Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, A Charming Adventure

 I decided to play Sakuna after watching a few friends play it. I was drawn in by the cute characters, the colorful artwork, and the rice farming aspect of it. Right from the beginning I got a sense of Okami vibes with the storytelling part of Sakuna. The game introduces you to Princess Sakuna, a harvest goddess who is a bit of a spoiled brat when you meet her. Sakuna lives with the other gods in the Lofty Realm in the world of Yanato and has no idea about what the lives of mortals are like in the realm below. 

Princess Sakuna and her familiar Tama.

There is a celebration happening for the leader deity Lady Kamuhitsuki and Sakuna is drinking a lot, ignoring the cautionary advice from her familiar Tama about proper etiquette and decorum. Things go bad for Sakuna when a group of mortals stumble into the Lofty Realm looking for food and they accidentally destroy the offering meant for Lady Kamuhitsuki. Since it happened on Sakuna's watch, she is punished by being exiled with the mortals to the Isle Of Demons where she has the task of cleansing the land of evil and working with the humans to grow rice in order to give back the offering that was lost. 

Sakuna and the mortals get in trouble. 

This is where the gameplay for Sakuna really shines and where the story truly begins. Sakuna is split into two parts, exploration and farming simulation. Doing both of these is important to progress the story and you have to figure out how to divest your time. I do wish there had been a little more of a tutorial with the rice farming because it doesn't necessarily tell you exactly what to do. Once I figured it out, I did enjoy the rice farming. The seasons are only 3 days long and you come to realize how detailed the process is for growing and harvesting rice. Sakuna will voice her thoughts out loud giving hints about what to do next. You have to think about how much water to put into the rice paddy, when to add fertilizer, and when to harvest the rice before the season ends. 

Sakuna checks the progress of the rice.

The exploration aspect of the game is interesting. Sakuna can run, dash, jump, and use her divine raiment to attack enemies in a 2D side scrolling environment. As the story continues, the areas add new challenges like wind storms, falling rocks, and floating water platforms. Combat is a lot of fun as Sakuna can smash, juggle, launch, and throw enemies around. Sakuna is able to use her various farming tools as weapons adding a cool mechanic to the game. Sakuna is able to get upgrades for these weapons as well as create new and stronger weapons. Each weapon is also able to unlock a divine power that also adds to Sakuna's battle skills. 

Sakuna smashing through enemies.

There are various items that Sakuna can equip that add to her stats like cute hats and masks. There are also cute kimonos that enhance things like Sakuna's farming skills and vitality as well. I loved this part of the game because it adds an extra touch of whimsy to the game and the outfits are very cute and colorful. 

Cute outfits add to Sakuna's stats. 

Food is another vital part of the game. Naturally, rice dishes are a big part of this side of the game. Sakuna can store food and set up the menu for dinners. This is where the day to night comes in and paying attention to Sakuna's energy. If she is well fed, she is stronger and able to breeze through her enemies. If she is hungry, she does not do as much damage. When night falls, the enemies become stronger and harder to fight which means you have to head home and have an evening meal. Eventually, you can fight them at night when you get a magical lamp, but you have to fill it with oil which you can get from various enemies and gathering areas. 

The evening meals with the humans are really nice. It adds to the story and allows you to get to know the other characters. As the bond between them and Sakuna grows, I found myself looking forward to the dinners with them and learning more about each individual. It's nice to see how Sakuna changes as well, becoming less arrogant and becoming a kinder person working together with them. It was nice to see those bonds deepen as they story continued, making them not just friends, but family. 

Everyone together at dinner. 

There are some flaws with the game. Sometimes you have to go back to areas you already explored in order to complete challenges like fighting a certain number of one enemy in order to unlock more of the map. That can get a bit tedious when you want to just continue the story. The clock can creep up on you too and suddenly it's night time so you can't do a lot. It can get a little frustrating when you're trying to 100% an area and it can also spoil some of your food ingredients. Granted, that gives you materials for fertilizer for your rice paddy, but it can be a little aggravating to lose those food items. 

In spite of those flaws, I loved Sakuna. It is a charming adventure with good storytelling, wonderful characters, a lovely vibrant and whimsical art style, and fun gameplay. It is a delightful gem, that I'm glad I took the time to check out. 

Sakuna heads home.

*Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows

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

The Adventures Of Pirotess: Celebrating Heavensturn 2021

 Happy New Year! Right after the Christmas event in Final Fantasy XIV we have the Heavensturn event which is another fun holiday event in the game celebrating the new year and this year is the year of the ox. In order to participate in the event, you need to have your adventurer be at least level 15. Head to Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks to get the event started.

Pirotess enjoys the Heavensturn decorations in Limsa Lominsa.

The decorations for the Heavensturn event are bright and festive adding a lot of whimsy to the event. You'll need to talk to the NPC Ushi Bugyo to get the quest Steering Clear Of Trouble. This quest takes you to Middle La Noscea to participate in the level 5 FATE The Mochi That Ate Vylbrand and it's not very challenging. You just work together with everyone to fight the monster there and receive Heavensturn tickets for doing the FATE. 

Start the event with this first quest. 

Return to Limsa Lominsa to turn the quest in to Ushi Bugyo and you can choose between the crimson ushi abuto or the black ushi kabuto while also receiving the "Happy Moo Year" achievement. You have one more quest to do with Ushi Bugyo called Bully For Mochi which has you running around to designated areas in Limsa Lominsa and handing out advent cakes. Once this is done, you return to Ushi Bugyo again and receive ten advent cakes as a reward. 

Complete this quest and get advent cakes! 

After that, there is a nearby NPC vendor by the name of Ushi Shonin where you can use your Heavensturn tickets to buy items like the other ushi kabuto that you didn't pick, food items, or the adorable handmade akabeko furnishing. 

All the items you can get from the vendor. 

The Heavensturn event is always a fun holiday event that doesn't take a lot of time to do that you can participate in by yourself or with friends. The rewards it offers are nice too. The furnishings are always my favorite because they're adorable. If you haven't done the event yet, don't worry. You still have time. Heavensturn is running until January 18, 2021 so get out there and have a great time! Thanks for reading, see you at the next adventure!

Happy new year! See you at the next adventure! 

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

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

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