Fantasy Life (3DS)

[buntcake]

Fantasy Life, a new 3DS game from Level-5 (the Professor Layton people) is due to be released October 24 in North America. This game's been out for a while in Japan and about a month or so in Europe and Australia, and it's being described as Animal Crossing with more of a combat/fantasy focus.

 

Any other North American gamers excited for this? Any Japanese, European, or Australian players already enjoying it? Will I finally live my fantasy life as the world's most adorable blacksmith?

[N1njaSquirrel]

Yeah, I've had this game for about a month or so I guess. It's good. I've sunk about 30 hours into it. I started off as a Mercenary and then worked my way through all the support lives, now working through all the fighting lives (paladin, hunter, magician). Each different life has a different starting quest, which you have to do when you first change to that life. It requires you to meet your life master, and take a first quest, which is formulaic, but you meet your rival/friend of that life, and it's pretty sweet and funny. You can also choose to skip the initial quest if you want, which is nice if you don't care about them.

 

by far the weakest life so far is the Angler. Unlike the other gathering classes, it feels purely random as to what fish you'll pull up, and there's no way of knowing what size of fish you'll get either, as well as the type. The only exception to this is the boss fishes, which are only available in one location, and are huge.

 

Some starting tips:

• Start off with a fighting life first, as as soon as you've done the initial life mission, you're forced to do a mission which involves fighting, and you can't change life mid mission, making it harder to complete.
• The game alternates between mission mode and free mode. When you are in mission mode, you can't change life until you have finished that mission, and rest in your bed. Free mode is when it says 'Free to roam round riviera' or something like that.
• Each life has achievements to level up that life, however, gathering lives (miner, woodcutter, angler) do not require you to be in that class to complete the missions, so change to those lives ASAP so you can level them up with the other lives.
• In the heavily tutorialised intro missions, it never tells you explicitly to change lives. Don't be a mug like I was and waited 10 hours into the game to change your life, otherwise you'd get bored fast.
• Your face and hair can be changed eventually.

[missingpiece]

Oh man, I've never heard of this game before, but Level 5 is possibly my favorite developer (Rogue Galaxy & Dark Cloud 2 are some of the most underrated games ever made IMHO.)  Might have to finally get a 3DS, this sounds fantastic.

[Dewar]

Interesting, I'll have to look into this.

[buntcake]

Oh man, I've never heard of this game before, but Level 5 is possibly my favorite developer (Rogue Galaxy & Dark Cloud 2 are some of the most underrated games ever made IMHO.)  Might have to finally get a 3DS, this sounds fantastic.

 

I'm glad the 3DS is finally building its catalog of solid RPG titles that every Nintendo handheld kind of inexplicably has.

[Merus]

I'm glad the 3DS is finally building its catalog of solid RPG titles that every Nintendo handheld kind of inexplicably has.

 

No market for long-form games on mobiles, Japanese players aren't as fond of consoles any more. There's basically only two choices, the PSP/Vita and the Game Boy/DS line, and now that Nintendo has Monster Hunter, the Vita is done for.

[Dewar]

Gamespot review is less than complementary.

 

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/fantasy-life-review/1900-6415904/

 

I'll have to give this a think.

[juv3nal]

USGamer seems pretty upbeat about it:

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/fantasy-life-puts-an-mmo-style-addiction-in-your-pocket

[supasheep]

It strikes me as an interesting twist on Animal Crossing. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued, although the reviews do seem quite mixed.

[Dewar]

Hmm, crafting addiction, that's something that I can sympathise with. It's what kept FF13 going for me (and eventually killed it as well.)

[Pepyri]

So uh this game is better than it should be. First day I had it, I was planning on putting in maybe a half hour. That became 6 hours and I stayed up till 4am, totally ruining my next day.

 

Which was okay because I had nothing going on and just played more of it.

 

What I'm saying is, this game is the bee's knees. It's really swell guys, and I think others should try it out.

[juv3nal]

I got it. Am working my way through all the classes kind of evenly and am enjoying it.

[Twig]

Bought this! Downloaded it this morning. Haven't played it, yet. Think I'm about to, though!

[N1njaSquirrel]

I've done about 50 hours in this game now. It's really ace. I've also become a master of a class, which is also ace, as

they sing you a song , and it's hilarious.

 

I also like the story, it's oddly charming, even if it is a tad crap.

[Twig]

I made a sweet little hunter lady named Niv and I totally hunted that owl! This is a game I can see myself pouring way too many hours into. ):

[shammack]

Pretty sure this is my GOTY.

[Pepyri]

I'm only at 15 or so hours but hot diggity I adore it. It's like I get a double dipping of what I love about FF14 when I play it.

[kaputt]

it's oddly charming, even if it is a tad crap.

I'd love to see this quoted on the game box.

Well, the game definitely got my attention, maybe I'll buy it next month.

[supasheep]

Saw this is another thread:

 

http://www.thegia.com/2014/12/15/fantasy-life-devaluing-violence/

 

These things don’t happen by accident. It took conscious choice and careful effort on Level 5′s part to ensure nonviolence had a place in their world. I guarantee you that at some point, somebody slipped up and made a snap decision that would have inadvertently prevented this style of play from working, and it took dedication for the designers not to shrug and say, “Oh well, it’s too late now.” The designers and the planners and the QA testers all believed in a nonviolent alternative, one that the game never even explicitly invites you to consider, and they all went the extra mile to make sure it was possible.

 

This makes me really interested in playing this game now! I love games where what can appear mundane becomes engaging, such as the gameplay loop in Animal Crossing. I feel like I ought to check this game out now! What has other people's experience of the non-violent side of this game been like?