This was bound to happen, right? Tower of Fantasy has found some success Globally since launching – and despite its issues with hacking and exploits, it is still a relatively fun game.
But with its success, I’ve noticed a growing number of players comparing other games – like Arknights Endfield and Wuthering Waves to it. Which honestly leaves me wondering why people do this to themselves and the games they want to play. We all know Tower of Fantasy is different to Genshin, and Genshin is different to Breath of the Wild.
Both Arknights Endfield and Wuthering Waves – along with many other upcoming open-world Anime RPGs will be different to Genshin and Tower of Fantasy, and neither game’s success rides on how similar, or dissimilar either game is.

One thread in specific caught my attention over on Reddit, which has the OP asking what Wuthering Waves can do to make sure it doesn’t make the same mistakes Tower of Fantasy has. And I found some of the replies to be interesting.

The top reply was made by someone with an actual brain for a change. Who goes on to note we shouldn’t be comparing an MMO to a non-MMO, something people continue to do every day with Genshin and Tower of Fantasy.

The next highest rated comment is also fairly sensible. “Don’t be published by Perfect World.” – That’s definitely a plus.

“Don’t market it as an X Killer.” That’s probably some of the best advice you can be given. Us labeling each game as the “X game killer” leaves us open for disappointment, and expectations that will just never be met.

“Don’t plagiarize assets and/or the trailer” – well, Kuro Game are definitely pros at making their own, so that isn’t an issue.

And then.. the most interesting thing happened. Something I’m sure a lot of you wouldn’t expect. People began fighting amongst one another. Genshin fans started posting comments about Tower of Fantasy. Tower of Fantasy fans started claiming it’s going to be one of the biggest success stories in years.
And then thread imploded onto itself. What was a thread dedicated to what upcoming games could do different – what they could learn from the mistakes that Tower of Fantasy has made, instead, became a cesspool of hate. Pointing fingers. And copium.
It doesn’t matter whether you think Tower of Fantasy will be as successful, less successful, or more successful than Genshin Impact. If it dies, it dies. If it breaks records, then good for it.

But my god people need to stop A.) Labeling everything as a goddamn clone of something else, B.) Labeling everything as “the next game killer,” and C.) Thinking their opinion is fact, when it isn’t.

What Wuthering Waves can do to make sure it doesn’t make the same mistakes is easy:
Be original. Imitation is one thing, blatant theft is another. Adequately market your game. If you don’t, nobody will know about it. And release your game when you’re ready. Otherwise it’ll be filled with bugs, exploits, hacks and it will die off before it ever has a chance of succeeding.
That’s all they need to learn from Tower of Fantasy’s mistakes.

Tower of Fantasy recently opened pre-registrations for the upcoming Global release in the 3rd Quarter of 2022, but.. things aren’t looking too good. Ranging from their monthly earnings, to the removal of the booba slider in the most recent Beta test.

Let’s start this off by taking a look at how Tower of Fantasy is doing.

According to statistics online, over the course of the last month, Tower of Fantasy made a grand total of $2 million dollars on iOS devices. That doesn’t seem too bad, right? Given this is a stunning new Anime MMO Gacha game?
But let’s compare that to a few other Gacha games to get a more accurate gauge. Note: Each of the following games’ earnings are taken from the last month.
Uma Musume made over $43 million dollars. Fate/Grand Order made $39 million dollars. Heaven Burns Red earned $16 million dollars. Azur Lane made $6 million dollars. Blue Archive made $5.5 million dollars.

Tower of Fantasy can’t even break into the top 10 most played, nor highest grossing Gacha games at any point. This month, last month. It can’t make it into the top 20 – and I’m assuming struggles to make it into the top 50, being overtaken by games that have been out so long they look like they were developed for a platform built last generation.

When the Global release was announced to be entering pre-registration, almost nobody noticed. Disregarding their Discord community – almost nobody even knows that the game exists. Let alone is aware the game is about to launch in the next month or two. Yet online, news broke that Aether Gazer was releasing Globally, and social media went wild with praise and anticipation.

Given how many times I’ve covered Tower of Fantasy, and the fact that I’ve generated millions of views to my videos on the game, I honestly would’ve anticipated more.. well, anticipation. Yet we’ve seen players more excited for Counter:Side, for Artery Gear Fusion, and in the last few days, for Aether Gazer.

Now, I fully understand why there is so much hate for Tower of Fantasy online. I did a video exposing just SOME of the things they’ve done – not only abuse, but plagiarism, theft. This is disregarding the cataclysmic issues they had during the Chinese launch. Players just don’t trust the devs, nor the publishers. And given their abysmal earnings, it looks like they’re trying to release as fast as they can over here to recoup some of their no doubt exorbitantly expensive game.
Honestly, Tower of Fantasy isn’t in a good spot right now. Pre-registrations are moving up slowly. Rewards for pre-registering aren’t even very good. The game is a lot of fun, but hardly anyone knows about it, nor wants to play it. And did you hear the most recent Beta test had the Booba slider removed? This was confirmed by so many players online. It’s unconfirmed whether this is a permanent removal or just temporary. But that’s a pretty big blow to customization if they opt for the former.

