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The other day I was sat on a bus and in front of me were two people having a mumbled conversation that I couldn’t help but listen in on. They were gossiping about who they think is sleeping with who in their group of friends, and no matter how hard I tried, that natural human instinct to be curious about other people’s lives was too strong to ignore. I was hooked.
I don’t know any of the people mentioned, but in my brief time listening to this conversation I learned which one of the group liked to sleep around, which one was the hopeless romantic, and who the two participants in the conversation hoped would end up together. I’d become invested in the lives of people I’d never even seen before, and I wanted to know how the situation would turn out.
Eventually, these two people reached their stop, got off the bus, and I was left unsatisfied with a story that didn’t have a resolution. I’d almost certainly never see these people again and they hadn’t even known I was sitting behind them listening in on their conversation, yet I felt like I was owed an ending — something I’ll never get.
That feeling is what Wanderstop expertly creates time and time again while taking you on a journey of self-reflection.
You play as Alta, a champion fighter who has recently started to go on a losing streak for no apparent reason. In their quest to find a mentor to bring them back to their former glory, she collapses exhausted in the forest and ends up at Wanderstop, a tea shop in the forest run by Boro, the most delightfully laid-back man you’ll ever meet.
Unable to continue, Alta begrudgingly decides to rest by helping Boro run the shop for a while, letting you meet the shop’s various customers, each of whom are on their own journey that you briefly become entwined with. In getting their tea orders and talking to them for their brief stay, you learn about their lives and what problems they’re currently facing.
If this were any other game, you might expect to be the unlikely hero that helps people with these problems and sorts out their lives, but that’s not what Wanderstop is about. Instead, you chat with them, hear their stories, maybe make a little bit of progress, but then you’re forced to move on.
It’s upsetting the first time it happens, but after you’ve been serving your customers tea for a while, the magic of the forest makes them completely unresponsive, stopping you from continuing to chat with them. At that point, Alta must reflect on herself and move on, and when she returns to Wanderstop, new customers have arrived. There’s no dwelling on the past, there’s no “fixing” these people no matter how attached you get – eventually, they get off the bus and you can’t listen in on their story anymore, and you’re just one stop on their journey.
You will get attached, too. Written by Davey Wreden – the man behind The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide – the writing is world-class, both in terms of emotive storytelling and comedy. Wanderstop tells a touching story about burnout, with Alta constantly fighting against the idea of just “doing nothing” for a while, aggressively trying to push forward without understanding the toll that can take, feeling like the world will crash down around her if she stops for even a moment. Her journey of coming to terms with her limits and understanding how to stop herself from becoming overwhelmed is easy to resonate with and the way it’s done through Alta’s encounters with Wanderstop’s customers is beautiful storytelling.
It’s realistic about the issue too. Without spoiling the ending, it makes it clear that Alta doesn’t come away from this magically fixed as if she’s never going to have this problem again, but understanding the issue makes working on herself much easier, and makes her seemingly unbearable burden light enough to carry.
That said, with all that introspection, it doesn’t lose any sense of whimsy along the way. The colorful characters who swing by the shop are all loveable in their own way, be it a shy demon hunter who’s clearly still learning the act, an overenthusiastic dad who’s become a knight to earn his son’s respect, or an interdimensional being made from the stars themselves exploring this mortal plane – try not to think too hard about that last one.
You’ll notice I haven’t actually mentioned the gameplay yet, and that’s because it’s minimal by design. This is a game about learning how to take it slow and take a break from life, so you’re not going to be tasked with anything strenuous. The process of making tea is a fun little minigame, but nothing especially challenging. The most fun part of it is working out what ingredients your customers want in their tea based on the flavors and vibes they want it to capture.
By planting different types of seeds next to each other you can create unique hybrids that give you new fruits, all of which have different flavors and invoke fun effects. It’s another way the game’s light tone can make you laugh as you find a fruit that makes you think of the best ice cream you’ve ever tasted or – and this is a quote – makes one overly confident in their ability to do math. You get to experience this too, as Alta can try any of the tea she makes. If you sit down with it you get small scenes where Alta talks about her life and experiences, helping you understand the character better and giving some funny dialogue along the way.
The tea-making process can start to feel a little repetitive after a while, but I found by the time that feeling was creeping up on me I was very close to the end of the game, so it’s not that big of an issue, especially when the game’s focus is much more on getting to know the characters and enjoying the vibes of gorgeous scenery that constantly shifts to match the tone of the narrative.
True to its theme, Wanderstop feels like an enjoyable break from the rest of the gaming world. Its simple story is masterfully told through characters that are instantly likable and a blast to be around, all set in a world that feels like a warm hug, even when it tackles some more serious situations. If you’ve ever experienced burnout or impostor syndrome, this game will hit you right in the heart and you’ll be glad you tried it.
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