Mothergamer Plays Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

 *Note: Some spoilers for the game are in the review. 

The concept for Banishers was interesting to me, two people known as banishers who solve hauntings and banish ghosts while helping the living. The banishers are like exorcists, but a little cooler. I noticed that it's done by the same studio who worked on Vampyr another game I quite enjoyed. I did appreciate that the game had warnings about flashing lights in the game as well as a trigger warning for interactions with racism and misogyny for the time period. The accessibility settings are decent. There are options to adjust the size of the subtitle fonts, there is an aim assist option, and remap the controls for game controller and PC mouse and keyboard settings. You can adjust the game's difficulty settings as well. I tend to enjoy games like this more on story mode so that is what I chose. 

 Banishers is set in 1695 in a fictional Puritan town called New Eden. Banishers and lovers Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith arrive in New Eden after being invited via letter by their friend Charles Davenport asking for help with a very strong malevolent spirit that has basically cursed the town. Unfortunately by the time Antea and Red have arrived Charles has already died from a heart attack after trying to face the spirit alone. This is where Antea and Red's journey really begins and gives you an easy to follow tutorial on the combat and banisher abilities like doing a ritual to see echoes of a past event. I liked the combat and the explanation of different ghosts like Specters and Bonewalkers. I also instantly liked Antea and Red. There is a noticeable calmness between the two that shows a complete trust and love of each other and it's done in a beautifully subtle way such as Antea gently teasing Red about some minor mistakes he made when he first trained as a banisher. 

Antea and Red arrive in New Eden. 

Antea and Red meet with Charles' widow Esther to try and figure how and why the spirit came to be. They figure out pretty quickly that the spirit is an entity known as a Nightmare, a ghost whose death was unjust and wronged. Red is still relatively new to his banisher powers and Antea warns him that a Nightmare is nothing like he's faced and they can be very tricky. Talking to some of the villagers like the governor Fairefax Haskell shows just how arrogant and ignorant many of them are especially in the way they speak to Antea as a Black woman during this particular time period. Red always steps up for her and makes it very clear that Antea is in charge, not him. It's always surprising how quickly people adjust their behavior when Red does this and I was amused every time Antea gave him a knowing smile as if they're both in on the joke about how foolish people can be. 

Their first night in New Eden, things go horribly wrong. Red forgets Antea's warning about the Nightmare, waking up with Antea not there and hearing her calling for help. Red rushes to the place where the Nightmare first appeared thinking Antea is in trouble not realizing it's a trick. The Nightmare appears and is absolutely terrifying nearly killing Red, but Antea shows up and confronts it which causes the Nightmare to kill Antea and throw Red out a window to the cliffs below. It's gut wrenching that moment knowing it's part of the story and nothing can be done. Red wakes up in a cave with a mysterious woman watching over him known as Seeker. She explains to Red that a witch named Siridean had told her to find Red and help him in dealing with the curse. Seeker tells Red what he must do in order to solve the curse and lift it. Shortly after Red runs into the ghost of Antea and Antea explains that her body is her ghost tie and they need to recover it. This is where you make the first big decision in the game that can affect the ending. Red and Antea can either resurrect Antea which means very dark magic that would sacrifice human lives or they can perform a ritual of ascension which would send Antea peacefully to her afterlife. I personally chose the ascension path. 

The town of New Eden is locked down due to the curse and the majority of the villagers have left for other smaller villages in the area. Red and Antea have to solve the issues in these areas because there are a series of smaller malicious curses influenced by the Nightmare and several decisions that some of the more influential villagers have made. The combat introduces a new setup with Red and Antea being able to work together with Antea's ghost powers. For example, if a path is blocked by a boulder you can switch to Antea and she can use her ghost powers to blast the boulder apart. Red has to talk to the villagers and Antea gives him advice on how to navigate the conversations and clues to look for. 

