Review: Wander Stars
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Gather your best words and give it your best shot!
THE GAME
Wander Stars is an RPG developed by Paper Castle Games and published by Fellow Traveller. We follow the story of Ringo, a young practitioner of Kiai, a martial art known throughout the universe. When Ringo is sent to the grocery store by her grandmother, she spots a spaceship crashing on the beach. That's how she meets Wolfe, a rogue who is searching for fragments of a map, which, coincidentally, Ringo also possesses. After being confronted by an old partner of Wolfe's, Ringo's grandmother asks her to join forces with her new ally and search for the map fragments across the universe. And so, Ringo embarks on an adventure to also find her brother.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Since I learned about Wander Stars, I've been very curious about how this game would work. Using words to create your attacks is quite creative in itself, which already got me excited. Obviously, we can't expect to have infinite words and unrestricted freedom to form attacks, but 200 words suit me just fine, thank you. Between attack, effect, and utility words, it's crucial to understand how to attack your opponents, trying to discover their weaknesses and resistances. Although you can knock out enemies, the Kiai fighting style values honor, which here translates into leaving your opponent on the verge of being knocked out, with their guard down, giving you the option of "peace," which ends the fight. You are rewarded for doing this, earning Pep Ups, which I couldn't find a good translation for, but they are some improvements that you can equip, helping in your battles and outside of them as well.
Almost like an anime episode, you watch the interactions of the characters, who are very expressive and animated. The game is not available in Brazilian Portuguese, which is a shame, as many non-English speakers will end up losing interest in the story. And then you play on a kind of board, where each square will offer you some action, be it battles, items, or even character interactions. I confess that I didn't expect the game to use this type of gameplay, which initially didn't excite me, but I soon got used to it. You assemble your arsenal of words however you see fit, with what you acquire during your adventure or adapting to more easily defeat your enemies. The gameplay is simple, but requires you to think carefully about your actions, as you must manage your resources well. Last but certainly not least, we have the beautiful art of Wander Stars. Well-designed characters, with a lot of charisma and personality, looking like they came straight out of a 90s anime and ended up in your game. Combining the impeccable art with interesting gameplay, it's hard not to want to experience a little of what Wander Stars has to offer.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The achievements in Wander Stars basically consist of completing each episode, out of a total of ten. In parallel, you must earn three stars in each of them to unlock the remaining achievements. Finally, acquiring all the words, completing an episode by exploring the entire map, and not knocking out anyone will guarantee you all the achievements. We can say that it's a good dose of challenge.
CONCLUSION
I remember meeting Wander Stars at a Latin American game conference. It's obvious that their art immediately caught my eye, attracting a lot of attention. I was very happy to see such good developers in Latin America, who create games with unique and original premises. When playing, you can see that, even with understandable limitations, the developers have made a great game that will captivate you with its visuals and welcome you with challenging and fun gameplay.
Comments