhere, and you just see so many communities connecting and so many families out playing together. This is my favorite part of Pokémon GO, and it is just really great to see.

OR: Thank you!

I want to thank Niantic, Inc., for helping set up this interview!

Did you have fun at Pokemon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles? Did you catch a White-Finned Basculin this past weekend?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post INTERVIEW: Tiane Bella (Sr. Marketing Manager) Talks About Pokemon GO Tour Sinnoh- Los Angeles appeared first on oprainfall.

After playing through and reviewing Sympathy Kiss recently, I found myself starting to slip back into a slump and wasn’t sure what I would even enjoy next. It’s part of the reason I play otome so sparingly. Like I mentioned in my review, I tend to get extremely absorbed into otome and have a hard time stepping away. But also, once I’m done with a good one, I typically just don’t know what to do afterwards, or what actually sounds fun. And thus, rather than stew in that slump forever, I decided to play even more otome. Probably not the wisest decision, but I ended up in the mood for more and I had one on hand that I needed to finish, Piofiore: Fated Memories. When I first played and eventually put down Fated Memories, I had done all but two routes, Gilbert’s and the happy ending no specific guy route. Plus there were a handful of extras I hadn’t checked out.

Gilbert was my favorite of all the choices at the start just based on his design. However, he is also a forced last choice and I was anxious to finally play his route. It turns out, after going through his path and seeing more of him, he is definitely my favorite Piofiore guy. Recently, I also picked up a copy of Piofiore: Episodio 1926 as well. I wasn’t planning on buying it just yet, but it seemed like physical copies were starting to disappear, so I went ahead and bought it before it was too late. After finishing the last two routes and some extras in Fated Memories, I finally started Episodio. Episodio 1926 lets you choose any guy’s route to start and they play as direct sequels to Fated Memories‘ best endings. So far I’ve played Gilbert’s, Orlok’s and Nicola’s route. Gilbert and Orlok I’ve already blindly run into the bad endings first and went back with a guide to get the good endings. Nicola’s, I only just finished last night and haven’t gone back through for the good ending yet. Gilbert’s new route made me love him even more than I already did. In Fated Memories his path was pretty short and tame, so I enjoyed that you got to hang out with him a lot more as a couple with the main girl in Episodio. His sequel route is everything I wanted, he’s simply the best guy in the whole game in my opinion.

The only thing about Piofiore I haven’t enjoyed, is the sheer amount of grammar issues, typos and just overall unfixed mistakes which are all over the place. I’m happy so much otome is localized these days and that the Switch has no shortage of it to enjoy. But, I really wish more time was spent on each one and they were put out without such a ridiculous barrage of typos and incorrect, never fixed grammar. I thought Fated Memories was bad enough as is, but at least that game isn’t version 1.0.0 like the sequel, so something was fixed. Not to mention, every sentence was complete. Thus far in Episodio 1926, I’ve run into quite a few lines where it just cuts off. No sentence ender with punctuation, only a cliffhanger of a line. And sometimes the main character’s speech box will cut off where she’s talking to someone and then continue into a thought bubble next. Or, she’s talking to someone and then thinking to herself partially in the speaking text box, only for it to cut off and continue in the thinking more narrative style box. Plus, I ran into one line (pictured above) where parts of the sentence were repeated multiple times so it says a whole lot of nothing, which left me quite confused. Not only that, but like I mentioned before, Episodio is still version 1.0.0 and didn’t have a single patch. Which means, no one went back to fix even a fraction of the issues after launch. It’d be nice if these otome games had significantly better quality control and editing, or that anyone even tried to fix them after launch and didn’t forever leave them so horrendously bad. – Jenae

With Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth right around the corner, it was finally time to tackle a game that has been in my backlog for over a decade: Crisis Core. Thankfully I didn’t have to drag out a PSP for this one, as the remaster is readily available, so my sister and I spent a little over a week blowing through the story of Zack Fair and his merry band of visual kei wannabes. Actually I’m sorry, I’m being a little harsh and a bit unfair. But to say this entry into the VII franchise left me underwhelmed and disappointed would be an understatement.

First, though, the good. Visually, the game is quite gorgeous, with some particularly stunning locales and set pieces, great lighting and cutscene choreography, and the models all look expressive and lively, especially Zack. The music is great, but that should go without saying. I didn’t mind the combat overall, or the way the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) reels played into the actual story. If anything, that was a master stroke of genius. The RNG elements to literally everything else, including leveling, I could have done without, though. Zack himself was likeable and fun, and his puppy dog attitude and fish out of water responses to the more outrageous stuff happening around him made him relatable when everything else started going off the rails. His budding relationship with Aerith was cute, and the little we got between him and the Turks was a nice bit of characterization for a group of antagonists I really had no previous investment in. Cadet Cloud was refreshingly stupid, and I liked Tifa’s attempts to ask about the “blond SOLIDER” without giving away who she was asking about. All very adorable and well done. The final setpiece of the game was legitimately amazing and such a brilliant blend of narrative and gameplay that it actually pulled at my heart strings. It’s hard to overstate how well that sequence was done.

