On a more personal note: It was really satisfying playing this game about mourning and accepting the ending of cycles when I was mourning and accepting the ending of a cycle myself.

I don't think Spiritfarer is the perfect game, but I do think it's really brave for allowing its message to be diluted in dozens of hours of gameplay as a means to explore grief as something that is lived in manners so multiple as there are people in the world, instead of the universal (and rather sanitized) shallow approach of the five-stages-of-grief.

When I was yet to play this game, I thought as the spiritfarer we would be in charge of helping spirits in need with their unresolved aspirations. How surprised I was when, instead, the game paraded me a cast of loveable but ultimately unsatisfiable characters. The end for them, I realized soon enough, didn't come when they were finally content with their choices, or ready after some saccharine resolution. Instead, the end usually arrived when it was time. Just like that. When they were too tired to keep on. When they couldn't help themselves.

Which brings me to another point. Every action you take to make their lives more happy and meaningful ultimately brings them one step closer to the Everdoor. It's bittersweet, but also imbues even simple, kinda grindy tasks with weight. It's such a videogame thing to allow us to feel the smallest joys and sorrows of labor through labor itself. As well as the beauty of its quiet and in-betweens moments.