An update on recent technical problems and more from the admin: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/250292/on-technical-difficulties-mod-coverage-and-other-things/p1?new=1
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[Tower of Fantasy] Now going full cyberpunk! v1.5 update Sept 15
eMoander
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So what is Tower of Fantasy?
ToF is a shared open world RPG, with both MMO and gacha elements. It has an anime-infused sci-fi+fantasy theme from developer Hotta Studio and publisher Level Infinite.
Main website is here: https://www.toweroffantasy-global.com/
The game has been out in China for a year, and released to global audiences on Aug 11, 2022. Current global version is behind the Chinese servers, but expectations seem to be that they will speed up release of features to eventually align the two.
Where can I play?
Currently PC, iOS, and android. PC is a direct download for now, but should be available on Steam Q4, 2022. Rumors of console versions coming, but no specific announcements yet.
So this is basically a Genshin knockoff?
Yes. However, while it was pretty clearly modeled very closely on the super popular Genshin Impact, the developer seems to have gone out of their way to specifically address a lot of the issues that people have had with Genshin. For one thing, the gacha is significantly less predatory and there is much more focus on co-op. AND THE CHESTS RESPAWN!!1!
Why do people keep talking about characters and weapons interchangeably? I'm so confused.
ToF is a little weird in gachas in that the main thing you pull for and equip are weapons, but you get a character skin for free when you do get the weapon. The weapon is usually called something super long like 'Chakram of the Seas' while character names are nice and short like 'Shiro', so almost everyone uses the character name to refer to the weapon. But to be very clear, characters are only optional skins and are not leveled separately like in Genshin (there is an affinity system that gets you a passive buff per character, but its also equippable separately from the skin or weapon).
Wait, so I get to make my own character?
Yes! Character customization is surprisingly deep and your main character can be used for the entire game (plus dress them up in cool outfits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_1x0VkfzgBe warned though, people have also abused the system to make some truly horrifying neo-hitler stuff.
How does combat work?
Combat is pretty active with multiple weapons, combos, slow time for perfect dodges, shield breaking, etc. You can equip three weapons at a time, and using one weapon builds charge on the other two in the background. Once the background weapon is charged, swapping to it unleashes a burst which has special effects for each weapon. Weapons are divided into the holy trinity of dps, tank, healer/support and you get resonance bonuses for having two weapons of one role, as well as two weapons of the same element. Weapons can be melee or ranged, and play and feel very differently. Ranged weapons can be basic bows, rapid-fire pistols, or deployable sit-in turrets. Melee weapons can be fast daggers, a big slow hammer, or giant robot arms that float in the air and do massive hulk smash attacks.
A better guide with visuals is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5EH3f7Qu9MWhat is there to do in endgame?
The developers have gone out of their way to put in a crapload of things to do.
-Endless tower mode for solo pve combat (with rewards!)
-MMO-style boss raids/dungeons for fancy gear
-World bosses
-Daily bounties, training, instances and gear grinding
-Normalized pvp ladders
-Guild system with shared lobby and shop
-Battle royale mode (currently only in China)
-Player housing system (currently only in China)
And honestly probably a few other things I'm forgetting.
How predatory is the gacha?
General consensus is that it is actually very friendly with a good pity system. Here's the detailed breakdown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9elqBB3rR8oMost importantly, as you pull on the gacha you build up tokens that let you get copies of the characters you like directly from the shop! Limited release characters for the most part also have moved to the standard banner after ~6 months, so they become easily available. So for the most part you should be able to fully max out a character without spending any money at all, although of course it will take longer. The game also seems very generous so far with providing pulls on the standard and basic banner, with hundreds of pulls just scattered around as open world rewards to find.
