- DEVELOPER: Paper Castle Games
- PUBLISHER: Fellow Traveller
- PLATFORMS: PC, Nintendo Switch
- GENRE: RPG / Narrative / Roguelike
- RELEASE DATE: September 19, 2025
- STARTING PRICE: 24,50€
- REVIEWED VERSION: PC
Wander Stars has been one of my most anticipated games of 2025, and it’s from a publisher Fellow Traveller. I think most people will be drawn to it because its distinct style reminds them of Dragon Ball or Cowboy Bebop. It’s a turn-based RPG and roguelike game, so enemies, events, and rewards are randomly generated, but you still follow a narrative about Ringo and Wolfe. While the gameplay and core loop are amazing, some moments feel a bit tedious and the story definetly overstretches.
Beautiful Game, But Questionable Pacing
Don’t get me wrong, the story is well-structured and follows a simple idea of finding the “stars” or maps, but it’s presented like you’re watching an anime. Most scenes are static backgrounds with characters moving and expressing emotions, punctuated by occasional cutscenes. I personally wished for more animated moments instead of having to read and skip through massive amounts of dialogue, much of which feels unimportant.
“The game has the perfect amount of humor, which is never cringey or excessive.”
These dialogue-heavy events can disrupt the gameplay. One moment, you’re fighting a boss and strategically navigating the map, and the next, you’re reading a conversation with a random character that doesn’t say anything of importance. While the story is good overall, it struggles to find the perfect balance with the gameplay. The game also has the perfect amount of humor, which is never cringey or excessive. It’s a natural part of the experience that develops as you form personal relationships with the main characters.
I have to admit, the art style is beautiful and the graphics are amazing. Each character is so detailed that it feels like you’ve been dropped into a different era of Dragon Ball. While the game includes elemental magic like wind, ice, thunder, and fire, it still excels at portraying the emotions of its very human characters.
Wander Stars Innovative Combat Is Its Greatest Strength
The gameplay is my favorite part of Wander Stars. It has enough complexity and room for experimentation to help you find your perfect playstyle. For example, you can focus on attacks that cause bleeding, abilities that give you more shields or counterattacks, or even purely elemental attacks. Everything in the game is connected. You attack by fusing words together: you can combine “dropkick” with “fire” and “wind”, while also getting words like “super”, “special”, and “extra” to increase your damage.
More word slots are added over time, and every episode expands the lexicon. This allows for some deliberate and heavy-hitting blows, especially once words such as “repeating” and “huge” are added to hit multiple enemies. Each enemy has three types of attacks they can take: one they are vulnerable to, one they are weakened by, and one they are immune to. This is a crucial mechanic, as it forces you to think strategically instead of just mindlessly attacking.
“There’s enough complexity and room for experimentation to help you find your perfect playstyle.”
Enemies also have distinctive features that make their weaknesses obvious. For example, a red crab has fire attacks, which means it will be 100% vulnerable to water. Later in the game, you’ll also unlock attacks that reveal these weaknesses. To prevent you from repeatedly using strong attacks, each word has a cooldown based on its strength that carries over between battles. So, if you use a long sentence to finish off a powerful enemy, those words will still be unusable for a few turns in the next fight.
The Strategic Depth
Word slots can be used to block, remove curses, and consume items since Ringo has a passion for junk food. To give you some flexibility, a bonus SP mechanic restores slots once or twice per battle that allows you do follow-up attack. If you think the game is too easy, you can always increase the difficulty. I did this myself, as normal difficulty was too simple. By taking on “risky challenges”, you can make the game more challenging and earn more honor points, which you use to purchase upgrades for Ringo.
“Wolfe can slash enemies to cause bleeding damage and steal items to replenish your inventory.”
The idea is that you don’t need to knock out every single enemy. In fact, they can give you “pep up” talks that provide different passive bonuses, such as earning HP whenever you talk to another character. The concept is that at a certain health threshold, enemies can give up because they’ve been inspired by your strength, allowing you to end the battle without knocking them out.
You can always restore health by visiting a restaurant before an important battle, and shops are frequent, allowing you to buy and sell words. Failure isn’t a huge setback as the game just restarts you at the beginning of an act rather than the start of an episode, though you do lose half of your honor points. To avoid spoilers, a few new faces join the team as you explore the stars. For example, Wolfe can slash enemies to cause bleeding damage and steal items to replenish your inventory. You also unlock healing and pyromaniac classes along the way.
Fun Ride for the Right Audience
Overall, battles are relatively straightforward and focus only on Ringo. Supporting characters lend their words for attacks, but you don’t have to manage them directly. Beyond optional dialogue choices that feel largely unexplored and not very meaningful, you advance through maps in top-down screens with clearly marked battles that you can back away from.
Events can temporarily add a new word, increase your health, or even decrease it. These maps form an episode’s acts, and upon exiting one, you can usually pick a temporary upgrade. However, the game isn’t a full RPG; you can’t freely explore or take on various quests. It’s mainly focused on the story and replayability, allowing you to get stronger before moving on to the next episode. Each episode is different from the last, with new enemies, and more branching paths.
In the end, Wander Stars is a very solid title and is definitely worth your time, especially if you enjoy this genre. However, if you are expecting a free-roam experience with in-depth character interaction, this is not it. While great, you can tell it’s a proper indie title with its limited cutscenes, animations, and lack of voice acting. The dialogue often feels overstretched, and the story can become tedious over time. Despite these flaws, I can confidently recommend giving it a try, as you won’t be disappointed.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Innovative and strategic gameplay. | Pacing issues. |
| Beautiful art and graphics. | Tedious, dialogue-heavy scenes. |
| Flexibility and customization. | Unexplored dialogue choices. |
| Interesting character mechanics. |
Review copy provided by the publisher
4
