Spiritfarer

Life aboard Stella's ferry in Spiritfarer

In Spiritfarer you play Stella, ferrymaster to the dead. You build and upgrade a boat, explore the world and take on spirit passengers whom you befriend and care for: cooking for them, building for them and spending time with them.

The developer, Thunder Lotus, lists a wide range of activities: farming, mining, fishing, harvesting, cooking, weaving and crafting, plus platforming sections. The boat becomes a floating village that you design yourself.

The heart of the game is the relationships. When a passenger is ready, you release them into the afterlife and say goodbye. The studio describes it as a cosy management game about dying, and that pairing is exactly what it delivers.

Your boat grows as you add new buildings, and the developer's updates added more of them over time. Sailing becomes a relaxed loop of farming, cooking, crafting and spending time with your passengers between islands.

Is Spiritfarer too sad for a wind-down session?

It depends on the evening. Spiritfarer is calm in its mechanics: there are no enemies, and the activities are steady and repetitive in a pleasant way. But its stories deal with ageing, illness and grief, and the goodbyes are designed to move you.

Some players find that comforting; others would rather not meet it before bed. If you are going through a loss, it may be worth waiting, and the NHS website has information on grief and bereavement support. We do not offer health advice.

PEGI rates it 12 for bad language, including words like the ones PEGI quotes, and notes a character who smokes.

If you decide to play in the evening, a practical approach is to decide in advance what you will do in a session: tend the boat, sail to one island, then stop. The emotional story beats arrive at their own pace, so you can pause before a goodbye and come back to it on a day when you feel ready.

Sharing the boat with Daffodil the cat

A second player can join as Daffodil, Stella's cat, in optional local co-op. Steam lists shared or split-screen co-op and Remote Play Together, but no online matchmaking, so you play with someone on the same sofa or invited via Steam.

The cat can help with most tasks, which makes it a gentle way to include a partner or older child who is less confident with games. See our guide to calm co-op for couples and families for more ideas.

Steam also lists Remote Play on phone, tablet and TV, so the co-op does not have to happen in front of a desktop computer.

Which Spiritfarer edition you will find in the UK

On Steam the game is sold as the Spiritfarer Farewell Edition, which brings together the base game and three free content updates that added new passengers and stories. Steam lists Windows, Mac and Linux. The PEGI database lists Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

The developer says it takes about 30 hours to finish and more than 50 to see everything, so it is a long-term companion rather than a one-evening game.

There are no in-game purchases. If you want a lighter seaside mood, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is shorter and sunnier.

Because it is long and story-driven, it works best as something you return to over weeks, a few calm sessions at a time.

Its hand-drawn art and animation are a big part of its warmth, and the developer lists rich customisation options for your boat, your character and even the cat. Decorating the ferry is one of the most relaxing parts of the whole game, and a good thing to do on evenings when you are not in the mood for an emotional scene.