Tower of Fantasy

rhinohelix

rhinohelix

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Chris said:
Played a bunch more to lv25.

Starting to unlock some fun stuff, like the motorbike and hoverboard. There's more effort than Genshin in movement and combat mechanics, it's just not as smooth and lacks elemental reactions.

The world and character designs are very uninspiring, Genshins art direction is stunning and it's full of puzzles which this game seems to lack.

It's a decent enough scanvger hunt and is holding my interest for now. I don't yet know why I would play this over Genshin's new region in 10 days.
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I played to about the same place Lvl 25/26. There are all kinds of puzzles in the ruins and a few out in the open world. The UI is obviously made to some low, mobile device standards; so many useless onscreen menus. I was trying to solve a puzzle in one of the Banges ruins involving a box with a laser that needs to go on a moving platform. "It would be great if there was a drop button for this" One had randomly appeared in the UI, on the other side of the screen, with no text, just icons. Hurray!
For some reason, I did something and now my default font size for chat in ENORMOUS at 4K. Of course, no setting for chat font size, because why would you need something like that?

I never considered playing Genshin because it looked like a pretty attempt to extract money from whales. This again is more of the same but I do enjoy the combat and the exploration. Marvel Heroes broke me of spending money on games like these but the FTP drops haven't been too bad so far, I have Samir and Coco for SSRs (Samir's weapons is dual volt pistols and is a premier DPS character, or so I hear, and Coco has a frost staff, and is heals/support but the weapon does good damage this early in the game).

I hate jump puzzles of all types, including the ones where you have to jump from a place to get a thing. Not too many puzzles but a shitload of jumping and climbing. Lots of busy time bs going on.

It's not as bad as I thought, I would agree with Chris its a fun way to kill time. I have no previous time investment in Genshin to draw me away, though. Who knows how long it will last? When you start talking about needed multiple copies of SSRs, which you only get from x number of pulls, I bet the non-paid progression slows way down.
 
Chris

Chris

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rhinohelix said:
I never considered playing Genshin because it looked like a pretty attempt to extract money from whales.
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Just play Genshin then, it has identical monitisation to this game - except you have 2 years worth of content to get free currency from.
 
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Zindan

Zindan

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Chris said:
Played a few hours...

It's just a less polished and confusing version of Genshin Impact in a bad setting.

The story is fucking awful and even though you can skip, you still have to follow the glowing dots around. In Genshin I remember that they actually dump you a few zones away from the first city so you can get right into exploring before the cut scenes start.

Character creator was amazing, but then you just play as the gatcha characters? Is there a disadvantage to just playing as your own character? It's not intuitive at all, I feel like you should have a bonus for equipping the gatcha character
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No need to ever use the skin that comes with a Weapon. Later in the game, you'll be able to activate a passive (very minor buff to some aspect of the game) via building rapport with the persona linked to the Weapon. Not sure if the skin would then need to used, but I doubt it.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Chris said:
Just play Genshin then, it has identical monitisation to this game - except you have 2 years worth of content to get free currency from.
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Even with 2yrs of content to do in Genshin, you will never, ever, ever get enough currency to match the amount of currency the ToF offers in its initial release. Ever.

The game is ok, but to compare it to Genshin just shows how large a difference there is in their respective budgets, and the capability of their art teams. The gacha system in ToF, and its generosity in giving out currency is superior than Genshin. Combat is more fun as well, though I guess you could say it lacks the potential complexity of elemental reactions. The daily story / level is ok too, now that I've been playing everyday. You get into a flow of doing Story / Vitality / Exploration that fits will with the current content. Pretty sure we'll run out of the ability to hit the daily lvl cap long before we hit day 88.

They have some serious server issues though, which is sad considering they allow so many ppl to be in the same channel. Getting more than 30ppl at a boss usually kills server performance such that it becomes a laggy mess (has nothing to do with how many players are viewable, its server side), and the bosses are worth doing even if you don't have the Type 3 chips to open the chest since you get a currency you can use to buy useful upgrade materials.
 
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Chris

Chris

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Zindan said:
Even with 2yrs of content to do in Genshin, you will never, ever, ever get enough currency to match the amount of currency the ToF offers in its initial release. Ever.
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That isn't true.

I literally just played through Genshin's Inuzama and Chasm updates from last year and got enough free currency for Gatcha pity in both the temporary and permanent Gatchas. That's 1/2 of the game at most and I didn't even get everything. There's the start of another update like that in 10 days though it'll take a few months to fully roll out.

ToF so far I got Gatcha pity once for the permanent Gatcha (and the extra one they give you at 30 pulls) but for the temporary Gatcha (Nemesis at the moment) you don't get currency for it unless you trade in those cube things right?

