Wuthering Waves
part 1
Wuthering Waves is an anime-style spectacle fighter with gacha monetization (for buying playable characters, primarily). The base game is free. I suggest using the Japanese voices: The voice pack can be downloaded and activated in-game settings.
A Chinese game, its story and visuals are different in a nice way.
This article is the first part in a series. See also Wuthering Waves part 2Wuthering Waves part 2
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Starting out
Started playing Wuthering Waves. Absolutely gorgeous. I thought already before that China is probably going to be a gaming superpower soon, but this is the first time I’m playing a Chinese game that I enjoy.
Learning to use Steam recording tools properly, as I’m hoping virtual photography could be a new hobby of mine. This game looks great for that.
Having a great time, my only complaint is that the game is way too easy, at least so far. There’s a menu that shows all the playable characters. Can’t wait…
I’m playing in Japanese and using the character names somewhat randomly from that and the English version.
Surprisingly my favorite character so far is none of the girls but the boy Scar. Cool guy and great voice acting.
Haha, my first gacha experience with gambling my hard-earned trinkets is winning an ossan (Yuanwu).
I’ve played a few mobile games before so I’m not entirely new to this, but the way this game organizes itself with dozens of menus is certainly quite different from western action RPGs. There are so many rewards to be claimed everywhere. It’s basically gamification in a game.
Gacha and Carlotta
I tried some preview “event” and thought that so far the character Carlotta was the coolest to fight and also the prettiest girl. Nice voice too. Looks like I won’t be getting my hands (cough) on her for a while though.
Playing Wuthering Waves. I’m kind of letting myself indulge in gacha this one first time, to have the experience: I’m trying to get the Carlotta girl within the remaining 8 day deadline. If I have understood the Japanese mostly correct, there are up to 80 draws at that particular gamble and the last one is guaranteed to give her (Update: actually it’s 50%). The odds of getting her earlier are about 50% (as computed before the first try). If I fail to get her, then it will take an unknown time of waiting (few months) before the same event opens again, and it’s the same math then. Since the “guaranteed at 80” counter resets, it would be very wasteful to barely fail getting her.
Each draw costs 1 “radiant tide” which cannot be obtained by normal gameplay, with some rare exceptions. However, one radiant tide can be purchased with 160 of “astrite”, the basic currency that is quite easy to obtain by gameplay. I think if I played every day just following the story I would probably amass enough. Probably.
I already bought a thing with 6 euros and plan to spend some more. The game itself is free, so the yardstick I gave myself is 0.5 euros per hour of gameplay, plus the considerable time spent writing and editing this page.
That 50 cents per hour seems quite close to what I normally pay for games, though the variance is quite high. The most I’ve ever spent on video game is no doubt Stellaris, for which I bought like ten different DLC, but then I also played the game over 200 hours. On the other hand there are games like the Pathfinder series which I probably got on sale for 15e a piece and played each well over 100 hours. Most smaller games end up costing more way more per hour since I often don’t play them very much.
So far I got some loli girl (Youhu) from the same pool, I don’t really like her. Also got an upgrade for my ossan, so I leveled him up and made him my regular cast. Speaking of levels, the game has pretty weird take on “experience” points because it just consumables that you use to give 20 levels at once to your new character and also separately her weapon.
Besides the main character and ossan, I’m using Yan’yan (Yangyang). I don’t normally like that archetype but her (combat) voice acting is kind of interesting and I mostly like her sword mechanics better than the gun-wielding Shika (Chixia) and techno-mage Byakushi (Baizhi). Seriously, what do you call that? Byakushi just stands afar waving her arms while her creature bashes the enemies to dust :D There was another similar character available for test play. My main complaint is that the creature fights are so flashy and noisy I can’t see or hear anything. I think I prefer mashing all the buttons to run, jump, and strike.