There are plenty of side quests in the form of haunting cases that Red and Antea can work together to solve. For the big main story side quests, you get some insights into how the curse happened in the first place and it does not paint many of the villagers in a good light. The designs for the various ghosts and supernatural creatures is really well done and fighting them requires different tactics. I love that you can switch between Red and Antea easily depending on what skills are needed and there's a really good ebb and flow to the combat because of this. There are puzzles too that rely on both their skills to solve and I was glad the puzzles aren't overly complicated so you can solve them without too much frustration.

Red and Antea face a supernatural creature.

The user interface menu is easy to follow with upgrading Red and Antea's equipment and their skills which can be done at a campfire rest area. This is also how you fast travel throughout the game via the various rest area spots that are unlocked. I do wish we could fast travel anywhere on the map, but I do appreciate that there is fast travel because that made things a lot easier for completing the many side quests. When Red and Antea solve a haunting case they have choices to make; ascension which gently sends the ghost to their afterlife, banishment which is harsher for more violent ghost and sends them to the void, or blaming the living which kills them and absorbs their power. Blaming is considered the "evil" choice because that is part of the sacrificing multiple lives to bring Antea back. 

I found it interesting that the hauntings aren't simple. There were definitely aspects of certain hauntings where it was morally grey and neither party was correct or noticing that for some of the people of New Eden they weren't necessarily good people and let their ignorance and fear overtake them causing pain to others. In fact there are some that make it very easy to want to choose the blame option because of their rotten behavior. It shows how well done the writing is as you struggle with making those decisions in some scenarios. There are also moments of reflection between Red and Antea about their relationship, how they'll deal with the Nightmare, and accepting that they will have to say goodbye to each other. Ultimately, throughout the game there is this theme of accepting death and loss not just for the two banishers, but for the people of  New Eden who are haunted or struggling with their own grief. Red and Antea are able to help and while a few villagers at first aren't ready to face it, some do find peace in acceptance. I liked exploring everywhere and while New Eden is very haunted, the backdrop is beautiful with lots of lush forests and snowy mountain vistas. 

Red and Antea admiring the view. 

There are some technical issues with the game that aren't a big deal, but they're noticeable. After a couple hours the game has issues with stuttering and the only way to address it is to close the game and reboot it. Sometimes the camera angles go a little haywire and it's hard to see enemies and I would have to turn or reset it. Other than those issues, I enjoyed Banishers a lot. Revealing the truth behind the Nightmare was really something because it made me care about the person they were before and I realized how heartbreaking it really was for them to have nearly the entire town blame them for something that was not their fault. It was eye opening to realize that among New Eden there were only ten people who were not complete jerks and the rest were selfish, arrogant, and willfully ignorant. The voice acting for all of this is incredible especially for Red and Antea when they realize how awful some of the people of New Eden really are and Red being able to call them on it with Antea at his side encouraging him is great.

When the time came to say goodbye, I was not okay. I had come to love Red and Antea and enjoyed my adventure with them. Red kept his oath to Antea and the scene is heartbreaking and beautiful and I cried so much watching it play out. It was perfectly done and it was a lovely tender moment between the two as they accepted their parting even though it was sad. The ending summary did a good job explaining what happened to Red and the people of New Eden after everything was done. I appreciated the journey and absolutely adore Red and Antea. With all the side quests and the main story I finished the game in about fifty hours. For completionists it can be a little longer with about sixty hours. I enjoyed Banishers immensely for the great storytelling, the fun combat, and for incredible characters like Red and Antea. I'm glad I got to experience this adventure with them. 

*Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is available on the following platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5, and Steam

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mothergamer Plays Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar

 I was so excited when Grand Bazaar remake got announced because I love the Story of Seasons games. I was ready to dive in when I got the game. The character creation is pretty good with a wide range of hairstyles and hair colors. However, I was disappointed that there was not a good variety of skin tones especially for darker skin. Other than that, the character design is pretty good. I created a character I was happy with and found a hairstyle for her that I liked and I was ready to begin. I will say it does feel like a true remaster with the updated graphics and voice acting for all the characters in the game. 

