Wuthering Waves

I usually never cry at game stories, but the 3.1 quest made me cry so hard.

Decided to edit this as the game dramatically changed in just a few acts. I've played up to chapter 2 act 8 The good: - If you have the time to sink into getting past the bad, the story is genuinely enjoyable and has the highest peaks out of any gacha game I've played. You are not babied into understanding the story (think Jarilo-VI from star rail where most of the lore is in books and enemy descriptions), except at critical points of the main story, but even then you aren't told the entire picture. - The OST is far more fitting to your actual exploration compared to games such as Genshin. While Genshin has an incredible OST, it never really fits what you're actually doing. You could be picking up plants while having the most insane banger playing. While some people enjoy this, I don't. I find that in WuWa the music actually adds to me getting immersed into the atmosphere around me. - Past chapter 2 act 4 as far as I know most/every event is permanent, including area exploration events that are typically limited in other games The bad: - Early content sucks and is inexcusable. The story and gameplay up to ~chapter 2 act 2 are horrendous, and one of the weakest points of the game. Exploration is still decent, as you get access to flight very early on, but there are still some problematic areas such as Desrock Highlands that are impossible without googling a map. - Some early events are vaulted and inaccessible, making you unable to even see some 5 star character stories - While the story does improve later on, 90% of characters in the story you won't ever meet again after their first appearance. It is clear that from act 7 onwards some characters are included in the story just as an excuse to make them obtainable in gacha (looking at you, Phrolova). The neutral: - Performance is very mixed. Different areas of the game can play completely differently. Everything up to Septimont runs like a breeze, however certain areas of the Septimont city can really chug. If you're wondering if your PC will run the game well, compare against the recommended spec rather than the minimum spec. - The game is incredibly large, and I don't think the file size will go down any time soon. It sucks and it's not something players with low storage should have to deal with. - At the end of the day, this is a gacha game. You will not get every character and this game does follow the hoyo template of "premium support for premium dps". The only thing I can recommend is don't give into FOMO and pull for what you want. You can complete the game with any combination of 3 characters without an issue. My previous version of this review was far more positive. The main reason for my change in perspective is act 7, where it really just feels like what should've been Phrolova's character story got wedged into the main story in order to sell you on pulling for her. This broke the pacing of the story permanently for what was a limited banner. I pray this was a temporary lapse in judgement from the design or sales department at Kuro Games. Should you play this game? Absolutely. The game has a depth not commonly found in other gacha games, while simultaneously keeping the main story safe enough to satisfy masses. If you can get through the 10-15h of terrible on-boarding, you'll find over 200 hours of genuinely enjoyable gameplay, story and environments.