Tower of Fantasy is a stunning upcoming Anime MMORPG releasing in the very near future. With a gorgeous Anime aesthetic, fast-paced action combat and a vast open world to explore, Tower of Fantasy looks to be one of the biggest releases of 2022. With this in mind, Tower of Fantasy has opened pre-registration for multiple major gaming platforms. You can pre-register for the game via Steam, Epic, the Apple App Store, and Google Play Store.

For those of you wanting to play Tower of Fantasy via Steam, you can do so by clicking the link below.

For those of you wanting to play Tower of Fantasy via the Epic Games Store, you can do so by clicking the link below.

For those of you wanting to play Tower of Fantasy via the Apple App Store, you can do so by clicking the link below.

For those of you wanting to play Tower of Fantasy via the Google Play Store, you can do so by clicking the link below.

“The perfect MMO.”
This is something we’re all searching for. A game that is so undeniably, so absolutely consuming for us that we become infatuated with it. Incapable of doing anything else.
That ain’t Tower of Fantasy.
But of the 60 odd hours I’ve played of it, I daresay it came pretty close. For a week or two.
Today, I want to give my impressions over the course of a 3-week period spent in Tower of Fantasy. Logging in almost every day, to make sure I didn’t fall behind.

Tower of Fantasy is an MMO. The devs list the game as an “online action RPG,” just like Lost Ark and just like Blue Protocol.
Yet while traversing the large, open world you’ll come across countless players out questing. Dueling. Chatting. Role-playing, if they’re into that. And given this is an Anime game, you best bet there’s gonna be some serious ERP going on.
Mrs Stix and I save that for the bedroom. Or sometimes the computer room when we turn our cams off.

There are an enormous number of different channels for players to log into. Channels serve as a means with which to segregate players – preventing too many people from gathering in the same instance of the game, subsequently overcrowding and likely causing severe latency issues.
You’re capable of transitioning between channels easily enough. Mrs Stix and I had to utilize this feature several times to find players to engage world bosses with. And world bosses were utter chaos. In the best kind of way.
You had 10, 20 players or more all showing just how bad we are at group content, engaging the boss without a healer, dying to every mechanic, pulling it outside of its attack range and resetting it.
These fights would last 10 minutes. 20 minutes. Would be comprised more of walking back to the boss than actually hitting it. Again, chaos. Thankfully we always had our trusty dedicated healer Hikari, and other guild members to keep us alive while we mindlessly DPS’d.
Typically, players kept to themselves outside of content that required cooperative play. The majority of players I saw out in the world were too busy doing their own thing to really concern themselves with me. Which was understandable. I hate having to socialize with people as well. Like, what do we talk about? The weather?

Thankfully, the game doesn’t entirely penalize you for wanting to play by yourself. There are a lot of activities – including the main story, that are done exclusively by yourself. With varying degrees of difficulty – that rely solely on your own abilities. Or lack thereof. Hey, I’m not judging you. Unless you’re in my group. In which case, know that I’ll be judging you.. silently.
And while you’re capable of participating in a lot of content solo, there’s just as much if not more content available to you as part of a group. Seriously.
The majority of it is instanced content that you either queue for, enter with a group, or tackle solo. Generally, content consists of fighting boss monsters, waves of enemies, solving puzzles, or clearing small dungeons with a mixture of all of the above.

Except PvP. PvP is the one type of instanced content that completely disregards everything else. PvP – at least from what I experienced – involves equipping whatever weapons allow for optimal CC-cycling, and locking players with as much crowd control as possible to inhibit their movement. And fun.
Which brings me back to the good ‘ol days of RMD or RMP in WoW. Goddamn I hated being Kidney Shot into Cyclone into Polymorph. Anyone that played that in 3s deserves to have someone pee in their coffee.
I think PvP really shines when you allow for additional players to participate together. Doing 1v1 matches – which is the only type of PvP currently available right now is really no different to dueling someone out in the world.
Skill really comes into play when coordinating CC, heals and abilities with another player to really push the boundaries of your composition.
So while I did have some fun – I believe I won 75% of my fights, the PvP seemed too limiting, too small in scale, and ultimately relied too heavily on which weapons you had access to.

Speaking of weapons, I know I’ve mentioned it multiple times thus far. You can use the term “weapon” or “hero” interchangeably here, and I’ll attempt to explain it as simply as I can.
There is a Gacha system present within Tower of Fantasy. The Gacha system works the same way as it works in every other Gacha game. You have a currency, and you use that currency to roll on characters.
Characters have their own unique personalities. They have their own strengths and weaknesses. Their own weapon types. Their own statistical advantages that they provide, their own elemental affinity, meaning they are much more powerful overall than non-character specific weapons you obtain. Which we’ll just refer to as “common gear.”
You can equip up to a maximum of 3 weapons, and subsequently weapon types at any given time. Weapons like spears, katanas, bows or staves. Each type of weapon excels at different things, fitting its own unique archetype.
As an example, one weapon type might excel at AoE while another is more suited to single-target damage. One can heal, and another might deal elemental damage. Possessing such a large array of different weapons means you’re never locked into a single class – opening up a world of countless, endless styles of play and builds.
You are required to upgrade your gear, and as you continue to upgrade things get much more expensive, and materials become much more difficult to obtain. So it’s best you focus on what weapons, and what style of play you want to pursue in the short-term so you don’t end up severely limited down the line.

