One of my favourite book series growing up had to be Discworld.

The idea that an entire planet was being carried on the back of a giant turtle up in space was wonderfully wild. And brave and bold. In a world where everything has to be straight-laced, make sense and understandable. Terry Pratchett decided to just let his humor do the talking.

And it worked, the man is a fantasy legend and his books have sold millions all over the world. So when games like The Wandering Village do come along, with a giant, oversized, dinosaur like being carrying an entire village on its back as it wanders the wastelands, I do perk up and pay attention.

Though interestingly, the vibe I got from this one from its stunning animated intro was actually more of the Studio Ghibli classic, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

The village folk are wearing protective mouth-wear, there’s a need to draw from whatever resources there are on land and make water drinkable from the wider atmosphere. But it’s also not straight fantasy either, with antenna used to contact other colonies who also seem more advanced and gliders to reach far off areas.

But essentially what we have here is a colony sim with around an 8-10 hour story campaign, book-ended by beautiful animated introductions and a surprisingly moving tale about a colony trying to find peace and bring life back to a dead region, using the help of others and their own resources they find along the way.

And your Onbu, of course, a living, breathing, moving, walking, eating, shitting, swimming creature that also needs your attention as much as your villagers do.

That’s what makes this one so interesting, because, yes, ultimately it starts out simply in that you harvest trees and stone, turn them into planks and plates, and eventually you’ll start to harvest berries, build farmlands and kitchens in order to keep up your villagers morale. You’ll build them tents, and as mentioned build Air Wells that can extract water from the air.

You’ll need to use your villagers to help with all of these deeds and research new buildings in order to help you persevere and grow, eventually expanding to Corn and Tomato plantations and being able to build fisheries. But you’ll also need to use your villagers to help look after your Onbu, finding ways to feed them, to issue them commands, and even help with their bowels and digestion, improving their overall nutritional qualities.

One way to do that is through the Hornblower, a device that actually lets you issue commands to your Onbu while moving, so when they reach a crossroads, for instance, you can ask them to go in a certain direction if you’re seeing a better flow of resources. But be warned, as the Onbu also needs to trust you and may not always listen to your commands.

See, there’s unique benefits and things to be weary of when travelling on the back of a magical creature, as things will grow from its back, like mushrooms, unique rocks and other structures you’ll need to investigate and refine. And while you can harvest mushrooms if you’re quick enough – they’ll disappear over time, spikes that pluck through on the creature’s back can also be harvested for materials or to clear room, but you’ll lose trust with the creature.

Onbu will also just decide to eat certain things even if they shouldn’t, take a nap when they like and can travel through various conditions. This can also be affected by weather and Onbu prefers certain conditions to others. Eventually you’ll even be able to research medicine to help with sick villagers, but even find cures and remedies that can be injected into the Onbu itself.

Honestly, the game is really smart and has a satisfying gameplay loop throughout as you gradually research things, comb through the story, and see the wider world with a lovely over the shoulder camera shot of Onbu.

That moment when you zoom out fully for the very first time having looked so closely at your villagers and what they’re up to is kind of breathtaking. And every now and then you’ll find yourself just curiously checking out what the big dude is up to, occassionally getting little status updates in the bottom right.

But this is a game that requires your attention in a lot of places and at the same time, isn’t particularly demanding or overwhelming, so could be played in the background nicely, clicking away and sorting through your objectives. The story isn’t as elaborate as its incredible animated intro lends to suggest, but there is a compelling graphic style for its cast and Onbu is enough of a draw in itself that you’ll just want to protect them as much as it’s clearly protecting your people.

I also appreciate how economical the game is, allowing you to actually move your gathering huts closer to a new set of resources once the batch you first built it against runs out. It’s a simple thing but means I don’t have to have a dozen sets of the same building spread out everywhere, and obviously a very effective use of your limited space. More games could take cues from this.

I do sometimes wish there was more to the game, in the sense of something more sandbox like, going beyond difficulty modifiers or being able to have more connection with the creature, perhaps even controlling at certain times and sections or having more story-line to connect to it. More bonding with it through the villagers rather than base interactions. But what is here is still a very compelling tale and it takes you to a satisfying conclusion as you really start to understand more and more about the world you’re living in and where you need to go to.

For the most part, you’re also just staring at the same, fairly small sized surface area for the majority of the game, save for panning outward to look at what Onbu is up to and how it traverses through different biomes, so that can seem a little monotonous. I also found my villagers constantly got confused with the resource management, not knowing what to really prioritise and often getting stuck in loops of gathering the wood but sometimes it being converted to planks quicker than I could gather, which really slowed down my research and meant I often had to manually disable buildings or constantly switch workers around. That pulled me out of the automation and satisfaction loop of the game a little bit.

But this game has a satisfying simplicity to it. It’s a colony management sim anyone can get into and in many ways feels like the evolution of the Tamagotchi as you try to make sure this massive creature’s needs are met in the same way, while also prioritising the happiness of your villagers. Sometimes those things also come at cross-purposes to and it’s up to the player to make a choice on who to look after. Those are the kind of moments I love most about The Wandering Village, because it puts a bit of pressure on you to decide what’s most important.

Playing on Switch, I also wished I could use touchscreen for some of this. As while the controller input is fine and works competently after taking a bit of getting used to, this game definitely benefits more seamless interactions that a mouse can provide. And would be yet another prime candidate for JoyCon 2 if we got a native Switch 2 port.

I was also super impressed with the graphical output on Switch, the game looks great and actually runs really well, apart from the research menus which are surprisingly sluggish and navigation feels a bit like wading through treacle. Side note, I sometimes also got really frustrated finding the research item I needed, so I’m really glad to see a search bar is being added in the next update for the game. This is a great add!

And I really hope the game continues to get updates as there’s an enjoyable base here that you definitely feel could be expanded upon and developed for a long time to come. For now, the foundations are very enjoyable and the game’s vibes and messages really do resonate in a very broken and torn down world. I’m excited to see what Stray Fawn do next!

Verdict

The Wandering Village is a stunning colony sim that is at once approachable for any player but at the same time offers some complex challenges to contemplate and consider. Limited by just its story mode, as well as a finite space which to build and some frustrations in the game’s core systems, it’s not a flawless game, but it is one with heart, with life, and with an enjoyable loop that you will long remember after finishing.

Pros

The Wandering Village is out now on PC, PS, Switch, and Xbox

Played on Nintendo Switch 1 / 2

Code kindly provided by Stray Fawn for review purposes