The Wandering Village Reviews
A captivating city builder where you play a group of nomads building a new home on the back of a magnificent, giant creature.
The Wandering Village is a worthy addition to the city-builder genre. It's a mostly undemanding hybrid that mixes sim management with a touch of pet care. A slight experience, with an uninspired and slow-moving story, but it still manages to charm in its own quiet way.
Despite some flaws, The Wandering Village still succeeds in creating something unique in the city-building genre that's usually monopolized by AAA titles.
The Wandering Village launches into early access as a complete city-building simulator experience, but with plenty of room to grow. Minor bugs and quality-of-life improvements can go a long way to complete the player experience for this otherwise beautiful world that offers a unique look at the way humans impact the world around them.
The Wandering Village offers us Onbu, which is great. It's great to shape our relationship with him and care for him; however, as a city builder, the game rhythm is pretty flat and lacks memorable moments. It all runs pretty smooth – maybe too smooth.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With beautiful Studio Ghibli-esque aesthetics, The Wandering Village is a city building sim with real soul. Beneath it all, there is a really beautiful metaphor at play with a wider message regarding the relationship between a civilisation and its environment.
The Wandering Village is a lovely game with an interesting mechanic of travelling on the back of a giant creature. While its visual style severely restricts the freedom of building, it adds to the mood very well and sets the game apart from “ordinary” builders. The developers had a vision and didn't shy away from realizing it. It's a shame that the campaign is a huge disappointment for me.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The Wandering Village is the kind of game that you can end up spending a lot of time in, and may just leave you feeling reflective and pensive.
Building a settlement on the back of a large, wandering creature is original, but also difficult. While the interaction with your walking home is interesting, the gameplay could be more in-depth and the story is boring.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
This is a lovely game that rewards patience and empathy, and is best enjoyed with a relaxed mindset and a soft spot for massive creatures with big sleepy eyes.
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.
The Wandering Village delivers an impressive, captivating experience on Xbox Series S, evolving beautifully from Early Access into a full release. Its unique premise of building a nomadic village on the back of a colossal creature, enhanced by a new emotional story mode and a Studio Ghibli-esque art style, creates an incredibly atmospheric and immersive world. While minor frustrations exist with vague villager needs and clunky console menu controls, these are easily overlooked in what is ultimately an outstanding and highly recommended city-builder with heart.
Review in German | Read full review
"The Wandering Village" pleasantly surprised me. I don't particularly like most city-building strategy games because there's usually only one correct way to complete them, and it's easy to fall behind if you research certain buildings too late or don't build them quickly enough.
Review in German | Read full review
Genre fans and newcomers alike will find something fascinating within the world of The Wandering Village; though hampered by a slow pace in its early hours, the game continues to astound in everything from its visual design to its ever-expanding gameplay loop. A must play.
The Wandering Village marries survival and city-building atop a living creature with charm and originality, but genre quirks, flat storytelling, and a few design snags keep it from soaring. It’s a thoughtful, well-crafted game—just one that asks you to overlook some rough edges.
The Wandering Village ticks all the right boxes as a city-building game. Managing not only your village but also a giant creature is a unique concept that is mostly well done. It isn't just a gimmick; the theme adds to the challenge of the game. Research tech could use some improvement but as an Early Access title, The Wandering Village is a solid game that is worth the price.
The Wandering Village is a good choice for hardcore fans of building strategies. But regular players will stop having fun after a few hours, and even lovely graphics and a pleasant soundtrack won't save it.
Review in Czech | Read full review
The Wandering Village is a great management game that has an important message it doesn’t try to jam down your throat. The mechanics will tell your story, whether it is parasitic or mutualistic. Stray Fawn Studio has done a wonderful job of creating a game that teaches the player the importance of being kind to nature before nature leaves us.