No comparison matters more to Neverness to Everness than Tower of Fantasy, because both come from Hotta Studio. Tower of Fantasy was hyped in 2022 as a potential "Genshin killer" and instead landed as a janky sci-fi MMORPG take on the formula, dogged by technical issues, pay-to-win complaints and visuals that many found cheap. NTE is, explicitly, the studio's attempt at redemption, and it is hard to overstate how different it feels.
Gameplay & combat
Tower of Fantasy is an open-world MMO with shared-world zones, weapon-swapping combat and a sci-fi setting. NTE narrows the focus into a single, seamless urban metropolis and rebuilds the moment-to-moment feel around the Esper system, with parries, perfect dodges and combo chains for a more curated action-RPG experience rather than MMO grind. Crucially, NTE adds a sandbox layer ToF never had: you can commandeer cars, trigger a wanted/crime system, own property and run businesses, and race online, pushing it closer to GTA-with-anime than to a traditional gacha.
Progression & monetisation
This is where the lesson is most visible. Tower of Fantasy's monetisation was widely criticised as pay-to-win, which corroded community trust. NTE takes the opposite stance:
- No 50/50 on limited banners; the featured S-Class is guaranteed on any S-Class pull.
- Hard pity at 90 pulls, and no weapon banner at all.
- A very generous launch economy (roughly 418 free pulls and a free S-rank).
The messaging is deliberate: cut the predatory edges that damaged ToF's reputation.
Content & endgame
Visually and technically, NTE is a huge step up, built on Unreal Engine 5 with far stronger art direction and atmosphere than Tower of Fantasy's much-mocked presentation. But NTE is still new and its record is mixed rather than clean: launch reception was polarised (TapTap around 7.0 in CN, 9.0 globally), the story reportedly stalls after a strong opening, mobile optimisation and driving feel drew complaints, and an AI-asset controversy erupted when players spotted AI-generated background material. In other words, it fixed ToF's biggest sins but is not flawless.
Which should you play?
There is little reason to return to Tower of Fantasy over NTE unless you specifically want its MMO shared-world structure or are already invested in its account. NTE is the more ambitious, better-looking, and far fairer-monetised evolution of what Hotta Studio started, so long as you accept that, as a launch-window game, its long-term content and consistency are still unproven.
