Cozy and Comforting in a Hectic Year: Spiritfarer, a Review
I wrote an article with my early thoughts on Spiritfarer about a month ago. I loved the early hours of the game. Exploring the world and meeting the new spirits was a joy and learning how to be a better Spiritfarer was always on my mind. Excitingly enough, that want to explore never really faded for me. Spiritfarer, although I didn’t love all of the narrative decisions, was one of my top games of 2020.
A heads up for the article ahead, we’re going to get into some potential spoilers for the game.
Music
Max LL composed an incredible soundtrack for this game. The music follows you around the world, giving each place and event a slightly different feel. A favorite of mine is Meteoroids, a soaring track that really does make you feel like you’re flying across the stars. It’s accompanied by an event that lets you collect falling stars that look like fireworks, this event was definitely my favorite.
The Mood
Spiritfarer is both hope giving and haunting at times. While I believe that Thunder Lotus succeeded in creating a cozy atmosphere, there were moments in the game that really do pull at your heart as you realize that you’re getting closer to saying good bye to the lost spirits. Each moment is an opportunity to care for someone and to explore where you may find the next spirit waiting to make the journey towards the Everdoor. And, to be honest, each trip to the Everdoor was really an experience. Every character except for one gives Stella, and the player, a lesson to take with them. Some simply expressed how proud they were, some lamented the fact that they couldn’t let go of the past, others spoke to how aging can turn you into something you never wanted to be, and some simply wanted quiet as they approached the end. In a year that has been chaos filled and hectic, Spiritfarer helped me to process what it means to lose and grieve people that I’d never even met. That’s the important and lasting thoughts of this game, I think. How do we best care for people as they pass on to whatever is next?
The “antagonist,” though I hesitate even to call them that, makes Stella question why she’s even dedicated her life and afterlife to assisting these spirits. Is it because she truly is selfless and wants people to experience some form of kindness as they die, or is it because she wants to learn more about death so that when her time comes she can avoid Death? In all honesty, I always felt a little attacked in those little scenes with the Owl. Here I am, just trying to help these spirits experience some kindness before they pass on and this Owl was really coming at me and trying to make it seem like I was doing it all to feed Stella’s ego. Even this, though, was a good insight to what the game tries to teach. We should all be aware of our motivations behind the actions that we take. I know there were moments during the game that I was trying to rush through some of the spirit’s stories (cough Giovanni cough) because I found them to be annoying or frustrating to work with. In the context of the job that Stella does, how does that impact how we treat the spirits differently? I know that I loved Atul and I wanted to make sure that he was chill and taken care of every day, for the spirits I didn’t care for as much, was I a worse Spiritfarer? Probably. But, in the end, each of them make the journey to the Everdoor. Well, most of them do.
I was disappointed at the disappearance of one of the characters in the game. This is because, in my background as a creative writer, it’s important to me that we follow the rules that we set in the world building. When the rule was set that spirits had to be accompanied by the Spiritfarer to the Everdoor, it was jarring for a spirit to pass on without following that rule. It hurt all the more that it was a spirit that I really loved and who I was excited to escort to the Everdoor. But even that is a message about death. Sometimes people just suddenly leave your life and you can’t prepare to say good bye. It’s a harsh lesson, and while I’m glad that the developers shared it, that didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Last chance to click away before major ending spoilers!
Spiritfarer, while a game about endings, did something interesting with it’s own ending. This was something else that was intriguing to me as a writer and following the rules that we set. When it’s finally time for Stella to pass on, and it seems that escorting all of the spirits is not a requirement to unlock the ending, you take your boat to the Everdoor for the last time. Stella makes this trip alone with Daffodil. They silently row to the middle of the door and, after hugging for the last time, they vanish into the next stage of the afterlife. I appreciated the courage to not have Stella say anything, even at the end of the game. I did think two things were strange about the ending.
- You don’t meet the Owl again when Stella passes through the door.
- You don’t leave another Spiritfarer to take over your position.
Stella was welcomed by Charon when she became the Spiritfarer. While Charon really didn’t teach anything about the job, at least they were there to let you know that this was your newest task. Stella doesn’t do this. Now, Buck is there after you, but I’m not sure that I would consider Buck the next Spiritfarer, unless I’m wrong. It was odd that Stella, someone committed to doing her duty as Spiritfarer, ferries her spirits to the Everdoor and leaves without welcoming the one who would come after her. Maybe that’s so the player has a sense of closure after they end their play through, but it made me feel like I was leaving irresponsibly. That the next cast of spirits would be lost forever as there wasn’t a Spiritfarer to take my place. I knew that Stella’s journey had ended, but what about the spirits that I encountered along the way? Did they not also require a Spiritfarer to guide them?
I loved the game, like I said at the beginning of the article, Spiritfarer is one of my top games in 2020. I love how the developers got me to care about all of the characters, even the ones I didn’t love. Experiencing the different areas of the map made me want to discover all the corners and see if there was anything I missed. I didn’t 100% the game, but that’s okay. Like some of the characters’ sudden decisions to pass on, sometimes you leave things left undone. It’s a game I can see myself returning to again and again if only to see the parts that I missed the first time around. It’s a beautiful game that’s written well, has a phenomenal soundtrack, and encourages you to think about what it means to care for other people. Is the game for everyone? No. At it’s base, it’s a management sim that can feel repetitive at times because some sections of the game are simply running back and forth on the ship completing the little mini-games that it takes to get certain items. Spiritfarer will make you feel cozy, and it might make you cry, but I think that the game is worth picking up for most of the people I know. It’s a great story and it’s a game that will relieve some of the stress that 2020 has brought us. If you’re looking for a chill game and enjoy management sims, pick this up. I don’t think that you will regret it.
