Wanderstop is an emotional narrative story in which you run a tea shop. You'll meet all types of people and brew the kind of teas for them they like. No missable achievements and completion takes around 12 hours.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: Around 12 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 1/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: You don't need a guide. You don't need a guide. I highly recommend playing this game blind.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty setting
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

This review for Wanderstop is hard to write. Not because it is a bad game, not at all, but because I don't want to spoil anything. I think the surprise of some things adds a lot to the impact this game can have, and the message is such an important one. Wanderstop is kind of like a therapy session; it is hard to hear but comes with valuable live lessons.

In Wanderstop, you play Alta, a fighter. She is a fighter in every vessel in her body. Nothing else is more important in her life than being a fighter and winning every fight, so the losses are heavy on her heart. What happens when you are so passionate about one thing and one thing only and fail one too many times? What if you feel you can't continue because you're failing at what you're supposed to be? This is the situation Alta finds herself in when she encounters a Tea shop in the middle of a thick forest. Boro, the shop owner, will welcome you and ask you to drink tea with him, but you don't feel up for it; you can't sit and do nothing; you have to continue; you have to fight (literally and figuratively).

Alta's body and mind are worn out, so she has no choice but to take her time and stay at the Wanderstop tea shop while helping run it for a short time. She'll meet all kinds of people; some will like her, others will look down on her once they get to know her, and some push her buttons, but all the visitors of the Wanderstop tea shop have a life lesson in stock for her (and in that way for you).

Wanderstop has so many life lessons for the player. As someone with close friends who are burnt out, this gives a glimpse into their struggles. As well as it challenged my own way of life. Sometimes, Wanderstop forces you to slow down and take your time, which I struggled with. This was positive as it is clear why the game asks you to take your time, and it fits the narrative so well, but that didn't make it any easier for a person like me who isn't good at slowing down irl either. So it kinda was confrontational in a good way.

Before I could really enjoy the game and its whimsical and wonderous visitors, I had to complete the tutorial. It involved a bit too much hand-holding for my liking, but I didn't dare turn the tutorial off, too afraid of missing something important (I never turn off the tutorial; I'm always afraid of missing important stuff). You had to go back to Boro after each step. I would have loved to have a few steps lined out and then go back. However, I can see how this makes Wanderstop accessible to everybody. They don't drown you in information and take the time to explain everything.

A great thing is that there is this book that spells out what each visitor exactly wants, so if you're stuck figuring it out or just don't like that puzzle, you can use that book to look up what you need to make. It is so nice that the developers gave you the choice of whatever game style fits you.

What made me really happy in Wanderstop were the beautiful flowers, the cute Puffins who love your tea and will take every opportunity to steal it from you, the beautiful posters you'll find along the way, and the many unique mugs. It always felt so great when I found a new mug that I loved, and I would use that for every visitor after finding it. There were so many of those I would love to have in real life; the designs were great! It is so clear how much love and passion went into making Wanderstop.

None of the achievements are missable, as they are all part of the story. Completing the game takes around 12 hours. So please do yourself a favor, don't read up too much, but dive into this whimsical therapy session and maybe with a cup of tea next to you irl.

I give Wanderstop 4 out of 5 stars.

Full review here on Video Games as Literature.[www.videogamesaslit.com]

Wanderstop is a beautiful game about imperfection, taking it slow, and drinking lots and lots of tea. The heroine of the story, Alta, is the best in her field. That her field is combat is less relevant than the simple fact that she is the very best -- like no one ever was. But then Alta is beat -- more than once. She is no longer the best, and she doesn't know how to be less than perfect. So she travels into the woods to find her old teacher and to try to, once again, become the best. How could there be any greater goal?

Many of us can relate to Alta. Phrases like, "You can be anything," or "Believe in yourself" proliferate in the American education system and elsewhere. The so-called "gifted kid to burnout pipeline" has claimed many adults who were told as children that they would do great things, save the world, or even become world leaders when they grew up. When the adults told them that, they fully believed it and tried to achieve it, and many eventually experienced extreme burnout at a young age. I'm certain many game developers can also relate to Alta's struggles, as the commonality of crunch practices in game development spaces is causing high levels of burnout for game developers.

