The closest we get to reexamining our lives in most cozy games is moving away from the city for a taste of rural life. In Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or Stardew Valley, your character throws in the towel at their fast-paced corpo job and immediately adjusts to being a laid-back landworker with absolutely zero ego. This colossal lifestyle change usually takes place within a simple opening cutscene, a quick dusting of lore before we get to the real meat of the game: growing turnips.
There's nothing wrong with this angle, of course, but Wanderstop offers a far more realistic approach to the process of change. It's still a cozy game for the most part, but one that isn't afraid to point out the challenges that come with slowing down. The farming, harvesting, and tea-making serve as actively therapeutic actions, rather than mindless wholesome gameplay in search of gifts for romanceable residents (or to pay back a merciless tanuki landlord). If you've ever worked yourself to the point of exhaustion, blamed yourself for just "not trying hard enough" when you know full well your resources are depleted, or felt like a failure for not being the best in the world at something – you might need to put some time aside for Wanderstop.