Grand Bazaar's setting is Zephyr Town and the town used to boast a spectacular bazaar featuring merchants from all over the world, but it's fallen on hard times and is not what it once was. This is where you the farmer come in. It's all up to you to help revitalize the farm, bring the bazaar back to its former glory, and help out the town itself. No pressure! You get to meet the townspeople and the mayor shows you the farm. You get some starter seeds for the season and the tutorial is fairly straightforward about how to plant and harvest your crops. There is no shipping bin in the game because the bazaar is held every Saturday in two shifts. The first shift is from 10 AM - 2 PM and the second shift is 3PM - 7 PM giving you plenty of time to sell all your wares. 

Watering the crops. 

The farm itself is pretty big, giving you three fields to work with. I used one for a variety of crops, one for fruit trees, and one for tea trees to harvest a ton of tea leaves. The big draw to Zephyr Town is the windmills and focusing on wind energy. You have three windmills; red, yellow, and blue. You start with the red windmill on your farm and each of these windmills process different products. For example, the red windmill processes milk and eggs into cheese and mayonnaise. In order to unlock the windmills you need to provide materials to the villager Isaac who will repair the red windmill for you. With the other two you have to reach a certain level rank with the bazaar which will unlock some quests you have to do for Isaac. 

When using the windmills it's important to note how strong the wind is that day. If there's no wind processing times for items will be slower. This is also important for the glider you use to get to higher places throughout the various areas of Zephyr Town. Being able to get to those higher spots gives you access to some rare ores which can be used for crafting more expensive items to sell at the bazaar. You can buy animals at the bazaar like cows, sheep, alpacas, and buffalo. This is where you can also get a variety of cats and dogs which you can train to help with the animals on the farm. Animals are a staple of the Story of Seasons games and you do have to take very good care of them by doing the usual things; feeding them, brushing, petting, and making sure they get lots of sunshine and fresh air. The happier they are, the better quality milk, eggs, and wool they'll provide for you. 

Taking care of the cute animals.

Farming and ranching aren't the only things you can do. There is of course fishing and bug catching. Sometimes the villagers will ask you for a favor like catching a certain type of fish or a certain number of bugs. The fishing isn't bad so I didn't mind doing it. The bug catching is a little trickier with having to sneak up on the bugs and catch them with your hands. I do wish we could have just had a bug catching net to make things a little easier. There's also foraging various types of mushrooms and flowers. The flowers are important not just because you can give them as gifts, but you can process them in a windmill to make different colored dyes for clothing. This ties in to getting different outfits for your farmer. One of the merchants at the bazaar can make the outfits for you as long as you provide the materials of the types of wool and dye required. There's a lot of great looking outfits and I spent a lot of time unlocking them especially some really cute sweaters that I liked. The outfit gets sent to your closet at home. You can change your outfit and your look whenever you want just by going to the closet. 

So many cute outfit choices. 

There's also a group of five nature sprites that will help you out, but not for free of course. Don't worry, it doesn't cost you money. They're very cute and each one has a set skill that helps make things easier for you. Say you want better quality fish, then you donate a bunch of fish to the sprite that's all about fishing. This not only ranks up your friendship with the nature sprites, it increases the quality of items so they can sell for a higher price at your bazaar stall. That's not all the sprites do though. When you're selling items at your stall, you can use a skill called Cheer Time which allows the sprites to help out by dancing and using their skills to sell your items faster with additional perks. It's a wonderful thing to have especially towards the end of a bazaar day shift ensuring you're able to sell out of all your stock. 

The cute nature sprites.

It wouldn't be a Story of Seasons game without the romance. You have 12 romance options to choose from, six bachelorettes and six bachelors. You can chat with them and giving them their favorite gifts definitely boosts the relationship points as well as fulfilling their requests. There is potential for Queer romance because whether you play as a masculine or femme character all the romance options are open to you. If you have trouble deciding who you like, you can get a love confession from all of them and see all the cute scenes and date all of them as well until you decide which one you want to marry and you can only marry one. Whoever you choose gets you another charming scene and the rest  of the group the relationship status changes to great friends. 

