A lot of charm bogged down by clunky performance and uninteresting town management. I experienced four crashes during my ~25 hour play through-- one of which happened during the final scene of the game. I'm a huge fan of the type of game Spiritfarer is, but the gathering, crafting, and questing you do rarely feels like it pays off.

There were a few mechanics that I specifically had a problem with. First, jumping from bouncy surfaces feels like a flat-out broken feature until you realize the correct controller input was just never explained. The built-in fast travel system still manages to feel too slow. The quest structure never felt rewarding-- especially the side quests aptly categorized in the quest log as "Shenanigans".

I loved the opportunity to get to know the characters, I only wish the accompanying game was a little more fun.

Man, I really wanted to like this but I was very, very dissapointed.

I was very interested in this game when I read that it would portray death in a different way most mediums do, which is from the perspective of accepting the inevitability of it with optimism.

Sooo, what happened?

Gameplay is really, really boring. Nothing about it is interesting or fun. Managing your ship, building, and gathering materials is really dull and doesn't work at all. Every action requires little to no input so it's not entertaining, and while I understand this game is more aligned with the experience side of videogames instead of gameplay, it could have at least tried to do something cool with it instead of... this.

Then there's the writing... this was what eventually made me drop it. There's just nothing interesting nor engaging going on at all. Characters just spout the same three lines every. single. time. without changing it up or having significant development. All of them have a very one-dimensional personality and don't have an interesting backstory. There's not a single memorable character here, all of the dialogue is repeated ad infinitum and they're not specially likeable.
The only engaging part was when they go to die since they actually say a new line of dialogue for once.

Then there's the death aspect. It's ok, I guess? Didn't really make me reflect. It's just kinda there and since the writing is so uninspired, I couldn't really be bothered to care. Every single attempt at exploring the concept of death just feels like something I've seen before.

I really wanted to like this game, I was almost done with it when I just kinda stopped playing it and couldn't make myself come back to it. I just didn't see any reason to play this game to the end instead of doing literally anything else.

Despite not having finished it, I encourage everyone to give it a try, at least if you own Game Pass.

The writing is amazing, and the characters absolutely adorable. Gameplay is surprisingly crisp and fun, too, for an indie title focussed on narrative. For about 5h the movement and all the minigames the game throws at you felt unique, engaging and charming.

But it quickly gets old after that, and it feels like the game would go for another 10h. Meanwhile, I already took plenty of enjoyment from the characters and the narrative, so I felt fine with just stopping. I rarely ever finish a game anyway, so I still feel good recommending it!

Charming and thoughtful (as well as thought-provoking) little game that unfortunately suffers as a game. The story, essentially about facing death, is strong and sad, and the gameplay starts out almost as strong, with so many things to build, upgrade, craft, cook or fish and so much running around testing recipies, cutting crops and building more farms, but towards the end and for the final few hours, it became apparent that there isn't really all that much to find out there and there isn't much of a reason to build a farm large enough to cover the largest ship, because there's nothing to really find, buy or upgrade. Every chest, that you finally get access to hours after spotting it and through ability upgrades, just has seeds you already have in it. the shops also only sell seeds and the secret powers you unlock at the very end, depending on in what order you do things, end up serving little to no purpose since there's no big final goal.

There is no end boss of platforming challenge, there is nothing cool to find in the world, there is no gold-tier seed to grow. The game just sort of ends. It's very pretty, has a sad story and is a lot of compelling fun for the first half, or maybe a little more, until you realize that it's all amounting to nothing on a gameplay level. The story ends up being nice and sweet and I won't spoil any of it, and the story is the focus of this game, but then there are so many mechanics, for a story game, that I ended up missing a few more to really take it all home. Should've had more mechanics and less story or vice versa, probably vice versa even though I would've liked that less.

A lovely game with lovely characters that's unfortunately a massive drag to play. Spiritfarer is a grindy busywork simulator masquerading as a town-building sim or platformer. In reality it's a clicker game where, unlike other click games, you have to spend enormous amounts of time traveling between the things you click on. There's no challenge to any of it, just tedium and a continual test of patience.