An exhausted Alta eventually finds herself at Wanderstop, a simple tea shop somewhere in the middle of the forest. The shop's keeper, Boro, suggests that Alta is too exhausted to continue, and offers her a job making and serving tea. Through her time at Wanderstop Alta learns that sometimes we really do just need to slow down or stop entirely -- that pushing ourselves to the brink of death may not be worth it, and maybe goals need to be adjusted sometimes.

Characters:

The way Wanderstop approaches the secondary characters in the story is somewhat revolutionary. Players know a lot about Alta, as she is the main character of the game. The other characters who enter the tea shop, however, are a little more opaque. We get to know them a bit, learn about their problems, begin to pick our favorites and decide that we really like these characters, and then... they leave. Unlike the quests you'll encounter in most RPGs, Alta is not required or encouraged to fix the problems of the people who frequent her tea shop. Instead she simply listens when they speak, occasionally responds with helpful or less-than-helpful dialogue choices, and then everyone goes about their own personal business. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that we may be the main characters in our own stories, but we are not the main character in other peoples' lives. It is not my (real life) job to fix others' problems, even if we are friends. Sometimes the best I can do, as a person, is listen to what people want to tell me, and let them figure out their lives while I figure out mine.

Accessibility:

Wanderstop has some great accessibility options that have been very helpful for me, personally. As usual, I cannot speak on all disabilities and can only speak on my own disabilities and accessibility needs. The options menu can be accessed at any time during the game, and accessibility options include subtitles in different sizes, a dyslexia-friendly font that can be turned on or off, multiple options for colorblind support, and a motion sickness dot. Other very specific functions in the game can be tweaked as well, including "hold bellows button to heat" (so you don't have to button mash), camera sway and sensitivity, dialogue speed, and more. My own primary accessibility needs involve motion sickness and button mashing, so I'm happy to see options to reduce both of those problems for me. I'm pleased with the outcome and I personally have no hindrances to playing this game with my disabilities.

I will note that I have been playing the game on the Steam Deck and on my television. While Steam Deck warns that the text may be too small to read, I have not had a problem with this, and I played with the subtitles on medium size. I am legally blind but not fully unable to see, so while some games are difficult for me in this area, I have had no problem with Wanderstop. I suspect Steam will update its information to reflect this after Wanderstop is officially released.

Story:

The story in Wanderstop may be short, but it is far from shallow. Alta is a fully realized character and the story is more about her journey than anything else. Alta is human and Alta is all of us. Her emotions feel very real and raw. There isn't much more I can say about the story without spoiling it, but I can say with confidence that Wanderstop is a story everyone should experience.

Graphics, Controls, Etc.:

I don't have a lot to say about the graphics. They are beautiful. They are gorgeous. The colors pop splendidly. The only more specific thing I can note is that when I started the game, I wondered if Wanderstop was created by the same developers who made Slime Rancher (it's not) because the graphics seemed so similar. Both games evoked a lot of emotions for me, so that may be part of the reason I noticed a similarity.

The controls in Wanderstop worked fluidly and I had no trouble whatsoever. I played on Steam Deck, both in handheld mode and docked to my television and attached to an X-Box controller. Everything ran surprisingly smoothly and I experienced no notable glitches or bugs! In this day and age, I'm very pleasantly surprised.

Overall my experience with Wanderstop has been pretty much perfect. It's rare for me to have absolutely nothing bad to say about a thing I'm reviewing, yet here we are. Wanderstop will certainly go to the top of my favorites list, and I foresee many replays in my future.

this game is beautiful and I absolutely love the writing and the music ♥♥♥♥♥ SO HARD and you should go buy this. I can also confirm that the writer of this game is bald, and that his brother is not bald.
This is not a joke the game is really really good. And I am not bald.