Spiritfarer®: Farewell-Edition

Tally it all up and Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition is a work with a perfect emotional core and a flawed loop — worth your time on balance. We score it 8.6.

It defined a genre in 2020 and still sets the bar in 2026

When it launched in 2020, Spiritfarer all but single-handedly defined the "cozy game about dying." Before it, few games dared to make end-of-life care and grief processing the playable core, let alone handle them this unsentimentally and with this much dignity. Its Games for Impact win at TGA 2020 wasn't because it was the most fun; it was because it proved this medium could talk about death gently.

Looking back from 2026, nothing has taken that spot. Cozy games have multiplied in the years since, but on the sheer purity and completeness of "making the goodbye itself the core loop," it remains the yardstick that every peer in the space still gets measured against. Its irreplaceability isn't the art or the music — those can be surpassed — it's the way it handles caring for the dying and finally letting them go, still the clearest reference point in this emotional subgenre.

Who it's for: anyone ready to keep house and cry at the goodbyes

Be clear about who fits. If you want an experience that's genuinely moved by its characters, if you'll spend dozens of hours keeping house and caring for a boatful of souls, and if you've made peace with crying at the farewells, this game was built for you. It's especially good as the one title you can recommend to family who don't play games at all — plenty of people use it as the gateway to get someone they love into the hobby.

It also suits players who like a slow pace, lean into atmosphere, and value emotional payoff over challenge and adrenaline. You aren't here to win; you're here for the company and the goodbyes. If those two words move you, it almost certainly won't let you down.

Who should steer clear

Conversely, a few kinds of player should pass. If you chase combat thrills, optimal numbers, a tight crisp pace, and can't stand backtracking and fiddly housekeeping, the late-game management load will only sour the experience. Its loop was never designed for "challenge" or "efficiency," and holding it to that standard just makes it feel like a slog.

The other group is anyone simply short on time. A 31-hour main story and a forty-something completion run is a real investment for a narrative-forward game, and the game won't hurry on your behalf. If you only want a moving story in two or three hours, something like Gris or Journey suits you better — Spiritfarer asks for long companionship, not a one-shot tug at the heart. It earns its tears by making you do the daily work first, and that trade only pays off if you actually have the hours to give it.

Which version, and one last word

Version choice is a non-question: get the Farewell Edition. It folds in the Lily, Beverly, and Jackie & Daria updates and is the most complete, most narratively whole cut, with even local co-op polished. There's no reason to touch the old base release today — this edition hands you a complete emotional loop, and the added characters happen to fill the narrative gaps the original left open. It supports local co-op, with the second player steering Daffodil the cream-colored cat, ideal for sharing the voyage with a partner or family — one sails, one helps keep house, which fits the game's "live it together" spirit exactly. It's on every platform — Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC — and looks consistent everywhere, so any machine gives you the same ache. Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition is not a flawless game; the late-game management wears on you, and the backtracking and chores are real shortcomings we won't paper over just because it moves you. But on the one thing it truly cares about — telling a string of lives about loss and farewell well — it hits the highest mark in its class. Opposite Stardew Valley's management-first, feeling-as-byproduct approach, here management is only the vehicle and the goodbye is the lead. Spend the dozens of hours, care for a boatful of souls, remember each of their tastes and stories, then ferry them one by one through that glowing door, and it pays you back with a journey you won't forget for a long time. Few games will ever ask you to practice goodbye this many times, and fewer still will leave you grateful that they did. You were never here to win.