izigame.me

Spiritfarer's steam page does the game a criminal disservice by saying it is a "Cozy management game about dying". To have a story focused on death, you must also tackle life, purpose, happiness, sadness, and everything in between. Spiritfarer at its core is indeed about dying, that much is true; but it is also so much more.
Before we get into that though, I want to discuss the obvious first. This game, from a presentation standpoint, is absolutely flawless. Animations are brilliantly detailed, and the soundtrack is a brilliant orchestral score that knows when to hold back during the quieter moments, and when to let loose during the more grand moments. Character designs are great too, with each one feeling unique and they are able to feel alive thanks to the fluid animation work. It's an excellent blend of hand drawn animation and artistic style that drenches the game in a playful charm that few other games have been able to pull off. If you are intrigued by the game's visual style then that alone is worth the $30 asking price in my opinion.
The game play here is probably the weakest element, although that isn't to say it's bad. There is plenty to do to keep you engaged throughout the game's 25 hour run time, and I could get lost in it for hours harvesting crops and cooking food for my spirits. Traveling the map is great fun too, and almost always rewarding you with new materials, new characters, new hidden treasures and more. None of the space on the map feels wasted and the progression as you slowly expanded into deeper areas of the map was a great way of keeping the game from feeling too stagnant. There were some quality of life issues that probably could've been resolved though. Pulling up a menu to craft buildings instead of using the blueprint table would've been nice, and some sorting methods for the cook book would've saved me some frustration. Little things like that never pulled me out of the experience though, it's not as frustratingly head scratching as Animal Crossing or something along those lines.
Getting back to the story now, I think it's important to note that on top of already being a shit year globally, 2020 has been a year where multiple people in my life have passed, and this game has an uncanny ability to remind you of certain people you know in your own life. Spiritfarer's confident writing is what propels this game above its self imposed description of "A cozy management game". It doesn't manipulate your emotions to feel for certain characters, and it isn't afraid to tackle its subject matter in a far more mature method than most M rated games could ever hope to.
If Spiritfarer was written by a bunch of morons instead, each character would be some stupid, overly wholesome, perfect person that coddles you into caring for them before the game kills them off in a cheap attempt to make you "think about life n stuff". Luckily, Spiritfarer isn't written by morons. Characters are just that, characters. Similar to people who you know throughout your life, you will like some of them, you will hate some of them, and others may just never really notice. They are there and then they are gone. What's important is that none of them are flawless people. Pretty much everyone of these characters will have some skeletons in their closet when they board your ship, and like everyone at the end of their life, they will either need to make amends or they won't. Time doesn't wait for you to make that decision. Death comes quick and without warning, and you will lose characters who haven't fully finished everything they wanted to do.
It is prudent to remember that this isn't some user fulfilling game where all the spirits you meet just like you because you are the protagonist. In fact, a lot of them will resent you. It is your duty to see these spirits to the end of their journeys, you don't just get to make friends with everyone over some tea. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule. The contrast does an excellent job of helping you appreciate the characters who you really did care about though, and it did make me tear up a number of times when I did lose someone I did care about. Gwen in particular made it hard for me to say goodbye to her.
Spiritfarer isn't afraid to tackle these dark ideas of death though. Despite the labels and poetic inclinations that humanity tries to assign to death, it is an unthinking, unfeeling reality that we will all need to face some day. You will see people who die without finishing their life's work, they will die with regrets, and they will die without ever really knowing who they were. The tragedy is built into the story's core, and it hurts watching certain characters go because you KNOW that they are leaving behind regrets, but they just can't take it anymore. The juxtaposition hits particularly hard when you notice the ones who embrace their death with open arms, and the ones who quite literally start pouring out their regrets onto you moments before they pass.
It isn't hard to see why this game resonated so much with me. Feeling that pain is very similar to what it's like to see someone you know die when they are only a few years older than you. It's sobering to say the least, and yeah, I cried a lot at the end of it all.
"What will you leave behind?"
Perhaps the answer to that question isn't as important as is the way that one interprets the question. If you were to die right now, what would you leave behind? A caring heart? Your artistic creations? Some way too philosophical reviews on Steam? Again, the answer isn't what is important here.
I understand I may have gotten a bit away from the point of reviewing this game in the first place, but I think it's important to note exactly what this game made me feel for as long as I played it, and how it's going to affect my life going forward. Life isn't just doom and gloom waiting for death to arrive, but it will be if you make it that way. Live in the now, and make sure you leave behind something that is worth it all.