Roving the Frequencies

Developed and published by Kuro Games’ Wuthering Waves is an open-world gacha action RPG comparable to Genshin Impact. In the distant future, Earth has been ravaged by cataclysmic events called the Lament. Human civilization is under siege by monsters called Tacet Discords. Standing against them are warriors called Resonators who can capture the Echoes of fallen Discords and use them in battle.

Players take the role of a Resonator called Rover, a name that means “wanderer” but will never not sound like a dog’s name to me. You can choose a male or female Rover, though Wuthering Waves lacks a proper character creator.

After an introductory dream sequence, Rover wakes up with no memories and is found by the Resonators Chixia and Yangyang. As Rover and their new friends head to the nearest city, they are interrupted by the arrival of an unusual Tacet Discord. After the battle, Rover demonstrates the unique ability to absorb certain Echoes without using their Console. This attracts the attention of both the local Magistrate and a nefarious secret society. Rover must solve the mystery of their past while protecting the land from an ancient evil.

Sonic Combat

Rover, Chixia and Yangyang form your initial party, though players can unlock new resonators from random gacha pulls. Players control one Resonator at a time but can equip others and swap between them freely. In addition to letting you use each character’s weapons, abilities, and Echoes, it’s also how you activate their Intro and Outro Skills.

Regarding Echoes, when players kill a Tacet Discord, there is a chance that it leaves an Echo behind. Resonators can capture the echo in the gourd-like Consoles on their back. Resonators can then equip a captured Echo to access their powers in battle. Most are offensive in nature, though there are a few support abilities there as well.

Meanwhile, as the names imply, Intro and Outro Skills activate when a Resonator leaves or enters battle, respectively. When a character’s icon flashes, switching to them activates their Intro skill, which unusually takes the form of a powerful attack. Meanwhile, a small compass-like icon next to the active Resonator’s health bar shows when they can perform an Outro Skill. Outros usually buff the incoming Resonator, though there are some direct combat Outro Skills. Each character also has a standard ability, an ultimate ability and a basic attack.

Wuthering Waves’ combat also heavily emphasizes dodging and countering. Perfectly timing your evasion triggers a slow-motion dodge move, leaving the enemy open to a counterattack. Bosses will also sometimes perform what the game calls Flawed Attacks, indicated by a glowing ring. Timing a well-timed attack from your Resonators will interrupt these Flawed Attacks and deliver a powerful counter.

Dissonant Voices

While combat in Wuthering Waves is fun, the story struggled to keep my attention, primarily because of the dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue, and it often consists of characters in extravagant outfits dryly explaining things to each other. While this was partly a writing issue, the voice acting didn’t help. Chixia at least has some personality, but Yangyang threatened to put me to sleep. She’s supposed to be the gentle, nurturing one to balance out Chixia’s excitable tomboyishness. However, the voice actress sounds like she’s on sedatives half the time.

Meanwhile, Rover doesn’t talk much, but when she does, it’s like listening to a robot. Weirdly, this is only really a problem outside of combat, as her mid-battle lines manage to pull off sounding stoic without becoming mechanical. Note that I was playing a female Rover, so I have no idea if the male voice actor is any better. The rest of the cast was a similarly mixed bag, and the actors were inconsistent in pronouncing some of the game’s Chinese names.

I feel like I’m harping on the dialogue too much, but Wuthering Waves has a lot of it. I’m generally not one to skip cutscenes, but I often became impatient to get back into the gameplay.

All of that said, Kuro Games’ Wuthering Waves is a good action RPG at its core. If you want an open-world action game about characters in elaborate costumes, you could do much worse. There is a bit of a mandatory grind to advance, but it is no worse than many other RPGs. When I wasn’t trapped in a conversation, I enjoyed my time with Wuthering Waves, and you probably will too.