A less positive review of Spiritfarer

[Nom]

I am sad to say I was disappointed by Spiritfarer.

A good friend and I had the chance to coop play through the just-before-release version of the game over the last couple of weeks. We went into it with expectations of making friends with interesting characters, getting to know them, and feeling melancholy about seeing them go. In the end, we only really cared about a handful, definitely less than half, before they left. Instead of being left with memorable moments, we were left with vague impressions. Instead of a feeling of, "I wish I had more time with them," we had unanswered questions that felt vital to truly caring about these people.

We're a couple of sensitive guys. We both really dug Undertale and Night in the Woods, primarily because of their characters and the situations those characters got put into. Unfortunately, we both felt like there wasn't nearly enough character building in Spiritfarer, and there were almost no interesting situations. The characters almost never get to make decisions or take actions, and very, very few of them ever have any kind of reaction to being on the ship with each other.

Let me be clear: there are basically zero inter-character conversations on the ship. I am honestly upset with the new animated trailer for making it seem like you'll have all of these lovely moments together with groups of friends, talking and sharing stories, getting to watch Gwen snark at Atul or Alice take care of Stanley. But, no, that doesn't happen. It's not even really implied. There are two "group" events in the entire game, and they don't involve spirits talking to each other. Off the top of my head there are only a few times in the entire game that a spirit "does" something besides make a text bubble over their head telling you they want to say something. They have almost no agency to do things that would generate memorable moments.

Meanwhile, most spirits don't seem to develop a bond with Stella over time. For most it feels like there's a "we just met" phase, a nebulous "you're doing stuff for me" phase, and then a goodbye speech at the end. The transition from "new shipmate" to "friend" doesn't really seem to happen with most of the spirits. My coop friend and I strongly felt like a majority of the characters didn't share enough about themselves, or do anything engaging enough, for us to care about them. I hesitate to call most of them shallow, but some of them are, and for most of the others you only dip your foot into the shallow end of their pool.

In the end, we spent what felt like at least 15 of our 30 hours doing clicker tasks: endless farming, fishing, milling, sawing, milling, etc. etc. in order to fulfill requests, fill bellies, and complete collectible collections. At the time it felt nice to have something to do, but in hindsight it's filler. For us, even hugs quickly became a (pleasant) chore, something that should be done every X hours like a daily quest in an MMO. Which meant that if you DID have one of the rare emotional moments with a character, and you think they deserve a hug? Too bad, because you can only hug them once every X hours and no sooner.

I don't think the positive reviewers are biased or wrong. If anything, I'd say I'm jealous of them, because I wish I'd felt a closer connection to the characters. I can tell Thunder Lotus cared about what they made here, and I wish them success. I'm sure there are a lot of people who will like this game. It's a shame that I'm not one of them.

[Nom]

Yeah, my kind of "rude tl;dr" of the game is, "It's a clicker game with very light platforming and sometimes you meet people who you might learn to like a little before they leave." I didn't want to go saying that on here on release week, though, out of respect for Thunder Lotus, particularly Med.

That said, I don't think I was outside of the intended audience. I've lost grandparents and a friend my age, I'm a reader who likes character-driven narratives, I like cute aesthetics and state-mandated hugs. I've even logged some time with a handful of clicker games!

In the end, Malidictus's review helps me realize that what I wanted was more depth than the game had in store. Depth of story, depth of gameplay mechanics, depth of characters... Preferably all of the above. Unfortunately, I didn't get any.

And, to be clear, "Oh, I figured out what killed Summer," isn't depth of character. A little satisfying, sure, but it's not character building. I still felt like I was missing the majority of who she is as a person and what made her the person she is.

[Kissaki]

I was excited and hopeful after playing the demo.

I would say I was a bit disappointed playing the game. It's still a good game, but too slow and repetitive/grinding. Too much pointless backtracking and searching what I already had found in the past.

The elements for great atmosphere were all there, but I rarely felt it (contrary to the demo). That made me wonder if it was my mood or something, but it was over all three days.

I definitely enjoyed the early, caring characters, and the mushroom. Those were enjoyable interactions.
But it kind of all became a tedious running errands, and by the time the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ character came along I mostly only skimmed through dialog. A lot of padded and pointless stuff and I was not invested in the characters (anymore).

I don't want to be unreasonably critical. It's still a good game and maybe the gameplay was just not for me - at least not well enough. I did enjoy quite a few things but I feel like the tedious errands killed it for me.

