This review contains no spoilers, but it reveals how the game's structure works in a general sense. I wouldn’t recommend reading it unless you’ve played a little bit already.
Spiritfarer is a narrative-focused management game, and that description is deceptively informative: it’s not a story game with management, it’s a management game with a story. The short pitch is that you’re the ferrymaster to the deceased, so it’s easy to expect the game to be mostly therapeutic heart-to-hearts with your passengers, but the reality is that 95% of your time will be spent running daily errands for them on your massive houseboat. Grow some plants, catch some fish, start a meal in the oven, go spin some thread as it cooks, smelt ore until you arrive at the next island, jump off and start chopping trees for a new house… you’re constantly juggling these little jobs, and most dialog is just getting new tasks or being told how well you’re doing. While the character growth and narrative progression are wonderfully executed, these sorts of interactions are awash in a sea of repetitive, filler responses to the egregiously repetitive list of errands. The idea was that by having each spirit demand so many specific amenities, players could bond with them over time and get used to their presence on the ship before they inevitably depart. Considering how important it is to convey a sense of loss in a game about death, it’s a sound theory, but the vast amount of repetition turns your passengers from living people into blatantly artificial checklists. After the first few characters make it to the Everdoor, the suspense is gone, and it’s harder to get attached to the new spirits when you know they’re just going to put you through the same food/house/improvements/quest/Everdoor cycle as before. The people who enjoy the crafting and sailing for its own sake might not feel this is a problem, and that a repetitive, slow pace is exactly what one should expect from the genre, but the way it smothers a beautifully unique narrative hook was unavoidably disappointing to me. In spite of how amazing some of the character moments are, and of how wonderfully it's presented overall, these qualities won’t balance out the mundanity if you’re anything less than a crafting enthusiast. Luckily, that’s probably most people, and I’m probably the weird one for never having gotten sucked into Minecraft, Terraria, Stardew Valley, or something comparable. If you love any of those games, I would highly recommend Spiritfarer, and I’ll sit here in jealousy that you get to enjoy a game I was just a few hours of chores away from actually loving.
Spiritfarer is a narrative-focused management game, and that description is deceptively informative: it’s not a story game with management, it’s a management game with a story. The short pitch is that you’re the ferrymaster to the deceased, so it’s easy to expect the game to be mostly therapeutic heart-to-hearts with your passengers, but the reality is that 95% of your time will be spent running daily errands for them on your massive houseboat. Grow some plants, catch some fish, start a meal in the oven, go spin some thread as it cooks, smelt ore until you arrive at the next island, jump off and start chopping trees for a new house… you’re constantly juggling these little jobs, and most dialog is just getting new tasks or being told how well you’re doing. While the character growth and narrative progression are wonderfully executed, these sorts of interactions are awash in a sea of repetitive, filler responses to the egregiously repetitive list of errands. The idea was that by having each spirit demand so many specific amenities, players could bond with them over time and get used to their presence on the ship before they inevitably depart. Considering how important it is to convey a sense of loss in a game about death, it’s a sound theory, but the vast amount of repetition turns your passengers from living people into blatantly artificial checklists. After the first few characters make it to the Everdoor, the suspense is gone, and it’s harder to get attached to the new spirits when you know they’re just going to put you through the same food/house/improvements/quest/Everdoor cycle as before. The people who enjoy the crafting and sailing for its own sake might not feel this is a problem, and that a repetitive, slow pace is exactly what one should expect from the genre, but the way it smothers a beautifully unique narrative hook was unavoidably disappointing to me. In spite of how amazing some of the character moments are, and of how wonderfully it's presented overall, these qualities won’t balance out the mundanity if you’re anything less than a crafting enthusiast. Luckily, that’s probably most people, and I’m probably the weird one for never having gotten sucked into Minecraft, Terraria, Stardew Valley, or something comparable. If you love any of those games, I would highly recommend Spiritfarer, and I’ll sit here in jealousy that you get to enjoy a game I was just a few hours of chores away from actually loving.