Indie developer Cheesemaster Games and publisher No More Robots announced a release date of the upcoming life sim Spirittea.
The game, which our Joe Allen aptly defined "Stardew Valley meets Spirited Away" (which I'm stealing because it sounds appropriate), will launch on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox on November 13, 2023.
Xbox and PC Game Pass subscribers will also be able to enjoy the game day and date with its standalone release. That being said, the price of admission is far from demanding, $19.99, £16.75, or €19.50 depending on where you live.
Accompanying the news we get a trailer, providing a look at the game and a narrated introduction to what you can expect from Spirittea.
You can watch it for yourself below and learn all you need to know about the game.
Mind you, the comparison with Stardew Valley and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away isn't something Joe invented on his own, as the developers quite proudly and explicitly mention both as sources of inspiration.
The premise certainly doesn't feel foreign as well, as the game follows the adventures of a writer who escaped to the countryside to find the inspiration for his next novel. Luckily, while he'll encounter spirits aplenty, they aren't exactly as hostile as what Alan Wake had (and still has) to deal with. This is a cozy game, after all.
Our protagonist accidentally drinks from a mystical tea pot and gains the power to see spirits and interact with them. This kicks off his quests to help them out and solve their troubles.
The game includes elements of life simulations with plenty of NPCs to meet and befriend and tons of hobbies to enjoy (our writer's trying to relax, after all) and management game, as you'll have to upgrade and take care of an old bathouse where the spirit you help will gather to have a relaxing soak.
Of course, you'll have to do some investigation to help your new ethereal friends, so there's that aspect as well.
It'll certainly be interesting to see if Spirittea will manage to come close to the success of its sources of inspiration, but for now it certainly looks promising. We'll know more on November 13.