Unfortunately, the rest of the narrative up to that point fell incredibly flat for me. I hated everything to do with Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth. I don’t fault the game for wanting to introduce new elements to the world, or even a self-contained villain, but I could not get behind this plot at all. We didn’t spend enough time with Angeal to care about him before he left, nor did we see nearly enough of the three of them together to believe they had any real connection. I think the idea of a failed experiment before Sephiroth could have been really interesting, but I disliked the way this game handled that, and it felt far too derivative. In the end, rather than being a foil for Sephiroth, Genesis undermined what little I actually liked about his story. And all this was happening while the game actively did not do the one thing I wanted from it – give me Zack and Cloud bonding. I am not a big FFVII fan. I do not stan this game. I’m not particularly fond of the OG. But “we’re friends, right?” has lived rent free in my head for over two decades, and all I wanted from Crisis Core was to give me a reason to believe that line. And I never got it. We spent so much time with Angeal and Genesis and Sephiroth but not enough building the emotional core of Zack and Cloud, and when I finally put the game down I just felt like I’d wasted my time. Glad I played it so I have the context, and again, that final setpiece was worth going through everything else for, but the emotional and narrative throughline that I wanted never came to fruition, and that’s a shame.

Looking forward to Rebirth, though. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Feb 18 – 24 appeared first on oprainfall.

You can find out more about the upcoming Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Global Event, taking place February 24-25, 2024, here.

“I’m so happy here. I love this so much.”

I heard those words midway through Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles from a teenager to her mother on Saturday, and that really sums up my thoughts about this event. Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles was the smoothest, most fun, Pokémon GO event that I have been to yet, and I found myself with so much to do that I nearly could not finish it all during the event. If you do not read anything beyond this paragraph, then just know that I am extremely excited to see what Niantic, Inc., pulls out of their trainer caps for the yet unannounced- but absolutely inevitable- Pokémon GO Fest later this year.

Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles took place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The play area stretched from inside the Rose Bowl itself, around the stadium, across a bridge, and all the way down the connecting golf course. It was a very long, but narrow, play area, and I definitely got my steps in for the day just running all over to do everything in each of the areas. The ground was fairly level, and I didn’t find any real chokepoints to getting across the area other than potentially the large bridge that connected the golf course to the stadium area.

Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles was the debut of both Origin Forme Dialga and Origin Forme Palkia. The appearance criteria for these two Pokémon were quite interesting: for the first half hour of each hour, the normal versions of Dialga and Palkia would appear. For the last 30 minutes of each hour, the raids would switch out for the new Origin Forme versions. This ensured that everyone could get both forms of the Pokémon. I also really, really liked this half-hour switch off. This ‘break’ from Origin Forme made me not feel guilty for not raiding nonstop, as I could go do other things every other half-hour until the Origin Forme popped up again.

The new Adventure Effects from the two Origin Formes- Spacial Rend (allowing a large encounter area for wild Pokemon) and Roar of Time (pauses most item timers for six minutes to extend their duration)- turned out to be nearly game breaking in the best possible way. I found myself frequently using Spacial Rend in order to see what additional Pokemon were around me, and I stacked multiple Roar of Time uses when I was doing multiple raids back-to-back with a Lucky Egg. When I first heard about these skills, I honestly didn’t think that I would use them all that much. Yet, they both turned out to be incredibly situationally helpful at Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles and I figure they will help out occasionally during raid hour or during future Community Days.

Of course, another draw of Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles are the rare Pokémon available to catch! The region-locked Pokémon (Pachirisu, Mime Jr., Chatot, Carnivine) were hidden inside eggs, and I found myself frequently getting them whenever I cracked eggs. I did pay for the Egg-thusiast ticket add-on to hatch eggs in one-fourth the distance, and I know that made a real difference for me. While none of them turned out to be shiny, I was still happy that I got enough of them to trade with friends in real life.

There was an exclusive research and a lot of rare Pokémon to catch at the event! (Photos by author.)

The three Lake Pokémon (Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf) were also available to catch at Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles. Interestingly, they all appear as random spawns on the overworld map. When I encountered them, I found that I only had time to use one item and Pokéball combo before they ran. I didn’t overly focus on trying to catch them during this event, as I had previously gotten them all in shiny form during a prior worldwide event thanks to me organizing a few international raid groups. That said, they were absolutely a welcome addition to the event.

