First, a confession. I had intended to get this review out much more swiftly than I have done, but alas, a life filled with arguably too much work and tedious micro management meant that its completion drifted further than I was initially comfortable with. An eternal stickler for deadlines, the longer it took me to put pen to paper (or rather finger to keyboard), the more agitated and mentally strained I became, fashioning all manner of mental cudgels to beat myself around the figurative head for not getting this review out on time.
So it’s probably quite appropriate then that in writing a review about a game that prizes relaxation, self-care and an unburdening of the day to day slog from your soul, my take on Wanderstop from developer Ivy Road and publisher Annapurna Interactive, has been mostly scribbled from a lazy chair filled with blankets, occasional visits from a cat masquerading as a cloud and behind a mug that inexplicably refills with tea whenever it becomes depleted of that most restorative fluid.
Wanderstop PS5 Review
A Simplistic But Soul Affirming Gem With A Message That We All Need To Hear
Wanderstop opens on Alta, a fearsome and ultra-talented warrior driven by a singular purpose – to be the greatest fighter that ever lived. A top goal, I’m sure you would agree and yet its also one that might reflect goals in our own professional lives, too. The thing is you see, after suffering a string of losses at the height of her success, Alta’s response is to push herself even harder by tracking down a legendary sword teacher who may or may not be hidden in a mysterious forest. After pushing herself beyond all mental and physical limits, all the while refusing to accept failure, Alta collapses and wakes up in an idyllic clearing filled with all manner of colorful flora, fauna and, of course, a magical tea shop run by a bald-headed giant by the name of Boro, who seems at once a cross between Grant Mitchell (look him up) and Harry Potter’s towering, though kindly ward, Hagrid.
After being nursed back to some semblance of physical health by Boro, Alta soon comes to realise that not only is her sword, which was so light and effortless to use previously, now becomes much too heavy to lift, but so too do attempts to escape this place also prove similarly futile. Resigned to spending a far greater amount of time than she would like in this random sparkly tea shop in the middle of nowhere, Alta reluctantly agrees to help Boro manage the place, initially as a way to simply pass the time until she becomes strong enough to pick up her sword again.
Wanderstop is a narrative jaunt with meditations about self-care first and a very, very light management sim second. This means that you’ll be collecting tea leaves, growing special fruits to alter the tea by infusing each brew with specific moods and then finally brewing the tea itself through a straightforward and relatively brief set of steps. Beyond such tea brewing pursuits you’ll also find yourself sweeping the grounds around the tea shop and trimming any errant weeds you find – both of which occasionally yield seeds for growing new plants and trinkets that can be used for other things (no spoilers here) later on.
Everything is made as streamlined as possible too. Collecting tea leaves simply involves hitting the x button when close to a bush and after a quick swipe of Alta’s basket – voila – you have tea leaves! Likewise, sweeping up leaves is done by mashing the x buttons when you’re close to a pile of leaves, while clipping unruly weeds is done by, you guessed it, tapping the x button until the weeds have been satisfactorily clipped out of existence. There’s no skill barrier whatsoever with any of the activities in Wanderstop and certainly, this is an offering that doesn’t seek complexity or sophistication in its gameplay but rather possesses an elusive, soulful quality that makes you look inwardly at your own life outside of the screen.
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It’s this soulful quality which not only sits at the heart of Wanderstop, but also underscores the reason why you’re brewing these fantastical concoctions. By drinking these teas and making the most out of their unique mood triggers, Alta not only recounts key events of her past, but re-evaluates various aspects of her personality, providing the player with a gradually more complete picture of the person Alta was and how she wound up in her current predicament.
In addition to the revelations regarding Alta’s own past and personality that these miraculous brews provide, they’re also meant to be provided to the various patrons that appear in the clearing (you are supposed to be helping to run a tea shop after all) that each carry their own trials, tribulations and metaphorical crosses to bear. Take Gerald for example, a well-meaning, affable knight obsessed with embarrassing his son through his fatherly love, Gerald also finds himself cursed by a mysterious magic that slowly begins to take over his mind and relies on your tea – and conversation – to see him through to the other side.
Again, as a gameplay mechanic, we’re looking at pretty threadbare stuff here which is to say that after you speak to one of these folks, they’ll pretty much tell you what kind of tea they want you to make and then, well, you go off to make it and you get to hear something more about their own personal story. There’s also various dialogue choices that can be made too, but again, we’re not looking at something with a range of non-linear dialogue trees that meaningfully affect the endgame, but rather just a means to tell a wholesome and roundly compelling story.
And there’s no pressure to do any of these activities against anything remotely resembling a time limit. There are no deadlines, no NPCs telling you to hurry up or anything to otherwise harry you. Instead, Wanderstop merely asks that you march to the beat of your own drum and just that fact in of itself proves to be a hugely refreshing piece of game design at a time when games always seem to find some way to relentlessly push you forward whether you like it or not.
Ostensibly, the clue is in the title. If Wanderlust is a relentless pursuit of new things, new places and new triumphs, then Wanderstop is the time you must take to rest yourself and reflect on everything you’ve done and everywhere you’ve been – an oasis in the back of your mind that is rarely visited, but is essential to your wellbeing all the same. You just need someone to remind you that this precious space exists and so the worth of Wanderstop suddenly feels like it crosses from being ‘just’ a video game, to something resembling therapy. And I’m completely here for it.
To be clear, Wanderstop never feels preachy but rather just suggests things that you likely knew all along but forgot due to the grind of everyday life. Through Boro’s timely Yoda-like nuggets of wisdom, the numerous characters trying to live their own lives and those wonderful, magical teas, Wanderstop’s rumination on mental health issues such as self worth, burn out, fixing yourself and letting go of the things of that no longer work for you, all feel like common sense and yet having them presented in this way means that it all lands with a more keenly felt impact than it otherwise would.
Ultimately, there’s a real undercurrent of kindness that runs through Wanderstop. It’s not just about hearing people out and helping them with their problems, it’s also about returning lost parcels to their desperate owners. And those people respond too! A distraught parent responds to thank you for mailing missing textbooks belonging to their daughter who has gone on to win the local science fair, while a nervy detective thanks you for sending the final piece of evidence to help them crack a case. It’s all beautifully wholesome stuff to say the least.
In the age of social media applications such as LinkedIn routinely filling its daily feed with ultra-productive folk backslapping each other with cringe and telling us how we can work smarter, take on more responsibility and ‘wear more hats’ until we hit retirement age, Wanderstop is here to ram home the point that you are enough as you are, burning out is sadly inevitable and that you are certainly much more than the sum of your daily and professional endeavours. Wanderstop is about knowing when to say ‘no – I need time to take care of myself’ and again, it’s a message that often gets lost in the miasma of an overly busy day to day life and yet it also confronts the notion that losing that stress, that sense of rigidity, if only for a little while, can be genuinely terrifying for most people.
Wanderstop won’t win any awards for its deliberately thin gameplay mechanics, but over its 10-15 hours you’ll be reminded how a simple act of kindness can change lives and that just slowing things down and taking time for yourself away from the stresses and white noise of daily life is perhaps just what the doctor ordered.
Review code kindly provided by PR.
Wanderstop is out now on PS5.