Wuthering Waves Is Good... But It Needs To Be Better. | Wuthering Waves CBT2 First Impressions 

12:10 Hi, PGR player here. Not only only do we occasionally get selectors, PGR is also one of the most F2P-friendly gachas out there at the moment

I appreciate that WW is focusing on the playerbase that prefers faster paced combat and higher difficulty, so each game can have its own target audience and everyone is satisfied

I’ll probably just play it because I’m burnt out from Genshin but still wanna have an anime rpg game

"Hoyo's bubbly, light-hearted games" Truly one of the wholesome and positive descriptions.

My hope is that it's at least is good enough that genshin gets an incentive to improve

I want this game to do alright for two reasons: • Genshin could use some competition and a need to clean up and experiment even more • Hearing “Wuwa” sparks joy

8:08 Guys Mobile players have functional thumbs PGR had 8 orbs you can press, basic attack, dodge, ult, 2 character you can switch to and a QTE ontop of them while a boss may or may not be smashing your face in And yet its surprisingly easy to execute what you want to do? Hell i can dash cancel orbs for super optimal combo perfectly fine without much issue The game stayed mobile for years before it got a PC port

I don't think "better" really matters because its clear that they want the more "hardcore" demographic. They just need that market to be big enough to make their money.

One of the most important factors for me is the story. I'd play a 2D game over the highest graphic-quality 3D game, if it means I'd get to experience a beautifully written plot.

8:38 it most likely because of the world itself is a recovering Post apocalyptic world that in some area it feel more vibrant then in other it feel dark, muted because the scar it still fresh despite the recovery. 12:07 You can get free 5 star weapon if reach lvl 45 right now in CBT, so it might possible for them to give free 5 star character during anniversary in the future.

I LOVE CBT

Hope we get something ELSE. Sure, I like genshins gameplay and design, but I want WW to do something else and play with the concept a bit more. Maybe more endgame??

I think adding more monster types (some friendly and neutral) would be better to expand the exploration and keep focus. Chests everywhere is too common, but a living and breathing ecosystem would be a first.

I will wait and test it out in 1.0, I do like combat heavy games, but I dont really have a lot of time during weekdays, so if it requires me more than like 30-40 minutes a day to not significantly fall behind I don't think I'll stick around for long since I don't plan on quitting genshin in favor of it. I have some different requirements/expectations from most people probably like "can I complete the daily grind on my coffee break on my phone" and "Is the co-op enjoyable enough with my girlfriend (who isn't a big fan of harder combat games so if she doesn't stick around I probably wont too)". But even if I don't stick around, I do hope that its good for the people who do enjoy this type of game the most and have the time to grind

This game has LOCK ON?? You've just sold me on the game. (No but legit, I think I will give this game a very serious try)

Nice to see fusing of PGRs cool combat mechanics (intro-outro abilities, guns, companions etc.) with genshin-esque main combat and exploration. Going to miss the orb matching system though (it probably wouldn't work in this kind of game)

I thought ToF looked good, but when I played it, whenI took control of my character and started moving around I immediately felt that something was off. So for WuWa, while it looks very promising, I will wait until I can actually put my hands on it before I get hyped about it.

8:08 If it's well designed, we'll be fine. You're a PC player so it makes sense that playing on mobile seems difficult, but for the rest of us it's not a big deal. The same applies in reverse.

I have seen discourse about this game in both Genshin forums and Wuthering Waves forums, and the Genshin killer claims are just as stupid as the Genshin clone claims. Wuthering Waves is a game that's clearly trying to appeal to players who like more challenging combat, with mechanics that are either exclusive to it or done differently than Genshin, and too much effort was put into it in order to just be a clone (like rewriting 90% of the story between the closed beta tests). I don't understand how people can look at footage like this video shows and still concluded that it's just a reskinned Genshin.

