spiritfarer is fun, gorgeous, and made me cry. 5/5 stars.
premise of the game (no spoilers)
In Spiritfarer, you are Stella, a young girl with a cat, who takes over from Charon, the old ferryman of the dead. Charon needs to move on, so he passes on his responsibilities to Stella. Stella can then begin sailing the seas of this strange land, traveling between islands and meeting spirits who have yet-unfinished business.
Stella fishing. Credit: Marooners' Rock
what i like about spiritfarer, and why i recommend it
Stella and one of the spirits. Credit: RPGFan
There are a lot of things I like about Spiritfarer, from its graphics to its story to its gameplay.
The graphics of Spiritfarer were actually what drew me to it initially. It was on sale on Steam, and I picked it up because it was cheap and looked beautiful, without knowing anything about it beforehand. While it isn't an Unreal-Engine-3D-cinematic masterpiece, Spiritfarer uses it's simple and visually pleasing style to great effect, with detailed and expressive character designs. This was and still is one of the few games that can make me cry, not the least because of the masterful use of deeply emotional animation.
The story of Spiritfarer is also incredible, though I won't spoil it yet, and took me by complete surprise. The fact that I went in blind made the story all the more impactful, and since there are very few things that can make me cry, the tears caught me very off guard. It's a story about family, friends, and old, bittersweet memories. Don't spoil yourself unless you really don't see yourself playing this game, it's truly worth a shot.
The gameplay of Spiritfarer is simple but satisfying, and very elegantly complements and enhances the story. While going into too much detail would stray into spoiler territory, I will say that it's a map-exploration and resource-management game with a rich variety of fun mechanics and a lovely cast of characters to meet and to explore the stories of.
I recommend this game so highly because of the emotions that it evokes and the deeply impactful way that it evokes them. I recommend this game because it's fun and relaxing, and has a lot of fun mechanics to choose from. I recommend this game because it's not a huge time sink, nor skill-based at all. Go give it a shot!
i talk about what i like (spoilers)
There are so, so many things that I just truly adore about Spiritfarer, but mostly the nuances of its story and the interweaving of game mechanics and narrative.
Spiritfarer truly is a story about regular people doing regular people things, and about looking back on those things with regret and nostalgia and pity. The characters in Spiritfarer make mistakes, and they're flawed, and they don't have a perfect story arc to repent for all their flaws, they just are; Gwen has her complicated family history, Giovanni has his bad track record in relationships, and Bruce has his lifetime of crime, but no characters symbolize this beautifully nuanced approach to character-writing more than Jackie and Darla. Jackie and Darla are both whole people who deserve respect, and yet despite both having good intentions they still hurt each other, directly or indirectly. Jackie struggles to accept Darla's state of being and neglects her care, despite wanting to help. Darla is in an altered state of mind, and though she no longer can interact with the people around her in a traditional way, she still deserves respect and care. It's difficult to accurately articulate my thoughts on these two, but the troubled hyena and the floaty bat are just so grounded in the real-life limitations of the human body and psyche.