Wanderstop Review
A Cozy Cup of Tea or Just Lukewarm?
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Title: Wanderstop
Release: March 11, 2025
Platform: PS5 PC
Developer: Ivy Road
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Genre: Adventure Cozy
ESRB: T
Reviewed on: PC
Time Played: 12 Hours
Intro:
Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to take a step back. Wanderstop is a game about tea, self-reflection, and taking a break when life knocks you down. But is it a soothing blend of cozy gameplay and heartfelt storytelling, or does it steep for too long without delivering enough flavor? Let’s take a sip and find out.
Where it starts
You play as Alta, a renowned and skilled fighter who always pushes herself to the limit, winning every match. However, one day, she loses. Again and again, she struggles to find her way back to the top. After countless losses, she sets out to find a master rumored to be living in the woods, hoping they can train her back to perfection. But on her journey, her sword becomes too heavy to carry, and her stamina gives out. When she awakens, she finds herself in a clearing, where a mysterious man tries to convince her to relax and drink some tea. Could this tea shop be the answer to her problems?
Can the kids watch
Wanderstop is a cozy game with minimal violence or imagery to be concerned about. The only voice acting is featured in a few cutscenes; otherwise, you’ll need to read the text yourself. You may find some light curse words sprinkled throughout the story, but overall, it’s a low-key game that kids might enjoy watching, as long as they don’t find it too boring.
Mr. Boro
Boro runs a tea shop in a clearing in the forest and is Alta’s savior. After bringing Alta to the clearing, he discusses the importance of taking a break and how wonderful tea can be for health. Eventually coming to the conclusion that you should run the tea shop. While managing the shop, a laid-back and supportive Boro was never far away if you needed help with something or advice for a specific task. You couldn’t ask for a better companion on a personal journey.
Your Customers
Wanderstop is no stranger to lost souls meandering through the forest and finding themselves at the shop. While there, you will need to speak with them about who they are and any issues they may have, ultimately leading to a preferred type of tea they would like to drink. Sometimes, they might request a specific flavor, while other times, they ask for a certain feeling. It’s your job to decipher which tea best fits their requests.
Gathering Ingredients
Before you can make any tea you will need to gather some ingredients. A constant would be dried tea balls. To get those you grab a basket and start filling it with tea leaves from bushes found around the clearing. Once full bring the basket to the drying area and toss the leaves on, after a moment they will dry and become two tea balls. Next you need flavor, gained from fruits you gather from trees. Some are found around the clearing, others you will need to grow yourself from different seed combinations.
Making Tea
Once you have gathered your ingredients, it’s time to make some tea. Bring everything to the giant tea machine in the main room of Wanderstop to get started. First, fill it with water, then bring the water to a boil. After boiling, send it into the carafe and add your ingredients. Finally, dispense it to fill your cups. The most complicated part of the process is adding the right ingredients, sometimes in a specific order if the flavor requires it.
Helpful Journals
If at any point you forget how to create a specific plant or you’re lost on how to proceed with an order, you will have a couple of books at your disposal. You will always have a journal with you, teaching you about every aspect of running a tea shop. It covers the different flavors of the fruit, how to grow various trees, and provides explanations for anything you need to know. For customer orders, you can refer to the Book of Answers, found in the library upstairs. That book tells you exactly what you need for an order if you can’t or don’t want to figure it out.
General Housekeeping
Working at Wanderstop isn’t just about tea. Over time, you will notice that piles of leaves or weeds begin to accumulate around the clearing. While you’re not obligated to do so, cleaning the area is a nice gesture, and sometimes you might uncover small treasures while at it. You can display these trinkets around the shop as decoration. Additionally, you can grab a camera to take pictures to place in the various frames hanging throughout the shop, personalizing Wanderstop to match your tastes.
Clearing Shifts
After completing all of the orders and conversations with a group of customers, there will be nothing more you can accomplish at that moment. This gives you the option to move on to a different version of the clearing, introducing new plants to grow and customers to serve. Unfortunately, every time this occurs, all of your trinkets, plants, and unique cups will disappear. The only thing that remains constant in Wanderstop would be the photos you display.
Outro:
I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.
You wouldn’t want to get Wanderstop for the gameplay. There were mechanics that allowed you to customize the shop with trinkets, pictures, and plants. However, the disappearance of all that work as the game progressed made it feel pointless. Pictures were the only things that survived a clearing shift; all trinkets found and plants created vanished into nothing. Planting colored seeds in different arrangements for trees or bushes seemed like it could turn into an entertaining and puzzling process to collect everything, but the pattern never changed—only the colors needed in a pattern to create a different fruit. It didn’t take long to make every new fruit after a shift, and more seeds became available. Making tea was quite repetitive for most of the game. Near the end, the requests began to get complex and present a challenge. With a book of answers, they could have increased the difficulty of orders as the game progressed without worrying about players getting stuck; that would have been a great addition to gameplay.
The main focus of this game was the story of Alta feeling broken inside and needing to find a way to fix herself. I liked how it was told, with various customers coming in, each bringing their own stories that subtly became lessons for Alta. Alta could also take breaks to drink the tea you made, with every flavor sending her down memory lane, prompting her to talk about something in her past that stood out and provided great backstory. While Alta was the main character, some others also stood out with their humor and energy. One favorite was Dirk Warhard, a character I didn’t meet in the game. Occasionally, Alta would receive a package in the mail containing a Dirk Warhard novel. Taking a small break from the main story to read those novels was worth it; we couldn’t get enough.
The entire game took only twelve hours to finish. There were side quests; Boro would sometimes assign me tasks around the shop, like decorating or feeding the birds, but these were optional and had no impact on the story, rewarding me with a picture I could hang up. The achievements in the game were unlocked at specific points, making it quite easy to complete everything if you play through the entire game. While I enjoyed the story, there isn’t much replay value. Once was plenty to absorb everything I needed.
With that, it’s time to turn all these thoughts into numbers for a rating and place this game on a shelf.
The visuals were great. The environments were pretty and the characters were unique in every way. Most of them anyway, I’m giving it a 4.
The story was the main focus of the game and told quite well. It didn’t completely suck me in and pull on the heartstrings, but I enjoyed it none the less, that’s another 4
The gameplay was good. It felt minimal and I would have enjoyed a little more complexity, still it’s worthy of a 3
Not much replayability. Good story and humor throughout, but nothing exciting enough to bring me back into it, that’s a 1
There was some fun to be had. The tea making process and the laughs the game brought made it enjoyable, I’m giving it a 3
Earning Wanderstop an average score of 3 out of 5. Giving it a spot right there on the Midshelf. A good indie with fun characters and a heartfelt story. I don’t know that I agree with the new release asking price, on sale it would definitely be worth checking out if you want some good laughs and to play through a great story.