I stuck with it for >5 hours expecting it to get better as I unlocked more features. Instead it only got worse as I uncovered more of the world and was forced to spend more and more time on mindless errands which in turn only unlock more mindless errands. The game occasionally rewards you with cute bits of character dialogue, but those are a few and far between compared to the amount of time you'll spend operating click-to-complete chore machines and engaging with possibly the most annoying fishing minigame I've ever encountered.

I've heard there's a beautiful ending, and it saddens me to say I won't stick around to see it. When I saw the average time to main story completion on How Long to Beat was 24 hours, I nearly died.

This game is kind of a mess. While the art is cute and the presentation is decent, it's a chore to play. It has a lot of gameplay mechanics that really only serve to fill time, for example, there really doesn't need to be multiple types of wood. The various islands are uninteresting, the art lacks character, the protagonist might as well be a refrigerator box. The characters, the "spirits," just monologue at you in paragraphs about their past and then die. I found most of them irritating and I didn't care about any of their stories. Ultimately, this game feels like it fell victim to scope-creep. It has a lot of systems that are dissonant, none of which are particularly well fleshed-out, and it doesn't spend enough time making its characters feel interesting.

Decent game. It's pretty, pulls you in, and builds some cool gameplay ideas. Also, a cat follows you around all the time, so...

The overall art direction is pretty solid. Not played a lot of games with this sort of illustration style for assets, and I think it aids the message and overall tone of the game. The art is pretty consistent throughout, and I think it stays pretty attractive.

Audio is fine. The overall SFX and character sounds are decent. The music gets a little repetitive and annoying occasionally, but I think it's solid.

Story is okay. I think it's worth it for a playthrough but most of the characters are not amazing, just competent. They certainly feel real and you can empathize with them, but by the end I was mostly tired of the story, looking to end it. The story of life and passing through is meaningful and the game talks about it in several dimensions, which I think is great, but like others have said the back end lacks, I think in both the characters that you get and the overall pacing.

The gameplay is weak. I'm all for mindless resource gathering, and complex crafting systems, and wandering around a map just looking for different resources to progress, but it takes it to a different level of tedium.

The game makes you feel like you're progressing and building new things and exploring new places, but every action you take for crafting, or gathering resources, is just irritating. They're all tiny minigames comprised of holding the e button then letting go at the right time and usually some amount of waiting. I completed the game and got all the achievements, but I was fatigued of it halfway through. The progression and the story kept me going, but if I hadn't had clear and present goals it probably would have fatigued me out.

The game uses these resource and crafting systems as the primary goals of quests and as a means to segment content, which means that the majority of goals in this game boil down to 'visit place to get [resource]/craft [product]/return [product] to quest giver'. This is fine if you know what you're getting into and you're ok with it. Again, not hard, just tedious.

The rest of the gameplay is mainly composed of the platforming aspects. I suppose it qualifies as a platformer, since the other way the game segments content is by locking valuable items behind some movement upgrade. Despite this, the platforming can be annoying. It's fun how fast you can go, and jumping and flying around is nice, but there's some minor quirks that result in you missing somewhere you think you could've landed, and having to go back to try again, over and over. If it just offered a little more lenience / control, it would be significantly less aggravating.

Beyond that, there are tiny things that prevent this game from being a 4 star that seem to be due to not enough time spent polishing. I personally completed a lot of the non-essential ship upgrades at the end, as I didn't need them / didn't have them available until after I'd sent away my spirits and went exploring. Rather than proper animation stretch frames the player character and others sometimes are simply stretched and squeezed for some amount of frames to display motion. Fine, but it was distracting and my main problem with the art. I also felt some of the animations were janky and did not fully blend into each other.

The characters often repeat the same dialogue over and over, even the ones you have to visit several times. The characters will have a favorite food, but their animation won't be them eating their favorite food. Seems like a minor thing, but a character that hates carbs has an animation of them devouring carbs, which is immensely frustrating when you spend half the time catering to their unnecessarily precise food desires.

ALSO: Almost all the achievements can be done in a single playthrough, but two are dependent on which decision you make, which means that you minimally have to do two playthroughs to get all the achievements. I consider this game to have very very limited replay value unless it's right up your alley, so I think this is just annoying and a poor decision by the devs considering the rest of the game is incredibly linear and I don't believe this decision even has any major effect on the characters involved.


TL;DR:

Solid game, I think you should play it for the art, story, and characters. It creates a solid narrative and world, while building on cool gameplay ideas (the ship, cooking for your passengers), but a lot of the gameplay is rooted in tedium or minor aggravations. The story and gameplay shines in the front half, lingers in the back half, and has some weird quirks and abrupt endings that feel more like lack of polish / rush than deliberate decisions. I'd up my rating if the back part felt less like a todo list and more like a proper finish.

Let's talk about how fantastic this game is.

Right off the bat with Spiritfarer you're greeted by beautiful, hand-drawn animation, a gorgeous score, and the role of "Spiritfarer" which challenges you to guide people to the last moments of their life. Make them happy. Make them comfortable. Along your journey you'll meet a cast of unique crewmates each with a different perspective, a different approach to life, and of course, death. And your responsibility to them becomes a tall, tall order. The emotional weight of the most devastating moments in Spiritfarer is difficult to handle, I found I had to put the game down many times because of this. But there's so much beauty here. With each heartbreak comes growth and change that extends beyond the game. It feels a bit cheesy, but this game really did help me, specifically one little crewmate who took a particular liking to my guest house.

This is why, despite its flaws, I want to focus on what all Spiritfarer does oh, so right. Yes, there are glitches, yes there are narrative hiccups, but Spiritfarer isn't defined by those things. It instead, is defined by the heart, love, care, and soul that the developers at ThunderLotus gifted it with. I'm so thankful to have played it, and so thankful to these wonderful people for having made it.

in order to move on, we have to let go.

probably the most relaxing and heartwarming experience ive ever had with a game. i'd say i played it for like 40 hours and didn't even notice time going by. everything is easy going and there are no consequences when u do something "wrong" (i.e. the characters cant starve to death, ur seeds wont go bad if u don't harvest them, the food wont burn etc etc). for someone that doesnt like to feel pressured when playing games, this was just perfect. the characters are also really charming and interesting and i loved even the ones i hated lmao. some stories even made me cry.
apart for some bugs and crashes every now and then, this was perfect for me.

The gameplay might've been boring for me in some parts but there is just so much heart here put into every aspect of the game. Art, animations, music, practically every character is lovable in some way, unique and have interesting background.

And ummmm...

It is possible I cried a little when escorting one of the spirits. Absolutely beatiful game with sometimes tedious gameplay.

If there is a game for our time, this is it. Through the efforts of standout writing and the sum of the repetitious actions you undertake, Spiritfarer will usher you into a rhythm that viscerally contemplates the mortality of humanity and the lives we live. Every aspect and mechanic is in service to this goal. Even when specific parts of the game, if isolated, seem under-baked, they often still build to inspired moments.

The knock against it is found in those lacking elements. The handling in the platforming sections are far too loose and unexciting, the clicker/base building aspects can become tedious and don’t progress enough in and of themselves, and the endgame, if the player indulges in it, is effectively an amalgamation of all the worst parts divorced from the game’s guiding thesis.

However, when you hit the seas, exploring the secrets of the map and its islands with the transcendent score accompanying you, scurrying to finish projects on the boat during the voyage, all the while building relationships with your passengers, it all comes together to make a wonderful miniature ecosystem that is simply hard to put down.

Make time for Spiritfarer. It will surprise you and pull you in. And you won’t be able to leave unaffected.

Spiritfarer made me ask a difficult question of myself, for me personally, just how important is gameplay for a video game. I know that sounds like a stupid question but stick with me for a little bit. Spiritfarer at it's core is a survival/crafting game about gathering resources to craft upgrades and progress through the game, and I found it's repetitive loop of gathering/crafting to be very irritating and bothersome quite a lot of the time. There are hours I spent with this game where I became very frustrated and bored that would normally just end with me uninstalling the game and never returning.

...and yet I can't deny that I found myself still falling in love with this game.

Because the game really is more than it's gameplay a lot of the time. The art and animation is always a pure delight to look at, the soundtrack is beautifully moving, and the writing is some of the most poignant and moving I've ever seen in any piece of media. There are many moments that I'm probably going to carry with me for years to come.

But was all of this worth it? I loved the game for it's art but simply tolerated it for it's gameplay. My gut reaction is to recommend Spiritfarer but I'm confident that there will be a lot of people for whom the gameplay will be simply too tedious for them.