Wanderstop Review (PS5) – A Good Cuppa

Much of what gets labelled the trendy moniker of cosy game are titles that do a decent job of checking the familiar boxes, more so than feeling like a refreshing cup of tea. The buzzword has felt a little diluted in recent years. And whilst there isn’t anything inherently wrong with X game having X setting but “make it cosy” as a premise, I now have a bit of trepidation before going into anything labelled as such. Wanderstop doesn’t just recognise that anxiety in players, but with the main character, Alta, too.

The game succinctly sets the boundaries of what it’ll let you do, what rules you’ll have to follow, of which there are very few, and above all else, to do everything on your terms – when you feel comfortable. It’s an understated approach, but one that understands the ethos of what it means to be cosy. Wanderstop is a tea shop out in some fantasy-like forest, and you are its latest custodian as you partake in the tea-making process, create and cultivate crops for ingredients and get to know the customers, but the magic far outreaches the tea leaves.

What’s The Tea?

Alta is a warrior. A really good one if her reputation is anything to go by. But after a confidence-knocking defeat from a three-year win streak, Alta seeks out a master’s help to train and be the best fighter again. The journey becomes too much, she can’t catch her breath, and ultimately can no longer carry her sword as she tries to wade through the forest.

She passes out and awakens outside of Wanderstop with Boro, the shop’s owner. Burly in his appearance, Boro is a delightful softie who urges Alta to take it slow, unwind and maybe make a tea or two, you know, if she wants to. Alta being a goal-driven, highly determined warrior, detests the idea of taking a break, but without the ability to leave or to even lift her sword, a begrudging break she must take.

Wanderstop is quite frank and open about the prospect of burnout, the anxiety people face of not being good enough and the turmoil people go through if we’re not productive enough. Dialogue is straightforward and deliberate, but it never comes off as preachy or faux. I think this is because every character you meet is passionate about what they do. Whether a cursed knight is trying to impress his son by being an adventurer, or a cremudgen old lady wants to set up an opposing shop outside of Wanderstop, both have goals, ambitions, but are ultimately flawed.

This echoes back to Alta and the wonderful writing Ivy Road has penned. The game is all about learning these stories, going with a dialogue option that suits your version of Alta in recovery, which ultimately accompanies the point of it all. To relax a second.

Tea Leafing Your Time

Much like Wanderstop’s narrative, the gameplay is equally as forthcoming. Breaking up the conversations you’ll have with customers are requests to create different types of tea. There are a handful of steps to prepare for the creation, the first of which is gathering tea leaves and letting them dry out to form tea balls. The game plays as a 3D adventure with a freewheeling camera. Alta can also sprint and has x-ray vision to show the game’s quest markers through the environment.

Different activities require different equipment. For example, the first step of gathering leaves requires a basket where you just press ‘x’ when prompted to gather. Then you have your clippers to cut weeds and plants, a watering can to tend to your creations and a broom to sweep up piles of leaves. All of which use the same button prompt and are very rudimentary.

However, the ease of use and simple reward you’ll get per action, like finding a trinket amongst the leaves, or a new fruit you experimented with plants to get, felt like an effortless hit of satisfaction. Cultivating fruits is probably the closest to a puzzle the game ever gets. You farm hexagonally as an opaque outline of a grid will pop up as you plant.

You’ll plant seeds that’ll grow into small or large hybrids, depending on the formation. This creates a myriad of combinations of colour and layout, sparking an imagination to experiment with the farming process. All of this will be jotted down in your journal once you’ve come up with a new fruit, all of which have their own characteristics in colour and flavour.

Sit Back, Relax

This is important to note as customers will ask for certain flavours in their tea, meaning you’ll have to deduce their wording to create the correct one. This is where the tea-making process comes into play. Once you’ve got your ingredients, you’ll be using the contraption at the heart of Wanderstop. You’ll pour the water, boil it with a button prompt minigame, then add your ingredients to the boiling water, pour and serve.

All of these stations for each step can be traversed to with a ladder on wheels. It’s a hulking contraption made to feel so satisfyingly ergonomic, going through the process of making the tea was always the highlight of the work put in sourcing the tea’s ingredients. From start to finish, if you have none of the ingredients, this could take up to five minutes – if you’re trying to be efficient.

However, the game doesn’t care if you’re efficient or not. No customer will get angry if you take your time, or make it incorrectly the first or fourth time, you do it all on your terms. This is where Wanderstop started to feel special to me. The themes and attitude going into the game match the gameplay symbiotically. Even as someone who plays games with a goal in mind, I couldn’t help but lose myself in the minutiae of moment-to-moment gameplay.

Whether that’s creating new hybrids, taking photos to put in frames around the shops, or organising my mug collection in a specific shelf. And then the season changes and everything starts over. My plant collection, my trinkets I neatly placed, all gone. I won’t say anything else apart from that it’s all part of the process and a big reason why the narrative is as hard-hitting as it is.

Waiting For The Kettle To Boil

Not to mention that Wanderstop is audibly and visually stunning. The game sports this exaggerated, almost Pixar look where all the characters are distinct, the plants are delightfully diverse, and the colours are like a painting. There isn’t a day or night cycle, so you could be stuck at Wanderstop at dawn, where the sun is low, colours are rich amongst the trees, and the lighting makes everything very atmospheric.

This is then accompanied by the sounds and soundtrack of C148 (Minecraft), which perfectly envelopes the vibe Wanderstop goes for. Plucky piano leads, blooming synthesisers and all the clicks, whistles and chimes as you sift through the menus of the game. Suffice to say, the game’s identity, whether that’s visual or thematically, all creates that warm cosy feeling only few games achieve deeper than surface level.

Much like the ingredients you cultivate, Wanderstop is rich, introspective and with a hint of devastation. It’s a game that firmly puts a line in what’s discomforting, to then pull you away from that and supply tools to give you time to relax. With only a few pop-ins that detract from the visuals, some very little moments where button prompts can be awkward if you’re trying to “aim” for one thing in a sea of options, the game is seamless albeit slightly simple. Simplicity might detract from those who are looking for something with deeper farming sim capabilities. However, there’s nothing quite like sipping on a tea you’ve created anywhere in Wanderstop’s world.

Wanderstop is out now for PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X|S PC via Steam.

Developers: Ivy Road

Publisher: Annapurna Interactive

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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