Finally, there is the Unown spawns. At both Pokémon GO Fest events in Seattle and New York City that I had attended, all the Pokémon would turn into Unown for the last two minutes of every hour. At Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles, Niantic, Inc., dropped that mechanic and instead made Unown appear as incense spawns. This was admittedly nice, as I could focus on getting Unown if I wanted to instead of being forced to just catch them (and ultimately only shiny check) at the end of every hour.

The exclusive event special research was not that difficult to complete, other than having to fight Team Rocket GO during the final step. I liked that it made me visit all the different themed areas, and so I had to cross the entire area in order to finish it. That said, the Rotom research did not go quite as planned. I tried to AR scan a physical TV set that was placed in the play area, but nothing happened. I instead was told what to do by an event support staff employee next to it and that the AR scanning would not work. This was somewhat disappointing, but I ended up getting the Rotom research done regardless.

There were two meet and greets at Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles: meet the Pokémon GO artists and meet Notable Trainers (think internet-famous Pokémon GO players!). While I skipped out on meeting the Notable Trainers, I absolutely took my time meeting the Niantic, Inc., artists. When their lines were short, the artists absolutely took their time to talk about the game, their art, and what it was like creating different art pieces for Pokémon GO. The artists made me feel like they were genuinely grateful that I played Pokémon GO, and they even autographed a Pokémon GO card for me! There were multiple time slots for both meet and greets, and I did not feel like it was a blink-and-you-will-miss it feature of the event, but one that Niantic, Inc., took pains to make sure was available to anyone who wanted to do either meet and greet.

Inside the Rose Bowl itself, there were two photo opportunities: at one end, you could take photos with giant inflated Palkia and Dialga Pokémon, and at the other side, you could get a photograph with Eevee! I was happy with both of these photo opportunities, but I was shocked that Pokémon GO Battle League didn’t have a battle arena set-up between the two photo opportunities in the middle of the Rose Bowl itself. I was really hoping that I could take on other Trainers inside of the gridiron, and it was something of a disappointment that I couldn’t.

There were photo opportunities inside of the Rose Bowl itself. (Photos by author).

The biggest new activity to do was the party challenges. It is no secret that Niantic, Inc., wants trainers to interact and work together to achieve things. I ended up approaching multiple people to join up in parties at the event to complete different party challenges ranging from catching six steel Pokémon to using 25 berries while catching Pokémon. These challenges were simple, but onerous enough that we all ended up actually participating in completing all of them. The rewards- being able to guarantee catch Regice, Registeel, Regirock, and Regigigas- were well worth the incentive of talking to strangers to get the party challenges done.

There were also activity tents scattered throughout the area. At these tents, there was a lot of Pokémon trinket giveaways, trivia contests, and opportunities to create signs for what Pokémon you needed or had available to trade. This was also where a lot of people congregated for trading and socializing purposes. These areas were fun, but I didn’t spend too much time in them because I had a lot to try to complete during my playtime. There were also small other things to do like fight Team Rocket GO members, spin Pokéstops, try to find Spiritomb Pokéstops, and post on Campfire, at the event. All of those were fun, but fairly standard fare.

The highlight for me, though? I finally found someone willing to trade me a ‘?’ Unown. I had been hunting for a reasonable trade for that Pokemon since my first in-person Pokémon GO Fest, and I was able to finally make it happen. That particular Unown was only available for Pokémon GO Fest 2018: Chicago for two days, and it has not appeared since. Niantic, Inc.: Please bring back the ‘?’ Unown for people to get in the future!

Not everything was perfect, though. Despite the debut of White-Striped Basculin in Routes during Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles, there were surprisingly no Routes available inside the Rose Bowl event itself. I actually ended up not getting one at all during this event because of it. There was (as I mentioned earlier) no Pokémon GO PVP events at Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles. This was very surprising, as we are in the middle of Pokémon GO: Timeless Travels Battle League as we head towards Pokémon World Championships 2024 in Hawai’i later this year. These PVP events are a major part of Pokémon GO, and so it was more than a little surprising that it had zero representation at Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles.

More photos from the event! There was so much to do and see. (Photos by author).

Another thing I noticed was that the various ‘areas’ of the event all blended together at the golf course part of the event, and I only knew that I had changed areas when there were different Pokémon spawning. While this was surprising, I am not surprised because golf courses are often quite persnickety with how you utilize the course for events, and they may not have been allowed to fully dress up the areas like they did previously at Pokémon GO Fest 2022: Seattle.

