Spirittea is a delicious mix of Stardew Valley and Spirited Away

A gorgeous, Ghibli-style sim

I’m always chasing the high of my first playthrough of Stardew Valley. It’s among my favorite games of all time, and something comforting I reach for during tough times, so having other titles to add to that arsenal is always a plus. We could always use more Stardew-likes. That’s not a saying yet, but it needs to be. It would make looking for new games a whole lot easier. For now, though, I have seen one new game on the horizon that will satisfy my need for a cozy life sim: Spirittea.

The logline for Spirittea is Stardew Valley meets Spirited Away, which alone is enough to make me buy this game.

In this upcoming PC game, you’ll play as a character who arrives in a beautiful rural town, where you meet NPCs to befriend and can partake in lots of hobbies like bug catching or karaoke — but then, of course, you accidentally drink from a cup of tea that allows you to see the spirit world! With the help of a friendly cat, you’re also tasked with helping to run the local bathhouse, helping soothe its ghostly patrons rather than them haunting others. Good thing I have some time to prepare before Spirittea comes out, because if I had access to this game right now, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t see the sun for a good while there.

Spirittea is coming to us from developer Cheesemaster Games, and is published by No More Robots, who are best known for publishing titles like Hypno Space Outlaw and Descenders. Like ConcernedApe (aka Eric Barone), the beloved developer behind Stardew Valley, Cheesemaster is actually just one guy, Dan Beckerton. Like Barone, Beckerton is extremely passionate about his project, and has spent a great deal of time working on it.

I personally can’t wait to check out all of the amazing work that he’s put in, so I’ll be looking forward to Spirittea‘s release, whenever that will be.