Wanderstop

A while back I discussed with one of my friends the idea of “the forever game”. The definition of a forever game is one that’ll vary from person to person, but my interpretation is that a forever game never ends. There is no end goal or finishing line to speak. You just keep playing without stopping. The forever game is less about offering a player a uniquely crafted experience. Where they can walk thoroughly pleased with what they managed to work through. The forever game is there to fill up time. To be there when someone has literally nothing else left to do with the time they have. The reward of the forever game is not overcoming its many challenges. The reward is more time to kill and waste away with this singular video game. To just keep playing forever till your fingers stop working. I do not like the concept of the forever game. I want to clarify that it is not wrong for someone to enjoy a forever game. Stardew Valley is one of the most well praised indie games of all time despite being a forever game, and that’s because it understands the core ingredients that made classics like Harvest Moon good. Deep Rock Galactic has no end in sight, but it’s less about providing goals to work towards and more about having joyous fun with your friends. You can also argue to me about RPGs with more than hundreds of hours of content.

There is nothing wrong with liking a forever game, or playing the same titles all the time. It’s the toxic relationship forever games have with their audiences that I despise. Asking players to pump in work hours to keep up with everyone. Promising rewards that become useless in seconds as a game sets new rewards to replace the old ones. Telling players they should keep coming back as there is always something “new” being added to the game. To block out everything around them and just put all their attention into this singular game. An endless loop of momentary satisfaction followed by repeating the process again. It’s why I’m not a fan of big multiplayer titles or online live-service games. All good art must come to an end at some point. People must be able to move on and find different interests. Good art is not about the amount of time you put in, but memories you formed with said art. I’d rather recommend games that end at some point versus games that you play religiously. It’s the never ending process of grinding away that leads to the number one feeling no one wants to experience. That feeling you get when something you were so passionate about becomes something you hate. That feeling is burnout.

Back in 2024, I was starting to feel extremely burnt out when it came to writing my reviews. I’ve been doing this since 2019, and while my work has improved a lot since then I feel like my work just wasn’t enough. Combined this with the workload and stress of college it placed a ton of bad weight onto my shoulders. The thought of not being able to make it, and if I did what would be the end result. Would it be good enough, and would people finally recognize all the sacrifices and struggles I’ve made over the years? Am I happy with who I am? Are others happy for who I am? Is it ever enough and when will it be enough? My younger self had so much optimism to do anything. Write as many reviews as he wants, and succeed with flying colors in every class. That energy is dwindling within me, and my greatest fear is the day I lose motivation. The day I stop doing what I love, or stop trying to be a good person. The day I realize nothing is worth it, and there are weeks where it truly feels like that. When I think about my existence and whether I have served a good purpose. If I’m truly a person who deserves to exist, and if not is it because I had not worked hard enough. These are the thoughts that flood my head with burnout. I do all I can to chase these thoughts away, and while I mostly succeed they sometimes come back. I wish there were a game that could help process these thoughts I’m going through. I wish……..

Davey Wreden is the man who created The Stanley Parable. Originally a Half-Life 2 mod, which then turned into its own video game. An extremely funny experience when critically analyzed is actually a critique about choices in video games. That no matter how drastic choices & decisions are you always end up railroaded into a specific conclusion or event. At times choices don’t even matter at all, and this is what Wreden really wanted to highlight with that game. The illusion of choice, a topic often talked about in gaming. Then he did The Beginner’s Guide, a short walking simulator diving into two unique characters. One about a game developer trying to make work he could be happy with, and the other being the one who fabricated the story around it. This game explored self-worth and what one is willing to do to feel like they are a good person. Even if it means hurting someone close to them. After that there wasn’t much else heard from Wreden. He did update The Stanley Parable, but overall there were no new games from Wreden since 2015. Everyone thought this legend was gone, but in 2024 he made his biggest reveal yet.

