The Backlog: Wuthering Waves

 

Playing a live service game that came out 2 years ago for the first time, I guess shouldn't be that much of a surprise as a person who's always playing a backlog. Though honestly I mainly tried this game out because of the crossover with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and how much I like Rebecca. But as for my overall opinions of the game itself...

Though I should specify that at this point anyone wondering about the game for the reason I was, this review won't be of much help because there is only about a week left of the crossover event. After which it won't be possible to get Lucy or Rebecca anymore. Which is unfortunate for Xbox gamers cause they're also only getting the game after the event ends.

I didn't really know that this game was an open world action game before I actually started it myself. I haven't played any of the games this thing is competing with like Genshin Impact really. The main Gacha games I've played in the past were Marvel or Dragon Ball focused.

The overall idea of the game is kind of interesting. You have an actual player character that you get to name though they are nicknamed and referred to as "Rover" by all the other characters. The game seems to take place in a post apocalyptic setting where a new civilization has actually been built already. But early on a lot of the lore isn't really explained in proper detail.

I've also noticed that early on in the game the story telling in the game is kind of weak. The characters just don't have time to display enough personality to make them interesting. It takes until about Act 6 in what is known as Chapter 1 for the story to really massively upgrade the story telling, cutscenes, and character personalities.

But knowing that the early on story is kind of weak is probably originally a result of this being a Gacha game, where they probably thought they shouldn't put too much focus on a character you might not even have unlocked. But they seem to have fixed that mindset later and is probably also why they made it so you have a flight option in the earlier parts of the game to travel through those areas faster.

In regards to the Gacha stuff, I do have to say I find the idea of your weapons being part of the Gacha mechanic along with characters to be annoying. But on the bright side this game at least is not anywhere near as boring as Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis which is the only other Gacha game I've played with that as part of the microtransactions.

I will say there is also much content in this game it's kind of overwhelming when you come in as a new player. The character leveling has a lot of resource gathering stuff involved. But on the bright side it's less annoying than gathering stuff for crafting used to be for me in MMORPGs because if you need a resource you have to gather on the field the game will literally mark a picking area for you on your map and let you teleport there as long as you've actually been there previously, with each individual item in the area marked on your mini map.

Aside from that most resources used for boosting your characters and weapons involve combat or boss challenges that you can do limited times daily unless you're willing to spend money. Also you equip monster spirits your absorbed to boost your characters which seemed annoying to me at first until I noticed you can choose to auto-equip whatever is best for your character.

Overall I find the gameplay and everything enjoyable after managing to figure most of it out. The only thing that really is a drawback for me is I don't find much reason to stay with a Gacha game long term if it's not focused on characters that existed from a popular IP beforehand. Closest I've gotten into with characters set up like this previously was the game Another Eden which being a turn based RPG is nothing like this.