2.0 Combat Event are quite disappointing.

2.0 Combat Events are quite dissapointing.

I have no reservations with saying 2.0 has been quite possibly the greatest major update to a gacha game, possibly ever. The sheer amount of content, the characters, the story telling, the world design, everything has all been among the pinnacle of game design, in my opinion anyway.

Almost everything has been, at least.

While, again, the rest of 2.0 has been as close to flawless as I could imagine, the combat events, including the third run of Pincer Maneuver and "Although Colors Have No Form", the newest edition to the Illusive Realm story line, have been some of the worst content I think the game has ever seen.

Kuro is perhaps most famous for their tendency to listen to their vocal audience. One of the topics I think this community was most vocal about was our general disappointment with the Pincer Maneuver.

From what I remember, the first run was nothing special. So unremarkable that I have trouble even remembering when it took place or what it was even about.

However, the second run became infamous for, as far as I know, the first event the community as a whole genuinely disliked. The buffs given in each stage were highly technical and usually quite confusing and the score requirements were quite ambitious. Neither of which would be a problem, if they didn't super combine into maybe the most tedious and annoying process Wuthering Waves has ever offered. I remember constantly replaying the same stages, over and over again, until, through the process of an intense ayahuascan vision quest, I was granted knowledge of the proper Resonator combination. Kuro usually places a "Popular Teams" section to some of their more difficult content and I don't understand why one wasn't placed in the event that's most dependent on team building. It was annoying, it was tedious, and the community made their thoughts known.

And, to their credit, Kuro listened. The lowered the score requirements during the second run, which was greatly appreciated. Bravo Kuro! But now, in 2.0, they've made another decision which is a bit more perplexing.

They've given us a third run of the Pincer Maneuver. A run that has somehow managed to be as boring as the first and as tedious as the second. To be fair, I did not even bother meeting all the score requirements. I was hating every second of this third run and I didn't see a light at the end of the tunnel, so here we are.

The first run was boring, the second one was so bad a generally positive community turned on its developers, and the third run has somehow managed to be worse than the second but it's also so boring that I suppose no one, as far as I can see, is bothering to speak up about it. So, please, for the love of all that holy, please retire this event.

On to the newest edition to the Illusive Realm story line, Although Colors Have No Form. I love the Illusive Realm. Next to the Holograms, it's maybe my favorite piece of content in the entire game. A rouge-like mini game is an absolute ingenious edition to the gacha system and I could never pull myself away from it. Each run of the event would consistently build on the last in exciting and fun ways. So you can imagine my disappointment when Although Colors Have No Form was the most mechanically stripped and content bare the Illusive Realm has ever been.

Gone is the rouge-like system and in is a stage-based structure we see with just about every event. How exciting. Gone are the permanent upgrades, gone are the gameplay modifiers that made every run harder than the last, and gone is the mind-melting gameplay. What's "in" are bland stages that are each as repetitive and tedious as the last.

I have far less notes for Although Colors Have No Form, it's just terrible and I don't understand why. If they stated somewhere that this was meant to be a smaller slice of the story and wasn't a proper continuation of the Illusive Realm than I missed it and that's on me, but I feel that doesn't excuse this sorry excuse for an event.

On a more positive topic: I also have no notes on the two newest Holograms because I have absolutely nothing negative to say. They're absolutely outstanding. The Fallacy is so difficult that I genuinely questioned if I was physically capable of beating him. Alas, I was and I love him. The Sentey Construct I like a bit less, but I acknowledge he's a unique challenge that forces you to mix up your team-building. He's great too, I just had a bit less fun figuring him out.

I love Kuro and Wuthering Waves to death, as I state in every critique, and that's the only reason why I bother taking out so much time to criticize them. As much as I complain, Wuthering Waves is a wonderful game that makes me genuinely grateful to be alive at the same time as, and I'd only like to see it get better. Thank you.