Summary
The newest open world gacha game on the market,Wuthering Waves, bears many similarities to its predecessors in the genre, including a mostly-silent protagonist with a selectable gender – and following the trend of other gacha games, one protagonist may turn out to be more canon than the other. Developed by Kuro Games, previously best known for the action gacha gamePunishing Grey Raven,Wuthering Wavesis the studio’s first foray into open world gameplay, and, likeTower of Fantasybefore it, takes plenty of cues fromGenshin Impact.
Protagonists in gacha games are typically intended for players to be able to self-insert to varying degrees, sometimes to the extent that they’re never shown on screen or have extremely ambiguous designs, as is the case in games likeHonkai Impact 3rdandArknights. Somewhat more common in gacha games, however, are protagonists who have mostly pre-set designs and (sometimes) personalities, with players only being able to customize their name and gender. This can lead to cases where one gender for the protagonist is considered more canon than the other, serving as the default for both story and marketing purposes.
How Wuthering Waves Pity System Works
The Wuthering Waves pity system has been divisive among early players. Here’s everything to know about how it works.
Rover Is Wuthering Waves' Canon MC
Players Can Choose Between Two Versions Of Wuthering Waves' Protagonist
The main protagonist ofWuthering Wavesis a mysterious, dark-haired character called “Rover.“Although players can enter a name of their choice, most other characters in the story will refer to the protagonist by their default name. Complicating the issue of the canon protagonist, however, is thatRover can be either male or female, depending on which version the player chooses at the start of the game. Each version has a unique design and voice, but minimal gameplay or story differences, rendering the choice mostly cosmetic.
Fortunately,both protagonist genders inWuthering Wavesseem to be equally canon, with neither Rover taking a significant precedenceover the otherin marketing or the in-game story. In the game’s pre-launch marketing and key art, both genders for Rover appear and share screentime, sometimes even in the same scene, and (as of the game’s initial patch) the in-game story doesn’t try to account for the presence of the un-selected gender, instead making the player’s chosen Rover the only version that exists in the narrative.
Some key art forWuthering Wavesonly features male Rover, but as of the game’s launch, most of the art and marketing has a relatively even split between the two.
Notably, this approach to the game’s main protagonistavoids a pitfall thatGenshin Impacthas fallen into, and which more recently released gacha games seem to be trying to avoid as well, that being a perception of developer favoritism towards one protagonist.Genshin, in making both genders in-universe siblings instead of different versions of the same character, tends to present the male option as the canon or default option of the two, which can result in the female MC feeling like an afterthought.
All Wuthering Waves Resources, Explained
Wuthering Waves is a complicated gacha action-RPG with many intricate systems. Here’s all Wuthering Waves resources as the game currently stands.
Either Gender For Rover Can Be Canon
Wuthering Waves Gives Both Versions Of Rover Relatively Equal Focus
In many other gacha games that give players a choice regarding the protagonist’s gender,the male option is assumed to be default, and will feature more heavily in out-of-game marketing and official art. Sometimes, like inGenshin, this can be for story reasons - with both versions of the main character present in the story, sometimes on opposing sides of the main conflict, it’s easier to operate on the assumption that one or the other have canon roles, regardless of what can actually be true in-game for different players.
While there are some minor differences that depend on Rover’s selected gender in certain scenes or interactions with other characters,the story ofWuthering Wavesplays out largely the same regardless of the player character’s gender, and the two Rovers are more like different versions of the same person, rather than anything else. Both versions of the character are fully represented in both the marketing and the story, with relatively few things pointing towards one or the other as the intended or canon option.
Wuthering Waves Hands-On GDC Preview: “Another Open-World ARPG With A Very Strong Hook”
Wuthering Waves might have some familiar looking features, but it’s the elements that set it apart that have potential to make an impact.
At least as of the launch patch ofWuthering Waves, both versions of Rover are equally canon, and neither the game’s story nor marketing posit either gender as the “true” protagonist of the game. The non-selected version isn’t present in the story, making it relatively uncomplicated to designate both versions of Rover as equally important. Future marketing material or story content may heavily feature one or the other, but as long asWuthering Wavesretains a relatively equal split between the two Rovers, either one can be the canon version.