For the non romance options, you can make friends with them and you do get some adorable friendship scenes with them. Giving them their favorite items helps and doing favors for them will boost the friendship also. If you remember their birthday and gift them their favorite thing that also adds to the friendship points. It's not one sided however. Your romance interests and townspeople will gift you things too in the form of various items, cooking recipes, and sometimes crafting materials. There are some grinding aspects to the games such as getting enough materials to upgrade the farming equipment, but I didn't mind because I was enjoying myself. 

There are a lot of great festival events like a tea party and animal shows where you can choose an animal to compete. I enjoyed these because they're not only fun, they break up  the farming days. The rewards for winning the competitions are pretty nice, plus you get an automatic upgrade for your animal products. I love the take your time and putter around as much as you want mentality of Grand Bazaar and I did just that. Winning world rank with the bazaar was fantastic and you get to see some cute scenes with the ending credits. That's basically the gist of the main story to get world rank, but the game lets you keep playing afterwards. I was amused that when I chose someone to marry and we had a lovely wedding, there were more ending credits. Again, the game lets you keep playing and I'm having a good time doing that and I'm currently on year 3 so far. Grand Bazaar brings a lot of wonderful things to the table if you love farm sims. It's cute, fun, and has a lot of charm with the characters and art style. The story itself is easy to follow and the fact that you can keep playing and living your best farm life is wonderful because it's so much fun to play.

Side note: Thank you to everyone who supported Ron and I throughout this really challenging year. We just celebrated my birthday and our 18 year wedding anniversary. We're grateful we got another year together. Thank you for all the love and support on Twitch and for reading the Mothergamer blog. We hope everyone has a happy new year! 

I chose Arata for my romance. He's a sweetie.

*Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar is available to play on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Steam 

*Join the Motheramer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Winter Burrow A Charming Cozy Survival Game

 *Note: I received the game for free for my honest review of the game. Thank you to Future Friends Gaming and Pine Creek Games for the game key! 

From the start Winter Burrow has a charm with the lovely hand drawn art style bringing to mind a lovely story book. The young mouse talks about their childhood home and the death of their parents which leads to them returning to their old home to rebuild and begin a new life in the burrow. 

Memories of home. 

The tutorial for the game is pretty easy to follow. You have to forage for food, gather crafting materials, and fight giant bugs while surviving the cold. You also have to keep an eye on your health. The game feels like Don't Starve, but less punishing. If you do pass out, you drop all your items and just wake up in your home. You can go back and get all your dropped items and you don't lose your progress which I really appreciated. 

Out in the wilderness. 

I also liked the accessibility settings in the game which allowed me to turn off spiders. I have pretty bad arachnophobia so I was delighted to find I could turn that setting on and the spiders look like giant ants. There is crafting and cooking in the game which I found enjoyable. Various meals give different benefits like more health or increased stamina. With the crafting, you can make warmer clothes for the little mouse which definitely helps with the cold. You can also craft all kinds of cute furniture items and as you progress the story you do unlock more recipes for each thing. 

Taking some time for crafting. 

The game is fairly linear which isn't a bad thing. You meet all kinds of interesting characters who you have to help with various tasks and the rewards are upgraded tools, new crafting recipes, as well as useful items. The one issue I kept having was inventory space. I was constantly running out of room and would have to rush back to my little home and dump a bunch of things in storage. I would be proactive while I was there and cook more meals to take with me. Luckily after a bit of story, I was able to get recipes to craft bigger backpacks and increase my inventory space so running out of room started happening less often.

I loved the story for Winter Burrow. It was interesting and the gameplay for me was fun. I don't usually like survival games, but this one made the whole experience pleasant. I appreciated the common theme of community throughout the story and I was rooting for the little mouse the entire time. I liked upgrading the house and unlocking new areas as part of the story. I was especially thrilled about having a little mushroom garden in the basement which was not just cute, it took a bit of the edge off having to constantly go foraging. The game isn't very long; about ten hours, but when I finished I felt like I was saying goodbye to dear friends. Another thing that's rather lovely is you can keep playing once you finish the main story mainly to keep crafting the furniture sets and get any collectibles you may have missed. It's obvious a lot of love and care went into Winter Burrow and it created a charming cozy survival game that is well worth the visit. 

