The Adventures Of Pirotess: Celebrating Hatching Tide

One of the great things about Final Fantasy XIV is the holiday events. The current Easter event, Hatching Tide is a simple yet fun one. Hatching Tide started April 9 and runs until April 22 so if you haven't done it yet, you still have time. All the towns are decorated for the event and it's cheerful, pretty, and colorful. 

Pirotess in Old Gridania for the Hatching Tide event.

To start the event you'll need to be at least level 15 and you need to go to Mih Khetto's Amphitheater in Old Gridania and talk to the NPC  Jihli Aliapoh. This will give you the quest for the event. Jihli needs your help solving puzzles and finding hidden eggs. 

Getting the quest for the event. 

At this point, you go with Jihli to talk to the NPC Nonotta and his spriggan Riggy. Nonotta tells you that you're just in time to participate in your very own egg hunt. He gives you a Spriggan jacket which you can equip for the event and a map with clues to where the eggs are hidden. Nonotta informs you that you can talk to various spriggans in town which are marked on your map for clues. 

Pirotess gets a clue from a spriggan. 

The map can be a little confusing and tricky because at first glance it does not seem to make much sense with a jumble of letters, but if you unscramble them it gives you a hint as to which NPC has your hidden egg. When you talk to Nonotta after talking to the clue giving spriggans he tells you that you need to say the secret password, Egg Hunt where your egg is hidden. So when you find the location you need to make sure your chat is set to the say chat window and type Egg Hunt. 

Deciphering the map puzzle. 

It took me a little bit to figure out the puzzle, but once I did I was able to find the location of the hidden eggs pretty quickly. Once the eggs are found, you can take them back to Nonotta and trade them to him. Your reward for finding the eggs are the rest of the spriggan outfit, the bottoms and the boots. 

Spriggan bottoms and boots received!

You can also buy Hatching Tide items from the NPC vendor nearby such as food furniture items for your house and magicked prisms which are like little confetti party items. You can buy a spriggan jacket if you mistakenly discard yours. It has happened to people, so this is a way to replace it. 

Hatching Tide items you can buy from the NPC vendors.

The Hatching Tide event is a lot of fun and a nice break from adventuring. The decorations all over town are a nice change of pace and add a great touch of whimsy. It's easy to solo or for added fun you can run around and do the event with your friends. Thanks for reading. See you at the next adventure! 

Pirotess in her new Spriggan outfit. See you at the next adventure!

*Hatching Tide is available until April 22, 2019 at 7:59 AM (PDT)

*Final Fantasy XIV is available to play on the following platforms: PC and Playstation 4

*Come hang out with me as I play the games I love on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

The Adventures Of Pirotess: Happy Anniversary, Adventurer!

I have been playing Final Fantasy XIV for four years now and it's still as fun as the first day I logged in and started my adventure. There has been so much great story content, fun job classes unlocked, and a variety of great holiday events. There has also been a lot of collectibles such as mounts and minions that I have enjoyed getting with all my friends.

Pirotess gets a sparkly water horse.

That isn't all however. I also liked taking a break from adventuring and going to the Gold Saucer for all the different mini games ranging from chocobo racing to card games like Triple Triad. I spent so much time playing those mini games while waiting for a party or just taking a break from the daily level grind. Chocobo racing was one of my personal favorites because it was fun trying out all the different racetracks. 

Pirotess having fun at the chocobo races.

 The card game Triple Triad is fun because it's a pretty easy card game to follow and you can play with various NPCs in the card room. You can also enter a tournament each week against other players and you can win a variety of prizes if you win. Even if you don't win, it's still enjoyable to play and it's a nice break from adventuring. 

Playing a round of Triple Triad. 

There have been so many things to see in my adventures like epic primal fights and raids. The biggest thing of course is all the incredible friends I have made in the game and being able to do all these events together. Friends make the game even better because we laugh, have fun, and celebrate the spirit of enjoying the game together. 

Having fun in a raid with friends. 

