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.
Critically, 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 thing that it brings to the desk.
Fantasy Life borrows from lots of fashionable properties, however for probably the most half, it mashes collectively motion RPG exploration with Animal Crossing-esque life sim components. The consequence, as talked about, is an incredibly strong launch that’ll attraction 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 could play nonetheless you need — you may take up a combat-focused class like a peacekeeping Paladin and hone your abilities in opposition to wild monsters, or you may spend your days smashing rocks as a Miner.
With a pleasant number of Lives on provide, each provides you a contemporary perspective on the sport’s construction, and the best way its (considerably open) world is designed. Nonetheless, as you progress, it turns into more and more apparent that Fantasy Life needs you to department out into a number of Lives — it turns into much less about defining your individual character and magnificence of play, and extra about making use of each device that is out there to you.
Living proof: your highway to being the land’s most well-known Mercenary is made a lot smoother for those who’re in a position to forge your individual weapons and armour as an skilled Blacksmith. And what’s one of the best ways to acquire the metals you may must craft that gear? Yep, you higher begin grinding that Miner Life.
Fortuitously, 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 helps you to bounce straight again to your chosen fight Life.
However make no mistake, you are going to be grinding if you wish to see every thing 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 abilities by way of particular person talent bushes, and preserve observe of all the most effective locations to assemble expertise factors, supplies, and different sources.
Throw a reasonably in-depth city constructing system on prime of all this — full with unlockable allies, every of whom could be befriended by further aspect quests — and it is easy to really feel overwhelmed.
Fantasy Life i calls for a methodical method, then. On its floor, this can be a breezy, all-ages journey, however you may 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 ebook, however similarly to one thing like Dragon Quest, the plot is relayed with such appeal and sincerity that it is exhausting to not be swayed. We would not go so far as to say that you ought to be taking part in for the storytelling alone, however it’s enjoyable sufficient to string you alongside, and it will in all probability preserve youthful gamers engaged.
Talking of, it is value noting that Fantasy Life i helps a restricted sort of sofa co-op. A second participant can take up the function of Journey, the protagonist’s quirky fowl companion, and help their companion each out and in of battle. It is a considerate little characteristic for fogeys who might wish to assist their youngsters by the sport’s trickier moments.
There is no doubt that the discharge prospers while you’re past the preliminary barrage of tutorials and newly launched programs. It takes a very good 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 movement 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, this can be a downright addictive RPG, and it all the time seems like there is a purpose 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, this can be a very simplistic tackle action-based battling, centered round one-button combos, particular assaults, and dodges — with spacing being essential for those who’re up in opposition to 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 thing on this recreation, there is a satisfying development curve at work. Every fight Life performs in another way, and steadily besting harder opponents feels rewarding — particularly when there are more and more uncommon supplies up for grabs.
Certainly, it is the best way through which the entire title’s programs intertwine that provides Fantasy Life i its endurance. Rolling credit on the story might solely take you between 20 and 30 hours — largely relying on how a lot grinding you are doing between fundamental quests — however you could possibly be spending double, triple, even quadruple that period of time simply chasing your individual aims.
Conclusion
Fantasy Life i: The Lady Who Steals Time is a surprisingly monstrous outing. It may be a severely addictive RPG journey, totally full of issues to see, do, and ultimately grasp. The grind generally is a bit overwhelming at instances, 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.
