FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time

很杀时间，强烈推荐

100000% worth the wait tenfold!! i'm reviewing a good while after completing the main story so as to let the game sink in for me, and it's still a solid 8 or 9/10. the first game is one of my favorite 3DS games of all time, and i was super excited for this one, and i think it lived up to the hype for me. if you played the first one chances are you will enjoy this one just as much - though granted it's not so much a connected continent anymore than it is a bunch of islands + the Big map (but the game is still huge in its own right, but this can be a turn off for some). you can actually see (but can't access...) a corner of reveria on the main map!! the gameplay loop is much of the same but with an emphasis on open world exploration; a majority of the materials this time around are located there (and it's pretty fun to explore imo) but most (human) npcs will be outside of this zone. i believe nearly every character from the first game makes an appearance here; how and when i won't spoil! but i had a fun time with the mechanic. damien my beloved there's also an ACNH-adjacent base camp/hub island that you can terraform and decorate at will - with a MUCH better system than new horizons. you get a robot helper that gives you a view of the island from the air which makes the process way less time-consuming (my island in ACNH is still not done nearly 6yrs later<3). the character creator is on par with and possibly better than the first's which is always a plus in my book!! if i had any criticisms it would be that the player character sometimes makes "effort grunts" way too often and it's a little annoying lol (and resource tracking is tedious at times between all of the menus but this is more of a nitpick than anything) for newcomers - in this game you choose a "life" to focus on and rank up in the guild as much as you can through performing crafts/gathers/hunts associated with the lives. unfortunately they got rid of the fun sidequests for ranking up But much like the first game you can switch at any time! as i said previously most of the gameplay loop will be exploring the main area - ginomorsia - alongside completing the main story. it *is* pretty grind-heavy however (especially the end/postgame), so remember to enjoy the game at your own pace! there's not really a wrong way to play. you can also have npc companions tag along to help make the entire process easier! i don't think the first game is at all necessary to play this one, though there will be a plethora of easter eggs and more familiarity with the game's core mechanics if you do. the story is standalone (for the most part)! a lot of people call the first game "FFXIV Lite" so if you've ever wondered what the game was like at its core, but the multiplayer/cost/specs/etc were keeping you on the fence, or if you enjoy FFXIV already (like meee), i'd give this game a shot! the story obviously isn't as good (not to discredit FLi's story though, it's pretty decent if a little predictable) but both games are super similar fundamentally! speaking of: as a side thing i think it would be really funny/neat if this game had a proper crossover with FFXIV; not just because it's my favorite game but because the mobile fantasy life actually had a crossover with it???? which i think is kind of wild. i would cry i think if i had a little flutter/odin following me around in FFXIV/characters like alisaie or g'raha in my base camp (or something smaller, i.e white mage robes/paladin armor. something is telling me it'd be highly unlikely we get the scions of all characters as dlc npcs in this game T_T). the possibilities are endless..... anyways yeah. solid game, i'd maybe wait for it to be on sale (the deluxe edition is a little silly) if you're still deciding whether or not to buy it. there are theoretically hundreds of hours of content in this game, including a solo or multiplayer dungeon randomizer system (which is entirely optional iirc but is where most of the best gear in the game is found; think palace of the dead FFXIV) and a decent story to be found. personally i would rank the first game's story above this one but this one doesn't fall that far short! it's good:) i love these two games so dearly and i'm so glad more people know about and can experience it now!! <3 *last note: if this game utilized AI heavily in its creation, i do not support that in any way shape or form; level-5 is pro-AI now and there's always a risk they potentially lied about its use in this title. i want to believe they did not (or if they did it was just for concepts/inspiration [which seems to be the case for *most* of their AI usage??], and nothing was directly used in-game like dialogue/art/backgrounds/etc) as nothing has that weird "AI feel" to it. but in case whoever is reading this is super iffy about the topic, like i am, i wanted to include this in case this is a make-or-break deal for you. i feel kinda bad for layton fans [may be edited in the future, i'm sure i forgot to include something]