Finally, there was no merchandise tent at Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles. In fact, the only merchandise sold at the event was the event t-shirt that you could pre-order when you bought your ticket. The event t-shirts that they had for sale on-site almost immediately ran out of everything but small and medium t-shirts within the first half-hour. Every time I’ve attended a Pokémon GO Fest, the merchandise line has always been wrapped around the building and down the block. People love their Pokémon plush, and it was surprising that they weren’t available for the sale.

Despite all of that, Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles was absolutely an amazing event to attend. My issues, other than the inexplicable lack of Routes at the event itself, were fairly minor and did not truly take away from my overall enjoyment of the Tour event from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday. If anything, it makes me wonder how Niantic, Inc., will be able to fit everything into the shorter time blocks that Pokémon GO Fest normally run in, as they usually run two Park sessions a day during that event. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: If you play Pokémon GO and you’re at all obsessed with it, you need to attend the in-person events. The teenager that I quoted at the top of my article was right about how happy playing Pokémon GO at an in-person event was, and I left with a giant smile on my face.

If you can come to Pokémon GO in-person, then you won’t regret it. You will absolutely catch some new Pokémon that you would never be able to get otherwise, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you also make some new friends too.

Have you attended an in-person Pokémon GO event before?

What is your favorite Pokémon? Are you planning on participating in the upcoming Global event?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Pokémon GO Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles Was a Fantastic, Fan-Oriented, Event appeared first on oprainfall.

I made a lot of progress in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth this past week. I’ve been absolutely glued and loving the game so far. It’s nice finally being sucked into something again. I go for so long, somewhat burnt out, not really feeling like anything, and then a new Yakuza game comes out and I’m completely glued again. I’ve done a ton of stuff in the game at this point and I’m in the middle of Chapter 9 now. I spent a long time in the beginning of the game, checking out Hawaii, doing some substories, getting important things unlocked like the Street Surfer and various jobs, etc.

It took me a while to get going, making money at the start was pretty difficult. First, I worked on getting my Sujimon team put together and tried to get into that a little bit. I figure any big side thing like that will eventually lead to a lot of money if you just spend some time on it. After that, I also spent quite a bit of time on Dondoko Island. You unlock Dondoko through the story, but you only have to spend 3 fictional days there before you can move on. I spent a good two weeks there and made the place a 1-star resort before I left. Dondoko Island is great for making money and that’s what really got me going. After I got cash from making the place a 1-star resort, I went back and raised a few personality stats to unlock all of the available jobs at the time. I’m now in Chapter 9, about to go back there and make some more money.

See where I’m at now, Kiryu headed back to Japan and has his own party and Ichiban is in Hawaii with his still. Chapter 9 got a little hectic, so I stole some equipment from my Kiryu team temporarily. It’s really nice that you just have access to all your stuff no matter which party you’re currently with. Unlike Yakuza 0, where whenever you switched between Majima and Kiryu, they each had their own inventories and cash on hand and you had to transfer money through an NPC and put items in a shared storage. So yeah, I temporarily stole some equipment off my inactive party. Now that I’m past the hectic beginning part of this chapter however, I’m getting ready to head back to Dondoko Island and do some sidequesting stuff again so I can make the necessary money to get the whole gang all properly equipped.

I’m loving all the main characters in Infinite Wealth. I feel like the new characters have so much more personality than a lot of Yakuza 7‘s party characters did. Plus, I feel like you get to know certain returning party members quite a bit better. Also, in the past I was always partial to Majima and Akiyama a little more than Kiryu. I mean, after the seventh game, I liked Kiryu much more than Ichiban, yet he still wasn’t my fave among the series. But there’s just something about Kiryu in Infinite Wealth, the way he acts and the things he says. I’m quite amused with this latest iteration of Kiryu and I think he’s the best he’s been in any Yakuza game ever. Overall, I’m having a blast with Infinite Wealth and can’t wait to play some more. – Jenae

I spent most of this week playing Persona 3 Reload. I’ve gotten about 23 hours in and so far there hasn’t been a lot changed story wise from the previous releases. There are some changes to the story I’ve seen posted from later on, but I’ll reserve judgment for those when I see them in context.

The gameplay and graphical style have been vastly upgraded, and honestly I love how most of it has turned out so far. Tartarus has been redone in a more 3D style and honestly the three sections I’ve been in look fantastic. They have added some new items to find and some new chests that require you to find Twilight Fragments. I would suggest anyone playing hold on to these until you see a chest that requires three of them to open, you get much better items out of these.