Honestly, I appreciate things like not trying to cater to everybody, just picking the playerbase they want to focus on and sticking to it. WuWa focuses on people who want some challenging (but not overly difficult) combat, just like Reverse1999 focuses more on characters and world-building rooted in the real world. It's great if you can do all these things at the same time, but, honestly? Picking one and polishing it is already good. You might not end up with an enormous playerbase, but you will earn a loyal one who are here for what you're offering. And, well, they really bought me with "we rewrote 90% of the story". *That's* commitment. If nothing else, I respect their willingness to listen to their players and take a step back to fix something, een if it's difficult.

personally im on the fence about playing wuwa - i’ve already invested a lot of time (and some money) into genshin, HSR, and HI3rd so idk if i can handle a 4th live service gacha game at the same time lol the biggest factors that pull me into a game are character designs and overworld exploration and while wuwa is definitely nailing it in the character design department, i am a little disappointed in what i’ve seen of the overworld… the more muted color palette isn’t an issue to me but it overall feels very empty… ik the combat system seems to be the priority here but i would love to see kuro add more puzzles and/or NPCs with side quests into the world between the current beta and release 👍

I hope on release, Kuro adds content that distinguishes Wuwa further from Genshin without completely killing the similarities. The very fact that they are similar sells but I think it would be good to see gameplay and GUI differences between the two. Maybe instead of multiple short commissions like in Genshin, Wuthering Waves has one slightly longer commission that is repeatable lore wise. An example of UI changes would be maybe redesigning the character build up menu. Idk I’m just spitballing but y’all get the point

Wuwa relic/artifact system remind me of yokai burst in nioh 2 which very welcome addition.

the most important thing for me is how engaging is the story. i'm the type that only wants to invest in grinding and figuring out combat mechanics only if the story immerses me in the game. if the game is just full of mechanics but no immersive story, i usually consider it a waste of time to learn the game and/or grind. the exception is MMORPG where I will grind even if there is no good story since MMORPG has a social aspect where my work will show in guild activities, guild wars, PvP, or just parties. But if it's a single player game, I need a story that makes me want to play and I can't get interested just from their combat system if there is no immersive story.

I appreciate that you tried to give a review of this game on its own merits and flaws, way too many people are relying on clickbait titles and antagonizing both playerbases which is not going to help anyone. The combat for this game looks intriguing and the AOE loot feature sounds very convenient. I love the souls games so having bosses you have to learn and adjust to is appealing. I'm a little concerned that the character design is bland and the world seems relatively barren (I'm fine with the duller color scheme) but its still a CBT so maybe they will improve on this before release. It's a little weird to me that liking exploration is associated with being a casual. The complete story overhaul is also a little concerning but I'll withhold judgement until I see it myself.

Here's hoping they add mounts or make echos mountable for faster travel and maybe give a separate bar for the grappling hook like giving it two charges

Excited to try it when it comes out. Also a huge fan of 100% rates on weapon banners.

7:44 Tbh I'm not bragging or anything probably because I'm just so proud, but it just makes me smile and chuckle a little when you opened up about this concern cus' I really feel like if you came from the PGR community or like if your a PGR player you actually don't even think about this as a concern like it just passes through your mind probably because of how accepted we already are of it, due to how much buttons were already pressing when playing KURO's other Famous game "PGR". We have the joystick, the dodge, the basic atk, the orbs pings, the ultimate, the CUBS, the lock-on (if manual), the QTEs and so on. And now thinking about it, echoes are just basically the CUBS in pgr but much more out going. But yes to newcomers this may be a concern and give the toxic "SKILL ISSUE" trend which I hope not.

I do agree, with the sentiment that WuWa needs to have something that really attracts players to their characters. So far the designs while look good are also kinda bland. Nothing really jumps out to me like "I WANT THIS CHARACTER" It maybe great to show them in flashy animation just absolutely destroying everything in their path but what really makes GI trailers so good is the mix of visuals, movement, personality, abilities and music. Im not saying Kuro cant do it but Genshin has set the bar with its character charm in this genre. Its gonna be REALLY tough to make a character top that of Zhongli's trailer, or Furina's trailer or even Hu Tao's trailer, and you KNOW the names of these characters. Im still gonna try WuWa but the only characters I know of so far that i look cool are the red haired booba elf girl and the red headed gun girl. Still dont even know their names yet

If there's one thing I like about kuro is that they listen to feedbacks. I'm enjoying PGR a lot now that PC Client is out.

i was excited for the second beta and this makes me even more sad that i didnt get to get into it, im so excited for the game and it looks so good

The only thing i want from WW is that they bring some competition in the market, unlike a certain Genshin killer, which is doomed since the day it was launched.

