Spiritfarer Review

Referring to Spiritfarer as simply “An Indie Video Game” somehow feels like a disservice. Don’t get me wrong, it has all the gameplay mechanics you would expect from a 2d platform adventure game, and executes them as well as it needs to, but I’d rather call it the most enjoyable form of therapy.

Spiritfarer does an excellent job of exploring human emotions through animals, not dissimilar to Bojack Horseman. Of course, it’s different in the sense that the animals (and one mushroom boy) in this game are the spirits of actual, deceased humans, but by presenting them in this way, it beautifully strips down characters into a manifestation of their personality; their spirit animal. This not only allows for gorgeously creative character design, but also enhances their dialogue, removing any preconceptions the player could make on their human appearance, and exposing the raw set of emotions, troubles, and deep routed mannerisms that we as humans all possess.

You play as Stella, the newest Spiritfarer after the previous ‘Farer Charon, the first of a few characters taken almost in their entirety from Greek mythology. Your job is to fulfill the wishes of spirits before they pass through the Everdoor and reach the ‘other side’. A concept like this could easily be very morbid, I mean fulfilling dead people’s last wishes before they are gone forever is a pretty heavy thing, but that’s not how Spiritfarer approaches the subject.

As Stella, you and your cat, Daffodil, travel by boat across an expansive sea full of colourful and (ironically) lively towns, meeting new characters and getting to know them through their individual wish-fulfilling questlines. Stella seemingly has a ‘real world’ connection to many of the spirits, meeting friends or family members in their respective animal forms. As well as these closer connections, she also interacts with spirits she doesn’t know at all, this wide array of new faces allows Thunder Lotus games to explore humanity through differing viewpoints, on top of the saddening overarching fact that we all face the end eventually.

You’ll meet characters like Giovanni the Lion, a war veteran whose stance on living life puts himself before others. He’s charming and likable yet clearly has a lot of faults, he also happens to be one of the more transparent characters; he doesn’t hide who he is, even admitting to Stella later on that he’s never felt remorse about his selfish actions. In comparison you have Atul, Stella’s uncle and jolly frog-man, who throughout his journey displays a few subtle signs of sadness but otherwise is happy to be around the company of others. His exit from the game hit me like a truck and reminds players that a lot of people are less vocal about their feelings. The last specific spirit I’ll talk about, as there are quite a few, is Stanley. If you were confused as to why I mentioned a mushroom boy earlier, that’s him. When he passed, Stanley was a young child. That tragic fact is so well incorporated into his mannerisms and actions as a spirit that you can’t help feeling utterly heartbroken the more you interact with him, and sending him through the Everdoor reduced me to a blubbering teary mess.

This is why I find it hard to label Spiritfarer, just a video game. Usually, if I feel like crying because of a game it’s because I’ve wasted £60 on one that was subpar, not because the message and execution have been so well done that I can’t help feeling overwhelmed with emotion. The dialogue throughout is profoundly human, it speaks to the part of you that wants to believe deep down, despite all our faults, we are all just trying to get by, in our own way. It sheds new light on coping with the loss of a loved one, remembering who they were and how they spent their time alive, rather than the fact that they are gone. It’s fine to me that the gameplay elements take a backseat in this case because what Thunder Lotus set out to do, they achieved so unbelievably well.

That’s really the only complaint, the gameplay isn’t anything innovative. But it doesn’t need to be, what is used perfectly compliments the real point of the game, without overshadowing it with some tacked-on grinding mechanic, pointless levels, or anything that would take away from the overall experience. That’s what this game is, an experience. It’s why there’s a university study on how it helps people deal with loss, it’s why every time I go back and listen to Max LL’s beautifully composed soundtrack I feel deeply moved, it’s why I could easily discuss the game for hours and hours on end. 

Spiritfarer, is a tear-jerking, character-driven, expertly crafted masterpiece, and even amongst absolutely incredible games like Hades, The Last of Us Part 2, and Persona 5 Royal, is easily my favourite game of 2020.

9.5/10