I still remember when, on January 2, 2025, I asked a friend who was already playing Wuthering Waves, "Is it worth it?" Her answer leaned more toward her favorite character at the time (Changli) than whether it was worth it, but she mentioned how the title's experience was notably distinct from Genshin Impact, the benchmark in the Gacha genre.The game did not convince me. Its strong point was always combat, comparable to a mid-sized console Action RPG, with an efficient parry, dodge, and counterattack system. Unlike its benchmark, WuWa was not a walk in the park and required a higher skill ceiling.Points for the title, but that was its only selling point at launch for PlayStation. The story was dragging, and the character design felt as generic as any other title in the genre. It had potential, but all the tropes were there too.A year and a half has passed since that experience. Wuthering Waves, promising to be different, arrived in 2024, similar to other gacha games and with optimization issues. Two years later, it has proven that its promise was real and it just needed the audience's trust and time to mature. Between a crossover with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners that moved the animation's fandom to tears, the announcement of an animated series produced by the studio itself, and the emotional Lahai-Roi arc—all happening around the same period—it left the feeling that I should never have stopped playing it.The number of characters released since launch has established a wide variety of gameplay styles. Although we still have the same elements and weapons as in the first year, each character has a distinct gameplay pattern or visual that makes them more interesting than other options. Lynae, who was in the most recent rerun banner, uses a motorcycle and paint sprays, which make her visual effects more colorful. Lucy Kushinada, from Cyberpunk, uses her Mono-Wire and a set of abilities that, just like in the anime or the game, creates an interface to hack enemies, while also having access to Sandevistan. In both cases, the gameplay might sound like a visual effects show and button mashing, but following that path blindly will be more punishing than beneficial.Of course, there are optimal trio slots and teams for each character, and the most tryhard players will always try to find the perfect group for endgame content. But most teams will still make exploring the world and discovering its secrets rewarding — the main appeal of any gacha, especially among free-to-play players.The free-to-play experience also makes the time investment worthwhile. It might take you longer to build a good team, but Wuthering Waves' learning curve balances the game with your progress. Yes, the story remains slow in the early segments. The secondary characters have charm, and some carry captivating stories on their own, but every story development from the Black Shores arc onward hooks the player into the plot by putting the spotlight on the protagonist and never taking it away.It seems like the most obvious thing for any RPG, but Rover, the player's character, follows the amnesiac hero mold, and many gacha games try to compensate for the playable character's low performance with memorable secondary heroes. Rover, however, gains agency and relevance in the story very early and does not relinquish the protagonist role from that point on. His past remains a mystery, but Kuro Games unravels it at an acceptable pace as it introduces new regions, characters who somehow already knew the hero even if he does not remember, and even interactions between the present Rover and who he was in the past. It works because no player will lose interest in being the hero of the game they are playing, even in a gacha.Today, there is plenty of content until the point where the plot needs new story patches, with enough time for any free-to-play player to catch up — and it is worth progressing when we know that a more advanced story arc is considered a step above the rest. Just as Final Fantasy XIV did with Heavensward and Shadowbringers, where fans say "it gets better in Heavensward, it becomes epic in Shadowbringers," Wuthering Waves has established, in its own way, an "epic" milestone with Larai-Hoi.Even though the opportunity to pull Lucy from Cyberpunk has already passed and the anniversary celebrations have ended, 2026 still seems like a great year to start Wuthering Waves, a game that has proven its longevity and a story that justifies the time investment, without straying too far from other titles in the genre's inherent elements. For anyone considering getting into a gacha today, the best option this year starts on Solaris-3.
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