As a huge fan of task management games and life sims, the genre has expanded so that it’s hard to delineate the wonderful from the mediocre. But occasionally, a title comes along that challenges the genre and creates a truly unique gameplay experience. Wanderstop, from developer Ivy Road and publisher Annapurna Interactive, is one such title.
This cozy tea-making game weaves a complex narrative of identity, memory, regret, connection, and burnout in a magical forest that attracts all kinds of souls. The player controls Alta, an accomplished swordfighter who wakes in the Wanderstop tea shop’s clearing beside a sweet, humble man named Boro. She doesn’t know why she’s there or what’s delayed her quest, but the forest won’t let her run.
No matter how hard Alta tries, she can only get so far before she collapses, exhausted, and returns to the clearing. Her sword becomes so heavy she can no longer pick it up, let alone fight with it. Boro suggests she stay awhile and rest. If she needs tasks to make her days feel worthwhile, then she can help him manage the tea shop.
Alta learns how to grow and harvest plants, gather and dry tea leaves, feed the pluffin birds, and take photographs to decorate the empty frames in the shop. She also meets a variety of strange characters, from a wannabe knight who’s desperate to impress his son to a competitive, elderly business owner who only accepts a currency bearing her own likeness.
Each customer has a different order—some want tea, some want other things—and part of Alta’s journey is determining how to fulfill their requests. These get more complicated as the game progresses and as Alta begins to remember her past. The more she learns about people and tea, the more she learns about herself in a complex journey akin to grief.
There’s plenty to do in Wanderstop, but Boro constantly encourages Alta to rest. Sit on a bench. Drink a cup of tea. Simply stand and pet the pluffins for a while. In this way, Wanderstop isn’t like its task management peers. It’s something very different.
‘Wanderstop’ boasts unique progression mechanics
Unlike other task management games, there are no time constraints in Wanderstop, allowing the player to decide when to do things and how long to take. The only in-game timer is for drying tea leaves, which can be retrieved anytime after it beeps. Customers aren’t ever in a hurry, even if they seem like they should be based on their archetype. Orders can be filled at Alta’s leisure. “Day” and “night” don’t exist.
The lack of pressure makes Wanderstop‘s progression mechanics very unique. Everything is at the behest of the player, accommodating for multiple playstyles.
For this review, I hesitantly embraced the idea of rest and recovery, taking time with each task and pausing to sit, drink tea, or chat with Boro whenever it felt right to do so. I went much slower than I do in almost any other game and tried to quell the urge to stay busy at every moment of play. It was challenging, but in a way that made the story feel that much more significant—especially in the final act.
At certain points in the story, characters will indicate that it’s time to move on. Alta can then decide to meditate in front of a stone statue in the clearing, which may trigger cutscenes, new customers, altered scenery, and more. However, there’s no pressure to do this, either: if it would make the player happy to simply keep growing and harvesting plants, making tea, drinking tea, and/or serving cups to Boro for his thoughts, they can do so for as long as they like.
‘Wanderstop’ is an artistic feast
Wanderstop is a smorgasbord of vivid colors, detailed flora and fauna, and memorable characters whose designs range from small bat people to willowy extraterrestrials. The majority of the game features 3D art, but some cutscenes are told in 2D to great effect.
The score shifts to match the narrative and the in-store music can be tailored to the player’s liking, with a mute function making it possible to simply listen to the game’s various sound effects: pluffin squeaks, tea maker bubbles, footsteps, and nature sounds. This is one of several accessibility tools including a dyslexic font, larger caption size, hold button versus tap for some tasks, colorblind settings, motion sickness dot, and more. These allow for further customization of the experience for a broad group of players.
Because of its settings and progression mechanics, Wanderstop feels deeply immersive. It’s easy to get lost in Alta’s routine, discovering new trinkets and other surprises as you tidy and decorate the shop and clearing. Some aspects of the space are permanent, while others are more ephemeral—and as you play, you’ll see what’s controllable and what isn’t. Everything has a narrative impact. Decor shifts further underscore Alta’s struggle to understand her identity and how she’s come to be here, let alone where she’ll go when she leaves.
In this way, the art and music feed seamlessly into the script, which vacillates between absurd conversations to painful evocation of buried memories that shatter any remaining of Alta being “okay.” Her time in the clearing allows her not just to rest, but to heal (if she’ll allow it), and her relationship with Boro grows into a truly beautiful, harmonious friendship. Dialogue options reflect how Alta has changed, creating a cohesive story arc that’s represented in the game’s environment and in its characters’ emotions and relationships.
Every detail of Wanderstop is so finely attuned, majorly raising the bar for storytelling in cozy games. Through 14 hours of Wanderstop, I became deeply attached to the characters (especially Alta and Boro), and I wept through the final act. Alta’s story resonates deeply, and there is catharsis and hope here. There’s also an inevitable reckoning with change as a constant, whether it feels positive, negative, or neutral.
Wanderstop will be available for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam on March 11.
A review code was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
Published: Mar 10, 2025 02:26 pm