I don't think I've heard an overall initial impressions that I agree with more. I'm with you pretty much point for point on what you said (as a spectator anyway, since I can't actually play it myself). I really do hope they (WuWa/Kuro) can differentiate themselves enough from their primary competition (Genshin/Hoyo) to serve as a healthy competitor. No need to kill anything, SERIOUSLY... They need to put some pressure on EACH OTHER to push the genre forward. Genshin's been a bit of a monolith for too long, it has had no reason to change up to this point. I hope WuWa can become that impetus for change and in doing so, serve BOTH communities, as well as the larger gacha community as a whole.

I'm cautiously optimistic for this game but I'm willing to bet this game will not have a great long term future especially when compared to genshin purely because it seems to not cater towards casuals like genshin does. This is not a bad thing, there should be games the cater to that audience but you also shouldn't be surprised if it has a lower player count and lower player retention because there are way more casual players when compared to the hardcore. Both the combat and the grind seems to be harder. Add your concern of this game not being that mobile friendly and we have a recipe of this game ending up as a niche but successful game which is scarily similar to how PGR is doing. It'll definitely do better than PGR but I doubt it'll pull the numbers genshin does.

im really excited for it, the combat looks really fun and with all the areas they teased in some of the trailers i am hoping the exploration will be equally as fun. My main worries are that they will not have enough unique enemies and will fall into the 'same enemy but a different type' trap or just repeat enemies in later areas. hopefully they manage to have enemies that are only in specific areas to help encourage exploration and to make exploring not feel like you are just sightseeing and collecting every chest you can find. My other worries are the story and gacha system. theres not too much to say about the gacha, i just hope they give us enough events and missions to get a sustainable income of pulls so that you can get a 5 star character every 2-3 banners or something like that (i might be delusional by star rails absurd amount of pulls). The story is something i hope is really good, they did say they completely redid it to make it better so im hoping they make it good and interesting, but i did notice they have a skip button for most dialogue and worse case i just play wuwa for the gameplay/combat and star rail for the story.

You've made me sad I didnt get accepted for either beta. I really wanna play this. This basically sounds like the stuff I've wanted from genshin since day 1, but never got. The extra movement options for overworld exploration is addressing my number 1 gripe with genshin, and then they also make the combat more fun. I cant wait to play this game!

I will be honest, I will try it when it releases but I don't think I will stick with it. As with most GACHA games I can see a point where I will hit a wall and my skill or luck will not be enough to get past it. At that time I will be tempted with spending more money to progress, and that is when I will know if I am going to stick with the game or not. If I find enough enjoyment playing the game even though I cant get past some harder content then I will probably stay and spend money. If the wall preventing me from progressing is ruining the game for me then I will move on. So it comes down to how fun the game will be for me and how much of it will be gated behind hard content. If they can get that balance right then this could just be the next GACHA game to define the genre! Anyway, good video!

So far there doesnt seem to be anything new this game offers compared to other games its competing against so gonna really just have to wait for release to judge it

I'm so excited for it as I love combat especially when I tried PGR. Kuro can really do combat well! I can't wait for WW to come out cause I am burnt out from genshin, I just feel like there isn't much to do in it anymore even though I'm behind. It seems refreshing.

I won’t be playing the game but it’ll be really interesting to see how its release goes and what cool stuff it has, I hope it has good success.

When wuwa officially drops are you gonna put wuwa content if you decide to do it on this channel or a new one?

hmm... already playing Genshin and Star Rail, do not feel like adding another one of simmilar tropes. No time to even play it.

