Wuthering Waves

This is another gacha game which features better action combat than most and climbing / gliding system like Tower of Fantasy, which is fantastic. It also has a decent story and a ton of upgradable systems which is both good and OMG grindy. 

It also features thirsty gardeners...

You see, you have the usual gacha luck-of-the-draw party who can all level up and you can also level their weapons (both need special material grinded to break level caps). And then each can equip "captured" enemies. FIVE of them. That can also be leveled. But no its not just, "I want a lizard thing instead of this slug thing" because they also have randomized stats and abilities. This lizard might breath fire. This other lizard just naps and heals you. Want to tell the difference? 

Too bad you can't. You need to go kill the lizards until you capture one that does what you want. AND has the substat bonuses that interest you FOR THAT CHARACTER. Good thing you can only have three characters per squad... :P Also, I REALLY DESPISE they systems where everything levels up with you. Great you reached level 10? Well those level 1 monsters are now also level 10. It's like, what was the point of leveling up? But guess what, you can't AVOID leveling up, because its your exploration level that determines the monster level.

Yup! So even if you remained at level one but explored the hell out of the map, guess what? You're just leveling up the enemies. Pity, because there's some really nice story in there. If you feel like you don't mind that level of grind then I recommend this for you. Definitely not one for me though.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Music

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

With the cult dealt with I have some time off which I spend at Mirroria where I moonlight as a bodyguard for a young DJ who in turn moonlights as an animal rescuer. I also go on patrol with a rookie cop which eventually leads to her in a coma. LOL. Fortunately the two previous comatose victims, Ruby and her mom, are now fully awake and since Ruby's birthday is fast approaching Lin asks that I help her assemble a band and act as their manager for a surprise performance for the kid. Members include the most unlikely of choices (wasn't I in the middle of chasing one of them?) but after a low effort quest line the performance is actually pretty cool.

Afterwards I bid farewell to the crew for its back to Innars for me, and actually back down to the active volcano where the abyssal rift remains open. Scanners sent in detect a new land that it bridges to and I'm sent to investigate, popping out in Domain 9 which basically is China - if China was made of islands floating in midair. I help the inhabitants here fight the gray entities too, which they refer to as "the Darkness", and it looks like this set is led by some strange, flute playing lady.

Magical floating leaves can support the motorbike so it must be safe!

Most of the darkness is sealed up in an underground vault but the Domain 9 master reveals the power that keeps it that way is dwindling quickly. In preparation for the coming war they have begun research and development of combat capabilities for Smart Servants - AI Companions of the cute chibi variety you can bring around with you. And that unfortunately is where I leave Tower of Fantasy for now at level 51 as I've consumed all the main storylines. Maybe I'll revisit again in a year or so. :)

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Abduction

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Hykros sends me to follow up on a weapons order they put in at Banges but its being delayed by the resource slow down at the nearby Crown mines which in turn is caused by two problems. The first is easily solved as its just a large presence of thugs led by an overweight queen that harass the miners regularly, which translates to simple vermin clearing for me.

The second is a strange illness spreading through the miner camp, causing them to strike, and the ineffective medicines being provided to them. It turns out both the disease and the "cure" are just experiments being conducted by the cultists who have paid the mine leaders for this easily accessible batch of test subjects!

Once I find this group of cultists I chase them all the way out to the snowfields I first encountered them at and wreck their factories and raid their fortresses, rescuing many of their abducted victims including robo-Shirli who reveals the cult plans to build some sort of time reversal device to try fix the world. Ironically this is the same thing Hykros attempted which wrecked the world previously but whatever... This is also the excuse they use to "wall" off high level zones to lower level players: you are too low level to withstand the radiation and take continuous damage over time.

Surprise bullet hell stage.

Anyhow, the cult leader and his elite guard manage to escape to attack the Tower of Fantasy, but we pursue them up there and after some oddly placed puzzle solving and jumping tests, we kick their collective butts outta there and force them back into hiding. We're not going to hear from them again any time soon.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of the Ocean

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

With the tunnel to the grand sea operational again, I'm sent there for a crash course in diving because as the name might suggest the majority of this HUGE map involves water. Luckily all weapons still work just fine when fully submerged but strangely, if you try swim on the surface and tire yourself out you might drown but if you just dive - you'll be fine. Our destination this time is Innars city which is deep near the ocean floor.

