With all their similarities, the question was eventually going to have to be asked. The latest challenger to Genshin Impact’s dominance in the RPG category, Tower of Fantasy, came out guns blazing last week. Unfortunately, even with its many features and intricacy, Tower of Fantasy lacks quality. That quality is, however, something you can anticipate and expect from Genshin Impact.
Is Tower of Fantasy better than Genshin Impact?
No. On paper, Tower of Fantasy excels in many areas. It has creative combat mechanics, expanded multiplayer capability, content and features for days, and a gacha system that gives SSRs just for thinking about pulling. It almost seems as if Tower of Fantasy was designed to try and address fan complaints about the games it takes inspiration from, particularly Genshin Impact. But when it does this, it generally adds complexity without adding value.
Combat
Tower of Fantasy riffs off of Genshin Impact’s team mechanics. But, instead of swapping between characters, weapons are swapped between. That means no more need to listen to the same cooking puns we’ve heard hundreds of times. You can use your own customized main character exclusively, if you want to. And if that wasn’t enough, instead of being limited to certain weapon categories, each weapon has its own unique gameplay.
There’s also a reward for a well timed dodge–it freezes time, allowing you to zip around enemies while dealing serious damage. Elemental mechanics from Genshin Impact are included but simplified, with enemies being weak to attacks from weapons from certain elemental categories. Sometimes elements will add extra effects, such as flame weapons igniting an enemy, but elements will not combine to create reactions.
This is the one area that we can’t fault Tower of Fantasy for. Its combat is ambitious and generally feels fast and fun, even if its elemental mechanics aren’t quite as notable as those in Genshin Impact.
Multiplayer capability
One of fans’ biggest complaints with Genshin Impact is that its multiplayer features are lacking. They’re not wrong. Multiplayer functionality is limited because Genshin Impact was designed to be a single player game, with the option to reach out to friends or other players for help. Tower of Fantasy is an MMORPG, emphasizing multiplayer mechanics at all times. It’s impossible to choose to play as a single player. This has its upsides and downsides.
There’s obviously more ways to interact with other people. There are also times when you’ll open your menu to look at weapons or equipment, but find that you weren’t as far as you thought from that enemy camp, a red border and muffled combat noises warning you that your character’s in trouble. Having to find a safe space each time to look at a menu, and there are loads of them, can get frustrating, fast. That’s part of playing in a shared world. In this aspect, it’s impossible to compare the two games or say that one is better. They’re designed differently.
Amount of content
Hotta studio attempted to correct Genshin Impact fans’ boredom with as many game play modes and features as possible: multiple types of dungeons, puzzles and environmental challenges, relics which allow you to interact with the world in even more ways, two gear systems to boost your character’s power, PvP, vehicles, cooking, the list could go on and on. But while Tower of Fantasy provides quantity, and it gives it to you fast, it loses focus on its quality. The puzzles are simpler than Genshin’s, requiring you to stop and think a problem through less frequently. Relics might only be used once or twice after being found in its dungeon. And having both matrices and equipment didn’t fix the numerous problems with Genshin Impact’s artifact system–there’s just more to manage.
The gacha system
Tower of Fantasy was quickly labeled as “generous.” Players celebrated in the chat saying they’d pulled two or three SSR weapons from the gacha pool in one day, without spending a dime. Certain gacha banners have a guarantee of pulling an SSR weapon within a certain amount of pulls. That threshold can be met quickly from the free currency rewarded for gameplay, and, unlike Genshin Impact, obtaining an SSR weapon does not reset this pity counter. If that wasn’t enough, the game gives you your choice of an SSR weapon simply for reaching a certain level of its newcomer event.
However, one of Genshin Impact’s most unique qualities is the way it balances its characters. Damage dealers like Ganyu, released in Version 1.2, and Hu Tao, released in Version 1.3, still remain top tier characters. And because of the way Genshin’s combat system is structured, some four star support characters can be just as valuable as the five star damage dealer in your team. Will power creep ever come to Genshin? It’s certainly still possible, but it doesn’t feel like it has yet nearly two years after release. Will Tower of Fantasy’s weapons remain as evergreen in the meta? No one can guarantee that.
Story
If Genshin Impact’s Inazuma Arc was rushed, then Tower of Fantasy’s introduction was a breakneck sprint. Trying to stop, read, and get to know the lore of the world felt impossible at that rate. Characters flew in and out of the story frequently, making them hard to identify with. And, unlike Genshin Impact, there are no additional character stories (at least for the main characters involved in its introduction) to explain anything about them. Immersion was also frequently broken by voice lines not matching the onscreen text or being missing entirely. It retrospectively made Hoyoverse’s decision to delay its Version 2.7 update by three weeks wise, presumably to ensure that the standards of quality we’ve grown accustomed to from Genshin Impact were met.
Which game do you think is better? Let us know in the comments. You can read more of our coverage of both: How much have I spent on Genshin Impact? – How to check your purchases and Best early game Tips & Tricks for Tower of Fantasy here at Pro Game Guides.
