In light of ToFs... unique situation (of its own making) I’m separating this review in 3 parts:
Part 1: review of ToF without going into any comparisons with any game
Part 2: Controversies, including how it shot itself in the foot
Part 3: Comparing it to that one game, as a result of the shooting itself in the foot I will mention in Part 2
So…PART 1, the review:
Type: open world, scifi mmorpg gacha.
Brief gacha and fighting overview (I will write more on those below): you snipe for weapons. You can use up to 3 weapons at a time, and switch between them. SR and SSR weapons come with a “face” (think of it as the ghost of the weapons original owner) which you can choose to use instead of the character you created.
Plot
Dystopian future, humans fucked up and the world went to shit. You have amnesia. You are found by cute girl in the boonies, shit happens and you end up in the middle.
The plot… not that good, and some might say I’m being nice. I don’t mean the general gist I wrote above, but the more important execution of it.
VA direction is so-so (EN wise), lines are… weak. I often felt things were going too fast, and also that there wasn’t enough emotions (or good writing) for me to get attached to the characters I should be, or care about what I should care.
But more egregious to the plot, for me, was the presentation. As I will talk about soon, the quality isn’t good. Its rough and clunky. They use 3D models for cutscenes (as opposed to gachas who use 2D on those) and the quality detracts from the immersion. Eyes look a little too dead and motion is too clunky, making it marginally better only when we are dealing with a character that barely moves. Case in point, the token cute girl we imprint on immediately keeps doing the “cutesy anime girl hand gestures” for lack of a better term, but the roughness of movements makes it look off and clunky and makes me lose any immersion. It’s a game that would’ve been better with using 2D for dialogue cutscenes, in my opinion.
Quality
As expected of a mmorpg, you get to create your own character. The character creation screen is fun and there are many, many customization options. It's very detailed and nice looking, I have only positive things to say about the character creation.
Quality goes down in free fall from there, however.
Surroundings look rough and low quality in the open world. Assets often look copy pasted and just... feels unfinished or as if I’m playing on a potato phone in the lowest settings. Except my phone is not a potato and I ran it on 60fps UHD before writing this (usually play on 30fps HD) in the interest of fairness.
Quality does feel better when we’re inside small, closed spaces like dungeons and such, showing that perhaps, open world was not the ideal for what they could do.
Open world
In my personal opinion, there are two objectives to look forward to in an open world: beautiful viewdrops as you walk around and the fun and rewards of the exploration.
Point one has been mentioned in quality above: not that good, not really a game where I'd climb somewhere and take snapshots in awe.
As for exploration… also quite the disappointment. Similar to the last gacha mmorpg I reviewed in the weekend (Noah’s Heart), rather than create a small but full open world, they chose to create something really big… but sparse. Lots of kinda empty open spaces of nothing to go through.
They’ve also elected to create… timegated treasure chests. Literally, treasure chests that after you find, they tell you to come back in two days or such. There’s nothing less appealing in open world than my reward being a middle finger, as if I’m being punished for enjoying the exploration so much. Heck they’re not even far far away ones: I found a timegated one pretty damn near the starting area.
The game gives you gadgets to use to improve the overworld experience, and I’ve had a few issues with those, but do acknowledge the fun of moving around on top of a disco cube. What issues? We have a glider that initially seems like the perfect help for climbing… but it barely goes up and doesn’t feel like helps much in that aspect. Meanwhile the mount and surfboard are cool, yet it feels partially like a Band-Aid; as if they’re aware of the long stretches of nothing to see/do in the overworld so hand us these things to hasten our exploration. But if I’m playing open world, I want to be able to enjoy everything, not need a car to go by as fast as possible.
Still gadgets are better then no gadgets and some of them look fun, so that’s a pro. However, they do come with… gadget usage CD, which is a weird choice that halts exploration for a bit while you wait for it to come back. I’d understand gadgets that involve fire power getting long CDs, but its weird to witness a surfboard having to wait a minute to use again. Another strange choice is that often rewards are gadget…pieces. So gather, say, 30 pieces to acquire the gadget, creating an extra chore for something that should be more easily acquirable for exploration enjoyment.
Speaking of exploration needing to be rewarding… how rewarding are the treasure chests? Complicated. I suppose anyone saying “they hand out a ton of summon currency” would technically be speaking the truth. Problem is, ToF has a lot of different currencies (six as far as I noticed) and the one currency they are most generous in giving out is… the one for the standard banner with no pity and where the weapons share space with mats.
Let’s jump to that part.
Gacha
I’ve noticed at least six different currencies so far:
-One currency for the standard banner that has no pity.
