Wanderstop Review – My Burnout Story and Why This Cozy Tea Game Became a Healing Experience
Wanderstop is a cozy narrative game where you brew tea, meet quirky characters, and recover from burnout. A magical forest and heartfelt storytelling make it a must-play.
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Game: Wanderstop
Studio: Ivy Road
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Platforms: Steam
Completion Time: 10+ Hours
Price: $9.99
Genre: Adventure, Farming Sim, Narrative
✅ Steam Deck Verified
Wanderstop is a narrative cozy game about taking a step back from life’s struggles—all while making tea and accepting change. From Ivy Road, and led by the director Davey Wreden who brought us the classic Stanley Parable, let’s find out why Wanderstop is a must-play game of the year.
Alta’s Journey
Alta is a legendary fighter whose triumphant reign comes to an abrupt end when she experiences her first defeat. But not to worry—she dusts herself off and chalks it up to a missed opportunity, and heads right back into battle. But what’s this? Once again, she finds herself back on the ground, defeated, with another fighter taking her place. This isn’t who she is. She is always triumphant. She is a winner. Something has to be wrong, and only her teacher, Master Winters, can provide the answer as to why she is failing.
Her journey begins as she heads to an enchanted forest where Master Winters resides, when she feels the weight of her sword begin to grow. This is unbelievable; it’s the sword she has used time and time again to defeat every fighter in her path. How could it be that it’s now so heavy she is unable to lift it? This is just a distraction; she leaves the sword behind and starts to run again—when she ultimately collapses and faints in the forest.
This is where you meet Boro, the lovable companion you will talk with throughout the game, who owns the Wanderstop tea shop in the beautiful clearing. He rescued Alta from the forest—and even her sword, which startles Alta because she felt the sword was too heavy. How could he have lifted it, only to learn it’s not the sword? She is defeated in a way she has never experienced before: burned out. And only proper rest can give Alta what she needs to overcome her defeat.
Okay, let’s get into the gameplay and how Alta will find her way.
Tea-Time Mechanics
Alta is often reluctant to even begin just making tea for the tea shop. She is a fighter, not someone who makes tea—but ultimately, this is where she will begin her journey. To get into the gameplay, we can start with the tools Boro introduces you to.
Tools:
Broom for sweeping away piles of leaves
Basket to forage for tea leaves
Trimmer for clipping overgrown roots, plants, and trees
Watering Can for plants and trees
Alta watering plants in Wanderstop
Okay, I’ll go through five of the fundamental gameplay scenarios you have here.
Tea Making
This large tea machine—filling water, boiling, mixing ingredients, and pouring the right amount—all comes with its unique size and style, where mixing different ingredients gives you these amazing colorful concoctions for customers visiting the Wanderstop.
The Narrative
Speaking with customers and meeting all walks of life. My personal favorite was the first person you meet: a wannabe knight trying to impress his son, who is a walking rolling-eyes emoji. He’s so sweet, loves his son, and wants the best for him—but is bad at everything he does. Love him.
Farming
Planting seeds, growing flowers, combining them to create trees or different varieties of flavors/colors for the trees. This is the main area of farming you will encounter. I do not like farming games, but here you water the plants and trees and they IMMEDIATELY produce the seeds and fruits, which is much better than waiting over long periods of time. With the combinations, it reminds me of how you would grow flowers and different variants in Animal Crossing.
Foraging
This is where you will collect tea leaves from bushes you use to make said tea, sweep up leaves, cut overgrown roots, and collect mushrooms which have their own magical abilities of duplication, color, and size-changing of trees.
Photographer
This was one of my favorites that isn’t explicitly forced upon you until late-game, but was something I already took into my own hands—littering the tea shop with my own photos and those provided by patrons. It has a great zoom feature, and with the colorful world of every backdrop popping, it makes for a great bonus to the already beautiful world you will capture.
Cozy and Vibrant
What a colorful clearing and cozy world the studio Ivy Road has created. It’s cozy in the way the shop is designed, and the clearing has these little puffins waddling around bringing you packages to deliver or lost items. You can decorate the shop how you want with cute pictures you take and even plant what you want around the pots littered around the shop. It makes for a personalized experience that wasn’t tedious but inviting in the relaxed way you can decorate at your pace. Remember: Alta is here to take a step back and relax.