I think removing the fatigue mechanic has made the game a bit easier, and throwing in the baton pass from Persona 5 and some new super moves has further made the difficulty here a non issue. If you want a more true experience to the original Persona 3 or FES, I’d suggest starting on a difficulty of hard or greater. That said, I’m enjoying my time so far and we’ll see how I feel when I reach the end of this journey. – Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Jan 28 – Feb 3 appeared first on oprainfall.

It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve added to a Week in Gaming article. We skipped a couple weeks around the holidays and then last week, well I was at the very beginning of a not so great cold. Not to mention, honestly I haven’t been doing a ton of gaming lately in general. I was getting into other stuff before I was sick and having a hard time getting really absorbed back into any one game. Being that I’ve been sick this past week, I still haven’t actually played much, but I do have a smidgen to discuss. First of all, I never really put down and stop playing mahjong phone games for any extended periods of time. I’ve been playing a lot of Riichi City as always. Recently, I’m on a pretty significant losing streak which has been frustrating. However, it’s Riichi City‘s second anniversary and I got some of my yearly stats. They’re a lot better looking than the overall results of my most recent ten matches, and I found out that I played even more mahjong than I thought last year. In addition to Riichi City, I’ve also been slowly getting back into Stardew Valley. I got back into my very early game, beach farm path. I plan for it to be my very first Joja path. Later this upcoming week, I’m hoping to finish up Like a Dragon Gaiden finally so I’m ready for Infinite Wealth on launch day. I had been holding off near the very end of the game because I still wanted to do more sidequests. Now I don’t really have time to run around doing side stuff anymore. – Jenae

I was all over the place gaming this week. I started the week off checking out the JAST release of Goblins on the March: Breed all Humans. This one is a very simple title, but the artwork here is top tier. I’ll have a full review coming this week for those interested in taking your horde and conquering some maidens.

A good part of the week was spent playing Blue Archive as well. I skipped through some story I will have to go back and read to get more rolls on Swimsuit Hina, which I had to get off of pity this time. Kinda sucked that I had to use that many resources for this, but I got a few other three star girls along the way who I love as well, Reisa is just adorable as hell! I’m pretty stoked for the upcoming events and the anime. Blue Archive has one of the best stories of any gacha game, so this should turn out really well.

The rest of the time was spent with the Switch release of Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters. I’ll have a review posted this week for this one as well. -Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Jan 14 – 20 appeared first on oprainfall.

Super Mario Bros. 3

This week, I didn’t get to play too much, but I did complete World 3 and some of 4. I should have mentioned last week; I’m playing through this by completing every stage without the use of warping or P Wings. My hopes with this playthrough are to appreciate every stage’s design, secrets, and challenge, and to gain a renewed awe for a game that provided so much fun in my childhood.

I continue to be pretty terrible at it, though. My rusted skills don’t seem to be improving, most likely due to my inability to commit serious time to the game. Or I’m just getting older. Nonetheless, I’m enjoying all of the pleasant reminders of why I loved this game so much. That nostalgia factor is just one reason why I also love retro gaming in general.

A slight tangent now, earlier this week I was casually looking at my collection of Game Boy games and something came over me. I was remembering when I had gotten several of the games I was looking at and realized that I would never get to experience the feeling of purchasing or receiving a new Game Boy cartridge ever again. Yes I know, this isn’t quite a unique feeling, as systems have come and gone, but the Game Boy’s lifespan was quite long and was a large part of my young gaming life. It was a moment of…sadness? Loss? Longing, I think is the best way to describe it, though I did feel hints of those other feelings, too. It was strange, knowing I would never again get to look forward to the release of a new, physical Game Boy game. Nor opening the box, popping open the plastic case, or, as I often did, read the instruction booklet.

Just another indication that I’m getting older and time goes on. – Drew D.

This week in gaming I split my time between a couple of interesting titles. The first was YS 1 & 2 Chronicles. I’d never played a version of this despite playing other entries in the series, so I thought I’d give it a go. The bump mechanic is a little strange at first but it does work well overall. The game isn’t overly difficult, though there was one boss battle that gave me fits for a few minutes til I figured out exactly how to handle him. I’m just about to wrap-up the first game here, and I look forward to getting back to this later in the week.

