Described by the developers as a “cozy management game about dying”, Spiritfarer has you playing as Stella the ferrymaster, whose duty is to care for the spirits of the dead before sending them off into the afterlife.  Right from the start, the game is quite a treat for the eyes, with the bright, cartoony art style and the smooth animation of the characters.  The demo features three characters, Summer the snake, Gwen the deer, and Atul the frog, though our focus is on helping Summer to move on by building her a house and completing a short fetch quest where we retrieve a necklace from her old home on the island of Hummingberg.

Now that we’ve gotten the premise out of the way, let’s move on to the gameplay.  Stella herself can move really fast and learn a double jump during the demo.  (Oh, and a second player can control Daffodil the cat if you happen to have another person handy.)  Frankly, I feel like she moves just a bit too fast, and it would have been nice if you had the option to walk at a slower speed for more precise movement instead of zipping off at the speed of sound every time you barely nudge the control stick.

Anyway, in order to complete Summer’s instructions, you’ll need to direct this big ship of yours to various locations on the map.  As the ship travels from one destination to another, you can spend time interacting with the spirits under your care by talking to them, hugging them, giving them items and food, and checking on their mood.  You can also fish, cook food, tend to your garden, or even get struck by lightning during storms, which allowed me to obtain literal lightning in a bottle.

While the demo was a pretty fun and relaxing experience, my big question was: isn’t a game about death going to be rather depressing?  Well, people online said that the game isn’t usually particularly sad, even if some characters might move you emotionally more than others.  In general, most people seemed to enjoy the characters and their stories, though many agreed that the gameplay is what suffers the most, as much of it involves completing quests for the various spirits, which I hear can get tedious after a while.

Despite these negatives, I think there’s a good chance I’ll be adding Spiritfarer to my collection in the near future.  I often enjoy these sorts of bittersweet experiences, which aren’t afraid to touch upon the sadder aspects of existence while simultaneously remaining upbeat about the whole thing.  Spiritfarer seems to be available on pretty much all consoles, PC, and even mobile for $29.99 and can take a very generous 25-40 hours to complete.