Wanderstop

Wanderstop ist ein Storygame mit simplen Spielmechaniken. Grundsätzlich wird die Thematik Burnout oder auch Depression behandelt bzw. Menschen, die sich selbst unter einen hohen Scheffel stellen. Das Game ist sehr textlastig, der Teeladen und das Pflanzen von Blumen, die man kreuzt, sind eher Beiwerk. Trotzdem hat das Game meine gesamte Emotionspalette bedient - von lachen zu weinen, von sehr genervt bis zufrieden sein. Somit ist es ein sehr langsames Game. Passend zum Thema entschleunigt es arg, aber ganz kurz bevor es ermüdend wird, kommt der nächste kuriose Gast in unseren Teeladen. Die Optik ist jederzeit passend und als jemand, der meistens die Ingamemusik ausschaltet - in diesem Game ist sie herausragend positiv - mit Ausnahmen, wo sie schlicht nervig ist, wobei selbst dieses passend ist. Ich war trotzdem kurz davor den Ton auszuschalten, aber das sollte man grundsätzlich nicht. Ein bisschen weniger nervig, auch bezogen auf die Spielmechanik, wäre nett gewesen, aber dann hätte das Game die Thematik nicht perfekt widerspiegeln können. Die eigentliche Story überzeugt bis zum Abschluss nach dem Schauen des Abspanns. Wenn man ein sehr langsames, textlastiges Spielen vor dem Hintergrund mag, kann ich das Game empfehlen. Bezogen auf das Thema des Spiels: Aus meiner Sicht hervorragend umgesetzt. Ich könnte kein Game nennen, das dieses besser verdeutlicht.

The game starts quite promising and I would have loved to play around a bit more, I just could not justify the strain on the system. Seriously, even in the background the game is hogging 100% GPU on a 4090 and associated power usage. Both GPU and CPU are at ~80 degrees, kicking my cooling solution into overdrive and heating up the room (it's winter, but still...). To be perfectly clear, the game runs smooth, there is just no excuse for demanding that many resources in a game like this, it just feels unprofessional and badly optimized. If you don't have this problem, don't care about your power bill or about hearing your fans while a relatively quiet cozy game is in a dialogue, then go ahead and give this one a try. I think the game itself could be fun. The performance hogging is just inexcusable in 2026 (or 2025, when this came out).

Seems like how you feel about this game is highly individual, ranging from "super cozy" or deeply meaningful to infuriating. In any case, I think if you're looking for a regular farming or management sim, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for some big twist or anything like The Stanley Parable just because it's the same dev, you'll be disappointed as well (fun fact: I found The Stanley Parable profoundly annoying and skipped The Beginner's Guide). If you're looking for a "cozy game about change and tea" as the store page promises - well, that depends a lot on your definition of "cozy". This is not a feelgood game. This is a game that wants to be your therapist. Me, I've probably maxed out what therapy can do, but I appreciate characters that have gone through a lot. So I really enjoyed the first half or so of the game. All the characters were entertainingly unhinged, including our protagonist. I was almost reminded of the days when I still had an IRL social circle and a favourite café that we'd all haunt. The dialogues were a mix of hilarious and seriously relatable. In your usual farming sim or management game, you play an over-enthusiastic child who's always cheerful, friendly to everyone, and eager to do whatever the NPCs ask of them. In Wanderstop you play an exhausted and frustrated adult, and I found it incredibly refreshing. ...That was what I started writing after the first I don't remember how many hours (speaking of play time: mine includes some idling). And then, somehow, the game seems to embrace the exact trope that I was hoping to escape. There's an NPC who's verbally abusive and insulting, and I thought it would be perfectly in-character to tell them to ♥♥♥♥ off - but the game forces you to interact with them and at least some of the time even be nice and accommodating. I hated it so much that I couldn't motivate myself to continue for several months. To be honest, I still don't get it, and together with my long break it created a certain emotional distance to the rest of the story for me. But for what it's worth, I haven't seen anyone else mention that NPC as an issue. Other issues have been raised that I was more or less fine with and that I think made some sense for the game, though I'm glad I'd read about one of them and was mentally prepared. If you're firmly in the "art is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable and upset sometimes" camp, skip these spoilers. If you're like me and feel like your life is difficult enough and you don't need a surprise challenge in a game, you might want to know in advance that [spoiler]finishing a chapter will erase your plants, seeds and tea ingredients, mugs and trinkets, though not pictures and a few NPC items.[/spoiler] Another general principle of the game, something that I didn't need to know in advance, but that others were really bothered by: [spoiler]there are tragic story arcs that you won't get closure for[/spoiler]. The awkward KB/M controls had apparently been marinating in my muscle memory since the demo and felt a bit more palatable now, but still not great. When I came back to finish the game and that unpleasant NPC demanded a complicated brew, I was really close to just watching a video of the rest instead. The late game developments and ending? Personally, I wasn't left with strong feelings. I've spent some time pondering and going through screenshots, and I still don't know. There's a key concept that just doesn't quite convince me. The game is better at examining problems than at presenting solutions, which is fine and perhaps deliberate. Was it still worth it in the end, for me? I do think so. I didn't find it life-changing like other reviewers, but I might have 10 years ago. It's a unique and very interesting game anyway. Stunningly beautiful too (except maybe the chapter with the pink overload), and the soundtrack got a lot of praise for good reason. I'd read that there was no endless mode, so I actually backed up my save in case I wanted to just visit the place again, maybe grow a nicer garden, fill all the pots, collect all the trinkets. Turned out that there is a chapter select in the menu anyway, so you can go back to all the different clearing designs and meet the characters again. Now you're probably expecting me to round off my review in a way that reflects the game. Maybe I will. * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].

