Spiritfarer Review: The Celebration of Grind, or A Prolonged Farewell

Greetings!

Hypnotic Session

The style of the game is cartoonish, with very cute animation, just like the main character Stella. The resource gathering animations could be a bit faster. By the middle of the game, the animations become repetitive and annoying, like the NPCs in towns, villages, and other populated areas. But everything is drawn relatively beautifully.

Culinary Marathon

The adventure with platforming elements Spiritfarer turns into a farming tycoon around the middle, where your ship transforms into an ark with cows, sheep, and chickens, as well as gardens and fields. You can spend half or even more (I didn’t count) of the gameplay day just gathering resources. The tedious grind is slightly alleviated by the giant turtles, on the backs of which you can place even a piece of gold ore and then mine even more after some time.

Sometimes you just want to say: 'I’m tired, I’m leaving!' — and take a well-deserved break.

[](/games?search=<h2>Memento mori</h2>)

[Memento mori](/games?search=<h2>Memento mori</h2>)

The plot similarity of Spiritfarer with The Whispered World or the first Figment is evident. The story is very touching because it concerns the emotional parting with acquaintances, friends, and loved ones. Some characters are quite memorable. You will long remember the thunderous rains after the silent departure of the gluttonous and talented frog Atula. The old hedgehog or the chicken will help you feel an empathic shock, especially for those who still have elderly parents; please pay attention to them, as we only have one set of parents, and they love us very much.

Our main character Stella and her cat Narcissus.

You will also miss the basilisk Baku, who broke the fourth wall, the toxic brawler Micky, whom you want to get rid of as soon as possible, and the very mischievous mushroom Stanley, a parody shadow of Stella. The mini-games with the map and the ship greatly contribute to nostalgia for all the characters.

Otherwise, the game is full of filler characters and 'fetch quests' (grind, side view). There is a pinch of a leftist agenda in Spiritfarer, how could it be without it?

After receiving the quest about Stella's 'departure', I was even pleased. The grind and fillers had become tiresome.

Ars longa vita brevis

The audio design is limited, the dialogues are not voiced, there is incoherent mumbling, reminiscent of the [The Sims](/games?search=The Sims) series, but overall, the sound design in the game is wonderful. The musical accompaniment is excellent; some may even want to listen to the game soundtrack separately, which is superb and worthwhile. However, in my opinion, it is lacking for more than 40-50 hours of play. Ultimately, everything becomes somewhat repetitive, yet strangely not bland; one doesn't want to detach from the 'girl' game that was released in 2020.