Of all the games that blew up during the height of the pandemic, one of the biggest was, inarguably, Genshin Impact. Genshin Impact introduced a gigantic swath of cool-looking, memorable characters—which often were the source of viral gags. And it did so while combining the mechanics of a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) with the classic Legend of Zelda-type adventure game. Genshin is still very much alive and well, but soon, there’s going to be a new competitor in town: Tower of Fantasy. And you can already pre-order it.
Tower of Fantasy will be launching on PC, iOS, and Android, so pre-registration is occurring through the usual channels. There’s a full rundown of links on the game’s website, but all you need to do to pre-register (on your phone or tablet) is to find and “download” the game on the App Store (for Apple friends) or Google Play (for Android friends). If you want to play the game on a PC, you can add it to your wishlist on Steam or the Epic Store. However, I’m pretty sure wishlisting doesn’t give you the pre-registration awards.
Free Stuff!
Because, yes, there are tons of rewards for pre-registering. Tower of Fantasy set up a gift tier system, which would offer more rewards when more people pre-registered. And now, enough players have pre-registered (meaning THREE MILLION FREAKING PEOPLE) that the highest tier has been unlocked. The rewards include an outfit, an avatar, and a ton of items (whose importance I do not understand yet, but seem nice. Like the “Beauty Restore Voucher.” I’d have that. Why not?).
Is ‘Tower of Fantasy’ like ‘Genshin Impact’?
Tower of Fantasy is drawing comparisons to Genshin Impact for a couple of reasons: it uses an anime aesthetic, it seems to be open world, it was developed by a Chinese studio, it’s an MMORPG, and it’s designed to be played on mobile devices. So…honestly…some pretty major similarities. (The MMORPG + mobile combination is what drove me away from Genshin. Yeah, yeah, it’s on PlayStation now, I know. I’m just a lame hermit millennial who likes playing my action games alone—unless it’s Pokémon Unite for some reason.)
The biggest differences seem to be that Tower of Fantasy’s gameplay places a lot of importance, customizability, and flexibility on its weapons—which you can equip three at a time. In fact, its gacha mechanics focus on weapons rather than characters (AND CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERS). And, intriguingly, the “MM” part of the “MMORPG” is part of a “shared world” mechanic. If you happen upon a baddie in an area, and someone else across the world also happens upon that baddie at the same time, you just fight him together. Oh, and also, despite its name, Tower of Fantasy has some major sci-fi elements.
(featured image credit: Hotta Studio)
