It has been a lengthy time coming, however gifted Japanese developer Stage-5 is lastly again — and it is again with a bang.
Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time takes the blueprint of the unique Fantasy Life — a Nintendo 3DS title from 2014 — and massively expands upon it.
Significantly, we’re nonetheless in shock over simply how a lot stuff has been packed into this successor. What begins out as a simple 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 loads of well-liked properties, however for probably the most half, it mashes collectively motion RPG exploration with Animal Crossing-esque life sim components. The end result, as talked about, is an incredibly 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 you can play nonetheless you need — you possibly can take up a combat-focused class like a peacekeeping Paladin and hone your expertise in opposition to wild monsters, or you possibly can spend your days smashing rocks as a Miner.
With a pleasant number of Lives on provide, every one provides you a recent perspective on the sport’s construction, and the best way its (considerably open) world is designed. Nevertheless, 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 instrument that is out there to you.
Working example: your street to being the land’s most well-known Mercenary is made a lot smoother if you happen to’re capable of forge your individual weapons and armour as an skilled Blacksmith. And what’s one of the best ways to acquire the metals you may have to craft that tools? Yep, you higher begin grinding that Miner Life.
Thankfully, The Woman 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 change to the Woodcutter Life, and drawing your weapon enables you to leap 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 tools appropriately, unlock Life-specific expertise by way of particular person ability timber, and hold monitor of all the very 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 will be befriended via extra aspect quests — and it is easy to really feel overwhelmed.
Fantasy Life i calls for a methodical strategy, then. On its floor, it is a breezy, all-ages journey, however you possibly can find yourself spending hours upon hours upon hours simply ticking off menial duties — and that is with out even mentioning the narrative that runs via 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 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 hold youthful gamers engaged.
Talking of, it is value noting that Fantasy Life i helps a restricted type of sofa co-op. A second participant can take up the position of Journey, the protagonist’s quirky chicken companion, and help their companion each out and in of battle. It is a considerate little function for fogeys who might wish to assist their youngsters via the sport’s trickier moments.
There is not any doubt that the discharge prospers once you’re past the preliminary barrage of tutorials and newly launched techniques. It takes an excellent few hours to get so 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 circulate 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 all the time appears 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 really 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 necessary if you happen to’re up in opposition to a number of foes.
It may not 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 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 best way through which all the title’s techniques 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 primary quests — however you can be spending double, triple, even quadruple that period of time simply chasing your individual targets.
Conclusion
Fantasy Life i: The Woman Who Steals Time is a surprisingly monstrous outing. It may be a critically addictive RPG journey, completely filled with issues to see, do, and ultimately grasp. The grind generally is a bit overwhelming at occasions, however Stage-5’s trademark appeal and well-designed gameplay loops ought to hold you coming again. That is vibrant all-ages enjoyable, just about from begin to end.
