[BLOG] 3DS Game Review: Fantasy Life

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Thay
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[BLOG] 3DS Game Review: Fantasy Life

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Yay! It’s finally the day you choose your new Life! Which one will it be? You can be a fighter with the Lives: Paladin, Mercenary, Hunter, or Mage. Or you can be a craftsman with the Lives: Blacksmith, Tailor, Carpenter, Alchemist, or Cook. Or you can choose to gather materials with the Lives: Angler, Woodcutter, or Miner. Once you chose your Life, you work hard to master it, but strange things begin to happen in the land of Reveria. Strange stones called Doomstones start falling from the sky that fills creatures nearby them with dark, destructive energy. It falls to you, with the help of a butterfly companion named Flutter, who attached itself to you, to discover the mystery behind the strange stones and to discover more about an ancient prophecy involving Reveria's goddess and the moon Lunares, all this while trying to master the Life you chose.



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Fantasy Life is a game that combines the gently paced role-playing from games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon with spectacle and narrative tropes of JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Bravely Default. It was created by developer Level-5 who also created such games as the Professor Layton series and Ni No Kuni. It also features artwork and music from a couple of Final Fantasy alumni.



When you first start a game you begin with character creation which is pretty in depth. It allows you to change different facial features, body shape, and hair. You can also choose a voice. All of these options are rather nice and allow you to create a character however you like. Lastly, you get to choose what Life you want to have.



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The key mechanic in the game is the Life system, which is a system that allows you to choose a Life, a profession, which you want to have throughout the game. When you start the game you choose a Life you want to play as, but you are able to switch between any of the Lives whenever you want. For example I chose my first Life as Hunter, because I wanted to have a combat class. Then I decided to try one of the crafting Lives, Carpenter, which allowed me to make a lot of items I could sell for higher prices, as well as make some cool bows for my Hunter Life. But soon I found myself spending quite a bit of money on materials to use as a Carpenter. So I decided to try out the Woodcutter Life so I can collect wood myself instead of buying it. It is a rather nice idea for a game. It makes so you can go though the game how you would like. I also enjoy the fact that no matter what Life you have activated at the moment you can still use skills from the other Lives you learned without changing Lives.



One thing I did notice though is some Lives are more interesting than others in the long run. For each of the Lives you are given challenges by your Master. By completing these challenges, you gain Stars (experience) which level you up in your Life. For example, for my Hunter Life I had challenges like: ‘hunt down a certain creature’, or ‘kill this many creature’. I was even able to gather plants too as a Hunter which gave the challenges of ‘collect this many of this item”. As I leveled up with the Hunter I gained more and more attacks I could use like ‘rain of arrow’s or ‘multi-shot’. All this made me really want to rise up in ranks as a Hunter to see what comes next.



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My Carpenter Life was a bit different. As one of the crafting Lives, you get challenges to make certain items and certain numbers of them. This would be interesting except the crafting stage for all of the crafting Lives (I tried Blacksmith as well to check) are the same, all the time. When you want to craft something you play a little ‘mini-game’ where you follow the prompts on the screen which tell you to either, hold down A, or quickly mash A, or hit A when the moving marker flashes over the middle of a bar. That’s it. The better you match what it says the better chance you have at making better quality items which can be sold for more money. While this mini-game is quite amusing at first, after a while of doing it, I got kind of bored with it and just went back to continue my Hunter Life. But it is nice to go back to every once in a while. And as you create enough of certain items you will be able to make them in bulk which can cut down the tediousness of it.



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My third Life, Woodcutter, was a bit less interesting. Basically the challenges for it were ‘cut down this many of this type of tree’ and that was basically it. It is nice that when you do go to cut down a tree, you have the challenge of finding the best place to chop on the tree so you can get more wood from it. Woodcutter and other gathering type Lives seem to be nice as a second or third Lives rather than a first one to choose. They seem to only be good for getting materials cheaper for your crafting Lives.



The Questing system in this game is quite interesting. There are 3 types of quests: Life Challenges, Butterfly’s Requests, and Other Requests. The Life Challenges are quest which help you rise in rank for your life. The Butterfly’s Requests are basically the quests that lead into the main story. These lead you to explore the land and talk with the main NPCs of the game, fleshing out the story as you go. The third type of quest, the Other Requests, is quests you get from the multitude of NPCs throughout the land. They will mostly involve you finding certain items, which you can sometimes make if you have the right skills, or killing certain creatures. You will usually get money and sometimes an item for completing these requests.



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Also connected with challenges is the Bounty System the game has. As you travel though the Land you will come across some tougher creatures or rare materials which you can defeat/collect and turn in for a reward. Usually you will get a nice bit of money, but you can also get some nice items from it too. The only problem is you can’t fast travel while carrying them or run with them. You have to travel as safely as possible to get them to a bounty collector. You also need to watch out for other hostile creatures for they will try to attack your bounties.



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This game also has this nice Bliss system. Bliss is collected by completing quests like the story quests and the quests you get for starting a new Life, or you get it for meeting certain milestones like ranking up in a Life. With Bliss you are able to unlock certain perks like larger inventory space, owning a pet, horse-riding, and more. It encourages you to play the story and to rank up.



Another nice thing about this game is it has a housing system in it. You start out the game living in a small attic apartment. In this apartment you are able to place furniture and customize the walls and floor with items you can buy or make. As you make more money, you can upgrade to a larger house, which gives you more floor space. There are multiple houses you can buy, but you need the money first. Your home is also the place you can keep your pet if you don’t have them in your party helping you out. You can also sleep in the bed in your house to heal and save the game.



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Fantasy Life is defiantly a more casual title in the RPG genre. It has a simple story and simple mechanics which are easy to pick up and learn. While the story isn’t the best, it is a game you will find yourself loosing track of time playing as it keeps you wanting to rank up in your Life.



All in all I enjoyed Fantasy Life. While there were certain mechanics of the game that I thought got repetitive, I enjoyed leveling up my character and exploring the land of Reveria. Its lovely art style and music is also a plus as well. I spent a lot of time engrossed in getting my character to the highest rank in her Life and I most likely will continue playing until she is a Master of all the Lives. I suggest this game to anyone who has a slight interest in RPGs.



[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ1-ijkHzp8[/youtube]



It is available on the Nintendo eShop for download on your 3DS or at your nearest game retailer.
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