Reading Wuthering Waves menus in English for the first time. The biggest point that I already wondered about before is if this Carlotta event will always yield her or some possibly some other 5-star Resonator, and the answer is 50% (on the first time). Hah, pretty tough. I’ll be happy with whomever I can get I hope, assuming I’ll get any. Starting to wonder if I underestimated the difficulty a bit and might end up stretching my budget…
Got a third blue ossan from the draw, and also Sanhua which I was guaranteed to get tomorrow from a login reward.
Tsubaki
In the story met Tsubaki (Camellya), instant new favorite character. Looks gorgeous too.
I admit I faked my birthday in order to get some reward early on. And it was a really nice present too: You get to choose one character from the whole roster and “spend a day with them”. I went with Tsubaki:
Black Shores
Haha, this whole Black Shores organization is great: Tsubaki, Aalto, and Anko (Encore). I love this trope where a supposedly secret and elite organization is just a bunch of weirdos that you wonder how they get anything done. The MC too just facepalmed with Aalto’s answer to why they can be trusted: “Now Anko, do that pose!” and then she does the most adorable “nee?”. This theme music is also perfect.
Getting to know the game
This game releases new versions quite prominently, tying the events and other new content in a way to create hype and bring players back. I suppose I have seen other games do that too, but I never played them actively in a way to experience it (for example in GTA 5 it only applied to GTA online content and in Diablo 3 the “season” stuff was mostly for advanced players). I didn’t realize but I started playing this game just few days after the release of 2.6, which was lucky so that I got some longer time limits (although I immediately took a week long break).
Playing Wuthering Waves. It continues with cool story and fights, but damn, I’m really getting tricked by these gacha mechanics, aren’t I? I thought I would get a bunch of synergetic bonuses around level 20 yielding good amount of the astrite currency, but it didn’t really happen. I’m at 38/80 of the needed spending, having spent about 1/3 of the time available. On one hand, I now know better the ways to most efficiently gather the replacement currency astrite, but on the other hand the easy sources for the directly needed currency “radiant tide” have soon been exhausted and relying just on astrite is a bit tough.
I’m growing a bit attached to ossan. By some random luck, the first better weapon I got was for him, and the current levelups (40->50) need some very random stuff and I happened to get his easily. I kind of like to have a male character around too. For many games I complain that there are too many female characters, but this game is so out there that the story really wouldn’t improve with better “balance”. There are a several male characters and they mostly pretty cool. Still, my one wish for a random 5-star resonator draw from this ordeal, with 50% chance of it not being the target Carlotta, is that it would at least be a girl… I’m a bit worried that the bit I read about Carlotta being only available from this particular Convene is that the same applies to most of the other 5 star ones. The “free” ones are Anko, Jianxin, Lingyang, and Verina, so 50% getting one of those, and I only want Anko.
Looking through the texts in English again and searching the wiki for information. Also planning my next moves. I actually find this game rather mentally stimulating because there are so many things to optimize for simultaneously, and the many systems seem roughly in balance. Or their imbalance is something I can address — for example now I’m realizing my main bottleneck is the “Union level” which caps my spending on character and weapons improvements for which I have lots of stuff available. And there are tons of way to gather the Union exp, I just hadn’t been paying much attention until now.
Spun the wheel and got my first 5 star resonator from the “beginner convene”, Lingyang. I like this character probably the least in the whole roster, but I know I’m not the target audience. I didn’t try playing as him yet though. Also got (actually randomly) another 4 star called Tankin (Danjin), which I will summarize with “literally who?” Hah, I guess I’ll have to find out.
I played yesterday an event/questline called Somnium Labyrinth which is pretty cool. Nice aesthetics with lots of variation. It’s basically a series of miniquests with quest characters, most completely new to me at this stage of the game. This game is great at teasing you to getting the characters via the gacha mechanics.
To be honest I find the monetization is done with quite good taste. It combines gameplay effort with help of your wallet. With reasonable budget (what games usually cost per hours played), you can probably get a few nice things which feels very rewarding because you really worked for them. And having the rest of the goodies stay locked actually kind of boosts the personal value of what you chose to go after.
