Misleading item descriptions have led to a significant amount of player backlash for the recently released Tower of Fantasy. Having originally released in China in 2021, developer Hotta Studio released the game globally on August 11, 2022. However, the launch has not been an entirely smooth process, as the game has had to contend with several issues. The previous month, Tower of Fantasy players received gifts after bugs had plagued its launch.
Tower of Fantasy is a free-to-play, open-world MMORPG in a similar vein as Genshin Impact, including mechanics for action combat and open-world traversal. Similarly to Genshin Impact, much of the game's progression is tied to exploring the world, fighting bosses, and rolling for gacha. Despite its relatively recent global release, Tower of Fantasy has managed to carve out a niche for itself as a sci-fi counterpart to Genshin, setting itself apart with a differently-themed setting and a deeper level of customization for players. Additionally, developer Hotta Studio is set to release a major cyberpunk-themed update for Tower of Fantasy, Vera 2.0, at an unannounced date.
Despite its relative success, Tower of Fantasy has recently come under fire from some players for its misleading item descriptions, which are speculated to stem from poor localization. As reported by TheGamer, some players on the Tower of Fantasy subreddit have voiced complaints about the game's item descriptions showing inaccurate or wrong information. As shown in an example by Reddit user Yuuwa, the Samir matrix description differs significantly from its actual in-game effects, with the two-piece set effect having inaccurate values on its effect and the four-piece set effect being completely different.
Tower Of Fantasy's Lack Of Polish Is Hurting Its Ability To Rival Genshin Impact
The complaints from the player base have since gained traction. Despite excelling in some areas, with some going so far as to say that Tower of Fantasy's character customization beats Genshin Impact's, players have noted that the game's localization process seems to have been particularly poorly done, listing several effects and items in the game that are listed wrongly, inaccurately, or not at all. Speculations have ranged from translations having been done procedurally, to simply having been rushed, but currently, no official statement has been made by Hotta Studio.
Although Tower of Fantasy's global release has been relatively successful, even cementing it as a rival to industry juggernaut Genshin Impact, the game is as of now fairly unpolished, which could be hurting its chances of becoming a true Genshin rival. The game is already set to receive more content, with the next patch, Tower of Fantasy's Artificial Island update, releasing on September 15, 2022, and its Vera 2.0 expansion coming out further in the future, but the developers would certainly be remiss to not address problems with the game's current content. If Hotta Studio would like to keep the player base of Tower of Fantasy looking forward to the future of the game, the studio would do well to work on fixing the game's current issues.
Source: TheGamer, Yuuwa/Reddit