Tower of Fantasy is the MMORPG that Genshin Impact should have been
On April 19th the closed beta for Tower of Fantasy started. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch has already spent 15 hours playing it and is quite impressed with the combat system, the open world and the many tasks. So for him, it’s already the MMORPG that Genshin Impact should have been.
Genshin Impact was the big surprise in the service games in 2020. Because of the beautiful game world, the simple but fun combat system and an interesting story, it captivated many players – including me.
But after around 40 hours of play, I gave up, mainly because the multiplayer was poorly implemented in my opinion. Playing together often felt more like punishment than reward, and I’m someone who just can’t play single player games anymore. I realize that Genshin Impact wasn’t meant to be an MMORPG, but I would have liked it to be like that.
That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been taking a look at Tower of Fantasy since early 2021. There were many parallels on paper in terms of appearance and content, such as the colorful open world in which there is a lot to discover. The closed beta allowed me to delve deeper into the game – and it was worth it.
For me, Tower of Fantasy is clearly ahead after just a few hours of play. This is partly due to the combat system and the real MMORPG feeling, but also because I actually play my character – and not fixed heroes like in Genshin Impact.
Tower of Fantasy is one of the MMORPGs that are scheduled to appear here in 2022.
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Lots of story and little multiplayer to get you started
Right in front: Tower of Fantasy is a free anime MMORPG with a colorful sci-fi world, an active combat system and gacha on the weapons and avatars. The game relies heavily on chance when it comes to monetization, because you can only earn some things from boxes for a currency that you can get in-game, but also with real money.
However, if you had fun with Genshin Impact or are looking for a new anime MMORPG, you should definitely read on, because I was enthusiastic about the game in the first few hours.
You can follow my first 60 minutes in Tower of Fantasy here:
The entry into Tower of Fantasy is paved with cutscenes and dialogues. I learn that I am traveling on the planet Aida. There, people built the Tower of Fantasy to gain a rare material – Omnium – from it. But there was a temporary rift that destroyed large parts of civilization. I am now fighting the scientists who continue to cling to the technology.
If you want to delve deep into the story, you can do so here. However, there is also the option to skip many cutscenes and dialogue if you prefer to focus more on gameplay. Even in the closed beta, most of it has a proper English soundtrack. It is currently somewhat unclear whether there will also be a German localization for the release.
After the first steps in the tutorial, I get the opportunity to design my character myself. I have a choice of two genders, different hairstyles, faces and body proportions. The character editor isn’t super detailed like in Black Desert, but it’s enough to set you apart from other players.
It is important that I do not choose a class, but only determine your appearance. I learn the abilities and the fighting style later through the choice of weapons and the simulacra, avatars for my character, which will be explained in more detail later.
I spend the first 20 levels almost entirely in single player. I follow the story quests but also find numerous side quests in the open world. Around level 15, I also discover the daily quests, which include something like the following:
- Bounty hunts in the open world
- Exploration tasks in the open world like special chests or locations that you want me to uncover
- The Ruins, a kind of solo dungeon
- The chef, for whom I should just try three random dishes – which, however, brings good experience points
However, the cool open world and the locomotion in these levels already captivates me in these levels. I can sprint, swim, climb all the time and have a jetpack to overcome larger gorges. There are also mounts, including a cool motorbike that I get right at the start.
Also, there are chests and materials I can pick up all over the world. I had a lot of fun doing that in Genshin Impact.
Another highlight is the action-packed combat systemwhich doesn’t offer too many skills, but has some details to master first.
Weapon switching, aerial combat and the perfect dodge
Tower of Fantasy relies on an action-packed combat system, albeit with aim assist. I have an opponent firmly in my sights and attack them with my attacks – but also hit nothing if I’m not close enough to them.
There are 19 different weapon types in the game, including swords, spears and bows, but also firearms and a chakram, a futuristic ring I can use to bash enemies. In combat, I can equip three weapons at once and switch between them at any time during combat.
For example, my current setup uses a scythe for multi-target melee damage, a spear for single-target damage, and the bow for ranged damage.
Each weapon has its own auto-attack (left mouse button), ability (default on 1), special effect when swapping charged weapons, and element that determines damage type. At first glance, that doesn’t sound like much, but since attacks can also be carried out while jumping and in the air and I have to constantly dodge, there is a lot of dynamics and special combos can be carried out.
Dodging also has another interesting and important effect. If I dodge an enemy attack perfectly – timing is everything here – I create a dome that freezes all enemies for a short time. My team members or fellow players in the open world also benefit from this. So the game rewards me if I read enemies well.
Overall, Tower of Fantasy is much more action-packed than Genshin Impact, but not quite as fluid. Some animations are choppy and enemies act a little stiff at times, but this should give you the perfect dodge.
Personally, I enjoy it more than Genshin, but I can understand anyone who prefers the other combat system.
In order to improve you guys in the game, I need to upgrade my weapons. This is possible with the right materials. The beauty of Tower of Fantasy is that I can click on any material in the interface and then see exactly where I’m getting it from. This makes targeted searches and farming much easier.
I can also add appropriate enchantments to my weapons, which bring new effects and more damage.
In turn, I can unlock new weapons via the gacha system. There are boxes here that I can buy for currency that will come out with a random weapon. However, some weapons are also available through the Simulacra. The simulacra are characters whose playstyle I can learn. I also unlock these through a gacha system, similar to the characters in Genshin Impact.
Each simulacra has its own story that I can actively play, can be provided with gifts and has its own look and special animations for skills. However, I can also disable the simulacra visually, so that I only benefit from the playstyle, but still represent my character.
The first dungeons and contacts with other players
At level 20, I basically unlock multiplayer. Before that, I only had random contact with other players in the open world.
In the weekly activities, I find the Operations first, which are sort of like dungeons for three players. These are at levels 20, 25, 31, 37, 43, 50, and 60. I can join them via an LFG request or an auto queue.
With each level, more group activities are added, including trials, in which I fight directly against difficult bosses. PvP will also be unlocked later, including a 1v1 arena.
Admittedly, I’ve only done three operations and a few solo dungeons so far. They were pretty easy, at least at the low levels between 20 and 27. PvP is next on my agenda and I’ll update this section as I delve deeper into it.
By the way, if you are afraid of only spending your time in dungeons, you can rest easy. You can
- Continue to follow story quests where you take care of the Tower of Fantasy in the game
- do side quests
- Play the stories of the simulacra
- Explore the areas fully
- Chasing Achievements – I’ve currently only completed 84 of a possible 2,600 achievements
Another advantage of Tower of Fantasy is the crew system. So I can join a guild, discuss in a chat there and expand the guild by donating and doing special crew missions. It’s fun and creates cohesion.
Gacha and confusing shops
I’ve mentioned it several times: Tower of Fantasy relies on randomness in the simulacra and new weapons. You can buy crate openings using the Gold Nucleus currency. This currency is for Dark Crystals. Dark Crystal, on the other hand, can be earned in-game from chests, daily quests, and achievements, but can also be bought directly for real money.
Compared to Genshin Impact, I get the Dark Crystals much easier in Tower of Fantasy if you only play ingame. In the 15 hours I was able to open about 20 weapon chests without any problems.
There’s also a real-money Season Pass that includes upgrade materials and more openings for the gacha system.
What bothers me more than the obvious gacha system are the many shops. There’s a Crystal Dust Store, a Weapon Store with upgrade materials, a Crew Store, and three others that I don’t even know what they do because I haven’t unlocked them yet.
This goes hand in hand with a number of currencies, about which I can probably only make statements as the game progresses.
However, it is currently unclear to me to what extent the gacha system affects PvP in weapons and simulacra. Here it would be possible that Pay2Win is available.
Conclusion: After 15 hours I’m having a lot of fun, but not everything is clear
Reference-mein-mmo.de
“Tower of Fantasy is the MMORPG that Genshin Impact should have been”. No it isn’t but in the space of your opening headline, you present the level of MMO based toxicity that makes Genshin so appealing. Trying to argue that a multiplayer game is everything a single-player game should have been is about as narrow-minded as it gets. You might as well try to argue that Tower of Fantasy is the MMORPG that Horizon: Zero Dawn should have been.
I am not sure why you think everyone wants to play with other people but you make a good case for not wanting it, because who really wants to spend time in their hobby with genre-entitled players? If you think every game should be the one that YOU want to play, then what kind of image do you think that presents of yourself?
Genshin Impact is built to appeal to players who don’t want internet strangers polluting their gaming experience thankfullly,. ToF is designed for people that don’t mind that pollution and is built to embrace it. If you can’t respect another developer’s desire to target a different audience to the one you feel part of, then maybe you simply have respect problems that you need to deal with as part of your maturing process. Maybe you haven’t grown past the “Throw yourself on the floor at the checkout to get the sweets you want” stage of life… it’s time to get over it.
I guarantee, if Genshin became an MMO, its playerbase would diminish by a significant degree. The sad thing is, people like you would probably appreciate that, because being YOUR type of game seems more important then being someone else’s type of game, regardless of the consequences.
I am sure ToF will have its followers but I am eternally grateful that Genshin didn’t try to attract the same ones if this page is anything to go by. I hope ToF does well and I hope that those players that want Genshin to be an MMO leave Genshin and play this instead, because a single-player game community doesn’t need or want those people in it.