Recent reviews by Obscenely Tiny Shark

This game is a prime example of why modern crafting and forced progression systems need to go. It completely and utterly kills any pacing or emotional resonance that Spiritfarer could have potentially had. None of the games systems helped reinforce anything going on in the story itself other than the vague idea of the Spiritfarer needing to help spirits be as comfy as possible before they pass.

The game has maybe about 6-8 hours worth of content spread over 18-20 sheerly through the grinding required to make the crafting system work. If the game had just been that: a 6-8 hour journey alongside these characters discovering the lore of this world I probably would have been far more engaged than I was. Instead I was just horribly bored having to back and forth constantly to make minor improvements to my ship, or to gather resources in mind numbing video games, or to engage with platform mechanics that don't build off of one another to make any engaging experience.

This entire game is just chores and busywork. I can see the idea of having these numerous tasks to manage while journeying from place to place, but they're all too utterly mindless and spread too thin to make things even remotely interesting. It's also far too slow in introducing them to where the first five hours are just spent mostly doing a really basic fishing minigame.

The writing also can't seem to decide on how vague it wishes it to be. Without spoiling: There's some interesting lore introduced in how the spirit world is formed and the various spirits you help pass on throughout the game, but these are introduced so slowly and never expanded upon in any meaningful way. It's so hard to get invested in the game when the characters only give me small tidbits about themselves every hour or so at best.

It's honestly to the point where the big emotional sequences just...completely missed me. I'm a huge sap as well, I have cried at less and yet I couldn't shed a single tear throughout this game. At best I just felt bored, like I had just checked an item off of a task list rather than engaged with a character. I had just spent hours grinding for materials to make minor adjustments that eventually got them to say "Okay I'm good".

I don't hate this game, I was interested it when I first saw previews of the game, but sadly this game just missed me completely. It's just...

Boring.

So completely boring.

I wish games didn't have to rely on forced engagement mechanics just to keep players going. I would rather the game just be itself instead of introducing these treadmills it wants me to run on in the hopes of getting a juicy carrot. Just let the journey speak for itself, it shouldn't have to be propped up with this god awful grind.

If you like grinding and gathering mechanics that are always completely and utterly static: Go ahead and play the game, maybe you'll get something out of it more than I did.

If you're like me and are completely done with modern crafting mechanics: Stay far away.