[Malidictus]

Publicado originalmente por Nom:

In the end, Malidictus's review helps me realize that what I wanted was more depth than the game had in store. Depth of story, depth of gameplay mechanics, depth of characters... Preferably all of the above. Unfortunately, I didn't get any.

Glad I could help :) After some 30 hours, I think I've finally put my finger on what this is - it's a visual novel, more or less. Think about it - you have several story arcs with several different characters, they all consist of text box dialogue in which you have next to no input but to keep advancing the text and eventually you get a still image with some text as your "ending." The characters have next to no interactions with each other, outside of heavily scripted situations.

Yes, there's some light platforming and heavy "clicker game" gameplay, but think about it. If Spiritfarer were literally a visual novel, would much of substance be lost? Yes, we'd lose the animations, but realistcally, how many of those really are there? There's hugging the cat, there's hugging the passangers and there are a few cute movement animations. Most of the rest is static or lightly-animated sprites.

Sadly, I feel that Spiritfarer has a LOT of potential, but actually acted on very little of it. The gameplay is simplistic, a few characters are interesting but most are shallow, there's no interactivity in interacting with them and the animations - though impressive - are heavily limited. I honestly don't know how or why that happened, but a golden opportunity was missed.

Publicado originalmente por Kissaki:

But it kind of all became a tedious running errands, and by the time the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ character came along I mostly only skimmed through dialog. A lot of padded and pointless stuff and I was not invested in the characters (anymore).

And then there's this. I like Gwen. I like Atul. I kind of like Astrid. I can't stand the Bull guy. I absolutely despise the greyhound lady. I didn't even care enough to remember their names - I just wanted them off my ship, they were so insufferable. In fact, the longer the game went on, the more "amateur writer" habits I began to notice. It feels like someone drew on real-life experience for some characters, then drew up embarrassingly broad, almost cartoony stereotypes for others through lack of experience with them. The mobster guys read like something out of a 60 Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The greyhound lady reads like someone's third-hand idea of what a "victorian librarian" teacher might be like. As someone who teaches courses at the local university, I can tell you for a fact - that is a BAD teacher who's going to do lasting damage to her students.

I'd go as far as to criticise even Stanley. Yes, his story is one of the more tragic ones as he's essentially a dead kid. That's tragic by default. However, he's such a stereotypical hollow child that he ends up having no personality of his own beyind being "a kid." Unless he died when he was 4 years old, he'd certainly have had SOME kind of unique personality of his own.

Compare this against, say, the hedgehog lady. Yes, she's ostensibly "an old senile woman" but she still has hints of a person who's lived a life of her own. She has that fantasy of a romance/action novel, she shows memories of more carefree time, she shows fantasies of a different life. She's a person who exists beyond her narrow archetype, and only grows closer to it as her body and her mind give out - hence the tragedy. Gwen, Atul and the first few - they seem to have more to their characters than JUST whatever killed them and JUST the character archetype they fill. The same can't be said for the later ones. Especially the DND parrot who appears to have NO personality beyond how I described him just now.

A game which sacrifices almost every other aspect for the sake of the personal stories of its characters can't afford to have two-dimensional characters.

[I'm not your Mary]

I feel the game peaked after the first 3 spirits (Gwen, Summer, Alice)

And some aspects just feel rushed. It's a "Spirit World" they've could've played a lot more with the aspect that its a world that doesn't have to follow our rules. Also have spirits interact with each other more, it felt like they didn't interact with each other at all.

And cooking is super slow , yet plants/fruit are like 1000x speed vs the amount that spirits actually eat.

If spirits actually had a 0 - 100 hunger meter and each food had an assigned number which would force you to cook specific meal sizes, then yeah. But you can literally feed them basic things and nothing bad happens in terms of happiness.

You have to be REALLY bad for them to drop below "average mood".

I feel the game should've been slower in the terms of food production, so it doesn't feel like "oh have to water and tend the trees every single day."

[Diakonov]

The game is good enough.

Maybe at the future there will be DLCs and more interactions like sitting together at the boat lounge or other quality times with the spirits.

But overall it is a good game. Made me think a lot about the meaning of life, our personalities and how diverse the approach on life can be.

On how tiring and dead we feel when our passions or dreams just don´t sustain us anymore. Each spirit tires of themselves and ask to be destroyed at the Everdoor.

How each spirit personality gets depressed or content with themselves and ask for an end.

Also daily work and it is beauty and how it make us connect with the other. Work is a way of connection.