Achievements: all working, all gained through game progression (or possibly through time-in-game). Average time to cimplete is 11.5 hours, completionist is 13, fastest on record is 3.5. It took ME 26 hours! The gameplay is meant to simulate being Alta, slowly becoming made whole by the rest and cozy relaxation of the game. There's no point building anything amazing, as it all gets wiped out each chapter anyway. It's a just a restfulness simulator, where the main character is one of those "driven to achieve and perform at all costs" types. But I'm very much the opposite. I'm an ADHD procrastinatory-explorer-completionist. Games typically take me about twice as long to complete as most. Each "chapter", I'd: - grow all available plants, in a neatly-organized garden, including shrinking all the large hybrids into pots; - prep a bunch of tea balls; - prep a bunch of mushrooms; - craft all beverages; - drink one of each; - give one of each to Boro; - feed every pluffin; - try going into the forest until the responses no longer differed; - then start talking to people, working through them and their tasks methodically, trying any variations I could think of first, to see if I could get a different response from them; - while cleaning up any leaf-piles, weeds, packages, etc, and placing any photos or items I got, reading any books, etc. ... very little of which, in retrospect, was worth doing. I'd recommend just focusing on the game itself. So, no, I didn't EVER rest except when specifically tasting the drinks. Rest simulator? It could be if you play it that way, but for me, this game was ALL busywork! But for the most part, it's calm busywork, if sometimes a little creepy. The story's solid, if fairly linear and predictable. No major twists. The story unfolds by just playing the game. You can get a little more background on the two main characters by trying every single fruit and drink, but you lose very little if you don't. And thankfully there aren't new conversation options from mixed drinks! Just the basic flavors. Not sure I'd buy this full price, particularly if you're not the same kind of person as the main character so the story won't hit hard in that way; but nobody ever buys games full price except on release day. On sale, it's well worth buying and playing for anyone.

What a lovely game. For anyone looking to get into this, be forewarned that this is the kind of story that is very much hit-or-miss depending on what matters to you. If you're the kind of person that thinks "this game is boring" when there's nothing really to do, then this is 100% not your type of game, because doing all the "nothing" you need to right now is kind of the whole point. This game is meant to be a pause, a soft sigh and a quiet, personal moment. If you're here for that and a great soundtrack, Wanderstop is an absolute gem. Other caveat I can give is this game took me approximately 10 hours to complete. I think I went at a fairly middling pace and took a few moments to just... putter around too. $25 for 10 hours can be a hard sell for some people, but I will say it's nice that a game can tell me that I can simply take things at my pace and that there's no need for me to go "forward", whatever that might mean. It was a pretty healing experience for anyone who might feel like they're pushing too hard these days. To me, that's worth it.