Not only did he form his own indie studio named Ivy Road, but over the past few years they have been hard at work developing a new title named Wanderstop. A cozy game about burnout. When this game got initially revealed I wasn’t all too excited. I knew it would be good, but didn’t know if it would stand out like Wreden’s past titles. Cozy games have become extremely oversaturated, and I’m not a fan of management games. Something Wanderstop wanted to be as it showed the player managing their own tea shop. The only cozy management game I ever played and covered was Spiritfarer. I’ve played no other genre entries, but hearing more about Wanderstop overtime did get me interested. It wasn’t aiming to be the biggest management game ever, or one that aims to occupy your time endlessly. Its focus was its main message, and eventually I was intrigued to play this game. I can’t believe I didn’t play this game in 2025. This is the most I’ve related to a game in quite awhile. It’s not my favorite story of 2025, but it explored feelings I struggled to understand before. Today we're discussing Wanderstop, and why it deserves your attention.

Story

Our tale follows Alta, a young woman who spent a majority of life training to become a fighter. Studying multiple fighting styles, waking up early every morning to work out, and learning from every mistake she made. Purging every flaw she found within herself until she crafted her ideal image. She became one of the greatest fighters amongst the land, and for several years she was undefeated. Standing tall as the people worshipped her for skills, effort, and fame. She had done it all. She was finally loved and could be proud of the person she was. That wasn’t until she was toppled by a greater opponent. What went wrong? The opponent was weaker than her and had lesser skills, but somehow she failed. Whatever, it was something she was willing to learn from and soon she would reclaim her position. That isn’t what happens though, as Alta fails again in battle and struggles to re-obtain what she once had. She kept fighting, working, and trying oh so hard but nothing transformed her back into a companion. She was stuck and began to wonder if all she strived for was worthless. If people would forget her and no longer use as the ideal image of a good person. Was she still a good person? Was there something wrong with her, and if so is this punishment for her imperfections? Was she an individual who deserved to exist?

Alta didn’t want to give up. She didn’t admit defeat as it was a sign of weakness, so instead she seeks someone who could help her. A retired fighter who rests in the woods, Master Winters. The formed fighter could help work Alta back up, and so our protagonist rushes down the forest path. To find this master and purge her flaws more. To become whole again, but much like before this is not what ends up happening. Alta’s body starts to wear out, her sword starts to weigh that of a thousand pounds, and she struggles to keep herself up. Alta pushes herself to keep moving, but eventually tires out. Collapsing towards the ground and seeing everything fade to black. She then suddenly awakens outside a cottage. Not just a cottage, but what appears to be a shop. A forest is a weird place to open shop, and it’s run by a strange man named Boro. He makes tea for all those who pass by, and tries to strike conversation with Alta. He found her passed out, and brought her back here alongside her sword. Alta refuses to talk and attempts to leave with her stuff, but then struggles to lift her blade. She is unable to push herself further, and so Boro makes a proposition to her. Help tend his shop and make tea for travelers until Alta builds up the strength to venture once again. Alta, despite being upset, agrees, and over several days learns how to make tea. She will help out a variety of folks and slowly but surely understand what she is going through.

Gameplay

In this game you’ll be finding yourself tending to a tea shop, growing the resources you need to stir up tea, cleaning whatever needs cleaning, and serving the passing travelers who stop by. Tea is made using a machine placed in the center of the shop. Pour the water, boil it, add in all of the ingredients you want, and pour it into a cup. Make sure to place the cup into the dishwasher once the tea is drinked. Central ingredients are tea balls and mixtures. The tea balls are made through gathering tea leaves outside with a basket, and placing the leaves into a separate machine so they can be finely meshed into a ball-like shape. The mixtures of course being the plants you grow outside. Growing crops is quite simple. There are four different seed types, and by placing them in different arrangements will form different plants. When watered they’ll sprout out more seeds, or specific fruits and ingredients. Customers will tell you what they specifically want and all you have to do is follow along. There's even a book of answers containing instructions if you want an easier time knowing how to make what they desire. You can mess up an order either by missing a step or ingredient, but you can either try again until you get it right or skip the process entirely. Now making tea isn’t the only thing you do in Wanderstop. There’s also customizing the shop to your liking and trying to make it into a more livelier place for you and others.

