This past weekend I played a sweet little game, Spiritfarer.
It was a pleasant break. It’s not difficult — I just bumbled about gathering resources and finding spirits and building my boat, and finished somewhat inevitably — although the minigames that involved jumping on platforms were a bit frustrating. My generation didn’t have the indoctrination into Mario style stuff that younger people might have.
I was mainly into it for the story. You’re Charon’s replacement, and you have to pick up spirits from your past and ferry them about, picking up memories and desires and eventually delivering them to the Everdoor where they ascend? Explode? Turn into stars? Whatever. You learn about their lives, and it’s all very sentimental and sad when they finally reach their destination.
It’s an interesting mechanism for delivering a series of life stories, and it’s pretty. Except for the damned jumping mini-games.
Orbit Pluto and keep its other four moonlets (Nix, Hydra, Styx, Kerberos) in check?
No/ Aww..
“The horrible ferryman plied the waters and rivers,
Charon in his terrible filthiness, on whose chin
lay many untended grey hairs, his fixed eyes aflame,
a soiled cloak hangs by a knot from his shoulders,
as he guides the boat with a pole and tends the sails,
steering the spirits in his iron-coloured boat.”
Virgil, Aeneid VI, ll.298-303
Don’t forget to collect all the oboles and invest in Hadesium crypto coin.
I don’t play much in the way of games anymore, unless you count MS Flight Simulator, and even that I started to lose interest in when my plane kept getting hijacked.
And don’t get me started on my Sims family that kept getting murdered.
Sounds something like this:
How To Find All the People You’ve Ever Blocked
Did you sail on Styx or Lethe?
i quit playing that game ’cause it made me cry too often!
Oh man, I was gifted Spiritfarer for Christmas shortly after it came out and I absolutely loved it! I cried so much, but they were good cries. Mechanically, the game is simple for people who’ve been actively gaming for decades, but the story is where this game shines. Highly recommended and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
@birgerjohansson #6:
I don’t remember.
The founder William Dubé is a really nice guy, too. We were at a startup incubator together when he was starting up Thunder Lotus.
Rich Woods @ 9
😁
I liked that game, I should give it another go.
My first playthrough, I somehow missed the second or third skill/ability, and had a lot of trouble with some of the islands/cities, to the point where I started checking in with a walkthrough, and that’s when I realized I missed a very early skill ability, and kinda stopped playing for a while.
But, yeah, I thought it was a really neat game, interesting artwork/style, cool premise, etc.
I got mine from GoG, and I rather like them so far – no DRM, and they frequently have stuff on sale for pretty steep discounts, and periodically giveaway games. Also, they let you filter by OS, and have a decent linux selection, so that’s another reason I like them (I know Steam is another big linux gaming vendor). I’ve heard they will sometimes revoke it if they feel it’s being abused, but the offer a ~30day(?) refund – I only used it once, I bought a game that sounded really cool, but required far more coordination than I have available, and I couldn’t get past the first combat (not even first boss, just first encounter), so I applied for the refund and received it, so that was cool. (kinda sad, because the premise of that game also seemed cool, but I just couldn’t manage the button combos it required…)
@ 6. birgerjohansson : “Did you sail on Styx or Lethe?”
FWIW. There’s other rivers in Hades too – the Acheron, Pyriphlegethon / Phlegethon (river of fire! So maybe not that sailable..) , Cocytus (river of wailing – NOT whaling) and, um, Oceanos or Ocean too if youcallthat a river…
See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_underworld#Rivers
Apparently a few of those are (also?) actual Hellenic rivers too.
@ 9. Rich Woods : Nicley done. Well played.
@
Then the Greek s have the celestial river and constellation of Eridanus (http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/eri-p.html#:~:text=Eridanus%2C%20the%20River%2C%20winds%20from,River%20turns%20to%20the%20south. ) with the star Achernar ( http://kencroswell.com/RegulusIsOblate.html ) which is also a mythical riuver too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridanos_(river_of_Hades)
Can’t find it on PZ’s youtube channel now but I’m sure he played another space exploation – alien worlds game at one stage quite a while which seemed pretty good and fun to me. Space ships and suits that could be altered and roaming around different exoplanets with crystals and various creatures and alien spacestation / base with shops and stuff.. Anyone else recall that? Think he live streamed it if memory serves but forgotten what it was called now. Would you get back to playing that one PZ?
@5 Why the hell would I do that. There’s only three people I’ve blocked on my phone/social media, and I blocked them cause they were arseholes.