Early impressions based on the PC and mobile versions are mixed. There’s no doubt that the title has potential: its character design, while doing little to distance itself from its contemporaries, is eye-catching – and there are definitely characters you’ll want to root for. Calcharo – who is actually Sephiroth in all but name – looks menacing with his long gray locks and furrowed brows, while Chixia is much cuter with her red bob, freckles and black ribbon.
The game’s fantasy world is darker and grittier than Genshin Impact, but that’s not a bad thing. An early city location is much larger in scale than Monstadt, the introductory city in the HoYoverse hit, and feels more alive as a result. The open spaces also feel a bit busier – exploring the open world feels more rewarding in these early exchanges than the likes of Liyue ever did at launch.
This is aided, perhaps, by significantly better exploration mechanics. Genshin Impact feels a little restrained in 2024, with limited stamina unless you’ve collected enough random items to increase it. This isn’t the case in Wuthering Waves, which has a much more forgiving energy system that allows you to more or less get exactly where you want to go. The grappling hook and improved glider provide even greater navigation options, making getting around a fun activity.
The combat is also better. While it doesn’t have the depth of a true hero like Devil May Cry or Stellar Blade, there’s more depth here than Genshin Impact – certainly relative to the earlier heroes, anyway. Dodge is an important mechanic, while teams of three must go through a cycle to trigger “outro” events that either replenish health, improve combat, or perform other important functions.
There are also Echoes that can be absorbed by defeated enemies. These are the Artifacts version of Wuthering Waves and similarly provide stat boosts that will improve your favorite characters in key areas. The key twist here, though, is that they can also be collected as Pokemon and used in battle, so you can temporarily transform into a gorilla to pound the ground or a giant turtle to trigger important defensive stats.
While this is fun, it’s one of the few original ideas the game actually has. Structurally it is identical to Genshin Impact, almost to the point of plagiarism. The gacha system works exactly the same, and many of the currencies are resources that can be compared 1:1 to those in the HoYoverse game. While this makes it easier to get fans of the existing game on board, it remains to be seen what ideas Kuro Games actually has of its own, outside of the aforementioned Echoes system.
The developer has also borrowed the worst aspects of Genshin Impact, such as the inexplicable storytelling that is full of generic proper names that even the most dedicated player will struggle to follow. This is the worst kind of fic: where you’re just bombarded with lor to the point of oversaturation. It’s hard to understand why this continues to happen in all Chinese developed titles of this type.
Of course, despite the very obvious similarities, it’s hard to directly compare Wuthering Waves to Genshin Impact, simply because the latter has a four-year head start on the former. For this reason, it is difficult to imagine how Kuro Games will steal players when many of them have invested thousands and thousands of hours into their accounts.
Perhaps the real positive here will be the pressure it puts on the HoYoverse. The latter, in anticipation of its rival, has already announced that it will raise the Resin restrictions with its next major update. Many fans feel that certainly compared to Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact has stopped trying to keep players engaged. With the threat of a legitimate rival on the horizon, perhaps this will force the developer to work a little harder to keep fans.
Do you think Wuthering Waves will have the legs to steal away players from Genshin Impact? Have you been able to try the latest and greatest gacha? Drop your views in the comments section below.