I have some questions: Can you pull of multiple combos like in a hack & slash game? (xxx,yyy x,y,x,y,x,y) Does this require to be online to play it?

so is it have substat/mainstat RNG for echo like hoyo?

I'm one of those Genshin players that doesn't really care about the combat. Getting big damage numbers can be enjoyable, but I find I have more fun with the game when I'm experiencing the story or solving puzzles. So I'm probably going to pass on Wuthering Waves. I hope all the battle junkies out there have a blast with it, though!

From what i've seen so far, its more siimilar to ToF (tower of fantasy) in terms of gameplay, world theme, and some other aspects. - In ToF regular dodge is also a dash back while adding a direction, you will dash to that direction. Perfect dodging creates a "slow-mo" effect which is also present in ToF. (though is WW there's also blocking from what i've heard which is not present in ToF aside from skills from specific characters. genshin has specific character "blocking" too, candace, beidou, yunjin etc.) - guns and the futuristic world theme is also very prominent in ToF. - switching to do a special attack is also in ToF. - Gacha in ToF is also 80 for a guaranteed 5-star, but from my experience when i still played ToF 80 guaranteed doesn't actually translate to earlier 5-stars compared to genshin. In genshin you almost always get the 5-star at around 75-80 pulls. in ToF that's also almost the case, you only get a 5-star at the exact 80th pull. So unless WW has a soft pity system that's similar to genshin (that is at around 65-70 or 70-75 pulls you're chances to get the 5-star is significantly higher), it will be barely better than genshin. It is still "better" but not that much. WW for me is a more polished ToF, despite the majority saying ToF was bad. I actually still enjoyed playing it. I think people at the time just set ToF's bar too high and people really pushing it as the "genshin killer" instead of it being a competitor. When it came out with subpar quality "compared to genshin", the expectation that its the "genshin killer" made the game looked really bad, when in reality on its own it was actually a decent enough game especially since it has MMO aspect to it that genshin doesn't have (yes you can fight bosses in there with 15 or more people while also having solo content). I'm not saying WW is just a ToF clone, which people also called a Genshin clone, which people also called a Breath of the Wild clone. Comparing the games is just a way of saying there's a healthy competition in this game genre and i think that's good. By comparing and contrasting, we can make out the differences and similarities which can make the games in the genre a lot better if the voices of the players are heard.

What editing software do you use, Vars ?

Gacha and being on mobile are honestly things that keep these games from being more complex and fully fleshed out. Obviously, the more platforms the better and some people really like gacha, but those two things hold the games back a lot Playing on mobile is automatically inferior with limited performance and touchscreen inputs, but gacha always hamstrings how much you can do because they have to find a way to sap more money from you

Looks fun but I agree that it still needs some ironing.

The dev BETTER watch this video

it depends on what Kuro do with this game,is there really new content there?besides new map/characters?if not it will end like genshin but just with a better gameplay&exploration mechanic. And i dont mean just events something that is not just for 1-2 weeks and gone,something that is consistent there(the usual stuff, x person dungeon´s/raid´s)

I'll try it out, but for me, it's the long-term stuff that concerns me. How generous are they are consistently? How is it for players who start late, or leave the game for a while and come back? Things like that

I play codm regularly and I'm used to using 4 to 6 fingers at the same time. Man pc players really do underestimate mobile users don't they.

I cannot fucking state how excited I am for this game. It’s so cool. I really, really, really, _really_ hope this game does amazingly.

I definitely plan to try this game out now

I'm def gonna try it, if only to see how it's like. I appreciate the more hi3-esque combat, but yeah playing on mobile will probably be a somewhat of a pain. If they allow restructuring of the ui and buttons, that will probably help mobile players with the in depth combat.

I've already said this but I am saying it again, WW's combat unfortunately does not exhilarate my brain enough over Genshin's. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad by any means. I'm just saying that it's not that much more "fun" than Genshin, at least for me. One thing that does bother me a little is how underwhelming the story and voice work of this game. It's a complaint that I had ever since the tuning test and it's not really that much better. Unfortunate since I would imagine that's where a lot people's investments to a gacha game is. Now, the real saucy take. I hate talking about this because this topic is very subjective but here I am anyways... character design. WW's character design simply does not speak to me. I have no interest in them whatsoever. Ok, that's a lie. There were 2 or 3 characters that I was interested in, but really not by that much. If I'm completely being honest, the pets looks far more interesting than 95% of the playable characters.

