Spill the tea

Alta used to be a champion fighter.

Now, she cant even lift her sword.

After she collapses in the forest, a kindly teashop owner called Boro invites her to join him.

A still image from the intro to Wanderstop, explaining how hard the main character fought.

Maybe a spell of cozy gardening, cleaning, and making tea for customers will help her feel better?

But its only an offer.

you might go back into the forest at any time.

A bald, round man named Boro explaining in Wanderstop that Miss Alta only fights.

Obviously, I tried to leave.

And secondly because, come on.

This game was written by Davey Wreden, the creator ofThe Stanley Parable.

Glass pipes wrapped around a tree and filled with green fluid in Wanderstop.

Theres got to be some kind of secret to ignoring the clear invitation of the game, right?

Not as far as I can tell.

But, although it might sound contradictory at first,Wanderstops attention to detail makes me think there isnt.

The pages of a book, showing crafting recipes for certain kinds of fiction plant in Wanderstop.

This isnt easy to do, at least at first.

One of my early notes reads, oh god, is there a penalty for spilling this tea?

Actually, all the extra goes into feeding the tree that the machine is wrapped around.

Some crops growing in Wanderstop as the protagonist stands nearby, holding a basket.

Maybe my somewhat overly specific reading of this particular metaphor gives me away.

But the point is, the mechanics of the game are constantly underpinning its central theme.

Another example: you cant pick fruit from the same tree forever.

Also: basically every character arc for the customers, which are consistently dense, small-packaged delights.

So, no, I think Alta really has no choice but to stay and make tea.

You cant outrun burnout.

It turns out that theres actually quite a lot to do to run a tea shop.

Then you’re gonna wanna garden, making specific fruits by hybridising different coloured seeds.

Then theres the aforementioned contraption.

The radio will even go static if you dont reset it every so often.

you’re free to make yourself a cup of tea and sit and enjoy it whenever you want.

Doing so is I almost wrote valuable, do you see the issue here?

enjoyable, since you get to learn more about Altas history.

And very occasionally, there wont be anything else for you to do, basically forcing you into it.

The biggest upside of there being so much to do is that every bit of it is charming.

Stand-out character design and voice-y writing make every customer a joy to talk to.

You really wont want to forget that.

There are things that there arent easy fixes for, and it doesnt shy away from presenting that fact.

Its a game that openly admits to not having all of the answers.

Its a game that feels like the process of working through something.