| The Wandering Village | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | DLC & Pre-Order | Review |
Balance survival, exploration, and trust with your living host, Onbu, in The Wandering Village. Read on to learn how it plays, what it's about, and everything else we know so far.
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The Wandering Village Gameplay
Resource Management
Resource management is a foundational system in The Wandering Village. Villagers gather essential materials like wood and stone from nodes scattered across Onbu’s back. As the settlement grows, players unlock the ability to extract more advanced resources, such as iron ore and sand. These raw materials must be refined in dedicated buildings—like the Stonecutter or the Carpenter—before they can be used for construction or crafting. Due to the limited space on Onbu’s body, players must be strategic in how they place these facilities to maintain efficiency. Storage buildings are required to prevent resource waste, without them, any excess materials may be lost, especially during periods of overproduction.
Population and Housing
Population systems revolve around assigning villagers to specialized jobs and ensuring their well-being. Each villager can only perform one task at a time, and efficient job distribution is necessary to keep all production chains running. Over time, villagers may get sick or die, reducing available labor and forcing the player to reprioritize duties. Housing is another key factor—initially consisting of basic tents, it can later be upgraded to more protective huts. Better housing reduces the effects of toxic exposure and improves villager productivity, especially when traversing dangerous biomes.
Research and Progression
Technological progression is handled through a research tree, which unlocks new buildings, systems, and upgrades. Players must construct research facilities and assign workers to generate new knowledge over time. Higher-tier technologies require more advanced research buildings and take longer to unlock. Some technologies, particularly those connected to ancient or lost knowledge, are only accessible by collecting relics during scavenging missions. These special resources serve as keys to unlocking late-game tools, such as advanced decontamination or complex Onbu interaction systems.
World Map & Exploration
As Onbu roams the world, it travels through deserts, forests, mountains, and more. Each biome presents different opportunities and risks. Some are rich in water and food resources, while others are toxic or barren. Players must adapt their strategy depending on the current region, adjusting crop types, resource priorities, and scavenging plans. The world map allows players to send out expeditions to nearby ruins, villages, or natural resource nodes. These missions can yield rare resources, lost villagers, or ancient relics but take time and are affected by Onbu’s movement speed and terrain.
The Wandering Village Story Plot
The narrative of The Wandering Village unfolds in a world that has suffered ecological collapse. Toxic plant life has overtaken the planet, spreading rapidly and releasing harmful spores into the atmosphere. As entire regions become uninhabitable, a small group of human survivors is forced to abandon their homes in search of safety. Their journey leads them to a rare, colossal creature they name Onbu, a gentle, ancient being that continues to wander the lands despite the environmental devastation. In a desperate attempt to survive, the group establishes a settlement on Onbu’s back, hoping that mobility will offer them a chance to outrun the toxic zones and locate a habitable region where they might eventually settle.
The story does not progress through traditional cutscenes or linear quests but instead evolves through environmental progression and systems-based storytelling. As players guide the settlement and interact with Onbu, they are gradually introduced to remnants of the old world—abandoned outposts, forgotten relics, and ruins left behind by earlier civilizations.
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