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While Davey Wreden is primarily known for his hit "The Stanley Parable" and its 2022 version "The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe", He did make one more game that had a much different tone than "The Stanley Parable". That game was "The Beginner's Guide," which was an emotional journey through the struggles of game development and how interpretation can differ between developer and player. He later went on to found a new studio named "Ivy Road" (founded alongside Karla Zimonja (Formerly working with Fullbright, the devs that Minerva's Den for Bioshock 2), and legendary Minecraft soundtrack composer C418). The first game developed by this new studio, Wanderstop, aims to deliver an emotional story about burn-out, change, and learning to grow under the guise of serving tea in a tea shop and farming fruit to use a ingredients for the tea.

First few points: Wanderstop's soundtrack is wonderful, capturing the emotions of the scenarios while also delivering a peaceful, quiet ambiance (As expected from a soundtrack composed by C418). The artstyle is vibrant and colorful, with the forest's color pallet changing with each chapter, with some chapters having bright, diverse uses of colors, and one particular chapter using dreary greys, whites, and dull browns to convey the emotion of the chapter. The character designs are as varied and stylized like the environment, each one is different and special. Each character you encounter immediately conveys their exact personality from the very moment you talk to them, and their dialogue and personal situations help set them apart from what could be considered generic NPCs. The tea making is fun and while fulfilling every order does progress the story, it does give you room to experiment as you go along (especially when you unlock a second beverage option in Chapter 5).

I have a couple minor problems with the game, though. My first issue is with the farming mechanics, specifically with the planting of seeds. I wish there was a button that we could press that would allow the player to adjust which hexagonal plot to put the seed in (like pressing a button on the controller to move the outline of the plant up one plot or left one plot to adjust positioning before planting). My next issue is one that is entirely my own opinion. A free play mode, where you can just serve as many customers as you want without progressing a plot. Being able to hear their stories, their ambitions, their dreams, really clicked with me in the main story, and I wish there was a mode where I can do nothing but that.

Conclusions
Wanderstop delivers in its emotional narrative through its wonderful characters, each with their own charms, as well as through its colorful environments, and stellar soundtrack. It holds up to Davey Wreden's previous games and gives a taste of what type of stories Mr. Wreden and his studio, Ivy Road, have planned for the future.