Wanderstop Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

The umbrella remedy for burnout is rest. But when is the best time to rest? In what form? And for how long? It’s never really clear what to do to ensure burnout doesn’t get the better of you. And with the capitalist world we live in that thrives on constantly pushing yourself even when you’re on the brink of crashing, the answers for when and how to rest are more important than ever. 

In gaming, developers have attempted to address burnout via cozy games. “Attempted” because, well, not all cozy games live up to their promise. As long as a game is super cute and whimsical, usually cooking, farming, and life simulators, it might as well be called a cozy game. Yet even these types of games have a checklist of things to do on a weekly and daily basis. You have goals to meet and rewards to chase after. 

Cozy games can begin to feel like work, even when their intention is to relax you and take your mind away from the stresses of everyday life. Enter Wanderstop, a tea-making simulator and self-proclaimed cozy game. While the tea-making simulator part breathes true in your playthrough, the cozy part also delivers. It truly feels relaxing to play this game with no goals, objectives, or rewards to chase after. 

But how well does Wanderstop execute the mechanics it claims to offer? Is the game relaxing? Or does it wind up giving you tasks to check off a list? More importantly, how does it address burnout in today’s world? We’ll explore these questions and more in our deep-dive Wanderstop review below.

Alta is You

We meet Alta, the protagonist, at the most crucial point in her life. She’s been training to become the best arena fighter the world has ever seen and has managed to make a great name for herself. Many have fallen by her sword, and she’s gone for years undefeated. But a fearsome enemy comes along that defeats Alta, and with the first loss in battle, many more follow. 

Soon, Alta begins to wonder why she’s losing her mojo and, even more concerning, her strength. With each loss, self-doubt sets in deeper and deeper until she questions her own determination and training. Fortunately, she knows a legendary fighter who can train her back to the undefeated champion she once was. She just has to make the journey into an unknown forest to find her. 

The deeper she gets into the forest, the more Alta’s strength fades. Eventually, even her renowned custom sword is too heavy to carry. And at last, she falls from deep exhaustion and burnout. When she regains consciousness, she’s seated next to a chubby, odd guy, ever charming and kind. He offers Alta a deal to take a break from her quest and help him make tea. 

“Are you crazy?” is probably what I’d have said to the guy. I’m a revered arena fighter, after all. Many have fallen at my feet. How do you expect me to start making tea for you? It gets worse. The guy wants you to run a tea-making shop and serve customers floating in and out of the spot. As you can imagine, Alta isn’t all too happy with the guy’s proposition.

Your Choice

But get this: you can leave anytime you want. You can head back into the forest and continue your search for the legendary fighter to train you. Nothing is stopping you from returning to your arena fighter ways. Yet burnout can’t be fought. When the body breaks, you can barely make it far before you end up back next to the chubby, odd guy with the same proposition: run my tea-making shop, will you? I promise it’s exactly the perfect resting gig you need. 

So, it’s settled in. The only way forward is to start making tea; certainly not too difficult a task. Yet there are quite a bit of items on your checklist to serve that hot cuppa for your customer. You need the ingredients, which can be planted, bred, and watered in the garden outside the shop. There are different types of fruit flavorings you can breed, as well as tea you can harvest in your basket. 

The tea needs to be dried once harvested. And then, the actual tea-making process begins. Remember Willy Wonka’s Great Gum Machine? Well, Alta’s tea maker is just as flamboyant and strangely complex. You need an actual ladder to reach its barrels and perform a quite lengthy procedure to finally get your tea. 

At Your Service

Depending on the customer’s taste and needs, you’ll need a mixture of different ingredients so they can go on their merry way. Sometimes, when you haven’t kept up to speed with the gardening and harvesting process, you might lack the specific ingredients you need. This leads to another lengthy hybrid breeding process in the hope of finding the ingredient you’re looking for. 

See, the customers aren’t your usual bunch, as is the tea you make for them. Some customers might need a little pick-me-up. Others are simply interested in a specific flavored tea. All the diverse orders you’ll receive can be met by studying the recipe book. It contains vital information to experiment and ensure your customers leave your tea-making shop happy. 

But make no mistake, there’s no reward here. If you mess up an order, the customer will simply hang about until you can meet their need. And even then, they will not rush you or give you a timeline. Heck, you can even choose to make tea for yourself, go out into the garden, and enjoy your hot cuppa. It certainly comes with its own rewards, as depending on the type of tea you drink, Alta will reflect on her life, revealing nifty details about why she’s the way she is.

At a Crossroads

It’s a pretty interesting route to take, as Alta is, well, a complex and strangely relatable character. She’s unhappy with the new arrangement she’s made to run the tea-making shop. Thanks to strong writing, we discover her deep self-doubt and anxiety about her future. More than anything, she’d love to get back to the battlefield. Yet it’s clear her initial dreams may need to be reexamined. Perhaps she’s not cut out for the arena fighting gig anymore.

Sounds familiar, does it? I presume we’ve all reached that point in our lives of questioning our old dreams. We’ve all had to face hard truths about not being the best in the game anymore. Perhaps self-doubt has pummeled us down into exhaustion and eventual burnout. Yet we keep pushing ourselves, convincing ourselves that what we need is more pushing, more hard work, more training. 

Wanderstop is, above all, a reflective simulator. Even in the strolls you take into the garden, enjoying a new type of tea, you ask yourself tough questions. You take a pause to reassess your life. It’s exceptional, thanks to Alta’s sometimes heavy-handed self-reflections. They are like therapy for Alta and also for you, the player, who can’t help seeing yourself through the eyes of the protagonist. 

Outside Looking In

But the journey towards overcoming burnout and regaining your strength isn’t a solo expedition. Though Alta has her own struggles to work through, she receives help from the tea-making shop owner, who constantly pays her a visit to see how she’s adapting. The guy has also been written intriguingly, almost like a father figure and friend.  

Moreover, the customers you serve influence your own reflective journey, too. They reveal struggles in their own lives that hold up a mirror to your own. Some you can solve by brewing them a cheering-up hot cuppa. But others you cannot solve, and you can only hope that they find the peace they’re looking for.

It’s the beauty of Wanderstop that even in rest, life moves on. And it’s easy to get caught up in the very work you’re running away from. You can even be caught up in the tea-making itself. It not only comes with a sometimes cumbersome process but also additional things to do, like sweeping the fallen leaves outside the shop or weeding the garden. 

Do Nothing at All

When you have the option to literally do nothing with no consequences, though, why not take it? There are certainly more things you can explore in Wanderstop. Did you know that there are penguin-like creatures called Pluffins you can pet? Though they have sticky hands and often steal parcels, you can mail them back to their owners. And, as a sort of reward, you’ll receive a series of hilarious books about the adventures of a certain Dirk Warhard. 

In fact, there are lots of quirky characters and hilarious dialog you can uncover interacting with your customers. You can take photos as memorabilia to hang on the walls of your shop. And isn’t that what slowing down is all about? Taking a moment to appreciate the present and carrying the beautiful memories of unexpected special moments forward?

Verdict

Wanderstop may not be your go-to genre. Yet, it feels like the exceptional type of game to recommend to every gamer. It’s a well-balanced deep dive into vibrant tea shop simulation and story-driven adventure. But it’s a lot more than a mere casual game. It prompts a brutal and often uncomfortable scrutiny of one’s own life. It dares you to ask yourself, “When was the last time you took a break, truly?”