Let me start by saying that I have been waiting for this game for months. When I saw that Level 5 Studios was making this game I was really hoping for a handheld Ni No Kuni type of game. But be forewarned, that is not what Fantasy Life is.
Fantasy Life is a quest based RPG/life simulator. The characters are adorable and much more customizable than you would expect. There are a good 10 skintones from pale to dark brown to choose from as well as 4 body types from tall and thin to short and stocky. There are also a good number of hairstyles to choose from. I spent a good amount of time just on character creation and was pleased as punch that I could actually create a character with my skin tone without being forced to stand in the sun for several hours a day every day (ala Animal Crossing).Â
After creating your character you get to choose your “life” from a list of 12 professions (Paladin, Mercenary, Hunter, Wizard, Cook, Angler, Woodcutter, Miner, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Tailor, and Alchemist). As I wanted to go with a more traditional RPG experience I decided to start the game as a Paladin so that I could level up by happily killing things instead of by fishing or cooking. I figured that those might be fun things to do later, but not as a main path of “life”.
While the game starts out slowly the tutorial is beyond thorough and it starts giving you quests early on that can only be satisfied if you have the talents that come with the other professions. While it gives a good insight into what the other professions can do it is a little frustrating for someone like me who only likes to take quests that can be completed in one play session.
There are three kinds of quests that you complete in this game. First there are profession based quests that gain you stars that level up your profession and help you gain some Dosh (in game currency). Second there are Butterfly (the talking butterfly who guides you along, think Navi in Legend of Zelda) quests that earn you Bliss which can be used to purchase upgrades to things like storage and shops in various areas of the world. Finally there are quests that you get from townspeople. These quests get you some much needed dosh and some upgraded consumable items that you can’t find or earn on your own at the time that you get them.
In terms of the sexual breakdown in the game I was pleased to see that many of the main NPCs were women and many of them are available to join your party to complete quests, but much of this as well as unlocking things such as Street Passing folks and friends into the game and being able to add new professions to your character to further advance the narrative and get new equipment doesn’t happen until well after the one hour mark, so I won’t talk about it here.
All in all, Fantasy Life is a fun (and surprisingly addictive) game that can probably be best described as World of Warcraft meets Animal Crossing on the 3DS not only in terms of gameplay, but in terms of being just as addictive as the other two games. The key is to make it through the tedious tutorial 🙂
