Wuthering Waves just launched and, well, there are a lot of comparisons to Genshin Impact! They’re similar sorts of games, after all. I’ve sampled a bit of it, as well as played HoYoVerse’s now famous title a ton. While in time Wuthering Waves could maybe be worth it, I feel like right now people’s time would be better spent going through Genshin Impact instead.
First of all, the whole gameplay element in Wuthering Waves is essentially identical to Genshin Impact. Granted, this isn’t exactly unique. Many other open-world types of titles feature the same sorts of exploration. I mean, Genshin Impact itself was accused of being a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild clone ahead of its launch due to some early footage and area examples. But the thing here is that I feel like Wuthering Waves doesn’t feel like it has anything at launch that we really haven’t seen in Genshin Impact, Tower of Fantasy, or other titles.
So… let’s give Wuthering Waves some time! Right now, we’re seeing a lot of similarities to games like Genshin Impact. But we also know that HoYoVerse encountered those same sorts of issues in launch areas. That then changed when we started to see later updates with regions like Inazuma, Sumeru, and Fontaine. So this could be a situation where Wuthering Waves needs time to come into its own as well.
Especially since, well, a big part of one of the things that would make you want to explore is a bit tainted. The localization for Wuthering Waves is terrible, as the translation means that so much of the text reads awkwardly. This doesn’t just apply to flavor or tutorial types of text from NPC. (For example, “Have you confirmed the inventory? What about the spare list? Sort out the consumables as soon as possible.”) But you also have major characters like Yangyang saying, “Practice is better than words.” Or we hear Taoqi say “And for your own safety, please be reluctant to leave city grounds without authorization.” One of the early positive impressions praising the fact we can skip text and the story isn’t a good thing! Given so much is voiced, odds are we won’t see the past parts fixed. But perhaps there’s hope for the future with fan feedback?
Meanwhile, Genshin Impact has such a fantastic localization. Yes, we may get an occasional spelling error in the written text. Sometimes there’ll be an awkward localization of a song that sounded way better in Chinese or Japanese. But the flavor and detail going into the work is so much better. It’s richer and feels more unique. Even the fact that, while we are dealing with a protagonist who is stranded and a mystery after an attack, we aren’t relying on the typical amnesiac protagonist helps enhance the experience.
Really, the only reason to consider playing Wuthering Waves over Genshin Impact is the character designs and what they can do in combat. It’s the one area where both games can stand up in unique ways. But then we also have to consider these are gacha games. The number of characters you get for free is few and far between. At launch, we don’t have many available in Wuthering Waves. I also know from experience that (sadly) power-creep is a thing in gacha games. So this is again a situation where someone should wait, perhaps at least until a few weeks or months after launch, until Wuthering Waves finds its footing and go with the more established Genshin Impact for now instead.
I suppose what I’m saying is Wuthering Waves might not be the right choice at this exact moment, and Genshin Impact could be instead the game to play. Down the road, this could blossom. It could become more unique. The localization could end up being better. There could be a larger selection of characters and balancing could happen. But for now, maybe wait and go with something more tried and true.
Wuthering Waves is available for the PC and mobile devices. Genshin Impact is available on the PS4, PS5, PC, and mobile devices.