Indoor mushroom garden.

*Winter Burrow is available to play on the following platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam 

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mothergamer Plays Asfalia: The Cranky Volcano and Panic at the Mansion

 *Note: I received both games for free for my honest review. Thank you to Funtomata for the Nintendo Switch game keys!

Since both games are short, one about an hour and the other just a few hours, I'm reviewing both of them in this latest review. Let's start with the first game, The Cranky Volcano. We're introduced to Charlie as she rides her bike home from school. This is a nice way to show off the cute art and give a brief tutorial on how to move the cursor in the game for this point and click adventure. 

Meet Charlie.

Interact with everything, because there's a great chance to get some pretty nice stickers for Charlie's sticker book. Charlie will also find items she can use later that go into her satchel. After fully exploring the yard, Charlie is able to go into the house and talk to her dog Baya and go upstairs to her room to explore. This is another area to get some stickers. 

Cute stickers.

Charlie wants to play with Baya, but Baya doesn't want to play. Baya is resting and it seems like she's not feeling well, but Charlie being a child doesn't necessarily understand this and gets angry and frustrated by this and starts shouting. This is really well done in showing that sometimes kids don't quite know how to regulate their emotions and how that can affect their behavior. It's at this point that Charlie gets transported to a magical world known as Asfalia. 

Charlie explores Asfalia.

Asfalia is delightfully weird and colorful with many whimsical characters that Charlie can talk to and help in the form of some puzzles. The puzzles aren't too complicated because the entire story itself is geared towards young children explaining anger and emotions to them in a wonderfully creative way. The volcano rumbles every now and then showing the urgency of getting things sorted quickly. The game also autosaves when you enter new areas which is fine, but you only get one save slot.

The voice acting in Cranky Volcano is very well done making it feel like a storybook come to life which is a lovely touch. Cranky Volcano doesn't overstay its welcome and I finished it in an hour and got to appreciate the adorable ending. 

A fun party in Asfalia.

Next up is Panic at the Mansion. We are with Charlie once again and her four puppies having fun playing at the park. This is a point and click game as well so there is a short tutorial about how to move and interact with things. The sticker book is back so again you can get some really nice stickers for it.

Charlie has fun with the puppies. 

There's voice acting in this one too and again it's very well done. There's a slight change in the art style too making it a bit more vibrant than the previous game, but still keeping all the whimsy and cute charm. Charlie can play one more game with the puppies and then a storm suddenly breaks out and the puppies run away. Charlie starts looking for the puppies commenting about how scared they must be because of the storm which introduces quite nicely the discussion of fear, being scared, and facing those fears.

Just like the last game Charlie is teleported to Asfalia, but it's in a different area. Charlie meets Lily a tiny flame from a fallen star. Charlie and Lily both don't like the dark and there's a little segment where Charlie can find moonstones to feed Lily so she can shine very brightly. Lily and Charlie team up to find the lost puppies and off they go to try and find a way to the place they were last seen, a mansion at the top of a hill.

Charlie and Lily meet a cute ghost. 

Charlie and Lily meet some interesting characters like a talking knife who really loves cheese and video games or a Chimera that can't tell when someone is in disguise. These add a touch of humor that everyone can enjoy and Charlie can help all of them out with various things. There's a lot of back and forth to previous areas unlike the first game, but I didn't mind because I was having fun seeing where Charlie and Lily's adventure took them. There are a few puzzles, but again nothing terribly challenging since the games are family friendly and keeping in mind young children playing it. 

Solving a puzzle. 

Charlie and Lily discover things about themselves in regards to fear and what it means to find courage even when you're scared. It's a lovely gentle way to teach kids about expressing their emotions in a constructive and mindful way. The lovely voice acting and charming art that looks like a hand painted storybook really helps that to shine in a fantastic way. Panic at the Mansion is also short, but that's not a bad thing. I finished it in about three hours and loved the ending. Both games are fantastic and very well done. The fact that Funtomata worked with child specialists such as emotional coaches because they wanted their games to teach children in a fun and thoughtful manner has me really impressed with them and I hope we get to see more of Charlie and more games like this that are fun and educational for everyone. I'm glad I got to check out The Cranky Volcano and Panic at the Mansion because they were such a wonderful and charming journey with brilliant voice acting and wonderful art. Overall, both games are worth your time if you like short but sweet learning adventures with just the right touch of whimsy. 

