Cosy games and tea are a perfect pairing: think curling up under a blanket, Switch in hand, cup by your side. It’s no wonder, then, that the concept for Wanderstop came about.
The debut from new (and now sadly defunct) studio Ivy Road — co-founded by Davey Wreden, of The Stanley Parable fame — blends management-sim gameplay with a unique story about quelling the ‘do more’ voice in our heads, and taking a break with a hot drink. Now it’s come to Nintendo’s handheld following its debut on other platforms in 2025, you can curl up with it – and I recommend you do.
Wanderstop starts with a motion comic that seems to set up another game. After years undefeated, warrior Alta has lost a series of battles. On a quest to find the illustrious Master Winters, she faints in the woods, fatigued and unable to lift her sword. That’s when she’s found by Boro, the owner of the Wanderstop tea shop.
Unsatisfied with sitting still, Alta starts working with Boro. The two are a very sunshine-rain pairing: Boro is sweet, light-hearted and goofy, while Alta is hot-headed, sardonic, impatient. That means, ironically, working in a slow-paced tea shop is her toughest challenge yet.
Gameplay is mainly chatting to customers and filling their beverage orders. You make tea with a machine that’s the Wonka Factory meets Magic Faraway Tree meets something else magical. It’s a multi-step process where Alta climbs a ladder to boil water, channel it around the tree, and toss in ingredients like fruit and tea leaves.
The farm-sim elements will please most genre fans. You can sow small plants for more seeds, or bigger plants for fruit. Planting various seeds alongside each other grows hybrid plants with a similar flavour to Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ rose-breeding.
Less pleasing, for me, was organising crops in 3D third-person – like Disney Dreamlight Valley but in a hex grid. You have plentiful space to do this, though. In fact, the clearing is so big, I was grateful for Highlight Mode: holding ‘ZR’ to see characters and interactables.
The mechanic of collecting leaves, harvesting fruits and brewing tea is fun, even with a few steps to it. You get a Field Guide that helps you steep yourself in the process and track requests. Experimenting with ingredient combinations produces delightfully psychedelic rainbows in the pot.
You serve a bevvy of customers, from out-of-work demon hunters to nanas threatening to put you out of work. Ingesting their lives and their tea needs is like Spiritfarer and, to a lesser extent, Spirittea, where entertaining dialogue expresses stark personalities and requests until it’s time to move on (I mean leave the clearing – not die).
Tea requests do get more complex: customers might need an energy boost, or crave a particular flavour. You might need to take a puzzle-solving approach or crossbreed plants to get particular ingredients. The difficulty increases at the right pace and it’s satisfying cross-referencing a mood or craving with the Field Guide fruit descriptions. There’s also a Book of Answers that serves full spoilers if you get stuck.
The story is linear yet exploration is free. You can take your time, plant seeds, prune Dreamlight Valley-esque thorns, or pet Pluffins (cheeky little birds that inhabit the clearing). You can also return to the forest, though you won’t get far before Alta faints – a consequence of rushing her recovery.
That’s because Wanderstop wants you to stop. And it’s when you make Alta ‘do nothing’ that the game is often most rewarding. Sit down and drink a cup, and you’re treated to a narrative-driven pause where Alta reveals parts of her origin story and difficult childhood. I won’t spoil things, but different ingredients stir up different emotions in her, so you’d have to try them all to get the full picture. This action is by no means necessary, but it’s such a meditative moment for our heroine, you’d do yourself (and her) a disservice to skip it.
Wanderstop’s chapters are marked by ‘seasons’. At various intervals, certain characters stop talking. Boro explains it as a mystery of the forest. He then takes you to a Shrine. Once Alta spends time reflecting at the Shrine, the story moves forward: the game cuts to Alta in the forest wrestling her internal demons.
The dialogue feels raw and honest, giving us an unfiltered insight into her mental anguish. Then you return to Wanderstop, but the clearing has evolved – befitting the ‘starting over’ theme. The gentle piano-led tunes adjust to fit the mood, things move around, your pockets empty.
Most noticeably, the colours change. Across the board they are gorgeous, initially bursting with soft pinks, turquoises and mints, then adding honey yellows. The palette cools to dark blues and wintry greys as Alta sinks to her lower moods, then vibrant magentas and indigos as the narrative comes to a boil.
I’ve already compared parts to Disney Dreamlight Valley, but the illustrations really are quite Disney-esque. Alta may not fall into our preconceived notions of a ‘princess’, though her design — big eyes, voluminous hair — certainly does. Meanwhile, Boro’s role of comic relief meets unending kindness and wisdom fit the Disney bill. Added to that, animations like Boro laughing at his own jokes and Alta’s combat-like sweeping are nice touches that round out the characters.
What a shame such beautiful graphics don’t shine their brightest on Switch 2. Everything’s a little fuzzy on this console, especially in docked mode. It’s kind of like looking through water. Frame rates also appear to be lower than on other platforms.
My second main nitpick is the fiddly inventory. If you’re holding an item, you have to Stash it before you can pick up another. There are multiple pockets and some seem miscategorised. But if you can swallow these hiccups, the game is definitely worth playing.
Wanderstop follows Alta on a journey where little journeying takes place. In fact, this game is all about slowing down, taking your time, and resting, cup of tea in hand. In 12-ish hours, you drink up a story of heroism’s dark side and the need to take breaks. Its response to hustle culture is emotional, yet never sickly sweet.
The beautiful art style may not be at its most potent on Switch 2, but if you’re a Nintendo-only household, don’t pass on Wanderstop, especially if you’re a cosy fan. Ironically, if your personality is anything like Alta’s, you might be too impatient to play this. Then again, you might absolutely need to. Now, who fancies a cuppa?
