Although I only wrote my initial review a day or so ago, now, at just under 24 hours total play-time, I have officially 100%'ed this game, with only 1 Steam achievement remaining (which requires a second play-through).

So, I can now fully process what I think of this game and go for a "true" review, while also trying to keep it concise.

Firstly, I will say that the graphical-style and sound design are top-notch; Animations are fluid and the BGM is both soothing but has a melancholy undertone, which fits the narrative of the game.
The mini-games are especially breathtaking in their execution, whether it's catching lightning, or drifting through a meteor shower, you will want to experience these again and again.

The story on offer here is going to be a mixed bag, as whether or not you connect with certain Spirits is going to depend on you as a player and your lived experiences; There were some Spirits I did not care for at all and some I did bond with and felt quite bittersweet when they decided their time aboard was at an end.
I also personally feel as though you don't truly understand the story or how everything intertwines until the ending portion when a special Spirit shows up aboard your ship and you suddenly get the epiphany.


As for the game-play, I'm probably going to ruffle a few feathers here, but I have to at least partially agree with what another reviewer "Skye" put in their review; I honestly think this game is too long, or at least not well-paced in the latter half.
This is especially true for the last 2 Spirits that were introduced and one other Spirit's 6-week long quest-chain (6-weeks in-game time), which you have to do if you want 100% completion. This explains why more people have the "Let it Go" achievement over the "Spiritfared" achievement.

Don't get me wrong, the first few hours of the game, or at least until the point when you unlock stone-breaking on your ship, were fantastic and kept me very much invested and wanting to play. Even after this point, although things started to slow down as more and more Spirits eventually left the ship and passed-on, the new mini-games and crafting stations did still keep me interested and wanting to progress.

Really, it's only in the final section of the game, once you unlock the ability to pass through the dense fog, did things slow to a crawl, becoming quite tedious, as material acquisition dipped heavily, meaning lots of back and forth foraging through the flotsam crates, while also not having many Spirits on board to do any meaningful story progress.
At this point, I spent a couple of hours stock-piling everything and upgrading whatever I could, with the only real progression I made, being that of upgrading the Spirit's houses.
The downside of this, is that for certain specific Spirits that hadn't been on my ship all that long, their entire quest-lines were done in 20-30 minutes, because they were early-mid game Spirits and I was already in the late-game in regards to the "tech-tree".

Basically, if you don't pick up the Spirits in the way the game expects you to, or in the linear fashion the developers clearly wanted, they're there and gone before you can even begin to care about them.
If anything, some of the early/mid-game Spirits I had on my ship were still there due to tech-tree/story unlocks, while some of the later-game Spirits were already wanting to pass-on.

In order to be efficient and not spend hours of in-game time (and several in real life) being sat around doing absolutely nothing but letting the game run until the next quest pops up, you kind of do need to know beforehand who to pick up at what point and whose quests need to be done at what intervals.
Again, the final 2 Spirits you will realistically get to are probably the worst offenders for this.


Now, it might sound like I'm being extremely negative about this game, but I'm not trying to be. I would still consider this a must-play for any cosy/comfy game fan out there and even for general gamers, it will likely still leave a lasting impression on you.

Get it and experience it.