I’m not entirely sure but I wonder if getting the gacha stuff will become somewhat easier later on. Many of the events deal out their rewards roughly based on overall progress in the game, so if you have played for a while and a new event like that comes up (I’m not sure they do), then you basically instantly get all the rewards. A softer version is that for a high level party more of the game’s content has been unlocked and it may be much easier to quickly attain the particular things needed. My guess is that the developers are very on top of this and have tuned the systems to whatever maximizes revenue, hah. So I theorize it gets slightly easier to incentivize people to keep playing — having it get significantly harder might be frustrating at a time when you are anyway getting so used to the game you might suddenly quit entirely.
I got a weird co-op request in middle of the game and read in passing some forum discussion about how random people send requests to join your party. I remembered I had in the beginning set an option to disallow non-friends to do that, but it’s kind of strange since none of my (Steam) “friends” are playing the game I think. Probably a bug, but anyway might be interesting to try out (much) later. I think I quite dislike online multiplayer with random people, but I haven’t tried it in so long time that might be worth it. Maybe different kinds of people play a game like this than some first person shooters for example.
Lore
https://wutheringwaves.fandom.com/wiki/Rabelle's_Curve
Developed by Dr. Scott Rabelle, this method was originally designed to examine Resonators. It is also known as “Rabelle’s Test.” Known for its safety, reliability, and ease of use, the test has since been adopted across multiple regions.
Natural Resonators have a non-convergent Rabelle’s Curve with a gradual, stable rise. These Resonators have naturally awakened their Forte during their growth.
Mutant Resonators have a non-convergent Rabelle’s Curve with a steep rise in its middle section. These Resonators experienced extreme conditions, surges of energy, emotional distress or a life-changing event that led to the awakening of their Forte.
Congenital Resonators have a non-convergent Rabelle’s Curve with a periodic waveform. These Resonators were born with their Forte.
I love this kind of lore. Not sure if it does anything gameplay-wise, but probably does and that’s what makes it good. It’s about using a new unique categorization for some gameplay elements instead of elemental or weapon types, or many other such generic systems that most games have. Speaking of elements, this game also seems to have them for resonators but it’s not really rock-paper-scissors. The only thing is really the color-coding and that some are obviously element based (glacio = ice, fusion = fire), and there are resistances for each.
I’m not a big fan of these mascot creatures which usually feature in magical girl shows. Weirdly I think the thing that most bothers me about them is that they always have the ability to fly, or just hover really. It makes them too magical and special. I think the underlying trope the character is needed for is “pet”, and I wonder if it would be better to make them more animal-like.
Each resonator has “the mark” somewhere in their body and the clothing usually reveals it in a cool way. I just realized Sanhua instead has her right pupil deformed in that shape. Cool. I kind of wanted to play her but I’m annoyed that so many characters have the sword type of the main character. I know I can replace the MC in the standard team but I kind of like her design and voice.
Does every girl in this game wear shortpants, or whatever they are called? At first I thought it’s a Chinese industry modesty thing, but there are some more revealing designs in other Chinese games (Wuchang). I’m wondering if they keep modesty to bump the “value” of the more revealing designs, so that players will be more eager to buy.
Although, the shortpant designs usually look great. Maybe the issue is partly on my end having gotten so used to cheap Japanese fanservice?
Spent big bucks again on the gacha. Damn, all of this will really come to the outcome of that Carlotta convene. If I get her (50% chance), I’ll be so happy. But if it’s instead something like an upgrade to Lingyang, I might just rage-quit on the spot.
New team
So the Carlotta convene ended for me, I didn’t get her but instead Verina. She seems okay, I wanted to try a ranged type and also healer before.
I’m changing my whole roster. Danjin seems actually kind of nice. A girl like her who doesn’t stand out needs some love :) Her animations are quite cool. Youhu and Verina are the other two (I like Youhu now). It seems like the three loli characters I’ve seen so far share quite a bit of their base animations, I don’t really mind because they are nice, but just noting how the developers smartly make the most use of their content. It’s similar to how there are just five weapon types.
