Wanderstop Review

Wanderstop is a gentle, cozy exploration of all the ways we torture and deprive ourselves in the name of progress or self-worth. It also explores the question of what we can do to heal from burnout, offering some ideas, but no easy answers. Developed by Ivy Road and published by Annapurna Interactive, the game is part management sim, part farming game, but primarily a narrative adventure. We follow our main character Alta through the anger, frustration and pain of her battle with burnout. We also experience many small, simple joys and touching moments along the way. 

When we first meet Alta, she is running at full speed through the woods, mentally reliving her career as the world’s greatest arena fighter, as well as her downfall. If only she could just push harder, train more, then she could reclaim her spot at the top. But as she runs, her arms weaken and she loses her ability to grip her sword. Then, she loses consciousness.

She wakes up on a bench in a beautiful cotton-candy-colored glen in the woods, next to one of my new all-time favorite characters from any video game ever. A large, round man, Boro is the owner of the Wanderstop tea shop, which sits in the middle of this clearing in the woods. From the twinkle in his eyes, to his bald head and his quirky tea-making apron, Boro is friend-shaped, through and through. He gently offers that Alta could stay for a while, and help run the tea shop while she recovers. Filled with anger, confusion and frustration at her current situation, she reluctantly agrees.

Thus, we begin our tenure as part-time assistant tea shop manager. 

Welcome to Wanderstop

There’s a meditative quality to everything you do in Wanderstop. Tasks take time, thought and care. To be honest, much of the farming and tea-making processes in the game isn’t very intuitive, which I’m personally choosing to believe is by design. For example, you combine various colored seeds into patterns on a hexagonal grid displayed on the ground while planting, which causes different kinds of fruit and seed-bearing plants to bloom. I found it incredibly hard to mentally map any of the patterns onto the specific plants they grow, partly because of the whimsical names of each plant and fruit. Luckily Boro provides you with a helpful guide book, which I found myself referring to frequently.

Similarly, the tea-making contraption is very wacky looking and the various levers and doodads that you use to operate it are never quite where you think they ought to be. The result of all of this is that it’s very easy to make a mistake if you’re trying to move too quickly, which I think is part of the point. The light friction inherent to all your tasks requires that players be deliberate and thoughtful in every action. 

A Charming and Heartbreaking Cast of Characters

Most of the game consists of greeting customers as they enter the clearing, taking their often cryptic orders, and preparing their tea. Wanderstop is populated by a cast of hilarious, charming, frustrating, and frequently heartbreaking characters. Each of them arrives undergoing their own struggle with some kind of potentially burnout-inducing challenge, whether they know it or not. First, and my personal favorite, is Gerald the knight. Gerald arrives enthusiastically seeking any and every experience that he deems knightly, including drinking tea in a “mysterious” tea shop in the woods. But it takes all of five seconds talking to him to realize that Gerald is a knight second, and a dad first and foremost. 

Wanderstop is bringing a much deeper, richer emotional experience than many of the cozy games I’ve played, but it also asks you to open yourself up to discomfort and self examination.

He presents Alta with endless photos of his son, Timothy, describing how desperately he wants to be cool in his son’s eyes. Over the course of time, we see the lengths Gerald is willing to go, including ignoring his own pain, to prove himself worthy of his son’s affection. I really appreciated that the game depicts not just Alta’s experience of burnout, but many other forms and experiences of it, through the many side characters you meet while running the shop and making tea. I like to think that Alta had as much of an impact on their journey as they did on hers.

A Unique Pacing

The game’s pacing may come as a surprise to some players who boot up the game expecting a traditional management sim or farming game. Days never pass at Wanderstop and there’s really never any urgency to any task, Boro even says so himself. Aside from serving tea, the game encourages players to spend their time however they want, whether that means cultivating new plants and decorating the shop, playing with the adorable pluffin birds found around the clearing, or running around cleaning up piles of leaves and weeds. A side note about the cleaning tasks: I learned early on that you could discover new tea cups and mugs in all kinds of cute and quirky designs by cleaning up the leaves and weeds, which became my new primary goal. Any game that lets me build up a collection of fun mugs really gets me.

Wanderstop’s Place in Cozy Gaming

I’ve heard many friends and online acquaintances say how much they’re looking forward to Wanderstop. “It just looks so cozy,” they say. And while I took an immense amount of comfort in playing the game, I caution anyone from immediately labeling this a “cozy game.” For many, cozy gaming is a form of escapism: a retreat into a soft, easygoing world where problems are easily managed and hard conversations are rare.

I also see another vein run through this particular genre, that seems more concerned with task management and efficiently going through the daily to-do list of objectives within the game (these are the Stardew cozy gamers). While Wanderstop may have elements of both of these styles of cozy gaming, it’s not here to bring you an escape, nor is it here to make you feel productive. Wanderstop is bringing a much deeper, richer emotional experience than many of the cozy games I’ve played, but it also asks you to open yourself up to discomfort and self examination.

The game gives us a window into Alta’s mind, letting us hear how she talks to herself inside her private thoughts. We even see this side of Alta personified as an alternate self. She is driven, she is passionate, but also thoughtless and unkind. At times, the cruelty of her self-talk felt all too familiar, as did her dismay and confusion as she grappled with the consequences of being burned out.

Wanderstop Trailer

I first got hit with burnout about eight years ago. I remember it was the year I started wearing waterproof mascara to work so that I could covertly cry in the bathroom when the in-office tensions got to be too much. Working 6-7 days per week at my tech job had finally started to catch up to me. I changed jobs.

My second bout of burnout came two years after that, and with it came heart palpitations and the ocular migraines. I remember thinking I must be having a stroke the first time a migraine hit and I started seeing pulsing waves of light and lost a good chunk of my vision for about an hour, all while sitting at my desk. Two years after that, my third burnout took me out, and finally led to me leaving the tech industry entirely. The daily panic attacks were the breaking point, and I finally realized it had all gone too far.

I say all this because I remember all too well the little voices in my head, telling me this had happened because I just hadn’t tried hard enough in my work. I wasn’t good enough. I needed to push harder. I’m still working out how to heal from the burnout. I’m also still working out how to have a productive dialogue with that voice in my head. The fact that Wanderstop recognizes that experience and depicts it so honestly, makes me feel very seen. And the fact that I felt like Alta, Boro, and everyone at Wanderstop was on my team, all working together to find answers, gives me a lot of hope. I highly recommend playing this game to anyone currently grappling with someone similar, who needs a Boro to come alongside and help.

About No Small Games

No Small Games is an indie game recap and review podcast brought to you by hosts Kate and Emily! They became friends while streaming on Twitch and bonded over their love of indie video games. In each episode of No Small Games, the two will discuss an indie game they both played independently. They’ll compare their experiences: the good, the bad, their most memorable moments of their playthroughs.

Learn more about the podcast and its hosts on the About page.

Check out the latest episodes from No Small Games: