Back in 2020, I missed the initial release of Genshin and the gacha RPG gold rush that followed, so I decided to make sure I got my hands on Wuthering Waves (or, as I like to call it, Wuthering Waifus) for purely scientific reasons. To understand what all the fuss and obsession was about.

After spending around six hours with it, I was convinced that Wuthering Waves is essentially a good example of a game made right – if not for the utterly nonsensical story that developer Kuro Games packed into it.

I’m a strong believer that the sooner you play a game, the better. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – the action RPG to which Genshin is often compared – is a great example of this. Link wakes up, picks up a strange tablet, and gets lost in a vast plateau without much explanation. You have the freedom to explore, learn, and immerse yourself in this world.

Wuthering Waves has a deep core worth revealing, but unlike Breath of the Wild, it’s hidden behind one dialogue box after another. Playing it reminded me of the first time I played Skyward Sword on the Wii. The excruciatingly long beginning dragged on forever, and I had to wander around Skyloft for about an hour before the adventure really began.

The tutorial itself wasn’t too bad. I chose to play as an amnesiac anime girl in black, rather than an amnesiac anime boy in black, and three anime women showed me how. They gave me a good understanding of combat, and I also learned how to absorb monsters and equip them as echoes for passive buffs and new abilities. I was then released to explore the beautiful world, but quickly realized I wouldn’t get very far without following the story first.

This is where the storm lost me. Upon arriving in the capital city of Jinzhou, I had to walk around, activate beacons, and meet with judges. To cure my memory loss, I was given five everyday items related to my character’s backstory, ranging from candy to fruit. To unlock some memories, the quest marker led me to a lab, where a few characters rambled on about the history of candy, puzzle boxes, databases, file systems, and health checks.

This was way worse than what Skyward Sword 2011 gave me.

I spent probably 75% of my 2 hours of gameplay reading nonsensical science fantasy dialogue. And even then, I had little idea what was going on. The Tacet Discord, similar to the Prometheans from Halo 4, had emerged from the rift and were waging some kind of war. Or maybe the rifts are called Tacet Discord and the Prometheans are called. Something else. Anyway, I decided to work my way through the dialogue and see if I could make up for all the nonsense with some action-RPG combat.

That was not the intention. After digesting all the information I was given in Jinzhou, I left the city to kill monsters. However, soldiers blocked my path and my companions again had a long dialogue session explaining how dangerous the front lines of the war are and semantically arguing whether we should be allowed through or not. I survived this onslaught of idiotic chatter and had a few promising battles, but again a cold and boring storyline ruined my enjoyment.

I spent a few more hours drawing new characters, including a rare 5-star character. I could see the appeal of accumulating overwhelming amounts of currency to roll out more characters and weapons while farming experience boosters to level everything in my inventory. Even better, switching between three different characters, combining equippable monsters for active skills and passive buffs, and exploring bright, beautiful environments all felt incredibly smooth… until the story hit rock bottom again and the fun slipped out from under him. At this point, I thought I was lucky that Wuthering Waves was free to play and I didn’t spend a cent.

The action-RPG combat works incredibly well, with a non-explanatory endgame after the story that could keep me busy for months, and I’m sure the inevitable future updates could come later in the year. Even as I write this, I feel the urge to log in every day to earn the bonus time I need to roll more characters. I understand that games like Genshin can become an all-consuming obsession, but with such a pointless storyline mixed with pretentious dialogue, playing Wuthering Waves felt more like a chore than a worthwhile way to spend my free time.