Wander Stars just launched today—and playing it feels like watching a lost 90s anime taped off late-night TV

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Screenshot of a turn-based RPG battle. On the left, a red-haired girl in shorts and a tank top prepares to fight, fists raised. On the right, a dark birdlike monster with glowing eyes and sharp claws hovers near a tree. The interface shows player stats (80/80 HP, 0/3 energy) and enemy stats (14 HP, 2–3 attack). The current selected command is LULLABY, described as a sweet song that may put enemies to sleep for 1–3 turns, healing 1 HP per turn, with the potential to end the battle peacefully if all foes are asleep. The lower UI shows selectable commands like ITEM, SPELL, BLOCK, PUNCH, FIRE, WIND, LIGHT, FLAME, and WATER. A glowing green “SMASH” option is also visible. The environment is a purple-tinged, misty forest with twisted trees.

Wander Stars just launched today—and playing it feels like watching a lost 90s anime taped off late-night TV.

Everything from the CRT fuzz to the Dragon Ball-ish character art makes it look like you should be blowing into a VHS head cleaner. It’s committed to the bit.

But don’t call this a JRPG. It isn’t. It doesn’t even play like one. The devs are from Spain, not Japan. And the whole combat system is built around words.

You don’t grind for gear—you mash together “PUNCH + FIRE + SMASH” into bizarre attacks, then juggle cooldowns and Spirit points. There are 200 of these words scattered across the game, and the real goal is to collect them, win “honorably” to earn Pep Ups, and eventually ascend into some kind of cosmic Kiai master.

The story is episodic—literally ten anime-styled “episodes.” You play as Ringo, a hot-headed martial artist searching for her brother, and Wolfe, a sketchy drifter running from his past. Together they chase fragments of the Wanderstar Map across the galaxy, bickering like they’re trapped in a Ranma ½ filler arc. It’s tropey on purpose, and it works.

The visuals are hand-drawn, full of color swaps and filters, and yes, you can adjust the camera if the CRT effect makes your eyes melt.

The music is great. It’s composed by Sayth Vashra with a full 55-track soundtrack. Sound effects punch, menus click just right, and volume can be adjusted without digging through Windows mixers.

Controls take adjustment, because the whole “word-sentence combat” is strange at first. Do the tutorial. Once you do, you can play it your way—keyboard, mouse, Xbox pad, DualSense. There’s no quick-time button-mashing nonsense. Everything’s deliberate.

In terms of quality-of-life: Steam achievements, cloud saves, family sharing.

It’s even Steam Deck Verified, and I can confirm it plays fine on Linux.

Official specs are modest—old i5, 8 GB RAM, GTX 760—but don’t cheap out below that unless you like stutter.

Paper Castle Games only made one other game—Underhero—and I own it. It’s excellent. Wander Stars is cut from the same cloth: inventive, scrappy, and weird in a way big-budget games don’t dare to be.

Reception is still tiny: currently 100% positive on Steam with a dozen reviews. My bet? Most players will click with this immediately.

Launch price is C$29.25. Considering the work that went into it, that’s more than fair.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575810/Wander_Stars/

@videogames@piefed.social

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