Spirittea

So I just finished getting all the achievements. All in all, a pretty enjoyable experience! I don't know if I would say it's worth its asking price of 20 freedom funbucks, through. As a good chunk of the playtime I did near the end was just a whole lot of waiting for the right time to get the things I missed during my casual playthrough of year one. Makes me kinda wish there was still an "eh" option between recommending it or not, so I have an option for games that made me think "Yeah, I enjoyed it. HOWEVER-". But let's take a look at the positives first. [h2]THE GOOD:[/h2] - The gameplay loop! Running the bath house is frantic but fun, getting even moreso as you upgrade the place and unlock things like the outdoor baths and spirit formations. And while not all spirit unlock quests are equal in enjoyability, the designs of each spirit are fun and had me looking forward to which ones would be revealed next. Downtime is comfortable, being able to do your usual cozy game fare like fishing and bug catching. But I also genuinely enjoyed just being able to explore this little town. - The characters! Well...most of them. Wonyan is a great side-kick, and befriending him over the course of the game leads to some pretty well-delivered emotional moments. The towns many residents are a colorful sort, with some having pretty unexpected backstories. Like Gale being an ex-idol who rightfully quit due to industry burnout, or Song [spoiler]unwittingly going through the exact same thing as her mother Amelia, becoming a single mother at a young age[/spoiler]. But not all villagers are created equal. For every Song and Gale, there's a Jillian or an Eric. Villagers that aren't [b]bad[/b], per se, but not exactly compelling and thus not as fun to hang out and get to know due to their one-note personality or backstory. - The music! All very fitting for a little Japanese-themed seaside town. And even when there isn't music playing, there's still lots of ambient tracks so you're not just sitting in complete silence. [h2]THE BAD:[/h2] - Not everything can be puzzled out using common sense. Even with Wonyan there to give you hints, there are going to be times where you're still going to be at a loss for what to do. I don't mind hard games or difficult challenges, naturally, but I'm also of the mind that guides should be for the occasional struggling player and not mandatory to progress. And even then there's a lot of things the community simply doesn't have info on. A lot of my achievement hunting was only possible thanks to a community google doc on collectables and a sorely under-loved wikipedia. - Speaking of, this game can be a real migraine and a half if you're a completionist and want to do EVERYTHING. You have a menu for looking at all your collectables, but no way to look at them by name to know what you do and don't have. Just a vague "hey you have x of y bugs you haven't caught yet" in the pamphlet menu. There are also some fish and bugs that can only be caught in really specific areas or with friends, and there's no way to distinguish this besides maybe one or two having hints villagers will give you. In the end, I was basically hibernating for days at a time just to get the right three yellow birds keeping me from that last achievement. And with the new update... - The gruns. Y'know how I said that the community doesn't have info on everything? This is one of those things. I appreciate the idea of being able to actually use some of the materials you get from running the bath house to actually give back to the town through public works projects. But a lot of these projects require seasonal bugs and materials I don't even know how to get, and what little crumbs of info I can find seem to imply there's seasonal spirits you have to summon somehow. This, as a player who had most things done as of the update and enough money to fund all of them and still have enough left over to buy a yacht for me and Wonyan each, comes off as a massive slog. With nothing else to do, I shouldn't feel like the only way I can tackle these in a timely manner is to hibernate for weeks on end. So in the end, after seeing the story through, I just settled for getting all the achievements and calling it a day. All in all, I'd still recommend it for the base experience. But if you're looking for a game you can try to 100% after experiencing it as it is, maybe look elsewhere.

this is fun

boring and too gimmicky.

I enjoyed my time with the game, but after getting about 90% of the way through, I pulled the plug. It takes about 40 hours to get to the start of Fall. To fully complete the game, you have to get to Spring Year 2 - so another 40 hours. The game just doesn't have enough to keep me interested for another 40 hours. Aside from unlocking new spirits, basically the only thing to do in the game is run the bathhouse. When I pulled the plug, I had already unlocked just about everything. Just running the bathhouse for another 40 hours would be boring.

I really wanted to love Spirittea. I loved the idea of running a bathhouse and getting to know the people in a small town. I finished the main story because I wanted to see it through, but I'm not sure I'd return to it. My biggest issue was how often I had to look up guides to complete villager quests. I'm not against using guides, but I found myself confused about how to complete an action or progress often, which felt more intense than I expected from a cosy game. I also wish there was more opportunity to get to know the spirits. Once you've completed their quest, there's no ability to interact with them beyond managing the bathhouse. I would have loved to build ongoing relationships with them, like you can with the villagers. I loved the concept, the town, spending time with villagers, shopping, and building up and managing the bathhouse, and I still really want to root for this game. I just didn't get on with it.

Honestly I have some complaints with this game - the main premise is fine, the bath house is fine - it's how vague some of the quests are and how PRECISE you have to be to see the scenes, there was one ghost in a boat I spent about 30mins searching for until I ultimately looked up a guide to see I had to be stood in an area where I could barely see the boat in a fixed area someone kindly drew, that's outrageous! Stupid even. The quest indicated no such marker to me, there was no indication it had to be this specific vague spot other than players actively helping one another out. The Story's great! it's a real winner, it's Stardew Valley Vibes but running a bath house like in Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli. I love that, I love everything ABOUT that, I love that I can have a Bike and ride around - the game is FANTASTIC but there's some aspects that are just garbage. I shouldn't need to spend 30mins looking for an "appropriate spot" where there's not a single indication, at least put some marker there, something that indicates "X MARKS THE SPOT".

Este juego me encanta, siempre lo voy a recomendar a todo el mundo, pero aún le queda pulir un poco la traducción y las misiones, que muchas veces no te quedan claras del todo. Aún así, es divino.