This week: Wanderstop

A gorgeous and unsettling cozy game about change, suffering, and making tea.

Happy 30 subscribers to this little Substack! I was told last week that reading it is like talking to a friend—couldn't be happier about this descriptor and I’m honoured that you’re spending time with me in this way. Also, apologies for the radio silence last week; the weekly cadence of posts is something I plan to maintain going forward. Onwards and upwards! Please tell your friends.

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Steam NextFest generated a fair amount of buzz in my Bluesky circles. It’s a happy lil gamer bubble over there thankfully—if it weren’t for my socials, a lot of demos would have sailed right past me. And so would have Wanderstop.

A few mutuals mentioned it in passing, but I paid it no heed until someone said that Wanderstop is poised to be an ostensibly cozy game that you won’t be able to stop thinking about.

That made me pause and ponder. What kind of cozy game is it really?

Teashop management?

Say no more!

The demo gave me a good idea of the game visuals (very pretty), mechanics (convoluted?), and writing/dialogue (superb).

More importantly, I understood why people were talking about it.

It’s not much of a spoiler now to say that equally or even more so than tea brewing, Wanderstop is about burnout. Not in an allegoric, what-could-we-mean way. In your face, stop-and-see-what-you’re-doing-to-yourself way.

This was a subversion I didn’t expect. Yes, predictably, it punched me right in the gut as well. I wanted it.

Wanderstop has just released on March 11. I bought it the morning it dropped.

Note about spoilers: I’ll keep this article largely spoiler-free and focus on my own impressions and speculations since I haven’t finished the game yet. Still, if you want to experience Wanderstop completely by yourself, please go play it now instead of reading! It’s worth it. And we can chat about it after you play 🧡

Wanderstop: Alta, Boro, Burnout

Source: Ivy Road / Wanderstop

Alright, so first of all: I think the game is wonderful.

Alta, the protagonist, is a hard worker, a perfectionist, and a determined yet somewhat rigid personality—in other words, a prime candidate for burnout. The fact that the game presents her as a successful fighter fallen from grace, determined to get back to the top at any cost, is not that important. That, I believe, is an allegory.

What matters is that Alta needs to slow down, rest, and accept that her worldview of “do or die“ isn’t the only correct way to live. I think this is where the demo hit people the hardest. A lot of us here are Alta. Alta is us.

She annoyed me in the demo, I admit. Probably projection. But in the game, her feelings and attitudes are given space to unfold and change, which softened me towards her considerably.

She’s also cute as a button! This early-game reveal of her tense and tired face was just delightful:

Customer service 101: Intimidation

Her counterpart in the game is Boro, the owner of teashop Wanderstop, who immediately became everyone’s favourite. Not only for the way he talks—his dialogue is some of the best lines in the game—but also for his philosophy and worldview that’s completely antithetical to Alta’s. He is the encouraging presence so many of us need in our lives.

Boro exists in the mythical space of Wanderstop gently yet firmly. I love that he is always there to offer a smile, an encouragement or… a joke?

The joke boat did not, in fact, steer into the harbor of laughs at all!

Who is he? What role will he end up playing in Alta’s life? Will we find out anything more?

I hope we do.

Game mechanics and controls

Have a cracker, pretty Polly!

I won’t go too deeply into Wanderstop’s game mechanics as they are pretty self-explanatory for a cozy game. Wanderstop may be a subversion of the genre, but it’s still cozy—you can forage and grow ingredients, make tea, pet adorable birds, collect trinkets, and even snap photos.

The tea-making part is convoluted at first, but it isn’t difficult and also leaves room for a lil experimentation if you’re feeling creative 😉

You’ll be making a lot of tea, offering it to customers, bringing it to Boro, and drinking it yourself. There is no rush and no pressure. Well, there is… but it comes from within Alta, not from anywhere in the clearing where Wanderstop stands.

You can spend as much time as you want doing anything and doing nothing. This, I believe, is the point. Plus, the way some mechanics are handled is, for the lack of a word, adorable. For instance, when you take a photo, a scroll drops to the ground that you can pick up and take to a photo frame. It’s just cute and thoughtful and adds to the feeling of whimsy and otherworldliness of Wandertop.

As for the game controls, I’ve seen them criticized already. It’s a controller-first game, and while the wheel menus don’t feel intuitive at first, I got used to them very quickly.

I also want to commend the creators, Ivy Road, for including accessibility options that so, so many new games still don’t. I would call it thoughtful, but this should be standard. Thank you for doing the right thing.

Wanderstop accessibility menu

Wanderstop story

Nuh-uh!

I’m not telling. Not a thing beyond what I already mentioned. No spoilers, remember? Besides, I don’t know everything myself yet.

What I do want to say, is that part of me was worried that the game would get preachy. Given the subject matter of burnout and change, it could have veered towards judgment or trying to give answers where none can be found.

This is not the case, at least not at the point of the game where I’m at.

The theme of change is handled beautifully, heartbreakingly, and unavoidably. It fully aligns with my view.

On a personal level, I believe deeply that nothing is forever. This belief carries me through the hardest moments of my life. If I ever get a tattoo, it would say: “The only constant thing in life is change“.

It isn’t easy to realize let alone accept. But change is inevitable. Often irreversible, final, and painful. But it doesn’t have to lead to suffering.

Alta is suffering deeply in Wanderstop. I’m not sure if my dialogue choices and in-game actions help ease her suffering or will matter at all in the end. I don’t know where she will end up or where the story is going, to be honest. But I hope her suffering ends one way or another and that she ends up in a good place.

Because she deserves it. No matter who they are and what they have done, every human does.

Next stop: Wanderstop

A few more miscellaneous notes about the game:

🎵 The music is delightful. It’s an original score you can check out on YouTube. Plus, I’ve just noticed the track names, IYKYK

🏆 Does anyone have any idea what its Steam achievements mean? I have a theory… best left for when I finish the game.

🤔 I’ve reached the point of the game that’s super-spoilery and I have no idea where the game is going next. Will it subvert the subversion and dive even deeper? Or will it follow the classic story arc of Obstacle – Overcoming – Bigger Obstacle – Redemption?

Can’t wait to find out, so it’s time to go play.

Have you checked out Wanderstop? Do you want to?

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