While we’re on the topic of weapons, combat in Tower of Fantasy utilizes a hybrid action combat system. Meaning you can freely attack – use your abilities without a target. However if there is a target present, you’ll begin to automatically lock on to said target.
I found this to be a little awkward at times, when there were multiple trash enemies around and I wanted to simply kill the Elite monster I was after and move on, yet repeatedly locked on to the trash around before finally engaging the monster I was there for.
Yet at the same time, I found it very useful when at a distance from an enemy, as it allowed me to lock on with my spear or sword and grapple directly to it.
You are capable of cycling through enemies with the tab-key like in traditional tab-target MMOs, but it locks on to the most obscure target in the distance so often that it almost felt easier to just hard-focus the trash you’re already locked with and let it re-adjust accordingly.
The combat is incredibly fast, and arguably, has one of the better systems present within the genre. I feel as though it’s a little stiffer than games like SoulWorker, PSO2 New Genesis or even Genshin Impact or Punishing Gray Raven. As are the character animations, especially when climbing. Which you’ll notice immediately as you begin doing so.
Then again, I’m unaware if 2.0 corrects this or whether it’ll remain a detriment, hindering its potential success.

I know some of you are curious as to the specific rates pertaining to the Gacha system in place, and unfortunately, I can’t give those numbers at present. This was a Closed Beta, and as such, everything is completely subject to change upon its full launch – even in its next test stage if it has one.
This is further made evident by the fact that they didn’t have a fully functional cash shop in place. Either because they’re not sure what specifically they want to have available, or they didn’t want players coitizing them ahead of their release.
Thankfully, regardless of how the cash shop ultimately turns out, you’re capable of earning a lot of premium currency in-game. You’ll find various objects out in the world with which you can interact, that will offer you 2 different types of currency to use to roll for characters.
I believe I did well over 40? 50 rolls in total over my weeks playing the game and – I just need to get this off of my chest right now – I cannot believe I still didn’t get Meryl. I got several Claudia’s. But no Meryl. Why does this game hate me?
Look at Meryl. She’s depressed that I didn’t get her. She’s the only character I didn’t get. She feels left out. So alone. It’s heart-breaking.

This wouldn’t be an MMO without a functional Guild system, right? Given Mrs Stix is going to be no-lifing this when it launches, and I’ll definitely be playing on and off myself, we’ll probably end up making a guild of our own.
Guilds.. well, they’re guilds. They’re called “crews” in this but that sounds stupid. They function as a means with which to.. avoid having to rely on complete strangers if you need to group up and tackle cooperative content.
Otherwise, it functions like any mobile guild system. You can do guild content. Accumulate guild currency. Access a guild store. etc., etc.

Oh, you also get mounts. And can ride around on a hoverboard. Or fly through the air on a jetpack. That’s always kinda cool.

Finally, and what is arguably the most important aspect of the game: You can create your own Waifu. Or husbando. It doesn’t provide the same depth as an Anime game like PSO2 New Genesis, but it offers more than most. Allowing you to create your ideal Waifu for laifu or husbando for.. err… cuddles and moral support?

Ultimately, I had a lot of fun in Tower of Fantasy’s first Global Closed Beta. Playing through the game every day on stream with everyone, slowly exploring the world, unlocking additional story. More characters. New content. Tackling more difficult encounters.
The first week was some of the most fun I’ve had in an MMO in the last year or two. Yet after the first week I began to get locked out of progressing. They have content time-gated, meaning that once you hit a certain point in the story, you cannot progress further until you’ve waited the allotted duration.
Which at times was upwards of 3 days. Meaning I could log in, pursue daily content. Run a few instances. And then immediately log out because there was nothing else to do other than run the same content for little to no reward.
There’s a type of stamina system present: Vitality, that isn’t nearly as limiting as the stamina system found in other Gacha games, as you are capable of replenishing it. But other than repeating the same few instances, I really saw no reason to.
At that juncture, I was left highly disappointed with the game. I don’t like being told I can’t play when and how I want to. And after waiting 3 days to continue with the story, you continue for 20 minutes, and are forced to wait several days more? No thanks.
Removal of this limitation would be such a drastic improvement to the game and my enjoyment of it, but with this in place, and the shear amount of grinding necessary to be competitive, I highly doubt I’ll find myself logging in too often.
Daily, sure, to quickly run what I can, but I’m not a grinder. I have more important things to do with my time. But maybe that’ll change. Maybe I’m just being too picky – but this is my time after all, and like you, I need to decide if it’s worth the investment.

Again, I’ll definitely be playing both the next test phase if there is one, and once it fully launches, but I don’t expect this to be a game I dedicate large portions of my time to. Mrs Stix on the other hand..