Man this combat would be soo good on consoles

I'm really excited for this game. I unfortunately was unable to get into the CBT, but I LOVE combat focuses RPGs. Some of my favorite games are FF16, Astral Chain, Kingdom Hearts, and Tales of Arise, and those game's combat system's are incredible. I look forward to playing the full release of this.

Exploration is THE key content in every game for me. I really hope they add a lot more of content.

I honestly hate it that ppl are comparing it to genshin. I just want a game that isn't genshin... something fun to play and i know wuthering waves is the one since i play pgr.Everyone talking about genshin having a competitor but that's actually the last of my problem that game is dead to me and i think that even with competition nothing will change so i hate seeing all these ppl saying "genshin killer" it's really annoying.Almost as if that is the sole purpose of ww

I'm in the CBT as well. The game is really good, and the story is on par with genshin and much better than a few of genshin's sections. But the game is lacking some serious polish. Things have been redone and those things are rough on the edges. Clipping through things, crashing in loading screens, bugs in the story text, and the enemy locked camera rotation has a tendency to swing randomly sometimes when your character is moving quickly in combat. Im really loving the game, but they will need time between CBT2 and launch so that it can be perfect. It's all small, uncommon problems, but they can't be there on launch.

this gave is very interesting I'm looking forward to it the game style being colse to PGR or HI3 with a genshin like open world is so good

does anyone know what happened to the feature they showed akin to death stranding and the souls games where you can put leave messages in the world

Even if this game doesn't become popular/mainstream It won't die

WuWa's character designs just don't have that something extra Mihoyo has. The faces kind of look 'wrong' and none are super memorable. I wish the game the best because Genshin needs competitors, but it doesn't interest me just off that alone.

Honestly, this sounds absolutely my jam, I hope the devs keep improving and that the end product is worth their hard work in the end, because it seems to me these devs actually care about their playerbase.

The way you explained it, I feel like this game's combat reminds me more of Honkai Impact back when I played it during its earlier years where literally everyone in the party is a dps and party composition is mostly dictated by individual movesets that complement each other instead of something more "built into the system" like Genshin's elemental reactions. Note: I stopped playing Honkai Impact a LONG time ago so I honestly have no idea how it plays nowadays.

I don't want WuWa to be a Genshin killer, I want WuWa to be WuWa. A lot of times when a game tries to replicate another game's success, it doesn't hit most of the time. Like some of the Smash Bros clones out there. So, I'd rather have a completely unique experience apart from Genshin. If it's better, good. If it's not, good. It would be nice if Genshin responded to the success of WuWa by bettering their game but I don't frankly care about any of that.

Actual Vars video where he understands the mechanics of the game he's talking about. Gj

So excited for this game

as a mobile player, it's not too bad most of the time for button inputs, if you can set your button inputs (Which Kuro has in PGR so I'm sure they will have here) I like to squish them all into 1 corner then learn their placements through muscle memory. ranged aiming however..

I wish it would kill Genshin. Genshin is far too complacent. I will definitely be playing WuWa and if it performs well, I'm done with Genshin.

8:18 I play Genshin on mobile/tablet (I don’t own a pc), and i hate it too. So much that i had to buy a mifi Bluetooth controller. Been having all of the blasts ever since. Maybe Wuthering Waves will be the same

9:13 Hoyo’s more bubbly lighthearted games. *Honkai 3rd has left chat*

Loving this game! Controller support would make it sing for me! There are a few bugs and lack of puzzles but WuWa definitely replaces GI for me. WuWa and HSR might be the move for but Project Mugen is looking good too...

