Review of Spirittea Switch: it will take your breath away

Stardew Valley and Studio Ghibli are a great combination when it comes to cosiness and positive energy in general. And while a lot of people have attempted to replicate this mixture (in fact, Stardew itself has certain Ghibli-esque components), nobody has been able to master the formula until Spirittea.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that this incredibly endearing and cosy RPG-slash-life sim from publisher No More Robots and developer Cheesemaster Games was one of my most eagerly awaited games of the year, especially given how far away the release dates of Haunted Chocolatier and Witchbrook seem to be. For this reason, I'm delighted to be here with you today to provide this excellent Spirittea review. Take a seat, pour yourself a cup of your preferred mix, and get ready to be taken to a very magical place.

Playing as a fantasy writer, Spirittea allows you to relocate to an ancient home in a secluded rural area in the hopes of finding inspiration for your next work. You do, however, get more than you paid for. It doesn't take long to discover that there are some eerie happenings in this charming small town, as there are plenty of kind (and first unwelcoming) people that help you feel at home in your new location.

You realise these strange happenings are more than just local rumours when you see a rice ball floating in midair being consumed by an unseen force. This is further supported when you prepare some new tea leaves in your house's enigmatic old teapot and find yourself suddenly able to see ghosts. It's via this that you first see Wonyan, a spiritual guide who also happens to be a rice ball thief. Wonyan appears to you as a ghostly cat floating about on a coin.

From here, you discover all there is to know about the town's spiritual past, including how the spirits vanished after people ceased making sacrifices to them. It is now your responsibility to assist your livelier neighbours who are being troubled by these lost spirits, not only for the sake of the locals but also for the spirits themselves.

There are many sections to the gameplay. First, there's the life sim component, which allows you to wander about the village at will. Every character in the game has a daily routine, and there is a day/night system. Every business and restaurant has a set time and day for opening and closing, and Song's store has a daily changing inventory list. In addition, the weather, fish, etc. are determined by the four distinct seasons. Because you can see the NPCs around you interacting with one another and going about their regular lives, these mechanisms, like those in other life sim games, give the game a genuine feeling of life and community.

Even though it's little, your new house is full of activities, such as shopping, fishing, bug capturing, cooking, karaoke, and more. You may also make friends with the locals and engage in conversation. Putting together a lettuce wrap at Julian's Barbeque Restaurant or getting down with a fun, animal-themed rhythm game at karaoke are two examples of minigames that are a part of these activities.

Additionally, fishing is linked to a minigame in which you have to continuously press the "reel" button while pursuing a fish around a dial. If you don't feel like doing things alone, you may ask the locals to join you, which will strengthen your bonds with them and provide a genuinely enjoyable change of pace and something to do in your spare time.

The next aspect of Spirittea's gameplay focuses on assisting the villagers in solving their spirit-related problems. It's your job to listen to and interpret clues, find the spirit, and provide for them so they may go back to their normal selves. You can be sure that most of the problems the townspeople have are spirit-related, whether it's strange plants sprouting around a bath or the mystery of the missing carrots.

And lastly, the bathroom. All the spirits you've encountered invite their buddies to unwind at the bathhouse. Making sure everyone has enough towels, that the water is the proper temperature, and that they enjoy their bathing experience can help you maintain everyone's mood upbeat. After spirits have finished their bath, you may use the money they give you to extend and refurbish various parts of the bathhouse, buy new merchandise from the stores, and more.

Determining the preferences of the spirits is one of the most challenging aspects of this process. Every spirit has a season assigned to them, and they detest sitting next to spirits who have the opposite season as them. A summer spirit, for instance, enjoys mingling with spring, autumn or other summer spirits, but detests taking a bath next to a winter spirit.

It's usually a lot of trial and error at first since, unfortunately, it's quite hard to figure out what season a spirit is affiliated with unless you locate its spirit tome hidden about the town, which may be difficult to track down. Fortunately, you may still please a ghost by offering it its favourite meal or giving it a thorough cleaning with a broom.

The bathhouse game simulates a relaxed version of a business simulation game. It doesn't seem too stressful since the only real consequence of doing badly is that you won't earn as much money at the end of the night. You don't get much sleep while working a shift there, at least not until you get some additional assistance later on. It strikes the ideal mix of being interesting and relaxing, and although some players may find it monotonous, I don't think it becomes any monotonous than Stardew Valley's main gameplay loop—especially because you may come and go from the bathhouse anytime you want.

Of course, there's more to the game than this; there are shrines to make gifts to, a gated section to strive towards, a tonne of riches, bugs, fish, and recipes to gather, and even romance. I've played the Switch version for around 18 hours (finished 23%) and the PC version for about 9 hours (14%). I've been taking my time, but even with that, I know there's still a tonne to see, which is very exciting since I've liked everything I've seen so far.

Having saying that, I do have a few little complaints with Spirittea. First off, I think some of the aspects may be a little confusing at times. For example, there isn't a button prompt, and it can be hard to tell what is interactive from ornamental at times. Furthermore, although I much like the lack of handholding, I believe some players may prefer some more helpful clues (particularly since Wonyan's very infrequent "hints" do nothing more than remind you of fairly apparent things) for a couple of the spirit-related tasks, which have some rather esoteric answers.

A few more problems include the map not updating or saying that NPCs are entirely in the incorrect place, as well as pathing errors that may cause NPCs to become unresponsive and just gaze eerie at a wall for hours on end until you go to sleep or exit to the main menu and reload your save. Since this is a pretty typical problem with recently launched games, I'm hopeful that a patch will be published sometime to iron out these bugs.

Lastly, I think a toolbar of some kind would be incredibly helpful for Spirittea. It's annoying because you can't pick up an item while carrying one, and it may be fairly laborious to unzip your bag in order to remove or change tools. This is most evident while you are digging; to retrieve an object you have just dug up, you must first drop or store your shovel, then pick it up and push a button to place it in your backpack. Finally, you must either pick up your shovel from your backpack or remove it before you can continue. I can see why you wouldn't want a large toolbar to take up the screen in a game this lovely, but it would be enough to have just one button to choose between the contents of your rucksack.

Alright, enough begging, let's get to the show. Spirittea works really well on the Switch, for the most part. Everything is really bright, the controls are straightforward and snappy, and the load times between places are lightning fast. Apart from the NPC pathing problems, I have sometimes stumbled while moving around in a storm, although it typically ends rather rapidly. Additionally, I had a fault where my character became trapped during a sequence, requiring me to restart the game. However, this appeared to be a unique occurrence due to my location at the time.

With the exception of the stuttering, the PC and Switch versions are quite similar in this regard. It is evident that Spirittea was intended to be played with a controller, however, and using a keyboard and mouse may be a little tedious at times, particularly while playing the fishing minigame.

Spirittea's images are quite delightful; they beautifully depict brilliant colours while capturing exquisite aspects of East Asian culture. Every element of the design is obviously the result of a great deal of love and passion, and I really value that. There are occasional fourth-wall-breaking interferences with the conversation boxes that are a true delight, and even the menus and maps are wonderfully on tune. Furthermore, the spirit designs are flawless, and it's always thrilling to see them for the first time in that revelation akin to "who's that Pokémon?"

Additionally, everything is clear, consistent, and well-sized regardless of the screen size—whether you're using the Switch portable, docked with a big TV, or connected with a computer monitor. To top it all off, the music is exquisite, fusing playful flutes and piano with a peaceful mood reminiscent of Ghibli films, complete with birds, cicadas, the ocean, and wind blowing through the trees. Though the music often breaks off, I do prefer it over a continuous loop, so I guess I can't really complain! I do wish the music was a little more consistent!

Spirittea is a great value for the money. I've only spent a small portion of the game's 27 hours overall, but in that time, I've already experienced more than enough delight to justify its price. Furthermore, even if the PC version is accessible via Game Pass, I will definitely purchase it on Steam if a dedicated community emerges and begins adding Spirittea content to Nexus Mods. Just think of the possibilities: to make an already intricate game even more replayable, I'd love to see some user-made spirits, characters, missions, and décor.

All in all, Spirittea is really wonderful. My passion for it has only gotten stronger from there; in fact, after only an hour of gaming, I was certain that it was GOTY worthy. Now, I can honestly state that it is on par with Stardew Valley in my heart. Even if it does have a few glitches here and there, Wonyan, the spirits, and all of my wonderful virtual neighbours are such a charming package altogether, and I can't wait to go on more adventures with them. I beg you to at least try the demo if you like Spirited Away and games like Stardew Valley. I promise you won't be let down.

Okay, I'm going to make a magical cup of tea and attempt to persuade my colleagues that Spirittea ought to be included in our compilation of the top Switch games. While you wait, check out our selection of the greatest farm games for even more relaxing moments. Alternatively, if you're all into those ghosts, check out our lists of the tophorror games andghost games.