So well, in fact, that if you’re someone who has dealt with it, the experience claws at your neck. It holds up a mirror you might not be ready to look into.

The chapter resets, while thematically sound, can feel frustrating. Losing trinkets and progress creates a sense of impermanence that might be narratively appropriate but doesn’t always translate well into enjoyable gameplay. The game is also light on challenge. There are no major stakes, pelo real consequences for mistakes, and while that aligns with the cozy aesthetic, it occasionally makes the experience feel a little too weightless. Still, the gameplay serves its purpose well: it’s not meant to be difficult but to encourage introspection and immersion.

Honestly, I’m not doing this opening sequence any justice. It isn’t like any other cozy game. It’s dark, and its depiction of exhaustion and burnout is visceral. You can see it in the art, the colors shifting and pulsing with her state of mind.

Some mushrooms change the color of the fruit, others alter the size in ways that are just slightly off, experimentation is key. But all mushrooms, when added to tea, make our concoction taste a bit more earthy.

Sometimes, doing nothing at all is enough. This teashop isn’t about rushing forward—it rewards patience and turns away those who seek only endless progress.

This is the starting premise: we take control of an overworked, overachieving fighter whose own body is forcing her to stop. And the analogy? It’s sharp. It’s real.

Both Miri and their favourite games have been described as “weird and unsettling”, but only one of them can whip up a flawless coffee cake.

Do you have that little voice inside your head telling you that you need to work yourself to the bone—even though you already do—just for it to never be enough? If so, then you are Elevada.

Wanderstop is a narrative-centric game about change and tea. Playing as a fallen fighter named Elevada, you’ll manage a tea shop within a magical forest and tend to the customers who pass through.

What’s great about Elevada as a main character is that you get plenty of opportunities to choose interesting paths of dialogue throughout your time at Wanderstop. At first, your options might be limited to either a mean answer or a snarky answer, but as time goes on, you’ll get to choose between options that reveal a streak of humor under all of Alta’s steely resolve.

At the same time, Wanderstop’s simple but satisfying tea brewing experimentation serves as a safe and entertaining space to do that deep digging. There aren’t many games like Wanderstop out there currently, but for all our sakes, I hope there will be soon.

I want to know that they all reunite in the real world. I want to know that Alta gets to see Gerald again, and the Demon Hunter, and Nana and Monster, and Zenith, and Boro. I want to know what happens to them. But it’s out of my hands. And that’s the whole point.

” I even liked Alta, and let’s be very clear: Alta is not a likable character. She is thick-headed, abrasive, and sometimes outright mean. But we don’t always completely love ourselves or the way we act towards Wanderstop Gameplay others either, do we?

It’s a hexagonal grid system, where planting seeds in straight lines or triangles determines the kinds of fruits we get. Two types of seed are available in the beginning, but as the game progresses, the possibilities expand. It’s methodical. Thoughtful. A little puzzle in itself.