I hope WuWa will have better endgame content than genshin

I want it to be good but from a greed standpoint of me just wanting Genshin to be better It could honestly be the best piece of media to ever come out but I can’t healthily get invested in another gacha game I really want it to be good though and for those who do plan on playing it to have fun and hopefully unlike HSR and Genshin I hope it can exist in its own fucking bubble and that people won’t let the game only exist to be compared to Genshin

Knowing how Kuro does thing so much if you are going to ask something better you could directly tell them and they will do it

I’ll definitely try the game, but whether I stay will be entirely dependent on the combat feel. I’ve heard people compare the game to DMC, but I can’t expect that from a gacha, so I want to see what it does differently.

Given the title of the video, I was expecting you'd mention specific things you see as needing to be better. I didn't hear you mention anything specific that you felt was lacking.

It looks really good. Hopefully genshin learns and grows because of it.

The thing i'm most interested in is the Story anyway so i will most likely play it regardless of the rest.

I remember PGR's CBT back then had a lot of bad feedback. But look at PGR now, it has improved so well that it is always been given great feedbacks. I'm assuming it would also be the same case with WuWa.

"There is no rule that say the copy cant surpass the original"

You barely talk about the things that need improvement. Yes the gameplay/the battle is fun but I disagree that the exploration is that good, it's just very generic, they need to improve on it. As the world so flat, they need to add mount. They need to improve on the character art(many of them look the same), story, music and overall feeling of the atmosphere. Accept for the action, everything else feels bland. They need to focus more on the action battles and make the story more simpler. So far the game feel more like an improve Tower of Fantasy rather than Genshin. That's good. Just make a simple story and stop with the bloated dialogue, fix the janky animation, add more music, add more voice dialogue, everything else can be improve with future updates. Hoping they can finish this and release soon preferably this year.

this might seem minute but adding collectables on the mini map but not showing on the main map is a god send like what they did with Tower of fantasy cause now you won't have to go back to the same place you have already collected an item and wonder it is there or not

4:54 When I first played Genshin I was surprised something the nature was there since there was something like it in HI3.

I just hope that ww is good enough to make genshin have a genuine competitor. The main reason why genshin players are so shafted for qol and rewards is because there is truly no equal to genshin and hyv knows that

The more I hear about this game, the more I am impressed by it. It seems like it could be very fun, however there is one major issue I have. Simply put, I don't have the time or bandwidth to play a 3rd gacha game. With the amount of time investment in both Genshin and Star Rail, I am committed to them, so I would have to drop one (Genshin probably, given the similarities) to pick up Wuthering Waves. Unless WuWa is significantly more entertaining than Genshin, I will probably have to give it a miss.

I would like the WuWa have a feature drone so that we can take picture with beautiful scenery or take pictures of the boss

Hey Vars, i feel like Hoyo creators need to know about this: Kurogames actually updates their old characters. Look up PGR leap skills; imagine if Amber could get a new skillset/passive to bring her up to 4.x design.

The game looks actually challenging unlike Genshin.

Are you punishing gray raven

What is that outro music called?

"you can have good rates but no free currency or you can give out free currency but have abysmal rates" *genshin doing neither*

It’s fair for people to draw similarities between Wu Wa and Genshin to some degree but can we talk about how similar the bp looks to Genshin cause 🗿

Ok, I love Kuro games. I just relit my love for PGR and Im about to finally catch up with 1 year worth of story that I just left there. (How the hell does Alpha get a new frame?). Anyway, what I want to say is.... HOW IN THE BLODDY HELL CAN THEY FUCK UP THE UI SO BADLY? I kid you not, it looks as bad as ToF's. Seriously. How is MHY the only game that makes the UI, the text on the screen and everything just not look out of place? The very first second you show in the video I see that ugly yellow text font under the quest name, and the quest name itself looks too big and ugly. Idk, the font really needs a change. Look at PGR, it looks good. They can do it. Come on. Make it looks good.

you so right about the guns !!!! i just love guns / dual wielding !!!! wish genshin could get a gunner !!!!! btw from what ive seen from WUW cbt the game looks fun and im looking forward itb!

i cant wait for this game. i love both genshin and pgr and wuwa seems to be the combitaion of both of these two games.