The Adventures Of Pirotess: Starlight Celebration 2020

 The Starlight Celebration is a holiday event I look forward to every year in Final Fantasy XIV because it's a lot of fun, a nice break from adventuring, and you always get some nice rewards for participating. The Starlight Celebration started December 14 and runs until December 31, 2020. This year's Starlight was a great time and a much needed cheerful distraction this year. Everywhere is decorated for Starlight and it brought a smile to my face. Remember, in order to participate you need to be at least level 15. Head on over to Mih Khetto's Ampitheatre in Old Gridania to get started.

Pirotess admires a Starlight tree in Gridania. 

Talk to the NPC Amy Garanjy to start the quest A Festive Fiasco. You will need to talk to her for the rest of the Starlight quests too as you progress through the event and get the story going. Yes, there is a story with this event that fits the theme of the holiday event.

Starting the event quests. 

Throughout the quest line you will need to do a variety of set tasks to help make sure that this year's Starlight runs smoothly. As you complete each thing and turn in the quest, you get to pick a gift from a star shaped box called a twinkle box. There are five so you get to come back and open each one after every completed task. I liked this because it was a festive and cute idea that added to the holiday whimsy. 

Pick a gift, any gift from the twinkle box!

The event doesn't take too much time. I ran around and did things and it took me about an hour because I was enjoying this with friends. That's the nice thing about these events. You can do them on your own or celebrate it together with your friends or make new friends during the celebration. There is also a lovely event where you can talk to an NPC and read letters from characters from the story you have helped wishing you a Happy Starlight. It's a nice moment that adds a wonderful touching moment to the whole thing. 

Pirotess enjoys some holiday letters from friends.

When the event is completed, you get some great rewards. Three of them you can buy from the NPC vendor and they are some nice Winter holiday themed furnishings for your house for outdoors and indoors. You can also buy more magicked prisms if you like that are icy fireworks numbers that are just silly fun. 

All the goodies you can buy from the Starlight vendor.

The big thing is the holiday mount. This year's mount is the Snowman mount. You get a snowman bell and once you activate it, you can summon the snowman mount. It's quite cute and made me laugh when I tried it out because it was amusing seeing my character hop around inside a snowman. It's a terrific reward for the Starlight Celebration. 

The snowman mount in action. Wheee!

The Starlight Celebration this year was a delight with a cute holiday mount and new furniture items. It's a nice break from the level grinding and I enjoyed running around having a good time with my friends. If you haven't done the event yet, round up your friends or go on your own and take the time to have a little fun and spread some holiday cheer. Thank you to everyone for all the support with the blog and our community on Twitch. From our family to yours, we hope you have a safe and happy holiday and a happy new year. Thanks for reading, see you at the next adventure! 

Happy holidays! See you at the next adventure! 

*Final Fantasy XIV is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, and OS X

*Join our community on twitch as we enjoy games and talk about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: A Good Viking Story

 Allow me to start off by saying that I liked Valhalla and had a good time with it. However, there are definitely multiple issues with the game and story. We're going to dive in and go over all of it, the good and bad. When I started the game, I noticed right away the great accessibility choices. You can choose closed captions with subtitles and the ambient noises in the game do get included with the closed captions so the subtitles will point in the direction of a fire crackling. There were also settings to make the controls easier which is great for me because I have arthritis in my hands. There is also colorblind mode. The accessibility settings are great and it shows they really took the time to tweak them for everyone. You can also choose what difficulty setting you want to have for the game ranging from easy to very hard. Once everything was set to my liking, I was ready to start playing. 

Accessibility settings in the game.

Valhalla is set in the 9th century centering around the Viking invasion of England. You start the story in Norway and here you can decide if you want to play Eivor as female, male, or let the animus choose. I went with female Eivor for my playthrough. The story starts with Eivor as a child during a feast honoring the king of the Raven Clan when things take a turn for the worse and young Eivor witnesses the destruction of her hometown by a rogue warlord, Kjotve the Cruel. There is a time skip after this event showing an adult Eivor trying to rescue her crew after a failed attempt to kill Kjotve. This beginning is a way to start the battle tutorial showing how to do stealth and attack enemies. It's pretty straightforward and the combat is a lot of fun. 

I liked Eivor right away. I found her interesting and the voice actress for her is quite good. As everyone escaped in the longship and returned home, you get shown who Eivor is. The king of the Raven Clan adopted her and his son Sigurd is her brother and you get that sense of love and respect they have for each other right away. There are places to explore in Norway of course that are beginner areas and part of the story. It may seem like a bit of a long introduction, but I didn't mind because it was fun exploring and I got to see how Eivor's battle skills worked with an axe and a bow. The areas of Norway in the game are beautiful and I found myself stopping often just to take in the view. 

A beautiful view in Norway. 

