Spirittea, a mix of Stardew Valley and Spirited Away, is out today on Steam and Game Pass
Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away is a film about a spoilt young girl who is obliged to work at a bathhouse for supernatural creatures, after her parents are turned into pigs by a wicked witch. Spirittea from Edmonton, Canada-based Cheesemaker Games is Spirited Away in the guise of a Stardew Valley-style management sim. Released today, it casts you as a wholesome young entrepreneur who has just arrived in a town full of rogue supernatural creatures. To free the town from its spectral infestation, you must renovate an old mountain bathhouse and treat each phantom to a jolly good scrub. You might also need to deal with some Unfinished Business, such as tracking down a lost possession. At least there's no witch to worry about. That I know of, anyway.
I have fond memories of Spirited Away - it was the film that re-introduced me to anime as an undergraduate, following the traditional early-career middlebrow otaku phase of obsessing over Akira, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell while turning my nose up at stuff like Naruto, because it's "just for kids". I was on the brink of pitching a Spirittea review, but then our reviews editor Ed Thorn emerged howling and gibbering from the floorboards and asked me to review a 100-hour RPG instead (won't spoil), so I'll have to settle for trying the demo.