Stardew Valley isn’t the only rural life sim game out there, but with 20 million copies sold, it inevitably gets compared to every similar-looking indie that comes along. Spirittea has just been announced, and the Stardew-Valley-meets-Spirited-Away vibes are quite strong.
As the reveal trailer shows, our main character arrives in a town full of spirits that only they seem to be able to see. From then on, the life sim game shows the hero doing errands around town for both living humans and beings from the other side. Bathhouse and train station scenes really sell the Spirited Away feeling, and we see all manner of ghost friends, from a cute little cat to a chunky chicken to a massive tiger. The trailer also shows the sim activities you’d expect from a cozy game like this. This includes activities like fishing, cooking, and exploring the surrounding area. There’s a healthy dose of minigames too, from the looks of things.
Spirittea is the second title from developer Cheesemaster Games, and it’s being published by No More Robots, which brought us the likes of Descenders and Hypnospace Outlaw. We don’t know about all the final platforms, but the game can now be wishlisted on Steam. The game page gives us the main objective of Spirittea too. “Hey human, we’ve got problems,” it reads. “This town is crawling with troublesome spirits, and you’re the only one who can see them. You’d better get that old bathhouse up and running. Maybe that’ll help them chill out.” We don’t know when we’ll be able to start that task since the game has no release date right now, but the trailer says it’s “coming [in] 2022.” You can sign up for the beta here.
Spirittea is just one cozy indie game coming in the future. In fact, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone is working on one himself: Haunted Chocolatier.