For example, when starting the game, you are guaranteed an SSR at pull 30, which also does not reset your pity so you will get another guaranteed SSR at pull 80, which you should be able to get to within 3-4 days with the amount of free pulls thrown at you. If you get lucky and pull an SSR early at like 65 or something, YOUR PITY DOES NOT RESET, meaning you will still get the guaranteed SSR at 80. In addition, everyone gets an SSR selector after 1 week, which literally lets YOU PICK ANY SSR YOU WANT OFF THE STANDARD BANNER.
So how much pay-to-win is there?
Not much. As stated above, most of the mechanisms in play allow everyone to eventually max out their weapons. Most of the content is co-op anyways, so there isn't a lot of incentive to P2W regardless. You can challenge people to duels for one on one pvp, but they are under no obligation to accept. There is a pvp ladder, but weapons are normalized so the only P2W part is just having the weapon or not (so you just need one pull from the limited banner to have access to the new meta). The other pvp mode is battle royale which is completely normalized for everyone (and gives everyone access to play the newest limited characters as well!).
I've heard about power creep in the China version being a thing. Do I need to be worried?
Yes, you should always be worried about power creep! And yes, the China version has definitely seen this issue with fast-scaling limited release characters causing newer content to have bloated boss hp to make the content challenging for players with the characters but very frustrating without them. The good news is that the developers have recognized this and identified the scaling issues. Several SSR characters have been nerfed from the China version, including Nemesis who is on the first limited banner and was widely seen as OP. Hopefully the devs have recognized the issue and will continue to scale down the new releases, but definitely something to keep an eye on.
Enough about the boring stuff, show me some waifus and husbandos!
https://www.ginx.tv/en/video-games/every-playable-character-tower-of-fantasy
Here's a good guide for starting out and how to avoid some common mistakes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zejEqoB23XgXbox: Travesty 0214 Switch: 3304-2356-9421 Honkai Star Rail: 600322115 Battlenet: Travesty #1822
eMoander on
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Format for posting your username: <Region> <Server name> <Character name> <Crew name (if any)>
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Radiant Travesty Maralago Raiders (Emoander)
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In terms of gacha updates, as I said in the other thread, I somehow lucked into a crow, nemesis, king top tier dps team in my first three ssr pulls. As of last night, my son ended up with back to back Huma/Meryl pulls which gives him the best tank combo in the game. Almost certainly just random, but it does feel like the game is pushing us to specific roles. Now I'm just waiting for my other buddy to get his first couple SSR pulls and get a top tier healing team and we'll be good to go.
i hope they'll fix the issue of the menus seeming to run with uncapped FPS no matter what the setting is. gpu to 100% anytime i go to upgrade gear.
ILOVETOF
TOF666
TOF888
And if you link a twitch account and put some streams on in the background you can get some free rewards as well.
https://www.twitch.tv/drops/campaigns
Except for scene direction, where I'm not sure anyone involved in controlling the camera or pacing events and dialogue has ever seen a movie or video game or television show before.
Also I really wish the EM Blade had a SSR equivalent, it's so satisfying. I'd even take them making the Wanderer an SSR pull with Better EM Blade, since they're using it in cutscenes. Though I've seen people say a character named Claudia will be the high-tier equivalent of EM Blade.
borderlands? i swear i see some models str8 outta borderlands2
ah yes, we are truly exploring now
This was last year but they ripped Honkai Impact art assets and portrayed them in a PV as their own work. They've also directly copied reviews for Genshin as their own but replaced with their own game title, which is both hilarious and stupid.
Besides that and 1 hour server queues it's been a pleasant surprise though, I've felt like the story and early game has been above average as far as gacha games go.
Dyrnwyn (Euro). Looks like it's fuller than average too, less than half of Euro servers have queues right now but it's one of them.
Also it seems like there's no server transfers right now, period. Not sure where'd you get that info about one-time free server transfer. Tried a bit to play on another server, looks like it's just like a new account with no weapons or anything.
Pretty helpful! I had no idea the Bygone Phantasm had individualized leaderboards with weekly rewards. I just breezed through 5 levels earlier this morning to mess around, but I just checked and the top guy in my list is 14, so should be easy for me to jump to the top.
