By: Krow Smith | @coffeewithkrow

Any chance I get, I will always talk about Spirit City: Lofi Sessions. This time, I have the opportunity to share my love of their most recent paid DLC—All Aboard! For transparency: I was given the DLC for free and a few days before release by Mooncube Games (the creators) as part of their press release. While I couldn’t review it in a timely manner due to a family member’s declining health and eventual passing, I took this opportunity to really take my time exploring this package to the fullest.

Upon opening the game, the first thing I noticed was the new “Locations” icon on the left. It was nice to see where to go right off the bat. Especially since it took me a bit to find where to access the Cozy Kitchen Expansion (their previous paid DLC). This is also exciting as it opens an avenue for future locations to be added!

Within the “Activity” section, you can switch between the cabin or the back balcony of the train. With the interior there are nine options for activities while the exterior has five. I do wish they each had just one more option such as “knitting” for the balcony and “drawing” for the cabin. Otherwise, all of the available activities make sense for being on a train.

My favorite part of many games is almost always how I can personalize things and All Aboard! does not disappoint. As you can see from the images throughout this post, there are ways you can drastically change up your space. From a colorful subway, a gothic paradise, even a spaceship! Including the fact that all of these decoration’s colors are customizable, it can seriously leave you with many decisions to be made.

Another feature to customize are the backgrounds, which are gorgeous. There are eight, ranging from outer space or cloudy skies to a cityscape or rural fields. My one gripe with the backgrounds is that two of them are very similar—one simply has snow and the other doesn’t. I wish they made one of them more unique or visually distinct, perhaps a more full forest without the lake that the two backgrounds share. Although, they definitely won me over with the rainbows that appear in most of the backgrounds when you apply the rain effect!

There are also interesting things they added with the backgrounds. You can change the speed at which the background goes by, as well as the motion of the train. This is great for people like me who can easily get a headache from motions in video games going too fast. Also, the timer is dynamic and affects the background! When your pomodoro timer is in a break session, the train halts to a stop until the work session begins again, adding some fun to your breaks.

As for the whole gameplay mechanic of passively discovering Spirits, there are five new ones and six new variants of the base game Spirits. My new favorite Spirit is the “Coorier,” pictured at the top of this post, an adorable little mail-delivering pigeon! From which the variations are much more difficult to choose a favorite from. All of the new Spirits are well-thought-out as well. Having ones that not only match many of the backgrounds, but even fit some of the decor themes is a really great feature with this game that I’m happy to see continued focus on in new DLCs. (For example, a pirate parrot that matches the pirate decor.)

All Aboard! is not only a fantastic addition to Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, but it’s also a natural progression. I feel like this DLC will hold up even if or when more locations are released, which I think is really important when deciding whether or not to purchase extra content. With everything considered, I rate All Aboard! 9/10 and for 7.99 USD, I think it’s well worth the price.

Thanks again Mooncube Games for giving me a free copy and the opportunity to play All Aboard! before release!

–

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying us a coffee, leaving a comment, and/or subscribing to us below!

Developmental edits by: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

Copyedited by: Katherine Cañeba | @kcserinlee