The other game I’ve been into, Custom Mech Wars from D3 Publisher. I decided to take this one on for review cause I love mechs and EDF, so I figured this would be a mix of the two. It sorta is, but I think the mission structure could be a bit a better. I do love the almost infinite amount of ways you can customize your mechs, and the gameplay is pretty decent so far. I’ll hopefully have a full review of this one next week. -Steve

River City Rival Showdown

It’s not a secret that I have a huge soft spot for Kunio and Kunio-related games, so when the River City Rival Showdown remaster was announced for the Switch, naturally, I was interested and I picked up a copy. I loved the original version on the 3DS and I am happy to report that the game still plays well on the Switch. This game is just a real vibe with a very simple yet addicting gameplay loop. You have three days to explore town, complete quests and level up your character by beating up other gang members and delinquents. The sprites look more crisp than on the 3DS and the relatively lowpoly look works for the game giving it a rather distinct style compared to other modern beat em ups. What I forgot was just how much lore and worldbuilding is buried in this game. Just about every NPC has something to say and a lot of it further fleshes out the characters and the setting they’re in. It can be a lot to take in especially on a first playthrough, as you are trying to keep track of who is who. Still, the game lends itself quite nicely to replays as you likely won’t find or experience every event in one playthrough. There are even multiple endings based on your decisions throughout your journey. It’s a rather unique title overall and I was happy to revisit it. I’ll probably stream this one of these days. – Justin

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve added to one of these. Honestly, I’m somewhat back in one of my gaming slumps, or at least I had been most of these last few weeks, but I’ve been playing little bits here and there. A week or two ago, I was playing various Tetris games I have on Switch simply to pass a little time when I wasn’t sure what else I felt like. And of course I’ve still been keeping up with mahjong on my phone. I actually just got a great achievement the other day in Riichi City. I got their The Path to God achievement after coming in 1st and/or 2nd place for ten 4-player matches in a row. I was one win away from the next ranked room after that, but I had two losses and now I’m not quite there yet. In addition to this, most recently I’ve been trying to get back into Atelier Ryza 2. I’ve been playing Ryza 2 on and off for the last few years. I’m not sure why I can’t seem to ever finish it, but I’m enjoying playing it again. However, I’ve realized that all of my current character sidequests, which show up in the main story tab, are quite a bit further ahead than the actual main story. A couple of these sidequests require me to craft certain things through alchemy which require materials I’m not even far enough in the story to gather yet. Ultimately, I’m not super sucked into anything right now, but I’ve been cutting back enough on games during this latest slump, I should be playing a little bit more now. I’ve enjoyed getting back into Ryza 2 again. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Dec 10 – 16 appeared first on oprainfall.

Super Mario Bros. 3

It’s been ages since I last played any of the NES Super Mario titles, as I’d sooner reach for Kirby’s Adventure when feeling the urge for a retro romp, yet I’ve had the want to revisit SMB 3 for some time now. I honestly can’t remember the last time I played it, but it was definitely on my NES rather than any kind of eShop offering, as they weren’t yet available, so, yeah, it’s been a long time.

And as I expected, I’m pretty terrible at it. While I do remember the layouts of several of the stages in World 1, that’s about all I remember. Sure, I can also tell you where the pink note blocks are, as well as the two warp whistles, but I’ve forgotten what you have to do in stage 4 to get the white mushroom house. Nor do I remember the requirements to get the N Cards to appear (though one did show up). I can also vaguely remember that you can get a white coin boat to appear in World 1, but also that the requirements are pretty ridiculous.

Maybe I’ll look at a walkthrough or something over on gamefaqs at a later time. For now, I’ll slowly make my way through this with rusted skills and gratitude for a save ability in these newer renditions, all the while remembering the fun I had from what feels like a lifetime ago. – Drew D.

I spent most of this week finishing up Yohane the Parhelion: -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE-. I’ll have a full review coming shortly, but I played enough of it to 100% the map if that says anything about how I felt about it.

After that I decided to go back to past and check out Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. I own this in the collection they put on the PlayStation a few years ago, but I wanted to see how the PC-Engine release was since I was never able to play this as kid. I did own Cosmic Fantasy 2 though, which is still one of my favorite games of all time. Anyways, when I started this out I forgot just how hard OG Castlevania was; I died quite a few times until I got used to attack ranges and how the enemies moved.

I played through the first four stages so far, and I was told I could unlock Maria as a playable character and she was very overpowered. I had to see this for myself, and I can confirm she is very much that. A better ranged attack, better sub weapons, double jump and she can even heal herself. I’m pretty hooked on this and I’ll probably play the PlayStation 4 collection after this to see what changes were made. – Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Dec 3 – 9 appeared first on oprainfall.

After finishing up Gears of Dragoon I decided to move on to VenusBlood GAIA. I loved the previous two releases, so I had pretty high expectations going into this one and so far I’m pretty pleased. The story here follows Archduke Theofrad who has discovered a new energy source to help bring back his dying world. The Holy Dragon Empire Granleyd doesn’t like this and has declared war on him and the Sorcerous City of Energeia. Theofrad is willing to take on the empire and the rest of the world if it means he can save them from certain doom!

