2.2 is god tier, I agree that 2.1 put everything on halt to essentially advertise the Aventurine banner, but 2.2 got everything back on track. The new areas are great, some of the cutscenes are the best in the entire game yet, the final boss is super satisfying, there’s a legitimate emotional moment, and it just comes together so satisfying. Warning: there is a moment where it might seem like 2.2 dropped the ball hard, but let them cook, it ultimately leads to something amazing.
That's good to hear that 2.2 is interesting story again. I thought 2.0 was the best patch the game has ever had so far, so if it's back to that level (or exceeding it), that motivates me to get in and play it again. Not to mention I only have 2 weeks left on those limited events, so I better get moving.
I’d also recommend not waiting too long as not only is it amazing, but there are a few twists, character reveals, etc. that some players will probably start to treat like common knowledge after a while, so spoilers could occur.
I have been minor spoiled about a few things, but I'm not one to whine about it when it happens, especially since I've been slacking and playing Wuthering Waves a bit more lately, so it's my own fault.
2.3 will serve as the epilogue, and then 2.4 and beyond (I assume 2.6 will be the last one before 3.0) until 3.0 will likely be side-story events (hoping we get at least one side story event for Penacony that I love as much as A Foxian Tale, I loved the ghost hunting theme, so something as appealing as that would be sweet, more of that and less museum-managing or building market businesses, please).
Yea Foxian Tale was a great event patch. The area was visually better than 95% of the Luofu, the story and worldbuilding was interesting. The only thing I didn't care for was the social media garbo, but that's just me being no fun, I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed it.
The leaks say that we'll be doing side stuff in Penacony for a bit yet and then
back to the Luofu where supposedly March and Tingyun are getting 5* upgrades, along with some new characters.
*edit*
Speaking of Wuthering Waves, despite all the drama and controversy, I have had a really great time with the game and particularly the combat. I haven't dug into either of the limited time events yet, but I finished all of the quests that I found or that were available to me, hit level 35, finished my beginner banners and now the only 2 resonators I don't have are Not-Sephiroth and the furry boy. At about 80% total exploration, only missing a handful of sonic caskets etc. My verdict:
- Combat is obviously its core strength. The ability to do intro/outro skills, and characters having long charge moves that are designed to be quickswapped is really satisfying once you get into a rhythm. I love the dodge mechanic that allows 'perfect fights' where you take no damage and do tons of counters and stylish combos, and that whipcrack sound effect just gives me a hit of dopamine every time I hear it (when you get an echo drop). It's a very simple system to play as a casual would, but it's incredibly deep if you want to put the effort into looking cool, which I love. I haven't pissed around doing custom combos and stylish stuff like this since DMC3.
- Characters all have a role and are sufficiently different from each other. Teambuilding isn't as strict as Genshin, even though you only get 3 characters per team. If you wanna maximize buffs and off-field damage, healing, etc that's cool, but you can also just pick 3 DPS and go full style mode, as long as you're good at timing dodges. I've only played 2 characters that I didn't really care for, the big tiddied "totally not Noelle" shielder/healer girl and Danjin, who feels just straight up suicidal most of the time. They took the HP sacrifice mechanic and turned it up to 11 despite her not doing insane damage to compensate.
- Currency feels really slow to obtain. Maybe it's because the open world stuff is more interesting in Genshin, but it feels like I've been dragging trying to find all the chests and stuff and barely have 12k gems to show for it. They don't seem to refresh the 5/5 pulls that you can buy from the "totally not starglitter" shop each month, which also sucks.
- Bugs/Performance. it's been fine for me, for the most part. Got some bugs, but I never had the lag/stutter that a lot of people experience. The game's been rock solid for me, but I'm probably just throwing horsepower at it with my new PC. I think considering the size of the simultaneous worldwide launch, considering they don't have HoYo money, they did well with the backend/servers.
- The MC is actually great. They copied the Traveler getting multiple elements thing from Genshin, but both of the currently available iterations are actually really strong and useful. I actually keep the MC in my main party and enjoy using him.
- Quests/story/dialogue/localization is awful. Just boring shit, only somewhat saved by nice views now and again when you finish a quest and decontaminate an area or something. The stories themselves are complete trash. These areas are what need the biggest amount of work if they want the game to be successful, IMO. It tells a lot that a few days into the release they added a skip button so you don't have to waste your precious minutes reading it. They said they're gonna rework/rewrite the story, and they absolutely should. Hope they let current players go back and play the new story. Quests have some interesting plotlines but are bogged down with terrible disconnected dialogue and writing.
- Grinding is about mid-tier. I find it less annoying than Genshin, but I haven't seriously farmed echos yet, just using what I got while exploring/questing. I finally didn't make the mistake I usually make where I level a bunch of characters at the same time and instead stuck with 3 characters (MC, Encore, Wind monk lady). The "not resin" feels slow to recharge but I'm in no rush and i'm not gonna sweat letting it overlap since I already play too many "stamina system" games. It probably gets worse when you're trying to farm perfect echoes, just like Genshin/Star Rail artifacts, but at least this game lets you compensate your middling gear with player skill, which I appreciate.
Anyways, given that Kuro Games doesn't have miHoYo's money, and are directly in competition with a massive behemoth like Genshin out of the gate, I think they did a pretty good job. It looks like they made around 20 mil just in mobile despite all the drama, so hopefully they reinvest that into improving the game and keeping the content flowing. I probably won't play it daily, but I'll be there for new versions and other big new drops/improvements.
wutheringwaves.kurogames.com
InterMusketeer
- The Chev dream is over:
