Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition

I played the last beta for this game on Steam just a couple of weeks ago. I have over 30 hours of playtime on it, despite me not being a fan of long games just because I loved it so much. This game is beautiful in every sense of the word. While the obvious hook are the gorgeous hand-drawn graphics, the game's premise is interesting, as you play as Stella, the Spiritfarer, who, together with her faithful cat Daffodil, gather the spirits of the recently deceased and help them with their last request before they can move on. There's no combat. The bulk of the game relies on gathering, building, crafting, puzzle solving and platforming. As you meet more spirits and get acquaintanced with them, you'll see they all have different personalities, traits and desires. The happier you get them, the more they help you around and in turn the easier it gets to help them with their last request. The game involves moving around a lot, like every open world game, but since your method of transportation and home are the same place (your ship), there's always something to do to advance your missions, so you never feel like you're wasting time or the game has padding. Inside the ship you can build and upgrade, grow crops, cook, craft and even practice your platforming skills. You can also interact with the spirits by talking, feed them, giving them items or (very importantly) hugging them to make them feel better. Each task you can do in your ship, save for interacting, involves a mini-game. Many of these are original and they mostly involve timing. Don' expect any of those tired "connect the pipes" minigames that plague all games today. Each spirit allows you access to one particular minigame for resource gathering as well. This game is really special, don't let it pass. Helping every spirit is an emotional reward, gameplay is fun and engaging and there's even a bunch of achievements for your completionist itch. It's really a wonderful experience and it deserves your attention.

Few games give you a complete experience like this one. You like a gorgeous drawn world? Characters full of life and personality? Managing resources in a fun way? Cooking? Farming? Sailing and exploring? Piecing together stories? This is right your alley! There is so much love put in this game, ThuderLotus made a very special thing and it shows. There is so much to do and so much to see in this, you won't be disappointed.

I just played for roughly 6 hours and I already cried. Nice. The animation and artwork is wonderful. The characters are so pretty and loveable. You get to know each of them bit by bit, you make them houses, upgrade houses, hug them (I hugged them a lot, because the animation is just so cute) and feed them, while you search on the sea for more island to uncover. And then you need to let them go. And the game hits u in the face with a brick full of onions.

This is a stunningly beautiful, meditative, subtly addictive dream; it's also the best game yet from Thunder Lotus, they of Jotun (pretty-but-clunky top-down action) and Sundered (decent roguelite metroidvania marred by randomly encountered hordes). You play as the newly-chosen ferryperson to the dead, making new friends, tending to their needs, feeding, fishing, farming, crafting, etc., all while sailing on the most magnificent open sea since Wind Waker. The main loop reminds me of the game Don't Sink, a stripped-down Sid Meier's Pirates with base-building and missions. You don't directly control the boat but instead choose locations on the map as you travel from island to island meeting spirits, fulfilling requests, and gathering ingredients (all without pirate encounters this time). Crafting is done via soft minigames, the platforming challenges are minimal, and the sea is so large you'll have plenty of time to sit back and take in Thunder Lotus's best art design and most fluid animations to date. Is it perfect? No, but what is? Of course it has its niggles: it seems like the crops ALWAYS need watering, for one. I also wish I could see everyone's mood without having to talk to each of them in turn. And some of the animations can be a little self-indulgent: I sometimes wish it didn't take almost 30 seconds to saw down a tree. None of these are deal-breakers though; I still come back to this game again and again for its soothing atmosphere, stress-free open gameplay, poignant storytelling, and goshdarn shear friggin' BEAUTY. This isn't a game that will challenge you; in fact it openly refuses to do so (except maybe emotionally). This is "comfort gaming" at its finest, and many gamers will be turned off by its lack of combat and only mild puzzling. That's fine; we have our fixes for *that*, don't we? Here, though, we will lay back, relax, and enjoy a truly great thing, and like all great things, it's not for all the people; it's for the right people.