Spiritfarer Takes You on an Emotional Journey with Echoes of Studio Ghibli

I recently had the opportunity to play the demo of Spiritfarer and it was a pretty exciting experience. I have been patiently waiting for more gameplay over many others since we discovered it in 2019. This was due to how the art style felt like something I could grasp onto and it gave an entirely new take on death in games, at least for me.

The demo can be played as a short and sweet experience, or you can play around with many of the side quests to really dive deep into the various mechanics and systems on display. It was a great dive into some quality work, something I found refreshing. Anymore there is either quality or quantity; I value a nice mix. Sometimes I feel like I really need that deep quality though and Spiritfarer is leaning on quality.

Lately, the games coming out are full of rush and suspense and thrills. Everything to keep you focused and pumped. Spiritfarer feels very relaxing by contrast. I feel like it has the same relaxed energy as Animal Crossing so far as I’ve gathered, but of course in a 2D platformer style of game.

Once I played with moving around, I really enjoyed how playing Spiritfarer made me feel like a believable person in this colorful world. I adore Stella’s hat being used as a parachute to jump and glide around too. Swimming is simple as well, but don’t expect Daffodil (Stella’s cat, and the player 2 option) to hop in the water, at least not on purpose. There is a super cute animation of Daffodil using a ball to roll around on the water, similar to rolling on logs.

The demo runs you through helping one of the tenants of your ship and completing their final requests. I was unaware of utilizing these character’s moods in any capacity, but you give your tenants hugs to help keep them happy and improve their moods as you go. Sometimes people just need a hug and to feel like they matter when they are going through a turbulent time. It is very much like being out on the sea, which I assume is totally on purpose. You travel around and never really know how things will go. Sometimes the sea is calm and beautiful, but sometimes it is stormy and turbulent. Coming through those turbulent seas can be rewarding because you almost always grow in some way by the end.

Speaking of seas being stormy. The storm minigame is a really fun way to make extra currency in Spritfarer. You get the currency with each lightning strike and how well you catch each bolt with your Everlight (magical ball) can make a difference in available funds.

I’m not totally sure what the Everlight is but I am totally sure that we will get a lot more on that as we get closer to the release date, which is currently unset.

So far,Spiritfarer seems great. It looked gorgeous, the motion felt fluid, and it makes me feel like I am playing in a Ghibli film. Plus there’s the human element of coming face to face with the heart-wrenching aspects of life and death that makes Spiritfarer that much more fascinating. On the surface, the game is all about death but not in a doom and gloom sort of way. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s more about fulfillment. I can’t say that when I am fulfilled that I am ever sad, so these touching moments in-game are inherently happy. The music and audio were also top-notch creating a stellar ambiance. Thunder Lotus also hid secrets behind walls in a parallax style which was fun to figure out how to get to.

Spiritfarer is made by Thunder Lotus Studios and is set to release in 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and Steam. A digital demo of the game was provided for the purpose of reporting.