As Someone Who Dislikes Genshin Impact, It's A Shame Tower Of Fantasy Flopped

I’m bummed that Tower of Fantasy didn’t take off. On paper, it’s exactly my kind of game — an anime open world RPG that scratches the Genshin Impact itch but ditches the character-swapping in favor of a true MMO experience.

Now don’t get me wrong, Genshin Impact is gorgeous. It’s incredibly polished and basically the gold standard when it comes to these kinds of games (alongside Wuthering Waves). But I’ve never been into the whole character-swapping mechanic. Controlling four different characters in a fight — each with their own skills and cooldowns — just feels clunky to me. I’d rather stick with one main character and switch weapons to keep things interesting. 

In Tower of Fantasy, you get to create your own custom character and stick with them the entire time. You can “cosplay” as Simulacra — those pre-designed heroes — but it’s just for looks. Your avatar is still you, and that sense of identity matters. Plus, combat is all about swapping weapons, not characters, which I like better.

There’s the MMO aspect too. Unlike Genshin Impact, which is mostly a single-player experience with some optional co-op, Tower of Fantasy features a shared world. You can run into other players organically, take down world bosses together, or just chat.

But things just didn’t work out. Tower of Fantasy peaked on Steam with around 7,164 concurrent players back on October 23, 2022. These days, it’s hovering around 370 average players — and that’s down from 411 just last month. Mobile’s not looking much better either: Google Play shows about 276,000 monthly active users, which is a 10% drop from May. And Steam reviews are stuck at “Mixed” overall, with recent ones dipping to just ~41% positive.

It seems like Hotta Studio has been improving the game and is still pushing updates, but it’s probably too late. So I sit here, continuing to wait for Blue Protocol: Star Resonance — the anime MMORPG of my dreams. (Not you, Crystal of Atlan.)