If you’re looking for a game that combines the likes of Spirited Away with Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, the rural life sim goodness of Spirittea looks to be it. And you can play that game right now, across Game Pass, Xbox, Nintendo Switch or PC.
Available right now on the Xbox Store (we’re guessing that’s your initial port of call, yeah!?) is Spirittea. It comes from No More Robots and Cheesemaster Games (one solo dev, which makes this all the more remarkable) as they send you into a town that is full of the most troublesome of spirits. It’s your job to help them out – and to write your next novel in the process.
How you go about that is completely up to you, with Spirittea promising nothing short of ultimate player freedom. You see, it combines various genre ideas, ripping bits from the life sim world, that of management games and some detective thrillers before combining them as one.
The Spirittea bathhouse
Playing out via a pixel arted style, much of the focus of Spirittea will be found in the bathhouse your frequent. It’s this which will need upgrading as time allows; bringing forth the management elements of the game. In fact, that bathhouse is a prime mechanic with its own unique feature set…
- Keep the bathhouse and towels clean – Grab your trusty broom to sweep away the cobwebs and collect up all your towels, you’ll need to keep everything clean, dry and organised.
- Deliver a five-star service with food and scrubbing – Get ready to pamper your spirits with food straight from your kitchen and a give them a good scrub while they’re relaxing!
- Make the water perfect for each spirit – Chop wood for the boilers to heat up the water to the perfect temperature and mix up various elixirs to make the water perfect for each spirit – they’ll all have their preferences and favourite recipes!
- Sit friends together and enemies apart – Every spirit has others they like best, as well as some they don’t enjoy spending time with at all! You’ll have to plan carefully when you lead spirits to their baths – don’t seat just anyone together! Unless, of course, you don’t care about making money. Which I do. Very much so in-fact.
Need more features?
From there, further Spirittea key features are equally intriguing…
- Solving the spirit’s problems – To remember themselves, they’ll need anything from some spicy noodles to finding and digging up their lost treasures, so get your problem-solving hat on!
- Making friends with the locals – The townspeople all have their own schedules, likes, dislikes and hobbies to take part in – from bug catching to karaoke, there’s something for everyone!
- Managing the bathhouse – You’ll need to clean towels, chop wood to heat the baths and seat the spirits with their friends for the ultimate bathing experience.
- Upgrading and decorating – The local shops can make a whole lot of cool furniture and help you fix up overgrown areas of the bathhouse. We should make it big and fancy enough to take on all the spirits!
Play Spirittea on Game Pass now
Spirittea is on the Xbox Store. It’s priced at £16.74 if you decide to open the wallet, or is part of the Game Pass subscription scheme. Whichever way you play, it’s present on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S or PC.
Spirittea is also on Nintendo Switch if you prefer that gaming format.
Stick around for our review of Spirittea on Xbox real soon.
Spirittea on Xbox Game Description
Wait! Who the heck are you?! Can you see me? You CAN, can’t you? You’ve drunk the Spirittea and now you can see me!! Look, we’ve got problems! This town is crawling with troublemaking spirits. They’ve become lost because humans have stopped worshipping, leaving offerings or even thinking about them anymore. This is- well… used to be a nice town, but there have been some strange goings-on lately! You’re going to find the spirits causing mayhem and fix their problems so they can become paying customers, and get to know the townspeople and explore the mountain to its fullest!