Hmm, did some quick googling and I can't find any references, but before release I'm pretty sure people were saying that server transfer was an option in the Chinese version. You're right though, it does look like it is not possible right now, so rerolling is the only option if you really hate the server.
It is aggressively Genshin in its visuals. Not that I don't like Genshin (I love Genshin), but I coulda swore it was the same engine.
Currently Ciarna (Server: Libera | North America)
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
They sound slimy as hell.
Like worrying that your new heroin dealer has lawn ornaments not in compliance with his HOA bylaws.
Helps that I don't really care about this kind of thing happening to a successful company. Especially at the scale of, as far as I know, a currency icon asset and some marketing BS?
Seriously though, gacha system is lame but I can deal with it (I'm largely fine with how games like Another Eden and Octopath Champions do it since I can play easily enough for free without buying any of their overpriced currency bullshit), straight up stealing work from other people and companies with no fucks given is a whole nother kind of red flag for me.
Sure, but I'm also looking at how they present themselves. Generally speaking, when someone is calling themselves an "X killer" where X is the most prominent of its type of game, it doesn't inspire confidence. Especially in gacha. Even less so when the "Genshin killer" is blatantly trying to be Genshin in all respects.
I've played a lot of gacha, seen a lot of those companies, and what I've seen + heard from current players of the CN version has sent up several red flags to be wary of. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from playing the game, just to remember that any money or time spent only last as long as the servers remain plugged in when it comes to gacha.
like any things, I don't think there's a single complaint I have about anything in Genshin mechanics/UI/encounters/etc that they've improved since that game launched.
Tower of Fantasy feels like someone sat down with a list I personally wrote out of things that bugged me in Genshin and set out to make sure they were all fixed. It's just fun to play, without any of the little thorns that repeatedly pricks me when I put time into Genshin.
If you do the new player thing to 700 points--I'm at 600-something already, just need to keep logging in and using vitality at this point--you get to choose one of the base SSRs.
. . .I'm probably "overseeing" it and possibly remembering GI wrong, but like this game straight up feels like a "total conversion mod" that still retains the "vibe" of the original game. Just bizarre.
Personally, it feels like a WoW to Everquest iteration, and my friends who have tried it are enjoying it more than Genshin too, so I dunno. YMMV.
edit: At least the 'Genshin Impact is a Chinese gacha ripoff of BotW' nonsense is solidly dead now.
To be fair, I don't think they have ever marketed themselves as a Genshin Killer and I've seen a lot of pushback in the community threads when that comes up. Also, the copying assets and reviews was supposedly done by a third party PR firm that they hired and the devs apologized immediately once it was noticed and fired the PR firm. Take that as you will in terms of honest mistake vs plausible deniability.
In terms of copying, keep in mind that China has very different legal and cultural standards for intellectual property. It's part of the reason so many western companies have such a hard time over there. I'm not trying to come across as a ToF stan, but the situation is definitely not as black and white as what is being described here.
So much this!
Also grinded up to floor 20 in the endless mode. I can literally feel myself getting better at the combat as stuff starts to make sense and I’m swapping for combos and building meters. Of course, it’s easy to feel improvement when you’re starting so low but I’ll take what I can get.
I had the pleasant realization earlier that there isn't a single SSR I wouldn't enjoy pulling, though I'm leaning scythe or greatsword for my freebie. I'll throw some money at it in a week when I can.
edit: hah man, this section of story that just unlocked seems to be getting programmed as I play it. big 'we're out of time for this, just ship it' energy. cutscenes that are in really late and out really early, characters in a cutscene gone from the scene as soon as the cutscene ends with no explanation, dialogue that's not voiced, once I saw a note to not rerecord the line because it was a repeat included as subtitles. Wonder if the story presentation will continue to drop or if this dip is temporary.
90% of them will often just feel like its all waifus and I would rather have more diverse interesting looking characters spread throughout.
