Spirttea crossed my socials about a week back and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
When looking up information about Spirittea, there has been a lot of association between Ghibli and Stardew Valley, which I think is a fair assessment. I’ll be honest, I haven’t really dug deep into Stardew Valley because of the time constraints on day cycles, but the visuals definitely match the aesthetic Spirttea is going for.
If you’re like me, when you watched Spirited Away, all you wanted to do was run off and manage a bath house. Spirittea brings that opportunity to you in the style of a classic management format.
The demo opens up on cute visuals and great music which I was instantly charmed by. From the background setting to the sound effects, there’s much to love just on atmosphere alone.
Let me start by saying I loved this demo and I was left wanting more, but in the 45-60 minute demo, 20 minutes of that is meeting all 27 of your neighbors. I didn’t mind too much since it achieved the goal of getting me familiar with my surroundings, but I did feel the impending end of the demo creeping up on me.
That’s not a con, just something to be aware of because it makes the game feel like a slow start. Things don’t really pick up until after you drink some tea on the third in-game day of gameplay. Once you drink, Spirittea really kicks off.
The tea leaves are special and allow you to see spirits around town. Your spirit guide, Wonyan, launches into telling you all about the bathhouse located at the top of the hill and how spirits have been restless since the last bathhouse attendant left.
You’re charged to find the first of the town’s spirits at this point and, let me tell you, this is the part of the game where I fell in love. Finding these spirits and watching how they “get away” had me laughing at the unexpected, but adorable turn that the story took.
Once you’ve captured the runaway spirits, we get into the meat of what most of the gameplay is really like. It’s all about management. You’ll need to juggle several tasks while making sure your guests are happy.
The tea is piping hot with Spirittea
Not only will you need to keep the fires hot and keep the towels clean by washing and drying them, but you’ll also need to memorize which spirits can be seated near each other. They only want to be seated next to the season after them, but never next to the season across.
For instance, Summer would be fine next to Fall, but would hate Winter. Visually, there’s no way of telling what season a spirit might be, so you’ll have a bit of a learning curve at first.
The demo takes us through the first day of running the bathhouse, but when you go to leave, the demo ends. When I tell you that I yearn for more story, I mean it.
The demo ending here left a lot of unanswered questions that I want the answers to. Like what can I use the money on, what happens when I cultivate friendships, and what other spirits are waiting to be found? Thankfully, the game comes out on November 13th and I’m excited to see where the story goes.
If you want to try it out or add it to your wishlist, you can head over to their Steam page. I’m going to be getting Spirittea when I can because it seems like a fun thing to add to my cozy collection.
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