The Wandering Village First Impressions
I really do enjoy a simulation / tycoon style game, so when it was announced that Wandering Village would migrate off of steam and release on the Nintendo Switch, I was pretty excited. Disappointingly, I do wish that the game supported Nintendo’s mouse controls on Nintendo Switch 2, but I’m happy to say that regardless of this, the game does control pretty well.
Overall, my first few hours with The Wandering Village have been very positive. There is definitely a steep learning curve as you adjust to the various climates, crop types, and villager needs. Expanding too fast caused me a world of problems, but moving too slowly felt a bit boring in my opinion. It was actually a lot harder than I thought to get through the first hour or two of the game without too many scars, but even when I “figured” it out, I was still staving off revolts and more.
But the systems at play make a lot of sense, and once you figure out what’s important and what isn’t as important, you begin to understand what makes The Wandering Village tick. Between paying attention to your growing city, and also paying attention to your Ombu, you won’t lack for things to do after your engine gets rolling. And again, it makes sense. You need berry patches early to provide food, but those should be given away to farms pretty quickly. You need water for your crops, so getting some water tanks and water generators going ASAP is key. You also need to find ways to feed your Ombu as waiting for overworld food locations won’t cut it – so you need special mushrooms, a trebuchet for launching the food, and more.
It’s a great system, and one I’m really enjoying.
As I said off the top, I’m thankful for a really good control scheme here. There are a few things that took some time getting used to – I kept zooming when I wanted to do other things – and I’m still trying to get over having to open AND close windows. I honestly figured hitting B to back out of a menu would close it, but I suppose not!
The game provides you a lot of information as well, but there were times where I was lost and wondered what I should be doing. My city has two needs, what does that mean? A couple hours in, I’m still not sure I know what that means, but after building another farm and getting my kitchen going, my people got happier so, I guess I figured it out?
It is things like that where I wish the game offered up a bit more help. I get it, some people don’t like to have their hands held when playing games, but if I choose to use the tutorial, give me a really great tutorial that lays out everything. And when I have questions, they should be readily explained, not buried in some elders notebook.
Still, it’s a great experience so far and one I would recommend on Nintendo Switch. It looks a bit janky in places, but overall the look and performance has been above par. If you are looking for a simulation / tycoon experience on Nintendo Switch, give The Wandering Village a go!
Article By Adam Roffel
