The most charitable way I could describe Tower of Fantasy’s relationship with Genshin Impact would be “inspired.” It’s so deeply inspired by Hoyoverse’s anime character action game that it would be easy to shake it off as one of the many mobile clones you see appears in ads trying to convince you that they’re where the real players are. to be. The uncanny resemblance to Genshin is the hardest thing to get over the opening hours, kind of like trying to understand how much Genshin felt like Breath of the Wild when it came out. But if you can grimace through it and curb your cynicism, the MMO-esque systems it introduces may be what sets it apart.
Tower of Fantasy copies many of Genshin’s most impressive aspects, as well as the most egregious. Let’s take stock:
- It is an open world game where the planet is attacked by monsters and they reside in camps scattered all over the world.
- Anime characters – who are usually rejected by Evangelion in this case – have to save the planet.
- The aesthetic is both bright and fantastic, but also sci-fi and grim like the 90s anime and Hoyoverse’s other action game, Honkai Impact 3rd.
- It is a gacha game where you grind resources and newspapers as if it were your job or pay real money for a chance to earn one of its characters.
- Even if you get one of those characters, which are associated with their unique weapons, you will have to level them up equal to your current progress in the game.
Genshin flows through the veins of Tower of Fantasy; it’s practically organic.
Unlike Genshin, Tower of Fantasy has a fully customizable main character, with sliders and all. It’s a big deal if you never liked playing as Hoyoverse’s mostly silent protagonists. Here you can make whoever you want (opens in new tab)although many people just try to create Genshin characters (opens in new tab).
None of the characters, either the ones you can play or the ones you meet, make a good first impression in Tower of Fantasy’s haphazard opening missions. It took me a while to care much for Genshin’s story, as much of it is delivered fragmentarily and through dialogue that puts me to sleep. Only the game’s most recent updates have underlined how much of the characters are fun to deal with, even if the game’s main plot remains dry. For some reason, Tower of Fantasy borrowed that too. Genshin’s skill-blending combat is satisfying enough (if you’re lucky or loaded enough to get the characters you want) that the story isn’t intrusive; it’s possible that Tower of Fantasy will be the same over time.
Show yourself
I couldn’t find any power with the weapons I picked up in my few hours with the game. Shoulder-mounted cannons and double-swing pistols don’t have the same aura as Genshin’s super-powered team-ups, which can suck enemies into a tornado for an archer to destroy with frozen arrows. The lack of character-specific abilities in Tower of Fantasy puts a lot of pressure on the weapons to fill that role, and without much time to experiment, battles can be disjointed. Your character’s ability to perform powerful attacks on a regular basis keeps skirmishes exciting, but as with Genshin, it takes a while to find a groove that will remain captivating for the hundreds of hours the game expects you to spend with it.
Tower of Fantasy also reflects Genshin’s boundless exploration. It’s not nearly as elegant: Genshin-style environment-based puzzles tucked into the world are replaced by a bunch of chests and interactive objects, and you’ll have access to mounts that effectively shrink the entire map. The open world has been stripped of the illusion that you’ll stumble upon secrets as you explore, and the friction of having to do most of it on foot has also largely disappeared.
Tower of Fantasy is a messy game that doesn’t have a clear vision of what sets it apart from all the other options out there.
It instead goes for the Ubisoft approach where you are encouraged to squeeze the world and every system in it like a sponge. Tower of Fantasy’s utilitarian approach to open world design overwhelms me. However, if you’re someone who finds clearing parts of a map one of the most satisfying things in games, Tower of Fantasy’s maximalist approach may be for you.
Like Genshin, Tower of Fantasy is ultimately a game about beating monsters with swords to make the numbers pop. It has a stamina bar that limits how fast you can make a powerful attack or climb a mountain, but on the test server I played on, it had plenty to offer for whatever activity I was doing. You can switch between weapons at any time and combo their effects, just like scrolling through Genshin characters. The enemies I fought weren’t strong enough to require it, but the damage bonus (and sick attack animations) you get for that were worth it, if only to speed up fights that took too long. The PvP and endgame of the game will test how deep this style of fighting is and how necessary it will be to spend hours collecting resources to improve your weapons and character. There is a chance that the level of grind will not be proportional to the reward for the most difficult activities, but it will take some time for players to realize that.
Tower of Fantasy ends up using Genshin as a lure to get you into its world and systems. Gacha games mimic the most well-known parts of other games for a reason: they want you to get in as soon as possible so there’s a chance you’ll spend some money. Tower of Fantasy is just as guilty as any other game with systems built to exploit your desire to make it easier to play. But it also suggests it can add engaging layers on top of Genshin’s framework, like how other players can seamlessly step into your world and fight by your side or equip temporary resources (each categorized as MMO archetypes) as a mech. -suit to deal massive amounts of damage. Genshin always flirted with MMO-esque ideas, so if Tower of Fantasy successfully incorporates enough parts of that genre, it could be a worthy counterbalance to the largely lonely world of Hoyoverse.
For much of its opening hours, Tower of Fantasy is a messy game that doesn’t have a clear vision of what sets it apart from all the other options out there. It chose Genshin as the template, which, as far as the templates go, isn’t a bad choice. It made me want to successfully poke around his world and defeat his dinky enemies. I really can’t say no to that, I wish it spent a little less time making sure it’s like the thing I’ve played before and more time convincing me of the things that make it unique.
Tower of Fantasy launches today via its own launcher, but will be coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store in the future.
0 Comments