Spiritfarer

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Spiritfarer for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Julia2000]

I watched my wife play Spiritfarer the year my grandmother died.

She had disowned me ten years ago after I came out -- and we hadn't spoken since. I had always hoped that one day she would see me -- but she never did.

Watching these flawed, imperfect spirits continually abandon my wife / Stella made me repeatedly confront my buried feelings about her death. Until I accepted the fact that reconciliation...closure is rare and never guaranteed.  And that's a choice we make every day we go without forgiving or loving.

So when I rock my newborn son late at night and whisper my love to him, I choose to not leave him wondering or wandering in this life or the next.

This game takes aim at an incredibly important topic and in my mind, surpassed or matched so much other art about death.

[Girard]

After SnipperClips, Stardew Valley, and Chicory, this was the fourth video game my partner and I played together (and, as it were, the fourth video game she ever played).

The mostly gentle interactions with the world, it's systems, and it's denizens provided a compelling and engaging experience for us to move through together. My partner lives with chronic illness, and spends a fair time receiving medical care, and lost a younger sibling a few years ago, so several elements of the backstory resonated, and largely hit truthfully rather than feeling maudlin or cloying

One seriously rough patch was the platforming, which drove my partner mad, as she had never played a platformer before and the demands of some of the more heinous challenges were quite frustrating for her. I was genuinely surprised that this otherwise gentle game hadn't implemented a "New Super Mario" style bubble system where she could just float up to me once I'd cleared whatever series of arcane ziplines and flips needed traversing

[NZGamerDad1]

My 9 year old daughter and I started our journey with Spiritfarer without knowing anything about the game or its story. We were both hooked instantly with the busywork loop of exploring, gathering resources, building, unlocking new areas and repeating. It wasn't long after starting that it dawned on me what the story was about, and I wasn't entirely sure how my daughter would handle the subject matter. However, the game handles death in such a thoughtful and sensitive way, that it resulted in some really meaningful conversations about death and mourning.

It was genuinely difficult having to say goodbye to the spirits one bye one, and my daughter was quite upset with how Atul left and not getting to say goodbye. It was also heartbreaking when we realised that Stella was dying and her final trip to the Everdoor evoked such sadness in both of us.

The story in this game is something that we will remember for years to come.