[Lailantie]

After being totally frustrated in the beginning, then starting to play again for around 30 more hours, I like the game. But it would not be my favourite for many reasons mentioned in this thread. It is tedious and stressful, you constantly run to cook, water the crops, get wood or metal, build more houses and so on, besides the spirits I am hosting right now are always hungry. Whenever I run across the ship they want food. All of this is waaay too time consuming for me, and personally I hunger for personal stories, memories, some quiet time together and more.

Bringing the spirits to the Everdoor is emotional and fulfilling. Yet I couldn't really feel it because I was so stressed out by the daily tasks and grinding.

What is bothering me the most iis the jump and run thing, which is quite hard without a controller where you intuitively go right and left, up and down. Handling all of this with a keyboard was the major blockage for me. For the longest time I didn't find Astrid or any marble, just because I didn't know I could jump on these containers. (I watched a walkthrough video and my jaw dropped when this guy just jumped up there.)

With the Aluminium dragon I logged out in panic, as I felt trapped, couldn't stop the quest and had no idea how to handle it. These are situations where I really freeze, my mind goes blank and I get lost, I can't even think of ways how to do it anymore. I know this is a personal issue and also a reason why this is my first jump and run game. Most probably it will be my last one also.

[I'm not your Mary]

Publicado originalmente por Lailantie:

After being totally frustrated in the beginning, then starting to play again for around 30 more hours, I like the game. But it would not be my favourite for many reasons mentioned in this thread. It is tedious and stressful, you constantly run to cook, water the crops, get wood or metal, build more houses and so on, besides the spirits I am hosting right now are always hungry. Whenever I run across the ship they want food. All of this is waaay too time consuming for me, and personally I hunger for personal stories, memories, some quiet time together and more.

Bringing the spirits to the Everdoor is emotional and fulfilling. Yet I couldn't really feel it because I was so stressed out by the daily tasks and grinding.

What is bothering me the most iis the jump and run thing, which is quite hard without a controller where you intuitively go right and left, up and down. Handling all of this with a keyboard was the major blockage for me. For the longest time I didn't find Astrid or any marble, just because I didn't know I could jump on these containers. (I watched a walkthrough video and my jaw dropped when this guy just jumped up there.)

With the Aluminium dragon I logged out in panic, as I felt trapped, couldn't stop the quest and had no idea how to handle it. These are situations where I really freeze, my mind goes blank and I get lost, I can't even think of ways how to do it anymore. I know this is a personal issue and also a reason why this is my first jump and run game. Most probably it will be my last one also.

For future games I'd suggest you buy an xbox controller. They're not expensive and its literally plug+play, it really makes A LOT of games a lot more accessible.

[Lailantie]

Publicado originalmente por Covfefe:

For future games I'd suggest you buy an xbox controller. They're not expensive and its literally plug+play, it really makes A LOT of games a lot more accessible.

I actually just did that, thank you. The game is "good enough" that I play each day. If I change what bothers me most, there's only the relation between story and grinding which could be adjustet for my taste (30 percent less grinding, 30 percent more story) and some more depth to the characters after the first three.

[Destrucity]

I just finished the game myself and I agree that the characters were lack luster. All the talk about how sad this was I was expecting a good emotional journey like To The Moon. I was legit crying at the end of that game. This one couldn't get me to care about anyone. I'm wondering if a big part of the problem is that our hero is a silent protagonist. Out of all the characters, our hero has the least personality. If she could talk then that opens up more possibility to not only learn about the other characters, but to actually form some kind of relationship. We could also see Stella struggle with her problems and her need for closure. Making the end more bitter sweet and thus satisfying.

[Rickodo]

Publicado originalmente por Nom:

I am sad to say I was disappointed by Spiritfarer.

A good friend and I had the chance to coop play through the just-before-release version of the game over the last couple of weeks. We went into it with expectations of making friends with interesting characters, getting to know them, and feeling melancholy about seeing them go. In the end, we only really cared about a handful, definitely less than half, before they left. Instead of being left with memorable moments, we were left with vague impressions. Instead of a feeling of, "I wish I had more time with them," we had unanswered questions that felt vital to truly caring about these people.

We're a couple of sensitive guys. We both really dug Undertale and Night in the Woods, primarily because of their characters and the situations those characters got put into. Unfortunately, we both felt like there wasn't nearly enough character building in Spiritfarer, and there were almost no interesting situations. The characters almost never get to make decisions or take actions, and very, very few of them ever have any kind of reaction to being on the ship with each other.

