Exploring is a funny one, I think it’s visually more rewarding in Genshin as the environment design Hoyo does is superior so you get better vistas, unique indentifiable locations and environmental storytelling.

On the other hand it’s vastly more enjoyable mechanically in Wuthering Waves, with the infinite running stamina, wall running, grappling hook and almost no fall damage. And stuff like the super jump tech is just fun to execute. Getting to do your Pokémon hunting as part of the open world is also great.

Combat seems to be everyone’s favorite part so I really hope they lean into it and create some cool mechanics and features and stop with the “speed run” events where you could basically walk it and still get max rewards.

Copying the Abyss as endgame is truly a huge error, and having both your endgame modes (Tower and Holograms) be timed challenges is a massive blunder in my opinion. With a combat system that allows for this much skill expression they had the chance to actually differentiate themselves, but instead we get DPS checks again.

Btw, are you keeping up with news for the game at all? Since leaving reddit I’ve had a hard time keeping up with more niche subjects like gacha games…

Yeah, I feel the same way so while I don’t post or comment there I do still follow some subs for news basically.