It's a long way to get here / anywhere in the water.

Good thing there are current generators to help speed the journey along because it's lengthy paddle down there. The Innarians are quite hospitable upon our arrival but curiously do not report any increased grey entity activity as we were led to believe. A simple scouting swim around shows that the grey spacers are indeed hiding in caves here and the drones meant to detect them have been hacked, meaning there's an Innarian traitor/puppet! Once this person is outed and executed, the massive army of grey spacers dive down beneath Innars and reactivate a dormant volcano there. Seems there's a theme of building cities right above dangerous spots in this world...

With reinforcements that include some cultists who have called a temporary truce (because a world threatening event is bad for them too) we pursue and combat the gray army and defeat them and their trio of abyssant leaders, including a lava dragon! Work then commences to seal the volcano and I'm rotated out of the front lines as the cultists call off their ceasefire.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Deception

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Instead of continuing the pursuit, Lin calls me back to Mirroria for an urgent mission. The doctor who we saved from the Abyss has come out and in of her coma just enough to warn everyone that the gray space entities are amassing in the grand sea, and as communications to the city there has recently been cut off we're tasked with investigating the relay stations in the marshlands between.

Sure enough the marshes are full of the more animalistic gray spacers and the paths trapped with a tangle of explosive webs. While one rookie staff member is rescued at her outpost, the remained are being used as birthing pods for egg laying creatures.

As each relay is also destroyed it soon becomes evident that this was an inside job and the rookie we rescued is actually being used as a puppet by the voluptuous abyssant that has its long digits deep inside her. We slay the creature and then call for the engineering teams to repair the communications and tunnel passage that leads to the grand sea.

While waiting for that I'm tasked with assisting a floating carnival, run by robotic children and a single tech, to deal with some low level raiders which is easy enough. It is then revealed the tech is working on subduing robo-Shirli for the cultists who have abducted her!? I would have given chase but then this awesome song started playing with fireworks and everything and I was mesmerized. Apparently if you are in the right spot in the right in game time you get treated to a light show and some awesome tunes.

No warning, no cutscene, and no doubt one of the best experiences in the game.

Anyway, the cultists escaped with Shirli and the tech escapes punishment as apparently Hykros higher ups have history with her.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Rebellion

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

While people in Mirroria recover from comas I'm sent to the Banges region to chase down a rogue agent who has stolen simulacra data. Hykros really needs to sort out their security. Just as I arrive the main port comes under siege by those same cultists as last time and they manage to kidnap the town leader and his sickly son, leading to a merry chase where I basically wipe out camp after camp of them only to learn they don't actually have the captives.

The leader had paid for his town to be attacked so he could make off with some valuable resources to try better his kid, but upon finding them in a hidden lab his cure just made the boy a rampaging aberrant which smashes the fool before I can put it down. A map to hidden lab #2 which is on an offshore island leads to the rogue agent who is actually not linked to any of these plots.

She just stole the simulacra of her deceased friend, because she was sick of other people "wearing her". Just another reason for people to hate Hykros, outside of the whole "they screwed up the world" thing that the cultists ride on. As the rogue agent's trap prep is very good she escapes, but at least I now have a cool arsenal of guns at the ready. You can have three weapons ready to go, and it usually helps if they are of different elements not just for fighting but for getting the random currencies lying around - you might need fire to burn vines or ice to cool lava etc.

Had I known I'd have to chase you later, I should have just left you here...

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of the Abyss

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

That's a handsy enemy.

After hunting some desert beasts at a nearby oasis to harvest residual radiation from them to act as a power source (because why not turn wild life into batteries), robo-Shirli is ready for action and even saves an expedition force against a particularly grabby abyssant. When its remains are brought into Mirroria for study there is an attack in the city which puts Ruby in a coma, and then I am promptly told to scoot because... I'm not high enough level. WHAT!?

Fine. I warp back to Astra Shelter and explore all of it, killing all the enemy camps until I'm interrupted by Hykros (the crew at the top of the Tower of Fantasy) to help them collect simulacra data that was stolen from them by some cultists hiding at some snowy place. This is all pretty easy with my new dual guns which is a big upgrade from the bow. Anyway, once I'm leveled up enough I'm called back to Mirroria to join Lin's squad to look for Ruby's "mom", a reclusive doctor who had a secret lab deep in some spider caves.