The story really begins when Sigurd shows up with two Hidden Ones (assassins) he has befriended during his time away, Basim and Hytham. Sigurd gives Eivor a hidden blade, a gift from Basim. Basim proceeds to tell them about the existence of the Order Of The Ancients and tells them that Kjotve is one of them. Sigurd's father tells them going after Kjotve is a mistake, but naturally Sigurd and Eivor don't listen and unite with King Harald to attack Kjotve. After their success, Harald announces that he is going to unite all of  Norway under his rule and the king of the Raven Clan swears fealty to Harald angering Sigurd. Sigurd and Eivor make the decision to go to England with people loyal to them in the Raven Clan and build their own place free of Harald's rule. 

This unlocks the world map for England and while you can travel back and forth between England and Norway, it is a good idea to stay in England for a while to explore doing the main story, side quests, finding mysteries, getting treasures, and doing raids. The raids are done really well and because you are building a town you need supplies which means raiding various places along the coast which are marked on your map. As Eivor would command the longship and pull up to a place that could be plundered, a raid command would pop up, and everyone would hop off the ship and the chaos would ensue. Eivor would have to use Odin Sight (like eagle vision) or use her raven to get a lay of the land and see where things were. Once everything of worth had been taken, a message would pop up deeming the raid successful and everyone could leave. In order to build and upgrade buildings in Ravensthorpe, these plundered supplies get used. If you run out, you have to go raiding again. The goal is to level up your settlement because it gives you more influence and power. The issue is that after a while the supplies would run low and there would not be enough raiding areas so I would have to run around on the world map and try to find supplies in other places like bandit forts and small villages. 

Viking raid time!

The leveling system is different in Valhalla. When Eivor does raids, completes a story mission, or unlocks new areas, takes down an Ancient or their zealots, she is rewarded with 2-4 skill points which she can use to unlock different abilities on a Norse constellation skill tree. The abilities range from improved stealth to stronger melee attacks. When these abilities are unlocked, it increases Eivor's power level. The power level is important because each area on the world map, each legendary beast, and each challenge has a specific power level. If Eivor's power level is too low, she can't take these things on without dying. While this adds a bit of a grind to the game, I never really noticed it because there is so much to do with the many extras in the game and as Eivor completes each story chapter she gets a pretty big chunk of experience which unlocks those abilities and power levels fairly quickly. There are also books of knowledge Eivor must find which are usually hidden in enemy forts and once she obtains it, it unlocks special attacks she can do when her stamina bar is full. My favorite one so far is Valkyrie Smash. It gives an extra boost to Eivor's combat skills and can make for some thrilling battles. 

The skill tree in action and yes, my Eivor got real powerful.

Another thing that is different is the armor, armor sets, and weapons. You will have your armor and weapons with you for a long time so it's a good idea to gather all the materials you find so you can upgrade them. After a certain upgrade you can take them to the village blacksmith and he will improve them even more to a higher quality so that you can add various runes that enhance your armor and weapons with things like improved defense or a resistance to poison. By the time I had fully upgraded my preferred sets, they were at mythical level which definitely gave Eivor that extra edge in combat. 

Upgrading your gear is a good idea for your adventure.

When I wasn't doing Viking things and just wandering around admiring all the gorgeous scenery,  I spent time petting the dogs and cats in the game. I always love it when a game has the feature of petting the cute animals in games. I stopped and petted all the dogs and cats everywhere. Another cute thing in Valhalla is that after petting the dog or cat they follow you around for a bit and you can pet them again and again. I did this a lot. It just brought so much joy being able to sit with a fluffy dog and pet them. 

Yes, you can pet the dogs in the game!

There is photo mode in Valhalla and it is a fantastic feature because you can turn the camera and get the angles just right. I spent a lot of time in photo mode taking pictures of various landscapes, Eivor looking around, and many pictures of dogs and cats. You can save everything to an album and share your photos with people in the game to like and you can like their photos as well. 

Having fun with photo mode. 

As Eivor's story progresses, you unlock other areas such as Vinland and a dream sequence of Asgard. These have their own respective power levels as well and once unlocked, you can travel between them any time. I liked both areas, but I really enjoyed the setting of Asgard. It was stunning and I loved exploring everywhere. However, I was not a fan of the overly complicated puzzles and it made a magical area tedious for me so much to the point that I skipped over a lot of things there. I do feel that Asgard was really well done, but I felt it could have been a little better with some of the gameplay there. 

Eivor in Asgard. 

The nice thing about Valhalla is you can take your time with it. There's no rush to finish the story and if you want to run around exploring everywhere you can. There's also mini game things you can do which I spent a ton of time on. Fishing is a relaxing one where you actually get rewards for trading a set amount of certain types of fish to a vendor. There's flyting which is basically a contest exchanging insults between two parties in verse. I had a good time with that one and each time Eivor wins a flyting contest, her charisma increases. There's drinking contests which play like a kind of rhythm game as you drink several horns or cups of mead. If you miss a beat, you spill your mead and you can lose to your opponent. I was terrible at the drinking game, but it was fun all the same. There's also a tabletop dice game called Orlog. I went from not being really thrilled with Orlog for always finding an excuse to stop and play. You and your opponent have a set number of stones and tokens that are known as God Favors. The God Favors have different effects ranging from blocking attacks, to stealing resources. The person who loses all their stones loses the game. It makes you plan out your strategies and tactics, something I love doing. Hearing the news that there is now going to be a physical version of Orlog in the future has me excited to play Orlog in the real world with friends. 

