If I didn’t mind sitting around a lot and enjoying the art, I might have enjoyed it for what it is. I’ve approached the game as a goal-oriented activity, but Spiritfarer seems to be more about the cozy, chill approach to gaming. The downside to this is you need something to do while sailing several minutes from one island to another. Or just park your boat in a rainstorm and do all the crafting you need to do. Wait for the animation three or six times, and try to keep an eye on them for when they’re grown enough to be cut down. Oh, and don’t forget to water your plants. Aside from combining accumulated items, other tasks that require “gameplay” include moving from left to right to cut down a tree, tracing a line to turn a log into planks, and timed hammer presses on a piece of heated ore. While I can find value in the Zen of consistent, simple tasks, the problem with this in Spiritfarer is that it promises so much more, but offers what feels like padding in place of real content. This will be a draw for some players and a boring hell for others. Instead, the only meat I added was to my recipe codex when combing random foods together. Most of the characters feel like they have layers just waiting to be explored, and I often wondered if I had somehow missed a way to access dialogue that would add meat to my experience. Regardless, each time I took a spirit to the Everdoor, they had such a beautiful, bittersweet farewell complemented by exquisite music and incredible artwork that I almost forgave the hours of mindless activity.
Unfortunately, the meaningful interactions are separated by large swaths of redundant gardening, cooking, and woodcutting that occur while going from one island to another, so that emotional intrigue surrounding our friends never really takes root in our hearts. From a narrative perspective, this is the primary draw of Spiritfarer. While fulfilling requests, the patron may share small details about their lives, including regrets, desires, and fond memories.
After a while completing requests for her visitors, Stella eventually takes them to the Everdoor to say goodbye. She picks up spirits from various islands scattered across the sea who take up residence on her boat. Stella is our sojourner in Spiritfarer who takes Charon’s place in his duties to release souls to the afterlife. That emotional engagement we were promised? Sparse, but also intense. Yet, at the same time, when Spiritfarer hits its groove and everything’s sailing at a steady clip, the gameplay feels meditative and interesting. Unfortunately, those ratios are somewhat reversed, with a heavy emphasis on repetitive and simple tasks, experimental crafting, and waiting a long time to get from one place to another. A little bit of fishing, shopping, hugging, shipbuilding, and a whole lot of emotional engagement. Spiritfarer dazzled me with its reveal trailer during E3 of 2019.
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