Nicolas Guerin, lead writer and creative director of Spiritfarer, worked at Ubisoft before joining Thunder Lotus Games. There, he worked for nine years as a level designer on the "Assassin's Creed" series, creating scenarios that let players efficiently and brutally stab people in the neck and incite vengeance. Wanting to create something a little more accessible, Guerin joined Thunder Lotus to develop a game "all about care," a game that approaches the topic of death with compassion and tolerance Spiritfarer is a life-sim about death that does just that Spiritfarer is a life-sim about death that does just that.

Players play as Stella, a cheerful ferryman who is responsible for finding wandering spirits and delivering them to the afterlife. Once the spirits are invited aboard, they are cared for and made to live comfortably on the ship. Then, when you decide they are ready to move on, you take them to a huge, spooky entrance called Ever Door and see their journey through to the end. Sometimes the goodbyes are easy, but more often they are bittersweet goodbyes to characters we have grown to love.

What makes this gentle cycle more difficult is that you take care of each spirit when they board your ship. You create a personal space for each character, prepare their favorite foods, and give them lots of hugs to keep them happy. True to the Life Sim formula, you will need to perform small tasks at various stations on the ship, such as cooking, crafting, farming, weaving, smelting, etc.

For example, we know that Nguyen the deer loves black coffee. First she plants coffee bean seeds, waters them until they are ready to harvest, and then takes the beans to the kitchen to make coffee. Gwen is quite serious, but a cup of coffee always makes her feel better. She is happy, I am happy, and I suspect that this game will not make me cry after all. That would be a big mistake.

Running the boat to the various stations is a frenzied platforming orgy of spins, jumps, and gliding, especially if you upgrade your boat a couple sizes. Each station has its own mini-game, such as timing the needle to hit the target or keeping the temperature between two dials while smelting metal. For a relatively peaceful game, it is always hectic.

These daily chores are the foundation of lifesim, a comfortable cycle of fishing, harvesting, and crafting. Usually, these tasks have a degree of self-service, such as decorating rooms, dressing characters, and earning large sums of money. But Spiritfarer is different. Your actions are purely out of compassion and selflessness. This may sound like a drag, as there seems to be nothing in return, but the exchange is focused on the relationship with the character, not the financial gain. This is a fresh take on the genre and fits perfectly with the theme of the game without frustrating the player at the expense of frustrating the player.

These daily tasks allow the player to get to know the characters in depth in a short amount of time. We can understand their likes and dislikes, their favorite foods, how they spend their free time, and the family they have left behind. In return for taking care of them, the spirits will teach you skills that will help you in your daily tasks.

Through these interactions, you grow closer to each individual and they begin to confide in you about their previous lives. When you give popcorn to Atul, the energetic frog, he is at first gleeful because he loves any food.

The backstories of these characters are not the fluffy ones that are common in community sims like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. The fact that the characters are dead makes it all the more poignant. They reminisce about their old lives, the family they left behind, the good times, the bad times, and of course their own deaths. In this way, they are not just passengers on the ship, but friends, teachers, guides, and confidants. When it's time to say goodbye, it's more than just a handshake and a "good luck."

Each character has their own reasons for finally deciding to leave the ship. Some finally let go of the past, accepted what happened to them, and forgave certain people in their old lives. Some have no reason at all. As each of these characters left, I often thought of them. Every time I made coffee in the boat's kitchen, I thought of Gwen. Whenever I played the sitar to help the crops grow, I thought of Summer. Every time I gathered berries, I always remembered Atul's excited animations.

Traveling the seas on Spiritfarer, one can see the world of Thunder Lotus' previous works, Jotun and Sundered. Life on board may be peaceful bliss, but there are many giant creatures below the surface of the water. Ancient dragons roam the waters of Spiritfarer, and giant sea turtles are always available for a chat whenever you stop by.

It seems as if many forgotten spirits and gods live in this realm, but Thunder Lotus is intentionally vague. Guerin once told me that the team did not want to impose its ideas about the afterlife on the players. While this sentiment is understandable, it sometimes makes it unclear what the characters' intentions are. It was not clear to me whether the characters or NPCs were trapped in this realm, how long they would be here, or whether they really wanted to leave.

One feature where this intentional ambiguity worked well was in Ever Door. In Spiritfarer, no one really knows what is behind the elusive door. It could be something beautiful, something terrifying, or nothing at all. Deciding to go through it is an uneasy choice, and yet Spiritfarer's characters ultimately want it. Thunder Lotus has always wanted to make Spiritfarer a death-affirming game, and this is where it shines most strongly; Stella's role in Spiritfarer is pivotal in giving the characters time and space for reflection. Many of them come to terms with a lifetime of trauma as they reflect on their past lives and ways of living on the ship. They accept that it is time to move on, whatever that may be.

At the end of Spiritfarer, the first names in the credits are relatives of deceased Thunder Lotus team members, many of whom became the inspiration for characters in the game. This is a small but powerful choice that sums up the game perfectly: those who have passed away are not forgotten and still live on in the people they knew.

Spiritfarer understands that death is not only when someone is gone, but it is a condensation of the emotions and memories of that person's absence. While the worldview is a bit abstract in some areas, the concepts and emotions the studio wanted to convey are clear. Thunder Lotus has created a cozy boat sim while handling the themes of death and compassion in a masterful balance. This is quite a feat.