The same is true of Wanderstop.
One loss isn’t too bad, so she berates herself a little and moves on.
Train harder, go faster.
Don’t get lazy or complacent.
Her schedule intensifies and she neglects rest for effort, only for it to result in another loss.
With every loss, Alta’s inner critic becomes more cruel.
Unfortunately, Alta’s quest is cut short by her sudden inability to lift her sword.
She collapses in the woods, and awakens outside an unassuming little tea shop called Wanderstop.
What is initially an offer to make tea for Alta becomes an offer for a job at his cafe.
Alta is, of course, resistant.
What Boro asks is a far greater challenge to merely sit and find peace.
There are no definitive answers or permanent fixes, no easy ways out.
Progress is rarely linear.
Alta’s self-criticism is so raw and unfiltered that it catches in your chest as you hear it.
I found myself thinking “butwhycan’t she just stop and rest?”
before realizing Wanderstop was holding a mirror up to my own impulses for overwork.
It’s not stuffy, either, or singularly shooting for emotional high-notes.
To make the tea, Alta has to first harvest leaves from the bushes.
Once her basket is full, she’ll need to wait for the leaves to dry.
These tasks are methodical and meditative without being creatively stifling.
The game leaves room for you to fall intoyourown rhythm.
Every now and then, I’d get the clippers out and cut some weeds.
That’s what makes it such a treat.
Clearly, Boro has taken a tea leaf out of their book and created the world’s slowest machine.
“It’s bold in its exploration of relentless self-critique and pressure.”
The UI is dressed up as a gardening guidebook, and tiny details all feel accounted for.
Some of the best books you’ll ever read don’t have happy or neat endings.
Wanderstop was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.
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