Release Date: 18/08/2020
Played On: XBO
Available On: Linux / Mac / NS / PS4 / Stadia / Win / XBO
Time Played: 9h 12m
Progress: Retired due to game-breaking bugs.
Developer: Thunder Lotus Games
Publisher: Thunder Lotus Games
I know it might not seem like it at times, but I try to keep these posts stacked into the positive column a little more than the negative. After all, I often want to share the joy a game can bring instead of the pain, so even though I have been known to complain here and there, I like to think that the overall vibe of this blog is one of enjoyment and optimism. However, just saying that kind of gives away how much of a big old "but" might be coming along in this particular post.
My frustration and ultimate disappointment with this game comes more from a place of failed potential than outright negligence. Although, when game-breaking bugs are common and able to ruin almost ten hours of very enjoyable gameplay, it certainly feels like someone just shoved their boot up you on purpose. A terrible game being terrible is almost more forgivable, as a great game being poorly made cuts right to that intersection between desire and ability. I really want to keep playing Spiritfarer, but thanks to poor development and quality assurance, I am unable to continue.
Before we get into that though, I feel it's also worth touching on the idea of how much we value our time as gamers. I for one, would rather spend a short time with a brilliant game, than a long time with an okay one. I don't think I'm alone in this, but it leads me to hold longer games to a higher standard than some shorter counterparts. For example, I'm currently about thirty hours into GRID Autosport (racing game), which is a large time investment for me to make, but I'm enjoying every minute and the game has kept me interested. Not only that, but I can see how much I have left to complete, so I know that there's probably another ten hours before the credits roll. I'm very much enjoying GRID Autosport, so I'm looking forward to that final ten hours and am happy to continue progressing through this relatively long game.
Alternatively, here I am playing Spiritfarer, which I am enjoying immensely and have been extremely satisfied with up to this point. The game is beautiful and progression feels natural and well-paced. This is one of those games where you get sucked in and an hour feels like ten minutes... in a good way. However, I don't know how long it will last, and I think I've only scratched the surface of the entire game, even after almost ten hours. Thus, when I loaded up the game this afternoon to continue my journey, only to discover that it has bugged out and I can no longer progress any further, my ten hours feels like a big old waste of time.
What's more, I took to the internet to find out what has happened and if there was a fix for the problem, only to discover that the game has had a multitude of problems since its release. One bug in particular (which has broken my game) has been in the "known issues" list basically since the day of release, and nothing has been done to fix it. Patches have been released, but they're the kind of fixes that prevent this sort of thing happening again instead of fixing broken games that have already been started.
It's great and all that the developers are working hard on patching the game, but I often wonder how on earth someone could release a game that has game-breaking bugs in it as a known issue from day one. I take it as an insult and complete disrespect shown for the game's player-base, as they have not only wasted my time, but potentially wasted my money as well. In fact, if I hadn't picked this game up as part of my Game Pass subscription, I would be demanding a full refund; even if I've played more than the traditional 2 hour refund window.
The sad fact of the matter is that sometimes we're reminded just how little a developer actually cares about making a polished product. Whether it's publisher influence, or just plain greed, releasing games in an unfinished state has become all too common and should always been called out for the bad practice that it is. I mean, I don't think I'm being unreasonable when I expect something to work as promised when I load it up after trading my time and money for the privilege. Even if it's part of a subscription like Game Pass, that doesn't make it acceptable because I've still lost nearly ten hours to this game, only to be spat on by those that chose to release a broken game early instead of taking the time to fix and polish it properly.
To make things even worse, Spiritfarer is by all accounts a great game. There's a lot to love about the entire concept and design of the piece, so much so that I was already considering it a GOTY contender. The art is gorgeous, with beautiful Disney/Ghibli -esque animations and characters. Plus, the gameplay loop is satisfying and compelling with plenty of little progression steps along the way to reward your efforts.
The basic idea behind Spiritfarer is that you play a girl called Stella, who finds out that she is the new "Spiritfarer". Funnily enough this means that you pilot a large boat that you use to ferry spirits to a large gate that allows them to pass on to the next level of existence. These spirits take the forms of various animals at first, and you must help them complete whatever unfinished business they have before setting them off on their own for whatever comes next.
Spiritfarer largely focuses on resource management, but it's not all that difficult to manage. Each spirit on your boat will regularly want food, but they each have preferences and will only eat certain dishes and certain types of meals. To upgrade and improve your boat, you need other materials that are either crafted or harvested in some way, but these resources are regularly available and various points in the game that suit the overall progression.
For example, at one point a spirit teaches you how to shear sheep and harvest wool, which can then be woven into thread and cloth respectively. You need the woollen cloth for certain upgrades and quests, but those upgrades and quests coincide with roughly the time that you discover how to shear sheep. Unfortunately this system in particular was one of the ones that bugged out for me and my game reverted to a point where I didn't know how to shear sheep, but in order to progress I needed to harvest wool from sheep.
To further illustrate the problem, you need a particular item in order to upgrade your ship so that it can access new areas. This item is left behind by a spirit who you have helped with their business and who has then left for good. My game bugged out and I no longer had this item from the one spirit I had helped to move on, so I was unable to upgrade my boat, so I was unable to access key areas of the map. Considering that all my quests at the time needed me to go to areas that I was now unable to access, this kind of soft-locked the game for me.
However, I can't state clearly enough just how much I was enjoying myself in Spiritfarer before I ran into all these buggy troubles. Even in the time it has taken to write this post, I have gone from being super annoyed and angry about how broken the game is, right through to considering whether I should start a new game and spend another ten hours recouping my progress. If this were any other game, I would just uninstall it and say good riddance, but it's a testament to how much I was enjoying myself that I'm thinking I might try again.
I suppose that brings me to the point of this post, which is less about Spiritfarer itself, and more about developers respecting their players and making something with quality, instead of making something quickly. I can only assume that the reason game-breaking bugs exist on day one of a game's release is because they ran out of time and money to really polish everything nicely. I'm sure that most developers don't want to release something that's known to be broken and incomplete, but that still doesn't excuse the practice.
Sure I might have another go at Spiritfarer, but it will be begrudgingly and with higher expectations than I had the first time round. Then again, I remind myself that I'm far from starved for games to play, even when looking at the Game Pass catalogue and seeing what's available. We are spoiled for choice these days as gamers, but that means we get to hold developers to a higher standard and demand better experiences from them.
Spiritfarer may well be a GOTY contender for 2020, because I know how much I was enjoying myself up to the point of it being a buggy mess. Although I'm pretty sure that it will easily be beaten by any other game that manages to even come close to the same level of enjoyment and fulfillment. After all, if I'm thinking back on my experience with this game versus another game that I loved and managed to actually complete, I'll be much more favourable toward the game that didn't break after about ten hours and waste my time.
I would have loved to write a long post gushing about how wonderful I think Spiritfarer is as a game and as a piece of art with unique gameplay and beautiful presentation. There are so many little elements to this game that are a real joy to discover and play around with, but all of that is overshadowed by the fact that I now have to consider whether I want to potentially waste another ten hours, only to have it possibly break again. It's such a shame, because I really feel like this would be one of those special experiences in gaming, if only it had been given the time to fix its game-breaking bugs and actually be completed prior to release.
At this moment in time, I don't know if I'll go back to Spiritfarer and try again. I've submitted a support ticket about the state of my broken game, but I would be surprised if anything came from that, so it really comes down to whether or not I want to try again. I can say that it even feels likely, although part of me just wants to move on and play something else instead. Whatever happens, I'll update this post if I have anything else to add, but for now be warned: this game is just about as broken as it is beautiful.
The following is from the Thunder Lotus Games support page:
NB: Since writing this post I have restarted the game and burned through the first ten hours that I had already played within about half the time. So far it does not appear to have broken in the same way, so as I write this, I do plan to finish the game. If/when I do that, I’ll do a follow up post.
I still don’t think that any game should be released in such a state. The simple fact that I’m trying it again should tell you a lot about how much I actually like this game when it’s working as intended.
Update: I have written a follow-up post about Spiritfarer, which can be found here.