I think this is gonna be my biggest rating project lol

It might take a second for me to come up with the part 2 for this

I wanted to give an introduction to Wuthering Waves before I started rating, but honestly I sounded like a youtuber doing a sponsored section lol so let's just go.

Also, all of the updates will be rated as if you played them on their release. Been playing this game since 1.0 so I don't know how the contents of these updates feel today.

I will be ranking each update by Story, Gameplay and Exploration. I will not be rating music since it's like... really good, consistently.(oh and gonna rank companion quests in another blog or the very bottom of this one, idk)[Also obviously, spoilers ahead]

And final heads up, I will refer to Rover as "he" in this blog as I chose male Rover and that's what I'm used to lol.

Wuthering Waves 1.0(First Resonance-Grand Warstorm)

Story (4/10):

Wuthering Waves definitely had a rough start with the first 6 acts of the main story the game was shipped with suffered intensely from the 1.0 syndrome where the devs had to deal with

A- Chinese censorships from their betas

B- Still trying to figure out what exactly they want from the world

but despite that, the story did a good enough job explaining core concepts of the world such as The Lament, Resonators, Resonance, Black Shores, Retroact Rain, Tacet Discords, Fractsidus and The Threnodians.

Although admittedly, 1.0 really undersold us on the sheer threat a Threnodian really poses by making us fight a freshly awakened one before we truly understood the apocalyptic threat they can potentially put an entire region under.

Gameplay(9/10):

Gameplay of 1.0 was truly godsend when it first came out. After years open world gachas trying to clone Genshin's barely functional gameplay, Wuthering Waves finally came out with it's intro/outro skills, perfect dodge/parry and the echo system!

Echo system was so so so fun to experiment with when the game first came out(and still is to this day but future does not affect the past's ratings) and the game's team synergies being based around intro and outro skills was really fun aswell! On top of that, the game letting you keep characters in the field if you swap to someone else mid-attack lets you do some insane quickswap strategies where you can potential have all 3 of your characters attacking at the same time. It's a system that is truly open to so many unique playstyles and everyone's own enjoyment.

Exploration(8/10):

Huanglong is a beautiful starting area and the devs clearly put a ton of love into it as personality oozes from every corner of the region.

The valleys in the Gorges of Spirits, floating buildings and roads of Guixu, ominous vibes of Whining Aix's Mire, beautiful flora and fauna of Dim Forest the bleak and soul crushing battlegrounds of Desorock Highlands and giant nest of the Threnodian looming over Norfall Barrens are all extremely pretty.

And on top of the environment's beauty, the game gives you a lot of movement tools to explore the region freely. The grapple, wall running, back flips/double jumps and movement echos you can just get such as Inferno Rider all make exploration so much more easier.

Although despite that, there were a few parts around the map where things feel haphazardly thrown together or just straight up ugly. While these areas are rare, they do still exist and I'm trying to be a bit objective here.

Overall(6/10):

1.0 is a decent first update to Wuthering Waves. While it has some flaws, especially story ones, turned a lot of people away, it also did a fantastic job making a lot of people fall in love with it's unique world and mechanics.

Wuthering Waves 1.1: Thaw of Eons

Story(9/10):

Thaw of Eons does a fantastic job being the first story that actually shows some of the stakes in this world with Changli willingly stepping inside Mt. Firmament to guide us, causing her life to forever be out of sync with the outside world and thus trapping her inside the mountain if we fail our mission.

Alongside that, the story shows the consequences of overclocking as a resonator. Overclocking was mentioned in 1.0 as you helped tend to some injured Resonators, but this is the first story that actually shows how brutal and taxing on the body bringing one's body to it's limits is.

This story is usually what recaptures a lot of people's attention after 1.0 failed to do so.

Gameplay(8/10):

I really wanted to give this update a 10/10 for gameplay with the new echo abilities being cool and a lot of the new enemies having interesting attack patterns that introduce slightly more difficult encounters than the 1.0 enemies.

BUT, the battle against Jue is extremely boring outside of the final showdown as the arena is way too big and without some of the scripted events, hitting the dragon can be such a pain in the ass at times. Add the fact that Jue has increased HP compared to the average boss due to being a weekly, yeah the fight can get pretty damn annoying repeating it over and over again.

Exploration(10/10):

Thaw of Eons adds Mt. Firmament as the new map area to explore! Despite being a frigid landscape, the environments are absolutely gorgeous and the exploration is really comfortable and fun with the ability to slide down the mountain, several jump pads and grapple points around and the smart map design where you can find a route to each area pretty easily.

Mt. Firmament's exclusive collectibles(Windchimes and Frostbugs) are also fun and easy to find around without a need for complete precision as the game knows finding all small collectibles can be a hassle and lets your exploration hit 100% without forcing you to go mad finding the last singular windchime in a crevice.

Overall(9/10):

Thaw of Eons was a fantastic update that did a great job roping a lot of people back in, both in the past and even currently as more people give the story another shot and get invested again starting from this quest.

With great enemies, fantastic story, amazing map design and while it's not relative to these ratings, also introducing some fan favorite characters, this update truly was a remarkable one.

Wuthering Waves 1.2: Tale of Moontree Lodge

Story(???/10):

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I kinda lost focus during this part. Because it was a limited time event, I just kinda skimmed past it.

Something about Xiangli Yao and Zhezhi and a festival. I remember the festival dates being fun and cute. But despite that, I can not rate this update's story without clear memories of it.

Gameplay(???/10):

Gameplay of this update was primarily a management simulator event with no new enemies or bosses.

Since the main gameplay loop update was too wildly different and was just an event, I also can not rate it.

Exploration(N/A):

Uh... lots of question marks this update.

Due to the event quest taking place in Taoyuan Vale(which is an already existing village on the top left of the map), there's nothing to explore. The whole story and event takes place inside this singular small village.

While you can technically explore the village to find your companions around, I do not think this itself is enough to give it a rating.

Overall(???/10):

Moonlight Festival was a fun event and a nice intermission, but as a main story it did not have too much of an impact on me due to my personal sense of rush and panic.

Wuthering Waves 1.3: To The Shore's End

Story(10/10):

This update is the one I was most looking forward to when I decided to make this blog.

While for a lot of people, Thaw of Eons was what recaptured their attention, for me it was To The Shore's End.

Black Shores was a concept introduced to us in 1.0, an organization with members all around the planet and connections to most of the world governments that collect data to literally predict the future and help people avoid incoming Tacet Discord attacks or even more dire effects of The Lament.

When I first heard about Black Shores in the story, I thought they were super cool but came to the conclusion that we'd probably see them way later on. With the reveal that we're visiting the Black Shores with this update, I completely locked in.

Now I have no shame in admitting this, until this update I treated Wuthering Waves like I do most gacha games. Completely skip the story and focus on gameplay. But upon seeing the trailer for To The Shore's End, I instantly locked in, made a second account for the sole purpose of replaying all of the main story, this time while actually reading and focusing on the story to make sure I understood the plot by the time the update dropped. From 1.3 onwards, I have not skipped story since.

And it was absolutely worth it. To this day, To The Shore's End is still my favorite main story by far. Revealing the inner workings of The Black Shores, The Tethys System and most importantly, first hints of Rover's past.

The reveal that Rover was not only a member of the Black Shores, but also that he purposefully erased his memories 20 years ago to kickstart the events of the game.

Other than all the lore drops, the story of Black Shores is told beautifully as the game does a fantastic job bonding the player with Shorekeeper as much as Rover himself is bonded with her.

The gorgeous visuals, music production, writing and characters all combine to make this a perfect story that still holds up as the absolute best in my ranking.

I did, still do, and will forever bawl my eyes out at the line "Welcome home, my Shorekeeper"

Gameplay(10/10):

Before I get into the new gameplay elements added around the Black Shores Archipelago and Tethys Deep, I wanna talk about the gameplay of the main story.

The story has several unexpected beats, but the best and most hype one of all is the parkour section. Up until this point, the only quest to ever feature something close to this was the We Promise, We Deliver exploration quest from 1.0 where you rode as the Inferno Rider to the top of Port City of Guixu. And this section came out of nowhere as the cutscene instantly transitions into you sliding down a slope to avoid Tethys' lasers. Constantly moving between portals and that fakeout with the train almost hitting you all spike your adrenaline, fill you with fear and urgency to get you ready to save your Shorekeeper.

Fallacy of No Return also serves as a fantastic final boss with an extremely fun echo ability.

Now on to the overworld gameplay elements. Black Shores is also the first area of the game that adds difficult overworld enemies/combat encounters that are both centered around finishing encounters with certain limitations/tasks or just straight up fighting against really really strong enemies. These work great and all of them are super fun and unique as the game lacked real challenge outside of events like TOA or Tactical Holograms.

Exploration(10/10):

Exploring the Black Shores Archipelago and Tethys Deep for the first time truly is a magical experience. The environments are absolutely stunning, the Archipelago has this feeling of solitude and peace all around it while the Tethys Deep fills you with wonder. I already commented on the music earlier but the OST of Black Shores fits the mystique of the area so well, it makes you truly makes you feel like you're exploring a land you once called home, but now forgotten. A land you must now familiarize yourself with to call it home once again, because that's where you belong, to The Shores.

Overall(10/10):

To The Shore's End is a masterpiece that was clearly crafted with so much love and care. Every piece of dialogue, object and lore was deliberately chosen to make you understand that this is your home. No matter where you may end up around Solaris-3, you will always find your way back to The Shores.

Wuthering Waves 1.4: When the Night Knocks

Story(6/10):

This story mostly prioritizes cool character moments rather than general plot progression.

When the Night Knocks pulls our attention from the overarching plot and more into the Somnoire where a lot of the game's events took place.

The overall story is pretty much just an excuse for the event characters(Lumi, Zhezhi, Encore, Yinling, Changli and Camellya) to get together and do cool stuff.

I'm not really complaining about this however, since the finale cutscene was really sick and the dreams/nightmares of characters were really interesting. Personally a huge fan of Camellya's biggest nightmare being actually succeeding in killing Rover despite trying constantly. God I love that schizo woman.

Gameplay(7/10):

Basically the main point of this update was gameplay and the dream link mechanic.

Dream link is REALLY fun but a large problem I had was the fact that we didn't have too much content to use it on. The Somnoire event is an extremely fun even and experimenting with different dream links was fun but with the lack of levels you just have to keep replaying the final level with different teams just to see them all.

But despite that, those few levels were still extremely fun and I can't wait for them to maybe hopefully bring this mechanic back(I'm coping rn it's been over a year)

Exploration(N/A):

This update didn't have much exploration again because it just added a portal to the Somnoire event and that's it. Nothing to really comment on

Overall(6/10):

I can see the potential this update had, but main story content was just lacking in both story quality and content-densitywise. Also honestly this update made me think the Somnoire was gonna be a bigger part of the main story in the future but it is solely used for side content.

Wuthering Waves 1.x Overall score: 7/10

The game had a bit of a rough start and honestly I did quit the game for a month when I first started playing because of that rough start. Despite that, it managed to pull people back in by proving it's story potential, gameplay potential and by actively listening to player feedback.

It's quite shocking how up until Wuthering Waves, every open world gacha was doomed to fail and people assumed Wuthering Waves would suffer the same fate but they showed that if you just try being your own thing instead of a Genshin competitor, then people will actually play your product since you're focusing on bettering your game rather than having a one sided battle with another game.

1.x era of the game was nothing extraordinary, but it was enough to set itself apart and prove the game had a future.

Now wait like [REDACTED] months for me to make the 2.x blog. I'll probably do 2.0 to 2.4 then another blog with 2.5 to 2.8