Spirittea is a promising brew that needs more time to steep — Hands-on preview

gamepur.com:

When Spirittea was first announced, the cozy life sim elicited memories of games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, with a heavy dose of Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away. It’s a fusion of real-world town living with a hidden mystical side — you have to help both the humans and the spirits. Thanks to a demo through the Steam Next Fest, I got a chance to sit down and see how those two halves come together for an adventurous whole. Here’s how it went.

As you’d expect, Spirittea begins by asking you to create your character, à la the aforementioned lane of cozy games. Before you ride the bus to the isolated town where everything takes place, you’ll get a chance to name your destination. I went with Tokyokai because of Spirittea’s premise and because I like wordplay. I’d seen this sort of setup before, but it still served to make the demo start with a personal touch.

As the bus rambled on to Tokyokai, one of the next things I noticed was Spirittea’s soundtrack. It’s a bop. Synthesizers with a touch of bluegrass make walking around town feel comforting. An art and animation style that sometimes reminded me of Earthbound helped create a warm feeling too.

Tokyokai itself was very peaceful. It was a tiny town by any measure. A woman named Miko met me as I stepped off the bus and showed me around; a bike shop, cafe, restaurant, and karaoke bar were among the sights of our short tour. As I spoke with the other citizens of Tokyokai, I got a small sense of everyone’s personalities and quirks. These are people I wanted to spend more time with, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible in the demo — more on that later.

The human side of the settlement is only one part of what the game offers.