Another fun aspect of the game is being able to enjoy it with my husband. We are nerds together and playing Final Fantasy XI is how we met. Exploring the world of Final Fantasy XIV together has been a blast because we have a great time with our friends and seeing all the amazing things the game has to offer. Gaming together is our thing and Final Fantasy XIV has been terrific to us. 

Left to Right: Sheitara (my husband's character) and Pirotess (my character) together.

From adventuring to crafting to mini games to making great friends, Final Fantasy XIV has been an incredible journey in gaming. I am thrilled to keep playing it and having fun with everyone while continuing to see all the amazing things in its world. On this four year anniversary of my Final Fantasy XIV adventure I say thank you for all the fantastic memories and gaming fun. Here's to many more years of adventuring. Thanks for reading. See you at the next adventure! 

Pirotess at home. See you at the next adventure! 

*Final Fantasy XIV is available to play on the following platforms: PC and Playstation 4

*Come hang out with me on Twitch as I play the games I love: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Wandersong A Delightful Whimsical Puzzle Adventure

When I saw Wandersong as a game suggestion for me and that it was on sale I was intrigued because the description called it a musical puzzle adventure. I bought the game and I started playing. Wandersong has a cute introduction where you play as a character simply called The Bard. The premise is that the world is ending and Bard must get pieces of the Earthsong, a song that can be sung to preserve the world from creatures known as Overseers.

This starts you on your adventure with a mini tutorial on how the game mechanics work. Wandersong's gameplay feels like a mix of the old school game Simon, a platformer, and puzzles. You have a color wheel and you need to follow the color patterns so that Bard can sing the songs. Sometimes you need to sing patterns to fight enemies while at other times you need to follow the pattern to solve puzzles.

Match the colors on the wheel to sing and fight enemies.

There are points in the game where some places may seem out of reach. This is where Bard's singing really comes in. There are animals in the game that can help Bard in his adventure such as little birds. They will sing a specific pattern and when you match the pattern they can help you jump higher to reach those super high ledges. There are all sorts of areas like this where there different animals that help Bard during his adventure. It adds to the whimsy and colorful world of Wandersong. 

The bird sings the pattern for Bard. 

Wandersong is a side scrolling game so it's fairly straightforward in where to go. Sometimes I would miss jumps which could be a little frustrating, but the game is pretty forgiving and lets you try again until you get it. The different areas are unique with a variety of interesting characters, funny puns, and of course a lot of great music and songs. There are a ton of puzzles to figure out as well. Some puzzles are easy to figure out, while others take a bit of patience and time. 

Bard gets help from animal friends to jump to higher areas.

When Bard meets with the assistants to the overseers the meetings are funny and yet rather endearing because Bard is sincere and genuinely wants to help everyone. Each overseer has their own personality and their own reason for doing things. The dialogue between Bard and the people he meets is very well done because it shows how kind Bard is and adds a sense of hope throughout his adventure. 

Bard meets a cute and punny assistant to an overseer.

Wandersong is more than just singing and whimsy. There is an incredible depth to it that focuses on the importance of being yourself, caring about others, and understanding that sometimes it's okay to be sad if that's how you feel. Bard is a character that travels the world with a sense of naivete that is refreshing and becomes a little more nuanced as you see him grow as a person during his adventure. I had my favorite moments of course, one of them being Bard traveling and making friends with coffee pirates. 

Bard sings songs with the coffee pirates. 

The controls for Wandersong are pretty forgiving. I am not the best at games. I play to have fun so there were times where I would miss a pattern or miss a jump. That's the great thing about Wandersong. It doesn't punish you if you mess up. It allows you to try again until you get it; no game overs here. There were times where I would feel a little frustrated with a puzzle, but I would keep at it and once I solved a particularly challenging puzzle I felt pretty elated. 

The thing that really stands about Wandersong is all the characters and their interactions especially between Bard and Miriam. Where Bard is happy and wants to help, Miriam is grumpy and just wants to get things done without people. There is a balance between the two and as their adventure continues you see them start to change and grow. Bard accepts that sometimes there isn't a clear solution and that it's okay to fail, but you get up and try again. Miriam starts to understand that doing everything by yourself can get pretty lonely and sometimes it's alright to ask for help and let people in. 

Wandersong is a delightful whimsical puzzle adventure, but it's also something more. It creates a colorful world full of fantastic worlds, music, and wonderful characters. It also explores the range of all our emotions while showing that we are more powerful when we all work together. That makes Wandersong a truly charming and great game. 

Bard and Miriam ride off into the sunset. 

*Wandersong is available to play on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch

*I stream the games I love on Twitch Monday-Saturday. Come say hi! https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mother Gamer Plays Ratchet & Clank

I have never played the Ratchet & Clank games before so when I saw that I could get the first game for free with my Playstation Plus I got it to try it out. The game introduces you to a cute Lombax known as Ratchet and shows you a tutorial as you go on how the gaming controls work. You start out with only two weapons, an omni wrench which is your melee weapon and a bomb glove which launches grenades. The game also sets up the story for you; showing a little robot named Clank running away from a Blargian businessman named Drek who is corrupt and trying to harvest inhabited planets in order to make new planets for his race the Blargs. Clank meets Ratchet when he crash lands on his planet and they become friends and the game goes from there.

There are several different planets to explore each with its own unique area. You have to fight various enemies such as the Blarg and killer warbots while trying to stop Drek from destroying the universe. The fights are fun and fast paced with some puzzles thrown in. They're not terribly complex, but a few of them are a bit challenging. It's definitely rewarding when you solve a difficult puzzle.

Ratchet ready to take on warbots. 

Ratchet is not the only one who does things. The gameplay and story itself is like a buddy cop game. Clank rides on Ratchet's back like a small backpack. There are some worlds with areas that only Clank can go. For these moments you get to play as Clank solving puzzles that involve tinkering with various robots that make bridges, jumping platforms, and batteries for the purpose of getting specific items or unlocking doors for Ratchet. The teamwork between the two works quite well in the game and adds to the fun. 

As the game progresses you get access to new weapons, weapon upgrades, and ammo which you can buy with bolts as currency. You can choose which weapons you want to use via an inventory wheel from the user menu. My favorite weapon was a robot named Mr. Zurkon because he wasn't just powerful with his lasers he was hilarious with biting one liners like, "Mr. Zurkon conducts a symphony of pain." When you fully upgrade Mr. Zurkon you also get his family Mrs. Zurkon and Zurkon Jr. and their one liners are just as hilarious. It is so much fun trying out all the different weapons and seeing what they do on your adventure. 

Mr. Zurkon is one of the funniest and best weapons in the game.

The voice acting in Ratchet & Clank are well done and the design for each planet and level are beautifully detailed. It's hard to believe this was a PS2 game which shows just how well they did at remastering it for the PS4. Exploring every corner of each area is a good idea because it offers unique rewards like collector's cards and specialized items for both Ratchet and Clank. There are levels that are designed for some of the new tools and equipment you get so this adds to the exploration fun as well. There are various space battles too and while there is a bit of a learning curve with them, they are still quite enjoyable very much giving off an excellent Star Wars space battle vibe. 

Ratchet uses a zip line tool to get to an out of reach area.

There are some fun mini games in Ratchet & Clank also like hoverboard races which offer rewards such as extra money and collector's cards. The hoverboard races are a blast as you try doing different tricks while earning prizes. There are boss battles too of course and each one has its own unique style and rhythm. They're fairly straightforward, but they offer unique challenges and add to the story and fun of the game. 

There are some small technical issues with Ratchet & Clank such as the controls sticking a bit and the sound cutting in and out. These aren't a deal breaker, but when you're trying to win a boss battle the controls sticking are a little frustrating. It's a small thing so it didn't stress me out too much. 

Ratchet and Clank take on a boss. 

If you die in a level or fail a boss battle, don't worry. The game has an autosave feature and will start you right where you left off. I know I died quite a few times on challenging fights, so having that autosave was great. When you beat the game you can start over with a new game plus feature called challenge mode. This allows you to start the adventure all over again with all your weapons and upgrades. Be wary however because in new game plus the enemies have more health and are twice as difficult. 

Ratchet & Clank is a lot of fun to play with memorable characters, funny lines, and an interesting story. The game is a little short; about 10 hours if you don't get all the extra and about 20 hours if you do. That doesn't detract from how good the game is and I am glad I got a chance to play it as well as stream it because it was fun for everyone. See you at the next adventure! 

Ratchet ready to save the galaxy. 

*Ratchet & Clank is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4

*I stream the games I love on Twitch. Come hang out with our community and say hi! https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Smashbomb, A Great Social Network For Reviews

When I first found Smashbomb, I believe it was via a Facebook ad. I admit I was skeptical of it at first, but I decided to check them out. As I read their statement on what they were about, I found myself intrigued. Basically Smashbomb pointed out that fake reviews are a growing problem and that it is far too easy to engineer false positive reviews. Smashbomb stated that they are a social platform that allows its users to research and discover things based on recommendations from people they know, trust, and respect rather than anonymous reviews from people who may not be trustworthy. So Smashbomb is a social site where you can rate anything such as video games, movies, books, and more.


It is free to sign up for Smashbomb and the site itself is completely free to use. The layout design for Smashbomb is nice and simple making it easy to navigate. There is little to no loading times between pages and items are easy to find. You can easily find categories that you are looking for and there is even a help page with several helpful articles for any questions you may have such as getting started or how ratings work. Speaking of ratings, the rating system on Smashbomb is easy to understand and is rather clever. If a person rates something a 7 or higher it is a smash which is great, but if they rate it lower than a 7 it is a bomb which means it is not good. It is not difficult at all to add a rating for whatever you're reviewing. There are two ways to do this. You can click on the Rate It button on the item's page itself which will bring up a  bomb icons scale (there are 10 in all) and click where you want your rating to be whether it is a "smash" or a "bomb" on the scale. The second way to review an item is to click on the rating scale and add what is good or bad about it as well as write a full review if you wish. It's completely optional. Just a note about writing a review; you can't just write a couple of sentences. It is important to write a clear and concise review offering nuanced viewpoints about why you loved a product or why you didn't like it. This allows others from the Smashbomb community to get a better idea about why they should check out a book, play a video game, or see a movie or why they should avoid it.


If you don't see an item you're looking for in your search category or get a message that the item does not exist, you can add it easily via Smashbomb's create button. When you do this a window will pop up where you can add the title, description, and year it was released. Smashbomb's admins will check it manually and if they approve it, the item is added. It doesn't take long for them to check at all. I myself have added a few books and video games that did not show up in a search. When a person likes your review they can give you kudos points. You can also earn kudos points by contributing to the site in a positive way such as giving quality reviews. Kudos points are good for unlocking badges, entering giveaways, and unlocking certain admin features to name a few things. Higher kudos points offer great things like qualifying for better giveaways.


You can follow people on Smashbomb as well. Why follow people on Smashbomb? Following people on Smashbomb is a great way to discover people who have interests similar to yours and if you really like their reviews, following them allows you to see their activity when they review something. This is also a fantastic way to gain some followers because in general most people will follow you back. There are also social groups on Smashbomb called Orbs. Orbs are communities for people with similar interests and anyone on Smashbomb can create an Orb. For example, if you are passionate about books and would love to discuss them with others you can create a book lovers Orb and invite people like your followers to join.


Smashbomb also has a fantastic app that you can get on iOS and Android phones. The app is just as easy to use and navigate as the website. I find myself using it pretty often when I'm out and about because it is so great to use. The fact that Smashbomb itself is incredibly user friendly on all fronts is a big plus with me. Smashbomb overall is a great social network for reviews. It is refreshing to see a company that truly understands the meaning of community and the importance of full transparency. You can also give them feedback about things on the website and the app whether it is good or bad. You can follow them on social media and they are quick to respond and interact with everyone. The Smashbomb team does a great job of listening to everyone in the community. I think Smashbomb is amazing because of all of this. I have been using Smashbomb for two years now and I love it. It is a wonderful community that is very welcoming with a great team of people running it. Be sure to check out Smashbomb for yourself and sign up for free here: https://smashbomb.com/
Thanks for reading. See you at the next adventure!



*I stream the games I love on Twitch. Come say hi! https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Kingdom Hearts III An Amazing Adventure With Friendship

It took so long to get here, but once Kingdom Hearts III was here I was ready to play and explore all the worlds. It felt incredible to be traveling with Sora, Goofy, and Donald again. The opening song was incredible and the introduction to the game starts off well, hooking you in immediately. There are a couple of familiar worlds such as Olympus and Twilight Town which act as tutorials for the battle controls and exploration aspects of the game. 

Sora hangs out with Hercules. 

The battle system for Kingdom Hearts III is great. Combat is fluid, easy to follow, and fun. You can easily swap between keyblades, use your magic abilities, and use your items. Level grinding is not a chore because the battles are so much fun and the worlds that you explore make them even more so. My personal favorite was Toy Story because Sora fit so well in that world and there some pretty fun battles there. 

Having fun with battles in Toy Story. 

Another fun aspect to battles that was added in the game are the attraction flow attacks. These are not just stylish and fun, they are also pretty powerful special attacks. You can take out many enemies with these attacks so there is no downside to using them at all. My personal favorite was the pirate ship because it was a blast spinning around taking out tons of Heartless. 

Use attraction flow attacks to take out your enemies.

The user menu is easy to navigate and is quite user friendly. You can easily equip keyblades, items, and accessories as well as organize everything easily. The moogle shop is back too and you can synthesize and craft items that you need as well as upgrade your keyblades. 

The inventory menu is nice and neat. 

Another new addition to the game is the gummiphone. This is a cute little nod to social media things like Instagram. You can take photos with the gummiphone and there are even some photo quests where you need to take pictures of specific things in order to get various rewards such as items and munny. In between loading screens you get to see Instagram style posts from the gummiphone that reference the characters, story, and events. It's a nice touch to the game. 

Instagram style posts from the gummiphone. 

There are also mini games that you can play on your gummiphone. You have to find the code for them which are hidden in various worlds. When you do, you can play a variety of mini games that look like old school Nintendo gameboy games. They all feature Mickey and Sora with games like catching eggs or flying a plane to grab mail. They're silly fun and add that extra bit of whimsy to Kingdom Hearts III. 

You can play all these mini games on your gummiphone. 

If you're not in the mood for gummiphone games, there is also a cooking mini game that you can play. In order to play, you need to have ingredients for all the recipes. These are easily found in all the worlds you visit during your adventure. Once you have some ingredients you can bring them to Remy (the rat from the movie Rattatouille) and try your skills at the cooking mini game. The cooking mini game is fun, but there is definitely a learning curve to it. If you go too fast or too slow, you fail and you can lose all the ingredients you found. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you can make a ton of great dishes and Sora and friends can use them to up their stats. 

Practice makes perfect with the cooking mini game. 

The world map is pretty easy to see and you can swap between the maps fairly easily. Once you discover a location you can fast travel there which makes things easier. I do wish there had been a few more worlds, but I was pretty happy with the worlds the game had. Everything looked amazing and it was clear that they really wanted things to be done right. 

The world map in Kingdom Hearts III.

There is one thing that I absolutely detested in the game however and that thing is the gummi ship. I have never liked the gummi ship in any of the Kingdom Hearts games. The controls for them in my opinion have always been terrible and I always dreaded gummi ship battles. That has not changed for me with Kingdom Hearts III. While the controls have improved quite a bit, I still found myself struggling with them. Having to fight the controls to fly the gummi ship is not a good time. I also didn't like the fact that I would be forced into gummi ship battles before I could land on worlds. I truly feel that the gummi ship should have been optional. This is the only thing I did not like about the game. 

I am not a fan of the gummi ship. 

I blazed through Kingdom Hearts III because the game itself was an amazing adventure and I couldn't wait to save the world with friendship. The story was great, the worlds were so much fun to explore, and there were so many heartbreaking and heartwarming emotions throughout this adventure. Kingdom Hearts III did a fantastic job of making me care about all of these characters and I was a little sad to say goodbye at the end. Having one thing I didn't like about the game and loving the rest of it speaks volumes about how fantastic I think the game is. It was definitely worth the wait. See you at the next adventure! 

This was an amazing adventure! 

*Kingdom Hearts III is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One

*Come hang out with me on Twitch as I stream games like Kingdom Hearts III: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Mother Gamer Plays Dragon Quest Builders

I know. How could I have never played Dragon Quest Builders before? There are so many games out there to play that I miss quite a few so I play them when I can. I was intrigued by Dragon Quest Builders because it was clearly not a traditional Dragon Quest game. The plot takes from the original Dragon Quest as a parallel world where the hero accepts the Dragonlord's suggestion of each one ruling half the world which turned out to be a trap. The hero is defeated and the world goes dark and is overrun by monsters. This is where the legendary builder comes in. You can play as a male or female builder. The first chapter introduces you to the game mechanics. Basically this is Dragon Quest meets Minecraft. Your job as the builder is to gather materials and rebuild the land of Alefguard from the ground up and revive it and bring the light back to the world.

The builder starts her journey. 

The tutorial is fairly straightforward showing you how to gather materials. Once you have the materials needed, you need to build and craft items. There are various NPC's that give you quests which are things they want you to build ranging from a crafting forge to a kitchen. This is also how you find crafting recipes for things. When you have the right materials you can build all these things and as you do this, your base levels up. 

Use recipes to build things and rebuild the world. 

When you go out to the world, the game doesn't really show you where to go. This can be good and bad. It's good because it encourages a lot of exploration and finding things on your own, but it is bad because sometimes it can be a bit frustrating trying to find the location of a quest and it can feel like a lot of time is wasted trying to figure out where you are going. You can switch the map to an eagle eye's view with a white flag that shows where your base is and a Q for the quest marker. You have to do your best to follow your compass, but it's not perfect. You just have to try to be patient and do your best to navigate until you get where you need to be. 

You can use this view to see where your base is. 

There are moments in the game where the monsters will show up and wreck your base. You have to fight the monsters in order to defend your base. Sometimes the fights are intense with four to five waves of monsters with a boss monster at the last wave. Once the battle is won, you can rebuild everything that got destroyed. The game isn't too punishing when this happens making rebuilding pretty easy. 

Fighting monsters is rough, but you can rebuild easily.

While I did have fun playing Dragon Quest Builders, there are things I found to be mildly irritating. Sometimes the difficulty spikes in battles could be incredibly frustrating. The solution to this of course is to constantly build and upgrade your base. The other thing is having to constantly watch the hunger meter. This is represented as loaves of bread next to your health meter. If it gets to zero, your health starts dropping. You have to constantly forage for food or fish and use the kitchen to cook meals. Honestly, this broke the game immersion for me. Having to constantly worry about not starving and having to stop building just to go hunting for food was not fun for me at all. It was an annoyance and I wished I didn't have to constantly do that when I wanted to focus on gathering materials and building spiffy things. 

Hunger meter is low, time to go fishing!

There are four chapters in Dragon Quest Builders each in a different region. I did find it odd that when you went to each new world you lose everything and have to start over again from scratch with your weapons, tools, and materials. Getting food and healing items first is a priority so you can explore and build without too much hassle. You can re-learn the recipes in each new region and you also get new materials to build with. If you need a break from the main story, there is a free build mode which allows you to build to your heart's content with no monsters anywhere. You have at your disposal all the recipes you learned in the chapters, you can build whatever you like, and you can share it with your friends. Free build is a nice break from the main game and the only limits are your imagination. 

Dragon Quest Builders is a fun game, but there are points of frustration in it with the unbalanced level spikes which is why I took breaks from it often. However, the story is interesting and there are some great nods to the Dragon Quest lore itself as well as some reveals about the builder and various characters that add more depth to the story. To me, free build is where the game shines because it was so much fun just running around and creating whatever I wanted. It is a fun game that encourages creativity while enjoying a good story. See you at the next adventure! 

Ready to build more things. See you at the next adventure!

*Dragon Quest Builders is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, and Nintendo Switch

*Come hang out with me on Twitch while I play games and we talk about mental health. Everyone is welcome! https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer