Wanderstop

Wanderstop’s cosy and cute exterior belies something much richer and much cleverer than I have seen in quite some time. It is a masterpiece in a cute disguise – offering the player a place worth visiting, staying and paying attention to.

Ivy Road has made a game that has impact and one that doesn’t change its protagonist, but you, the player, too. Wanderstop is monumental because it provides comfort by simply giving us all permission to slow down.

Wanderstop is like Spiritfarer for burnout sufferers and overachievers. The central focus is meaningful and expertly executed in its own right. However, it's the attention to detail in every other area that makes Wanderstop feel special, to the point where anything, even just planting flowers, enriches everything else. Ivy Road just gets it.

Wanderstop joins the Hall of Fame of games like Spiritfarer, Disco Elysium, Unpacking, and many more as one of the best content games we've received in recent years, and the experience you'll get throughout it borders on a must-have for those of you looking for a slightly different and emotionally deep experience from your PC games.

Wanderstop is a true work of video game art, seamlessly blending storytelling with immersive mechanics. At its core, it’s a narrative-driven tea-making simulator, where brewing tea becomes a ritual of self-discovery, healing, and reflection. Tea-making in Wanderstop is an intricate process, from harvesting leaves and growing fruits to brewing unique blends. The surrounding environment is vast, encouraging exploration and self-reflection. Instead of combat, players engage in maintaining order—sweeping leaves, pruning roots, and discovering hidden treasures. With Ghibli-inspired aesthetics, a breathtaking soundtrack by C418, and a deeply resonant story, Wanderstop offers a uniquely introspective experience. It’s not just a game about making tea — it’s about making peace with oneself.

Wanderstop is a thought-provoking game that explores themes like burnout, change, and anxiety disorders, offering a deeply personal experience. The slow-paced gameplay, which includes making tea and caring for flowers, aligns perfectly with the themes and encourages reflection. The only downside are the uncomfortable keyboard controls and the visual design of the main character. The soothing music and beautiful visuals further enhance the calming experience, as the game forces players to slow down, much like one should when dealing with burnout.

If it’s not already clear by my words, or by the score at the bottom of this review, I think Wanderstop is a true gem. It may seem, at times, like the antithesis of a video game, but at other moments it’s perhaps the most quintessential variety, in that what it does can only be achieved through this artform. Much like the tea shop itself, Wanderstop is a place to stop, sit back, put down the frenetic games, and breathe. It’s a point to rest, to recharge, to enjoy life and all of its eccentricities. Wanderstop is joy, distilled into a lovely cup of tea.

Far from just another “cozy” game, Wanderstop invites you into a colorful world filled with quirky characters and bizarrely flavored tea at the price of some uncomfortably insightful introspection.

If you’re looking for something that fits the cozy game formula, Wanderstop will probably leave you disappointed. It offers none of the satisfaction of building and expanding that the genre typically does, instead opting for a more ephemeral sense of accomplishment. But where the endless demands in farming games can make them stressful to play in spite of their friendly facades, Wanderstop left me feeling at peace like no other game has. Wanderstop asks you to let its stories unfold slowly and find joy in work done for its own sake, and I couldn’t be happier to oblige.

Davey Wreden’s new game subverts farming sim expectations, offering a meditative experience that encourages players to slow down, embrace boredom, and reflect. With charming characters, an engaging yet simple tea-making system, and a stunning soundtrack, Wanderstop delivers a thematically cohesive experience, despite some UI imprecisions and occasional technical quirks.

Wanderstop's gorgeous visuals, solid character writing, and relaxing workaday gameplay routine brew up a wonderful experience.

Sharing too much about Wanderstop’s narrative would be doing it a disservice, but it contained more surprises than expected in a game that seemed from the start to be on the more simplistic side. This isn't a title for everyone, but it's impossible not to recommend it to everyone. A dozen hours is a small price to pay for a little sanity and quiet, and even those who prefer more active and demanding titles can take something valuable from spending time in this little tea shop. Sometimes, grinding isn't the answer.

Wanderstop balances the discomfort brought on by seeing a game strike so true at the heart of burnout with being an absolute pleasure to play, full of delightful secrets and a healthy helping of whimsy. I’m awed at how well it’s all balanced and how, despite some occasionally schlocky dialogue, it so effectively gets its point across.

Wanderstop presents itself as a cozy tea shop sim, but beneath its colorful, Ghibli-esque charm lies a deeply emotional narrative about change, loss, and self-discovery. With an engaging tea-brewing system, lovable characters, and a stunningly vibrant art style, Wanderstop blends heartwarming moments with subtle, existential themes. While a few technical hiccups hold it back, its storytelling and atmosphere make it an unforgettable indie gem.

I loved Wanderstop in a way that I honestly wasn’t anticipating. I mean, I was sure I’d enjoy the story, music, and writing given the pedigree of Ivy Road’s founders. Yet, I was taken aback by how much I, a management sim skeptic, enjoyed the gardening and tea-brewing gameplay loop. Good thing too, since it’s most of what Wanderstop offers. Well, that and the aforementioned fantastic story, characters, and mature writing that is at times as genuinely laugh-out-loud funny as it is emotionally rich. Let’s also not fail to mention yet another wonderful, moving soundtrack by master composer C418.

Wanderstop is an entertaining and heartfelt life story disguised as a simple and cute business simulation. This is Alta's story, my story, and quite possibly your story too.

A satisfying farming and tea-shop sim inside a well-written adventure with meaningful themes.

Ivy Road brings up the question “is something wrong with me”, something we all might ask ourselves at one point. You’re probably narcissistic if not. It’s a question lots of stories ask and, for many, said stories never really answer the question in any satisfactory way. Wanderstop instead opts to do what we all do when faced with questions like this—trudge about, skirt the line, use lots of adverbs. And for what it’s worth, it’s a refreshingly grounded take on the matter. Yes, something might just be wrong with me and will likely be the death of me. Can something be done about? Maybe. A bit of self-awareness never hurts, though.

Wanderstop is a cozy game of tea-making, featuring quirky customers and a protagonist who, amusingly, would rather be sword fighting than stuck here, making tea. In general, if you enjoy farming/crafting games and admire a bit of a narrative kick, you’ll enjoy it.

Wanderstop transports the player to a very welcome moment of introspection, representing the experience of burnout. The highlight of the game is the story, which is very well written and provides great food for thought.

Wanderstop is a game about escaping the characters people project on us, finding a way out to our freedom. Freedom to be who we are, to let down expectations we never wanted. Sometimes life it's only about slowing down and making some tea.

Wanderstop is a narrative-driven game by Ivy Road that follows Alta as she helps Boro run a tea shop in the middle of a mysterious forest. There's much of what you would expect from a cozy game: colorful plants, adorable creatures, and eccentric customers in desperate need of a cup of tea. After a while, however, it becomes clear that you are there to experience more than just serving tea.

A cosy and whimsical game that reminds us to take a break and take care of ourselves once in a while, Wanderstop is an utter joy to play. While its tasks occasionally feel like busywork, its excellently-written and consistently funny dialogue makes it hard to mind too much.

Wanderstop is a synaesthetic video game: all you have to do is prepare a cinnamon-scented tea to remember the evenings spent on the sofa, under the covers, sipping a hot drink with the person you love. It is a place of the soul, romantic and melancholic, where you can take a deep breath to escape the eternal performance of life. It is for Alta, our protagonist, and it is for Davey Wreden, the brilliant creator of The Stanley Parable, who this time directs a video game about the importance of finding a space for ourselves, just as we are, stripped of all expectations.

Wanderstop questions the classic ingredients of cozy games. To truly heal emotionally, much more is needed than relaxing gardening and tea making.

