Spirit Farmer Review: A game about something after death

Spirit danger is a game about death, but in a way that is different from most video games.

Death does not come at the point of a bullet, with figures collecting on a scoreboard. It’s not a starting point, with a loss of time and progress, as if you did not calculate life properly in a counter running in the background. Many video games depict death in these ways. They imagine loss – win and lose – but almost never approach the subject realistically.

Death is natural. It is inevitable and indestructible. It is also crushing, scary, and complex. I can understand why most video game developers choose not to tackle these realities: a first-person shooter would be a very different game if the bodies simply did not disappear into the ether as more and more people piled up.

Now is d’r Spirit danger, a game about death and grief, a theme developer Thunder Lotus Games led with through its entire development and marketing: “a fun management game about dying.”

Spirit danger is based on classical Greek mythology: the story of the river Styx, a waterway that is said to be a path between Earth and the adjacent. In the myth, spirits are transported by Charon, the ferryman, through the river and into the underworld, passing through with a sign. Spirit danger follows this story closely as Stella and her cat take over Daffodil from Charon. Stella is the ghost rider, and she is captain of a large boat to reduce the dead in everything that follows. The act of stars, which we often see in video games, is less important than what happens no death in this story.

The game begins when Charon retires, with Stella just in the role. She travels between islands in the Spirit danger world, meet spirits who are sitting and need help to move on. Most of the characters on the ship, gathered in the watercolor world of the game, are friends and family of Stella. Some are not, but each has something they need – something that Stella needs to deliver. Her large, but at first simple, ship is her way of doing this.

The ship becomes larger and more complex with each passenger arriving on board, or a garden to grow vegetables for a vegetarian spirit is added, as the kitchen is upgraded to produce extensive meals for discerning passengers. These add-ons, which include boards and a massive crusher for grinding things to dust, stack neatly on top of each other, a slow game of Tetris, as shapes become more complex and harder to fit in the confined space of the ship.

This is where the “social management” of “a social management game about stars” comes in. Sources collected all over the world are brought to the ship and processed by these additions to the boat, or that sugar and flour turn into a cake, like glass flattened into leaks. The game’s controls, though repetitive and focused, are made essential because they are actions of care – the relief that Stella can provide to the dead as they head to the Everdoor, the portal to the afterlife.

It is not completely different from how you would manage an island Animal Crossing: New Horizons, gradually gather the materials needed to tend to your creation. But in Spiritfarer, it is the action of traveling to islands to gather resources, and then reaping in something useful, that is the core. Stella controls the boat via a map at the helm of the ship, but players do not have to guide it through the world. Once a waypoint is set, the boat goes in that direction itself, sometimes encountering surprises – such as a shipwreck with treasures – en route.

The play may seem mundane and repetitive, but the role of the spirit leader, who cares for these people in their death, gives each action depth. When Stella reaches her destination, she can hop on an ashtray to reach the islands, which differ in what they offer. Some have puzzles gated behind abilities learned later in the game, while others are only needed for collecting materials. There are trees to cut, which are later used to make planks needed in building constructions. Other areas have buyers selling seeds, such as cotton or sunflowers, which can be woven into linen or embroidered in oil, respectively.

Spirit danger works because the whole game is built to make these connections to the characters, who are all complex people with familiar stories. And not one of the spirits is as good as bad; some are people who leave a mess for others to deal with. Sometimes they are angry – at Stella or others on the ship. They are challenging in ways I have not seen often in video games. However, the investment in these characters is what makes up the root mechanisms Spirit dangerThe gameplay feels worthwhile because those connections happen organically.

There is something to be learned about the spirits on the boat, with each source mint as food. Their stories relax as they approach. Sometimes this means making a favorite meal of a ghost. Atul, Stella’s late uncle who appears as a frog, loves pork chops and fried chicken. The process of getting these things requires multiple trips to multiple islands, in search of suppliers who sell each of these meat products. And then there is the oil, necessary for the feeding of the chicken – that must be harvested from sunflower seeds grown from the flowers in the garden, which are crushed in an oil. These meals have memories for Atul, and they help him move on.

The spirits talk about what they are afraid of, or the things they have done wrong in their past. They share things they need to accomplish. One mind asks you to complete an elaboration Dungeons & Dragons campaign, which is an appealing highlight. There’s a big, emotional reward for embracing the game’s mechanics, however often you’ve tried the docks to harvest iron ore. There are no cheap tricks in making a connection with it Spirit dangerhis characters and their deaths. You work for it, which helps ease the pain and sadness of it all.

I would rather not think about death. I’m afraid of it – so much so that I often force myself not to talk about it, as if I were talking about those fears in existence. But I played Spirit danger at a time when I could not ignore death; in the midst of a pandemic that killed (and continues to kill) numbers of people I can barely comprehend. And days before he received the review code, a dear family member died tragically and unexpectedly, the grief of which made the beginning of the game almost too painful. Not necessarily because I did not want to confront the things I felt, but because I was worried about seeing the experience flat out in a video game package – reduced to a concept too simple to evoke a real feeling. I know that death is not neat, that there is no bow to bind my own personal sorrow.

At no point during Spirit danger I felt helpless, like there was nothing I could do to bring some relief to the spirits aboard the ship. It’s a stark contrast to how I experience the sadness of death in real life, but it’s comforting.

That, however, is not to say that in Spirit danger that these acts of caring labor repair the present or past problems of the mind – they do not. But they help the spirits to deal with their demise, and deliver them into the hereafter, while working through their own sorrow, anger, and confusion. It is this kind of help – in which it can help someone to figure something out for themselves – that makes the repetition of management and care feel so rewarding.

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Spirit danger Launched August 18 on Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One; it comes later to Google Stages. The game was re-released on PC with a download code provided by Thunder Lotus. Vox Media has affiliate partners. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy here.