Eivor does some fishing. 

Now we get to the issues with Valhalla. While I enjoyed the story of Valhalla, I felt it wasn't as strong as the story in Origins and Odyssey. I liked Eivor a lot and it was a blast channeling my inner shield maiden as I went through exciting castle sieges, chaotic raids, and took down all the baddies. I feel that it was a good Viking story, but it didn't necessarily feel like an Assassin's Creed story. I loved the open world RPG setting. I'm all about that style because that is something that is fun for me and totally in my wheelhouse. I just wish it had given me a bit more in regards to the assassin aspect of it and more with Layla. It seemed more focused on being a Viking which is fine, but there were some plot holes for me and the story felt a little unfinished. I found myself missing ancient Egypt with Bayek and Aya as well as missing ancient Greece with Kassandra and Alexios. Yes, the assassins are there and we do get some of the lore that has been a big part of the series, but it still felt like something was missing.

Then we have the technical issues. Wow, the many technical issues have hindered Valhalla. There were so many bugs with raids as well as game breaking bugs that made it impossible for people to continue the main story. I was lucky that I was able to complete the main story, but that doesn't mean I didn't experience those issues either. The biggest thing is all the game crashes on every single platform. Yes, you are reading that correctly. It crashes on every single platform including the newer consoles Xbox series X and PS5. I played the game on PS4, my friends played on PC, Xbox, and PS5. All of us have experienced game bugs or game crashes. I understand that tech issues happen, but to have it happening on this scale is inexcusable. When I have things happening like the raider Vikings not helping me open a chest, yes it's funny, but also frustrating as shown in the clip below. 

Please, just talk amongst yourselves. It's fine. 

Eivor would even get stuck in places and I would have to figure out a way to fast travel to get her unstuck or I would have to reload my last save. A patch was released that fixed a lot of those quest bugs which I'm thankful for, but somehow the patch made the game crashes worse. During one stream, the game crashed three times. At one point there was another patch that crashed my PS4 and I had to uninstall and reinstall everything. Then the game wouldn't load my previous save files. This was stressful as I worked to figure it out and luckily everything was fixed and everything is running smoothly again. This shouldn't be happening, but here we are. I know the game was delayed at least twice, but seeing all these issues makes me feel they should have delayed it again until these many issues were sorted out. Honestly, it shows to me the game was not ready and frankly I would be okay with waiting if I got an actual finished game that didn't do things like this. It brings to mind the many issues and bugs Unity had. Granted those issues are fixed now and Unity is a game I like to revisit every now and then, but until these are dealt with Valhalla is not in the same area of great that Origins and Odyssey are. It kills me to say that because I was so excited for Valhalla, but after all the frustration with these issues it's just a good game, not a great one. 

I'm sure I'll come back to Valhalla after those issues are fixed because I did have fun with the game and loved being able to climb up to a mountain peak and take in a spectacular view. I also enjoyed taking down legendary bosses and solving mysteries. The general exploration and combat in Valhalla is a great time, but I need a little more stability with the way the game runs. I hope they do get it sorted out soon so that a good game becomes a great one like it was meant to be. Thanks for reading, see you at the next adventure!

What a fantastic view!

*Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia, and Luna

*Join our community on twitch as we enjoy games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

 

Carto, A Delightful Puzzle Game

 I really enjoyed Carto because it was a chill and relaxing puzzle game with a wonderful story and charming characters. The art for it is quite colorful and has its own charm as well. When I started playing Carto I was immediately delighted by the introduction to the story. You play as Carto, a young girl who is an airship with her cartographer grandma and circumstances that are part of the story cause them to be separated and Carto ends up on an island. This is where the game really starts with Carto trying to find a way back to her grandma. 

Carto starts her adventure! 

As Carto explores the island, she finds map pieces which she can put together to create paths and unlock new areas. This is where the puzzle aspects of the game shine because there are so many different ways to put the map pieces together and the way you put them together determines the layout of the island. Carto's power is that she can pick up the map pieces and move them around anywhere and rotate them to create new paths. This ability is thoughtfully done throughout the entirety of Carto's adventure. 

Moving the map pieces into place. 

The island that Carto lands on is a good starting point in learning how to move the map tiles around as well as seeing how the menu and controls work. It also introduced Carto to the villagers of that island and there are small quests that are part of the story where Carto has to help them find things like their home or missing objects. There are some limits to moving the tiles around. For example, you can't just place an ocean tile against the land, you have to find a piece with some shoreline on it so they can fit together and the land pieces need to be able to connect to other land pieces. 