Mrs Stix and I have been playing a LOT of Tower of Fantasy. We’ve been streaming it for over 50 hours now, every day, over on Twitch. And we’ve been having more fun in it than in any other MMO released in the last 6 months – Lost Ark, Elyon, New World.
Despite the video I did exposing malpractices that the company behind the game was involved with, I have always been an advocate for the game. Just because I have something negative to say about a topic, doesn’t mean I haven’t, or can’t continue to also say positive things about it.
Things aren’t only black or white. And as such, I’m capable of having and expressing mixed feelings, mixed opinions on a game without hating it. Nevertheless, we’ve had a few recurring questions pop up over our time streaming, and those are questions I want to elaborate on today.

Number 1)

Let’s start off with the most important topic first: Last month I did a video titled “AT LAST! TOWER OF FANTASY GLOBAL + CONSOLE CONFIRMATION!” where I went on to cover several Tweets that were made by both the Global and Japanese Tower of Fantasy Twitter pages.
Unfortunately, I was too overcome with excitement at the time to process the fact that the Japanese Tweet, that went on to confirm they were working on a console release may have been a translation issue.
The Tweet, when translated, read: “It will be played on smartphones & PCs, but the console is under development! We will let you know if there is any progress.”
I know Google Translate isn’t the most reliable of sources, and instead of taking the time to run it through multiple translators, I took to making a video with that single instance as reference.
When running it through a much more reliable translator, DeepL, things read a little differently: “It will be played on phones & PCs, but consoles are under consideration for development! We will keep you updated on any developments!”
For whatever reason, Google had completely omitted the “consideration” term from its translation, leading me to falsely believe that the game was in fact confirmed to be releasing on to consoles.

I have no issue admitting if I’m wrong. I was. I acted in hubris, didn’t verify with multiple sources, and posted a video too quickly. And as a result, there have been a multitude of people that have been lead to believe there is a confirmed release expected for console some day.
I do want to add a little speculation to this, however, as I do believe we can still expect one, given the Japanese Tweet states it is “under consideration,” and according to their Discord, they don’t have plans for a console release “at this time.”
So I apologize for the mistranslation. There is no confirmed console release planned for Tower of Fantasy at present, but I do feel there will be eventually.

Number 2)

When is Tower of Fantasy coming out GLOBALLY? What is the exact release date?
That is the most asked question. By far. We can’t go 2 minutes without having 3 people ask for the exact day of release. And unfortunately, at the same time, that’s the one question that is also impossible to answer.
A Global version of this game is confirmed. We’re playing it on stream every day – it’s translated in English, features English voice acting for various characters. But we have no clear indication of when the game will be launching for us.
What we do know is that Tower of Fantasy is confirmed to be coming out in 2022. This information is publicly available across their social media, their Discord, and can even be found in-game.
They’re very vague concerning “when” in 2022 the game is going to be releasing. Given the Beta lasts for the better half of this month, I guarantee we will not be receiving it in the month of May, and June seems out of the question since they’re going to have a lot of feedback to process.
Which means we’re definitely looking at either the 3rd of 4th quarter of 2022.

Number 3)

Is Tower of Fantasy an MMO? “Why don’t I see other people out in the world with you?”
These are questions we get en masse as well. Yes, this is a full-fledged MMO. We’ve had groups of players on-screen simultaneously, all out in the world. We’ve participated in 7 different world boss fights now, and have had 10, 20 people or more all rushing to engage the boss with us.
Granted, we had to announce there was a boss in world chat so players were actively aware of its presence. We’ve seen players while running around doing the story, while out collecting.
Sure, they haven’t been too common due to the sheer size of the world, and the fact that this is a Beta test. The combination of the two severely limits the frequency with which you’ll actively encounter other players.
But the number of things you can do out in the world, the selection of group content available to you. This is what an Anime MMO released in 2022 should be.

Number 4)

Is there a way to still get into the Closed Beta?
The answer to that, as far as I’m aware, is unfortunately no. The chance to access the Beta test closed a while ago, before the Beta began.
Yes, there was a security breach that allowed players to gain illegal access to the Beta test and I’m unsure of if those accounts were immediately banned after being found out or they were allowed to continue to participate in the Beta.
But legally? No, there should be no way for you to access the Beta if you did not receive official access.

Number 5)

Will there be future Beta tests? Maybe an Open Beta?
That is unconfirmed. If the devs believe they received an adequate amount of feedback over the course of this test phase, then I don’t believe there will be.
However, if they want to test other features, or the 2.0 update for Global players, a 2nd follow-up Closed Beta test might take place.
An Open Beta has not been confirmed, but is definitely a possibility.

And finally, Number 6)

Is Tower of Fantasy a Genshin Impact clone?
The simple answer to that is.. both yes and no.
Yes, there are definitely aspects of Tower of Fantasy that take inspiration from Genshin Impact. The graphical style, the world. But it takes as much inspiration from Genshin as Genshin took from Breath of the Wild.
So while it might be accurate to call it a “Genshin clone,” it would be more accurate to call it “another Breath of the Wild clone.”
Although it does do quite a bit different to Genshin to sufficiently set itself apart.
It’s an MMORPG. Has actual competent multiplayer content. Has significantly better rates on Waifu’s. Has better combat mechanics. More varied content.
Although its animations are definitely worse. I feel the world isn’t nearly as large. The story isn’t as good.
It has its pros and its cons, like every game.