Apparently the lab wasn't deep enough as evidence points to her having ventured into the Abyss, the home of grey space entities, for research purposes. Where is this abyss? Right beneath Mirroria! For some reason the gaping chasm is actually what's keeping the city afloat? Anyway, its down down to goblin town (the gray space entities look a bit goblin like) and finally here's an unpleasant and difficult to navigate environment (I'm glad I got lots of practice in Mirroria) with quickly respawning enemies. We find the doctor has turned into an abyssant and so naturally we save her through BATTLE! Though I may have over done it, as now she too is in a coma. Greeeeeat.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Fan Service

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Next stop is that floating pyramid!

As my mechanical companion needs more fixing we're sent to Mirroria, a flying pyramid city in the desert and are attacked en route by a giant abyssant worm thing but are saved by the local city defenders which includes one eyed Ruby and her guardian, the fan favorite Lin. I'm certain her super short skirt has nothing to do with that. With robo-girl deposited in the hands of a mechanic I'm free to explore the massive city interior which is freaking huge to the point that you can use flying cabs to get around (or wait for trains that never show up). That jet pack I got from Astra is also super handy here.

While I'm at it I also do the numerous side quests on offer, most of which are the "help find my lost xxx". The part time job at a game studio which lets you design a boss and fight it is pretty cool though, and has turned out to be my most difficult combat so far where I had to out archer a robot centaur. Now's a good time to talk about equipment too, this is not like your usual MMO where you walk up to a shop and buy stuff (well, for misc things like food yes). This is a GACHAPON game. What does that mean? You collect a variety of currencies while questing / exploring then spend them for A CHANCE at something. And it is literally beamed down from space for you! So... I got a bow. :P

Worse is that most weapons have a simulacra attached to them, which is a collectable, often female character who you can then use as your own character. Lin, Ruby and robo-Shirli are just three of the ones available. What happens if you get the same item from the random gachapon I hear you ask? Well, you get to combine the duplicates to make the item STRONGER. Yep. No crafting here, just gachapon away! If increasing your DPS isn't compelling enough then you'll be happy to know that improving said weapons also makes the simulacra have more (less) clothing options and abilities! But but but... what happens if you run out of currency to gachapon? Well, there's always the cash shop... and that's how this game is still afloat.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Pain

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

Waking up with amnesia is a cliche, but it does set the scene nicely for the "WTF is going on with this game" feeling that you experience upon being introduced to Astra shelter, which is basically a settlement built around a downed spaceship. Shirli, one of the natives, is most helpful in giving us the tour around the super colorful place, and I'm impressed at the amount of voice acted lines though the mouths moving don't match but I suppose that's a translation thing.

While combat against what seems to be the midgets from the Borderlands series is mostly a click fest, the game greatly rewards exploration - and that's why I think I'm quite hooked on it at the moment. It also helps that almost every surface is CLIMBABLE. What!? Anyway, I put the exploration aside to just push through the main story which feels like Shirli is just getting us to do her chores for her until she is injured in an attack and becomes infected with incurable aberrant energy and is well on her way to turning into a science-zombie: another common enemy in the area.

There's the titular tower.

 
While the shelter's MO is usually to simply execute anyone with these symptoms, Shirli is just too cute and likable so they make me take her to the titular Tower of Fantasy which serves as the base for Hykros a police/teleporter hub and through the magic of technology they save Shirli by basically throwing her into a meat grinder and convalescing her remaining parts into a cyborg-robot companion. Ok I'm a bit hazy on the details because it felt like there was a bit of a time skip ... Anyway, I like it when stories REALLY hurt their characters. One more reason to stick around. :D

Tower of Fantasy

I thought this would be my usual trial and forget runs but to my surprise, I'm still playing this MMO which means I'd better make a journal for it. Obviously I find it way better than Genshin Impact. :P

Chapters:
1 - Tower of Pain
2 - Tower of Fan Service
3 - Tower of the Abyss
4 - Tower of Rebellion
5 - Tower of Deception
6 - Tower of the Ocean
7 - Tower of Abduction
8 - Tower of Music