-Two non standard banners each requiring different currencies each. One which seems to only include standard banner SSR but unlike the standard banner has pity. And another, also with pity, including actual non-standard character/weapon (which is the best current available one)
-Two currencies for ‘matrices’ (artifacts you add to your weapon that give bonus depending on the set placed) banner: one being the standard artifact banner and the other an event artifact banner
-One universal currency that you can swap for the above currencies with
And the banners share space between weapons + and general mats.
So even if you hear that unlike other gachas (more on that on point 3) you only need to snipe for weapons and not characters here… not true! Because you need to snipe for matrices instead.
But more importantly… beware when people say the game is generous. I’ve noticed overworld gives out the currency for the standard weapons banner a lot (black orb). Events currently running have been giving out some orange orbs, which are the currency for the banner with standard SSRs and pity. The red orbs, for the banner with the limited SSR… I haven’t seen it yet. IF there is a game mode that hands it out, I haven’t done it yet.
They do have a universal currency that you can use to buy the specific currency of choice. But it is given in small amounts compared to how many you need to swap for one orb (150).
So yes, if you disregard which type of currency you’re receiving in game, they have been giving out a good amount of it. But if you sit down and consider which currency that is… you realize its mostly the worst currency, for the non pity standard banner. It’s quite a bad currency, because you might roll and not even get any SR, just basic mats (not even rare ones) and bad weapons. And this is a game that needs those SSRs, as the difference in skill between SR and SSR is significant.
Plus with so many different currencies available, the rewards get diluted. One reward gives me one orange orb, another gets me the matrices one, another the back orb etc, so you end up with small amounts of each special ones which are not enough to reach pity on each banner with frequency, or at all.
However, I will say that as far as “rewards for game launch” go, those have been decent. But those may not be permanent, so take care to not take too long to join if you want to make use of it.
But do I even NEED a lot of currency? AKA: how F2P or P2W is this game?
P2W. Sorry folks, but as is the nature of games with PVP… it becomes pay to win. And it has been confirmed by those that play the CN version (which has been out for many moons) that powercreep is a thing. Meaning if you got the current best SSR today, enjoy it because in a bit there’ll be a shiny new SSR you’ll need to keep on top.
And as mentioned before, there is a significant difference between a SR and SSR. Even if you get all dupes on an SR, that will just increase stats, whereas the biggest differences are because the SSR skills are much better.
But they told me the PVP was fair and equal!
The thing is, the Arena does have fixed stats… but not fixed weapons. Meaning while all stats may be equal, if one has a SSR with superior skills… they’ll win easily. Currently having Nemesis, and the opponent not, is almost guaranteed a win. And this Nemesis is only featured in the red orb banner (so the one whose currency is the least given).
So the arena is still not some miraculous fair to all pvp where your button mashing and dodging skills are all that matters. More than ever, having the best weapon is necessary, as you can’t compensate a subpar weapon with better personal stats.
Oh, and it currently has a problem of rampant cheating.
Gameplay
You equip three weapons that can be different types or elements and can switch between them during battle. Weapons come with a special skill with a CD and an ultimate skill with a different sort of CD (needs to attack X times with another weapon, shall we say, to use it). Dodging is a big thing in the game as it allows you to switch to another weapon and use the ultimate. Although they’ve created enemies that are impervious to that in a few places.
So should I stay clear?
Up to you. It has issues, and none of it parts are the best out there (plot, quality, open world etc) but it’s also not insanely bad (Noah’s Heart was worse) and if you’re really itching for an mmorpg gacha, this is your current best option. There are things to enjoy, even if it cannot be said to be a great gacha/openworld/mmorpg overall.
PART 2: Wherein ToF shoots itself in the foot and other controversies.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that whenever ToF is mentioned… someone invariably brings up Genshin Impact. Or the opposite, with ToF being mentioned in Genshin threads in this sub.
It began with…dumb devs
You see, instead of trying to market ToF as a new, unique and/or fun offering… the devs apparently shared only one braincell and instead boasted such statements as “Genshin killer” and “benchmarking Genshin”.
They certainly stopped saying that fast, but the damage was done.
You’d think people would realize that forcing competition between two games, poking the fans of the other game for no reason, and actively acting like they’ll be superior while hoping the other game shuts down… is not a good idea. More so if this is happening before the game is even out and you don’t know how true that will be.
Well… ToF fans didn’t realize it. ToF fans loved the though that they’d be so much better than Genshin they’d get the game killed, and grabbed at it like some lifeline for reasons unknown.
The results? Shooting itself in the foot. Why? Well…
ToF is overall subpar. It’s not even close to killing Genshin. It can’t even tickle it.
