History YMMV / TowerOfFantasy

** [=ToF=] also have a fandom rivalry with ''VideoGame/WutheringWaves'', with [=ToF=] fans accusing [=WuWa=] fans of [[https://old.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/1d01pvf/tower_of_fantasy_community_accused_wuthering/ botting to prop up the latter's score,]] whilst [=WuWa=] fans stating that their game is simply "better" (Better in the loosest sense of the term given [=WuWa=]'s own issues with optimisation. This eventually led to a three-way dumpster fire, with more outside observers agreeing that Genshin came out on top by simply doing nothing but releasing a playable product and being the biggest of the three.

** Detractors point out the weakness of the first story arc (basically it has less likeable characters by the time the first story arc hits Cetus), the amount of padding and sidetracking the plot undergoes before the player character gets back to their original objective of tracking down Zeke and Shirli, and the numerous bugs and issues that could interfere with gameplay.

* FandomRivalry: With ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'', another Chinese gacha fantasy game, though ''Tower of Fantasy'' is a (semi) MMORPG with a massive character editing option while ''Genshin'' is a single-player RPG with multiplayer elements. By itself, it would have garnered friendly competition, but various controversies in ''Tower of Fantasy'' revolving around the game apparently stealing assets from ''Genshin'', ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'', and other games (and non-interactive media as well) created a rift between the two fandoms. Ironically and strangely enough, when ''Tower of Fantasy'' was released worldwide, a significant chunk of the playerbase consisted of former ''Genshin'' players who were either burnt out or were waiting for the Sumeru patch to be released.
** Defenders of ''Tower of Fantasy'' often cited the more compact and denser world, smaller upgrade requirements, seamless player-to-player interaction (instead of reloading the world to play co-op), greater ease of exploration and maneuvering, and lighter (although not without optimization issues) system requirements as a plus.

** While the 3.0 characters are good in their own right, Zeke's Onyx tortoise stands out with its changes in the Global version, giving it Physical and Flame resonance. Its first advancement applies a small instance of Devouring damage with every Grievous application, with the Flame teams also capable of proccing it. One of its passives allows it to work with its fellow 3.0 weapons, opening up more "rainbow" team compositions alongside Fiona. It also has a hidden trait that raises Physical Attack to the highest value out of elemental attack values, similar to Altered Weapons that it can be a good substitute weapon for Fiona's weapon. As a bonus, his Execute mechanic kills all non-boss enemies, making it the perfect weapon to use for solo instances like Bygone and Sequential Phantasm.

** The underwater area of Innars is breathtaking, especially when the game gives you an opportunity to take in the scenery as you ride the currents toward the underwater city.

** The 2.2 trailer theme [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChfiryLRSM "Cyber Town"]] is really catchy song that pairs well with the trailer showing off Mirroria's best attractions.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpufNCpgPE4 Go, Chaser]] is the game's anniversary song, and it perfectly encapsulates the feeling and tone of rising up from so many challenges one has faced.
* BrokenBase: At the end of 2023, the developers announced that they will be launching a rebooted version of the game that runs on separate servers, promising refined gameplay and story writing. While some acknowledge that the devs are willing to correct their mistakes and are interested in seeing what's in store in the new servers, the invested and entrenched players felt like the devs have basically admitted to abandoning their efforts at fixing the current game's flaws, and would rather start over from scratch. Not helping is that progress between both original and reboot versions is not transferable.

** Most enemies instantly die when they come into contact with the quicksand pits in south Vera desert. This can be used to take out overworld minibosses that are otherwise very difficult to fight alone.

** In Miasmic Swamp, some mini and egg bosses are located near pools of water, so it's possible to [[SuperDrowningSkills instantly kill them]] by waiting for the rain to flood the area then luring the enemies to those areas.