Overall, I hope this answers some questions you might’ve had concerning the game.
Yes, I’m having fun. Yes, Mrs Stix is having fun. Yes, I did a video “exposing” certain aspects of it, but that doesn’t mean I have anything against it. But I do believe players should know the history of a game and its company BEFORE dedicating time to it or spending money on it.
It’s my duty as a content creator and I’d be doing you all a disservice if I chose not to cover it.

After years waiting…. it’s finally here. Tower of Fantasy. Or, well, its first official Closed Beta test is here. Which is more or less the same thing to me – as I’m capable of playing it either way.

I’ve been covering Tower of Fantasy for a while now. Ever since the day it was first announced.
I’ve covered the good, and I’ve covered the bad. Sometimes I’ve gotten flack for being “too positive,” and at other times I’ve been accused of trying to “destroy the game.”
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to appease both types of people. Which is why I’ve continued to do whatever the hell I want when talking about the game.

Today, though, today the game is fully playable. For those of you with access, you should have received the pre-download link via email on the 17th. If you didn’t, then I’d urge you to look for it because without it you won’t be able to play. They use their own custom client, and it’s required to launch the game.

In light of the game moving into its first official Global Closed Beta, the Tower of Fantasy devs have released a large blog post of what to expect.

“Hi, we are Tower of Fantasy Team! We’re in the midst of making intensive preparations for the 1st regional closed beta test (CBT) of our global version. Since Tower of Fantasy confirmed its launch this year, many Wanderers have been showering us with warm support, well wishes, sincere comments and hopes.
All of this inspired us and strengthened our determination to give our future Wanderers a better game.We hope to use this letter to discuss the changes we plan to make in the global version’s 1st closed beta. Of course, the game is still under development, and there will be room for adjustments and optimization.
Still, we sincerely hope you’ll provide us with even more feedback after you’ve experienced the game and help us make Tower of Fantasy even better. “

Striving towards making a better game is never a bad thing. Tower of Fantasy has had its fair share of hiccups since it launched. Plagiarism, asset theft, and general incompetence are some of the more commonly known issues.
But the Global version of the game is different. This version of the game is not the version that China got when it first launched.

“This test will be focused on polishing the following aspects of the game: Equipment Development, Character (Weapon) Stats, and various other gameplay adjustments. We hope to give our Wanderers the best. – Equipment Development – In the Tower of Fantasy system, the Wanderer’s equipment will affect your experience in battle, just like the Wanderer’s weapons, Matrices, player skill, etc. We have adjusted the difficulty to obtain and develop equipment so that you’ll be able to fully enjoy the charm of the equipment system.
This includes improving the drop rate of boxes in the World, improving the base stats provided by enhancing equipment, reducing the randomness of improving stats, etc.Besides that, in conjunction with optimizing equipment development, we have completed a comprehensive optimization of the developmental cost of Characters (weapons) and Matrices. Overall, we hope you’ll be able to fully enjoy the growth system.”

Honestly, rates must’ve been pretty crappy in the Chinese version if they had to manually adjust the difficulty with which you go about obtaining equipment, huh?
But we as Western players aren’t nearly as determined grinders as players in China.
However, they did note they’re working on “reducing the randomness of improving stats.” Is this gonna be another Black Desert with its horrendous RNG gear upgrading? Please no.

“Character (Weapon) Stats – After further evaluation and calculations, we have modified certain Character (Weapon) skills and data in order to maintain fairness in the game. The modifications in this version of the CBT do not represent the final adjustments to the game. We will focus on observing, analyzing, and improving the changes we have made. – Gameplay Adjustments – Besides main missions, other aspects of gameplay in Tower of Fantasy forms an important part of every Wanderer’s life on Planet Aida. This CBT will include detailed adjustments of a few other aspects of gameplay.
For example, to provide a better social experience to all Wanderers, we have updated the Crew system. Besides that, we have updated the difficulty of battles in the Frontier Clash to give all Wanderers more room to maneuver in battle.

One issue players have with games – MMOs specifically, is the sheer lack of difficulty. So it’s good to note they’re updating difficulty in various areas to cater to that.

“Thank you all for taking the time to read this! We hope this letter will give you a better understanding of the optimizations we are carrying out. We would like to take this opportunity to tell you that every Wanderer is participating in and witnessing the development and growth of Tower of Fantasy.
The comments and feedback from every single Wanderer are important to us. Feel free to send them our way via our game communities and Customer Service forums throughout the CBT period. Thank you for your continuous support! We look forward to meeting you in an even better Tower of Fantasy! Sincerely, Tower of Fantasy Team”

So I guess, the purpose of this Closed Beta is to.. actually Beta test several alterations they’re making from the Chinese version to see how Western players respond to it.
Chinese players and Western players differ quite significantly in terms of playstyle, so I think this is a necessary change, one that is definitely warranted.

