Review: Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is sure to raise your spirits

I won’t lie, Spirit City: Lofi Sessions has been on my radar for a while. Ever since the cute spirits crossed my feed, I’ve been waiting impatiently for this “game” to come out. Now that it has, I can honestly say that I’ve opened it up every day to find more spirits and earn more tickets. 

Spirit City: Lofi Sessions

Since this isn’t technically a game, the structure is going to be a little different for this review. There’s no real gameplay or mechanics to offer my thoughts on. Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is a gamified tool for focus and relaxation. 

That isn’t to say that there aren’t fun ways to customize your space or earn experience, it’s just a lot more chill than your average game. When you log in, you’re greeted with a bedroom that offers several places where you can relax, like the bed, desk, fireplace, or window seat. 

While sitting in these spaces, you can decide what your avatar is doing, like writing, reading, etc. These visuals are simply that; just something pretty to look at. However, it’s made better by the fact that you can customize not only your avatar but also your environment and even the color of your spirit pet.

Here, the currency is tickets. Generally, things will cost 50-1000 tickets and you get them by completing certain tasks. When you level up, when you find a pet, and when you complete the daily checklist, you’ll be given a certain amount of tickets. 

Don’t let the daily task list scare you though; it’s three simple things. First, logging in for the day. Second, completing a task of your choosing. And, lastly, finishing out a timer. 

Gotta catch’em all!

Since this “game” is all about increasing productivity and relaxation, it offers several interesting features. You can guess some of them by the aforementioned task list. There’s a diary section where you can write out your thoughts. If you need to write down your tasks, you have a checklist for that. And if you need a timer, there’s one ready for you where you can set the time you want to be productive and how long the break is that you want. You can even set it so that it does several timers consecutively to stay in the groove. 

Now, I talked about the visual customizations, but it’d be criminal not to mention the aural. Not only do you have several playlists of lo-fi beats programmed into the game. But, you can even access YouTube through it to find your own music. And, if that’s not enough, you can add sounds to the mix with or without the playlists. 

As much as I enjoy lo-fi, I got more use out of toggling the sounds with rain and thunderstorms. 

So, we’ve talked about all the customizations except for one: lighting. Lighting comes in the form of morning, noon, sunset, and night. These are important, not just because of aesthetics, but because you’ll need to be mindful of them to lure spirits. To be fair, you’ll need to be mindful of your activities and placement in the room, too. 

The last thing I want to discuss is the Spiritdex. This is a book that shows you the spirits that you have and the ones that you still need to get. Not all of the spirits will be available to you right off the bat. You’ll have to level up to get deeper access to the knowledge. 

I can’t choose a favorite spirit and you can’t make me.

However, when you do unlock more, you’ll see their greyed-out silhouettes. Underneath this, there will be a hint that will tell you how to find a certain spirit. For instance, the Chapterpillar can only be lured by reading.

Each spirit has its own unique lures that are affected by lighting, location, sound, and activity. When the conditions are right to lure in a spirit, you’ll hear a bell-like tone when you first get the settings right. If you miss that tone, however, you’ll be able to hover over the Spiritdex and it will tell you if you’re actively luring a pet.

Be patient when luring pets because they won’t always come to you immediately. Once you’ve caught a Spirit, you’ll have access to buy new colors for them.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to buy a lot all at once because the flow of tickets isn’t plentiful. But, this is a “game” that is meant to be played over longer periods. So, by coming back daily, you’ll eventually be able to unlock everything.

As far as cozy goes, this is super cozy. It’s all about relaxing! As for cons, there’s really only one and it’s marginally small. When you go to buy clothes or decor items, there isn’t a way to preview what that looks like on your avatar or in your space. It’s an unfortunate mechanic, but I believe that the developers may work toward that in the future. 

If you’re looking for a game, then Spirit City: Lofi Sessions won’t be the right fit for you. But, if you want an aid to help you focus and collect cute pets while you do it, then I highly recommend picking it up. It releases April 8th (today!) for $11.99. 
If this isn’t your cup of tea, however, you can check out the review we did of Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery.