Games
Spiritfarer is a cosy management sim where you help the recently dead come to terms with their lost lives. We caught up with developers Thunder Lotus Games to discuss how the game tackles death.
There are no shortage of games that deal with death and the hereafter, albeit in somewhat unsubtle fashion. For example, perhaps you recall Kratos escaping from the underworld multiple times in the original God of War trilogy. Failing that, you've probably seen the instantly-memetic 'press F to pay respects' prompt in Call of Duty that still gets bandied about on social media on a daily basis.
Still, while the majority of games are mostly interested in death as a thing that you do to other people, there's been a slow movement of indie games that try to explore our ultimate finality with a bit more grace and empathy.
Perhaps the most promising of this new crop is Spiritfarer, from Thunder Lotus Games. While they're best known as the creative studio behind the icy Norse-inspired slice-'em-up Jotun and the eldritch Metroidvania Sundered, this new project is a stark contrast to the blood and viscera of their previous work.
According to art director Jo-Annie Gauthier, after making two games about the slow accumulation of power through martial prowess and freakish powers, Thunder Lotus was ready to do something radically different. As a "cosy management sim about dying" (the game's tagline), Spiritfarer is a definite departure.
You play as Stella, a girl tasked with ferrying recently-departed souls into what Gauthier calls "the great unknown" by helping them deal with the baggage of their past life. According to Gauthier, this role was inspired by mythological figures such as Charon, the boatman of the river Styx, who collects a single coin from dead Greeks to guide them through the underworld. While Charon is usually depicted as a gnarled old man, or a hooded figure, Thunder Lotus wanted to play against type by making the game's lead character young, cute and vibrant. Gauthier also cites the highly-acclaimed film Spirited Away as a major inspiration – like Stella, the protagonist of the film stumbles into fairyland, only to immediately fall into a fantastical job that tests her mettle.
Unlike Miyazaki's work however, there isn't a cloud of darkness hiding beneath the game's pastel exterior. For a game about death, Spiritfarer is shaping up to be remarkably sunny in disposition. According to Gauthier, the game is entirely free of both combat and fail states – there’s no way to get a game over, or even lose progress.
For example, if Stella forgets to water her flowers, they won't wither and die, they'll simply stop growing until you attend to them. Instead of challenging players' reflexes and patience, Thunder Lotus is focusing more on trying to create a certain meditative quality that they say most games lack entirely. While Spiritfarer has many elements of light management sims, Gauthier says that the complexity of these systems won't quite reach the heights of Stardew Valley, where the player can fully automate an entire farm with the right gear.
"In general, I think we've really tried to make the game as accessible as possible, but still fun for people who are more into games," Gauthier says. "Imposing harsh consequences for the player isn't what Spiritfarer is going to be about. It's about empathy, helping these people come to terms with their lives and doing a little bit of work in the process. It's a comfy game, more than anything."
At the start of the game, you're dumped onto a rickety wooden boat with very few amenities and given an almost-blank map to fill in. While Gauthier says that the game will give you a few hints as to where to go next to progress the core story, there's an absolutely staggering amount of optional content hidden in the uncharted regions of the game's large open-world. Gauthier says the core progression of the game will take roughly 30 hours to complete, but a 100 percent play-through could easily reach into the triple digits.
As with other seafaring games, like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, once you choose to travel to a point on your chart, the trip takes place in real-time, which gives you time to catch up on tasks around your boat, which will slowly develop from a tiny dinghy to a massive ship filled with houses raised on piles.
As you hop from island to island to gather resources, like wood and stone, you can construct buildings and accessories that fulfil chores which are familiar to fans of these sort of games, such as a fishing rod, an oven for cooking, or a greenhouse for growing plants.
However, while these tasks make up a significant portion of the game, Gauthier says they're not quite the game's core focus. Instead, Stella's goal is to pick up the spirits of recently deceased humans – who take the form of anthropomorphic animals, such as a giant frog, or a cloak animated by snakes – and talk them through their passage to the next world. This might involve finding and checking up on their relatives, or hunting down a lost memento on one of the game's many locales.
It isn't just a one-way street, though. These spirits can also teach you new talents like fishing, or even grant you abilities such as a double jump. According to Gauthier, many of these quests are hidden, which means you'll have to try to fill out every tiny space on the map if you want Stella to fulfill her job to the utmost.
Spiritfarer might come off as a little heterodox compared to the indie hits that usually pop-up on your favourite gaming storefront. But, as Gauthier points out, unlike Thunder Lotus's previous work, this is a game that almost anyone can pick-up and play and its unique look and premise both ensure that it's going to stand out in the crowded marketplace. "We drew a lot from mythology in designing every aspect of the game," she says. "It's definitely very different from what we've made before, but I think a lot of people will enjoy it."
Spiritfarer is coming to PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in 2020.
