Valorant and Genshin Impact players need to get this anime shooter on their wishlist now

Strinova is an upcoming third-person shooter that blends Valorant’s tactical gameplay with the vibrant character design of Genshin Impact. While it’s still early days for the new game, it’s certainly one that should be on your radar. 

If you haven’t heard of Strinova, then you’d be forgiven – after all, the anime game is still in beta on Steam. However, you’ll be in for a treat if you’re lucky enough to get access. While Strinova may look like Genshin Impact with guns, it has more similarities with the tactical FPS Valorant. 

Strinova is a 5v5 shooter that puts heavy emphasis on its Genshin Impact-style characters. The game is currently home to 15 units, named Superstrings, who are tied to three factions (Painting Utopia Security, The Scissors, and Urbino). 

Strinova is more than a Valorant clone

Both Genshin and Valorant players will feel instantly at home here, as each unit has its own active, passive, and ultimate, which can give you an edge over your foes. These abilities range from deadly defensive turrets to helpful intel-based beacons that reveal enemy locations. 

Unlike Valorant, Strinova’s characters come equipped with their own primary and secondary weapon. The usual arsenal of assault rifles, speedy SMGs, close-range shotguns, and high-precision snipers are found here, so there’s plenty of choice.

Weapons can be either fired in third-person or first-person mode, and you’ll need to master their recoil and firing patterns if you want to land those all-important headshots. While you may be unable to switch between weapons, they can be upgraded using Energy Points during matches. 

This allows you to purchase new optics, improve your armor, and upgrade your character’s abilities. However, the real fun begins when you utilize the game’s clever multidimensional ability – Stringification. By pressing CTRL, your character’s model will instantly switch from 3D to 2D. 

Once you’ve changed to 2D, your character can glide from high locations, stick to walls, and evade enemy bullets. You can even slip through areas that would otherwise be impossible to pass through when in 3D mode. 

Not only does this open up unique ways to traverse your environment, but the outplay potential here is extremely high. Whether it’s simply going 2D to evade enemy bullets, sticking to walls to flank around your foes, or simply using it to hide from those frustrating 2v1 situations. 

It’s definitely one of the most interesting mechanics I’ve seen from a third-person shooter since Splatoon switched things up with its colorful ink swimming feature. In fact, I found myself questioning why no one has tried adding a Paper Mario-style ability to an FPS game before – it’s an absolute game-changer!

While Strinova’s ranked TDM, Overwatch-style escort mode, and battle royale scrimmage playlists won’t win any awards for their originality – the devs have revealed that more maps and modes are in the works. Either way, Strinova’s characters and multidimensional gameplay make it an easy recommendation for Valorant and Genshin Impact players. 

Strinova doesn’t have a release date, but you can sign up for the beta test on Steam or via the official website.