GAME REVIEW: Spiritfarer (2020)
I’m always happy to try out a well-rated indie game, which is exactly how Spiritfarer was pitched to me. For someone who doesn’t have the time or energy to pack into long-term storied games these days (unfortunately), games that are easy to pick up and put down have a big pull for me, but mostly that’s related to rogue-likes (or rogue-lites) in more recent years.
Spiritfarer is a pretty simple game, mechanically - in a good way. The job is simple: you play as Stella (and if you’re doing couch co-op, the second player plays as her cat, Daffodil) and you have taken over as the world’s psychopomp after Charon’s time comes. The game has a clear The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker vibe, as you ride around the world in your ship, with your ability to explore further relating to the different hulls (icebreaker, rockbreaker, fog lamps) that you upgrade as you gather more resources. Indeed, resource management is the name of the game, but the pacing is quite leisurely and there’s very little panic, as leaving things unfinished tends to have very low-stakes consequences.
The actual plot of the story unfolds in a spectacular way, as well. Though everything about the game screams family-friendly, this is a game about death and Stella is helping spirits come to terms with their life as she ferries them around the world, and eventually to the Everdoor, where they cross over when they are ready. The passengers she finds for her ship are varied - from union reps to zen gardeners to layabouts to thugs - and all of them seem to know Stella somehow. As the game progresses, Stella’s own story starts to be unveiled as well. It’s a relatively emotional journey and most of the characters’ endings brought a tear to my eye as they were sent onward.
Ultimately, for a game that took me a week or two to play, maybe about 50 hours in total, I really enjoyed it. There aren’t a lot of video games that feel outright relaxing these days, so Spiritfarer came around at an excellent time and I definitely recommend it for pretty much anyone. Do keep in mind that a few of the characters (namely, the thugs), have pretty foul language, so if you’re sensitive to that while playing with children, it is worth noting (I am, personally, not sensitive to that).
Lastly, the game also gets full scores for music and ambience. If there are any complaints, they are minor things, like character animations not matching what the NPCs eat (esim: Giovanni won’t eat carbs but his eating animation is with spaghetti?) and some of the animations for repetitive tasks are a bit frustratingly long sometimes. As well, there are certain moments in the game where you can’t get out of a situation, which aren’t critical but they do cause some annoyance (esim: if you’re passing by boxes and in a conversation with a passenger NPC, you can’t leave the conversation and might miss the boxes and have to turn around). Generally though, these complaints are quite minor and the slow pace really is calming and relaxing, and the world needs more of that these days!
