Wanderstop

Wanderstop truly is beautiful. The illustrations are stunning, the music is transportive, and the 3D art and animation are full of life. Walking through this game is like walking through a beautiful forest; you can’t stay there forever, but the experience stays with you and you return home a little changed, hopefully for the better.

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.

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 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.

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, 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.

In its own way, Wanderstop is the perfect mission statement for a bright-eyed studio starting its path to self-discovery. It is a sincere celebration of our struggles and imperfections. They are not problems to run away from, but stones to sharpen our blades upon so we may win the next fight.

Another Brilliant game by Davey Wreden. He has a very great way with his writing on his game to hit emotional areas dang well and this new game of his does it again. The presentation is great and it is already hits alot of emotional areas throughout, it has brought me to tears several times. Man what a unique little gem.

Wanderstop is a 16 hour therapy session and I'm all here for it. Keeping a lookout for any game that Davey Wreden is involved with in the future.

Not content with just being a cozy game about making tea, Ivy Road's cozy game about making tea, "Wanderstop", is subversive all the way down to the achievements, trailers, and "About this game" section on Steam, many times leaving only small hints to its true nature. Mixing a wonderfully colourful aesthetic, a gorgeous soundtrack made by none other than C418 himself, cozy vibes, a simple gameplay loop, and some over-the-top cartoony characters, and then misdirecting you with all of those things to tell a dark, messy, and ultimately profound story about grief, burnout, change, patience, and more. Wanderstop can best be described as the sweetest tea you've ever tried, made by a bitter and vile individual who deep down thinks serving sweet tea will get him judged by his customers, so he decides to ruin it on purpose by adding some coriander and onions to the mix. None of this is meant as a dig towards the game, mind you; my point with the previous paragraph is to highlight how refreshing it feels to play a game that isn't just cute and cozy for the sake of being cute and cozy. More thought and effort was put into this game than I believe many have anticipated or even given it credit for. And with Davey Wreden (The Stanley Parable / The Beginner's Guide) at the helm of writing, I don't rightfully know how I expected anything different. Yet after reaching the credits, I also believe that not everything glues together as neatly as Mister Wreden's previous works. Wanderstop is, ironically, a game about a type of person that will probably never play it. An impatient, try-hard, overworked, judgemental, potentially bitter, and depressed individual that clearly has issues seeing things from a perspective that differs from their own, who also just so happens to be unable to wind down and only has work and physical self-improvement on their mind. This leaves the game in a weird sort of limbo state where a lot of its more "preachy" elements will probably fall on deaf ears. Not only that, but for a game about winding down, relaxing, and even how it is okay to not be doing anything, I find it kind of ironic that the only way to meaningfully progress the game and help Alta deal with her struggles is by doing one specific thing: making tea and serving your customers. The game kept beating me over the head about how it's "okay to just sit on a bench and read a book, sweep some leaves, take some pictures and frame them, etc." Yet doing exactly that didn't progress Alta's story or grow her character in the slightest. Maybe I'm just too impatient and should have done nothing for longer, but from my POV, with how much thought was put into most facets of this game, the message and gameplay loop of this game don't really gel. In short, I believe Wanderstop says it best: Boredom is a luxury. But are you willing to just exist? And I guess my answer to that is: "kind of, not for too long, maybe somewhere else, it's complicated."

I did find a rhythm with this game eventually, the story was just ok. I more enjoyed the different characters and solving the tea puzzles.

jogo interessanta, historia bem **** gameplay bem repetitiva , não tem muita coisa de diferente para fazer.