Wolf with Inn

A Werewolf Running a Fairytale Tavern

Wolf with Inn casts the player as a secret werewolf running a cozy tavern in the fantasy town of Mystmoor, cooking meals, gathering ingredients, and looking after a cast of fairytale creatures while staying one step ahead of overly heroic knights who'd very much like to hunt them down. It's a premise built for exactly the kind of whimsical, character-driven cozy management game this genre has produced plenty of hits in recently, developed and published by the small studio Thundertale Studio.

The reception in the sample pulled for this review skews notably more critical than the game's overall aggregate might suggest at a glance. The wider Steam score sits at 54% positive across 31 total reviews — already a "Mixed" rating — but a 10-review English-language sample pulled for this piece leans considerably further negative, at just 2 positive to 8 negative. That gap is worth flagging honestly: it may reflect stronger reception in other-language communities, or simply a small sample skewing hard in one direction, but the negative reviews in English are detailed and specific enough to take seriously regardless of the exact split.

The Werewolf Hook Doesn't Go Very Far

The single most common frustration across critical reviews is that the game's core selling point — playing as a werewolf — barely factors into actual play. One reviewer wrote bluntly that it's "yet another werewolf game that fails to understand why people want a game where you play as a werewolf," describing the wolf form as existing mostly for plot reasons rather than as a meaningful mechanic. Another reviewer echoed this specifically, saying the wolf concept "doesn't get much better" even once the skill tree opens up, and singled out early skill-tree entries like unlocking the ability to "make beer" as underwhelming rewards for a system built around a shapeshifting premise.

Tavern management itself draws similar disappointment. One reviewer, weighing the price against what's on offer, noted there's "no creative expression in a cozy resource game" — no ability to design or rearrange the inn, reducing the tavern to little more than a task-completion hub for earning currency to spend on the skill tree rather than a space players can make their own.

Bugs and a Minigame Wrapped Around Nearly Everything

Beyond the underused premise, the most serious and repeated criticism concerns stability. Multiple reviewers report bugs severe enough to block story or quest progression outright — one described getting stuck in an old cutscene on reload, unable to enter the tavern; another specifically named a bug around serving elf wine that halted a quest entirely; a third reported the game failing to save altar progress on reload, resetting currency to zero unless every coin was spent before quitting. One reviewer summarised a day-four session where the tavern simply wouldn't start and music tracks began overlapping. These aren't minor cosmetic issues — several reviewers describe having to restart saves or replay content to work around them.

Layered on top of that is a design choice several reviewers found exhausting rather than charming: nearly every resource-gathering action — chopping wood, harvesting honey, gathering eggs — is wrapped in its own distinct minigame, and control schemes aren't consistent between them. One reviewer asked pointedly why some tasks use WASD and others arrow keys, why the tutorial can't be dismissed with the same key used for movement, and why only some interactions support drag-and-drop. A reviewer who'd also tried the earlier Early Access build noted the minigames were already a common complaint back then and says they're "worse" in the full release, describing spawn points that repeatedly land behind obstacles and force restarts mid-task.

More than one reviewer also asked for basic guidance the game doesn't currently provide, with one writing plainly that "the game needs some sort of hint/guide system" after getting stuck on bugged quest steps with no in-game indication of what had gone wrong or how to recover. Another reviewer who otherwise praised the art and animation described having to restart their save multiple times after a quest to serve elf wine repeatedly failed to progress, alongside separate bugs tied to a fairy character — the kind of compounding, quest-specific breakage that shows up again and again across the critical reviews rather than reading as one-off bad luck.

Art and Story Draw Real, If Isolated, Praise

It's not a uniformly negative picture. Even reviewers who were otherwise critical repeatedly called out the art direction and character designs as genuinely attractive, and more than one reviewer said they wanted to keep playing for the story and characters despite the bugs actively working against them. One shorter, positive review simply called it a "good game, interesting story, beautiful characters" without qualification. That combination — real affection for the presentation and writing, layered under serious frustration with the systems built around them — is the throughline across almost the entire review sample, positive and negative alike.

Verdict

Wolf with Inn has a genuinely appealing hook and clearly put real effort into its art and story, and that shows up even in reviews that otherwise recommend against buying it right now. But a substantial, detailed share of its review base — more pronounced in the English-language sample than the overall Steam score suggests — points to the same specific problems: a werewolf premise that barely affects gameplay, minimal tavern customisation, an exhausting wall of inconsistent minigames, and bugs serious enough to block progress outright. At NZ$12.49 it's not an expensive gamble, but based on what reviewers describe, this reads as a game worth revisiting after further patches rather than one to pick up expecting a polished cozy-sim experience today.