You can rearrange the plants both inside and outside the shop. Forage for mushrooms to make it all look prettier. Take pictures using the camera, and place photos into picture frames. Cut any of the weeds that have grown wildly, or sweep up leaf piles. Pick up a lost bird and carry it back to the resting hut. Grow plants not just for making tea ingredients, but to add more exotic wildlife to the shop. Heck, tea doesn’t always have to be made for the customers. You can make tea for Alta, and the fruit you use will change what thoughts Alta has upon drinking the tea. Maybe it’s an important memory from when she was younger, or thoughts she struggles to understand along with her struggle to become a perfect fighter. Eventually you will have to move on. Customers get everything they want and there’s nothing else you can do to help them. Onto the next phase of folks that need helping. Onto the next set of souls with interesting experiences and stories. To see how Alta handles these problems. To connect them to herself and how she interprets them. By the end of all this you will be a different person, and  all we can hope is for inner peace.

Thoughts

Why did I open up this review talking about the concept of “the forever game” rather than what Wanderstop is actually about? The reason why I did it is so that not only do you understand why I don’t like games that never end, but why I don’t play or cover cozy management games. I own Stardew Valley on PC, but I don’t play it. My older sibling shares a Steam account with me, and I let her have access to the games I own as well as add whatever she wants. Stardew Valley is one of her most favorite games of all time due to how she can come back to it whenever and still get a ton of fun out of it. If she were to rate it she’d give it a 9/10, and it’s not often she scores titles that high. This is a game she really loves, but at the same time she disagrees with the statement that it is a cozy game. She thinks Stardew Valley can be pretty stressful at times, and that’s due to how it’s built around the idea of “the forever game” in mind. A game always tells the player that there is something to do. Something to write down on a list, get to later, and once that task is done move onto the next one. Plant crops, decorate your house, go into town, tend to the locals, buy stuff, farm more, rearrange your decorations, buy more stuff, tend to the locals more, the list of tasks is never ending. Now you could argue these feelings of never ending tasks depend on the type of player you are. Fair enough, but notice these tasks accumulated.

I am not trying to look down on Stardew Valley. It’s a game I heavily respect seeing how it came from one guy, and occasionally from time to time I consider playing it due to its charm. You just cannot deny that a player’s experience with repetition can stem from a game never truly choosing to end. That’s why the only cozy management simulator I ever played and reviewed for this site was Spiritfarer. A game that’s slow, calming, and at some point chooses to end. Spiritfarer chose to end because it has a message you want to walk away with. That nothing can last forever. The friends and family you grew to love will pass away at some point. They will no longer be around to comfort you, have conversations with, and go on endless adventures. They will pass away and the protagonist has to come to terms with it. Seeing death as a cycle of life rather than constantly makes things worse. Spiritfarer choosing to end a cozy management simulator adds to its main message that you have to move on as a person. You can’t stay here forever, because doing so will only hold you back as a person. However, this review is not about Spiritfarer as we already went over this game back in 2021. This review is about Wanderstop, a cozy game that eventually ends and the topic it covers. Wanderstop is one of the best cozy games I’ve played.

Gameplay is not the greatest strength of Wanderstop. It doesn’t have the same layer of depth, list of mechanics, or things to do like a majority of cozy management simulators. I hate saying this, because I adore what is on offer here. I am a fan of titles that turn boring jobs into engaging core gameplay loops. Games that take the ordinary and make something unique. Not For Broadcast is a broadcasting sim where what you choose to show on television affects how the public will see the government. Return of The Obra Dinn makes being a detective satisfying through how info is discovered. Death Stranding manages to create immaculate vibes in a dying world. Vibes I have not seen in any game all through the cycle of delivering packages. The core loop of Wanderstop is one I really enjoyed. Making tea that fulfills a customer’s needs, and following a correct order of steps. Learning how to get the key ingredients needed and working with what you have. The gardening system is complex but not so complex that you get confused. It’s all about aligning the seeds you have and making due with limited space. Sometimes you run out of the seed types you need and there are no other plants that’ll produce them. However, it’s not the end of the world as if you get stuck you have a list of options. One of which being to do something else. You aren’t put under a time limit where you need to rush out a customer order quickly. Go out, sweep some bushes, snip some weeds, place some flowers into pots, and return missing mail. There’s even a fun side story of an owl detective who’s constantly surprised of you finding key evidence and gets crazier with time.

