一、Introdution
Months after launch, Wuthering Waves is still chugging along as a high-grossing gacha game, rivaling the likes of Genshin Impact with its upward trajectory. That said, developer Kuro Games’ first global launch was an uphill battle and required considerable work before it shipped.
We recently caught up with Dong, Senior Producer at Kuro Games, to discuss the challenges the development team faced ahead of launch and its plans for the future of *Wuthering Waves*.
几个月上线之后，《Wuthering Waves》依然保持着高收入的表现，与《原神》等游戏竞争，并展现出强劲的上升趋势。尽管如此，开发商 Kuro Games 的第一次全球发行依然是一场艰苦的战斗，在发布之前需要大量的工作。
我们最近与 Kuro Games 的高级制作人东进行了交谈，讨论了开发团队在发布前面临的挑战以及对《Wuthering Waves》未来的计划。

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二、Story struggles 故事斗争
Ahead of release, Kuro Games shared a developer update on YouTube about what it’d been doing in the six months after the first *Wuthering Waves* Closed Beta Test. At the time, Dong spoke with ACG content creators Rexlent and Sandfish about the changes the team made, revealing that they'd revamped 90% of the original story
Dong reiterated the need for those changes in our interview.
“After the test in April last year, we noticed that players provided a lot of feedback on IP-related content, including character design and storylines. This feedback was the basis for our decision to make significant adjustments to the story,” said Dong. “Compared to the previous story, the new story weakens the apocalyptic atmosphere and focuses more on the protagonist, the Rover, making it easier for players to immerse themselves in the game.”

For context: In the developer update, Dong said his team had been working on *Wuthering Waves* and its original story for two to three years. Kuro Games then rewrote the story (with all the complications that entailed) in the six months after that first closed beta test.
“One of the challenges for us in improving the story was that we had to completely remake a large amount of supporting performances, including voice acting and animations,” said Dong. “This is a huge challenge for any team, but we managed to do it.”
Despite the limited timeline, *Wuthering Waves* featured a new story for its second Closed Beta Test. While *Wuthering Waves* still takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, the tensions aren’t as pronounced as they once were—though it is definitely more grim than *Genshin Impact*, where destruction seems like a distant nightmare.
The revamp was worth it, though. “We are very pleased to see more positive feedback from players regarding the adjusted storyline,” he continued.

To avoid spoilers, Dong didn’t say too much about where *Wuthering Waves* is headed or what Kuro Games has in mind. He did hint however that players can “look forward to a very grand world.”
为了避免剧透，东没有详细透露《鸣潮》的未来发展方向或Kuro Games的计划。不过，他暗示玩家可以“期待一个非常宏大的世界

三、Action-packed
Before *Wuthering Waves*, Kuro Games developed *Punishing: Gray Raven*, a similarly styled gacha RPG that debuted in China before moving to Japan, and then eventually to a global release. When asked about the choice to bring the action-oriented combat from *Punishing: Gray Raven* to *Wuthering Waves*, Dong said it had more to do with his team’s strengths than strategic marketing.
“We have no reason not to incorporate the successful experiences from *Punishing: Gray Raven* into *Wuthering Waves* and bring players an exhilarating combat experience. A significant portion of the *Wuthering Waves* development team is composed of members from *Punishing: Gray Raven*,” he said. “So rather than saying 'We focus on action games with lots of combos and high difficulty,' it would be more accurate to say that we aim to leverage our strengths to bring players a deep and enjoyable combat system.”

In addition to basic attacks, skills, and ultimates, each character in *Wuthering Waves* has many moves like dodge counters and aerial combos that players can string together to maximize damage. While satisfying to pull off, it can be difficult to accomplish these high-level feats on crammed mobile screens (as opposed to PC and console). Dong says the mobile interface is one of the features Kuro Games is continuously working on and improving in its updates.
“We have put considerable effort into optimization, such as the performance of multi-part skeletal actions, the performance of the targeting selection algorithm, and the strategy for updating special effects. Recently, players have also noticed these optimizations, which makes us very happy.”

四、Going global 迈向全球化
After *Punishing: Gray Raven*, Kuro Games had plenty of experience creating action-packed games. Distributing them, not so much. *Punishing: Gray Raven* was only available on mobile app stores and via a standalone PC download, not platforms like the Epic Games Store.
With *Wuthering Waves*, Kuro Games aimed for a global launch—but that meant growing the team.
“From an investment perspective, *Wuthering Waves* is indeed the largest game Kuro has ever undertaken. In terms of the project's significance, many of the things we are doing are unprecedented in Kuro's history,” Dong said. “To achieve this, we have built our own global distribution team and localization team, and we are continuously dedicated to providing a higher quality gaming experience for players worldwide.”

Growing the global distribution team helped Kuro Games market *Wuthering Waves* around the world, and the localization team meant they could translate text for target markets.
*Punishing: Gray Raven* and *Wuthering Waves* are both long-term projects Kuro hopes to support for the foreseeable future, though Dong says they haven’t ruled out additional plans. Dong says future Kuro projects will also be globally distributed—why not, given it’s proven a success with its biggest title yet?
*Wuthering Waves* was also Kuro's first time bringing a game to the PlayStation Store and Epic Games Store.
“*Wuthering Waves* is Kuro's first self-published global game, and choosing more distribution channels is an experiment in this process,” said Dong. “By leveraging major store channels like the Epic Games Store, we can reach a broader range of players and respond to a wider range of player needs.”

五、Not just a copy 并不是一份复制品
MiHoYo took a similar route when it launched its breakout hit, *Genshin Impact*. *Wuthering Waves* and *Genshin Impact* are both open-world gacha games with anime-inspired visuals and rich lore behind their worldbuilding and storytelling. They also share similar systems, like gathering specific leveling materials to strengthen characters (though this isn't exclusive to *Genshin Impact* and *Wuthering Waves* by any means).
Even with strides to improve *Wuthering Waves* and separate it from competitors, fans can’t help but draw comparisons between the two.

When asked about Kuro’s thoughts on *Genshin Impact*, Dong replied, “*Genshin Impact* is an excellent game. As a product in the same genre, it is natural for *Wuthering Waves* to be compared to *Genshin Impact*.”
That said, Kuro isn’t scared of the comparisons.
“*Wuthering Waves* has made a lot of efforts to differentiate itself, and we are confident that it can bring players a fresh gaming experience,” Dong said, speaking for his team. “For example, one of the core gameplay features is the Echo system.”
The Echo system enables players to absorb the abilities of Tacet Discords—*Wuthering Waves*’ monsters—as they defeat them and then use those abilities in battle. *Wuthering Waves* encourages players to explore the corners of the map they haven’t seen yet, absorb new Echoes for a chance to get stronger gear, and fill out an encyclopedia of Echoes for rewards. It’s one of *Wuthering Waves*' standout features, and one the team will be leveraging in the future to keep content fresh.
“In the future, the Echo system will continue to be a key focus in game development and ongoing operations, and we will further provide players with a variety of Echoes,” said Dong.

*Wuthering Waves* also continues to improve based on player feedback, including in its new 1.2 update where players were offered a free 5-star character. Kuro Games has historically highlighted its fanbase as one of its main motivations and inspirations to improve its games. Dong echoes this sentiment, thanking Kuro's fans during our interview.
“Thank you very much to all the fans for their support of the game. We are well aware that the attitude of the players is the ultimate measure of whether a game is excellent, so we have always been very concerned and attentive to the feedback from the community. We look forward to *Wuthering Waves* fans continuing to stay active in the community,” he said.
“We welcome all players to provide suggestions for *Wuthering Waves*, and we will keep listening and continuously iterating on the game. We will continue to work hard to bring more joy to everyone.”

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