Sky: CotL - Current thoughts on the new Spirit system
Written October 22nd, 2025
←← Take me back to the writings directory!This is referring to the thing where in order to level up your friendship with a spirit you have to bring them along on your journey.
I like the idea of the system. However, the execution of it leaves something to be desired. Currently, all that I see spirits do when you ask them to come with you is that they follow you, and that they honk back when you honk. They also emote here and there, but so far they don't do much in the way of directly interacting with the player.
This feels disappointing. I have the sense that TGC wants it to feel like these Spirits are our friends, however when I can't even do so much as to hold the Spirit's hand, it just makes them feel distant. When I bring along a Spirit, it feels less like I'm inviting a friend on my journey and more like I'm bringing an adult to supervise me. The background NPCs from the Two Embers feel more interactive!
Some things I think could improve the liveliness of the Spirits we bring with us:
Let us hold their hand, possibly even other actions? (EX. for large spirits they can carry us around, with the player controlling the Spirit until they make the Spirit stop carrying the player)
Let the Spirits roam around a little bit. Right now they just strictly follow the player, but realistically, if someone brought you along on a shopping trip, for example, wouldn't you walk around a little bit? Fully take in the sights and scenes?
Expanded reactions to emotes. Off the top of my head, the NPCs in Two Embers reacted to when the player kisses at them, pops confetti, sneezes at them, and salutes at them. Add these behavior to the Spirits we bring with us.
Addendum: Expanded Spirit emote reactions would also be a great way to build on the personality of individual Spirits. Like, I don't expect TGC to implement individual personalities for each Spirit, but it'd be neat if there were personality types similar to Animal Crossing.
So like, say you start reading a book around a Spirit. A Spirit with a nerdy personality type would start reading with the player, whereas a Spirit with an active personality would start wandering around the player or acting bored. Something like that, blease...