Carto makes new friends on the island.

As Carto's journey continues, she gets to explore other islands which show new ways to use the map tiles like placing the edges of a forest around a blank area in order to make an entire forest appear. Some of the solutions to the puzzles were not obvious to me, but I never felt frustrated. I think that's the beauty of Carto. You can take your time with it as you solve the puzzles and it has a very relaxed feel and the music is very calming giving an overall chill vibe. When I did solve a puzzle I had been trying to figure out, I realized that I had been overthinking it and the solution was actually fairly simple. I also loved all the different characters on each island and appreciated the cute art style. I also enjoyed the endearing moments like getting to give a bear a bear hug. It just added that wonderful bit of extra adorable to Carto. 

There is so much to love about Carto and while it's not a very long game at about five to seven hours, it's a wonderful experience. It feels like the perfect game to play after a long day cozy under a ton of blankets with your favorite hot beverage, just relaxing and solving puzzles. I loved playing it and I have been playing through it a second time because it is such a joy to play. 

Carto admires the beautiful view with friends.

*Carto is available to play on the following platforms: Steam, Playstation 4, Xboxone, Nintendo Switch

*Join our community on twitch as we enjoy games and talk about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Adventures With Genshin Impact

 I don't usually play gacha games, but Genshin Impact intrigued me. The idea of a free to play open world gacha game was interesting so I decided to try it out. I told myself I would only play for an hour to see what it was like. I ended up playing for two hours because I didn't want to stop playing. The game was that much fun for me and I've been playing ever since. The world of Genshin is set in Teyvat and you are introduced to the twins, a brother and sister who are traveling across many worlds. They are stopped by an unknown god in Teyvat and the god takes one twin and seals away the other. This is where you get a choice to play as either the twin brother or the twin sister. I went with the sister so of course she gets sealed away. This character is just known as Traveler.

The traveler starts her adventure.

Traveler awakens and meets Paimon. Since the main character does not have a voice, Paimon does all the talking and acts as a companion and guide to Traveler. This is how the battle tutorial is done with Paimon explaining how the battle works as well as how the inventory system works. Paimon is very cute and there are a lot of funny jokes with Paimon including referring to Paimon as emergency food which results in a hilarious dialogue between Traveler and Paimon. 

Paimon is not emergency food. 

Traveler and Paimon decide to check out the city of Mondstadt and try to find Traveler's missing twin. Mondstadt is basically the starter city for Genshin Impact and it's beautiful. The world of Genshin Impact itself is gorgeous and it is very clear that they were inspired by games like Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, but does it in a way that shows off its own style. There's a lot of freedom to explore and I would find myself getting sidetracked from the quests to just climb canyon walls, glide down from a mountaintop, and just take in all the amazing scenic vistas. 

The wonderful city of Mondstadt. 

The story isn't really anything mind blowing, but it's easy to follow and it's a lot of fun. You get to meet a variety of interesting characters and some have personal quests you can do as part of the story. This is where some of the gacha aspect comes in. Remember, Genshin Impact is a gacha game and it is important to gacha responsibly because there have been many people spending a ton of money just to get a particular character they want. There are characters you do get for free as part of the story and they do have useful skills if you practice with them and figure out what works for you while using them in your party. Here's the thing. You don't have to spend money in the game if you don't want to. Genshin Impact does a great job of allowing you that freedom to explore and earn the in-game currency known as Primogems by doing daily quests via the Adventurer's Guild, completing dungeons, fighting world bosses, or finishing various quests. You can then use these on the Wish system. There are three different banners for the Wish system depending on if you want a specific character or item. These are definitely subject to RNG and you may not always get what you want, but sometimes the game gives you a pity roll after multiple tries and can surprise you with what you were looking for. This was how I got Klee and Sucrose. Thanks, RNG pity roll!

Wish RNG gave me Klee, Sucrose, and items. Score!

You can have four people in your party and Genshin allows you to play as the character you're actively controlling and switch between each character in your party with the tap of a button depending on what you need to win a fight. Various enemies have weaknesses to certain elements and since each character has a specific set elemental power they can use, it makes you plan out your strategies for your party because you can switch to each character in your party while fighting. For example ice is weak to fire, so having a character like Klee or Amber in your party who have fire abilities is helpful. There are also things to consider like healing abilities. I have a character, Barbara in my party who uses water abilities which can heal a single party member and her ultimate ability heals everyone in the party at the same time. It's things like this that make the combat fun and if your party gets wiped don't worry. You get put back in a safe spot and it just means you have to level grind a bit more. Luckily, it's not tedious to level grind in Genshin because the exploration aspect and rewards make it worth it.

Amber brings the heat.

The two areas that can be explored currently are Mondstadt and Liyue and they're such big areas I never run out of things to do. Throw in multiplayer and there's even more things to do and you can have fun with your friends. Some story chapters are locked behind adventure rank. You need to have the right adventure rank in order to unlock them. This is also true of multiplayer. In order to be able to play the game with your friends, you need to be adventure rank 16. Once you have that, you can play the game with your friends and yes you can play together across multiple platforms. I play on PS4 and have played the game with friends who are on PC and mobile and we've had a blast playing the game together. There is an odd aspect to the multiplayer in Genshin however. The only one who can open the chests in the world is the person who is hosting the multiplayer session. This feels like a really odd choice. Sure, your friends can gather ore and plants in the game and they get rewards from world bosses, but it seems pretty strange that the host opens the chests and is the only one who gets anything. I feel your friends should get something too. Hopefully, they change that sometime in the future. 

Enjoying mutliplayer with my friends.

I love the art of Genshin Impact and no two characters look alike. Each character has their own unique style and anime aesthetic with a variety of personalities. It's great to swap each character in just to see what they can do and I love that each character also has their own personal story quests as well as the fact Traveler runs into them during their adventure. My traveler herself has wind abilities because I attuned with the sacred statue in Mondstadt. You can also change it to earth if you attune with a sacred statue in Liyue. I love the wind abilities and they definitely come in handy. The game itself is very anime which I enjoy because there are a lot of great cutscenes and the overall game itself is fun to explore and play.

A variety of styles for everyone!

That isn't to say that Genshin Impact is completely perfect. There are definitely some issues with things such as ascending your characters. When your characters hit levels 20 and 40 you have to make sure you have certain items in order to break the level seal in order for them to be able to ascend to higher levels. This is all fine, but some of the resources are rare and only dropped by fighting certain bosses or completing certain dungeons which require you to spend a regenerating resource known as resin. The issue is you only get so much resin per day and if you run out, you just have to wait for it to regenerate. That doesn't sound so bad, but the part that is frustrating for many players is that you have to wait 16 hours before you have more and with the later levels, everything you need requires it which makes the higher level grinding in Genshin an unbearable chore. The same thing is kind of similar for the constellation tree. In order to unlock those abilities you need to hope you get a duplicate of that character so you can use it for that and considering how fickle the RNG can be at times, that's a bit rough too.

Yes, it's a gacha game, but those last two things are jarring from the rest of the game which is bordering on revolutionary because it gives away so much for free almost changing the exploitive gacha mechanics and makes me wonder why this monetization was implemented so carelessly and thoughtlessly. It needs a rework and the developers can find a better way in order to make that grind better for everyone. 

Other than that, I do like Genshin Impact a lot. It's a fun adventure and they got so much right with the cross platform multiplayer and the free to play open world exploration. I'm enjoying playing the game with my friends and just having a great journey on my own. If they can just address that higher level grind with the resources, then they would really shine. Than you for reading, see you at the next adventure! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates and please do your best to be safe this year. 

Admiring the beautiful view in Liyue.

*Genshin Impact is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Playstation 5,  Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS

*Join our community on twitch as we enjoy games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

 

Mothergamer Plays Vampyr

 I had never played Vampyr before so when I saw that it was one of the free games for Playstation Plus members in October, I decided to pick it up. The story of Vampyr is set in 1918 London amid World War I and the influenza epidemic. The main character Doctor Johnathan Reid is returning home when he is suddenly attacked and wakes up in a mass grave as a vampire. This is where Vampyr begins playing as Johnathan trying to find answers about why he was turned into a vampire and trying to save lives. 

Johnathan's first day as a vampire. 

This introduction sets up with a quick tutorial on how the user menu and gameplay controls work as Johnathan has to run from vampire hunters that are all over the city. The setting of the city is gloomy, somber, and fitting for the story. Johnathan's beliefs in science and facts are overwhelmed by the supernatural aspects of what has happened to him and slowly he starts to understand how serious his situation is. Johnathan works at a hospital and his standing as a well known surgeon is how he is able to hide in plain sight working the night shift. This also gives him chances to talk to citizens and do quests for them ranging from getting extra medical supplies to rescuing someone who has a fear of being buried alive. 

Dr. Reid is in the house. 

With talking to the citizens, you are able to get clues depending on what you say. Here's the thing, I really did not like that Vampyr only has an autosave feature and no manual save because sometimes I would pick a conversation choice and it would be incorrect which meant the game would tell me that a hint about that person was gone forever. The only way to get it back is to start completely over from the beginning. That is frustrating enough, but then to not even be allowed to reload my last save and have a redo adds to that frustration. I understand what they were trying to do with showing that your actions in the story have consequences, but in reality people also try to amend the conversation by apologizing or explaining that's not what they meant; they get to continue the conversation. Vampyr gives you the illusion of choice with these conversations, but I felt you really don't and in some regards those hints are vital to the story. I ended up playing the game with a conversation guide so I could get every single conversation right and get the main story chat hints done. 

Trying to choose the right conversation. 

