Genshin Impact has what might be a serious competitor on the horizon in Wuthering Waves, and its release date has been officially revealed.
Gacha games have been booming in popularity. With games like Fate Grand/Order, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail pulling impressive numbers of fans and emptying their wallets, many more developers are hopping on the gacha train. While most fly under the radar, one game has caught the attention of gacha fans.
Wuthering Waves is an upcoming free-to-play gacha game similar to Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact. However, with a greater focus on combat, fans are comparing it to titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, especially with the changes the latest second beta testing brought.
What is Wuthering Waves?
Wuthering Waves is an upcoming open-world gacha game developed by Kuro Games, the developers of Punishing: Gray Raven.
Players go through Wuthering Waves as Rover, who they can choose to make either male or female. Rover wakes up with no memories in a world overtaken by Tacet Discords, monsters that arrived in the world after an apocalyptic event. Rover then gathers allies and embarks to uncover the hidden lore of the world they find themselves in.
While Rover has abilities to defeat enemies, the charm of gacha games is collecting characters with unique abilities and fighting styles. Wuthering Waves has revealed characters like Baizhi, Yangyang, and Jianxin who are playable and have their own backstories and abilities that set them apart from one another.
In addition to the character-collecting aspect of the game, Wuthering Waves also focuses on its combat. The game currently has six elements; Fusion, Glacio, Electro, Aero, Havoc, and Spectro, and mechanics like parrying and combining elements may add greater depth to its combat.
Wuthering Waves release date confirmed
Wuthering Waves is set be released on May 22, 2024, for PC via the Epic Games Store, and iOS and Android mobile devices. Pre-registration for the game is currently open.
Although the developer has stated that it plans to release the game for consoles, there’s no confirmation of when that will happen or which consoles will get the game. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of Wuthering Waves have been confirmed, but no release date information has been revealed. Genshin Impact, which has many similarities Wuthering Waves, also has PS4 and PS5 versions but hasn’t ever been released on any Xbox or Nintendo consoles. This suggests a console release outside PlayStation is unlikely.
Wuthering Waves is not currently set to be released on Steam or any other digital distribution service for PC games beyond the Epic Games Store. The Epic Games Store has been welcoming of gacha games, which hasn’t been the case elsewhere.