Genshin Impact dominated the RPG genre when it was released due to the high-quality design and animation featured in its gameplay. There’s also a plethora of good-looking characters for players to collect and use in exploring its vast world on top of combatting ferocious monsters tied with a gripping storyline to complete the full package. But what happens if you inject play-to-earn mechanics and non-fungible tokens into the mix? Then you get Stella Fantasy, an anime-themed RPG like Genshin but with crypto rewards!

Graphics/Artstyle

Stella Fantasy can easily be mistaken for Genshin Impact from how similar they look. The anime-themed art style, vibrant colors of the world, and the lighting makes everything look like it’s been sunkissed and Stella Fantasy incorporated all of it into its design. Maybe they took what players liked about Genshin and added it to their game to make it mass appealing. However, It is quite concerning because it makes the game feel like another rip-off from the mihoyo project. 

One can even argue that the characters they featured both on their trailer and website take nods from characters in Genshin Impact. The three characters they featured: Lapis, Ruby, and Linette look like Jean, Amber, and Keqing to me. Also, if we are basing the gameplay on the trailer they have posted, the animation doesn’t look as smooth as Genshin's. Making it seem even more like a cheap copy of the game although I think the developers were thinking otherwise. (I hope at least.) 

Earning Mechanics and In-game Ownership

I guess this is the part where Stella Fantasy gets its brownie points from me. Since both games are character collectors in design, I think Stella Fantasy one-ups Genshin in this category since the items you get are yours truly. This is because some of the assets in the game are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that you can buy, sell and trade on the game’s marketplace once it's out. Having full ownership of your items which sometimes binds these types of resources to the player’s account. With this model, you can trade items, runes, and even characters with your fellow players and earn from the time you have spent playing the game making it all the more rewarding to play.

Gameplay

Since Stella Fantasy is an open-world RPG, I expect a lot of exploration and fighting monsters in several areas of the map. Players can experience both PVP and PVE gameplay with game modes like Abyss Rift (Which sounds close to Genshin’s Spiral Abyss) where players can acquire rewards for exploring, hunting, and farming both materials and monsters. There are also Private Lands that players can visit to help equip themselves before going on deep adventures. 

Stella Fantasy also boasts of its real-time battle system that keeps it one step above slower-paced turn-based RPGs. This combined with its graphics makes it a good RPG experience.

Final Thoughts

As a fan of the RPG genre, I’m stoked to try Stella Fantasy out. I want to decide on my own whether it carries its own weight or if it really is a Genshin Impact clone with added extra steps. Although I am one of the people that thinks trading items for games of these types is a must to make the game more social and enjoyable since farming for items and resources consumes a lot of time. 

Having the items as NFTs can also somewhat justify actually spending in the game since you can take some value back whenever you want to opt-out and try another title. Hopefully, the developers will keep on updating the game and listen to its community when it’s released because RPGs tend to get boring quickly once you max out. For now, I am looking forward to what’s in store for Stella Fantasy going forward.