Wanderstop is brewing up a clever twist on the cozy genre

digitaltrends.com:

I’ve got some mixed feelings on the “cozy” game genre these days. When I was first getting into the original Animal Crossing, it almost felt like a counterculture release. It was an antidote to action-packed video games that was wholly unique in tone and spirit. That success has only grown in recent years, turning cozy games into the same kind of industry it once felt like an answer to. More and more games feel like they’re following the same laid back playbook, and that can get old after a while.

Wanderstop could be the game to disrupt that pattern, or at least shake it up enough. The upcoming debut from Ivy Road, founded by indie veterans behind games likeThe Stanley Parable and Gone Home, sounds familiar on paper. It’s a tea shop simulator that has players planting their own ingredients and serving drinks to customers. If you love the genre, you’ve undoubtedly played something like it in the past few years. But there’s more to Wanderstop than meets the eye, at least based on what I experienced in a hands-on preview with its intriguing first hour.

The story begins by introducing Alta, a fierce warrior who prides herself on being an undefeatable beast. That is, until she’s defeated. A surprising series of losses sends her into a downward spiral, and that leads her stranded in the woods unable to lift her sword. She finds herself posted up at a local tea shop where she begrudgingly takes a job from Boro, the establishment’s kind-hearted owner.

That’s where the loop you might expect from a game like this comes into play. As Alta, my job is to make tea balls from harvested leaves, grow fruit-bearing plants, trim weeds, and fill orders for other wanderers who come to the clearing. I have a few tools to accomplish that, including a watering can that I need to occasionally fill up at pumps around the field surrounding the shop. It’s a charming little farming management loop, but one that already has some creative