While I am loving the story and characters, there has been a huge change in the gameplay here as well. In the previous games you would move squads and formations around on a map taking nodes on it. VenusBlood GAIA changes this up to be more of a tower defense type of game that is turn based. You will have to defeat would-be invaders in the labyrinth under the city. This is done by placing units and traps to slow their progress and planning out how to deal with surface units as well.

I’m still pretty early on in the game, and I’m doing the Law Route first, so we’ll see if my feeling change on this by the end of both routes. – Steve

So I’m back to Star Ocean: The Second Story R now that I’ve wrapped up Like a Dragon Gaiden. I finally advanced the story to the second continent despite only levelling up to around 45 or so, but I was eager to get to the Laceur tournament sequence and recruiting Precis in Linga. Booting up this game seriously feels like coming home. It’s comfy and familiar and everything I remember from the PS1 days, but with really welcome quality of life changes that my 20-plus year older self appreciates immensely. I just don’t have the time to grind in the Lasgus Mountains like I did when I was 17. The Bodyguard skill has been a godsend, and is honestly one of the best features in SO2R that I think other RPGs with world maps should adopt. It’s the only game other than Earthbound I’ve seen that lets you immediately win fights without entering battle and I cannot fathom how this has never become standard fare after all these years. I’m also head over heels in love with the fact I can see my relationship status with my team now, so I don’t have to wait until the end of the game to know what character ending I’m actually going to get. Right now I’m on an Ashton/Rena trajectory, but knowing I can course correct at any time because I can see where my relationships all stand is spectacular. There is something to be said for the original PS1 version’s opaque systems, but again, I just don’t have the time I used to to have for needless fiddling and bullshit. I’ll still likely end up using love potions near the end just to see other character endings but knowing where I’m at is wonderful.

In the real world, I also got to visit a neat arcade! It’s called Robot City and is a comfy little store-plus-arcade setup in Binghamton, N.Y. with an assortment of pinball machines and classic arcade titles. It’s also the only place I’ve ever seen a Baby Pac-Man exist. I’ve never seen one in person, let alone played one, so having the chance to was neat. The game itself was mediocre (and I’m crap at Pac-Man to begin with), but the novelty of it was worthwhile and a nice surprise. My son thought it was the coolest thing. It’s nice being able to visit hole-in-the-wall arcades still, and this place had a very nice vibe. The store was well-kept with a decent stock of games from Atari up through PS5, while the arcade was dimly lit and a little crowded, so it gave off a really comfy atmosphere. If you’re ever in the Southern Tier region, it’s worth checking out. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Nov 19 – 25 appeared first on oprainfall.

This past week I’ve mostly been playing Fashion Dreamer and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Fashion Dreamer I don’t want to talk about yet because I’m going to be writing a review on that in the future. What I do wanna talk a bit about, is Like a Dragon Gaiden. Back when the next three, upcoming at the time, Yakuza / Like a Dragon games were announced, I think Gaiden was the one I was most looking forward to. Yakuza 7 I didn’t enjoy as much as the rest of the series, so at the time I wasn’t super excited about Infinite Wealth and for whatever reason, Ishin just wasn’t as exciting to me as Gaiden.

Now that the game is out, I’m having a lot of fun playing Gaiden. It is a little disappointing realizing it’s somewhat of a short in between game, it’s not a full sized Yakuza. But honestly, it doesn’t seem too much smaller than some prior mainline entries in the series, seeing as there have been a few shorter titles. Anyway, currently I believe I’m nearing the end of Chapter 2. I’ve been running around Sotenbori doing some side stuff for Akame and I just finished up my first trip to the Castle. I’m about to unlock the Coliseum as an extra thing to do on the side. I only visited for the story before and wasn’t able to do any more than that. It’s been extremely enjoyable having a brand new, more traditional Yakuza game to play again. Now I am looking forward to Infinite Wealth however, since it seems significantly larger than Yakuza 7 was and looks a lot more exciting than I previously thought it would be, especially because it has important returning characters. I like that they made the RPG battles a little more interactive as well and added in some of that old style. I absolutely adore RPGs, but strangely enough, I prefer the classic gameplay style when it comes to Yakuza.

