Wander Stars Review
Honor, Love, And Punching People Really Hard
HIGH Memorable characters and a clever combat mechanic.
LOW Enemies are frequently weak against words the player hasn’t found.
WTF But… what about the tournament?
Ringo is a typical 14-year-old kid. She tries to be fiercely independent, but is capable of great love and loyalty. She’s headstrong, lazy, snarky, and apparently doesn’t bathe enough. She’s also tremendously good at kicking people in the face.
Ringo dreams of two things — finding her missing brother, and someday winning the Kiai Tournament, which is the ultimate martial arts spectacle/competition/game show in the known universe.
When a mysterious ship bearing the ne’er do well Wolfe crash-lands on her planet, Ringo discovers that she carries part of the fabled Wanderstar map, which may give her both the answers she seeks and the training she needs to meet both her goals… provided evil pirates don’t get her first.
Wander Stars could be coarsely summed up as a menu-driven RPG featuring anime-inspired visuals that are a love letter to Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), but it’s so much more than that.
For starters, when I say “menu-driven RPG,” I’m sure many will immediately picture something where players are given options to Fight, Run, Use, or Magic on opponents ad nauseum for dozens, if not hundreds of hours. Wander Stars does indeed use menus, but… not like that.
During combat, Ringo is provided with a certain number of slots where the player can place words to use for attack, defense, and modifiers, with some words taking up more of those slots than others.
For example, “Kick” does a limited amount of damage, but only takes up one word slot, while “Dropkick” does more damage, but takes up more slots.
During her journey, Ringo also learns modifiers that can increase damage or hasten a word’s cooldown time, allowing it to be used again sooner. She also learns environmental effects which can do more damage, provide buffs, or cause status effects like “blind”.
When it all comes together, Ringo may choose to perform something multipart and fancy like a “Super Fire Dropkick” on her foe, causing massive damage. It sounds complicated, but it becomes second nature almost immediately.
What’s trickier (and takes more time to master) is the other amazing trick Wander Stars’ combat has up its sleeve — the goal in every fight is not to knock opponents’ health to zero, but instead, to get them to surrender.
Each enemy has a hit point range (near death) in which they’ll immediately give up. Beating them down but then allowing foes to leave the field with their dignity intact awards Honor points, which are then used to teach Ringo more words, improve health, and give more word slots for combat.
Accomplishing this is easier said than done, though. Every opponent’s range is different, and while Wander Stars tells the player exactly how much damage a move is capable of, it doesn’t mention weaknesses and resistances until a word is used — think “Not Very Effective” or “Super Effective” from the combat in Pokemon.
Discovering how to determine a baddie’s weaknesses and then making sure not to knock them out completely is a challenge, and it turns combat from simply clicking on words into choosing the right phrase at the right time. As a result, these fights are tense in a way I’ve never experienced in an RPG of this type.
So the combat lands, but what about the script? The story delves into heady topics such as love, loss, trauma, regret and sacrifice, while maintaining a sense of wonder and a healthy dose of humor along with the introspection.
In an homage to many famous JRPGs, the cast of Wander Stars is a motley crew of lost souls who come together using the power of friendship to thwart a great evil. While that sounds cliché, clever writing and witty banter gives the narrative immense charm. I found myself moved by Ringo’s drive to rebuild her lost family, and Wolfe’s checkered past hides a heart that has been broken beyond measure by his choices.
It’s a credit to the writing team that the story never falls into melodrama, and they know exactly when and how to change the mood with a quick joke or a poignant peek into a character’s psyche. I can’t describe it in any more detail without risking spoilers, but it’s fantastic — my only complaints about the script are that the story ends too soon, and the ending feels like setup for a sequel. Otherwise, the narrative is superb.
My biggest complaint, and frankly the only thing preventing me from giving Wander Stars a higher rating, is the fact that in addition to being a turn-based RPG, it also has roguelike elements which mean the adventure is designed to be played in multiple runs. It’s fully expected that players complete each of the “episodes” more than once, so Ringo can unlock more words to use in later runs. The problem is that many enemies are only weak against words Ringo may not learn until much later in the campaign, often making the combat more difficult than it needs to be, especially against bosses that have ridiculous amounts of health and must be completely defeated — bosses never surrender.
That aside, Wander Stars is one of — if not the best — games I’ve played this year. It is equal parts hilarious, touching, exciting, and clever. The interactions between characters and even the enemies is consistently moving or delightful, the combat is sharp and challenging, and the art style is top-notch. It’s a must-play, but just be prepared for a bit of a grind and know that it might be tough to find exactly the right words to do the job.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Buy Wander Stars – PC – PS – XB – SW
Disclosures: This game is developed by Paper Castle Games and published by Fellow Traveller. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5, PC, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 22 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence, Language, Use of Tobacco. The game implies violence against humanoid and non-humanoid creatures. All violence is stylized, and all damage received by characters is cartoonish in nature such as large bumps on the head, or comically swollen eyes. S— is used early and often in dialogue. The storyline features a self-sacrifice of a character which may be triggering for some. Parents may wish to use caution in allowing children to experience the game based on these two factors.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. However, the UI titles can be re-colored for accessibility purposes, and the delay around subtitles can be changed as well. All dialogue is handled via subtitles. All audio cues are accompanied by a visual component. This game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, the controls can be remapped.
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