Wuthering Waves

1. Summary

Players recommend Wuthering Waves above all for its combat: fast character swaps, perfect dodges and parries. Some call it the best combat in any gacha game, and a few compare it to Devil May Cry or Elden Ring. The visuals and cutscenes, the soundtrack and smooth traversal get steady praise as well. The story is the topic reviewers discuss most, and a common view is that it starts slowly in the first region and later becomes the reason they stay. The Rinascita arc, Aemeath's chapters and the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners collaboration that filled the June 2026 reviews draw the most emotional praise. A good number of reviewers call the game generous for a gacha, pointing to the pity system, the guaranteed weapon banner and a skip button that summarizes what you skipped, and "better than Genshin" turns up again and again.

PC performance leads the complaints. Stutter and frame drops in the newer regions, which some say get worse with each patch, come up in 24% of the negative reviews. Players also object to losing the character 50/50, to a 100GB-plus install followed by a second in-game download and restart loops, and to spending decisions such as the collab's separate currency, paid bike skins and two anniversaries that veterans found thin. Long-time players add endgame power creep and characters who rarely rerun. Many critical reviews still praise the combat or the story while objecting to how the game runs and how the gacha treats unlucky or returning players.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Fast, skill-based combatHigh

Combat gets praise in positive reviews, and a fair number of negative reviews concede it too. Players describe swapping characters mid-combo through intro and outro skills, perfect dodges that slow time, parries that make bosses recoil, and characters whose kits each play differently. Some say it rewards skill over spending: "The parry system and perfect dodges mean that you aren't just relying on your wallet or your gear stats to win." Another wrote, "This is the first gacha RPG that gave me the same kind of satisfaction I get from action games like Elden Ring." Several name the hologram boss fights as the best test of that skill. Dissent comes from two directions: a few long-time players say combat has drifted toward memorized rotations against timers (see the endgame theme below), and a few newcomers found the screen-filling effects too busy to read incoming attacks.

Visuals, animation and cinematic cutscenesHigh

Dozens of reviewers reach for "absolute cinema" or compare the cutscenes, character animation and later regions with paid AAA games. One put it simply: "Wuthering Waves is the best-looking game in its class, straight up." Players point to the camera work in story scenes, unique animations for every character, ray tracing and the distinct look of each region. The criticism is mostly about what those visuals cost on PC (see performance), plus a small number who found the default image blurry or the art direction cluttered.

A story that grows into the main drawHigh

Reviewers talk about the story more than anything else, and the usual account is that it gets much better after a weak start. Players warn that the first region (Huanglong and Jinzhou, which reviewers call the 1.0 content) is slow, heavy on jargon and hurt by early English voice direction, then say the Black Shores, Rinascita and Lahai-Roi arcs are among the best stories they have seen in a gacha game. "But as soon as you get to the end of 1.0, it quickly turns into a proper action JRPG," one veteran wrote, and another advised, "try to push through chapter 1, I promise chapter 2 and 3 have top tier writing". Aemeath's story, which reviewers place in the 3.x patches, is the single chapter named most often, and a handful say it made them cry. Players who dislike the writing are covered under the split themes below.

The Cyberpunk: Edgerunners collaborationMedium

June 2026, when reviewers were writing about the collaboration, brought the most reviews of any month in the period covered. Much of that praise goes to the collab story itself, and dozens of players call it the best crossover they have played. "Thanks for episode 11 of the Cyberpunk Edgerunners series and the closing Lucy deserved, best collab ever!" is a typical reaction, and reviewers say a free Rebecca drew returning players back. Those same weeks also carry complaints about the collab's separate pull currency and pity, covered under monetization below.

Music and soundtrackMedium

Praise for the soundtrack is steady from month to month, often in the same breath as the visuals: "Along with the art, the music is also exceptional." Players mention boss themes, region music and character songs, and like being able to play a chosen playlist while riding the bike. Criticism of the music is rare.

Traversal and explorationMedium

Players like unlimited sprinting outside combat, wall-running, the grappling hook, gliding and flight, and map tools that mark chests and puzzles. Many contrast it with slower movement in other open-world gachas. The motorbike in the newer regions splits opinion and is covered below.

Developers who listen and keep adding quality of lifeMedium

A steady group of reviewers credits Kuro Games with acting on surveys and feedback, and lists loadouts, a skip button, echo management tools and better voice direction among the changes. "Kuro Games listens to feedback and implements it pretty quickly," one returning player wrote. Others push back that the same cycle of complaint and fix repeats every patch, and that performance requests in particular go unanswered.

