Recent reviews by Caboodle

Like others, I really, really wanted to enjoy this game. The visuals are absolutely stunning, the animations are charming and the design of the world and the characters are beautiful. And the first few hours of the game are definitely enjoyable. BUT that sadly changes quite quickly as there is more and more added to the game as it continues.

Like others have said before me, after a certain time the game devolves into a boring grind of staying atop all the tasks on the boat that is basically your homebase. Be it from watering plants, cooking meals for your spirit passengers, looming, feeding and caring for animals, smelting, cutting wood, readjusting the windmill, smithing etc. Things you have to do in an endless daily loop until you manage to progress further in the story and the worldmap. - And then more busywork gets added to it.

I stuck with it for quite a while as my ingame hours can attest, because as everybody else, I've read the raving reviews about the deep story, the great characters and the emotional ride this game supposedly delivers. But eventually, I just gave up trying to find it. Because I found the game severly lacking in those areas, especially compared with all the constant busywork I had to do. For me, all that running around, staying on top of things, just wasn't worth it for the very few snippets of short dialogue bursts that give a glimpse into the lives and personalities of those characters that accompany on the boat.
The first spirit passenger you meet, Gwen, is a very good example of this. She is supposedly a good friend of the main character, Stella and serves as an introduction to most of the game mechanics. And she also usually is the first spirit that wishes to depart. And I honestly was so confused about her abrupt departure that I googled whether I had missed some story-elements of hers accidentally. But... I didn't. Ultimately, you just don't get a lot of interactions or backstory to any of the characters. I'm not saying there is no backstory, because there is, but it just felt severly lacking for me. And this continues with all the other characters as well. There is a supposed familiarity between Stella and all her passengers, but I could never really feel it. Apart from a couple of lines of dialogue after certain quests that you do for them - which are just fetch-quests, basically - and a longer dialogue as you ferry them to their departure from the world, they don't do much. Just walk around the boat, tell you they are hungry, repeating the same lines over and over at you.

And personally, I just feel this is not enough. It would be enough in a different game. A game where you would be ferrying around random characters, and you are never meant to really connect with them. A game that very clearly focuses more on the management aspect instead of the story aspect. But in this case this was just a baffling choice. I really expected a lot more, especially after the game had received such glowing reviews especially in this aspect.
But I just can't confirm these reviews. The characters and the story ultimately are extremely shallow and feel half-baked or like a first draft. They could have done so much more here. More dialogue, more interactions, not only between the passengers and Stella but also between the passengers themselves. And instead they could have cut back on sooo many of those management-aspects that just bog the game down to a boring grind.

And Stella herself is just not an interesting or compelling protagonist in my opinion. The choice to make her completely silent and almost robot-like in her lack of reactions, emotions and general behaviour just feels strange. Either you have a protagonist that serves as a stand-in for the player or you have a fully realized protagonist with their own personality and view of the world. You can't have it both ways. But how am I expected to feel pain, grief, anger, frustration etc. if the person I'm playing constantly smiles through every situation with the occasional frown or concern as the only things to break up the monotony? How should I miss a character that suddenly disappears, if Stella doesn't and just goes straight back to managing the ship with almost no acknowledgement of such a traumatic event?

When even the departures of the passengers become one more task to tick off your list than maybe you've done something wrong in your game-design.


Like I said, I really, really wanted to enjoy Spiritfarer, but ultimately it just really left me disappointed. If you expect rich, deep characters and relationships that really make you feel for those characters, as well as a well-written story, then I'm afraid you won't find it here. If you want a management game with lots of busywork and things to do set in a world with beautiful visuals, cute characters and lovely music, then Spiritfarer is a good fit for you. But I wouldn't expect much more from it.