** When it comes to rolling for gear stats, you'd find many players focus on crit for gloves, boots, and eyepieces. These are the only equipment pieces that can potentially increase that stat, and when the players' attack stat growth tapers off in the late game, critical rate and critical damage are the next steps in increasing damage output.
** Due to PowerCreep in the game, the players' recommendations for team-building are "pick an element, get the latest Limited banner characters matching that element, and skip all banners corresponding to all other elements (unless it's Altered)." SR-rarity weapons are hardly discussed as they cannot match up with SSR ones. Deviation and experimentation is largely discouraged due to the lack of good sources of dark crystals or red nuclei for pulls without spending real-world money.
** In PVP Mode, expect to see players with the same few weapon sets with most of them consisting of Limited run weapons as their core.

** Between Joint Operation difficulties 7 and 8, there is no great difference in the possible equipment rewards, but the enemies in difficulty 8 have much more HP. Players attempting difficulty 8 are advised to first find a full well-coordinated team rather than take their chances with random players through matchmaking, since a single underperforming player there can turn into TheLoad.

** Defenders of ''Tower of Fantasy'' often cited the more compact and denser world, smaller upgrade requirements, seamless player-to-player interaction (instead of reloading the world in order to play co-op), greater ease of exploration and maneuvering, and lighter (although not without optimization issues) system requirements as a plus.

** It's possible to ace the Laser Corridor minigame by pressing the Vehicle and Interact keys at the same time, allowing the vehicle (preferably the Cube) to be summoned on the corridor. The player cannot be detected by the lasers due to the vehicle hitbox blocking them, so players can just idle until the game ends. The trade-off is that players will need to use the unstuck command afterwards if their weapon slots are still glitched.

** Several outfits and cosmetics are obtained only from limited-time events, but those events are in-game gachapon machines with a limited prize pool. You are (sometimes) given five pulls for free, but you need to purchase more pulls if you want the rest of the prizes, and the odds of obtaining the outfits are so low that you basically have to exhaust the prize pool to get them. The cost to do so is a staggering 9400 to 10,610 Dark Crystals -- '''62 to 70 Special Order pulls'''' worth! There are also some Simulacrum skins that are available this way, but unlike player outfits, [[DoubleUnlock you can't use the skin unless you already own the associated weapon!]] Given how slow the Dark Crystal income is for most players, these kinds of "events" are basically RevenueEnhancingDevices, aiming to milk money out of high-spenders.

** Fiona offers so much utility between her six possible skills that she complements nearly any loadout, even if her weapon is classified as a "healer" weapon. The fact that her dash and discharge also help remove the deadly Graying Bite debuff adds to her valuability.

** No healer setup is recommended without Nemesis's weapon. Not only is it a serviceable ranged weapon with an easily maintained healing function, the directionless dodge attack fires a slowing bomb that can buy generous windows of reprieve for the team. And it's the earliest source of Volt Resonance for Volt teams. She's only since fallen out of favor due to the game introducing competent SSR healers over time.

** As of the 2.4 update, Scylla and Haboela are both coveted World Boss matrices, as their set bonuses includes a universal boost to damage (Haboela) or crit damage and shatter (Scylla) which anyone can make use of. For those who don't want to repeatedly fight these bosses, there are Mira gachapon machines that yield them, and daily completion of Joint Operations drop shards that can be accumulated to create one of those matrices.

** Due to PowerCreep in the game, the players' recommendations for team-building are "pick an element, and pull on the Limited banners corresponding to that element." SR-rarity weapons are hardly discussed as they cannot match up with SSR ones. Deviation and experimentation is largely discouraged due to the lack of good sources of dark crystals or red nuclei for pulls without spending real-world money.

** The mechanics of the world bosses in Vera are more difficult than those in Aesperia, but they can be defeated in a matter of minutes with an 8-man team. The ones in Confounding Abyss, before the nerfs, are {{Damage Sponge Boss}}es that need an entire channel to fight and take at least half an hour to go down.

** The new raids released after 3.0 is trickier to do compared to the previous raids. The raids rely on shattering the boss' shield and executing the mechanics perfectly rather than whittling the boss down by combat as the boss' HP goes up to ''billions''. This prevents players from overpowering the boss and makes the DPS resonance useless, so players will need good teamwork and to use the Fortitude/Healer resonances for shield shattering as failing to shatter shields or missing one mechanic will instantly lead to a wipe.

