Spirittea

Spirittea is an RPG inspired by such games as Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, as well as iconic Studio Ghibli movies, such as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. The game was developed by Cheesemaster Games, an indie studio founded by Dan Beckerton. It was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter.

Plot

Spirittea has us playing as a writer, coming to a small town in search of inspiration to finish their latest book. After drinking tea from an antique cup, the protagonist gains the ability to see the spirit world; they also discover the town is crawling with furious ghosts, angry over being forgotten. Our task is to finish our latest work and calm down the angry spirit before they become uncontrollable.

Mechanics

Spirittea makes use of the top-down perspective. We start off by creating our playable character. The primary gameplay mechanic is spirit searching. Where we'll find them depends on the place, the time of day and season. To soothe an angry spirit, we must complete a quest for it, then take it to a special bathhouse at the foot of the mountain.

Since it's the only way to placate angry spirits, the bathhouse should be our priority. Clean towels, food and hot water isn't enough to keep them happy. We must pay attention to our guests' individual preferences, such as the aromatics used in the bathhouse and the place they occupy (we must make sure the spirits only neighbor other spirits who are friendly to them). If we do everything well, the spirits will pay us for our services, letting us spend money on expanding the bathhouse, purchasing more furniture, upgrades, food, clothes and entertainment, such as visiting the arcade. We should also make offerings at shrines and temples to deepen our link to the spirit world.

That's not all, as there are many living inhabitants we should make friends with as well. To establish new relationships, we must help encountered characters with their problems and join them during various activities, portrayed as mini-games. In moments of downtime we can spend time fishing, catching worms, treasure hunting or exchanging figurines obtained from arcades. There are also numerous festivals and events to participate in.

Technical aspects

Spirittea features simple, though colorful and appealing pixel art visuals.

Last updated on 25 October 2023