After Years Waiting.. Tower of Fantasy Enters Global Closed Beta Testing

After years waiting…. it’s finally here. Tower of Fantasy. Or, well, its first official Closed Beta test is here. Which is more or less the same thing to me – as I’m capable of playing it either way.

I’ve been covering Tower of Fantasy for a while now. Ever since the day it was first announced.
I’ve covered the good, and I’ve covered the bad. Sometimes I’ve gotten flack for being “too positive,” and at other times I’ve been accused of trying to “destroy the game.”
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to appease both types of people. Which is why I’ve continued to do whatever the hell I want when talking about the game.

Today, though, today the game is fully playable. For those of you with access, you should have received the pre-download link via email on the 17th. If you didn’t, then I’d urge you to look for it because without it you won’t be able to play. They use their own custom client, and it’s required to launch the game.

In light of the game moving into its first official Global Closed Beta, the Tower of Fantasy devs have released a large blog post of what to expect.

“Hi, we are Tower of Fantasy Team! We’re in the midst of making intensive preparations for the 1st regional closed beta test (CBT) of our global version. Since Tower of Fantasy confirmed its launch this year, many Wanderers have been showering us with warm support, well wishes, sincere comments and hopes.
All of this inspired us and strengthened our determination to give our future Wanderers a better game.We hope to use this letter to discuss the changes we plan to make in the global version’s 1st closed beta. Of course, the game is still under development, and there will be room for adjustments and optimization.
Still, we sincerely hope you’ll provide us with even more feedback after you’ve experienced the game and help us make Tower of Fantasy even better. “

Striving towards making a better game is never a bad thing. Tower of Fantasy has had its fair share of hiccups since it launched. Plagiarism, asset theft, and general incompetence are some of the more commonly known issues.
But the Global version of the game is different. This version of the game is not the version that China got when it first launched.

“This test will be focused on polishing the following aspects of the game: Equipment Development, Character (Weapon) Stats, and various other gameplay adjustments. We hope to give our Wanderers the best. – Equipment Development – In the Tower of Fantasy system, the Wanderer’s equipment will affect your experience in battle, just like the Wanderer’s weapons, Matrices, player skill, etc. We have adjusted the difficulty to obtain and develop equipment so that you’ll be able to fully enjoy the charm of the equipment system.
This includes improving the drop rate of boxes in the World, improving the base stats provided by enhancing equipment, reducing the randomness of improving stats, etc.Besides that, in conjunction with optimizing equipment development, we have completed a comprehensive optimization of the developmental cost of Characters (weapons) and Matrices. Overall, we hope you’ll be able to fully enjoy the growth system.”

Honestly, rates must’ve been pretty crappy in the Chinese version if they had to manually adjust the difficulty with which you go about obtaining equipment, huh?
But we as Western players aren’t nearly as determined grinders as players in China.
However, they did note they’re working on “reducing the randomness of improving stats.” Is this gonna be another Black Desert with its horrendous RNG gear upgrading? Please no.

“Character (Weapon) Stats – After further evaluation and calculations, we have modified certain Character (Weapon) skills and data in order to maintain fairness in the game. The modifications in this version of the CBT do not represent the final adjustments to the game. We will focus on observing, analyzing, and improving the changes we have made. – Gameplay Adjustments – Besides main missions, other aspects of gameplay in Tower of Fantasy forms an important part of every Wanderer’s life on Planet Aida. This CBT will include detailed adjustments of a few other aspects of gameplay.
For example, to provide a better social experience to all Wanderers, we have updated the Crew system. Besides that, we have updated the difficulty of battles in the Frontier Clash to give all Wanderers more room to maneuver in battle.

One issue players have with games – MMOs specifically, is the sheer lack of difficulty. So it’s good to note they’re updating difficulty in various areas to cater to that.

“Thank you all for taking the time to read this! We hope this letter will give you a better understanding of the optimizations we are carrying out. We would like to take this opportunity to tell you that every Wanderer is participating in and witnessing the development and growth of Tower of Fantasy.
The comments and feedback from every single Wanderer are important to us. Feel free to send them our way via our game communities and Customer Service forums throughout the CBT period. Thank you for your continuous support! We look forward to meeting you in an even better Tower of Fantasy! 🙂 Sincerely, Tower of Fantasy Team”

So I guess, the purpose of this Closed Beta is to.. actually Beta test several alterations they’re making from the Chinese version to see how Western players respond to it.
Chinese players and Western players differ quite significantly in terms of playstyle, so I think this is a necessary change, one that is definitely warranted.

I’ve always been excited for this game, and I’m no less excited now. Mrs Stix and I both got into the Beta test, and we’ll be happy to see you guys in-game later this week!

Hopefully you guys have fun until then!