Note: Before I start my review, I want to apologize for the slowness in getting reviews out, which is unusually rare for me. This will be explained in a bit more detail in my review, but this should be rectified now that I have obtained all of the achievements. ^^

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is a productivity app with a gaming (specifically, creature collecting) aspect developed and published by Mooncube Games. When you first start, you're greeted by Lenny, the resident spirit companion who appears as a kitty and is your starter companion. Lenny talks you through a brief tutorial, and you can customize your avatar as well as your room. Also, you start off with some spirit bucks, which is the game's currency from which you can purchase skins for spirit companions, clothing items, and room features. (For the record, there are no in-app game purchases.) Once you finish the tutorial, you can play Spirit City however you like.

As there isn't really a story here, I'll go right into the gameplay. As I explained earlier, you can customize your avatar, room, and spirit companions through the use of spirit bucks. Spirit City is mainly a productivity app, which means that you can use it to organize your tasks, journal your thoughts, and use a pomodora timer to time activities (as well as to remind you when to take breaks). Also, there is a wide range of music track selections (lofi beats) that you can relax to as you work. However, there is a creature collecting aspect as well. There are various spirit creatures that you can capture, and as Lenny explains in the tutorial, you can lure these creatures via clues that are given in the Spiritdex, a spirit creatures guide. Creatures will be brought out, depending on the time of day (morning, afternoon, evening, or night), current activities (ranging from writing to knitting), and/or sound effects. In addition, there is a leveling system, and you can level up by collecting various spirit creatures, logging in daily, checking off a daily task, and using the pomodora timer. Of course, there are Steam achievements and at the time of this review, Steam trading cards are available, too.

Now that I've gone over the gameplay, I'll move onto my thoughts. I love that there is such a productivity app available that has relaxation and cute aspects to it. Having spent lots of time on Spirit City (at the time of this review, over 237 hours :o), I understand why it has gotten lots of praise. It helped me to focus and complete my tasks, as I was very busy for the past couple of months with work-related tasks. The productivity tools are definitely useful. As for the creature collecting aspect, I really loved finding all fo the spirit creatures. They're so adorable, and a couple of my favorites are Moonpaw and Earlybirb. ^^

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248074545

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248073685

Also, I love the selection of music tracks. They vary from the slower paced beats to the more upbeat ones. Also, you can upload your own customizable tracks. In regards to the art, the style is beautiful and cute, and I love how the colors feel bright and just pop out.

If there are any complaints that I have, it has to be with obtaining all of the Steam achievements. Although most of the achievements were very doable, the ones that I found the most frustrating were the level achievements since there are only a limited number of spirit creatures that can help out with that. They were the reason that it took me so long to complete Spirit City and to get a review out. As a reviewer who values fully completing a game and/or app before I write up a review, since I'd personally feel that I would be taking shortcuts, cheating readers to do otherwise, I found it a bit frustrating. I do want to say, though, that others are free to write up reviews however they want. I just don't feel personally right in doing so before I obtain all of achievements and fully complete a game. To give the developers credit, though, they have listened to such feedback, and I found that gaining experience went by a little faster after a major update. The developers have stated that there will be future updates, which probably means more spirit creatures and perhaps other ways to gain experience. I want to state that although I was able to obtain all of the Steam achievements, I didn't purchase all of the cosmetic options since I'd have to be at over level 100 (at least) to be able to do so. :o

Overall, would I recommend Spirit City: Lofi Sessions? Well, let me experiment a little with my recommendation:

• Those who enjoy collecting cute, adorable spirit creatures.
  
• Want a good, useful productivity app.
  
• Want to listen to relaxing music tracks.

• Those who want to obtain Steam achievements in a reasonable timeframe.

Although I did enjoy Spirit City (for the most part), I think it could use a bit of tweaking in regards to gaining experience, so that it feels like a joy rather than a slog to use. However, I am looking forward to future updates, especially on obtaining more future spirit creatures.

I want to give a major thank you to Mooncube Games for the review copy. It did take me a long time, but I think it was worth it and I'll love to return to Spirit City. ^^

Also, if you want to read another excellent review from someone who obtained all the achievements and has written up a review as well as uploaded a youtube video explaining Spirit City and whatnot, please click on the link here. Of course, I obtained permission from the reviewer to post the link, and I recommend following his curation and especially, his youtube channel. ^^

For more detailed, fully complete, high quality reviews like this, please follow The Introverted Gamer, prioritizing heart and soul always. ^^

I am really enjoying this game. The Lo-Fi music and sound effects are very relaxing, and it's easy to put it in the background and do what I need to do. The customizable avatar is enjoyable, as is changing and editing their style and hair whenever I like. I also like the organization that the game offers, as well as the journaling, which I have been doing every day.

