Spiritfarer

• Video Game
• Thunder Lotus Games, Nicolas Guerin
• 12+
• Reviewed by Jesse King

If applicable, there are side characters who are diverse in…

• Ability
• Body size
• Gender
• Socioeconomic status
• Mental Health

If applicable, the storyline feature challenges that deal with…

• Ability
• Gender
• Socioeconomic status
• Mental Health

Spiritfarer has you take on the role a Stella, a young black girl, who has been appointed as the new Spiritfarer, a person who brings lost spirits to the afterlife. Throughout the game, you fulfill different spirits quests, which ends in a conclusion to their story, and them being sent to the afterlife. While all the spirits you take on your boat take the form of animals, making it hard to gather what race they are, there are many other issues tackled through the spirit’s quests. It’s usually never stated out right how they died or what they dealt with while they were alive, as the game sort of wants you to put the pieces together on your own, but they often died due to a mental illness or disability and other things, such as alzheimers and the dangerous working conditions of the working class. I don’t want to spoil how you come to know these things or what happens on these quests as the game is really best experienced not knowing and figuring out the character’s full stories on your own, but let’s just say, developer Thunder Lotus Games is no stranger to packing heavy themes and messages into seemingly fun and innocent games.

Spiritfarer can be purchased on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Steam

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