Spiritfarer

 

Sailing and working on a growing ship, hosting spirits, helping them to come to terms with their own death and a bunch of Jump'n'Run minigames. Spiritfarer really is a peculiar genre mix. A pretty good one at that. All those mechanics come together to let you feel the daily life of a person constantly confronted with the transience of human existence. Always looking for closure and warmth, while constantly stressed out over chores.

 Spiritfarer tells a bunch of really honest and touching stories about life and how it ends for people.

For transparency: Even though I have spent about 80 hours with the game, I still haven’t come to see the end of Spiritfarer - I’m a really thorough player that also likes to take their time and look up as little as possible. How long to beat says I should have been able to finish the story easily in half the time, (still it did not feel like wasting time or grinding) so while I have not seen the end credits as of yet I still feel comfortable putting my opinion out there before I finish the rest of it all.

 You play as Stella, who together with her cat takes over the position as Spiritfarer. A sailor traveling around a fictitious Sea full with islands and the “Everdoor” right in the middle. As Spiritfarer she has to find lost Spirits on the islands, give them a new home on the ship and help them finish their deeds, before they are brought to the Everdoor to say their farewell. You have to micromanage the needs of the spirits, improve your ship and explore the Sea. Alongside that you find out more about your guests’ backstories, engage in small shenanigans on the islands and find out what the deal is with Stella.

If all of that sounds a little chaotic than that is because the game marries all of that in a way that is not your typical narrative Storytelling. You basically have a routine of day and night Cycle, chores, resource farming and going on quests. Describing what you do in Spirifarer is as complex as describing what an average human in real life does over the course of a month.

Is that fun? Yes! It is as fun, as chaotic counting all the elements is and as diverse as the different mechanics are: You stand up, greet your guests, serve them their favourite dish talk to them then land on a mining island, where you have to get through increasingly harder Jump’n’Run passages that get more complex with every skill you unlock. After that you talk to a guest, they want you to confront a mythical creature, on the way there you stop to fish some tuna…

As I said: It’s a lot

But does it serve a point? Also, yes. For most elements there are three purposes I would say. The boring one is progression, you get rewards that help you either to advance or to please your guests. More interesting is that the developers managed to tie most mechanics to story elements, you get introduced to them by characters, they may even have a personal connection. Last but not least the game is trying to constantly keep you busy and a little stressed out - a trait that side characters also characterize you as. This not only characterizes you and sets tone, but also answers one of the big questions in Openworld-Gaming: Why does your Character waste hours of time in Openworld-Shenanigans when there is a pressing Mainquest. 

For other games you just have to suspend your disbelieve and accept that there is a dissonance between what you are doing in game and what the story says you are doing. Spirifarer says you are constantly busy and have a lot of chores to finish, that is the reason why you sometimes may not find the time to continue a quest.

The gameplay loop may be the most novel aspect about the game. It’s like Star Wars or Pulp Fiction - Some times the most unique part of an artwork is not a particular part, but how you put them together. That being said the rest is executed really well. First and foremost of course the side Characters, the Spirits you are escorting to the everdoor, are written on point. I don’t feel like I have to go to deep into their stories, the Creative Director mentioned them being based on his own experiences. This explained a lot to me. While I didn’t find the stories to be particularly groundbreaking, they all felt to strike something very real and made me emotional several times. 

Aside from that artstyle, progression, worldbuilding, the management simulation and every other aspect ranks from decent to pretty good. Only the jump and run gameplay seemed to me a little clumsy at times - though I'm no expert at platformers.

 

Really just give it a try when you have the chance, currently it’s free to download via Netflix and you can buy it on several other platforms.

 

Short: A heartwarming daily life Simulator, that mixes all aspects of itself perfectly together and tells stories about life and death, that are just a little realer than you may expect.