Published on October 31, 20200

Is Tower of Fantasy an MMORPG, Co-op or Single Player Game?

Tower of Fantasy is a game that is starting to capture the attention of players around the world, partly due to the similarities with Genshin Impact. MiHoYo's hugely successful open world anime online RPG increased the demand for games of the ilk, and Tower of Fantasy (sometimes translated to Phantom Tower) fits the bill. This is the first game from Hotta Studio, a Chinese development team that is a subsidiary of Perfect World Games. The first trailers revealed the enticing anime and sci-fi atmosphere, something that we like to say is the result of Genshin Impact meets Honkai Impact. However, there are some doubts surrounding the actual game – is Tower of Fantasy an MMORPG, a single-player game, or a co-op online action RPG?

Is Tower of Fantasy an MMO, Solo, or Co-op Game?

Despite the unclear communication or simply a lack of reliable translation due to the Chinese origins, Tower of Fantasy is indeed an MMORPG. Unlike Genshin Impact, where you mostly play solo but have the ability to invite a few players into your world for some co-op exploration and dungeon rushing, in Tower of Fantasy you'll see other players running around in your world right from the first minutes.

A Tower of Fantasy gameplay video captured by Noah Rebel from the first Tower of Fantasy closed beta test in China gives us some hints on the MMORPG foundations. In some sections of the video, for example at 1:08, you'll notice other players on the map. They aren't part of your party, they just happen to be roaming around the open world.

Since this is first closed beta footage featuring a very limited number of players, you won't see many great examples of MMORPG mechanics in Tower of Fantasy. However, as development progresses and Hotta Studio opens up testing to more and more players, the game will become more populated and look like a proper MMO.

The Tower of Fantasy release date is yet to be announced, but a late 2021 launch in China seems reasonable. There are no official plans for a western release, but given the success of Genshin Impact and the likelihood of Bandai Namco's anime MMORPG Blue Protocol becoming another hit, we would say that Perfect World has all the interest in going for a Tower of Fantasy global launch.