Spiritfarer excels in every genre it dips its toes in. It’s a joy to see what’s in every corner of the game’s ocean, explore every nook and cranny of the various islands, and play various minigames all while managing your ship and making sure your passengers are happy before you see them off. It’ll make you laugh, cry, and feel terrified all at the same time. It’s one of those games that, after finishing, you immediately want to play again.
Spiritfarer turned out to be a grand sea adventure of resource management, which added a generous collection of stories through a memorable cast of characters, all of them animated in a most sublime way so to give this game a feeling of pure magic.
Overall a mesmerising gaming experience with minimal bugs (my game froze twice). I became fond of the characters and grew attached to them, which is rare for me in games. The character and sound design was especially beautiful. I finished this game and immediately wished for a game just like it, that's how hooked I felt on the experience.
Beautiful game. It makes you think and can help you through any little to large grief you’re experiencing in your life. The game is beautiful, it’s fun while also causing some self reflection and thoughts of life after death. I’ve played it through twice and I could play it over and over again. Outstanding game.
Spiritfarer is an excellent game in its own right, yet its candid handling of death truly sets it apart from its peers. It's addicting gameplay loop is well complimented by its thoughtful story - anyone who likes their relaxation with a side of healthy contemplation will be hard pressed to find a more compelling game this year.
Spiritfarer is a beautiful and unique adventure about death. It might not be revolutionary gameplay-wise, but the way it combines the game mechanics with the storytelling is outstanding.
Spiritfarer has the body of a seafaring exploration game, the mind of a management sim, and the soul of an emotional journey depicting love, loss, and grief. With gorgeous visuals and a soundtrack to match, Spiritfarer is pleasing to the senses while providing a core loop that’s easy to get lost in. If you like crafting and crying, take a voyage with Spiritfarer, with fair warning to the completionists that this journey may cause more suffering than intended. For smooth sailing, be sure to choose the Switch version of Spiritfarer over anything with achievements enabled. Regardless of the conduit, you should absolutely play this cozy management sim about dying — just be sure to keep the tissues nearby.
Spiritfarer has a soft, caring, bittersweet tone that I've rarely encountered in video games. For a game all about death and dying, I only ever felt calm and relaxed when playing it. The management gameplay is varied and engaging, and even though the scope if it leads to the game getting a bit too long in the tooth, it helps connect the incredibly emotional story beats together so well. Mix that up with its beautiful art style and enchanting music, and you've got one of the most emotional management games I've ever played.
Spiritfarer loses itself in so much tiresome back-and-forth, ladling on delightful incidental details in the hope that you won't notice that each character's story has become little more than an extended shopping list. [Issue#350, p.96]
In some ways this game feels incomplete. It has a lack of polish, (even if it does look pretty), where animations don't fit together fluidly and npcs will get stuck, or in rare cases even phase through the ground. There is an aspect of padding, animations take an unnecessary amount of time and can't be sped up. You'll oftentimes find yourself uncomfortably waiting for the next event to occur. There is a distinct lack of automation for repetitive mundane tasks on the boat, so you manually supply yourself with resources using the exact same methods you used 30 hours ago with little variation. Finally, there is a distinct lack of text-skipping options, so you'll find yourself talking to random npcs who rattle on and on quite often. All these negative aspects make it sound like I dislike this game, but despite its flaws I would still definitely recommend it. Amassing a little town of animal spirits on your boat is really a delightful experience, and listening to their stories and how they tie into a broader narrative of the nature of moving on, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, is quite fascinating. The characters are memorable and the story is well put together, being the main reason for my recommendation. The story itself is certainly predictable, but it's worth seeing to the end just for its execution. The game is still definitely too long though, should have been 30 hours tops. (The game took me 52 hours get 100%)
This game changed my life. It gave me a new perspective on death, and it pretty much got me through COVID. So yeah, if you like games like **** valley,I 100% would try this game
It's beautiful, but that's about it. Your first 30 minutes consists of jumping around a few times, tapping through about 200 prompts of pretty meh dialogue, clicking 3 buttons to build a house on your boat, and then jumping into sparkles with no danger, no stakes at all.
Where is the game?
SummaryA cozy management game about dying.
What will you leave behind?
Play as Stella, ferrymaster to the deceased, a Spiritfarer. Build a boat to explore the world, then befriend and care for spirits before finally releasing them into the afterlife.
A unique, endlessly varied adventure!
Farm, mine, fish, harvest, cook, and craft your...