Spirit City: Lofi Sessions Review

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Fast Facts

A Spiritographer’s Life For Me

As many of my friends know, I am a sucker for productivity apps. Over the years, I’ve downloaded many onto my phone to help combat my chronic procrastination, with Forest, WaterDo, Habitica and Evernote being some of my most used. Apps like these are invaluable to me, keeping me focused on tasks, providing me with gratification and ensuring that I don’t get distracted from my goals.

Thus, when offered the opportunity to try out Mooncube Games’ debut title Spirit City: Lofi Sessions – a gamified productivity tool and activity tracker for PC – I knew I couldn’t turn it down. The game promised me relaxing Lofi music, a customisable cosy environment, cute spirits to discover and join me on my productivity journey, a pomodoro timer, a to-do list and many more useful features. But did it work for me? Read on to find out!

After launching Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, a short tutorial will begin. This tutorial teaches you the basics of the game, including how to gain experience points (EXP), how to discover spirits, how to customise yourself and your environment, and how to use the productivity features. Once let loose into the game fully, you can then explore the different menus and get to work on being productive.

Before diving into my tasks, I first chose to customise my appearance and create my in-game likeness. There are a wealth of customisation options available for your character. These include various body types, face shapes, hair styles, clothing options, accessories, eye colours and more. If you can’t find your ideal outfit off the bat, fear not. By spending time in-game and gaining EXP, you earn Spirit Credits that can be spent on acquiring additional cosmetics.

Let’s Get Productive

Having donned a suitably comfortable in-game outfit (and some stylish deer antlers for good measure) I was ready to get started on my first real-life tasks. There are four main productivity features to use: the to-do list, the pomodoro timer, the habit tracker and the journal. You can open or minimise these independently as desired, and update them throughout your activity. You can reorganise, delete, replace or tick off tasks or habits as you complete them. This is useful to visually represent your progress.

All four features are incredibly intuitive and straightforward to use. You can easily set timers of a desired length, add and remove tasks or habits, and create journal entries with the click of your mouse on a single button. The green countdown UI for the pomodoro timer proved particularly useful to me. I could easily anticipate how long was left on it, even from a distance, and this motivated me to stay focused.

From the left-hand “Lighting” and “Activity” menus, you can customise your character’s in-game experience. You can choose a specific time of day to mirror, pick a place for your character to sit, and have them partake in an activity. As much as possible, I tried to match my character’s activity to my own (such as typing on their laptop) for a sense of realism. However, as the activity options are limited, it isn’t always possible, which was slightly disappointing.

Varying your character’s environment and activity is crucial if wanting to discover all of the available companion spirits. Your chosen spirit keeps you company while you work. Each spirit has its own preferred environment to spawn in. Hedgelog, for instance, only appears at the fireplace, while Chapterpillar crops up while you’re reading a book. Experimentation is key.

Lofi Beats For All Occasions

Your choice of in-game ambient sounds can also impact the spirits that pop up. For example, spirits that prefer thunder and rain will only appear when those weather conditions are at hand, so you will need to select the corresponding sounds from the sound menu. I found this to be an incredibly clever mechanic, and I thoroughly enjoyed trying all the different combinations out to discover new spirits while working.

Perhaps even more so than the different sounds, however, I enjoyed checking out the available in-game Lofi playlists. There are four core playlists available, as well as an in-built web music browser that links to the Homework Radio YouTube channel. I found myself listening to the “Uplifting Spirit Infusion” playlist the most. It is upbeat, chill and energetic, and fills you with optimism about the feasibility of completing your workload as you listen.

While the number of available playlists feels a little on the low side, the number of songs per playlist is reasonably high. This means that, no matter which playlist you pick, you’re unlikely to hear the same song twice. This is, of course, unless you’re partaking in a particularly lengthy focus session! Should you eventually tire of the included playlists, as mentioned, the in-game music browser is available.

Additionally, though I haven’t yet streamed Spirit City: Lofi Sessions myself, I am aware that it is safe to do so thanks to Mooncube Games’ collaboration with Homework Radio. This means that the game is perfect for hosting co-working streams or to stay focused while chatting to viewers. If you’re someone that enjoys co-working socially, but struggles to keep focus at times, this game could be your solution.

Your New Working Companion?

The majority of my experiences with Spirit City: Lofi Sessions so far have been positive. I do however have a few small criticisms. Firstly, the UI can look quite cluttered with all of the productivity features in use at once. Having the journal, timer and to-do list open simultaneously covers your character completely, which is a shame. It would be useful if the features could somehow be “undocked” and moved around by players. This would allow for a customisable experience without loss of functionality.

Additionally, I was disappointed that completed tasks – once ticked off – do not disappear automatically. It feels like an oversight to not have separate lists for “completed” and “in progress” tasks. Having this distinction would aid player gratification and satisfaction. Finally, full room customisation – such as rearranging furniture – would be a desirable feature for me. To be clear, I don’t mean a system as intricate as featured in The Sims or Animal Crossing. Instead, a choice of which areas to place where would have been nice to see.

Overall, after spending around two weeks with Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, I’m confident that I’ll continue playing the game even after this review is published. It has a charming aesthetic, the various companion spirits are adorable, and the available productivity tools have proven useful to me while working from home. The development team at Mooncube Games are also clearly dedicated to implementing user suggestions and feedback where possible, which is great to see.

I hope that – in the future – we’ll see additional spirits, activity options and decorations added to the game. In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying the magical aesthetic, listening to the chill Lofi beats, admiring my Moonpaw companion spirit, and – hopefully – maintaining my productivity.