A fun little party sticker. 

*Asfalia: The Cranky Volcano and Asfalia: Panic at the Mansion are available to play on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch and Steam 

*Update: Funtomata reached out and let me know there's one save slot per Nintendo Switch profile so each child gets their personal save and on PC/Mac you have unlimited save files. 

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Ghost of Yotei An Epic Journey

 I loved Ghost of Tsushima so I had been counting down very excitedly for Ghost of Yotei. The setting takes place 329 years after the events of Ghost of Tsushima in the area of Mount Yotei in Ezo. From the beginning Ghost of Yotei grabs your attention with the introduction of a woman entering a village and the villagers warning her not to interfere with someone known as the Snake. We are then introduced to this woman who is Atsu explaining her reasons for targeting the snake and the group he's a part of the Yotei Six and their leader Saito and it's very much full on justified revenge. Erika Ishii does an amazing job as Atsu right from the start and I instantly liked Atsu. Obviously the fight with the Snake happens here and this allows the game to give a bit of a tutorial on the game controls and Atsu's fighting skills. It's a great start to everything with a badass duel and setting up the beginning of Atsu's status as the Onryo a vengeful spirit seeking vengeance for past wrongs. 

Atsu searchs for the Snake.

There's an interesting back and forth between the past and the present in Ghost of Yotei. When Atsu returns to her family's home, she can switch back to the past showing memories of her childhood with her family. You get to see what Atsu was like when she was a child alongside her brother Jubei as well as seeing what her parents were like. I loved the minigame of forging swords with Atsu's father and then learning to play the shamisen with her mother. It's smartly done giving us this insight and allowing us to get to know her family and become emotionally attached to them. We see that Atsu and her family were happy, that there was understanding, and love. 

Atsu as a child with her brother Jubei. 

I was happy to see that the open world here is just as beautiful as it was in Ghost of Tsushima. The vibrant colors of flowers, the wind guiding us, and of course there is photo mode in the game. I was also delighted that this game also had plenty of accessibility options including being able to change the difficulty settings of the game and they also included Kurosawa mode where you can play in black and white. They also kept in the foxes and fox shrines. I loved finding all the foxes and of course petting them. I spent a ton of time in photo mode because the stunning vistas and different areas are gorgeous. 

Enjoying the view. 

There is no level grinding in Ghost of Yotei which makes sense because Atsu is an entirely different character and this is a new story and it's hers. Instead, Atsu has an arsenal of various weapons at her disposal and as part of her journey she picks up some new ones and learns how to wield them. Unlocking skills in her skill tree for each weapon requires finding shrines all over the world map which encourages exploring everywhere. Depending on what type of enemy she's fighting Atsu can switch weapons easily to turn the fight to her advantage. I quite enjoyed this combat system because it made battles feel intense and I was having fun with it figuring out what I needed for certain fights like defeating a guy who was twice Atsu's size and when I figured it out and won I felt pretty darn excited about it. 

I loved exploring in Ghost of Yotei and I always love doing side quests in open world games like this. Atsu meets so many interesting people and this comes full circle with what is called her wolf pack. These are people who Atsu cares about as well as friends she makes along the way who can help her with different things like improving her armor and weapons or replenishing tools she uses. Atsu can set up camp and if they can, one of them will show up and sit with her and help her out. 

My personal favorite was Atsu meeting the Ainu people. For those who may not know, the Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan and are considered the native people of Hokkaido. I loved that they were included and that it was done in a thoughtful and mindful way. Apparently the devs made a point of traveling to Hokkaido and meeting with an Ainu cultural advisor, met with the Ainu and learned about their culture, their items, and had advisors directing them on how to best accurately and respectfully portray the Ainu in the game. Atsu interacts with an Ainu kotan (Ainu village) and there are several quests she can do with them. She also meets with some of their merchants on her travels and is able to trade with them. I loved this part of the game and honestly, I wished there had been more with them because the Ainu are an incredible people and I loved hearing their stories, their songs, and listening to their explanations about their day to day life. I would find myself visiting with them often throughout the game. 

