I was sent Avatar Generations to review, and it isn’t good. Avatar Generations is the Avatar the Last Airbender gotcha game that you shouldn’t bother downloading. I haven’t been disappointed in the IP since the live-action movie.
This game crashed fresh off the install. The performance never got better as it stuttered through most of its content. Navigating anything in this game feels clunky and slow. When the game stopped crashing, I was finally able to play through the story, and it isn’t fun. The story goes through the same events as the series, and I’d rather be watching the series. You will be spending most of your time waiting on timers whether it is traveling over land or waiting on combat. The combat is boring, but at least there is an auto-battle feature.
I wouldn’t mind the combat if the animation was cool. There seem to be a few frames missing, making combat look clunky and dated. I am not a fan of the art style. This game is kind of ugly.
The main draw to a gotcha game is the collectability aspect. The unlockable characters need to look good and be desirable. I love Avatar the Last Air Bender, but there wasn’t a single character I wanted to pull for. I did use whatever gems I had to pull from the available banners and only unlocked one new character. Everything else I pulled seemed like trash. I can’t tell you how predatory the monetization is because I didn’t have it in me to play enough of this game to do more testing, but it doesn’t seem very free-to-play friendly.
Avatar Generations lacks what makes gotcha games worth the trouble. Where most games shower you with free pulls and rare characters, this one makes you sit through ads. Where most have great art and at least some fun gameplay, this one doesn’t even feel finished. I am not expecting Generations to be this high-fidelity gaming experience with a fantastic story, but I at least expect it to be playable. If you are looking for a gotcha game based on a popular IP, Pokemon Masters does it better. Don’t download this game.
Game Review: Tower of Fantasy
The new Gotcha MMO Tower of Fantasy has just been released and if you are thinking of trying it out, now is a good time because of how many rewards they are throwing at their players.
For those not familiar, this is a Genshin Impact clone that is trying to make its place in the genre. For the most part, I think it’s succeeding. Full disclosure, I am not an expert on the game and will be speaking about this game from a casual perspective. If you are someone looking for the best strategies to optimize your gaming experience, there are tons of YouTube channels dedicated to the subject.
Tower of Fantasy is playable on Android, IOS and PC. It is cross-platform, and I was able to play it on both PC and mobile. As far as the art goes, it is fine. It isn’t too busy, but I do prefer the dreamlike art style of Genshin Impact slightly better. There is character creation to this, but I can’t speak on how detailed it can get. I tend to randomize my appearance, but I liked my character. Not that character creation matters because you can roll for playable characters later on through the game’s Gotcha mechanic.
As far as Gotcha games go, Tower of Fantasy doesn’t feel very predatory. I got a healthy amount of in-game currency and was able to pull a couple of the chased characters. Most importantly, I found a character I love playing without spending any money on the game.
The game has a story, but it isn’t very good. You go from town to town completing chores and learning about the world’s lore. There is voice acting in this game, but it is very inconsistent. Some voice actors are great, but there are some bad recordings. I guess we can be grateful that there is voice acting, but some of the cut scenes are a chore to get through. The NPCs aren’t very memorable unless you want to play as them. I didn’t care enough about the story to care about many of the characters.
The gameplay is like any open-world MMO. There is a map you are encouraged to explore, tons of enemies to fight, and real people you can play with. Exploration is fun. You get a mount early on and other movement abilities that make traveling across the map interesting. Sometimes the movement abilities feel clunky and don’t work as intended, but the game just came so I can forgive it for now. The game encourages exploration by hiding treasures and secrets across the map that offer in-game currencies or items.
Combat is my favorite part of this game. You carry three weapons that you must switch between to maximize your damage. You work towards combos and ultimate attacks by fighting, switching weapons, and dodging properly. I never felt like the combat got stale because there is always a different combo to pull off. You have to level up your gear to keep up with the mob levels by feeding your equipment materials you find in the world. I got a steady amount of supplies to keep up with the content by only playing casually.
I’ve played this game on PC, iPhone, and the iPad. While I much prefer the PC experience because it runs smoother and my big fingers don’t get in the way, it runs fine enough on mobile. I will say that it felt especially clunky, and I encountered the most crashes on my iPad 8.
Tower of Fate has had a solid launch. I’ve encountered a few bugs and crashes, but nothing that would ruin the experience. It honestly comes down to taste. If you like the art style, go for it. If you are on the fence, try it out, it’s free. This is a very casual friendly game, especially if you only have an hour a day to play your games.
You can find out more information on the game’s official website.