Have you seen the animations in this game? I'm going to just die. Spiritfarer is about to skyrocket even higher onto indie watch lists, just from this initial gameplay teaser. Sure, several of us caught the announcement some eight months ago. The You Must Build a Boat gameplay, coupled with Dark Souls-slow swings of the pickaxe—not to mention the wholesome nature of the child with the star hat alongside their fluffy kitty companion—boy I think I'm gonna die again. Spiritfarer just looks so grand that I want to have a belly laugh right alongside that kid. Even if the game's tagline is "A cozy little management game about dying."
Ahem. You're apparently the ferryman of the dead, taking spirits across the water to begin their afterlife (if your character's name is Karen/Charon, that'll seal the deal). But I'm not sure I was expecting all that.
So in this gameplay reveal we see the aforementioned protagonist, a dark-skinned kid with a hat shaped somewhere between a pirate hat and a wizard hat. Their fluffy white kitty is still in tow. Watercolor landscapes and skies soar in the background. And it looks like there's some genuine resource management going on. Cutting down enormous white-flowering trees. Oh and look, it appears the kid's glowing gold belt morphs into whatever tool is required for the job. Stretch the belt out into a saw, then ziiiip it goes back into a buckle. Back on the kid's houseboat there are great-looking anthropomorphic animals saying entire sentences' worth of exciting dialogue. There's platforming. There's mining. There's working with ores in the forge. There's pumping of bellows and maintenance of temperatures. The hat can coast. The sheep get sheared. The wool spools into cotton. Your regal deer friend congratulates you on completing your hard work. Your garden grows. Your cat's gold collar can whip out an entire scythe to harvest grain. Then that frog from earlier will eat the stuff you make for it. Just gulps that stuff right now. Moods go up. Hugs are happening. The moon goes through its cycle, rising and falling, as you head aft on your houseboat and find a cozy bedtime waiting for you.
Spiritfarer looks like it hails from the Terraria family of mining, crafting, and building games. I simply can't wait to see more of this one.
Spiritfarer is coming sometime in 2020 to PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