Let me be clear: there are basically zero inter-character conversations on the ship. I am honestly upset with the new animated trailer for making it seem like you'll have all of these lovely moments together with groups of friends, talking and sharing stories, getting to watch Gwen snark at Atul or Alice take care of Stanley. But, no, that doesn't happen. It's not even really implied. There are two "group" events in the entire game, and they don't involve spirits talking to each other. Off the top of my head there are only a few times in the entire game that a spirit "does" something besides make a text bubble over their head telling you they want to say something. They have almost no agency to do things that would generate memorable moments.

Meanwhile, most spirits don't seem to develop a bond with Stella over time. For most it feels like there's a "we just met" phase, a nebulous "you're doing stuff for me" phase, and then a goodbye speech at the end. The transition from "new shipmate" to "friend" doesn't really seem to happen with most of the spirits. My coop friend and I strongly felt like a majority of the characters didn't share enough about themselves, or do anything engaging enough, for us to care about them. I hesitate to call most of them shallow, but some of them are, and for most of the others you only dip your foot into the shallow end of their pool.

In the end, we spent what felt like at least 15 of our 30 hours doing clicker tasks: endless farming, fishing, milling, sawing, milling, etc. etc. in order to fulfill requests, fill bellies, and complete collectible collections. At the time it felt nice to have something to do, but in hindsight it's filler. For us, even hugs quickly became a (pleasant) chore, something that should be done every X hours like a daily quest in an MMO. Which meant that if you DID have one of the rare emotional moments with a character, and you think they deserve a hug? Too bad, because you can only hug them once every X hours and no sooner.

I don't think the positive reviewers are biased or wrong. If anything, I'd say I'm jealous of them, because I wish I'd felt a closer connection to the characters. I can tell Thunder Lotus cared about what they made here, and I wish them success. I'm sure there are a lot of people who will like this game. It's a shame that I'm not one of them.

Late answer but I´m with you. After I play it now a second time with my friend, I see many things like you. The grinding and working is way ot much. That you need to take care of the souls is one thing. That you give them a house and food, okay. But that you need so many different buildings, and collect so many different ressources, its too much. Some of the souls even dont really react to there house or use it. So why waist all the time?

And the biggest critic is, that the souls dont interact with eachother. If you see the trailer, how they act there and then the game? Most of the souls just walk around, stand still here and there, thats it. Some of them make music, okay. But not really more and they only talk with Stella if it is about a quest, request or food. There could be much, much more. From some of them you dont really learn the backstory. You need sometimes to read the wiki, to learn more about them. I mean were you read that Stanley was a 8 year old boy? I dont rembember it. Was it in the game? You knew he was a child, but not that he dies from a illness.

And what is really sad, is that Stella dies alone. She was there for all the souls, but nobody really is there for her. Sure he has her cat. But no other person. Buck is there at the end, the last sould. Why he is not with her? I mean she dont even chooes a new Spiritfarer. That is something also is not given. So no more souls can go to the gate, because no Spiritfarer is there anymore. Also is something, strange. The former Spiritfarer was there for a very long time. Stella take care of a few souls and is done. Okay.

In the end, it could be much more better. Like I say, you saw in the Trailer, how beautiful it is, how the souls interact with eachother. Spiritfarer would really work more as a movie. As game, not really. Like I write. You waiste time with so many things. Chopping wood, cooking, build so many different buildings. I want take care of the Spirits, I want to learn something about them. I want to understand them. I dont want to waist my time, running around between my 5 different buildings so I can upgrade one house. I hope if there will be a Spiritfarer 2, they make it more about the souls and not grinding so many different stuff.

[rmsgrey]

Publicado originalmente por Rickodo:

And what is really sad, is that Stella dies alone. She was there for all the souls, but nobody really is there for her. Sure he has her cat. But no other person. Buck is there at the end, the last sould. Why he is not with her? I mean she dont even chooes a new Spiritfarer. That is something also is not given. So no more souls can go to the gate, because no Spiritfarer is there anymore. Also is something, strange. The former Spiritfarer was there for a very long time. Stella take care of a few souls and is done. Okay.

At the in-game Everdoor, yes, Stella and Daffodil go alone, but at the same time her mother and sister are sat by her bedside in hospital as she dies.

As for the new Spiritfarer, a big point of the game is that Stella's time as Spiritfarer isn't for the benefit of the Spirits she takes to the Everdoor, but for her own benefit - the game is her life passing before her eyes before she dies, and allowing her to come to terms with her own death after having helped so many to face theirs. There's no Spiritfarer after her because the entire setup is for her benefit.

