Spiritfarer meditation1/7/2023 ![]() It is as if the core message of the game, intended or not, is that no injustice is too big to be solved by the benevolence and persistence of the oppressed: just cook someone their favorite foods and hug them often enough, and all their internalized trauma will simply disappear. Mental health struggles are seemingly assuaged by Stella’s care and comfort. The labor dispute is resolved by the CEO’s comedic need to use the restroom overcoming his callous business sense. The problem is that none of these key issues feel fully fleshed out they’re simply presented and then brushed aside by Spiritfarer’s prevailing lightness. And, of course, there is the overarching goal of helping and caring for others as they seek peace. There’s the aforementioned focus on the plight of the worker, as we meet one character leading a protest against unjust labor practices and another who was a union leader in his past life. Within the first five-ish hours of gameplay, Spiritfarer establishes solid representation: Stella is a Black woman, two characters are LGBTQ, and several characters struggling with their mental health are portrayed compassionately. The extent to which the developers succeed in promoting positive change is mixed. ![]() ![]() (As an aside, Spiritfarer is yet another game that simultaneously promotes non-violence but imposes a hierarchy on nonhuman animal species that deems it non-problematic for anthropomorphic animals to kill and consume marine life including fish, squid, and octopi.)Īs another example, we get an early nod to Tom Nook of Animal Crossing that lands not just for the many gamers who have spent most of their 2020 in New Horizons, but also for those of us who are growing increasingly concerned with the ethics of big corporations and poor treatment of workers. But in a fun twist, this spirit hates her job and finds your catching, asphyxiating, cooking, and eating of “all the fish in the ocean” to be horrifying. Midway through the game, Stella meets an NPC with the genre-typical responsibility of rewarding 100% completion: collect all that the game has to offer, and this spirit will give you rewards. Spiritfarer balances its predilection for waxing philosophical on death with self-aware humor that is packed with internet in-jokes and a dash of anti-corporate sentiment.
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