A few weeks after its release, the new Hotta Studio title, Tower of Fantasy, was the source of a lot of gossip. It’s titled “Another Genshin Impact” and it offers an open world with tons of biomes to explore, anime-like visuals with impact animations and a combat system where we can choose from powerful Armor variety, allowing us to change our characters according to what suits our playstyle best. Even though it just came out and still has very improvable aspects, this title seems to entertain us with a ton of fun.
The story takes place in Aida, a future world of human immigrants. Our characters wake up with no memory, and for the first few hours of the game, we’ll follow Shirli and Zeke on certain quests to help them improve and protect their home. These are like a tutorial, and while these can illustrate your understanding of the combat system and some important concepts, the area is very limited at the beginning and this tutorial feels a bit long. Of course, one of the reasons is the dialogue with the NPC. During the story missions, every time we talk to the characters, we see RPG-like interactions with NPCs. Still, there are so many interactions, some of which feel too slow. Also, a lot of dialogue can’t be skipped from the start, which can feel a little annoying for those who aren’t interested in the narrative.
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The combat system is one of the most important things in any good MMORPG. After all, we spend most of our time fighting, whether it’s under the instructions of other players, or fighting enemies around the world or bigger bosses. In this sense, the combat in Tower of Fantasy is dynamic, explosive and impressive on a graphic level. While the camera can get crazy at times (it’s not at Kingdom Hearts level, don’t worry), the effects and combos we can craft thanks to the combination of three different weapons opens up a wide range of possibilities. Regarding the characters we can choose, there are three typical characters in every game in this style: Tank, DPS (damage) and Healer. Depending on the weapon we choose, we will be able to choose a character, which we can change at any time.
Weapon combinations are one of the more prominent features of this game. While in other MMORPGs like New World we can switch between two weapons while fighting, here we can choose between up to three weapons. From one-handed weapons to bows, guns, shields, and even spears or batons, each of them has a primary skill and an ultimate skill that recharges by performing basic attacks. Additionally, each attack sequence is different depending on jumping or dodging, which allows for a huge number of possible combinations and makes character movement very important. All in all: lots of action, jumps and combos make combat feel dynamic and entertaining. We can upgrade our weapons by farming materials as we go, or rather, by buying them in the in-game store.
Regarding the world, it is an open world with a lot of different landscapes. From the greenest places to big cities and futuristic buildings, cross vegetation-filled rivers and mountains. ToF offers a great anime-like visual selection, with a wide range of colors and plenty of places to explore. It’s true that if we don’t get to a certain level, we won’t be able to get into different areas because radiation levels will kill us, but that’s just the beginning. During our adventure we will find different puzzles to solve that will give us rewards, chests and bosses to defeat to get achievements and loot, we will also be able to collect plants, minerals and fish to eat drop and heal us.
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Another aspect that can be highlighted is the vehicles and objects we can use to move and interact with other elements in the world. ToF offers a selection of vehicles that give us the chance to choose between bikes, unicorn-like robots, and even a futuristic Rubik’s Cube that will delight those who like to collect mounts. Also, there are props that go up into the air and glide, boards that move through the water, and even things like missile launchers for blasting certain elements that will help us uncover hidden treasures.
When it comes to character customization, there are many kinds. In fact, some are able to imitate iconic anime characters like Naruto, Hinata Hinata, and even the character of Genshin Impact itself. In the character creation screen, we can choose from more popular designs created by other players, which role-playing fans should appreciate.
Regarding the progression system, we level up as we fight enemies and complete missions. Also, the game has an achievement system where we receive rewards after completing certain objectives. These could be defeating bosses we find around the world, or completing certain quests, or farming certain materials. The rewards we get here can give us a core to improve our weapons, gold or other materials. In that sense, we’re going to have to work on a substantial upgrade, which has happened in other games of this style.
This progression, especially with regard to weapons, can be accelerated through in-game microtransactions. We get weapons through a delivery system where we trade a core for a loot box-style item that has the potential to drop an analog weapon and its weapon. A Simulacrum is a character or champion that we can assign in the game’s own menu, which has two quality types: SR and SSR. The former has more drop chances than the latter, but it also gives us worse weapons and stats. Once we get one of the characters, we also get their weapon, which we can use. While it’s possible to get everything for free, the truth is that there is a greater chance of getting higher quality weapons faster through microtransactions. While there are people who abuse this “pay-to-win” system, the truth is, the game is still new, so it’s not that obvious. In the future, this may become more apparent, especially keeping in mind that this is a free-to-play game.
All in all, Tower of Fantasy is a game worth trying. This is not only because of its colorful and successful visuals, its dynamic combat system and wild open world, but also because it offers a ton of content and hours of entertainment for free. We’ll see how the microtransaction system evolves, and indeed, the narrative is very slow and sometimes boring, especially at the beginning. While the game doesn’t feature any innovative features, it has the potential to grow and we can see that in Vera’s announcement, a new expansion showcased during Gamescom to celebrate the Chinese developer’s game with more than 10 million downloads .
