Spirit City: Lofi Sessions – Productivity but Wholesome, Fun, and Relaxing!

“Indecision and reveries are the anaesthetics of constructive action.” – Sylvia Plath

Overview

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is a very relaxing productivity tool and idle game in which players can customise their avatar and virtual space, as well as collect cute spirit critters.

Gameplay

The game begins with a brief but informative tutorial introducing the player to the UI and available features. The primary purpose of Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is to be a focus and productivity tool and as such the player can create to-do lists, set timers with options to include breaks, track and monitor daily habits (such as hydration), and make journal entries. The bottom right of the screen will always show the current task from the player’s to-do list, the active timer, and the time of day.

A more fun aspect of the game is the ability to collect fifteen different spirits which resemble critters and have names such as Arachknit, Earlybirb and Hedgelog! These are unlocked as the player progresses and will be shown in a Spiritdex with their silhouettes being shown along with a clue indicating how to lure them out and find them. This usually involves setting the location, lighting and sound to a specific combination. Upon finding each one the Spiritdex will update to include a picture of the critter and an adorable description of them. Players can choose from their collected critters and have one sit with them as they complete their various tasks, it’s even possible to pet them!

The game grants the player XP for time spent in-game, completing daily tasks, and finding spirits. Each time the player levels up they are awarded spirit credits (SC) which can be used to unlock a plethora of extra customisation options. There is also a selection of Steam achievements for completing certain in-game tasks, collecting specific spirits, and reaching different levels.

Customisations

There are lots of different ways in which to customise one’s experience within Spirit City: Lofi Sessions beginning with the character avatar. There are options to change the base appearance such as face, skin, hair, eyes, lips, facial hair, and horns/antlers, in addition to plenty of clothing choices including accessories such as hats and glasses. The options are varied and inclusive, allowing the player to create a highly personalised avatar or have some fun with escapism and role-playing. It is also possible to customise collected critters and change their colour and appearance.

The virtual space consists of a sizeable bedroom with a range of locations the player can choose to relax in such as at a desk, on their bed, lounging in the bay window, or on a bean bag in front of the fireplace. The room itself can be customised with different wallpaper and floors while the individual spaces can be altered with different wall decorations, storage options, accessories, furniture, bed linen, curtains and more. There is a large range of objects with different colours and patterns available to really make the space one’s own. The game further demonstrates its inclusivity with options to have different LGBTQ+ pride flags on the walls or on mugs.

Styling

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions has a soft, illustrative art style with an anime vibe to the character avatar and collectable spirits. The game uses soft warm lighting in a very atmospheric way and a slightly muted colour palette with a subtle vibrancy that helps to foster a calming but upbeat ambience.

The lighting plays a big part in setting the mood within the virtual space and can be adjusted by choosing from four different times of day, morning, afternoon, evening, and night time. Each has a different level of brightness, a variety of warm and cool lighting, as well as differently placed shadows to reflect the movement of the sun, or the subtle moonlight, that shines in through a bay window. There are some electric lights within the room, these are hanging ceiling lights and fairy lights that provide delicate and cosy lighting, as well as the fireplace that can add a sense of warmth.

The UI is clean and easy to navigate with the various sections such as productivity, customisation, and sound occupying different parts of the screen, Clicking icons will provide more information and options and can be opened and closed at will. It is also possible to hide the UI entirely and simply keep any chosen task lists or timers for a less cluttered, more relaxing or focused aesthetic.

While the music is, obviously, dominated by lofi tunes, there is a vast array of choices available to the player who can choose from a selection of playlists such as ‘chilling with the unknown’ or ‘rainy day incantations’ that each have a slightly different feel to them as well as select specific songs from each list. All of the music is wonderfully relaxing and intrusive, providing a gentle backing track to whatever tasks the player is aiming to accomplish.

There is also an array of sound effects that can be chosen and applied to the virtual space including white, pink, and brown noise as well as things like smooth rain, cosy fireplace and night forest. six of the twelve options have associated visual effects, for example, the cosy fireplace will light the room’s fireplace and provide a new light source and ambient effect.

Narrative

There is not a lot in the way of in-built narrative on offer in Spirit City: Lofi Sessions beyond the collectable critters and their little descriptions and backstories. It is possible for the player to create their own narrative, however, through the tasks they assign themselves and their use of the various customisation options. For example, the player could set a task of checking emails, which they might choose to do sitting at their desk, in the afternoon, while it’s raining outside.

Summary

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions has a lot to offer, it provides useful and practical productivity and wellbeing tools as well as fun customisations, XP, and spirit collection to add a sense of fun and progress. The art style is delightfully stylised, providing a serene setting for the player’s activity and the customisable sound design is a stand-out feature of the experience. The game does exactly what it sets out to and does so in a beautifully original way allowing the player to relax and enjoy themselves whilst simultaneously concentrating on personal objectives and tasks. Overall, it is a fantastic game and I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique tool to help them focus and achieve goals but at the same time have a bit of fun!

Goodies from Mooncube Games

We were very kindly gifted some Spirit City: Lofi Sessions goodies from Mooncube Games. You can watch the ‘unboxing’ and check out what we got in the video below!

Looking for more wholesome and relaxing games? Consider checking out these reviews:
Chill Corner – A Free Fun and Relaxing Task Manager! – 10 Uplifting Games for Self Care and Mental Wellbeing – How Kind is Kind Words (lo-fi chill beats to write to)?

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