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Travellers Rest (Early Access v0.7.1.0) is part tavern sim, part bootleg Stardew Valley, part sandbox RPG. It has some clunky mechanics, some missing features, and no real roadmap as far as I can tell, but none of that matters because the single-player gameplay loop is catnip.
What Works For Me
✅ Art + World Design. When solo dev Louquo launched TR in 2020, it looked… rough. In early 2021, Louquo passed the project to Isolated Games, which decided to "redefine the scope of the game" (remember this for later) and started redrawing Louquo's original assets and adding new decor. Over time, the pixel art has evolved into something truly beautiful; the world feels alive with color and movement, and the town keeps expanding.
✅ Brewing + Cooking. All I want from a tavern sim is to brew my own ale and cook my own food, and TR delivers both in timed multistep processes; for example: harvest rye > turn rye to toasted malt > ferment with ingredients > age appropriately > dark lager. As a bonus: most recipes allow substitutions, so you can use what you have on hand or create the vegetarian restaurant of your dreams (warning to animal lovers: tutorial requires mop-murdering a few rats).
✅ Building + Decorating. There are plenty of decor items (more if you participate in seasonal events), but it took a long time to start expanding and adding rooms. While I was initially frustrated by how expensive and resource-intensive both building and decorating are, it's a goal to work toward in an otherwise directionless sandbox.
✅ Character Customization. Options and colors are limited, but you customize your character's appearance and can change details at a wardrobe. As you upgrade your tavern, you unlock perks across management, crafting, and resource skill trees that can affect everything from your speed to income.
✅ Crafting. All crafting is automated, often multistep, and uses resources in storage provided that the storage chest is in the appropriate zone.
✅ Gameplay Loop. TR is a sandbox; you don't have to farm or fish or mop-hunt if you don't want to, but all of these mechanics feel satisfying to engage with if you enjoy farming sims. You can spend your day tending to crops (until you unlock irrigation), visiting town, mining for ore, chopping trees, foraging the full map for materials, and/or stocking your crafting machines. There's no stamina bar to hold you back.
✅ Tavern Management. At the same time, everything in TR is focused on your tavern; the tavern is your sole source of income, and improving the tavern's reputation is the only way to gain new skills or recipes. Thankfully, TR capitalizes on everything I love about restaurant sims: time pressure, overlapping demands, changing demands, diminishing supply, upset customers -- it's so good. Hire employees with their own traits and skill trees, or dash around like a headless chicken.
What Doesn't Work For Me
❎ Inventory. Your character starts with a fully upgraded backpack plus a toolbar, which is awesome, but: new items transfer directly to your bag even in the tutorial, and decor needs to be in your hotbar to place. As a result, inventory and decorating feel clunky and fiddly -- especially with a gamepad.
❎ Relationships. There's a relationship panel "coming soon" in your UI, but the NPCs are props; you need to chat with Wilson and Hikari a few times, but everyone else is set-dressing with repetitive dialogue. This works for TR, but it's atypical for farming sims. I understand why the devs want to add it to the game but, when added clumsily or as an afterthought, relationship requirements can be an absolute turn-off.
❎ Story. In a similar vein: the prologue added in v0.6.5 lays out some strange lore and suggests an overarching plot, but that's the last hint of a story I've seen in my 2+ game-year campaign. The introduction feels more and more out of place as you progress, and I worry that similar attempts to shove a narrative into a game that wasn't built around one will feel equally ham-fisted.
Final Thoughts + Recommendation
I love fast-paced restaurant management, crunchy farming sims, and a good sandbox to play in, so Travellers Rest was basically made for me. I'm trying to be objective in this review, but most of my complaints are hypothetical because I love this game. My biggest concern is scope creep, so I hope the devs have a clear goal and polished story in mind.
In its current form: I highly recommend Travellers if you enjoy Graveyard Keeper, sandbox games like Project Zomboid, farming sims that require a bit of resource management, and/or general restaurant management. It's great.
It's also grindy, repetitive, sometimes stressful, and requires you to set your own goals. If you like the idea of TR but want something less crunchy with more combat and quests, check out Ale & Tale Tavern. If you need relationship building and a bit of story, then I'd send you to Chef RPG. Still not hitting the mark? Here's a list of restaurant/tavern sims.
Follow Eekz Today for more crafting, life sim, management, strategy, and story-rich recommendations.