Article by Eryk Katimbang Graphics by Enzo Salvador
September 8, 2022
As the gaming genre progresses to entice its audience with new forms of entertainment, the rivalry between games has become a standard staple for those competing to be the best game on the gaming platform. Genshin Impact, a game released two years ago, stands uncontested in the gaming platform as it was the first game of its kind. With cross-platform gameplay, beautiful graphics, an engaging storyline, and a great aesthetic that pleases many diverse audiences alike, it seems that its reign is nowhere close to being dethroned as the best and most ambitious game of the decade. However, after two years have passed, developers around the world have tried to compete against this gaming giant of a brand in the hopes of becoming the next big hit, with one of these games being Tower of Fantasy.
Tower of Fantasy (ToF) is an online MMORPG that has many similar gameplay aspects as Genshin Impact with many deviating features that concern Genshin’s drawbacks as a game. This allowed ToF to be branded as a “better” version of its supposed predecessor as a fun, interactive, and forgiving game when it comes to progression and in-game generosity. With many perky selling points to its name, many believed that this will be the game that will be the end of the Genshin dynasty, with many dubbing its title the “Genshin-killer”. However, when Tower of Fantasy soon reached its first month, many glaring flaws floated more and more above the surface. Numerous bugs and glitches started to become a problem day by day, with numerous compensations taking place to fix these issues. It’s clear that the people’s expectations soon shattered, and the popularity of the game dwindled as the issues started piling up. Hundreds of players found little to no contentment with the progression after a month’s worth of playing the game, with difficulty spiking by an insurmountable amount after gaining too much experience and progressing too fast. The game’s system couldn’t make the difficulty much greater than it already was and thus resorted to the laziest ways to make in-game challenges more difficult: adding HP to enemies, making challenges extra difficult by making everything too precise, adding unnecessary game mechanics that do not add up to the game’s core gameplay, and leaving a lot of the game’s content harder for those who didn’t spend that much money in the game.
Despite this, the game now stands at a much more manageable pace. Its audience came to accept that while Tower of Fantasy has tried to make itself the best, it was a surefire attempt that earned the respect of many. As such all games, its flaws will not be its end, and Tower of Fantasy may or will remain as a definite competition for cross-platform gameplay, alongside Genshin Impact, Ni-No-Kuni, and Legend of Neverland.
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