It’s been a good week since Tower of Fantasy came out, offering a dominant PvE aspect, as well as a small arena to rub shoulders with other players in PvP. Those with a bit of competitiveness will want to try these skirmish fights, but now the old ghosts of gachas are making their comeback: the more than questionable balancing in PvP. A duo terrorizes the arena and puts off a good part of the players. Throughout this article, I will give my opinion as well as my experience; this is clearly a bias after more than a week of play.
An off-putting PvP as possible
Although this PvP system is well thought out, there are still errors that should be highlighted and which tend to annoy at the highest point: offering PvP content that does not seem suitable for the game or poorly worked. This is a problem that is found on most of the gachas, it’s a fact and it’s a shame: you don’t have the character, the class or the meta weapons, you can never win. The Meryl + Nemesis combo is seen or even seen too much on Tower of Fantasy and it’s complicated to get out of it even if our gameplay is well worked out with mastered compositions, because the hitbox is simply daisies.
Let’s take Meryl’s ultimate as an example: it spreads around her and forms a few mid-height spikes. Opponents hit by this ultimate become dazed and slowed for a few seconds. But why are we affected when we are not in its ultimate or far above? Is the animation way too small compared to the impact of the ultimate? Or is the character hitbox way too big? We see this case on some wyvern attacks in Monster Hunter Rise where even a high archer will take damage from a ground attack.
The PvP part is full of mysteries on this aspect, with blows that we take without really knowing why.
If you don’t have Nemesis, you don’t make the weight
The current dynamic of PvP is such that if you don’t have Nemesis on your team, you won’t have a great chance of succeeding in your fights. The latter is far too strong in PvP thanks to its zone attacks which can cover the entire arena if they are well placed and its passive regeneration. Coupled with Meryl having the ability to break armor and who is able to freeze opponents, while slowing them down; it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you won’t last very long.
There is nothing more boring than having to play a very precise list of characters to try to win with no means of countering compositions that I perceive as anti-game and not rewarding. Indeed, with Meryl + Nemesis and imagine Samir or Crow, you will find yourself permanently under the control of your opponent either by dazing, glaciation or electrification with a simple skill spam. It will therefore be impossible to play or attempt anything.
It’s discouraging for casual players or those who don’t have the luck of hangman from some players or other whales. However, the game is made that way, so I’m going to have to give up on PvP which does not emphasize player gameplay, but simply the acquisition of broken characters.
The game was off to a good start with that feeling of starting on an even footing, but the meta comp will still push and this one still consists of Meryl and Nemesis. Plurality in the compositions would have been more than welcome, not to mention a counter composition which could have spiced up this annoying trend. However, it will apparently be necessary to reach to see a change on this side.
Many are waiting to get Nemesis and Meryl to give themselves to PvP, otherwise climbing the ladder is almost impossible. After acquiring Nemesis, I must admit that my fights became much more intense, rich in momentum and I was finally able to move up the ladder. But where is the pleasure of going up thanks to a character and not by any mastery of the gameplay?
Last word
Despite this aspect which can be really, really annoying, Tower of Fantasy has an excellent ladder system that prevents you from returning to the previous level. In order to speak to the greatest world, here is an example: if you have passed the silver rank, you will not be able to fall back into the bronze rank despite many defeats, but if you are Silver 5 you will be able to go down Silver 4 without returning to Bronze rank. Your rank is saved and you can always try to go up with the help of bots or players who are not “lucky” to play the meta. In a sense, it’s not rewarding, but players can still attempt a small climb in the rankings.
On the contrary, I have hearsay that this meta could well be reduced to nothing with the arrival of new characters who could totally counter this composition. This is undoubtedly a bad thing for a better future for Tower of Fantasy PvP (outside China).
Despite all this, I want to point out that Tower of Fantasy has a PvE dimension that will reward you for your curiosity. Even if the game has a cash play system, it is not pay-to-win, because resource farming is in the spotlight. By exploring or spending time on the different game modes, you will be able to perfect your simulacra (weapons) to perform in the PvE which gives a hard time as the difficulty increases.
As a result, I’m going to turn more to PvE and try to improve my weapons than to try in vain for a PvP experience that I don’t find healthy at the time of writing these lines.