Spiritfarer Shines: A First Impression
My first experience with a Thunder Lotus title was picking up Jotun by chance during a sale on the Nintendo Switch eShop. I fell in love with the studio’s hand drawn art style and larger than life worlds and enemies they created. I followed that by playing Sundered, a much different game, but one that reminded me of just how beautiful the games they publish are.
Then they announced Spiritfarer. Spiritfarer is “a cozy management game about dying.” It was announced at E3 in 2019 and from the first time I saw Stella, the newest Spiritfarer, I knew that I wanted the game. As a Spiritfarer, your task is to ferry lost spirits through the Everdoor so that they can move on. But each spirit needs to be comforted before they can pass on to what lies next.
So Stella builds up her own ship and creates comfortable living quarters to best serve the spirits she finds along the way. The game is hand drawn and mostly based around a management system. However, there are slight nods to other game genres, as I’ve experienced a guitar hero like music mini game, and something similar to a platformer where I had to collect jelly from jellyfish made from fear. It will be interesting to see what else the game will bring as I continue on this cozy adventure.
The story of Spiritfarer allows you to learn about the world at the same time as Stella, who wakes up on a boat with her cat Daffodil. She’s introduced to her afterlife calling as the new Spiritfarer and immediately starts this new journey. Your primary duty is to attend to the spirits who make their way onto your boat, but along the way you also get to explore this new world and the people who inhabit it. A truly beautiful soundtrack by Max LL accompanies you throughout the game. At times, it’s haunting, at times it’s meant to comfort you through the hard times that the characters experience. The soundtrack does an incredible job of setting the mood of the game, even when you can just barely hear it. Also, if I’m being honest, I love it when characters in game interact with the music, and that’s already happened a few times while I’ve been playing it.
Screenshot from the Thunder Lotus Spiritfarer presskit. Shows Stella fishing off the back of her boat with the sun rising over an island in the background.
I’ve only put about four hours into Spiritfarer. But I’m already captivated by the story that’s being written as I play it. There’s not been many times where I’ve felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. Each of the characters that I’ve met have had distinct personalities that I’ve absolutely adored getting to know. Atul is definitely one of my favorites, his joyful and welcoming personality has me wanting to talk with him often. When looking up more about this game, I’ve noted that most people say that there’s about 20–30 hours of playtime. To be honest, that’s more than I expected. I’m excited to see what happens next, as this means that I’m still very much in the early stages of the game. Something to note is that I’ve already seen at least one nod to a past Thunder Lotus title while exploring. I loved the little callback.
While I’m only a few hours in, Spiritfarer is a game that I can see myself coming back to even after I beat it. Thunder Lotus describes it as cozy and that’s exactly what it is. In a year where it’s felt like I’ve constantly been in some stage of grief or anger, Spiritfarer is giving me the vibes that I need. I wanted a game where there was a beautiful, if not sad, story, and from what I’ve experienced, accompanying Stella, Daffodil, and the spirits will help give me just that. So far, I have no real complaints about the game. I’m early enough in that I may still be in a honeymoon phase, but as I kept saying in my stream on Tuesday, this game is everything I could have wanted it to be. I’m excited to see what else the story will bring and how I’ll get to help out more spirits as Stella grows as a Spiritfarer. This is a game that I would recommend to most, if not all my friends. If you’re looking for a game that will provide comfort to you, do yourself a favor and pick up Spiritfarer. You won’t regret it. From the soundtrack, to the hand drawn style, to being able to hug Daffodil, this game has been excellent.
Have you played it? Would you recommend it to others? Let me know what you think in the comments down below!