Belghast

Good Morning Friends! I have to admit that yesterday I might have been a little early to judge this game as being an uninspired Genshin clone. The more I play this game the more I enjoy it and see how it in many ways has learned lessons from the success of Genshin. Admittedly at this point, I have had an extreme string of luck and have what the “kids” would call a very “cracked” account. Currently, I am running three legendary weapons and have lucked my way into two of the weapons that I had been chasing… namely the frost greatsword and the lightning dual pistols. While I never would have gone after it… I’ve also fallen in love with the fire cube thingy… which essentially turns me into a fire mage.

I realize that I am probably experiencing what my friends call “Bel Luck” but at this point, I have done somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 pulls and have managed to get four of the legendary SSR weapons/simulacra. The game is exceedingly generous with currency so just by playing the game and knocking out objectives, you are going to be earning a large number of the purple and orange orbs. Red orbs from what I can tell seem to be the exclusive cash shop currency, or at least can only be gained by spending money or converting free currency into them rather than getting them as rewards. Red orbs seem to be used exclusively for the 50/50 banner where you have a 50% chance of getting a specific champion each time you manage to pull an SSR weapon.

There are a few things at work here. Firstly Tower of Fortune is just slightly more generous in the odds than Genshin Impact. The odds of pulling an SSR Weapon is 0.75% and the equivalent odds of pulling a 5 Star Champion in Genshin is roughly 0.6%. Then there is a significant difference in the way that the pity system works. In Genshin you got a 5-star every 90 pulls, and if you lucked into an early 5-star it reset your pity counter back to 90. This pity timer was not clearly tracked in the UI but instead something you sort of had to figure out on your own or go through the results log to calculate. In Tower of Fortune, you get a guaranteed SSR every 80 pulls, with the key difference being that if you get an early SSR it does not reset your pity. So in my case, I lucked into 3 SSRs and then still hit my pity at 80 and got another SSR. Then there is the quality of life change in that each banner clearly shows where you are in the pity progression, so for example on the matrix banner I am 12 draws in of my initial 40 pity.

On top of those improvements, there is another system working in my favor that will ultimately let me choose whatever SSR Weapon I want. As you complete various micro-objectives in the game you are earning a point total. Currently, I am sitting at 460, and ticking these off might be running a certain number of ruins or opening a certain number of chests. Every 100 points you gain some sort of perk, and at 700 points you get a box that will essentially allow you to choose any SSR Weapon/Simulacra that you want out of everything currently available in the game. So all of those folks who have been chasing Diluc in Genshin Impact since day one… in this game, you can just choose this game’s equivalent of Diluc the Fire Scythe dude. Granted I am sure at some point I will start needing duplicates of these weapons, but I did notice there is a shop in-game with some currency that I am slowly collecting… that allows me to buy duplicate weapons when I unlock each SSR.

Another huge change from the Genshin model is that you could end up in a situation where you had nothing left that you could do in a day. The World Bosses in that game allowed you to spend “Original Resin” only if you wanted to get rewards but that did not trickle down to every activity. Even then it wasn’t super enjoyable to run things without much benefit. In Tower of Fantasy, it appears that there are a lot of activities like ruins that are not gated by spending some currency to go into them. Instead, this resource gating comes into play when you run the group content in the game. I ran through a Joint Operation last night and there were 3 chests that dropped, each of them costing 30 of the resource to open. However they all seemed to have their own drop table, so if you wanted a specific item you could in theory target opening only one chest, and then that same 90 resource cost could be applied to three individual runs.

Now that we have talked about just a few of the ways that Tower of Fantasy is more generous than Genshin Impact, let’s dive into a few other differences. One of the biggest ones is that ToF has mounts that you can use to zip around the map. This does mean that there are fewer fast travel waypoints that you can teleport to, with it largely limited to specific teleporters. For me, it honestly feels more enjoyable to traverse the map on the mount as opposed to “bamphing” all over the place. You unlock your first mount through the main story quest, which is this slick-looking motorcycle. I am not sure where I got it, but I also have this wholly irrational looking rubiks cube sort of mount as well, so I am guessing there will be a large number of options for you to ride around on over time.

On top of mounts, you have a series of relics that also provide travel benefits. For example, the first relic that you get is your glider and for the most part, it will permanently take up your first relic slot. Then over time, you unlock a series of other relics that you can swap between based on your current situation. The jet board for example essentially lets you surf across the water and serves as your way of unlocking the second island in the game. Then there are relics that solve specific problems that you might encounter in the world. For example, Missile Barrage can be used to break down cracked walls in dungeons and in the open world and Omnium Handcannon fires out a beam that serves as a temporary platform. The Handcannon specifically reminds me of the ice ability from Breath of the Wild and you can use it to block laser beams for example or give yourself something that you can actually climb in areas without climbable walls.

