It’s tough to be original in any medium, let alone board games. Our art form has taken off far later than the likes of film, television, and digital gaming. With so many centuries of storytelling to draw from, intentionally or not, it’s tough to say we’re ever first to anything. Still, it’s nice to nod to the shoulders we stand on. Spirit Train, a new board game that recently hit Kickstarter, does not appear to do so.
This breathtakingly gorgeous board game ticks all the boxes for a trendy crowdfunding hit. Firstly, its vibes are overwhelmingly cozy. You play a psychopomp who wants to score the most points by ferrying cutesy characters to their preferred version of the afterlife.
Your train and its cargo are realized through lovingly-crafted Ghibli-esque art, found on every page, component, and spare scrap of space. Players even get to place tetromino-style pieces into a 3D spirit train that (because this is crowdfunding) is exclusive to Kickstarter backers. In a word, it’s stunning. What’s not to love?
I don’t love that this is just Spiritfarer: The Board Game. For the unfamiliar, Spiritfarer is a beloved indie videogame from 2020 that’s about – you guessed it – ferrying adorable critters to their intended afterlife. It’s a gentle yet extremely affecting story about accepting death as part of life. It was the first cozy game to make me cry, and that experience sticks with me, years later.
Spiritfarer takes place on a ship (that, fun fact, was originally going to be a train), and it’s slightly less Ghibli in its art style, but that’s about where the differences end. And all I’m saying is: some credit would have been classy.
It’s possible that Spirit Train creators SweaterBear Games have never heard of SpiritFarer. If so, I apologize for all the complaints of copying. But the concepts are just so damn similar. It seems impossible that one can exist without knowing about the other. It looks like an egregious case of ‘copy their homework, but change a few of the words.’
For many, that won’t be a problem. I bet there are plenty of Spiritfarer fans who actually welcome a similar experience, only in tabletop form. It’s just the lack of credit that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s common for board games to wear their inspirations on their sleeves (in fact, it’s often a popular marketing tactic), so why not here?
I won’t be backing this one, but I’m keen to see how Spirit Train turns out regardless. Nothing would shut my moaning mouth harder than seeing this game turn out brilliant. I hope it does – because I don’t ever wish for somebody’s passion project to fail, and because people have already spent $173,000 backing this thing.
SweaterBear Games has three previous board games under its belt. All are known for their phenomenal production value, and they’ve received very positive reviews. The most common critique across the board is that these games can be a little too fiddly.
Spirit Train has a 36-page (first draft) rulebook for a game that lasts 90 minutes, and most of the Kickstarter page is taken up advertising its lush components. That reputation for fiddliness might continue, but it’s hard to know without actually playing.
What we do know is you earn points by interacting with spirits on your train, helping them reach the afterlife, and collecting ‘spirit stones’. Each round, you’ll collect tickets, move your train across the map, and draw interaction cards to mingle with passengers. Then, you’ll upgrade the spirits on your train, and manage which spirits are staying for the long haul or getting off at the next stop.
That’s a simplification that doesn’t cover the event cards that shape your game at the start of every round. Nor does it mention the secret train-building mechanic that decides what rooms (and actions) are available to you each day. There’s a lot of moving parts to this one (as you’d expect from a locomotive).
It gives you the general gist, however. That, combined with more details found on the Kickstarter page, should help you decide whether this is a train you want to ride – or whether you’d rather walk.
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Source: Wargamer