One last thing I should mention about Like a Dragon Gaiden, is that I’m playing on a regular old slim PS4. I’m not reviewing this one but thought maybe you’d all like to know how it runs on PS4. Thus far, I haven’t run into any major issues playing recent Like a Dragon games on my system. There was one late game story event/situation in Ishin that sounded rough on my PS4, but other than that, I haven’t been having any issues. Occasionally when I walk up to and activate the next story scene in Gaiden, it will freeze for a few seconds and take a bit to get going, but that’s about it. Honestly, I don’t even know if that’s a slow PS4 performance thing and not just normal game functioning. For the most part I’ve had no issues. I’m excited to eventually try out the Infinite Wealth trial later on. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Nov 5 – 11 appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve been up to a few things this week, but most of it has been Star Ocean: The Second Story R, which has been everything I could have wanted in a remake of this classic title for modern consoles. I have made no secret that SO2 is my favorite Star Ocean game, and one of my favorite RPGs of all time, so I have been waiting for this game for years. I played the demo last month in anticipation, and all of my thoughts from that time continue into the full release, but there’s definitely much more to discuss.

I mentioned briefly in that previous Week in Gaming write-up that you can use Assault Actions to call forth protagonists from the other Star Ocean games if you find their corresponding gem. Right now, I only have Laeticia, as you are given her early on in Krosse Cave as part of the story, but the heroes aren’t the only ones you can use as Assaults. All characters not currently in your active party can be assigned to one of four spots, which gives you a lot of customizability to enhance or balance your personal playstyle. For instance, Laeticia performs a point blank physical AOE. For the SO2 characters, you can choose which Assault action they perform, and those actions can be what makes or breaks a battle. You can have Rena as an AA and have her come in and heal the entire party. Or maybe you want to hold back Celine and use her AA to cast Southern Cross. Each Assault Action is on a 60 second timer, so you never have to wait too long to use them, but they aren’t an action you can necessarily use as a crutch, either, since battles move quickly.

Battles aren’t the only things that move quickly in SO2R. One of the new features in this remake is the ability to fast travel to places you’ve visited in the past, circumventing the often tedious backtracking the Star Ocean games are known to have. You can also see which towns have active Private Actions available, removing the guessing game of where and when some of these missable moments between characters occur. As a veteran Star Ocean player, this is one of the most welcome QoL changes Gemdrops added to the remake. The original Star Ocean 2 often had inscrutable requirements for character recruitment, sometimes requiring multiple previous PAs and chance encounters in out of the way locations, and with 11 characters to choose from, the constant backtracking to find their PAs – arguably the series’ most important feature – would often grind the story to a standstill. That guesswork is mostly gone now, which for me is a welcome change. SO2 is designed to be played twice, and the original game was already time-intensive because of backtracking, so SO2R feels like it hits that sweet spot where it respects my time while also keeping to the spirit of the original by maintaining where and when all these PAs occur. On top of fast travel, the lack of random battles and speed-up function for dialogue help shave down time, and getting the skill Bodyguard has been a godsend for passive leveling. None of these changes have detracted from the appeal of this game, and even with the streamlining, it still feels like I’m playing the game I’ve loved so dearly for over 20 years.

At any rate, I’m about 10 hours into the game and still haven’t left the first continent because I’m having so much fun running around leveling up, exploring regions I remember fondly from the original to see their new glowups, and recruiting characters/seeing their PAs. I’ve just recruited my boy Ashton and am working on his subquest, then I’ll probably move the story forward to Laceur, but in the meantime I’m just enjoying this delightfully updated game. Really wish Square Enix would send me my Collector’s Edition at some point so I can enjoy that aspect of the remake, too.

When I’m able to pull myself away from SO2R, I’ve been keeping up with FFXIV, which just released its crossover with Fall Guys. I have to say, I’m impressed with how well the devs were able to translate that experience into an MMO – including rage-inducing lag and frustration. I’m only half joking, but there are definitely some issues with timing. That being said, it’s also been a lot of fun, and the event is surprisingly cute and addictive. I doubt I’ll ever reach the 100 wins, but I’m having fun banging my head against this. I think the best thing the XIV devs decided to do was to keep this a limited time event so folks don’t burn out on it and there’s always a healthy playerbase to make each race an exciting time. – Leah

I spent most of this week playing Gears of Dragoon. I’m getting close to the end with about 60 hours in this. I finally hit the story branch and decided to go the machine route, cause Ashley is amazing and clearly the best girl here! Also, the other route requires more crystals to see all the events so it’s best to start with this one. The dungeon crawling is very basic, but fun. The game really shines in its story and character writing, which I will go into more in my full review.

Outside of that I spent some time with Blue Archive. It’s been a while since I had time to play, but with all the anniversary events coming up and the current ones running I thought I’d jump in. I mean I had to get the free maid Yuzu, she’s too cute. Hopefully the Gatcha Gods will be on my side and I can roll Maid Alice before this event ends. – Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Oct 29 – Nov 4 appeared first on oprainfall.