You unlock the first few relics through the main story quest as you explore various ruins. The thing that I have noticed upon multiple trips back to these areas… is that there are many ways to solve each of the puzzles that you are presented with. So while the Missile Barrage is the most obvious way of breaking down these walls, that same ruin also had exploding barrels which serve the same purpose. Most of the areas that might require you to climb, can also be carefully accessed through gliding. One of the things that were really missing from Genshin Impact in the whole “Breath of the Wild” comparison, is that you were lacking all of the curious inventions that link gained over time to help him traverse the world. The addition of Relics really opens up the door to new kinds of gameplay and makes it extremely easy for them to add more devious puzzles down the road that require something more than just casting the right elemental spell at the right time.

The other thing that I am noticing the further I go into the game is how much more Western-influenced Tower of Fantasy is. There are absolutely parts of the game that feel like they have been pulled straight from the Borderlands series. There are other aspects that give me an almost Wildstar vibe, especially when it comes to the way that Exile faction areas felt. So while I referred to this as the lovechild of Genshin Impact and Phantasy Star Online, and that is still largely correct… the world is so much more nuanced than that. Granted I have only seen two areas of the game and I have no clue what sorts of things I might encounter the further that I go in. Genshin also has expanded significantly since I last played it, but nothing that I did encounter really felt like it was borrowing heavily from Western game genres.

Yesterday I managed to fire up a Crew, which is this game’s version of a Guild. There is so much nonsense going on with this screen that I do not understand in the least. It seems like there are four quests a week that guild members can do, and there is a unique currency that you earn from doing them that can be spent for various things on the storefront. Additionally, there is a process of upgrading your guild base, but I don’t yet understand how to gain any of the currencies that seem to be involved with that. At the moment there are only three of us and none of us are terribly advanced yet. I only mentioned this system to show that there is some sort of guild construct and that it appears to be sufficiently detailed.

All said, the longer I spend with this game the more I enjoy it more than Genshin. I realize that come August 19th I am going to be pouring my heart and soul into the launch of the Lake of Kalandra league starting in Path of Exile, but for now, I am having some fun. There is a concept called Anchoring Bias that mobile/gacha games rely on heavily to get you to spend money. This ultimately is what led players to feel like Genshin was a reasonable game experience and by reference why Diablo Immortal felt so extremely predatory in comparison. Tower of Fantasy so far feels like it has taken lessons from Genshin in so many ways, including pricing strategy. Everything about the cash shop is just ever so slightly a better deal than the same item would be in Genshin and it feels very intentional. While it is unlikely that this brings in near the amount of cash… it will probably also prompt players who spent nothing on Genshin to spend on this game. I know I have spent a few bucks on the daily month-long rewards track since those tend to be a phenomenal deal. I’m also contemplating buying into the Battle Pass because I have already gotten $20 of enjoyment out of the game. This game feels like it was very much designed for the spending habits of Western and Japanese gamers, whereas Genshin was absolutely designed to cater to the Chinese mobile spending habits. If this really is the case and this stays true… I am honestly happy to support this notion. The post Generous Gacha appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

Yesterday was the launch of a new game that has been referred to as the “Genshin Killer”, Tower of Fantasy. After spending an evening playing it, I sincerely doubt it will do anything to the diehard Genshin Impact fanbase, but I do think it will flake some folks off who might not have been playing lately. My initial thoughts are that the game as a whole reminds me if you took Phantasy Star Online 2 and blended it with Genshin Impact to create a weird hybrid experience. This is honestly the game that I think I wished PSO2: New Genesis would have been. I think after spending so much time playing Genshin… New Genesis felt instantly dated to me.

The first key difference from Genshin, is that you actually get to control the look of your character. While you have to choose from either a collection of waifu or husband appearances… and there is not a beard to be seen among them… I managed to cobble together something that I was fine with. One of the nice things about the way that this game launched is that you could preload the client and mess around with your character appearance so that was all set and saved before the game launched properly. What feels super freaking weird though… is even though you have saved an appearance you still start the game as a generic white-haired anime girl or guy until you reach the first town and can transform into your chosen appearance.

The second key difference from Genshin is that instead of collecting a stable of characters that you swap between, you instead create a build-out of three weapons. You can swap freely between them at any time, or you can build up a gauge on the weapons and swap to them when this has filled to create a combo attack. The starter weapons so far are my favorite with it being a Longsword, Dual Daggers, and a Bow. New weapons can be pulled through the gacha system either through collecting items in the world or by paying for additional pulls.