If you want to call them similar that's fine, but I'm not seeing how ToF is significantly better in terms of free premium stuff.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Yea, I wouldn't roll on the red banner unless you really want Nemesis (good character though), since you'll end up with less pulls there than on the gold banner since the game doesn't throw red orbs at you like it does with gold. People in the guild I'm in are saying you can get 240+ pulls on gold banner by doing current content, not sure if they meant being very min/max on completion stuff though. You can also factor in the black orb banner (no pity) which has a low chance at SSR's... can get many more chances there.

Edit: Speaking of the black orb banner, today I did a 10 gold pull and got Zero. Then did 30 black orbs pulls and got another Zero. Ez pz.
 
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Chris

Chris

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Zindan said:
Yea, I wouldn't roll on the red banner unless you really want Nemesis (good character though), since you'll end up with less pulls there than on the gold banner since the game doesn't throw red orbs at you like it does with gold. People in the guild I'm in are saying you can get 240+ pulls on gold banner by doing current content, not sure if they meant being very min/max on completion stuff though. You can also factor in the black orb banner (no pity) which has a low chance at SSR's... can get many more chances there.

Edit: Speaking of the black orb banner, today I did a 10 gold pull and got Zero. Then did 30 black orbs pulls and got another Zero. Ez pz.
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I did get a second King from the Black Orbs to be honest.

Got King x2, Meryl, Tsubasa and chose Samir from the reward box. Almost got enough to buy a copy of one of those, I guess that should go to Samir?

Using Samir/King/Meryl.

Got lv30 and saw some more of the multiplayer stuff which is decent and much better than in Genshin.

What should I be spending black cubes on? Got enough for two pulls on Red Orbs, but there's those chips to augment weapons too. Sounds like you think put them into Gold Orbs?
 
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velk

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Zindan said:
Even with 2yrs of content to do in Genshin, you will never, ever, ever get enough currency to match the amount of currency the ToF offers in its initial release. Ever.
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What does this actually *mean* ? 2 years of Genshin content will get you a smaller number of the slot machine items than the 'initial release' of ToF ?

That seems.. implausible. Or do you mean it would get you a smaller percentage of the total amount of collectible content available in each game ? That also seems a bit dubious, but maybe.

Or do you mean you get to pull the lever on the slot machine more ?

A quick glance shows that both have drop rates in the 'Yarrr, whale harpooning is our business model' range, at 0.6% and 0.75% respectively, does ToF have a lot less top tier stuff ?
 
Chris

Chris

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velk said:
What does this actually *mean* ? 2 years of Genshin content will get you a smaller number of the slot machine items than the 'initial release' of ToF ?

That seems.. implausible. Or do you mean it would get you a smaller percentage of the total amount of collectible content available in each game ? That also seems a bit dubious, but maybe.

Or do you mean you get to pull the lever on the slot machine more ?
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These games tend to have multiple slot machines, typically:
#1) Trash slot machine that typically gives farmable items.

#2) Permanent slot machine that gives old characters.

#3) Temporary slot machine that gives the new character released this month.

Genshin gives you lots of free currency for type #2 and #3 and while you get more of type #2 it's not actually by much. Genshin doesn't have type #1 at all.

ToF gives you an incredible amount of type #1 currency to the point that you may actually hit the 0.01% chance of something good, and type #2 is in line with Genshin. It doesn't give out type #3 at all though, you can buy a little with ingame currency but not enough.

velk said:
A quick glance shows that both have drop rates in the 'Yarrr, whale harpooning is our business model' range, at 0.6% and 0.75% respectively, does ToF have a lot less top tier stuff ?
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This is why "pity" or bad luck protection is important. Really it's all about getting enough for ~70 pulls to force a top teir item drop. Both games have this.

The reality is that in ToF I can't hit pity for this month's character unless I spend, but in Genshin I did hit pity for last month's character for free and there's a decent chance of getting next month's character depending on how much currency the new continent and events brings.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Chris said:
I did get a second King from the Black Orbs to be honest.

Got King x2, Meryl, Tsubasa and chose Samir from the reward box. Almost got enough to buy a copy of one of those, I guess that should go to Samir?

Using Samir/King/Meryl.

Got lv30 and saw some more of the multiplayer stuff which is decent and much better than in Genshin.