I already thought Tsubaki was the sexiest character, but now trying out fighting with her, damn. The way she hangs from those ropes…
First co-op
Playing Wuthering Waves, I tried out co-op for the first time. Previously I refused the several attempts to join my world, and now felt the pain by having everyone refuse me when I tried to do it myself. I realized having a Japanese nickname is not good in this context.
I got accepted twice into co-op, both by accident I think, because I was immediately kicked out. Next, one guy accepted but just asked a weirdly technical game question in chat and when I said I don’t know, he left. Finally some guy seriously accepted and it turned out a proper thing since he was already with another guy, somehow way above our level (co-op limit is 3 people). The high level guy chatted a bit and seemed cool, later accepting my friend request as well. We (they) beat some challenge a several times in a row and then they just hung out while I explored this new continent I haven’t yet reached in single player (I think I’m close). When I asked about it, he said they are chatting about builds in some voice chat.
Pretty much like I expected modern online games to be. Might be fun to get deeper into it.
The game breaks the progression majorly by a spec called “union level” which is kind your experience level as a player, not tied to any of your characters. Mentioning this now because I hit the milestone of union level 30 on this co-op testing day.
Parkour
It’s surprisingly fun to just explore. Climbed mostrously tall buildings and cliffs, flied from one towards some interesting looking tech-tower thingie. Ended up exploring a large cave system that I had not even spotted before.
I feel like I’m getting a better hang of the game, evident by the fact that now I’m constrained by every resource. Need to start thinking where to spend the valuables and how to obtain them more efficiently.
4chan /vg/
Last night I couldn’t sleep and browsed some Wuthering Waves stuff with my phone in the bed. Found 4chan’s /vg/ (Video Game Generals) board’s /wuwa/ thread. It was good discussion and I remembered how several times before I had looked with envy at the /vg/ board users being so immersed in their own stuff. I had gone as far as to skim all the different general threads to find a game I might enjoy myself, but it never worked out, as I just didn’t like the games.
Among the few /vg/ games I tried years ago was Genshin Impact, which I recently learned wuwa is so similar to as to be called a rip-off by some. They certainly share a large player base. The consensus seems to be that wuwa does a great number of things better than genshin, but it’s not really something I can comment on. I suppose I might also have enjoyed Genshin if I hadn’t made the major mistake of only trying it on Android despite being a hardcore PC user. The serious players of wuwa are definitely all on PC.
Playing Wuthering Waves. The Carlotta and Augusta Convenes now ended, and the new character Iuno came out, together with some older character. I test-played them both and watched Iuno’s promo video but didn’t like either girl. There’s also not really anything else interesting available in the Convene. So I think I’ll sit out this period of about 20 days, saving up my astrites. There’s plenty of stuff to do in the game, the convenes are only a small part. It looks like I’ll get Anko soon from an event that requires completing 24 separate tasks out of 32 or so options. I’m short two and there are some quite easy options still left.
Cleared the first “Tower of Adversity” challenge (4 fights completed within time limits). If I’ve understood correctly from forum posts, this is a kind of “endgame” activity where for the later levels you need to compose multiple teams and beat enemies with all of them. So basically it forces you to collect and master playing of many characters which is quite nice. At least to me it seems all the characters play quite differently, having only barely learned to use one now: Danjin. With Yuanwu I can also cause quite a lot of damage but my button mashing is probably quite far from optimal. Verina I’m only using for healing basically (also missing exp points for her and weapon).
Played and completed Anko’s companion quest. It tells the story of her mother dying and her finding the power of storytelling. Made me cry actually, I’m just weak for this kind of thing, hah.
