- July 17, 2025
- Stray Fawn Studio
- 9h median play time
The Wandering Village
In the end, The Wandering Village succeeds more often than not. It blends charming visuals with a creative concept and heartfelt mechanics, even if some of its systems feel half-baked. With a few improvements to building flexibility, pacing, and clearer UI, it could grow into something even more special. As it stands, 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.
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About
The Wandering Village is a single player survival strategy game with fantasy and science fiction themes. It was developed by Stray Fawn Studio and was released on July 17, 2025. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and very positive reviews from players.
"The Wandering Village" is a post-apocalyptic city-builder where you lead a group of survivors on the back of a giant, wandering creature named Onbu. Build your settlement, form a symbiotic relationship with Onbu, and manage production chains to ensure your village's survival in a world overtaken by mysterious, toxic plants. Balance your community's needs and Onbu's wellbeing to create a thriving coexistence.











- The game features a unique concept of building a village on the back of a giant creature, Onbu, which adds an engaging twist to the city-building genre.
- The art style is charming and reminiscent of Studio Ghibli, creating a visually appealing and immersive experience.
- The gameplay is relaxing yet challenging, with a good balance of resource management and exploration as players adapt to different biomes.
- The game can become repetitive and lacks depth in late-game content, leading to a feeling of staleness after a few playthroughs.
- Villager AI can be frustrating, as they sometimes ignore tasks or take inefficient paths, which can hinder progress.
- The user interface and management systems could use improvements, such as better prioritization options for tasks and clearer resource management.
- gameplay630 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
The gameplay of "The Wandering Village" is characterized by its unique blend of city-building and survival mechanics, set against a charming backdrop of vibrant visuals and a whimsical narrative. Players engage in resource management while caring for both their village and the giant creature, Onbu, which adds a layer of strategy and emotional depth to the experience. While the game offers a satisfying core loop and innovative mechanics, some players note that it can feel repetitive over time and may benefit from additional complexity and content as it continues to develop.
“The gameplay is really fun and the art is very good, and it's compatible with Steam Deck.”
“The wandering village offers a unique blend of city-building, survival, and exploration mechanics wrapped in a striking fantasy setting that sets it apart from traditional management games.”
“The gameplay loop revolves around expanding your village in harmony with onbu’s movements, creating a dynamic interplay between exploration and survival.”
“The gameplay is tedious, and NPCs are frustrating, which overall makes the game boring.”
“The gameplay loop is relatively simple and will eventually get samey, but that's to be expected.”
“The wandering village has a grasp of the building blocks of its genre, but never truly capitalizes on its core mechanics or its premise.”
A Beautiful Journey with Some Rough Roads
In the end, The Wandering Village succeeds more often than not. It blends charming visuals with a creative concept and heartfelt mechanics, even if some of its systems feel half-baked. With a few improvements to building flexibility, pacing, and clearer UI, it could grow into something even more special. As it stands, 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.
70%The Wandering Village Review – It takes a Village to raise an Ondu
The Wandering Village has a grasp of the building blocks of its genre, but never truly capitalises on its core mechanics or its premise. Rather, it presents an enjoyable but somewhat shallow city-builder that just happens to also be on top of a wandering behemoth, rather than truly embracing and exploring what that could mean in gameplay terms. While its visuals and audio are both lovely, there is little here to really sink your teeth into, particularly for a veteran of the genre. The Wandering Village is worth a visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
70%The Wandering Village review – Built on the backs of giants
In the end,
85%
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Wandering Village is a survival strategy game with fantasy and science fiction themes.
The Wandering Village is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam Deck and others.
On average players spend around 45 hours playing The Wandering Village.
The Wandering Village was released on July 17, 2025.
The Wandering Village was developed by Stray Fawn Studio.
The Wandering Village has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its grinding.
The Wandering Village is a single player game.
Similar games include Fabledom, Timberborn, Flotsam, Airborne Kingdom, Settlement Survival and others.