While I do recommend this game, there are some things I think people should be aware of. First of all, I play on steam deck. This game has stopped allowing me to use a controller and play the game with it docked. I have tried everything to fix this including factory resetting my deck and uninstalling and reinstalling the game. No idea what the issue is as it was working at first. The game is still fully playable in handheld mode using the decks built in controls. None of my other games have this issue. It is exclusive to this game. Second thing, the story is VERY short and not really in depth in any way. Its cute and the characters are fun, but there really isn't much going on. There also isn't any kind of friendship or romance mechanic with the main story characters. There is no extra dialougue or cute scenes or anything like that. You can improve your relationship with your helpers (the stranglings) but all it does is make them essentially more useful with whatever task they specialize in. If you are wanting a story and characters you can get to know, this is not that game. The big pull of this game is the game play loop. Fight monsters, gather resources, craft armor and items to decorate your island. That is the main thing you are doing in this game. Multi-player. This is VERY mixed in my opinion. You flat out cannot play the main story together with someone else who owns the game. The bird, Trip, can be used by someone who is in the same room with a second controller, but he isn't able to really do anything other than minorly help the player with whatever they are doing. It feels designed with the concept of letting your kid or little sibling "help" you without letting them mess up whatever you are actually doing. All story progression must be done solo. You can do the snoozland DLC together which is a dungeon crawler rougelite mode. And you can gather resources together on Ginormosia which is basically a massive island to gather resources of all kinds that has a bunch of different areas you can rank up to access different resources. Treasure groves are dungeons that are randomly generated that you go through with your story character and whatever all you have unlocked to use at that point. All of these have an hour timer on them though that I find odd and annoying at times. It does allow full cross-platform though, which is a bonus. There are 14 different "lives" (aka job classes) that you can use. 4 of them are your standard gathering. Fishing, wood cutting, mining, and farming..... which isn't unlocked until literally half way through the main story. 4 are combat classes. Mage and hunter are ranged (magic and arrows respectively), paladin and mercenary are melee (sword and shield and big sword respectively). The other 6 classes are crafting classes. One of which the artist class also isn't available until half way through. Ive seen comments where people say the "story" is basically a tutorial for the game. While not completely accurate........ its also not wrong. Honestly the first half of the story is a tutorial. I dont normally recommend fast tracking through a story, but with this game I would advise people to push through to the beginning of chapter 5 (of 7) so you have access to all the main mechanics of the game. It really does make the game better. I also recommend ranking up (this is different than leveling up) all the lives pretty evenly. You get access to more and more recipes as you rank up lives. If you like to craft and decorate and make your own gear, this game is a blast. If you want a great, profound, or deep story and in depth characters, then this game is not for you.

Most fun I have had playing a video game in years

Very good game brought down by a lot of repetitive tasks and alot of bloat. Most items in the game are useless and it comes off very similar to Disgaea where the game just showers you in useless items and gear that you either have no use for, or is just horribly outdated. Life paths are cool, I just wish I wasn't forced into playing all of them regardless, it begs the question of why even make you go through motions of picking them at the guild hall if you can just autoswap to them when you interact with an object. At least you only need one combat job and can ignore the rest, unless you're going for cheevos or more gameplay. I do wish the base development was a bit more advanced then it is, right now it's just animal crossing but for some reason they force you to go through the guild hall to move bridges and stairs around like Animal crossing too, which is obnoxious since it makes structure placement more tedious. I still recommend the game because despite the flaws I pointed out, there's fun to be had and I do hope for another entry or if Level 5 have more expansions planned for this one at least, I will look forward to them.

Las primeras 2-3h se me hicieron un poco pesadas porque el tutorial era lento al principio, pero en cuanto te sueltan un poco, ya te has perdido en este absorbe-horas. Siempre hay algo que hacer: ya sea seguir la historia principal (que aunque es infantil, está bastante bien escrita), completar misiones de los NPCs, completar misiones de los tablones, completar misiones de los oficios... Muy recomendado si quieres jugar a un juego tipo Animal Crossing pero RPG. Muy chulo.

fun and cozy. Not too deep as far as I've seen but there's a story to entertain but isn't so story driven that you feel constrained. Enough freedom to wander about between the storyline questing. Many routes to explore related to careers or "lives" as they are called in the game.

This game is basically Animal Crossing coziness with Zelda-style exploring and real-time combat, plus an Octopath-like job system where you can swap roles and level them up. It's chill and incredibly addictive.