Tower of Fantasy Could be the Best MMORPG of 2021!

Seriously. With character creation that looks as good as this, with a world as large, open and beautifully animated as this, with combat as smooth, fast and flashy as this, and a fully fleshed out PvP system in place, how could this not be one of the best upcoming MMORPGs of 2021, right?
And relax, I can already see some of you rolling your sleeves up ready to ardently defend whatever MMO you think will be the best release of 2021, and your opinion is no less valid, but I did say “COULD” be not “WILL” be.

2021 looks like it’ll have a lot of competition. We have Blue Protocol’s potential release, New World’s potential release – and yes, I say potential here as there’s no confirmation it won’t get delayed again, we have GRAN SAGA, Tower of Fantasy, TL: Origin, Project BBQ, Lost Ark, Corepunk and so much more.
I’ve played through quite a few hours of both Blue Protocol and New World, and have both read and watched quite a bit of gameplay regarding the other MMOs slated for release next year and I gotta say, while yes I’m still most excited for Blue Protocol, my interest in Tower of Fantasy is on the rise.

But what is Tower of Fantasy?

Good question.

Now I’ve covered the game twice – once after each trailer was dropped, but let me summarize before discussing why I’m excited for the game.
Tower of Fantasy is an upcoming open-world fully action combat Anime MMORPG set in a large, seamless open world – this is something that we really don’t have right now. Anime MMOs and seamless worlds both.
The game has a deep, rich story that takes players all over the world and features mechanics that aren’t found in MMOs of the last generation, but seem to be all the craze these days: world-interaction.
You can scale walls, trees, buildings, mountains, and by that logic, potentially even large boss monsters to get to their weak points.
We’ve seen in combat that you’re capable of grappling onto and picking up enemies, providing opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise to overpower them so it definitely stands to reason that this is a possibility.
There are puzzles – yes, both traditional and what seems to be jumping puzzles that’ll give you PTSD if you’re a Guild Wars 2 player.
There are going to be mounts in-game, however in what form is another question entirely, as we’ve seen players riding around the world on hoverboards but that was the limit from the trailers thus far.
Well, okay, I lied. We also saw players utilizing jetpacks as well, providing players the ability to fly – or maybe glide from large cliffs, buildings, even the trees themselves and descend, leaving destruction upon their enemies below.
Yes, I can see this definitely coming handy in PvP, leaping down onto your enemies with them having absolutely no idea what awaits them when you reach the ground. It’ll also offer quite a few additional layers of strategy when engaging in PvP.
Talking specifically about PvP though, it’s unconfirmed what forms PvP will take. We see players fighting in-game out in the open-world, but what we don’t see is multiple of them.
This leads me to believe that it’s either a 1v1 duel, or are in different factions and can engage one another in open-world PvP.
They’ve confirmed that there will be no classes present in-game. What this means is that instead of leveling a class individually, and filling a certain role specifically, instead, you’ll be able to swap your weapon, thus changing your role and allowing for you to fill many different roles at any given time, improving your use to the team.
So yes, that means you’ll have several players capable of filling various roles.

Finally, and what is perhaps one of the most important features, is that much like the upcoming Genshin Impact RPG, Tower of Fantasy is being built for both PC and Mobile cross-play in mind.
It’s currently unconfirmed which platform the game is being built FOR, but I guess that will ultimately determine whether this game turns out to be a huge hit or miss.

Tower of Fantasy could be one of the best MMORPGs of 2021. It has the foundations to be a really good game – it has a beautiful setting that hasn’t been overdone, unlike Nexon and their obsession with medieval games.
It has smooth combat, but not overdone flashy combat that feels as though you can’t see anything else on the screen when more than 1 person is on it at a given time.
It has a focus on story – although whether the story will be any good is up for discussion. Black Desert claims it has a story, too.

And it has some fantastic character creation.
This is one of the most important parts of any Anime MMORPG I feel. Not even MMORPG. This is one of the most important parts of any Anime game – any game, period.
Players love customizing their characters. Look at Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV – both games that have fashion as their endgame. Heck, even Black Desert and Blade & Soul have a large, active fashion userbase.
Customization is integral to the success of the game, and Anime fans have long since been left out when it came to character customization. Well, until PSO2 but that had been exclusive to Japan for.. almost a decade, so it doesn’t count.
The sheer amount of options shown here – in just the trailer, are enough to arouse – yes, I said arouse, c’mon guys, act your age, *ahem*, enough to arouse interest from players that aren’t even fans of Anime games.

If an upcoming Anime MMO set in a large, beautiful seamless scifi fantasy world that has smooth looking combat, an actual story, and will likely be what Genshin Impact could’ve been if it were an MMORPG doesn’t sound exciting to you, then.. well, I guess you might be stuck waiting 5 years or more for Ashes of Creation if they get around to releasing it.