** Dead game [[labelnote:Explanation]]The game has quite an number of vocal haters who try to paint it in a bad light against its competitors. Their doomsaying often claims the game is dead or dying, even if player numbers would indicate otherwise. The playerbase would mock it by sarcastically claiming "dead game" at the slightest inconvenience.[[/labelnote]]

** The Deepsea Stronghold Joint Operation has two bosses with infuriating gimmicks. The mid-boss is an airborne boss fought in a flooded area with water deep enough to keep you from attacking. The end boss is the Devourer with a unique ultimate attack that floods the arena and forces you to swim (and risk drowning) or get on your Jetboard to wait out the attack while dodging tornadoes.

* ThatOnePuzzle: The Quantum Leap puzzles scattered all over Domain 9 involve interacting with an unmarked Quantum Leap device and running to the receptacle device within 10 seconds. It used to be manageable in Ignisville, but the puzzles became more complex when the mountainous terrain of Cloudpeak Manor and Joltville was added, with some Quantum Leap devices hidden on mountain cliffs unreachable by jetpack. Some targets are placed so far away that utility weapons like Rubilia and Alyss are required just to be able to reach the target within the allotted time. The tedium in locating the start point, never mind the effort needed to reach the receptacle in time, leaves players opting to ignore them, but fortunately completing Quantum Leap puzzles are not compulsory for HundredPercentCompletion.

** The v3.3 update introduced Conquest Sigils which are used to obtain rewards from time-limited server-wide raid bosses. Unlike the Raid feature already present in the game, these new bosses are only available at a specific time of the day, and only for one hour. Since the whole server can fight it, the boss is made a DamageSpongeBoss. However, the game engine and server infrastructure are often ill-equipped to handle so many players in a small arena at once, leading to massive server lag that stifles the players' ability to fight. It's not unusual for a server's worth of players to spend the whole hour chipping away at the boss only to run out of time.

** Altered element weapons are usually head-and-shoulders stronger than the traditional elemental weaponry and are flexible to fit into many other weapon sets, making them highly desirable. Not helping is their limited availability and the fact that they will never enter the standard banner.
*** Lin's weapon skill changes properties to suit the player's loadout. For PVP players, she lets you spend a lot of time in the air where most other players struggle to reach you. Her weapon skill also [[MundaneUtility enables extra double-jumps]] to navigate the sheer verticality in Vera's maps. Lin's ability to benefit many different builds gets her touted as ''the'' character to save for, and it would take unique circumstances for a player to not want her.
*** Fiona's weapon holds ''six'' possible skills and two skill slots; the first skill is tied to the normal weapon skill, while the second can be triggered independently even while wielding another weapon. This means you can customize it to suit different playstyles, even though her weapon's designated as a "healer" weapon. Also, if you've pushed it to 3 stars or higher, she can deliver a OneHitKill to any enemy at low HP, even bosses, to shorten tough fights.

** Enforced by the game to its detriment -- it tries to skip the player forward to the Vera arc after they first arrive at Hyrkos, with an option to allow the player to double back and finish the Aesperia arc at their own leisure. This is meant to try and help new players catch up to the existing playerbase, but it leaves unaware newcomers very confused.
* SalvagedGameplayMechanic: The Artificial Island Build Mode generally failed to live up to player expectations until the 2.4 update, which allowed players to visit other players' islands and added a randomly-spawning merchant who stocks rare items like Red Nuclei or equipment shards. Since then, more players have begun to engage with the side mode rather than just relegating it to a weekly chore.

** The level scaling, which has since been made manual. See also DifficultySpike.

** Compared to Ignisville and Marshville, Joltville is ''massive'' and tracking down important exploration points is made tedious due to all the 10-energy orbs cluttering the map interface. Fully upgrading the Azure Statues also uses much more Field Energy than the other regions and requires more Energy farming than others.

* BrokenBase: At the end of 2023, the developers announced that they will be launching a rebooted version of the game that runs on separate servers, promising refined gameplay and story writing. While some acknowledge that the devs are willing to correct their mistakes and are interested in seeing what's in store in the new servers, the rest of the players felt like the devs have basically admitted to abandoning their efforts at fixing the current game's flaws, and would rather start over from scratch.