Tower of Fantasy (Chinese: 幻塔; pinyin: Huàn Tǎ; lit. "Fantasy Tower") is a free-to-play open-world action game created by Hotta Studio, a company owned by Perfect World based in Suzhou. The game takes place on a planet named Aida, which was damaged by a disaster that nearly destroyed human life and changed the planet’s environment. A radioactive energy called Omnium spreads across Aida. Players take on the role of an explorer who travels through the world, battles mutated creatures, and fights dangerous groups while progressing through the story.
Gameplay
Tower of Fantasy is a 3D action role-playing game where players explore an open virtual world from a third-person perspective. The player controls a customizable character who interacts with other characters, collects items, and moves through the world by running, jumping, sprinting, climbing, swimming, or using vehicles. Most movements, except sprinting, use a stamina bar that slowly fills up again after being used. As the player completes tasks and advances in the story, they earn experience points that increase their character's level and improve their combat abilities.
Players fight enemies using different weapons in a fast-paced combat system. Up to three weapons can be equipped and switched at any time. Each weapon has basic and charged attacks, and jumping allows aerial attacks that use stamina. Ranged weapons have automatic targeting and aimed attack modes. Weapons also have a special skill that requires time to cool down. When attacking enemies, unused weapons build up energy, and switching to them releases a powerful attack. To avoid enemy attacks, players can dodge, but this uses stamina. Dodging just before an enemy attack triggers "Phantasia" mode, which freezes time and enemies nearby for a short time, fully charging alternate weapons for a powerful attack opportunity.
Weapons come in different types and have three roles: offense, defense, or support. Each weapon has a base damage value, an elemental attack type (flame, ice, altered, volt, or physical), a stat that affects how well it breaks shields, and a stat that determines how quickly it charges energy. Elemental attacks can be activated by charging an attack and may apply special effects to enemies. Combining weapons with certain roles creates "Weapon Resonance," which gives the player extra abilities. Some weapons, called "Simulacrum," are digital versions of former users. These weapons can be upgraded to transform the player into the Simulacrum character, granting unique abilities. Upgrading Simulacrum also unlocks story content about their characters.
As a "shared world" game, players on the same server can meet other players in the same world. The game allows cooperative play where up to four players can team up to explore, complete missions, or fight world bosses. It also includes competitive play, such as duels in open-world combat or arena battles in a mode called "Apex League," where players can earn rewards by climbing a leaderboard.
Plot
In the year 2653, a comet named Mara is discovered. Inside the comet, scientists find a large amount of a powerful energy called Omnium. To capture the comet and use this energy, the Tower of Fantasy is built. However, five years after the tower is completed, a powerful explosion of Omnium energy spreads across planet Aida, causing great harm to human life. People survive because of special devices called "suppressors" that help reduce the harmful effects of the radiation. A scientific group named Hykros is created to help humans adapt to the radiation and learn more about Omnium. Opposing Hykros is a secret group called the Heirs of Aida, which believes Omnium causes suffering and tries to stop all research on it. At the same time, life on the planet slowly changes, becoming more aggressive and stronger, which threatens the survivors. About 50 years after the disaster, the player is exploring a broken building when they are attacked by dangerous creatures. The player survives but their suppressor loses all energy, causing them to pass out. The player wakes up at a safe place called the Astra Shelter, where they meet its leader, Zeke, and his sister, Shirli, but cannot remember their past.
Development
Tower of Fantasy started being made in 2018. Producer KEE said that in 2017, more online games began calling themselves open world games. This helped make the idea of open world games more well-known and led to the creation of such games. Because of this, Hotta Studio decided to create an open world game.
On October 28, 2020, Tower of Fantasy had its first test. The production team got many comments from players. KEE said that players liked the overall design of the first test, but the game's quality did not meet their expectations. KEE also said, "Games that have not been tested by players are in a 'quantum state,' which means their quality could be very high or very low." After this, the team decided to improve the game's quality. They made a list of changes called "baldness list 1.0," which includes hundreds of items that need to be fixed or improved.