I think this is good for people who want to relax, create, express and keep organized without feeling pressure, and also those who like "collecting" and points systems.

I do hope that as they update more styles, hair, spirits and activities will become available, like stickers for the journals, or being able to draw, or perhaps invite other players to chill in your room, or other areas of town. More accessories and interaction with items/the spirits would be beneficial!

Would you believe this simple "game" has improved my workflow tenfold?

I wouldn't have.

But it has. Maybe it's my mental illnesses, maybe it's the simplicity, maybe it's the charm, who knows, but this game is incredible. Definitely a second monitor game by far, but almost a must have for any sort of creative out there. The "game" part of this is collecting spirits, but what is the appeal after you've collected them all (which you can do it like less than four hours)? Well, it's got lofi music first off. Great lofi music actually. There's a couple of playlists built in that have various songs with a song controller that allows you to skip, loop, adjust volume and shuffle, so it's not like you're forced to listen to a formatted playlist everytime. All the music is royalty free so yippee! Streaming is a-go!

My favorite part is actually the sounds. There are a variety of sounds that you can turn on and adjust the volume to help you focus or relax. I LOVE thunder and rain sounds and you bet there's an option for those. It really just puts my head in the right mood and makes me feel productive. I think the devs will be adding more sounds in the future, but there's quite a good selection as is.

The spirits you can get are absolutely adorable. I change mine out every week simply because I cannot choose a single favorite (seriously, the arachknit is so frickin cute and I hate spiders, so that's saying something). Also the art style of the game is one of my favorites. I love this Genshin-esque art style and it just feels so nice and cozy.

The avatar customization is pretty extensive. I think the devs have said they're going to be adding a lot more stuff as time goes on which is super dope. The avatar is pretty androgynous which allows you to customize it however fem or masc you wish it to be. Also, they've got elf ears. That's an instant win in my books.

The room customization is also super nice. I absolutely love some of the options they have (which they plan to add a lot more) and have my room infested with flowers. It feels very nice and comforting. Also the design of the room itself is a really nice one that I have dreamed of having for a while (huge window that your character can sit in and read makes me super jealous). There's also lighting options that you can force change, or will just change based on the time of day which are super nice.

Now to the actual use of this game. For me, I find it extremely helpful to have my avatar on the second monitor, doing the same activity I'm doing. In some way, it makes it feel like I'm working with someone. If you have that thing where you feel more productive if there's someone else in the room also working on things, it kind of helps. There are various activities you can do and various places in the room to do said activities. What I really find helpful is the various mechanics. The to-do list is quite helpful for sitting down, getting work done, and fulfilling each task (you also get a daily task done bonus which adds a little bit more rewarding feeling to it). I don't often use the timer as I don't really give myself a set time to do things, but it has been helpful if I'm on a tight schedule and NEED to get something down and not burn myself out. It only goes up to 60 minutes, but you can have multiple sessions with tied in breaks between each one which is super cool. The habits tab is something that is VERY helpful for me. It helps me remember to take my medicine, water my plants, get some writing done at least once a week, brushing my teeth, etc. Just the sound it makes when you tick off a box is super satisfying and rewarding to me. For each task, it gives you the option to enable/disable for each day of the week. So if there's something you do every day, you have a box for it. If there's something you do twice a week or something, you can set those days. It's been really nice and helpful. Then lastly, there's the journal. Not much to say about it other than it is literally just a journal that you can write whatever. There are some prompts that you can choose from to get you inspired. All the prompts are the same and don't change everyday as I, for some reason, thought they did. But if you want to get into journaling or something, it's pretty helpful.

Another really cool thing about this is the window is completely resizable and doesn't mess up proportions. You can have this on your screen as a super tiny box without it ruining the aspect of the game and such. Also, it is such a low performance game that it is super nice to have running basically all the time when I'm doing activities like cleaning my room, or drawing, or writing. Tie to this to having Microsoft powertoys's ability to lock any window on top and it's super nice to have on the same screen on the margins of the doc I'm writing in.

I would recommend also joining the Discord because it's super friendly there and you can give feedback and suggestions to the devs. They're planning to add a lot more stuff to the game and I'm super excited to see what comes of it. I only have about 40 hours on the game, but it helped me so much get through my finals in my final weeks of college and now helps me organize the infinite free time I've found myself in.