The game exists in chapters that are separated by seasons, so with that comes newly designed plants, trees, and the setting changing around so the clearing feels like a brand-new place. The water fountain, farming area, trees, and more—all in different places. This visually also changes the overall color of the world, only at one point becoming a different world completely that I won’t spoil by going any farther.
Each character’s design and unique characteristics complement this visual aspect of the game—Nana, a competitive saleswoman who opens up shop next to yours; the celestial being who visits you; the boring businessmen; or the aforementioned knight and his interesting style—all come with their own baggage, almost giving a small taste of their struggle and how Alta can assist by making the right tea for their mood. The character designs were some of my favorite visuals in the game.
Sound and Soul
The cozy, relaxing setting and soundtrack are coupled together to create a relaxing experience that was euphoric. I would sometimes close my eyes and just appreciate the work of C418. I honestly have never known how to say their name, but you may be familiar with their music from the Minecraft soundtracks. Can someone let me know in the comments how to say their name? See Four One Eight / C4 Eighteen?
Aside from the main soundtrack, which floats in and out depending on the area or what you are doing in the game, the Wanderstop has a radio where you can adjust the dial to three different songs. The songs all change with each chapter. This radio has over 30+ songs—you can check out all of them on C418’s Bandcamp. Here is the full playlist.
It shifts from heartfelt tones and symphonic melodies to upbeat, danceable jukebox tunes, making the music intrinsic to the game's wit and charm.
For an example, here is Polaroid that starts out innocent enough before rearranging to a darker tone. Enjoy!
A Must-Play Experience
I played the demo for Wanderstop, and at that time it didn't agree with me. Countless demo reviews and word of mouth exhausted every part of me. What was I missing that others were embracing wholeheartedly? I could not, for the life of me, get it.
A couple of weeks ago I was on a tight schedule—releasing two to three reviews a week—and with the newsletter, I felt the first burnout since I started Good Game Lobby. I even brought it up to the other friends and creators in my Discord (which you can join here) . To think: nine months in, and this was my first time was impressive to me—but I wasn’t taking a step back to see it in the right light. I finished my last review and looked at what was offered from the LudoNarraCon event and remembered that Wanderstop was a part of the event. What luck! I can try out the full game and see if maybe—just maybe—something I was missing was there all along.
When I realized that at one point, I was Alta. I was burnt out. I needed a break to just rest, take it easy, and sip a big glass of tea. It all just clicked. So much so that I actually couldn't put the game down. Waiting to meet a new customer or hear something funny Boro would say, or discover a new plant or tea combination—was all that was on my mind.
Alta goes through many experiences, and at one point, things come into perspective that open up the story to truly embrace what she is going through. For fear of spoilers, that’s as far as I will go—but I wanted to share just a bit, because where I was lost when I first played the demo is that it’s not just about farming or making tea at all. Wanderstop didn’t just entertain me—it brought me life again. Made me realize that sometimes it's nice to reflect and appreciate life for what it is instead of pushing through it.
The 10+ hours it took me to complete the game flew by. It’s priced at $24.99, which seems to be the sweet spot for a great indie game. It’s Steam Deck verified, but I’m assuming you need to drop the graphical output a bit—as I did on the ROG Ally—to get a steady 30fps.
A cozy narrative adventure whose visual design is warm and colorful and invites a sense of calm even when working was a delightful touch I needed in my life. I will miss Boro and the shop, but it is an experience I will never forget. Wanderstop is one of the best games of the year and is a must-play for me.
Thanks to Fellow Traveller for the review key for the LudoNarraCon event.
Glad to hear you're feeling better, but do keep an eye on the burnout. It's easy to not notice until it's too late. A week with no review to recharge and refresh is far better than endlessly exhausting yourself. That's the quickest way to lose the passion.
What a lovely review! It was on my radar for a while now and it's great to see that you enjoyed it. I think that when I get my inevitable burnout, I'll be grabbing this game lol