Wuthering Waves: A Retrospective

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A little while back … okay, actually, two years ago, I wrote about my first impressions with Wuthering Waves, an anime gacha mobile game that has a PC counterpart with cross-progression (I’m starting to view games without cross-progression and a mobile counterpart to be inferior, because I like taking my games and their progress around with me in my pocket). I talked about how the first iteration of the game and it’s launch was really cool, but the story left a little to be desired. In that, it was a bit too short.

That blog post: https://mkultra.monster/gaming/2024/07/19/wuthering-waves-genshin-impact-but-for-adults

Now? Holy god. It’s huge. There are three acts right now? All leading up to a storyline in the region of Lahai-Roi, which … well, it’s story will tear your emotions to shreds, and then pay it off with a grand finale. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I’ll say that Rover has … a family, of sorts. If I had to categorize it alongside a regular triple-a title, I’d almost compare it to the storytelling of Dragon Age Inquisition (without much of the narrative choice), or just a really good anime with emotional tugging (think maybe … the way Darling in the Franxx handled its end).

It really felt like playing up to the end of a game, except it’s not the end! Actually, there’s a freakin’ Cyberpunk Edgerunners event next month.

Also, I appreciate wholly that, at least, during the story, the game kind of evens out your power and makes it so that you can just play right through it. Even going so far as to make you invincible during big important fights.

And yes, there are mechs.

Outside of that storyline, the game sort of remains the same difficulty, requiring you to grind, and grind some more. Because, if you don’t, you’re not going to make it through challenges that bring you to ascension. And if you’re looking for content, it’s everywhere.

This game is free, too! I’ve still hardly gone through everything and I must’ve spent at least thirty or forty hours doing things in it, by now.

My only gripe, and this is a gripe with most of these gacha games, is that some of them are stingy with actually giving you characters when you pull for them. WuWa is, sadly, moderately to kind of severely stingy. On most pulls, I get weapons or weapon parts? I read somewhere that this is due, possibly, to the type of currency I’m using, and I should be using the actual baubles or whatever they’re called (I’m not in-game right now, so I don’t remember).

This also comes along with a pretty big gripe: The one character in the Lahai-Roi section that I wanted (Aemeath) is currently not attainable. Because I missed the window of her limited release. That doesn’t mean she won’t be attainable during other windows, but … Come on! Just let me spend my 15 bucks on some currency and take a shot!

My obsession with this game has also brought some other games to my attention, because you can’t just play one of these anime gachas. You gotta collect them all.

I’m also dabbling in Arknights Endfield, which is very cool, very polished, and it has a factory/base building mechanic! And you can kind of go to space? My gripe with this game is that … uhm, a lot of sections I’m trying to get to right now are blocked off by this red scourge virus thing, and I don’t know how to get around some of it.

But the base building, the ability to connect electrical points, seemingly, across the entire map so that you can power up the world? The exploration and gathering, plus the ship you can go to and customize, plus upgrade? All very neat. In fact, I feel kind of like I’m cheating on someone when I’m in WuWa rather than Endfield.

The other game I’m currently looking at, which just released, is a game published by Perfect World Entertainment (PWE), that calls itself Neverness to Everness. Instead of base building, this game swaps in … Grand Theft Auto features?! You can customize a car? You can own businesses and race people online?!

Yup.

But, and I have a lot more to say about this game right now, I will say that, despite some of the animation being really impressive, there is also a lot of it that is kind of unpolished feeling. Especially the running animations. When I’m moving, sometimes I feel like a tank on ice.

Also, you can go to jail for committing crimes, and this game put me in prison for seven whole in-game days.

Because I stole a car.

Regardless, I want to write about both of these aforementioned games later, and I’m eagerly anticipating updates to all three of them, especially the Cyberpunk event in WuWa, holy hell! And I’m so obsessed with these little cross-progression anime gacha adventure games that, and I don’t know yet if I want to admit this, but I feel like my days of playing games like World of Warcraft might be over.

Going into an MMO of yester-year kind of feels like the actual past now.

I can’t unlock my phone and make some progress on my character in WoW? You want me to continually pay for expansions while also paying a subscription fee, and you have an item shop with microtransactions?

Seems like a lot, and I’ve purchased every single piece of expansion content for The Sims 4.

But, I don’t know, we’ll see. I think there’s still some value left in games you have to sit in front of your PC for that you also can’t take anywhere … maybe?