Atsu chats with the Ainu. 

The main story itself is great. As I said before, Erika Ishii did an amazing job voicing Atsu. The entire voice acting cast are fantastic and I would just stop and talk to everyone. I felt for Atsu when she was going through the rage and trauma she felt and this is showcased really well with a wolf that sometimes appears to Atsu who she helps sometimes by exacting revenge on hunters who are killing wolves. I truly felt that in a way the wolf represents Atsu's anger and it's a smart choice because I loved that wolf, but I also understood that shared rage about the unfairness of bad people getting away with causing harm because of an imbalance of power. However, I also appreciated the brief moments of peace and joy that Atsu had such as quietly playing a song on her shamisen or taking the time to stop and pet an adorable fox. It adds a level of much needed balance when I would explore or take a little break from the intensity of the main story. 

Atsu pets a cute fox. 

There is even a beautiful nod to Jin and Ghost of Tsushima in one of the Tales in the game and it hit me hard with the emotions and I found myself teary eyed at those nods to him and references to his story. The Tales were some of my favorite things about Ghost of Tsushima and I'm glad to see they had them here in Ghost of Yotei and some of them were heartbreaking, but also connecting to Atsu with the theme of familial love especially between a mother and daughter. It's wonderfully done and the rewards for doing these are worth it as they range from different styles of armor to weapon upgrades. 

I loved every minute of Ghost of Yotei because of the great storytelling with the main story and some of the side stories tying everything together. Learning about the past of the Yotei Six was also intriguing because you come to realize it's not necessarily one sided and Saito himself is quite the egotistical villain. I absolutely despised his character especially when it was revealed how self serving he is multiple times throughout Atsu's adventure. There were far too many great moments in the story to count and some of them wrecked me emotionally, but it made for an epic journey for Atsu right down to the finale and I'm so glad I got to experience all of it. 

Atsu takes a moment. 

*Ghost of Yotei is available to play on Playstation 5

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mothergamer Plays Simon the Sorcerer Origins

 *Note: I received the game for free for my full honest review. Thank you to PRHound and Smallthings Studio for the Xbox game key!

* I'm not the best at puzzles so I did play the game with a full guide. Gamespew made an excellent step by step walkthrough guide which you can find here: https://www.gamespew.com/2025/10/simon-the-sorcerer-origins-walkthrough/

It had been ages since I played a Simon the Sorcerer game so I was delighted to get a chance to play Simon the Sorcerer Origins which is celebrating thirty years of Simon the Sorcerer. The original Simon the Sorcerer games were point and click adventures on PC and Chris Barrie brought Simon to life with his comedic timing and wit. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Chris Barrie was voicing Simon once again in Origins. Origins is a prequel with events happening before the first game introducing us to Simon who has moved to a new neighborhood with his family.

Simon in the new house.

This gives you a chance to learn the tutorial about interacting with things, combining items to make something useful to solve various puzzles. It feels familiar in a good way, think Discworld meets Monkey Island. The humor is very British and quite funny with Simon's sarcastic wit. The art style is cute and while the animation can sometimes be a little clunky, it doesn't detract from the fun of the game. 

It doesn't take long before strange things start to happen and Simon is whisked away to a strange world with magic, strange wizards, and even more fantastical creatures. There's a prophecy of sorts and Simon has to figure this out while also trying to find a way back home.

Simon meets Calypso the wizard.

There is fast travel in the game with a hilarious joke about giant map pins. It definitely made having to go back and forth between areas much easier and there is a ton of back and forth through the storytelling and for many of the puzzles. 

Map with map pins.