Just a beautiful game that has something to say. I've been thinking for a while about what my exact thoughts on Wanderstop actually are, since they have changed quite a bit throughout my time with it. At first I was honestly a little disappointed. Sure, creating all the different plants and using them to make tea was fun but... was this it? Like, was this truly everything this game had to offer in terms of gameplay? I didn't really get it. But the more I sat with it, the more I started to understand. The more the game's themes stuck with me. And the more I began to enjoy the my stay at Wanderstop. To the point where once my time with it was coming to a close, I felt surprisingly emotional. I didn't really want to go, but I knew that it was time for my last cup of tea. It is certainly not a game for everyone, in particular since the main gameplay side of things takes a back seat to the story and presentation. But I can respect a game that has something to say. Something that I think a lot of people tend to forget from time to time. That it's okay to just... slow down. Not everything has to be a task. Not everything has to be a challenge. And even if it may be hard to accept: You don't have to strive for excellence at everything that you do. In that sense the low stakes gameplay perfectly compliments the game's message, even though it took me a while to understand that. Especially as a former "gifted" kid, and in a world where the internet puts constant pressure on us to be perfect at something the moment we decide to share it with others, I think taking this game's message to heart is perhaps more important now than it has been before. If you use video games as a way to take a break from the stress and struggles of life, I'd highly recommend this game. Don't get discouraged if the first few chapters don't capture you immediately, I promise it will be worth it once you take your time. With a total playtime of 14 and a half hours, my stay at Wanderstop wasn't particularly long, and I don't think I will be returning for quite some time. But the things this game has taught me will stay with me for quite some time. And I have no doubt that I will return again some day.Just a beautiful game that has something to say. I've been thinking for a while about what my exact thoughts on Wanderstop actually are, since they have changed quite a bit throughout my time with it. At first I was honestly a little disappointed. Sure, creating all the different plants and using them to make tea was fun but... was this it? Like, was this truly everything this game had to offer in terms of gameplay? I didn't really get it. But the more I sat with it, the more I started to understand. The more the game's themes stuck with me. And the more I began to enjoy the my stay at Wanderstop. To the point where once my time with it was coming to a close, I felt surprisingly emotional. I didn't really want to go, but I knew that it was time for my last cup of tea. It is certainly not a game for everyone, in particular since the main gameplay side of things takes a back seat to the story and presentation. But I can respect a game that has something to say. Something that I think a lot of people tend to forget from time to time. That it's okay to just... slow down. Not everything has to be a task. Not everything has to be a challenge. And even if it may be hard to accept: You don't have to strive for excellence at everything that you do. In that sense the low stakes gameplay perfectly compliments the game's message, even though it took me a while to understand that. Especially as a former "gifted" kid, and in a world where the internet puts constant pressure on us to be perfect at something the moment we decide to share it with others, I think taking this game's message to heart is perhaps more important now than it has been before. If you use video games as a way to take a break from the stress and struggles of life, I'd highly recommend this game. Don't get discouraged if the first few chapters don't capture you immediately, I promise it will be worth it once you take your time. With a total playtime of 14 and a half hours, my stay at Wanderstop wasn't particularly long, and I don't think I will be returning for quite some time. But the things this game has taught me will stay with me for quite some time. And I have no doubt that I will return again some day.

Wanderstop is one of the most impactful games I played this year. It is not for everyone and it may hit people differently depending on where a person is at in their life and where their headspace is at, but if you're up for something different and possibly insightful - this game is something special. Cozy gameplay elements blend with a deep narrative about change and (sometimes uncomfortable) mental health topics, endearing characters, which are then all bundled together with C418'2 music - perfection! I really appreciate the story the devs were trying to tell with this game. This one is gonna stick with me for some time.

Where most management games are about min-maxing your yield, and doing everything to reach a sense of perfection, Wanderstop instead asks the player to step away from the concept of perfection entirely and embrace the experience. It's often obtuse, and quirky, but its heart is in the right place for tackling questions of mental health, burn out, and embracing change.