Wuthering Waves’ Cyberpunk Collab Is Exactly What I Want From My Video Game Crossover Events

At this point, we’re all used to collaborations of all types in free-to-play games. Some games, like Fortnite, are known for them. And they can be pretty varied. The number of KFC-related collabs we see in games based out of China and Japan is not insignificant. (It’s just a shame that a lot of really cool-looking outfits are designed for those that never make it into the games.)

As a rule, I’m not the most enthusiastic person when it comes to collaborations. I don’t mind the ones that give you some in-game item for going to a restaurant or store during the collab. But I’m not terribly big on IP crossovers. I’ve mentioned this before when it came to the Genshin Impact x Horizon: Zero Dawn crossover that brought Aloy to Teyvat, or the Crystal of Atlan x One Punch Man collaboration. Although I found different issues with each of those, they still just didn’t feel right to me.

I might have had the same concern with Wuthering Waves’ Cyberpunk: Edgerunners collaboration – if they’d done things similarly. But they didn’t just bring a character or two into the game and drop them there. Nor did they just give us skins that allowed us to dress up like Lucy and Rebecca. Instead, they crafted a story that respected what Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (and even just 2077) fans know about the game’s universe while making the story make sense within the world of Solaris.

To be fair, having a built-in in-universe solution for that did make things easier. While Solaris is effectively a closed-off world, there are some unique points of entry, including a space built using the dreams of the world’s citizens. This space must be maintained to protect the real world, and the main character, Rover, assists with this fairly frequently. Of course, we don’t know everything about this space and how it works. So it makes a reasonable gateway for someone to enter our world from another universe.

Of course, once these otherworldly visitors have been brought over, then the question of how to make them fit in the world while still respecting who they are as characters comes up. I think Kuro did a good job of this. For one thing, they didn’t shy away from what Night City and the people who come from there are like.

Granted, there wasn’t a lot of random killing and bloodbaths. But that’s also in keeping with what Solaris and, more pointedly, Startorch Academy are like. Despite being a post-apocalyptic world, the people of Solaris – at least the ones we interact with – approach the world in a pretty positive way, often trying to work together, and looking to a collective future. It’s obviously very different from the world Lucy and Rebecca know, where everyone really is out for themselves, and every partnership could end in betrayal.

And this all shows, not just in both groups being confused by new terms and some things needing explanation, but in how they demonstrate trust or a lack thereof. Lucy and Rebecca aren’t watered down to fit into the world of Wuthering Waves. The differences are evident. For one thing, Rebecca keeps her vocabulary. Although there is censoring, you know exactly what she’s saying. At one point, Rover even has the opportunity to comment on Rebecca’s “big personality”, although, as the player, you can choose not to do that.

One character asks Rebecca if her world is truly that dangerous. Remember, Solaris is a post-apocalyptic world filled with monsters, secret organizations plotting mass chaos, and other threats. But the students at Startorch Academy have a difficult time imagining something like Night City.

And then there’s the actual act of bringing Night City into the game. No, you don’t get to travel worlds and visit the real thing. What you see fits within the dream space. But, it’s as true to the Night City we know from both 2077 and Edgerunners as possible within the Wuthering Waves framework. The devs even brought over the hacking systems 2077 players are familiar with – both the number sequence system for hacking cameras and the like, and the mid-combat hacking of enemy combatants. In fact, Lucy and Rebecca’s combat was designed with their origins in mind, and it still feels good in the Wuthering Waves universe.

As a Cyberpunk and WuWa fan, the story was definitely something memorable, even if it’s just three hours and done. As seems to be usual for Kuro, it did feel like the devs were out to leave a few emotional scars. And, if that’s the case, they succeeded.

As far as the acquisition of Rebecca and Lucy as playable characters goes. I know a lot of players were upset about it using special currencies – particularly as some folks had already converted their Astrites into Lustrous Tides. Depending on the gacha game you’re playing, that can be a good move, since there’s always the risk of accidentally spending the base currency on other things if you don’t. However, Wuthering Waves has a separate Tide currency specifically for weapons, so there can be a downside to doing that. In this case, the downside is that those intending to put the Astrites toward the event characters can’t do that since they have their own unique currency.

The good news is that the unique currency can be acquired via limited-time event activities. But, for those who were looking to use their Astrites-turned-Lustrous Tides to unlock the characters’ full resonance chains and their weapons, that is a problem. And, it’s only compounded by the fact that those players will likely want to do the same for both characters as they’re designed to work together. That’s definitely something for Kuro to consider in the future. But, just to be careful, players might want to be a bit more cautious about converting their Astrites ahead of time.