There are a lot of puzzles and sometimes it was not always obvious what to do which made me grateful for the guide I was using because sometimes a solution was not always clear to me and many times the instructions could be a bit vague. Simon would make a comment that would give small hints about what to do next. The puzzles weren't too bad and not terribly frustrating which I appreciated. 

Simon tries to solve a puzzle. 

I was constantly amused at Simon breaking the fourth wall with his commentary on the ridiculous situations he found himself in during his adventure. Chris Barrie does an excellent job voicing Simon and I found myself laughing often at Simon's antics such as roasting a talking painting's terrible poetry. I really enjoyed Simon the Sorcerer Origins because of the great way it approaches the storytelling. The game doesn't overstay its welcome, I finished it in about six hours and the ending is all wrapped up nicely setting up the events of the first game. It's a nice nod to the series while also introducing it to people who have never played Simon the Sorcerer games before. I had a blast with it and I would be thrilled to see them continue more of Simon's adventures. 

Simon breaks the fourth wall.

*Simon the Sorcerer Origins is available on the following platforms: Steam, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and Nintendo Switch

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mothergamer Plays Spindle

 *Note: I received the game for free for my honest review. Thank you to PRHound and Wobble Ghost for the Nintendo Switch game key!

Right from the start you can see the nods to classic Legend of Zelda games in Spindle. The art for the game is hand drawn and it's wonderful. For me it brought to mind playing old school adventure games when I was a kid and that nostalgia hit hard in the best ways. The initial introduction is interesting, but doesn't really explain a lot and that's the point. It's a mystery we have to solve. It's a dark and stormy night and you are woken up by a cute talking pig and you are Death. It's an intriguing set up as you and your pig companion try to figure out what is going on in the world.

Death and a cute talking pig.

It's obvious things have gone very wrong when you discover the soul of an old man is not with his body. Spindle isn't just about death and how we deal with it, it's about understanding the nuances of balance and it's up to you and your pig companion to restore that balance while unraveling the mystery that caused the chaos. Charon is a constant presence offering advice about where to find the lost souls as well as trying to help figure out what's going on. 

Meeting Charon. 

It's up to you to explore the various towns, talk to the people there to get information, and of course explore the dungeons and solve puzzles to get to where you need to go. I love puzzles, but I'm not the best at them and it can take me several tries to figure out the solution. Spindle definitely had some tricky puzzles, but nothing that was too frustrating. I was having so much fun with the game and story, I was very determined to solve those puzzles and when I did I felt so proud of myself for figuring it out. 

I did have a couple issues with the game. There was an issue at one point with stuttering frame rate on the Switch. It was quite noticeable, but once I closed the game and rebooted it was fine and there were no issues. There was also a glitch with a puzzle where it was not working correctly, but again rebooting the game solved the problem. The last one was gameplay with the world map and I do feel it is a lack of accessibility. The map is very detailed which is great. However, some of the colors are so similar they tend to blend together and the fact that I could not zoom the map in at all made it challenging for me to navigate my surroundings and figure out where to go next. There was a lot of backtracking for me because of getting turned around and that was a bit frustrating. 

World map in Spindle. 

Those issues aside, I really enjoyed Spindle. I liked the story and how it kept me guessing with reveals I didn't see coming. I appreciated the way the villagers in each town just accepted Death and his pig as normal and asked them for favors or helped them out with little clues here and there. I also loved the little nods to taking a moment to just be with things like being able to go fishing and fill up a fishing encyclopedia with all the fish you find. 

The biggest thing for me playing Spindle was the power of connection. Throughout the story, Spindle showed how each of us is connected whether it's through family, friends, community, or just finding common ground with a kindred spirit and how even in death that connection never truly goes away as long as we have empathy and compassion for each other. It's a powerful message told beautifully through the charming art style, amusing bits of humor, and in depth emotional moments through each character you meet. Spindle isn't necessarily a story about death, it's about life and how we navigate it and find that balance from the beginning right to the end. It's beautifully done with a gentle thoughtfulness and I appreciated the journey. 

Having a relaxing time fishing.

*Spindle is available to play on the following platforms: Steam and Nintendo Switch

*Join the Mothergamer community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer