Spiritfarer, a luminous video game to accompany the dead on their last journey

"Game over": two words well known to video game players.

From the first platform games, like Super Mario Bros, dying was an essential step to progress.

Subsequently, whether it is to slaughter pharaonic quantities of enemies without personality or other online players in "Battle Royale", death has imposed itself as an essential element of "gameplay" .

Too often associated with violence, it is also sometimes treated with great gentleness and humanity.

On the occasion of All Saints' Day, Europe 1 recommends that you take a look at 

, a touching management game where you have to accompany spirits to the afterlife.

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A game about death anything but creepy

Available on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, 

is described by its creators as a "cozy management game around death".

Behind this ready-made formula hides a careful game with a very special atmosphere and an original story.

We play Stella, a young girl who, for unknown reasons, is chosen to be the new ferryman of souls ("spiritfarer" in English) instead of Charon.

Accompanied by her cat Daffodil, who never lets go of a cushion, she is responsible for finding wandering spirits to guide them into the tranquility of the afterlife.

We have seen a more cheerful pitch… except that

is anything but murky.

Yes, it's about death, but it's a sweet and heartwarming game.

And the artistic direction has a lot to do with it: it's colorful, the drawings are close to the manga style, with cute characters (the spirits take the form of anthropomorphic animals) and sets that often recall the Japanese countryside.

It is a calm adventure, with a very "cocooning" spirit.

In short, a perfect game for fall, with a plaid and a cup of hot chocolate.

Taking care of the last wishes

The gameplay itself isn't sad, far from it.

The spirit world is represented as a vast ocean, punctuated by small bucolic islands where lost spirits will seek us out.

It is then a question of loading them on our boat for the last trip.

This is where the management game sets in since this boat is a place of life for the spirits.

It is in a way the "Costa Cruises of Death".

On the main deck, each spirit must be built its own little cabin and taken care of so that it is as happy as possible before leaving.

The last wishes of the spirits are varied: to cook their favorite dish, to find an object which is close to their heart, to settle a last family or love dispute… These requests take the form of small quests in the game that send us wandering from island to island or quite simple mini-games.

Some even ask us to just… give them a hug!

And little by little, each of the eight spirits to be pampered is revealed, they tell us anecdotes about their past life.

The creators of

 have

particular attention to these stories, they are very authentic, very touching, like

, another sublime game about death.

Emotion and challenge

Beyond the beautiful stories, there is also a bit of challenge.

As it is a management game, you have to be attentive to resources: chopping wood to build buildings, cultivating fields to feed the kitchen, harvesting fibers to make fabric, etc.

This system, initially discreet, takes up more and more space as it progresses.

And in addition to materials, space management is also added because the building area of ​​the boat is limited.

It can be enlarged for a fee, but you need a keen eye to stack the Tetris-style cabins in a minimum of space.

All of this requires organization and ultimately takes up quite a bit of time.

For an independent game of this caliber, the lifespan is astonishing: allow around thirty hours to see the end of it.

A long adventure that can be savored in little bits, to relax.

As such, the music of the game, composed by Max LL, in turn bewitching, relaxing and playful is the icing on the cake.