Got Anko now. Hmm, her combat mechanics seem lackluster, hopefully just a bad first impression. I also realized Lustrous Tide doesn’t have any important use anymore, so I can dump it all in the permanent weapon convene (I had 37 in bank). Pulling 40 times, I got two 4 star swords and yet another Yuanwu and Byakushi. Not particularly useful, but after 40 more spins the guaranteed 5 star weapon might be quite nice. For the first time now, I fully upgraded a 4 star weapon and it seems considerably better than similar 3 star ones. Probably the 5 star ones are worth “pulling” too.
Gacha and MMO players
Looking at some Steam reviews of the game. As expected there is pretty sharp divide between people who played a bit and those who played a lot. I’m personally now past 70 hours which is nearing my average AAA studio RPG playtime, but it feels like I’m just getting started with this game. Some reviewers have 1000+ hours in the game and casually mention spending 2000+ hours in Genshin Impact, which is basically a precursor to this game. About 150 hours of playtime (on Steam) looks like a median for reviewers who seem to know what they are talking about. So I think you don’t necessarily have to spent an eternity playing this game to get the best experience.
Reading a few dozen of these 500+ hour reviewers, I surmise playing these type of gacha and/or MMO games is a kind of lifestyle for many. One person begins his review with “Ive played mmos for 25 years, and I got into Genshin when it came out..”.
Personally, this game also feels a lot like what I imagined MMOs to be like, having never dared play any in fear of addiction. I think the core feature of an MMO (for a player like me) isn’t necessarily that you are playing with other people (in this game you hardly ever do), but that the game keeps updating with new content for years and years which builds up a real culture. You can get really immersed in the game, the meta, and the community stuff and feel like you are part of something large and even intellectually prestigious.
Almost all the played-since-the-launch player comments and reviews say the game was shit on launch and they were surprised how good it turned out. I guess after all I was lucky getting in a bit late.
Anti-cheat
Only after reading some negative Steam comments I realized this game installs kernel-level anti-cheat. That kind of sucks. For the uninitiated, it basically means that any of the developer’s chosen “anti-cheat” programs (not the game itself but could be anything else) run at the very highest levels of privilege on your personal computer which makes them mostly invisible to the antivirus/malware software on your system. It’s all very technical, but in theory at least the game developer or someone able to direct their actions could take control of your computer via the software you installed. You cannot play the game without consenting to also installing this kernel-level anti-cheat.
Anyway, I did not immediately uninstall the game upon learning this. It sucks, but I’m not quite sure the sucking approaches the seriousness of the current general attack on online privacy in EU countries. The nation states wield increasingly great power over the individual and I wonder if really the best angle of resistance for intelligent professionals is to focus on these niche computer related issues. They are important, yes, but please realize you also have the ability to influence politics on a higher level if you really want to things to improve.
Don’t forget to login every day
I wonder if it’s intentional design how it took me two weeks of active playing before I really noticed and understood the “dark design pattern” of “energy”/“stamina” in this game. In some mobile games I briefly tried before, it was always very obvious: one prominent resource regenerates in sync with real world clock and when you run out of that resource your options become severely limited. The idea is that you login again tomorrow when that resource has replenished, and if you wait for too long then it hits some cap and you will be missing out unless you login to spend it.
The intention is of corse to get you to login every day and build a habit. So Wuthering Waves too has that exact mechanic in the form of “waveplates”. But the resource isn’t required for doing basic things — instead it’s used for fighting recurring bosses and challenges to collect materials for character leveling. So it’s very goal oriented, “grinding” I guess. But it only takes like 10 minutes to spend your daily waveplates, and that means 10 minutes of fighting monsters with your favorite characters in a game about fighting monsters, so it’s not that bad a deal.
https://www.darkpattern.games/game/40725/0/wuthering-waves.html
Some people think mobile games are evil and painstakingly update sites like this, which seems a bit silly to me.
Reached union level 40 now, plan to secure some character/weapon/echo upgrades and then head to the last mission of the Black Shores arc, and then, finally to 2.x version content.
Continue reading at Wuthering Waves part 2Wuthering Waves part 2.
