The Wandering Village

Last updated
The Wandering Village
The Wandering Village poster.png
Developer(s) Stray Fawn
Engine Unity [1]
Platform(s)
Release
  • WW: 17 July 2025
Genre(s) City-building
Mode(s) Single-player

The Wandering Village is a city-building game developed by Stray Fawn Studio, based in Zurich. The game was in development for six years and entered early access on Steam, where it remained for nearly three years. It was released on 17 July 2025, [3] [4] [2] for Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. [5] [6]

Contents

Gameplay

In The Wandering Village, the player builds a village on the back of a large dinosaur called Onbu (Japanese for 'piggyback ride'). [7] Onbu wanders through various biomes in a world covered by toxic spores. The player must continually respond to the changing environment to ensure the survival of the village. [4] The player has a limited ability to control Onbu's movement using a giant horn, but the creature does not always follow the player's instructions. [4] [7] The plot centers on building a radio tower to establish contact with other villages and discover the cause of the world's post-apocalyptic state. [7] The game was inspired by Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and influenced by the games of Impressions Games. [4] [5]

Plot

In a world filled by toxic spores, a village survives on the back of a large, wandering creature called an Onbu. The village is led by two elders; the game begins with the elders handing over leadership of the village to the player. The elders guide the player through a tutorial and instruct them to rebuild and upgrade an old radio antenna, which allows the village to communicate with the outside world and begins the story.

A scientist makes contact via radio and instructs the player to collect special seeds, which have the ability to rescue the world from the toxic spores that plague it. The player meets and completes quests for various non-player characters, who give the player seeds in return. After gathering five seeds, the scientist instructs the player to find further objects used to activate the seeds. At one point in the game, the player encounters the corpse of another Onbu.

Once the village fully thrives, the elders will retire and praise the player for their efforts in developing the village.

Reception

A 2022 Rock Paper Shotgun review of The Wandering Village in early access called it a "top-tier management sim" and "gorgeous and captivating". It praised several aspects of the game, such as the wandering mechanic and tech tree options, but noted a lack of worldbuilding. The review also noted that The Wandering Village includes some "ruthless" tech options, such as actions which allow the player to extract food and fertilizer by harming Onbu. [4] A 2024 Rock Paper Shotgun article explained that these options had been expanded by community vote to allow feeding villagers to Onbu, which makes the village form a sacrificial cult; that same article described the game as "wholesome". [8] In 2025, Nintendo Life also criticized the story as "a bit thin" and the lack of variety in buildings, while praising the game for having multiple gamemodes. [7] A 2025 review by Engadget called it "one of Steam's coziest games" and noted that its user reviews on Steam were largely positive. [5] Reviewers at PCGamesN saw a late-2024 economy update as adding depth to the game and, on release, praised its animation style. [9] [10] Push Square praised the game mechanics of The Wandering Village for lending itself well to multiple playthroughs and different styles of play. [11]

References

  1. ↑ Saver, Michael (2022-12-22). "Made with Unity: 2022 in review". Unity Technologies . Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  2. 1 2 "Stray Fawn Studio". strayfawnstudio.com. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  3. ↑ Eder, Tanja (17 July 2025). "Game «The Wandering Village» aus der Schweiz". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Watts, Rachel (2022-09-16). "The Wandering Village early access review: a gorgeous city-builder with a loveable colossus". Rock, Paper, Shotgun . Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  5. 1 2 3 Bonifacic, Igor (2025-07-17). "One of my favorite Steam early access games is now available on Switch and PS5". Engadget. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  6. ↑ D'Angelo, William (2025-05-20). "The Wandering Village Launches July 17 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC - News". vgchartz.com. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Talbot, Ken (2025-07-14). "Review: The Wandering Village (Switch) - Charming City Builder Has You Manage A Community Atop A Marching Giant". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  8. ↑ Caldwell, Brendan (2024-04-26). "You can now feed people to the big beast in The Wandering Village". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  9. ↑ Macpherson, Rach (2025-07-17). "Stunning city builder set on a dinosaur is like a Studio Ghibli Cities Skylines". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  10. ↑ McHugh, Alex (2024-11-11). "Now is the perfect time to play this unique city building game after a huge game-changing update". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  11. ↑ Sayers, Jade (2025-07-18). "Review: The Wandering Village (PS5) - A Colossally Good City Builder". Push Square. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
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