Spiritfarer is a cheerful and simultaneously melancholic game. If I was going to compare it to something, it would be Animal Crossing with a plot. The game consists pretty much entirely of doing fetchquests and minigames for people, and yet, there’s definitely a fair bit of charm to it.
You play as Stella and Daffodil, the newly minted Spiritfarers. You are a psychopomp – someone who collects the spirits of the dead and helps them to move on. You have a big boat that you upgrade over the course of the game, building structures on it to help make your spirits comfortable and gather materials and craft to further your quest. But as quickly becomes clear, the spirits you are collecting are not random, but are instead people with a connection in some way to Stella – some more obviously than others.
Sadly, this is a game that is both quite good in some ways, and really repetitive in others. You go around the world, exploring and doing some 2D platforming, even unlocking some new abilities Metroidvania style that allow you to access new areas, both in terms of your ship accessing new areas and your 2D platforming segments gaining new abilities.
Your goal is to find new spirits, then recruit them onto your ship, doing various tasks for them and getting them to open up so that they are willing to pass on. Some of these spirits have rather touching stories, though some are kind of jerks and don’t really leave as much of an impact – particularly a few of the later spirits, who are mostly not as strong as the first half of spirits you get. That said, this is a game that can make you cry, as some of the characters do touch you, and you end up having to say goodbye.
The fact that there’s a dedicated hug button – which you are going to use quite a bit – probably helps, as it shows actual affection between the characters.
The problem is, 90% of the game takes the form of a combination of fetchquests, FedEx quests, farming materials to craft, and crafting said materials. You make food to feed your guests to keep them happy, meaning your oven is often running, and you constantly are growing plants, watering them, shearing sheep, milking cows, fishing off the back of your boat, and engaging in other repetitive busywork while you’re scurrying around the world.
There are two places that the gameplay really tries to engage the player. One of those is building your boat – you gain the ability to construct various compartments and housing over the course of the game, and arranging these on your ship can be kind of fun. Sometimes, their arrangement ends up mattering in sometimes surprising ways for some of the quests in the story, though mostly it is just cosmetic and about ease of access.
The other thing that is kind of neat is the minigames. These involve going to various areas on the map and doing various tasks at the behest of the spirits you have, be it catching jellyfish, deliberately getting struck by lightning bolts, collecting comets, or other, even more surprising tasks. These are all wonderfully surreal, but they suffer a bit from the fact that you end up doing a number of them a number of times, resulting in them becoming a bit old hat. Ironically, the last two characters to give you minigames do a much better job of integrating them into their story, resulting in them feeling more meaningful, even if they’re no less repetitive than the other characters’ minigames.
Ultimately, this game ends up both shining and suffering because of what it is. It is a story-based game where the story is broken up by gameplay segments, but when you aren’t exploring new areas, and are instead going around farming stuff to craft stuff for various characters, the game feels much less exciting. While there’s usually something going on every hour you’re playing the game, it takes about 35-40 hours to 100% it, which is too long. Moreover, many of the tasks you end up spending a lot of time doing just don’t feel like they’re ultimately worth it.
Another issue with the game is the fact that some of the characters just don’t connect with you as strongly – particularly a lot of the spirits in the second half of the game. Beyond the fact that they just aren’t with you for as long, they don’t feel like they’re as personally connected to you, with the exception of one of the very last characters you get, who is a fun dork. Moreover, there’s a lot of the story that ends up only being explained in the game’s artbook – something which could have been in the game, possibly as some sort of reveal, but it is difficult to deliver such because Stella is a mute protagonist.
But the thing is, when characters work, they *really* work. There’s an elderly hedgehog in the game that the player ends up helping out, and the things you do for them, while not particularly interesting gameplay wise, end up building the player’s connection with them. There are various characters who reveal little bits and pieces of themselves to the player, making you see them for who they are, and it builds nice personal connections with them.
All of this is reinforced by the game’s beautiful hand-drawn animations; while there aren’t an enormous number of them for each character, they all look great, and Stella is fun to control. While some tasks end up a bit overwrought because of these animations needing to take some time to complete, it still ends up delivering really strongly, and the game is nice to look at.
So, do I recommend Spiritfarer?
Yes, but with the caveat that this game is one of those story-based games. It is not an action game, and if you are expecting action, you’ll be largely disappointed. It does have some actual gameplay in it, but more along the lines of Animal Crossing, and there’s a fair bit of repetitive grinding for crafting materials involved here, along with some “build your own town” vibes with building your ship and its buildings.
It isn’t perfect, and it definitely has its flaws, but the game does a good job of emotionally connecting with the player on several occasions – and as that’s ultimately what it was trying to do, it succeeded in doing what it was trying to accomplish.
3.5