I’ve always been excited for this game, and I’m no less excited now. Mrs Stix and I both got into the Beta test, and we’ll be happy to see you guys in-game later this week!

Hopefully you guys have fun until then!

Yes it’s finally here. Tower of Fantasy has a confirmed ENGLISH Closed Beta test schedled for next month. After waiting over a year for this.. we’re finally gonna be able to get in and play it.
It’s almost like a dream come true. If you’ve been waiting for this game for as long as I have, then you’re going to be pleasantly surprised with what we have to talk about today.

So, 2 things.
1.) They have an English trailer released for the game.
2.) They have their website open for pre-registration. And yes, as is evident, you can pre-register for PC, because the game is going to be fully playable on PC, and even has a fully integrated UI for PC players.

Pre-registration is currently open and will remain open until the 28th of this month. You can pre-register for iOS, Android or PC. The Closed Beta is going to be available in the US, Canada, Japan, UK, and Germany – which is actually kind of a random assortment of countries if I’m being entirely honest with you.
The Beta test will feature a limited number of slots for players, and players will supposedly be selected at random.

If you’re not excited for this.. then evidently you’re not an Anime fan, because I am. And this cannot come soon enough.
I hope you guys get into the Beta test next month, if not, we’ll be able to play later this year regardless.

“It’s coming globally!”
“No it’s not!”
“Yes it is!”
“No it isn’t!”

That.. has been Tower of Fantasy for the last year. And we can finally say, with 100% unquestionable certainty, that not only is Tower of Fantasy coming out Globally, but it’s also coming to consoles as well.
And I’m going to show you undeniable proof of that.

Today, I want to discuss Tower of Fantasy. Because it’s finally confirmed to be coming to every major platform – and we’re going to be capable of playing it. You and me. Regardless of where we both live.
Before we delve any deeper, though, I do need to preface this by stating that as of a couple days ago, Tower of Fantasy has gotten 2 separate Twitter accounts verified.

The first is the “Tower of Fantasy English Official” – that is in charge of relaying information pertaining to the English release of the game, and “Tower of Fantasy JP,” the Japanese Twitter account for the game.
Which, admittedly, has several times more followers. I’m not sure why that is. Nobody knows about the English version, maybe?

Let’s discuss the console confirmation first.
The Japanese Tower of Fantasy Twitter made a Tweet on February 22nd. It was a basic Tweet with absolutely no information.
A user named “Cardi” went on to ask a question on that Tweet, “Do you have any plans for console release? (Ps4 / ps5 / xbox)” I would’ve assumed the Tweet would simply be ignored. It makes sense to – especially if they have no plans of releasing onto console. Something that they had never even expressed an interest in doing.
They responded to this, though, in a way that nobody anticipated: “It will be played on smartphones & PCs, but the console is under development! We will let you know if there is any progress.”
Yup, and as simply as that, the Japanese Tower of Fantasy Twitter account – which again, is now verified, confirmed that they are currently developing a console version of the upcoming MMO. I never anticipated this.
I don’t think anyone really did. After their setbacks earlier this year, I don’t think anyone foresaw a reality where console players would be capable of playing alongside us PC or mobile players, but here we are.

Concerning the Global release, last month the English Tower of Fantasy Twitter page made a Tweet that reads: “We would like to let everyone know that the international version of ToF is in the works!”

They further elaborated on this when replying to a comment by Christopher: “Happy to see you excited as we have been waiting to share this with our amazing ToF fans!”
It seems as though they’ve had a Global release planned for a while now, and even despite their comment earlier this year concerning their lack of interest in the international market, at least until they had a fully functional, well received product, it seems as though they’ve had a change of mind.
Which only means good things for us.
I’ve been hyping this game ever since it was first announced – both Cryy and I were the 2 first people to cover and express our excitement for it.

Now we have a direct confirmation that not only is the game releasing onto PC and mobile devices, but it’s also releasing on console as well? And given both the PC and mobile platforms have their own respective UIs, it’s no stretch of the imagination to expect the console version to have its own UI as well.
Tower of Fantasy and Hotta – the developers – have crafted a high quality experience for every platform, despite their shortcomings elsewhere.
And the fact that we’re finally getting a 100% confirmed English release to accompany the console release? Is it possible to receive TOO MUCH positive confirmation? Because I fear this has to be accompanied by something negative to restore balance, right?
Are we gonna get a terrible publisher? Is it launching Globally in 2027?
Fortunately, it seems as though Perfect World, the company behind Hotta Studios, will likely be publishing the game over in the West. Thankfully they have a lot of experience with MMOs so it shouldn’t realistically be too bad. Maybe pay-to-win.

As for the full Global release date? That’s also unconfirmed. They noted “soon.” However, “soon” is incredibly vague. “Soon” could be the 2nd quarter of 2022. “Soon” could be 2023.
Honestly I wouldn’t expect it to be too far off given they’ve likely been working on this for a while now.
I do hope to get a chance to Beta test it ahead of its English release, though, because it’s definitely going to need one.

In news absolutely nobody was expecting – seriously, after the monumental failure during its launch month it’d be ludicrous to suspect otherwise, it turns out Perfect World and Hotta Studios have spent time in deep contemplation concerning what having a globally accessible MMO would mean for them.

Money. Ridiculous amounts of money.

So on December 28th I did a video titled “Tower of Fantasy Cancels Global English Release.” That was a video I wasn’t overly thrilled to make as I was genuinely anticipating this game more than almost any other MMO this year.
It made sense, though. Tower of Fantasy was unfortunately an absolute mess. It barely passed as a functional game. They were caught up in a variety of different legal situations due to things like plagiarism – stealing assets from Honkai Impact for their trailers.

But that’s not what we’re here to discuss. They’ve made strides over the last couple months, and are continuing to develop the game. And at their recent investor meeting, Perfect World revealed that they are releasing Tower of Fantasy Globally in 2022. And they are also overhauling it with a 2.0 update.
Which means that we can, I guess, get our hopes up once more. If they manage to somehow let us down a second time though.. I’ll probably cry if I’m being entirely honest. I’ll weep rivers of manly tears.

Now before we go any further I will note that this investor meeting was entirely in Chinese, and as such I’ve been forced to use DeepL to translate it and then pieced together as much of it as I possibly can to present it in an easily digestible format.

Perfect World went on to open by stating that they are still just as focused on making MMOs as ever. They’ve been focused recently on re-adjusting their overseas team and optimizing their domestic teams and projects. They’re working on transforming their company, and Tower of Fantasy is integral to the success of that transformation.
Profit from Tower of Fantasy has reached their expectations – not surpassed, not failed to live up to, but reached their expectations.
They are confident Tower of Fantasy is going to be capable of remaining a long-term competitor for the cross-platform MMO market, with Tower of Fantasy actually breaking a multitude of records for them, and allowing for them to reach a new bracket of players interested in multiplayer, open-world MMOs.
They noted that future projects are going to take advantage of Tower of Fantasy’s successes with Tower of Fantasy essentially being the foundation of an entirely new genre of video games.

They then go on to once again confirm that “An overseas version of Tower of Fantasy will launch this year.”
It’s also confirmed that they plan on allocating additional resources to the game and its development – and that the Global version was never fully called off.
To quote: “Learning from our mistakes, we have reorganized our overseas layout with a regional focus on Canada.”
Whether this means Canada will be the base of operations for the Global incarnation of the game, or Canada is where they plan on releasing the game first remains to be seen, but I’d assume the former.
They continue: “The development path of overseas localization is much more clear, an overseas strategy will be very important, our projects are going to be followed by overseas distribution, from third party publishers first and gradually by ourselves.”
“We are not good enough, but we are working hard.”

Apparently, Tower of Fantasy has had a total of over 10 million active players in its first month of release. I’d like to think that’s at least a little thanks to me, I dunno.
Although they confirmed most of these users weren’t interested in traditional MMOs, and their future titles are going to capitalize on this wave of disinterested players.

Again, at this point through the meeting they stress – once more – that “overseas will be online in the middle of 2022.” This is much less vague and gives us a better idea of when we might see the game realistically.
“The middle of 2022” could of course be anywhere from May through August. Give or take a month or two. They also confirm that much like the Chinese version, the “global, overseas distributed version will be PC + mobile compatible.”
Tower of Fantasy is the only game right now that they’re focusing on releasing Globally. They noted that some of their other Asian inspired games just wouldn’t appeal to overseas players.
“Tower of Fantasy and Million Arthur King are more suitable for globalization, and the first thing to do is have a more suitable product for global distribution.”

“Tower of Fantasy has had a lot of problems since it began its operations, but we’re concerned about the needs of the user, and as such will adopt those needs in the future of our projects and products.”
“With the launch of Tower of Fantasy, we have confidence in the future, and we plan on having a more flexible policy with regards to game development.”

They’ve had some issues with both their company and their titles over the course of 2021, however, while Tower of Fantasy is still far away from being a “great success,” it is nevertheless the direction they want to take the company and the direction they’re looking to take the future of their games.
Tower of Fantasy is the framework for a brand new genre of games, and with the expansion to a Global market, they’re hiring additional staff both within China and overseas to accommodate the increase in workload.

It looks like they’re planning an overhaul for the game in the form of a “2.0 update” as well, with the dev team stating that “although there were many bugs and operational accidents, I still have confidence in the game’s long-term performance, such as version 2.0”
At present, there are 200 people working on Tower of Fantasy, with more being hired on in the near future.

So, to summarize, Perfect World and Hotta are aware they messed up by making the game exclusive to China.
They understand they’ve had a lot of issues, but have been working hard around the clock to remedy said issues in an attempt to get Tower of Fantasy out in 2022 – this year.
Yes, the game will be coming out Globally in 2022, with their headquarters seemingly located within Canada. Or they’re planning on releasing only within Canada. Which wouldn’t make any kind of sense.
They’re hiring additional staff to attempt to make the game better. And are actually working on a “2.0 update” for the game that could drastically overhaul everything.

This all sounds great. However, after their last screw-up I’m going to definitely go into this a lot more cautiously. Am I excited? Definitely. But I’ll remain a little more skeptical this time.
You know what’s most exciting for me, though? This game right here. Which you should totally check out.

A thread was made on both Bilibili and TapTap yesterday from the official developers of Tower of Fantasy. This thread went on to address a few concerns the developers had with regards to rumors, misinformation, and as the title no doubt gave away: An unfortunate announcement pertaining to the Western release of the new MMO.

I’ve been covering this game for almost 2 years now, with anticipation building upon every reveal, every update bringing us one step closer to release. Which is why this is so disappointing to read.
But we’re going to go ahead here and read through the announcement regardless. Because let’s be real for a moment: While they may have canceled the Global release of the game, that doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun playing it in Chinese, and doesn’t mean we won’t still get a release outside of China one day.

“Since the public beta, the official team for “Tower of Fantasy” has gained much more attention than expected, we are aware that we still have many shortcomings, for which we are deeply sorry, and thank the players for their understanding and support.”

And let me just stop there for a moment. The “many shortcomings” is with regards to all of the issues the game has had since launch. The rushed release. The bugs that accompanied the rushed release. “shortcomings” hardly comes close to being accurate, but it’s a decent start.

“Regarding the recent rumor that “it is suspected that the official of Tower of Fantasy leaked identity information to provide foreign players to register”, we checked with TapTap and stated the facts as follows.

The international version of TapTap is the national page of Tower of Fantasy, and the “developer in” logo here refers to the developers of Tower of Fantasy in the domestic version of TapTap, not the official Tower of Fantasy in the international version.
After communicating with TapTap, there is no plan to open an international service for Tower of Fantasy, and related matters will be discussed separately.”

That right there is the confirmation that there will be no international release anywhere in the immediate future. “There is no plan to open an international service for Tower of Fantasy.”
If that isn’t the most depressing way to start 2022, then I don’t know what is.

“The Discord group is not built by the official staff of Tower of Fantasy. The group owner and the user who posted “ID information” in the group are not official staff of Perfect World Games, Tower of Fantasy or TapTap, and no official staff of Tower of Fantasy has ever made any contact with these accounts.
The group’s questionnaire research, player recruitment and other actions are not related to the official Tower of Fantasy.”

I guess it’s worth noting if you weren’t already aware, the Tower of Fantasy Discord is not in fact operated by the official developers, and they wanted to confirm this themselves, due to some confusion on the topic.

“Regarding the video, dynamic and live content released by the B station user contains unverified inaccurate information, we have completed the forensics and will further pursue its responsibility by legal means.
For other people who are still spreading inaccurate information and maliciously smearing Tower of Fantasy and Perfect World Games, please immediately delete the relevant untrue content, we will retain the right to pursue responsibility.”

This is actually a little concerning, but it’s to be expected. Spreading misinformation, even inaccurate information can do a lot of damage to not only a game, but the developer or publisher behind it.
As such, Perfect World Games and the Tower of Fantasy dev-team specifically are going to be seeking legal action against multiple users that have been doing such. So it’s probably best to be careful.

“We once again hope that the majority of players, calmly and rationally judge all kinds of speech, common resistance to disrupt the network public opinion environment, do not believe in rumors, do not spread rumors. If you find similar rumors and suspected infringement account, please contact the official customer service, we will be the fastest speed verification feedback, and players together to maintain a healthy and harmonious network environment.”

Whew. That was quite the information overload. To summarize:

• Tower of Fantasy has gotten quite a bit more popular than Hotta Studio had anticipated – you’re welcome for all the videos I’ve done on the game, Hotta.
• There have been a substantial number of issues that have tanked the overall reception of the game and the score overall, but they’re asking for players to give them time to fix everything.
• They confirmed they have absolutely no interest right now in releasing the game outside of China. Meaning any hope of an English release has been completely shattered. Which likely isn’t their permanent stance, but is still disheartening to learn.
• Players have been spreading misinformation in an attempt to tarnish the reputation of both Hotta and Perfect World Games, and they are seeking legal action against them, along with other players in the future if they continue to do the same.

I’m so gutted that we won’t be getting Tower of Fantasy – at least not for quite a few years. This game is absolutely gorgeous, and looked to provide what a lot of Genshin players were hoping for.
A large, open world with a beautiful Anime aesthetic. Fantastic, fluid combat. Character creation – the ability to customize your character. Story. A functional MMO.
Yet what we got was not only a buggy mess, but a game that we can only play in Chinese.
I guess I’ll keep an eye on Tower of Fantasy moving into the future – because they may surprise us with a Global announcement at any point in the future, and I would urge you all to not write the game off yet.
Remember Lost Ark? We’ve been waiting, what, 6 years for that now?

I have a few other topics concerning Tower of Fantasy I want to cover, and I urge you to check them out as they’re pretty crazy. Otherwise… there are other MMOs to look forward to. Blue Protocol. Noah’s Heart. And others I plan on bringing to all of your attention soon. So keep an eye on the channel for those announcements!