Wanderstop‘s finale is both wonderfully satisfying and personally conflicting. Despite longing to see the end for some time, when it comes down to leaving, I have a hard time tearing myself away. Graciously and beautifully, the game puts the weight of that decision fully on my shoulders. It inspires the feeling of leaving an old apartment, a past job, or a school you’ve just graduated from. The good memories flood back with nostalgic abandon, and the day-to-day details wash away in one poignant moment before taking that next step into the unknown. That a game could conjure that feeling is proof of Wanderstop’s triumph.

Alta's reluctance to be in her own cozy game brings a tender and sometimes sharp flavor to an otherwise calming brew of farming and cafe management. Wanderstop is a beautiful and balanced combination of sweet and savoury on the palate of the overworked, exalting the transformative power of tea.

Wanderstop’s structure is divided into five chapters, with each chapter bringing in new visitors, shifting the environment, and subtly altering the tea shop’s surroundings. Through a mix of simple yet engaging mechanics—tea crafting, gardening, and shopkeeping—players uncover Alta’s past, interact with a diverse cast of NPCs, and gradually piece together the unspoken rules of the world around them. While it embraces a cozy aesthetic, Wanderstop isn’t afraid to dive into emotionally heavy territory, balancing moments of warmth with introspection and melancholy. It’s a game that asks players to slow down, reflect, and immerse themselves in the quiet beauty of everyday rituals.

Wanderstop offers a relaxing yet repetitive experience, where tea preparation becomes a metaphor for inner discovery. With well-written characters and enchanting atmosphere, the game stands out for its originality despite a slow pace that might not appeal to everyone.

Whereas it is a worthy experiment and a cozy game deserving of a recommendation, Wanderstop ultimately struggles to live up to its creators’ illustrious reputations.

Wanderstop has two main strengths. As a cozy game, it works very well—the gameplay loop is simple and relaxing, avoiding the usual performance-driven clichés of many modern titles. From a narrative perspective, the story is effective and highlights real-life situations that, unfortunately, most of us can relate to in some way. That said, it falls far short of the high standards set by Wreden and Zimonja’s previous works. Comparing it to The Stanley Parable or Gone Home simply doesn’t hold up. Wanderstop lacks the experimental madness we often hoped to witness, and its storytelling unfolds rather predictably, with plot twists appearing only when strictly necessary.

Wanderstop is beautiful cozy game that defies the notion of cozy games that fall into capitalist gameplay.

Wanderstop, at its core, is the type of game that I suspect a player will need to play at precisely the right time in life to truly connect with. As its story (and Alta) unraveled around me, I was reminded of my own struggles and kept thinking about how comforting it might have been back then. Regardless, I adore the fact that it exists and will surely serve that purpose for so many others. It's an audiovisual delight, its narrative and characters are memorable, and I applaud the way it tackles burnout and how self-destructive productivity can be--especially in a time when just about every other influencer is preaching hustle culture and life optimization. That said, Wanderstop is not for everyone, and its gameplay and rough edges create a formidable barrier to truly enjoying what it does well.

Wanderstop is certainly... something. If Alta's character is rebuilt there, it's not certain that the player will emerge unscathed.

While it may drip feed its story for longer than necessary and doesn't really go out of its way to subvert the cosy game, those who are looking for a way to relax will find comfort in the intricate and charming processes of making tea to pass the time.

It was difficult to sympathize with the characters’ tales of despair in the cozy game Wanderstop. The wry, eccentric humor that worked well in the sterile office setting of The Stanley Parable seemed at odds with this world of breezy bucolic environments and magical hybrid teas.

Through design or serendipity, maybe the best thing to do after finishing Wanderstop is make yourself a cup of tea, take a seat, and mull it over for a while. [Issue#409, p.118]

Warm-hearted, funny, and never less than sincere, Wanderstop is a pleasant place to while away the time, though less successful as a vehicle for mindfulness in itself.

Funny and enjoyable as Wanderstop may be, it suffers from its inability to juxtapose Alta’s healing process with any of the hardship that made healing so necessary in the first place.