You can be the big bad villain and feed on the citizens, but considering many of Johnathan's conversations and inner thoughts are about absolutely not wanting to take lives because he is a doctor, I chose not to do that with three exceptions. The big thing is to not kill the person that is considered a pillar of the community in each district because people can go missing and feral vampires will be everywhere. I also felt that fast travel would have been nice to have because walking back and forth between neighborhoods became incredibly tedious. With each quest and ending each night, you get an update on each district on whether it's stable or unhealthy. This is where Johnathan's identity as a doctor comes in as he can craft medicines at the crafting table at the hospital or at various safe houses, then make the rounds giving people medicine to cure them. Crafting is a big part of the game by the way, as you will need to craft medicines, enhance weapons, and have healing items for Johnathan. 

Crafting medicines and more.

Combat in the game is interesting without being too challenging. Johnathan has plenty of vampire abilities that are unlocked as he levels up. One of the ways to level up is finishing the story chapters and feeding on citizens. If you're playing the pacifist or semi-pacifist route, this can be a bit of a challenge. Without spoiling it, there are at least 3 people that you can feed on that no one will really miss. Sometimes the combat can be a little sticky with the controls and in some boss fights a bit clunky, but they're not completely terrible. Unlocking different combat vampire skills for Johnathan helps to make him stronger, faster, and deadlier when it comes to fighting enemies like overzealous vampire hunters. 

Fighting vampire hunters. 

In many ways Vampyr felt really appropriate to play with the way this year has been due to Covid and drawing the parallels of seeing signs posted everywhere in 1918 London about wearing a mask, staying home if sick, and not coughing in public. I became invested in Johnathan's story as he struggled with the idea of being a vampire while trying to use science and logic with a mix of accepting the supernatural to figure out the mystery behind where the pandemic started and getting answers about the vampire who created him. 

I did enjoy the story in spite of quite a few plot holes. I also feel it suffered from the lack of a manual save system, no fast travel, and some very long loading time in places, but it isn't a terrible game. Depending on certain choices being made in the story you can get a great ending, a good ending, and a tragic ending. You can continue to be a good doctor vampire or you can be a terrible monster vampire that terrifies everyone. That part is definitely up to you. I liked playing Vampyr and I am glad I got a chance to play it. I don't think it's the best game, but I thought it had a good story and I did like the main characters as they discussed class systems, science, and the ability to try to accept that there are things in this world that sometimes we just can't explain like the supernatural. I got the pretty good ending and I was satisfied with it mostly, but again there were questions that didn't really get answered. Perhaps it was done that way on purpose, to leave it up to our imaginations. Either way, it was an intriguing adventure and fun to play as a vampire doctor. 

Johnathan has a cup of tea with a friend.

*Vampyr is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch

*Join our community on twitch as we enjoy gaming and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mothergamer Plays Ghost Of A Tale

 A friend recommended Ghost Of A Tale to me so I decided to pick it up and try it out. Right from the start I fell in love with the charming character of the little bard mouse Tilo who wakes up in a jail cell. Tilo is set free by a mysterious stranger called S and needs to find out where his wife was taken and how to escape the island outpost he's on. This gives a good introduction into the gameplay and information about the garrison run by rats and a council known as Redpaw. Mice are treated as second class citizens and rats have all the power. This is the medieval fantasy setting for Ghost Of A Tale as you learn about Tilo and the world he lives in.

Tilo the bard. 

The way for Tilo to get around the prison is to not be seen. The game is all stealth which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there were points of frustration for me if I mistimed Tilo's movements and he got seen by one of the rat guards. The only choice Tilo has if he's seen is to run away and hide because all the enemies have a line of sight mechanic so when Tilo would hide in a basket or a closet, they could no longer see him and would walk away. I learned to count how many seconds I had before a guard saw me and when to dash into a hiding spot. The game does give Tilo some tools to help in his journey such as wine bottles which can be used to knock a guard out to steal his keys or sticks that Tilo can throw into the distance making a guard investigate the noise so he can dash quickly behind them. There were moments where I wished Tilo could at least have a sword to fight, but as I played more and more of the game, I realized that this is not who Tilo is and that this was the reason for all the stealth. 

Tilo hiding in a basket. Stealth achieved!

As the story progressed I learned more about Tilo, his life, and the lore for Ghost Of A Tale. I enjoyed that part a lot because it had some interesting insights about the history of that world and gave explanations about how Tilo became a bard. There are even moments where Tilo has to choose a song to sing for certain characters he meets. Exploring the different areas was enjoyable because the environments are beautifully done. My favorite area to explore was the nearby woods because it was so pretty and peaceful. The transition from day to night in the game is impressive because when it is nighttime, it is so dark that you definitely need a lantern so you can see. 

There were a lot of fetch quests in the game, but sometimes there's a lack of clarity as the game would tell me to just get a key for a door, but not really tell me which person had the key so I would have to backtrack all over and try to figure out which NPC had the key. These kind of quests could feel like a chore and detracted from the fun of the game for me. I found myself hoarding items because I never knew if they were going to be needed for a quest, so I figured it was better to just keep everything and be prepared. 

One thing I loved was the costume disguises. Once I was able to steal some Redpaw armor, it made it so much easier for Tilo to get around. Sure he looked silly and adorable as the smallest Redpaw guard, but no one chased him and the guards even called him by his fake name. It was amusing to me how they had no clue the little bard was in front of them and I was able to go places I couldn't before.

Tilo is a Redpaw guard now. 

There are some quests that require different disguises and in order for Tilo to have the complete set, I had to explore the island and look in different spots to find each piece. One thing that helped with this was the blacksmith who for a certain amount of florins would mark the items on Tilo's map. There were a variety of characters that Tilo interacted with that were funny, serious, and all of them had really good back stories. There were notes that helped with the outfits too, telling you what was needed for each set. My favorite costume by far was the Captain Otto Powderkeg pirate outfit because I had a good time with that quest and Tilo as a pirate mouse was the cutest thing ever. 

Tilo as Captain Otto Powderkeg.

I never got tired of playing Ghost Of A Tale in spite of a couple of the issues I had with the tedium of some quests and not always knowing where to go on the map. A big part of it for me was the great writing. Each character always had something different to say and it added a new layer to the story. I wanted to know more about characters like the blacksmith Rolo and the two mice who were thieves just hanging out in their jail cell after they picked the lock waiting for something. I especially loved Tilo. The more I learned about his story and how he came to be on that island, the more I wanted to keep playing the game and see where his journey took him. That's what made Ghost Of A Tale a good game for me, the incredible amount of charm it had with the characters and the story itself. I hope we get to see more of Tilo, because I had a great time experiencing his adventure. 

Tilo says see you at the next adventure!

*Ghost Of A Tale is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

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Mothergamer Plays Tokyo Xanadu Ex+

 I had never played the first Tokyo Xanadu so I picked up Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ which is an enhanced version of the game. I looked up what was different from the original and they are: New difficulty, new items, two new playable characters, new content in the main story, and a new after story chapter with a challenging boss. The game is set in an alternate reality where a huge earthquake hit Tokyo in 2005 that took ten years to recover from. So when we start the story it is 2015 and we are introduced to the main character, Kou Tokisaka who lives in Morimiya on the outskirts of Tokyo. Kou lives alone and has a lot of part time jobs. One night after work, Kou sees his classmate Asuka being harassed by a group of boys and tries to intervene. This does not go well for him because he is sucked into a vortex that brings him to a nightmare realm known as Eclipse. Kou runs into Asuka there and they have to fight a monster known as a Greed. Asuka explains that she is a member of a group called Nemesis that is trying to close the Eclipse vortexes permanently. 

Kou and Asuka fight a Greed.

This gives a good introduction into how the battle system works. The tutorial is fairly straightforward explaining that different Greeds have elemental weaknesses and the weapon that each party member has a set element. Characters are able to summon their weapons in the Eclipse from their mobile phone called a Xiphone. Kou's weapon is a combination of sword and whip with the fire element while Asuka's weapon is a rapier and her element is ice. Combat is a lot of fun and you can have three members in your party which means you can switch between the character according to the element you need to fight the different Greeds. The user menu is easy to navigate so you can set up abilities as well as use items for healing or enhancing attacks. 

Explanation of elemental weaknesses.

When not exploring Eclipse dungeons, Kou is a regular high school student and this is where a bit of a Persona element kicks in. The story is set into episodic chapters. Each chapter begins with an introduction with the main story goal that Kou and his friends are supposed to do. Then Kou has free time which allows him to wander the city, talk with people, spend time with his friends to increase his affinity with them, do some side quests, or work at one of his many part time jobs. The game makes it easy to travel just by opening the map and picking the location where you want to go. There is a lot of back and forth in some of the quests and story, but having the fast travel option makes things easier. 

Click on the map and fast travel. 

Each dungeon is fairly linear and has a set elemental theme so it's a good idea to plan your party of three really well for this. One character is active, but you can switch between characters with the press of a button and this is a big part of the strategy in combat so that you can win each battle until the Eclipse dungeon is complete. The game is not too punishing with the battles and gives you the time to adapt and switch things up. The action in the game is a lot of fun and the game allows you to experiment a bit with different tactics for the boss battles. 

Kou explores a dark element Eclipse dungeon. 

The music for the game is great and matches each area very well. The story itself is good and I found myself wanting to keep playing to see what happened next. There are also mini games such as a cooking mini game, an arcade mini game, and a skateboarding mini game. These were a lot of fun and rewarded you with items and accessories for your party members. Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ has a lot of charm because of the story and the characters themselves. It's very easy to dive in and enjoy the game because of the solid gameplay, story, and overall atmosphere. 

A good game overall. 

*Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4, PC

*Join our community on twitch as we play games and talk about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer 

Spiritfarer A Beautiful Journey

 I was intrigued by the concept of Spiritfarer when it was described as a cozy time management game about death. The story introduces Stella with her cat Daffodil who is taking over the job of Spiritfarer from Charon. This means Stella is the new ferrymaster and her job is find spirits and fulfill their last wishes before taking them to the Everdoor, a gate to the afterlife. 

Stella and Daffodil meet Charon. 

Spiritfarer is clearly inspired by the mythology surrounding Charon and the river Styx. Charon's explanation is that he's retiring and it will be up to Stella and Daffodil to sail the sea exploring each island looking for spirits and helping them on their journey to the Everdoor. This begins Stella's journey as a Spiritfarer. One of the first spirits she meets is Gwen who acts as a guide for the tutorial of how to do things on her ship such as building things like a guest room, crafting materials for the ship, or cooking food for spirits. I love Gwen. She is one of my favorite characters in the game because of her fierce sass and quick wit as well as her genuine love and respect for Stella. Gwen's epic take down of a merchant raccoon named Theodore who is clearly trying to rip off Stella is hilarious and the small nod to Tom Nook in Animal Crossing makes it even funnier.

Gwen shows the raccoon who's boss. 

Each spirit that Stella meets has their own unique personality and story about who they were and who they are. They also teach Stella different things like growing crops in a garden and playing beautiful music to make the plants grow faster. Each spirit will also give Stella hints on what kind of food they like and you can click on the character to check their stats. This shows you if a spirit is hungry, their current mood, and what their favorite foods are. I loved the cooking in the game. It was nice creating different recipes, giving the spirits their favorite dish, and seeing how happy it made them. 

Of course as Stella picked up more spirits on each island, they began requesting things such as their own room and workshops. This is where upgrading the ship and building come in. This introduces a shark that loves silly puns and the ship building yard. There are certain materials that need to be crafted, ores to be mined, and certain items to be found in order to get these upgrades. You will also need glims which is Spiritfarer's currency to upgrade the ship. 

Purchasing upgrades for the ship. 

I enjoyed exploring the islands and the areas on the sea. The world of Spiritfarer is beautiful and charming. Each island has its own style and a variety of things that make it stand out. One island had sheep that Stella can put on her ship and she can shear the sheep in order to make wool thread. There are of course ingredients on some of the islands too such as strawberries which Stella can use for cooking. There is fishing that can be done too and I liked having Stella sit down on her ship and catch fish after fish while traveling all over the sea. 

Stella enjoys some fishing. 

There are mini games in Spiritfarer as well that are so much fun. These mini games give Stella materials needed for the crafting in the game. Stella has various abilities that help make it easier to accomplish. Standing outside a storm to catch lightning in a bottle or running around in a meteor shower to get comet rocks add to the whimsical beauty of this game. 

Running around in a meteor shower. 

As the ship gets bigger and as more buildings are added, you can move everything around with the build command. It plays like a game of Tetris moving each building around and stacking them on top of each other. It adds to the happiness of the spirits as well depending on where you put the buildings as well as adding the crafting rooms they ask for such as a lumber mill or a loom. 

Moving buildings around on the ship. 

Exploring the world of Spiritfarer is wonderful because of how detailed each area is with the artwork. The music in Spiritfarer is pretty and fitting for the various places Stella visits. The map is detailed and you can fast travel via a bus stop managed by a cute magical seal named Alex. I preferred sailing because you can find a lot of interesting things and new locations that way, but the fast travel option was convenient when I wanted to get where I was going quickly. 

Checking the map. 

With all of these wonderful things in the game, it's easy to forget that Spiritfarer is about death. We are reminded of it with each conversation that Stella has with the spirits on her ship. Stella doesn't talk so the spirits talk to her constantly and we get to hear their perspective about decisions they made in their lives as well as their hopes and fears. Each spirit is connected to Stella in some way and I appreciated the thoughtfulness that was put into the story of each one. There was one spirit character that reminded me so much of my grandmother it brought a smile to my face remembering her. 

Spiritfarer does such an amazing job of talking about death in a gentle manner showing that while it's understandable to be scared, that it doesn't have to be scary. For one spirit it's about accepting that their life may not have been perfect, but they did everything they wanted to do or for another finding love and peace after a difficult time. Stella is their guide through all of it, being a kind and caring presence during their time with her. I cried many times during Spiritfarer because I genuinely appreciated the beautiful journey that was shown in the story and getting to know the characters. While it is never easy to say goodbye, the lesson that people live on in our hearts and memories is a good one for each of us to learn. I appreciate the love, thought, and mindfulness that went into this game and it was clearly a labor of love for everyone at Thunder Lotus games. Spiritfarer is a true gem of a game. 

Stella says goodbye. 

*Spiritfarer is available to play on all platforms: Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo   Switch

*Come join our community on twitch as we enjoy games and talk about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer