Look At Me Ma! Top Of The World!

Yesterday's post may have been a bit misleading to look at. I used screenshots from Wuthering Waves to break up the text that had very little to do with what the post was about. I just happened to have a lot of pretty pictures from that game to hand and I thought it would be nice to share them.

It didn't occur to me until after I hit Publish that people might see the pictures and decide to skip the post because who wants to read another three thousand words on a Gacha game they're never going to play? So, if you passed on it for that reason you might want to go back and take another look. 

I'd probably just move on, if I were you. It does go on a bit and, when I read the whole thing back later in the evening, it didn't even convince me I knew what I was talking about.

I only mention it because now I'm going to post a whole new set of screenshots from Wuthering Waves and this time the post is about the game. If you avoided yesterday's epic because you didn't want any more of that sort of thing you probably should bail around now. 

Okay... I guess anyone still here actually wants to hear about Wuthering Waves then!

All the shots in this post were taken after I finished two parkour challenges in Zinzhou. I had no idea there were any. The game hadn't introduced me to the concept. I found it all by myself.

I just happened to spot an NPC, standing on a terrace with a blue star next to his name, which means some kind of quest. When I went to speak to him he started going on and on about this climbing club he was in and how they held competitions and set up courses and did I want to try one, since he'd just got it set up right there?

I figured he was talking about parkour, although that's not the term he used. I had no idea where the conversation was going so I didn't take any screenshots and now I can't remember exactly what he did call it but it was something like Overrushing.

This is a thing that happens in the game sometimes. As I keep saying, the translation is very good, albeit possibly less good the further into the game I get and the newer the content. Still, even at its least demotic, it's always entirely clear and understandable, except for one thing. 

There is a lot of jargon. The writers love to throw in pseudo-scientific explanations for everything.  They also like to world-build by using the names of local political, social and administrative organisations, often without explanation, although they do have a neat trick of adding a kind of footnote in superscript above some of the more obscure acronyms and technical terms. 

On top of all of that there's a sprinkling of in-game slang plus a few buzzwords the NPCs clearly understand but no-one else is lilely to know. With all of that going on, it can occasionally be hard to tell if a confusing phrase is intentionally fictive or just a bad translation.

As a prose style, I like it, mostly. The mix gives a general sense of being in another place, where the people may speak your language but don't necessarily see the world exactly the way you do. Like Canada. Or perhaps, more cogently and appropriately, Hong Kong, although if that's the subtext then Wuthering Waves is definitely a different game than I thought it was.

Whatever the activity was called, the rules were clear enough: get from Point A to Point B without touching the ground or grass or water. Walls, rooftops, flagpoles, window ledges - all fine. Use a grapple or a glider if you want. Make it to the end without touching the ground and you get a prize.

The first time I didn't realise just how literal he was being about those rules. I figured a small patch of grass growing on a ledge half way up a building would be ok. It was not. The second time I made it all the way without making a mistake, with the help of my handy Scanner, a Utility device that sends out a pulse to light up any items of interest in the area. 

There were crystals marking the optimum route and a trail of light between them but I couldn't always see them until the scanner picked them out. It did feel a little like cheating but the game specifically told me to do it so I guess it was fine.

At the end of the course I got some XP and there was a chest to open. The parkour guy told me I'd done so well he'd put me in for the big competition if I wanted. He also inducted me into his club as some kind of associate or honorary member. I'd tell you more but I was so wrapped up in the moment I forgot to take any screenshots. 

Finishing the first course also entitled me to try the next one he'd set up in the city. I did that one and it was even more fun than the first. It involved quite a lot of swinging from streetlights to rooftops with my grapple, like some kind of cut-price Spider-Man knock-off. That was really good fun.

I've always enjoyed climbing in MMORPGs, going all the way back to EverQuest, which really didn't have any in-game tools to support it. Over the years, games have added more and more in the way of officially-sponsored climbing. It can feel a bit clunky in MMORPGs but open world RPGs tend to excel at it. I certainly remember climbing as one of the main attractions in Genshin Impact, back when I played.

That was good but this better. Maybe the best I've seen, although that also may be because it's right in my skill zone. I suspect it will feel too easy for anyone who can do jumping puzzles in Guild Wars 2 without getting a stiff neck and sweat-stains.

After I finished the second course I got invited to do a third. I was up for it but it started way over on the far side of town and on the way I got distracted. By a mountain.

Zinzhou is a gorgeous city. An explorer's dream, with so many side streets and plazas, harbors and towers. It's on the coast, surrounded by high cliffs and the view from the highest peak is phenomenal. I know because I've been there.

It took me quite a while. I started off taking a short cut to get across town and somehow I ended up on a terrace overlooking the ocean with a small mountain between me and where I wanted to be. I didn't fancy back-tracking so I thought what the hell, I'll just go up and over. It'll be good practice.

It was. It was also quite possibly the most fun I've had so far in this consistently entertaining game. For a start, the views were stunning. I took so many screenshots. All the ones in this post and many more. (There aren't any from the parkour courses because I was concentrating too hard on not messing up to stop and take selfies.)

I could have, though. Even action shots. I discovered a couple of days ago you can bind your camera to the radial Utility menu that opens when you press Tab. That means you can take a screenshot instantly just by pressing "T", rather than having to to press Alt to free the cursor, then open the main menu and select the camera icon. You can even take pictures when you're gliding, although for some reason pressing "T" doesn't work if you want to take a picture of yourself sitting down.

Any way I pointed my camera there was a perfect postcard scene. That alone would have kept me occupied but there was so much more to see and do. Pickable plants suitable for cooking and other crafts were growing everywhere. Not just in the grass but in cracks in the cliffs and on high ledges all around. I took so many detours to grab mushrooms and flowers along the way I must have doubled my step-count for the day.

I saw rabbits and mountain goats grazing on hidden plateaus. There were even a couple of long-horned cattle although how they got up that high I can't imagine. I found pools and waterfalls. There were birds. A crane dropped a feather for me as it flew away. 

I kept going up and up, scaling sheer cliffs, swooping across deep drops, trusting to my glider to make the jump, then clinging to the wall and scrambling onto the nearest ledge when it fell short. However high I went there was always another cliff, another ledge, another plateau.

I thought I was done when I came to a huge chest and an achievement popped up but even then there was more. From there I could see the decaying remains of a boardwalk, clinging to the cliff-side above me. I jumped into space and flew across the chasm, dangling from glider, hoping I had enough height to make it. 

Just! I clambered along the ramshackle walkway, jumping the gaps, hauling myself up and trusting to fortune to make it to the top. When I reached solid ground again it was plain others had been there before me. There were stone steps cut into the side of the cliff and... a teleportation tower. My reward for getting so far was never having to do the climb again.

But that still wasn't the end. At the top of the steps I found a gazebo, all fitted out with a table and chairs. There was even some food laid out for visitors. Or possibly for the two cats I found there, enjoying the view.

That, I thought, had to be the end of it. But it wasn't. Not quite. 

At the very, very top, on a spur of rock over-hanging the abyss, a single seat waited, facing the ocean. It came with a warning: "A chair with a daunting aura", which made me wonder whether I ought to sit in it. Of course, I did.

Nothing happened except a message about being "Fully Healed", which I was already so who knows?

The chair also has a large sword in a scabbard leaning against it, which may mean something or may not. What it mostly does is add to the already strong sense of mystery and wonder that clings to the mountain like early morning mist. 

I logged out, sitting in the chair. When I log back in later today I plan to glide all the way down to the southern gates of the city, where the third parkour challenge begins. It's going to be a fine adventure.

Who knows what I'll see this time?