Wanderstop

Very enjoyable. I like to turn this game on after a hard day at work to relax.

I wanted to enjoy this game. But I constantly found myself at odds with almost every single interaction that took place. I hated almost every single character, until Ren arrived. I finally had someone I could agree with, someone who understood that just throwing away all your passion and drive wasn't the right thing to do, that your will and sense of self-fufilment are things to temper into a finely crafted, weighted blade. Only for the game to attempt to present him like an egotistical ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, cut his arm off, and send him off forever. I'd rather not get started on how I was left feeling about the allegory for creative freedom actively WANTING to become a corpo-rat. I fundamentally understand the ideas behind the game, but it's construction is anti-thetical to the point. After every single reset, I ignored everything to immediately spend the next 20 minutes re-making every single plant that had been deleted, because what if I got a request for something I hadn't planted yet? I need to fill out the rest of the grey-ed out spots in the field guide, too. The game actually lends itself to this pace as well, allowing you all the time you need before you start that first tea request and the rest of the customers begin to flow into the clearing. While the entire game was telling me to relax, and to play the game for the sake of playing it and nothing else, the game's underlying systems of the field guide and the inclusion of achievements (Reguardless if they're guarenteed and seem to randomly pop some time after you've actually cleared their requirement) constantly undermined their point, to a point of extreme frustration with the narrative for me. The way the narritave is also cut up and unfinished means you're in for an incredibly short experience, with my completion taking approximately 14 hours. Altogether I think it's an exrtremely cozy experience, the act of doing the requests was enjoyable, I think some of the small puzzles the game presents you are well-designed and intuitive. and I enjoyed some of the small pleasures like feeding the penguins to change their colours and watching them run around, glowing with purples and reds and greens. The music is incredible, but that's to be expected, C418's a master of their craft. But I think the game actually falls flat on it's face at the very end. With there being no "infinite mode" I think if, at the end of the game, when you are presented with the point of no return, it would have been nice to actually have a neverending flow of requests, since you have every single plant finally available to you. But no, you're told to "Get bored" and end the game. So that's what I did, and I don't think I'll be spending anymore time with this game outside of it's soundtrack. A wonderful, comfy tea-making sim, with a frustrating narrative that leaves you at odds with everyone around you, if you have the gall to want to play video games.

Отмечу для сомневающихся - есть русский перевод, любительский. Доступен по ссылке из стима. В остальном игра прекрасна. Очень жаль что именно этот проект издатель/разработчик решил не локализовывать на русский.

it put into words something ive been struggling with for years, i am forever changed after playing this game. thank you

TL;DR: Unalluring, very slow and repetitive for my taste, both dialogue and gameplay. Funny at times but meh. The first hour of the game is well enough to know whether it's worth it for you, there are no big changes later on. I really enjoyed The Stanley Parable and that was the reason to try Wanderstop but I'm very disappointed. Because of that I completed the whole story but it felt like a chore and I should have stopped early. I spent the whole game waiting for something. Even though there are some enjoyable moments, the vast majority of the time I was powering through rather than being captivated and letting myself go. Even though "slowing down" seems to be a/the main topic of the story, there isn't any designed epiphany, just a tiresome adagio, IMHO. As for the gameplay, controls are clunky. Sometimes it's cumbersome to align the character to perform an action, and it could be on purpose on a different kind of genre but here it's just annoying, it feels like a game from the early 2000's I experienced at least 3 minor bugs, one by which I couldn't complete a secondary task, so I missed a dialogue. It's definitely story-heavy with some crafty main loop, both of which are my cup of tea but they are not well-executed at all in this game IMHO. There is some good technique of dialogue threading to make your options more engaging and relevant but it doesn't work for me. I love wholesome, wacky and snarky, and Wanderstop is a bit of those but not in a high intensity, it doesn't feel enough most of the time, not relatable enough, not human enough. Play Spiritfarer instead for wonderfully touching characters you care about.

I burnt out while looking at this blue-pink world - fake, acid and uncozy vibes all-round

I found the game to be overly preachy while ignoring the reality of the fact that most of us suffering from burnout don't have the luxury of putting in exactly as much effort as we please while all needs are seen to by someone else. Sorry, I have bills to pay and relaxing at my own pace doesn't keep a roof over my head. Maybe for some people the necessity to keep pushing forever is one hundred percent due to their own internal drive to win or whatever, but it seems unrealistic at best to me. Oh, and then the garden I was working on got wiped out when I changed seasons. I lost all incentive to keep playing at that point. Unfortunately, that was half an hour past the refund window.