I think it’s all too common to hear your fellow man say, “they’re tired”. Not that it’s any less valid than the millionth other person saying the same thing (and I wonder why that is to begin with!), but have you ever seen or considered what a workaholic might look like when they’ve hit their breaking point?
Here steps in Alta, a young lady with a warrior’s spirit—she’s never lost a battle, has trained her whole stinkin’ life, has had a sword made to her exact specifications by a great blacksmith, the whole lot of it. She’s never lost a battle… Until now. One loss became two, two losses became three, and soon Alta found herself strayed far apart from the path of being the undefeated warrior by her onlookers.
Something’s wrong with Alta—she can feel it. And by all accounts it’s something that can be fixed, so she sets off into the Woods to find Master Winters, a champion of yore, who should surely know what’s wrong with Alta. Heft consumes her not long into her trek, however, and very soon (and some head bangs later) she finds herself a gardening, customer servicing, tea-making unit at ‘Wanderstop’. Developed by Ivy Road and published by Annapurna Interactive, players will take on the role of Alta as she dons the robes of impromptu rehabilitation and maybe, just maybe, might come to the realisation that Alta might be Alta’s problem.
Wanderstop is a narrative-driven shop management game. Maybe “management” might be too strong of a word. Yes, you’ll be managing the Wanderstop tea shoppe alongside its caretake Boro, a jolly giant with a light pink triangle shape for a nose. But there’s no time limit on anything that needs to be done to advance the game’s story. Heck, you can choose to completely waste time making the place look pretty, taking pictures, filling in the various vases with plants and shelves with trinkets found by cleaning up the whole Clearing. It’s your shoppe to run!
And run it you will. As Alta runs about Wanderstop, she’ll be greeted by all sorts of faces that make their way into the Woods. These people will rest at Wanderstop, ask for tea and unique blends to go with their cup. You’ll occasionally be picking up tea leaves and tossing them into the proper channels to have them settled and ready to be tossed into the shoppe’s incredibly unique kettle slash tea-making system. You’ll need a whole ladder-on-a-swivel to navigate, move water from bowl to bowl, warm it up, and ultimately toss your desired ingredients to make a delicious cup of tea.
You won’t need any sleight of hands to make good tea, all though getting the right amount of the finished product into a cup might take a try or two! Anything you make can be consumed by Boro or Alta, both of which will give their opinions on the taste of the tea and even do a bit of reflecting if you so let them. Part of Wanderstop’s magic, rooted in the veins of ‘The Stanley Parable’, is that the game will freely waste your time if you so let it. Meandering, word vomit, thoughts best left unsaid will fill the void of silence when famed composer C418’s electronic and acoustic ambience aren’t accompanying Alta’s bizarre adventure. Accompanied with lovely colourful visuals, it’s as comfortable a tea-making environment as it’s going to get.
As you might figure, this tea shoppe and the surrounding area are a big magical. Alta can’t escape it if she tries and the people who wander in are also intertwined with the place. Well, sort of. It’s hard to discuss the finer points of Wanderstop without really spoiling anything. And at the same time, there’s not much to spoil. Anyone familiar with folktales (read: the basis of much of our entertainment) can tell you what’s wrong with Alta. She’s brazen, rash, likely has a pipe jammed up where methane freely escapes at the worst of times. She’s razor focused on one goal—to be the best that ever was and to never accept failure. Well gosh, I wonder how this is going to play out?
Wanderstop doesn’t tell a brand-new story, rather it has a unique way of showing it. Mechanically, you are obligated to complete the tasks at hand, but you aren’t time. You do it at your own pace, let the mind wander, so to speak. And you might say, “well that’s not all that unique, lots of games do this”, and you’d be right—the hero can be excused to complete fetch quests worth their time while the fate of the world is crushing their shoulders like a forgotten tofu panini on a sandwich press. No, it’s not entirely unique, but it makes sense in the context of not just Alta but her patrons.
Ivy Road brings up the question “is something wrong with me”, something we all might ask ourselves at one point. You’re probably narcissistic if not. It’s a question lots of stories ask and, for many, said stories never really answer the question in any satisfactory way. Wanderstop instead opts to do what we all do when faced with questions like this—trudge about, skirt the line, use lots of adverbs. And for what it’s worth, it’s a refreshingly grounded take on the matter. Yes, something might just be wrong with me and will likely be the death of me. Can something be done about? Maybe. A bit of self-awareness never hurts, though. ∎
Oh, and yes, Wanderstop has rubbed off onto me. Infectious!
Wanderstop
Played on
Windows 11 PC/Xbox Series X
PROS
- Lovely visuals accompanied by C418's prominent and soothing ambience.
- A tried-and-true story told well.
CONS
- Could have used a bit of subtlety with narrative themes.