By marketing it as something that would be better than Genshin… they basically begged for everyone and their mother to draw comparisons between them. And they made comparisons themselves. But any comparisons to Genshin only backfire for them. ToF isn’t a great game, but its fine, but now most focus on its failures more than any other game… because everyone compares it to Genshin, per request.
A large part of people playing ToF are Genshin players who fell for the false marketing. So again, more complaining when expectations aren’t met.
Half the ToF sub is about Genshin. Posts about people recreating Genshin characters in it, posts about how its better or worse than Genshin, posts about how it’s not Genshin, posts mocking Genshin… it's as if ToF does not have it's own identity.
Now ToF fans are starting to complain about the comparisons because “they’re not alike”. And while I agree they’re not alike (in fact very different games, only point of similarity is gacha and open world)… it’s their own fault for going on about beating Genshin for so long. You can’t simply take it back when it no longer in your favor.
Tragically many ToF fans seem unable to understand this, since to this day you’ll find that any negativity on ToF is immediately chalked up to “bitter Genshin fans”. They still think they’re Genshin’s rival, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Oh right, and nothing says beating a game like stealing their assets. ToF was caught stealing assets from both Mihoyo games. Actually, they went further and stole Genshin reviews. They also stole from a small studio.
And now that you understand why, I bring you…
PART 3: Comparison to Genshin Impact
Because ToF fans begged for this, I will oblige.
In summary: either it does things differently than Genshin or does them worse. It beats Genshin at nothing
Genshin is an open world, fantasy, one person RPG. ToF is an open world, sci fi, mmorpg. Again, should never have been compared but oh well.
Quality: Genshin is on another planet all together when it comes to quality between the two. Every scenery is beautiful. It’s a game where you can just stop and take pics of the view.
Plot: Genshin’s writing varies a lot, going from bad to kinda good (and the best writing seems to be on sidequests for some reason), so while its not a clear slap to ToF, ToF still doesn’t surpass it, at best stays near it. But then, when it comes to the quality of the voice acting and movement during plot scenes… Genshin wins. Plus ToF plot feels kinda rushed.
Now let’s debunk some statements or put them in perspective:
“ToF is more generous than Genshin” Well with 6 different currencies and powercreep, it needs to be. Genshin has no pvp. All banners have pity and that pity carries over to the next same type banner. Yes, even the standard banner has pity. Plus it only has 3 currencies (standard banner, event banner and universal currency) and the exploration and events focus on handing you the universal one, and not the standard one like ToF. So while ToF hands you more currency, it’s handing you the really bad one, whereas Genshin will most often hand you the universal one.
“In Genshin you have to snipe for Weapons and Characters, in ToF you only need Weapons!” Untrue. Genshin has no pvp, no powercreep, and 99% of content can be cleared with free characters… and nothing requires summoning for the weapons. Nothing requires summoning for specific characters either. Unlike ToF that has a focus on PVP and as such will require you to get the best weapons to stay on top. Oh and while ToF may not have a character banner… it has the matrices banner. Two, in fact. So it does not less things for you to snipe for then Genshin, either.
“The battle system in Genshin is shit, all you need is to press one button while ToF mechanics are deep!” Sounds like someone didn’t pay attention. Genshin battle mechanics center around something called reactions and swapping between characters. If your fire unit sets the enemy on fire, then you switch to your water unit and throw water at the enemy…it’ll cause a reaction that deals boosted damage. And that was the simplest reaction I could think of for an example. There are triple reactions, and some that freeze, some that explode etc. You also have to consider things like CD and timing. So it can be a complex if the player so wishes it. It’s true it’ll never be super complex, but Genshin was never about battle challenges as the focus is exploration. By the same logic I could say ToF isn’t that big either: you mash button on your chosen weapon, then dodge to trigger a big attack. It’s very easy to simplify mechanics to force a narrative.
“ToF is better because it has PVP!” A single player RPG is different than a mmorpg with its PVP. There are those who despise pvp, making Genshin better for them, this claim is dumb. And given we’re talking about gachas, the gacha without pvp will at least be more f2p friendly.
“Genshin is BORING unlike ToF”. It’s easy to feel like ToF has more to do when it has just launched, and everything feels new. Plus this is very subjective, depending on what each one likes to do.
****
And so it’s done.
In the end, ToF isn’t too bad. It’s not really good at anything, but at least the “open world mmorpg gacha” is still enough of a specific niche and it is the best of that for now. I wouldn’t really recommend it, but I can see why people after that mix would pick it up.
However, if falls off even harder when you compare it to Genshin Impact. Perhaps a lot of the negative reception it has received is precisely because people are playing expecting superior Genshin, rather than playing for a new mmorpg of lower quality.
But since the devs and the fans themselves demanded the comparison… it’s hard to feel bad now when the comparison done.