What should I be spending black cubes on? Got enough for two pulls on Red Orbs, but there's those chips to augment weapons too. Sounds like you think put them into Gold Orbs?
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No need to use both King and Meryl, as they are both Shieldbreakers, but Meryl will give you a bit of protection via shielding (I think, as I don't have her). Look at Tsubasa's passive, I think she has a team DMG buff, which is why she is still used in CN. Getting a c1 Samir will increase her dps by a modest amount too, but it seems rng on whether those extra explosions proc (nice when they do). I would probably run Meryl/Samir/Tsu, or King/Samir/Pepper where you think heals are needed vs. shielding.

The Dark Crystals seem to be a varied currency as you can use them on more than just banners, with some stuff being good, like getting a 10 pull on the Matrix banner, but I mainly use them to finish off 10 pulls on gold banner. Still not sure which weapon to get from the SSR box, I have a Fire team now (King, Zero, and Cobalt once she is released... on a limited banner at first, which sucks). I don't really care for Samir's playstyle, so I'll skip an Electro team. If I happen to get Meryl or Tsubasa from rolling, I'll get the other via Box to complete an Ice team (Meryl, Tsu, Coco).

One thing in regards to gacha where I think Genshin is superior is the quality of their 4* characters vs. ToF, even at initial release, though ToF makes maxing out their 4* (SR's) super easy. I'm considering running a max'd out SR team and seeing how they play, probably Echo/Bai/Pepper.
 
Uriel

Uriel

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velk said:
What does this actually *mean* ? 2 years of Genshin content will get you a smaller number of the slot machine items than the 'initial release' of ToF ?

That seems.. implausible. Or do you mean it would get you a smaller percentage of the total amount of collectible content available in each game ? That also seems a bit dubious, but maybe.

Or do you mean you get to pull the lever on the slot machine more ?

A quick glance shows that both have drop rates in the 'Yarrr, whale harpooning is our business model' range, at 0.6% and 0.75% respectively, does ToF have a lot less top tier stuff ?
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One big difference between ToF and Genshin is that in Genshin, the 4*'s include some of the best units in the game still to this day, and the standard pool 5*s are all good, whereas in ToF CN anything but limited units are basically worthless. All those standard pool 5*'s like King, Samir, Meryl get powercrept hard apparently.

I already got bored of this after farming up most of the free pulls and trying stuff out, its just too unpolished to play longer than that for me. If you like the combat check out Honkai.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Uriel said:
One big difference between ToF and Genshin is that in Genshin, the 4*'s include some of the best units in the game still to this day, and the standard pool 5*s are all good, whereas in ToF CN anything but limited units are basically worthless. All those standard pool 5*'s like King, Samir, Meryl get powercrept hard apparently.

I already got bored of this after farming up most of the free pulls and trying stuff out, its just too unpolished to play longer than that for me. If you like the combat check out Honkai.
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Nah, skip Honkai and wait for ZZZ... that seems like a real creative expansion on what Honkai is, imo.
 
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Chris

Chris

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Been playing this every day.

Content time gating is poorly implemented, I shouldn't be in a zone and half the chests are locked, just lock the entire zone.

Level gating was good at first so that I could keep up, but now it's slowed down so much it's starting to suck.

They have us locked to lv40 but the whole map is revealed now so don't know what we are being locked to avoid doing other than exploring twice for the locked chests.

Multiplayer stuff is varied, lots of different kinds of multiplayer activities including PvP.

Combat isn't great though, not a lot of tactics to it at all. It's use skills on CD, spam your best break weapon if they have a sheild, spam your charge or dps weapon otherwise.

World puzzles are very repetitive, it's all "hit this with element or gadget" or "kill guard", very few other types and it's the same stuff everywhere.

I feel like I'm talking myself out of playing it.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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Cap is lvl42 atm, I think they have changed the pacing of Story / Level gating from how it was in CN. Today felt like kinda of a waste. No level up, a few Story missions with the next being in 2.5 days. If I had had the time, I would have 100% Crown, but that takes too long, so I'll wait. They might want to string the Story / lvls out til the current Limited banner is done and they release the next and or the next content "Artifical Island" which has a new world boss that drops what some ppl consider the "best" Matrix set (Samir).

Chris Chris Level to 41 or 42 to unlock Wormhole, its kinda good. The Void and Frontier Clash are also good / fun.
 
Chris

Chris

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Zindan said:
Cap is lvl42 atm, I think they have changed the pacing of Story / Level gating from how it was in CN. Today felt like kinda of a waste. No level up, a few Story missions with the next being in 2.5 days. If I had had the time, I would have 100% Crown, but that takes too long, so I'll wait. They might want to string the Story / lvls out til the current Limited banner is done and they release the next and or the next content "Artifical Island" which has a new world boss that drops what some ppl consider the "best" Matrix set (Samir).

Chris Chris Level to 41 or 42 to unlock Wormhole, its kinda good. The Void and Frontier Clash are also good / fun.
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Are the caps personal?

I am 100% locked to lv40 yet saw a lv42 in PvP.

Seems off that I can't do PvP until max level because I started on Day 2 and perpetually two levels behind.
 
Raes

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The level/story cap is necessary (and still retarded) due to the overtuned (tuned for whales) mob scaling. Even with the cap the scaling is still a pain in the ass if you aren't a whale. It makes the shitty simplistic combat feel even worse, since everything takes too long to kill.

I've spent $16 on this game. I have King, Meryl, Samir, Nemesis, Shiro, Tsubasa, and Coco x2. All my useless SR's except one are max stars. (Every vid/article I've seen says that even maxed out SRs are shit compared to base SSRs, so I don't even get why they exist.) Investing in any of the current SSR's except for Nemesis is a waste since they all get powercreeped to near irrelevance in a few months. It sucks that Samir is the best (only really) dps (especially with Nemesis) since I really don't like her playstyle.

I'm one mat short to get my last armor slot to level 5, and I either have to wait til next week to get more, or slog to Bygone Phantasm level 45 (I'm on 20). (YOU CAN'T EVEN WHALE IT) Everything in this game is a slog, or outright annoying.

This game could have been a slam dunk. How fucking hard is it to outdo GI? Make the combat as decent (or better) and have more endgame shit. Profit.

Which brings us back to the leveling. ToF doesn't seem to actually have an "endgame." All the shit you're doing now is the same shit you'll be doing at max level. They've done everything they possibly can to make levels meaningless.

Considering that ToF's playerbase is also the GI playerbase, when Sumeru releases this game will die.
 
Chris

Chris

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Raes said:
I've spent $16 on this game. I have King, Meryl, Samir, Nemesis, Shiro, Tsubasa, and Coco x2. All my useless SR's except one are max stars. (Every vid/article I've seen says that even maxed out SRs are shit compared to base SSRs, so I don't even get why they exist.) Investing in any of the current SSR's except for Nemesis is a waste since they all get powercreeped to near irrelevance in a few months. It sucks that Samir is the best (only really) dps (especially with Nemesis) since I really don't like her playstyle.
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I spent nothing have have Kingx2, Meryl, Samirx2, Tsubasa and Zero. Working on a F2P Nemesis pull. Also almost maxed SRs.

I can only use 3 characters so why exactly am I farming for more pulls?

The characters don't even feel that good to use, i suspect that the SR electric spear character I started with would probably play better than and do more damage than Samir. King hits so weak on single targets, I feel like Meryl does more damage and breaks sheilds faster.

Genshin feels much better when you are getting by with Xiangling, but then you get Hu Tao and HOLY FUCK HELLO FIRE DAMAGE. It's fun using the base characters but there's a reason to save for the top tier ones, even though you don't need them.

And you need 8 characters for endgame, so you get to use everyone.

The combat feels so much different and more tactical in Genshin with each character too, they all play different and combo in different ways.
 
Raes

Raes

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Chris said:
The characters don't even feel that good to use, i suspect that the SR electric spear character I started with would probably play better than and do more damage than Samir. King hits so weak on single targets, I feel like Meryl does more damage and breaks sheilds faster.
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I think King hits faster and has better aoe than Meryl. Not sure though. You kinda need both though, because of the stupid random resistances on mobs in certain activities. According to all info from the CN version SRs are not even close to SSRs period.

So much of the shit in this game is designed badly. Or for whales. Like the specific weapons damage bonuses in Bygone Phantasm. Don't have that weapon? Too bad.
 
Zindan

Zindan

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From what I can see, the SR characters may only be I the game to pump your CS to unlock higher lvl Suppressors. They are pretty weak though, but do have different play styles.

Meryl vs. King, great to have both, but I think Meryl might be better Burst dmg, her Discharge can hit like a truck, while King has better sustained dps.

I also dislike Samirs play styles, mainly due to her dash atk putting her in the air...it's annoying. I took Tsubasa for my SSR box, and she is good and will be ideal at c3. The combat system is 100% about rotating Discharge atks.

Getting Coco to c1 is amazing since her dodge heal regen wpn energy enough to have both other wpns rdy to pop. Getting that Pepper Matrix set is also really nice to boost the energy generation on one of your dps characters.

Right now I'm trying to get used to that whole rotation, currently have King c3, Coco c2, Samir c1, Zero c1, Huma c2, Meryl c0, Tsubasa c0, and all SR at c6. Mainly use King, Coco with Samir, but trying to switch out Samir for Tsubasa.
 
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