I would play the shit out of that old lady, combo enemies with that frenchie.
Was actually surprised that pity doesn't reset. Makes pulling a natural SSR feel that much more special since you still get to look forward to the one at 80.
One negative that keeps cropping up: who the fuck designed the menu system? Trying to find specific menus (hi, gift menu) is far harder than it should be. You have hidden menus accessible through sub-menus in places not immediately apparent. Why is mail under friends? Why can I access menu systems before they unlock due to story?
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
- When stamina or keys run out, you can still run co-op dungeons and raids for a different reward! If you don't open the chest at the end, you get collaboration points that you can spend in a separate shop!
- Pulls are everywhere. Your daily doesn't give you some weird 90 primogem reward, it straight up gives you one gold summon and three black summons. I just found some random minigame out in the world that gave me two golds and 6 blacks.
- The pity and token system are great, especially when combined with how many pulls they are throwing at us. I'm planning out now what order I want to c6 my standard banner characters, which feels kind of crazy.
- While they do have a lot of obtuse upgrade materials needed at different stages, you can tap on every one and it tells you how to get it. More importantly, they seem to give out more selection boxes than specific materials, and when you go to upgrade if you don't have the right materials, it shows you right there that you have a box and you can just trade it in right there on the same screen for what you need.
- And this I just discovered, if you do decide to spend money, there is a whole section of daily trade-ins that dramatically increase the value. Normally you buy tania, turn tania into dark crystals (primogems) 1:1, and then buy red summons for 150 dark crystals per (which is already better than Genshins 160 ridiculousness, and the tania is priced identically to Genshin as far as I can tell). However, once per day you can turn 60 tania into 90 dark crystals (plus a bunch of blue materials) and turn 180 tania into 1 red summon + 120 dark crystals (and some additional materials). So as long as you're spreading it out your limited summons are basically half price (and you can hoard red summons forever).
- Combat is just so much better, I'm struggling to describe it. Combos are much more active and varied. Timing your dodges is much more important as they are limited but the benefit for a perfect dodge is huge. Weapons themselves are much more varied and more importantly feel completely different from each other. I'm definitely having to break myself of the attack/dodge button spam habit.
- And this is a personal preference for me, but OMG THEY HAVE DPS/TANKING/HEALING METERS AT THE END OF EVERY CO-OP DUNGEON! Finally some feedback on my performance that I can actually track over time (and know whether I'm getting carried or contributing).
- The ruins are super fun with a lot of cool puzzles, but they aren't just one and done, they have multiple difficulties and you cycle back through them as you level!
- Story so far is definitely going places, and they aren't afraid to pull some pretty nasty turns.
Anyways, there's certainly more, but long story short I would say I am definitely in it for the long haul at this point.
soloing dungeons got a lot easier , i still haven't pulled a healing weapon.
You don't have the SR staff? I figured it's common enough that everybody will get one sooner than later but I guess you can always be unlucky. They could just give one to everybody as a quest reward really, like they give that SR bow midway through that arena quest.
I got higher level on my new server finally but doing all the early stuff twice was a pain in the ass, though having a skip button helps. Not a big fan of the jump/laser puzzles in the dungeons, I'm just super-bad at those and the long cooldowns on my omnium gun gadgets and healing staff started to piss me off as I tried to pass the water platform laser thing. Mostly enjoying myself but this having dungeons where you are supposed to bring 2 dps, 1 tank and 1 healer (I assume) is a big turn-off for me. I'll probably play two weeks and then go back to Genshin once Sumeru hits.
heh, apparently i just had to complain about it, cause i finally pulled one (after my 3rd SSR ;p)
that water platform lazer jumping puzzle was pretty annoying on PC and i can imagine it's a nightmare to do on mobile.
I may have just used the trinket you get in that ruin to put a pillar on the floating platform and then halfway across chain dashed to the other side.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
i'm disappointed in my past-self for not even trying this.