I love the story and how it progresses. You slowly gain a lot of companions but also start losing them until the empty ship just kinda brings you to tears.
Gameplay is all over the place. Platforming is never really a focus aside from brief instances. The Resource management aspect of the game is good but gets repetitive in the endgame.
The biggest drawback is the amount of downtime on the ship. Obviously they expect you to multitask to fill in that time but by near the end when you're stuck doing specific things its noticeable.

A cozy little game that wrestles with death and regret whilst letting you soar the oceans in a soothing and sublime fashion. The game is incredible relaxing and the art style is just gorgeous. The gameplay loop is very satisfying and if you like management typ games, then you'll always have stuff to do. The writing is really good and all the lost spirit passengers you encounter throughout your journey are really memorable as each explore different aspects of pain, sorrow, regret, acceptance and ultimately, death itself. The game manages to create a very special feeling of sadness and emptiness whenever a spirit is brought to the great beyond. You genuinely do start to miss them while at the same time being happy that you got spend time with them at all. Which is kind of the point of the game, really. To cherish the time you have with friends and loved ones, while you have it.

The only complaint I have is that it does start to drag a bit in the late game when you're inventory is set for ten lifetimes and you're pretty much just killing time to activate the next quest. Otherwise this game is great and I would highly recommend that you give this a try. I miss it already, and I finished it just mere minutes ago.

A fantastic idea that ultimately results in a game with a lot of repetitiveness, half-baked plotlines, bugs, annoying minigames, boring moments, unlikeable characters, and a tonne of wasted potential. I'm genuinely really confused by all the positive reviews for this game, there are so many frustrating elements of the game that could be made infinitely better with little effort. Sure, the visuals and music are nice, but it takes a lot more than that to make a good game. It seems that most of the positive reviews are centered around that, though.
2.5 stars as I think the idea is really great and once or twice the game pulled at my heartstrings, but it really left me wanting more and feeling that the game could have been so much more.

god i wish i loved playing this as much as i love its aesthetic

this game is super fun and interesting for the first 10/15 or so hours and i really like getting to know the area and the premise of being a traveler among the dead. everything looks nice and is honestly animated beautifully with a unique style that initially drew me towards this. stella controls and moves very nicely and above all else a ship building/management sim is a great idea! i can see someone sinking a hundred hours into this game if they click with it! i just really wish that hypothetical person was me

unfortunately the gameplay loop here doesn't grab me and leave me wanting to play for more than an hour at a time. going from place to place is a drag ESPECIALLY on long travels, quests feel inconsequential, getting new shipmates feels like just another mouth to feed (which is really the only interaction you have with them while travelling from place to place), and although there technically is it never feels like there's a tangible-enough reward from maintaining good friendships with them. i love this game's whole vibe so much that i tried to get over these things and see what was next but at a point i stopped having the drive to keep playing and doing the things the game wanted me to do

The concept is unique but the game kneecaps itself by being so front-load heavy. It starts off strong but it gradually becomes a chore to play through. The early spirits you encounter such as Alice, Atul, and Stanley are far more charming than the later ones. Most of the later spirits have annoying personalities, and the quests become so repetitive that you might feel compelled to simply give up on the game.

The game also suffered from being overwritten in its dialogue as all the characters (even background NPCs) would give such verbose speeches that were uninteresting and wooden. The cute art style and whimsical nature mixed with the foul language used by certain characters was a tonal clash.

I think this is a game that deserves a long time to play through to allow the user to contemplate over the narrative (since it deals with heavy topics like death and grief), but it simply didn't know how to keep itself interesting over that time span. We can see attempts at becoming a modern classic in the early part of the game but it peters out into a disappointment by the later part.

I applaud the game for being able to make me shed a few tears though, something which most tearjerker media fails to do.