[Malidictus]

Publicado originalmente por rmsgrey:

As for the new Spiritfarer, a big point of the game is that Stella's time as Spiritfarer isn't for the benefit of the Spirits she takes to the Everdoor, but for her own benefit - the game is her life passing before her eyes before she dies, and allowing her to come to terms with her own death after having helped so many to face theirs. There's no Spiritfarer after her because the entire setup is for her benefit.

Which, if I may be honest, is pretty poor storytelling. Especially considering how hollow a lot of the later spirits are (pun not intended). This is tantamount to "it was all a dream", except worse. At least in the dream scenario, the character can change and grow for their future endeavours. The protagonist here has no future endeavours. It ostensibly renders the entire game meaningless, from a narrative standpoint.

The entire world exists for the benefit of the protagonist, everything is a metaphor for some aspect of their experience. Nothing is corporeal, nothing is real, nothing means anything. I know that's not how the story is presented, but that's how it comes across.

To me, Spiritfarer feels a lot like Stray or Scorn. It's a good-looking game with a niche gimmick which fails at both gameplay and storytelling. It's bound to be incredibly impactful for people who resonate with it, but for everyone else it'll come across as hollow and tedious across a full playthrough. The framing device is a huge part of this.

[galacticcorgi]

Publicado originalmente por Malidictus:

Publicado originalmente por rmsgrey:

As for the new Spiritfarer, a big point of the game is that Stella's time as Spiritfarer isn't for the benefit of the Spirits she takes to the Everdoor, but for her own benefit - the game is her life passing before her eyes before she dies, and allowing her to come to terms with her own death after having helped so many to face theirs. There's no Spiritfarer after her because the entire setup is for her benefit.

Which, if I may be honest, is pretty poor storytelling. Especially considering how hollow a lot of the later spirits are (pun not intended). This is tantamount to "it was all a dream", except worse. At least in the dream scenario, the character can change and grow for their future endeavours. The protagonist here has no future endeavours. It ostensibly renders the entire game meaningless, from a narrative standpoint.

The entire world exists for the benefit of the protagonist, everything is a metaphor for some aspect of their experience. Nothing is corporeal, nothing is real, nothing means anything. I know that's not how the story is presented, but that's how it comes across.

To me, Spiritfarer feels a lot like Stray or Scorn. It's a good-looking game with a niche gimmick which fails at both gameplay and storytelling. It's bound to be incredibly impactful for people who resonate with it, but for everyone else it'll come across as hollow and tedious across a full playthrough. The framing device is a huge part of this.

I mean, it's a game about death and dying. You can't REALLY have more beyond it. It's about someone coming to terms with their life as they die--which is really poignant and excellent storytelling in this case as a narrative, because it never shies away about being connected to death. You can guess what's going on after Gwen if you pay attention. The fact the first three spirits are people Stella was close to is especially a big clue.

[//emilia]

why nerf

[Malidictus]

Publicado originalmente por galacticcorgi:

I mean, it's a game about death and dying. You can't REALLY have more beyond it.

Why not? The only reason Spiritfarer can't have anything beyond the protagonist's death is because the entire world disappears with her. Hence my comment of the story not mattering in the slightest. It's a fantasy world. There's no reason to make it contingent on the protagonist in its entirety.

You can still have all of the metaphors and personal journey made manifest in a world which is narratively tangible. Silent Hill games do this all the time. The dark world is surreal, the characters often manifestations of the protagonist's psyche, but the town of Silent Hill exist in the fiction, and survivors can still bring pieces of it out - such as Cheryl.

Simply assigning a new Spiritfarer before the protagonist bamfs would have solved all of these issues. Simply leaving the fantasy world behind, in other words.

Publicado originalmente por galacticcorgi:

You can guess what's going on after Gwen if you pay attention. The fact the first three spirits are people Stella was close to is especially a big clue.

Spotting the plot twist isn't the issue. I could have guessed where the game was going without even playing it. It's an indie title - there's a roughly 50/50 shot of the protagonist having been dead all along, or been puppet all along, or was it was all in their head. This is pretty much directly spelled out after the first spirit is sent off.

My issue isn't that the twist disappointed me, so much as that it didn't. There were so many interesting ways to put a new spin on the same tired old story of a dead person living through purgatory, and yet the writers went for the oldest, most basic, most straightforward narrative.

It's basically a cuter version of Jacob's Ladder - which would be great of Jacob's Ladder didn't exist. Or Sanitorium. Or Limbo. Or the Sixth Sense. Or Inside. Maybe I'm getting too old by this point, but I really wish people would at least try to put their own unique spin om age-old ideas, instead of just recreating them whole-sale with better graphics.