It has been a very long time coming, however proficient Japanese developer Degree-5 is lastly again — and it is again with a bang.
Fantasy Life i: The Lady Who Steals Time takes the blueprint of the unique Fantasy Life — a Nintendo 3DS title from 2014 — and massively expands upon it.
Severely, we’re nonetheless in shock over simply how a lot stuff has been packed into this successor. What begins out as an easy journey quickly transforms right into a time sink of epic proportions, as the sport doubles down on nearly every part that it brings to the desk.
Fantasy Life borrows from loads of in style properties, however for essentially the most half, it mashes collectively motion RPG exploration with Animal Crossing-esque life sim parts. The end result, as talked about, is a surprisingly strong launch that’ll enchantment to a variety of gamers.
The entire thing revolves round ‘Lives’ — jobs that your customized character can unlock and subsequently grasp. The pitch is which you can play nevertheless you need — you’ll be able to take up a combat-focused class like a peacekeeping Paladin and hone your expertise towards wild monsters, or you’ll be able to spend your days smashing rocks as a Miner.
With a pleasant number of Lives on provide, each offers you a contemporary perspective on the sport’s construction, and the way in which its (considerably open) world is designed. Nevertheless, as you progress, it turns into more and more apparent that Fantasy Life desires you to department out into a number of Lives — it turns into much less about defining your personal character and elegance of play, and extra about making use of each software that is accessible to you.
Living proof: your street to being the land’s most well-known Mercenary is made a lot smoother in the event you’re capable of forge your personal weapons and armour as an skilled Blacksmith. And what’s the easiest way to acquire the metals you may must craft that gear? Yep, you higher begin grinding that Miner Life.
Thankfully, The Lady Who Steals Time does its finest to streamline your development throughout a number of Lives. Merely interacting with a tree, for instance, will allow you to immediately swap to the Woodcutter Life, and drawing your weapon allows you to soar straight again to your chosen fight Life.
However make no mistake, you are going to be grinding if you wish to see every part the sport has to supply. Alongside levelling up your Lives, you may want to finish challenges set by every Life’s grasp, improve your gear appropriately, unlock Life-specific expertise by way of particular person ability timber, and preserve monitor of all one of the best locations to assemble expertise factors, supplies, and different sources.
Throw a reasonably in-depth city constructing system on high of all this — full with unlockable allies, every of whom may be befriended by extra aspect quests — and it is simple to really feel overwhelmed.
Fantasy Life i calls for a methodical method, then. On its floor, it is a breezy, all-ages journey, however you’ll be able to find yourself spending hours upon hours upon hours simply ticking off menial duties — and that is with out even mentioning the narrative that runs by the expertise.
Story-wise, the title makes use of nearly each trope and cliche within the e-book, however in a similar way to one thing like Dragon Quest, the plot is relayed with such appeal and sincerity that it is laborious to not be swayed. We would not go so far as to say that you need to be enjoying for the storytelling alone, nevertheless it’s enjoyable sufficient to string you alongside, and it will in all probability preserve youthful gamers engaged.
Talking of, it is price noting that Fantasy Life i helps a restricted form of sofa co-op. A second participant can take up the function of Journey, the protagonist’s quirky hen companion, and help their companion each out and in of battle. It is a considerate little function for folks who could wish to assist their youngsters by the sport’s trickier moments.
There is no doubt that the discharge thrives if you’re past the preliminary barrage of tutorials and newly launched programs. It takes a superb few hours to get thus far, however with a handful of Lives at your disposal and far of the sport’s semi-open world ripe for traversal, exploration turns into a joyous hook.
The gameplay circulation peaks as you casually hop between mashing monsters and gathering sources by way of enjoyable little minigames. As soon as the coaching wheels are off, it is a downright addictive RPG, and it at all times seems like there is a objective to chase.
For a lot of gamers, looking down the title’s most harmful foes is one such problem, and it helps that the fight system is very easy to choose up and revel in. At its core, it is a very simplistic tackle action-based battling, centered round one-button combos, particular assaults, and dodges — with spacing being vital in the event you’re up towards a number of foes.
It won’t have the mechanical depth to maintain motion aficionados coming again time and time once more, however as with every part on this recreation, there is a satisfying development curve at work. Every fight Life performs in a different way, and steadily besting more durable opponents feels rewarding — particularly when there are more and more uncommon supplies up for grabs.
Certainly, it is the way in which wherein all the title’s programs intertwine that provides Fantasy Life i its endurance. Rolling credit on the story could solely take you between 20 and 30 hours — largely relying on how a lot grinding you are doing between essential quests — however you could possibly be spending double, triple, even quadruple that period of time simply chasing your personal aims.
Conclusion
Fantasy Life i: The Lady Who Steals Time is a surprisingly monstrous outing. It may be a significantly addictive RPG journey, totally full of issues to see, do, and finally grasp. The grind is usually a bit overwhelming at occasions, however Degree-5’s trademark appeal and well-designed gameplay loops ought to preserve you coming again. That is vibrant all-ages enjoyable, just about from begin to end.
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