With near-perfect execution, Wanderstop is a must-play for any adventure fan.
90
Verdict
93%
Steam
86
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive on Steam (93% positive from 2.9K reviews)
Critically acclaimed (86/100 critic average)
Compelling narrative and story
Standout indie gem
No significant drawbacks reported
Wanderstop is a 2025 cozy game developed by Ivy Road and published by Annapurna Interactive. Written and directed by Davey Wreden, composed by C418, and edited by Karla Zimonja, it follows a former warrior named Alta, whose painful losses in combat have led her to help tend a tea shop with its owner, Boro, with an aim to heal herself. The gameplay includes a system of tea brewing and farming by planting seeds in a hex grid, creating more seeds and fruit for use in the tea, as the shop and its customers are attended to throughout the narrative.
Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 18d ago
Wanderstop is not a game about resolution. It tells you as much itself. It is a game about change, both good and ill; about how even the beneficial parts of our psyches can have dangerous and lasting consequences; and about accepting uncertainty in the future and in yourself. To demand resolution from a game trying to teach you these things is perhaps an indicator that you are not ready for its lessons. I hope one day you will be, because Wanderstop is a very wise teacher.
I am a bit disappointed in this game. I had been wanting to play it for a while, considering I myself suffer some burnout and with self expectations, but it was so frustrating to play. Every two hours, all my progress was lost as I changed seasons; I didn't get to see anything else about the characters I were getting to know, or know if they did well or not; and not even the decorations I randomly got remained. I get that it's part of life and all, but it was just so frustating to keep advancing, and ultimately I feel like I got nothing out of the game but a sense of lost time.
Took me 17 hours to complete without rushing. Basically a cozy tea-making game where you grow ingredients combined with a PTSD healing game (if you drink some tea yourself you will start talking about old memories) - so it's genre-bending. I did wish there was more resolution at the end (even just picking up the sword or walking into the forest), and some things could have been a little deeper toward the end, but it was an interesting game, and I did love feeding the pet penguins different types of tea (because they become the colour of the tea and then follow you around <3 ). There could have been more depth/detail to the main character's past and circumstances. Lightly recommended.
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Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, cheapshark, igdb, wikipedia.
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