I like how tea balls require not just picking up enough tea leaves, but waiting for the balls to then be molded. Forcing you to do something else while waiting for them to be done. Sometimes by doing something else you get what you need. Leaf piles will occasionally drop random loot and some of it are seeds. The birds waddling about will be carrying stuff, and some of it are seeds. If you think making the tea required is a hassle you can bypass it. Just give the tea to the customer, they’ll be displeased, and tell them you aren’t able to replicate what they want. Now there is a bit of criticism to be made for Wanderstop letting you do this. It means there’s no real challenge. No point where progression is blocked off. The story goes on despite player choice and action, and this can lead to dissatisfaction. I played this game on my PlayStation 5 and noticed trophies were unlocked not through acquiring specific feats, but just playing casually. It’s unlocked by putting in enough time, and that time is ten or so hours which is the runtime for Wanderstop. This is not a cozy game asking you to pursue a list of tasks and do them to uttermost perfection. This is not a cozy game where you tend to the gardens and shop endlessly. This is a cozy game that will end, and that is what I love the most about Wanderstop. The fact you can’t play infinitely and how it ties well together with the main story. It being about burnout & self worth.

Alta is an intriguing, deep, and well written female protagonist. The intro cutscene does a great job setting her up, the personal conflict she’s going through, and getting the player to relate to all her struggles. She fears that if she doesn’t maintain her perfect record people will forget her. Lost to the endless void of time. Memories of her status, name, and effort being forgotten and if not it will be used as reference for what it means to be a washed up individual. Her first fear is that all she has done was pointless, and rather than give up she attempts to strive once more. Work her way back up from rock bottom, but that too doesn’t work. This is when the second fear kicks in, and it’s how she’s worried she’ll lose motivation. She stops enjoying what she loves, and sees it more as a hindrance to her life rather than something she dabbles into. I don’t think I would ever want to start hating video games. It’s something that helps take my mind off things, and if ever there comes a point where video games stop being fun to me then something certainly has gone wrong. Alta rushes into the woods in hope of something that can fix her. Restore her mind and body into their prime. We all have gone through an experience like this at some point. A period in life where we question if we’re good enough. If something needs to be mended or critiqued. We search for answers. We question and beg others around us to offer guidance. Only to meet with no results, and become more frustrated in search of perfection.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, because what makes it special is Alta’s reflection and the player helping her accept who she is. She doesn't have to be perfect to be good. Occasionally Alta makes a mistake or does something that hurts another, but you can’t let that single action hold them down for the rest of their life. You grow, learn, change, and choose when to forgive all you have done. This process of acceptance and change is even reflected with the gameplay. The customers have their own tales and not all of them you get to witness till the end. Some of them you just have to leave behind despite wanting to help them. They’re on their own path, and you are wandering your own. The seasons change as well as the setup of the shop each time a player decides to advance, and it’s a nice symbol to not just show player progression but Alta growing. That’s a nice way of phrasing things. Countless points in the past I’ve worried about how people will view me. My life isn’t as successful as those who’ve grown up aside from me. That I need to do everything I can to prove I am a worthy person. However, life is life. Not every journey needs to be the same, or structured the same. We all have our own paths, and it’s our job to figure out how we walk it. Symbolized with how Alta finds herself stuck in a loop of nonstop running, and eventually she breaks this loop. To stop running and simply walk. Wanderstop is a beautiful work of art about burnout, self worth, and acceptance. It’s the most I’ve connected to a video game in quite some time, and I’m gonna be thinking about it for the many years to come. Much like any memorable work of art.

There was a lot more I wanted to discuss like how the game utilizes warm and cool colors. The music while not being a lot is quite somber, and without sounding too disrespectful it’s as if the Breath of The Wild soundtrack was actually good. Small doses of peace that make you feel the more you tune out to it. I love the art direction and style they used when it came to hand drawn cutscenes. How the formation of the tea shop changing each chapter prevents the small space the player runs around and works in from getting stale. The ten hour runtime being perfect for a title such as this. Wanderstop is a masterpiece. It is not without some flaws, and in some way my all time favorite cozy game is still Spiritfarer. I believe it will remain a modern underrated classic not because of what it does for the cozy game genre, but what it manages to say using this style of game. I strongly recommend this game for those who either want a short and sweet time, or just like me you need some help understanding what you’re going through or have gone through in the past. I am going to give Wanderstop a 10/10 being incredible. Thank you for reading.

10/10, Incredible