"I'd also group Spiritfarer with Gris and Sea of Solitude under the sub-heading of very-metaphorical-arty-indie-games. But here's how it doesn't fuck it up, like those two did. One: It never beats you around the head with its underlying meaning ...Sea of Solutude. Two: It has a deeper and more poignant underlying meaning than, "Main character is a bit sad" ...Gris. Three: It treats its gameplay as a way to establish its themes and add greater weight to its emotional moments, rather than a bunch of meaningless checkpoint flags to fill the space between the metaphors ...Gris and Sea of Solitude. And Four: Meta-meta-phor. The main point is: Spiritfarer has both underlying and surface meaning. If you want, you can forget all about the metaphor business. I'm certainly fucking sick of saying the word. If you want, it can just be a story about a little girl on a magical adventure, making a bunch of animal friends, hanging out, doing their side-quests, hugging them with the dedicated "hug" button, then icing them in the woods. And then you feel sad because you're actually sad about never getting to see your friend again -- not because there's a huge symbolic statue of the main character telling you to be sad ...Gris! Again!"