Mother Gamer Plays Dauntless And Loves It

My husband Ron plays a lot of Dauntless. I did try Dauntless out on PC and I did like it, but with the arthritis in my hands it was difficult to handle the controls and it is not easy to map out a controller for Dauntless so it's not very controller friendly for PC. When the announcement was made that Dauntless would be cross platform play I was thrilled. This meant I could try out the game fully on our PS4 and play the game with Ron while he played the game on PC. I seriously counted down the days until the cross platform play launch. Launch day came and honestly there were a lot of issues. People couldn't log in, there was an infinite loading screen upon login, there were lag spikes, and sometimes people got kicked from the game altogether. I decided I would wait a week before I tried to play the game. I guess everyone was excited for cross platform play and the servers got crushed under the weight which is understandable considering Dauntless got four million people all ready to get out there and enjoy the game.


When I did get to start the game, I was excited. Dauntless is free to play and is set in a fantasy world where a cataclysmic event has ripped the world apart and released giant monsters known as behemoths. You get to play as a slayer that takes down these behemoths. The first thing you get to do is create your character. There are a variety of choices with the faces, hair, and makeup for the character creation. I had fun choosing all the things to make my slayer look the way I wanted.

Creating my character for Dauntless.

Once the character is created you are logged into the game with an introduction explaining the world of Dauntless and this comes with a tutorial on how to fight the behemoths, how to use flares to signal where the behemoth is to your team, and how to stagger them. The controls for PS4 are great and the tutorial flowed seamlessly for me. When the tutorial is over you are back in the town of Ramsgate where you can pick up quests and craft items you need for hunts such as armor, weapons, and tonics. There are also a couple of adorable dogs in the game that you can actually stop and pat. I pat the dogs every time I'm in the game because I love dogs even in video games. 

Stopping to pat an adorable dog in the game. 

Dauntless can be played as a solo player or multiplayer. For me, it's more fun with friends and while sometimes it's a bit of a wait to find a hunt match it's not terribly long and once you have your team you're ready to go. Before you start, you have a chance to check your weapons and armor to make sure that they will give you the advantage you need against behemoths. Depending on what their elemental is, you will want weapons that can combat that. For example with a frost behemoth weapons with fire elements on them are your best friend and having armor that protects against ice attacks are quite helpful. As your team is getting ready, the game will show you an element guide for the type of behemoth you're fighting and will show you your weapon and armor power. When the numbers are in green it means your gear is adequate for the hunt. 

Our team gets ready to hunt behemoths. 

The behemoth fights are pretty straightforward as you work with your team to battle them. Each behemoth not only has its own unique elements, they also have various attacks they will use. Being able to recognize their movements when they are starting their special attack is vital so that you can dodge and go in for a counter attack. Breaking off parts of the monster is important as well because you will need those parts for crafting armor and weapons.  The fights are a lot of fun and when you vanquish a behemoth it feels pretty rewarding. You do get ranked on how you did in the fight and so does your team. Don't be too discouraged if your rank isn't so good when you are first starting out. As you level and improve your armor and weapons that rank will go up. Patience is key. 

Working together to take down a behemoth. 

Depending on the type of build you want for your weapons and armor, there are specific behemoths you will need to hunt in order to get the materials needed. The great thing about Dauntless is that it allows you to try out all the weapons and experiment with them to get a feel for each one and decide which weapons suit your play style. For me, I absolutely love chain blades because they allow me to move and dodge quickly while dishing out damage. Armor crafting is important too and there are a ton of choices in armor builds. You will need to talk to the smithing NPCs in order to craft the things you need and if you have the proper amount of materials, you can upgrade them. This is where the grind comes in. You should strive to constantly upgrade your weapons and armor so you can have an easier time in behemoth hunts. 

Crafting and upgrading armor. 

Don't like the colors of the armor? No problem. You can change the color at any time if you have the color palette unlocked. You get a set of colors for free and others you can unlock doing quests or fighting heroic behemoths. If you check the rewards for the quests and heroic hunts you will see the dye color listed. The other way of course is to buy the colors with platinum and that does cost money. If you're strapped for cash, the free way while a bit of a grind is a great way to go and worth it if you would like to change the colors of your items. 

I had fun changing the colors to purple, my favorite color.

There are daily rewards in Dauntless that you get from doing things such as patrols and login rewards. You get one reward per login from the NPC Gregario Flynt and the rewards range from cores you can unlock that give you cells to add to your weapons and armor or crafting materials. If you want to change your character design a bit, you can do that in Ramsgate. Approach a mirror that is near Gregario and it will take you to the character design screen and you can change and adjust your character for a whole new look. 

It is a good idea to try everything out so you get a good feel for the game. You also get rewards when you level up your mastery of weapons so it is advised to try them all out so you can work on it and get some sweet rewards for it. Make sure to take breaks so you don't get burned out on the grind because there is a lot of grinding in Dauntless. However, it is such a fun grind and there is so much to see and do in it and the cross platform play adds to the fun because now no matter what platform you play on you can enjoy the game with everyone. I am off to hunt some more behemoths. See you at the next adventure! 

Ready to hunt more behemoths with Ron. See you at the next adventure!

*Dauntless is now cross platform play and available to play on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One

*Come hang out with our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mother Gamer Plays Yakuza Kiwami

I had never played any of the Yakuza games, but I had always been curious about them so when Yakuza Kiwami was one of the free games offered up with my Playstation Plus I picked it up. The introduction at the beginning of the story is interesting and I really liked Kazuma Kiryu because of his sense of honor and doing his best to protect his friends. I was glad to see that there are a range of difficulty settings in the game options and went with easy so I could get a feel for the game and just enjoy the story.

The story begins with Kiryu taking the fall for a friend and emerging from prison ten years later. This opens up a small tutorial for how the game controls work. Exploration and level grinding are a big part of Yakuza Kiwami as you progress in the main story and there are side quests as well. The night life of Tokyo is vibrant and colorful in the game adding to the atmosphere. I found myself stopping often just to look around at all the different things.

Kiryu in Tokyo. 

This wouldn't be Yakuza without the brawls of course and there are many. Often gangs roaming the streets will pick fights with Kiryu and this is where the game really shines. The fights are fun and being able to switch between Kiryu's four fighting styles; brawler, rush, and beast give you a feel for the fighting mechanics while feeling that raw criminal underworld vibe. However, there are times where the game fails to give you an idea about which fighting style works best and how they differ from each other. I did a lot of trial and error with many fights because of this. That didn't make the game any less fun for me though and successfully winning a fight felt great. 

Switching between fighting styles helps with brawling.

There is one thing that really bugged me about the game and that is all the fights with the character Majima. While I understood that Kiryu being forced to fight Majima was a way to get him back to his original top tier fighting shape after his long stint in prison, I felt incredibly annoyed at how often Majima turned up demanding a brawl especially when I was trying to get somewhere in the story. I did not want to have a constant detour of fighting him and yet he kept popping up everywhere. Majimi is an interesting character don't get me wrong, but I found these fights tedious. Of course the reward for all these fights is it unlocks Kiryu's dragon fighting form which is great, but the irritation of Majima fights sucked a bit of fun out of the game for me. 

Oh good, yet another fight with Majima. 

I enjoyed the story for Yakuza Kiwami a lot because I liked Kiryu and was invested in his journey. There are a lot of flashbacks explaining what happened to certain characters and shines a light on how they came to be where they are in the present. Sometimes the story feels a little slow in places, but it is well thought out and well done. Where it really stands out is with the intrigue and drama with plot reveals that give amazing cinematic cutscenes that feel like you're watching a movie. Overall the game is great and while it's not necessarily a long game, there is plenty to do with the side quests, mini games, and exploration of the city. Once you finish the game, you can also try new game plus which carries over all your learned abilities, mini games, and side quest stories. Yakuza Kiwami was a lot of fun for me to play and I'm glad I checked it out. Thanks for reading, see you at the next adventure!

Kiryu walking off to the next adventure. 

*Yakuza Kiwami is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Microsoft Windows

*Come hang out with me on Twitch as I stream the games I love and we talk openly and honestly about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer