I had been avoiding playing Stray, the game that centers around an orange tabby, for a while. As a cat lover, I don’t do well with animal death and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get through the game. My husband didn’t know that and ended up buying me a copy of Stray with my new PS5. Since my husband bought it, I wanted to at least give the game a chance. Stray was one of the best video games I have ever played and I’m glad that I played it.

As a side note, I did want to bring up a slight spoiler right away. The cat does not die in the story. Yes, there might be a time when the cat dies during an action sequence, but in the actual story, the cat lives. There are two moments where the cat is seen limping due to an injury. I’m not going to lie, I did start tearing up at the first one. However, these moments are short-lived. I would recommend looking up the story before playing Stray to make sure the game is for you, but that was my experience playing Stray.

Stray centers around an unnamed orange tabby cat. The orange cat is walking along with its friends when a pipe breaks and it drops to the street below. After crawling to safety, the cat enters a city that seems abandoned and desolate. As the cat is forced to flee from Zurks (orange, blood-sucking leeches), the cat meets a robot named B-12. The cat frees B-12 and is hooked to a harness where B-12 becomes the cat’s companion. The cat and B-12 work together to open the city up to the sunlight after a plague forces the city to quarantine.

Playing as a cat is amusing. I kept pressing the circle button to allow the kitty to meow and it was entertaining. Maneuvering the kitty throughout the game was easy. There would be an X notification that would prompt the player to have the kitty hop up on a banister, pipe, or table. I liked the trophies. One trophy included meowing 100 times, or another trophy could be unlocked by jumping onto a table and ruining a game that the robots were playing. The trophy list was chaotic which I think was fitting for playing a cat.

The aesthetic of the game is haunting. The city feels creepy and lonely. There’s an aura of darkness throughout the levels which I think added to the experience of playing Stray. I don’t normally pay attention to the music or the soundtrack in a game, but I loved the accompanying music. There were moments when a certain change in music would play and I’d be like “Uh oh… now what.”

As mentioned earlier, this game pulls at the heartstrings. Towards the end of the game, I was SOBBING. The type of crying where I just couldn’t stop. My husband came downstairs and had to ask me if I was okay and I couldn’t even get the words out. I don’t recall ever playing a video game where I was this emotional. I have no regrets because it was such a great game but be warned.

Stray was one of the best games I have ever played. The only downside is I can’t find any Stray merch. I want an orange kitty / B-12 figure to place on my desk at work, but I can’t find one anywhere. I did bookmark a few Stray magnets that I found on Redbubble to purchase for later. If anyone knows where I can find some Stray merch, let me know in the comments below.

My birthday was a few weekends ago. It was pretty low-key, I spent the time around family and went golfing with a friend. Throughout the week leading to my birthday, my husband was hyping up the present that he got for me. He kept saying how much I would love it. On my actual birthday, he encouraged me to open my present first thing in the morning. I was shocked to see that my husband bought me a Playstation 5!!!!! I was so excited because I wasn’t expecting it.

I had mentioned to my husband that eventually, I would need to upgrade to the PS5 considering that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is being released in October. I didn’t actually think that he would purchase the PS5 for me. Besides the PS5, he also bought me Stray, the game starring the orange tabby cat. I completed Stray within a few days and I was sobbing! My review for Stray will be posted shortly.

As far as other games, I do want to play Jedi Survivor along with Spider-Man 2. It was nice because I was able to transfer my saved data from my PS4 to my PS5, so I can replay Marvel’s Spider-Man on my PS5 which is convenient. I jokingly told my husband that I will be hogging the TV for a long time.

I had this post in my drafts for a while. Since January 2022, I have been playing in a semi-weekly campaign at Bad Wolf Adventure Studios. During that time, I grew attached to my character, Levenia, the half-elf Blood Hunter. While I have played TTRPGs, I feel like this was a new experience for me. I never reached a point where I felt a connection to the character that I was playing. Creating and crafting Levenia, I really liked playing as her. She’s fiercely intelligent, able to hold her own in combat, and at times, has been in peril where I genuinely wasn’t sure how she was going to survive. Last month, our group began the tumultuous battle against Strahd and I wanted to share how the battle went.

Our group began the session by defeating Rahadin, Strahd’s right-hand guard. Rahadin is an evil character, arguably eviler than Strahd since Rahadin helped Strahd slaughter the other female Dusk Elves. It was made aware to our group that Strahd may have the capability of bringing Rahadin back to life, so the situation became a “now or never” to take on Strahd once and for all.

Our group used our knowledge of Ravenloft to make a decision to travel to the top of one of the towers in Ravenloft. Sure enough, Strahd was there and our battle began. As a side note, my hands were so sweaty, I don’t think I have ever been more nervous to play a session of DnD before. Our cleric used the “Holy Symbol of Ravenkind” which is extremely powerful. The holy symbol can create sunlight for ten minutes which is a must-have for taking on a vampire. Strahd quickly became annoyed and ripped the amulet out of our cleric’s hands and threw it down the stairs. Rude. I came in with the “Sunsword” which is the closest thing to a lightsaber in Barovia. Levenia kept stabbing Strahd which worked great since the Sunsword deals extra damage to undead creatures. Strahd being super annoyed, ripped the Sunsword out of my hand as well.

Strahd quickly disappeared and began climbing higher up the tower. Our group raced after him. As we did, we noticed that we were at the top of the tower. Behind Strahd was this massive bird called “The Roc of Mount Ghakis”. Roc’s are massive birds in DnD and can be a real threat especially since we are on top of a tower and could be knocked off at any point. Our cleric pulled a quick move by utilizing “Divine Intervention”. Divine Intervention is an action in which our cleric could call upon The Raven Queen (or another deity) to act in a time of need. Having a gigantic bird acting as a servant to a Vampire feels like it fits this definition. Our DM rolled for us and it worked!! The Raven Queen appeared and pulled the Roc into a portal. Our group cheered because we did not think it would work and having to fight off an additional creature would have made this battle much more difficult.

After seeing The Raven Queen help, we returned to Strahd. Strahd did throw one of our allies off the tower which sucked since she’s a Barbarian / Rogue. However, we kept picking off Strahd and Levenia got the killing blow. I couldn’t believe that I was the one to take down Strahd. It was so satisfying. With Strahd’s demise, Strahd turns into mist and flew towards his coffin. If Strahd reached his coffin before we did, Strahd could be revived. It was one of those “oh shit” moments as our group ran to try and beat Strahd to his coffin. As our group approached, we realized that one of the NPCs that we brought with us, Rudolph Van Richton, permanently sealed Strahd’s coffin. Our DM revealed that since we brought Rudolph with us, he helped ensure that Strahd couldn’t be brought back to life meaning Strahd has officially been defeated. After defeating Strahd, we did have to fight a Lich, but that’s a story for a different time.

It’s bittersweet to say that Curse of Strahd is over. I have been encompassed by the story, seeing my character evolve, and seeing our group work together. Since finishing Curse of Strahd, I have had a month off from playing DnD which I think was needed. It helped solidify the memories of the final battle and allow for some time off. I am starting a new campaign this week, so I will share more about that once I know what character I will be playing and what the world will be like. I’m thankful to have discovered Bad Wolf Adventure Studios and I’m looking forward to playing more DnD in the future.