Purple or Legendary weapons come attached to a Simulacrum, which leads us to the third major difference from Genshin. Going into this game I think we all knew it would be a chase for new Waifus from the gacha system, and instead of collecting them in your party… you transform yourself into one of them and gain their abilities. Everyone gets Echo first who comes equipped with the Thunderous Halberd. This weapon is effectively a lightning damage spear, which comes into play almost immediately in the game as you encounter a lightning elemental damage barrier. Like Genshin you can combo specific elemental attacks in the world in order to clear specific puzzle requirements. Hitting the lightning barrier with your halberd causes it to dissipate and allows you to move forward.

The Gacha pulls work effectively like any other Gacha game, where they are seemingly best spent 10 at a time, and doing so guarantees you a purple or higher quality item in that pull. There is a pitty system that moves as you increase pulling, with your first pitty happening at 50 pulls on a specific banner. Essentially you have three currencies for pulling, golden orbs, red orbs, and purple orbs and I am not going to bother learning the proper name of any of them. The Golden and Red orbs are premium currency and the Purple orbs are pretty easy to get while clearing the map and opening chests. As a result, the purple orb “banner” seems to mostly reward blue-quality weapons and upgrade materials. With a purple simulacrum/weapon coming from them EXTREMELY rarely.

In the confusion of launch, yesterday and various servers overflowing and getting locked… I ended up going for a second choice of Observer where some friends were rolling, and missed that a different batch of friends ended up on “The World Between”. Yet another batch of friends managed to roll late enough that they were able to get back on Solaris the originally intended destination. So essentially we are sorta fucked. With no cross-server play, and no availability of server transfers yet… I could reroll but that would mean a completely different set of pulls. Seeing that I lucked into a very early SSR/Legendary I am really hesitant to move from where I am currently. That means I am ultimately hoping that transfers open up so we can sort out a final destination at some point. Once again I am struck by how awful the server mechanic is and how games need to move away from having them.

Similar to Genshin and honestly EVERY one of these KMMO/CMMO gacha games… you have a small companion. This time it is a robot named Mi-a… who still talks funny but is significantly less annoying than Paimon. I am not entirely certain what its purpose is… other than it follows you around in the open world. I am sure there will be a story reason behind having Mi-a but I am not sure yet if there is a mechanical reason. Again every single one of these games seems to have a random fairy or another companion that follows you around and serves as comic relief, so I am guessing it wouldn’t be the same without them.

All told combat feels really fluid and I had fun running around. However, I have to say it does not feel anywhere near as magical as exploring the world of Genshin did. There is definitely a been there done that feeling to finding random chests or killing random bosses. The mechanics of the world and how you open things up… feels exactly the same as playing Genshin Impact. It is a more science fiction version of the world, but if you collected a bajillion chests in Genshin… it is going to feel the same collecting them here. It is at this point that I question how engaged I am ultimately going to get with this game. Genshin was new and fresh and something that felt like I was constantly breaking new ground… and Tower of Fantasy feels very much like the clone that it ultimately is.

Since I have World of Warcraft Dragonflight Alpha, Guild Wars 2, New World, and soon the opening of the next league in Path of Exile… Tower of Fantasy is very much going to likely be the third rung “if I happen to be in the mood” sort of game. If it was launching at a time when I was burnt out on all of the above, things might have been different. I played Genshin Impact hard and heavy for about three months and then have never really returned to it. I think this is partially why I am not overly concerned about being on the same server that the maximum number of friends because I am not sure just how active I am going to be in the long run. I don’t really love the anime stylings… so the gameplay really has to shine to capture my attention. Genshin did because it was so new and unique at the time, but this very much feels like I am traveling down a path I have already seen before. The addition of PVP is new to the genre, but also not something I am the least bit interested in.

So I will definitely be throwing Tower of Fantasy in that wait-and-see bucket. I think it is a great game, especially if this is your first time doing the Genshin Impact style of gameplay. It has full cross-play and cross-save between platforms and I managed to play a little bit on Android as well as my default PC client. Though I do wonder if this is too active of a game to really be super enjoyable for bedtime gaming. Anyways, if you make it over to Observer at any point you can find me at UID 1201110645. If you are also playing the game, I would be curious about your impressions. Right now you have to download the launcher directly from the Tower of Fantasy website, but apparently, at some point, it will be coming to Steam. The post Tower of Fantasy Thoughts appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.