Right from the start, Wuthering Waves’ odd mix of swords, guns, and spirits caught my eye, somehow combining disparate ideas into a combat spectacle. This story-driven gacha RPG will have you spinning like a ballerina to dodge attacks before passing the baton to a teammate that slams the enemy with a fish-like dragon. I still have a lot left to play, including digging into its endgame, but so far these flashy abilities have only deepened my appreciation for its Devil May Cry-style combat and parkour-like movement that enables exploration – unfortunately, it's also failed to impress in a few other key areas, including a lackluster story that tempts me to use the skip button.
Wuthering Waves is all about action, whether that’s through combat or exploration. Every character you unlock has an element and weapon associated with them, as well as individual skills that you can level up. However, how you use those characters isn’t quite a copy-paste of similar mobile action-RPGs like Genshin Impact .
That’s thanks in part to the intro and outro skills that can be used when you swap between them, which activate cool special attacks like triggering a fire-infused shootout. You’ll need to charge up a gauge by dishing out damage or successfully dodging and parrying enemy attacks in order to use them, but these skills add an extra layer of strategy to how you build your three-person party and when exactly to change teammates. Characters also have unique combos you can activate.