Where players are split

How free-to-play friendly the gacha really isHigh

Generosity is where players disagree hardest. Supporters cite an 80-pull pity that carries over between banners, a weapon banner that always gives the featured weapon, and plenty of free pulls from exploration and events: "Very generous with free pull currencies and weapon banner is always guaranteed." Some add that a small monthly subscription is enough to get most of the characters they want. Critics answer that the character banner's 50/50 makes the worst case about 160 pulls, that pull income dries up once exploration and story rewards are used up, and that new characters increasingly want their own premium teammates and signature weapons. New players and returners describe the catch-up as slow. The complaints from players who lost out are detailed under frustrations.

Story delivery: cutscenes, dialogue and the skip buttonHigh

Players who quit early often complain about the amount of talking, while many who stayed count the skip button among their favorite features. Fans like that "Wuthering Waves has enough respect for its player's time to let us skip the parts we want to skip, and it even summarizes what you skip so you don't miss out on the lore." Critics describe constant interruptions, slow-talking characters and scenes that cannot be skipped: "Take two steps? Cutscene. Talk to someone? Cutscene." Others mention story fights where your health stops at 1 HP, quick-time sequences that play themselves and trial characters standing in for your own team, mostly players who wanted more game and less show.

Character writing and the "Gathering Wives" formulaMedium

"Gathering Wives", a community nickname for the game, appears in reviews of both kinds. For many it is an affectionate joke about attractive characters. For others it names a writing problem: each patch introduces a new, mostly female character who bonds with the protagonist and then disappears from the story. "As with all gacha games it suffers from girl-of-the-patch syndrome from time to time," one fan admitted. Fans and critics alike ask for more playable male characters: "i wish they would add more male characters, the character roster is lacking." A smaller group objects to revealing outfits and camera framing.

The motorbike versus flightLow

Some players love the bike, its racing and its playlist feature. Others feel the newer regions were stretched to fit it and resent that flight was turned off there: "And why are wings disabled in the new area?" Paid bike skins draw extra scorn (see monetization).

Events and minigamesLow

Tower defense, card battles, drink-making and other minigame events delight some players, who call them small games in their own right. Others call them filler and say the game goes weeks without a real combat event.

What frustrates players

Stutter, frame drops and performance that worsens with patchesHigh

This is the most common complaint, raised in 24% of the negative reviews and in several hundred positive ones as well. Players report frame drops to 20 to 40 fps in crowded parts of the newer regions even on high-end PCs, and Startorch Academy comes up by name in dozens of reviews: "Startorch Academy really tanks my FPS to 30 with lots of stutters." Others describe high RAM use over long sessions, long load times on hard drives, shader compiling and crashes. Some long-time players date the slide to the 3.0 content and say it has continued since: "Performance is getting worse and worse with every patch." A smaller group reports that later optimization patches made the game smoother, and some say it runs well on modest hardware, on Linux or on PS5, so results vary by system. A few also complain about the 60 fps cap returning after updates and mouse acceleration that cannot be turned off.

Losing the 50/50 and a weak standard poolHigh

About 8% of the negative reviews bring up the character 50/50, often describing streaks of four, five or more losses at high pity. Players describe the cycle bluntly: "expect to hit max rolls for pity, lose the 50/50 (why is that even a thing?), then hit max rolls for pity again". Losses sting more because of the standard pool, which reviewers call outdated 1.0 characters they will never use. Several compare it unfavorably with rival games that soften repeated losses.

Install size, double downloads and patch restartsMedium

Players cite installs of 100 to 150GB that grow each patch, and many describe a Steam download followed by another large in-game download, shader compiling and a forced restart: "Downloaded 100GB. Launched the game. Downloaded another 15GB. Was asked to restart game." Veterans complain that the Steam version has no pre-download and that hotfixes trigger new restarts or file verification. Some players uninstalled because the game no longer fit on their drives. A few report that a storage change in the 3.x patches shrank the install, and opinions differ on whether the Steam version runs better or worse than the official launcher.

Monetization: collab currency, spending events, skins and anniversariesMedium

Beyond the 50/50, spending complaints cluster around specific decisions. Reviewers say the Cyberpunk collab used its own currency and pity: "Imagine doing a collab and making it a different currency than the normal premium pull currency." Players also object to Shorekeeper being offered through a spending event, paid motorbike skins, few character skins, and a returning-player pass whose value is hard to judge. In April 2026, around what reviewers call the second anniversary, a cluster of negative reviews came from long-time players who had expected an anniversary banner with older characters: "Absolute disaster of an anniversary. Expectations were low and I'm still disappointed".

Endgame power creep, shilling and missing rerunsMedium

Veterans raise this one most. They say timed endgame modes (Tower of Adversity, Whimpering Wastes) now favor the newest characters through tailored buffs, that new damage dealers need specific limited teammates, and that 4-star characters and weapons are rarely released or useful: "New premium characters are shilled in endgame content to encourage user spending." Players also say older favorites rarely come back, which leaves newcomers who want them waiting: "They do not rerun 1.x characters." A minority still says early characters clear content with enough skill.

New materials locked behind long story questsLow

In the newer regions, several veterans and newcomers say they cannot level a newly pulled character without first finishing hours of story to reach its region: "they locked some of her ascension materials and the newest echo sets behind this bloated lore." New players describe being stuck at level 40 for the same reason.

Echo farming and substat RNGLow

The gear system draws a smaller but heated complaint: random substats you cannot preview, scarce tuners and level-up materials, and a backpack that fills faster than you can evaluate drops. "I have more fun at my real life job, than rolling echoes," one player wrote.

Steam Deck, Linux, anti-cheat and stabilityLow

A smaller group reports the kernel-level anti-cheat flagging Linux setups or crashing systems, login locks and lost progress after crashes, with support that rarely resolves tickets. Reviews from late September 2026 say the 3.7 update and its launcher changes broke the game for some Steam Deck users: "The 3.7 update completely made this unplayable for Steamdeck users." Others report the opposite, that the game runs well on Linux and the Deck.

Thin co-opLow

Players who came to play with friends say co-op unlocks only after many hours and offers little to do together: "I need union lvl 22 to unlock coop and multiplayer". Story content cannot be shared at all.

3. The player conversation

Most reviews are warm and often playful. Many of the positive ones are short verdicts like "peak" or "absolute cinema", jokes about losing the 50/50 or about "Gathering Wives", or declarations that the game beats Genshin Impact. The longer reviews read like ongoing diaries: many were first written around the Steam release and then edited after later patches, praising a new story chapter or turning negative over performance or an anniversary.

Players who quit within the first hours mostly complain about the download size, the slow first region, constant dialogue and the co-op unlock. Long-time players, many of whom say they have played since the 2024 launch on other platforms, raise the deeper criticism: performance that slipped after 3.0, power creep and endgame shilling, missing reruns, anniversaries and spending events. Some negative reviews open by saying the game itself is great.

The reviews grew warmer over time. Those written in 2025 ran about 70% positive month by month, and every month from March 2026 onward stayed above 80%. The week the Cyberpunk collab arrived in June 2026 brought the most reviews of any week and dipped a little below the weeks around it, as praise for the collab story met complaints about its currency. Performance complaints show up at a steady rate every month rather than in one spike, and late September 2026 added a small cluster of Steam Deck and launcher complaints that reviewers tie to the 3.7 update.

4. What the developers could do

1. Fix stutter and frame drops in the newer regions. Performance is the most common complaint, named in 24% of the negative reviews, and players on high-end PCs single out Startorch Academy, Lahai-Roi and Septimont.
2. Soften repeated 50/50 losses and refresh the standard pool. About 8% of the negative reviews bring up the 50/50, and players say losses hurt most because the standard characters are outdated.
3. Shrink the install and make Steam patching a single step. Players describe 100GB-plus installs, a second in-game download, missing pre-downloads and forced restarts after hotfixes.
4. Rerun older characters and give anniversaries real rewards. Veterans and newcomers both say 1.x characters rarely return, and the April 2026 anniversary drew a cluster of negative reviews over thin rewards and no older-character banner.
5. Keep collabs and premium characters on the normal currency and pity. Reviewers single out the Cyberpunk collab's separate currency and the Shorekeeper spending event.
6. Ease endgame shilling and release useful 4-star options. Long-time players say timed modes now favor the newest characters and their premium teammates, and that 4-stars are rarely added.
7. Let players reach new ascension materials without finishing the whole story. Several reviewers could not build a newly pulled character until hours of story unlocked its region.
8. Stabilize Steam Deck, Linux and anti-cheat behavior across updates. Reviewers say the 3.7 update broke the game for some Deck users, and Linux players report anti-cheat flags and crashes.