In the first part of a regular series, Karen takes on Fantasy Life in a variety of 'lives' and documents her adventures.
One of Fantasy Life's most notable features — the upcoming life sim/action RPG from Level-5 and Brownie Brown — is that it has twelve jobs, or Lives, that players can fulfil in the game. Working 9 to 5 in a Fantasy Life will be an ongoing series here on Nintendo Life where I spend a full working day playing one of the Lives and share my impressions with you, our valued reader. One thing that I was not told when I was brought on as a writer and asked for feature ideas is that I was also volunteering to write my proposed features should they pass editorial muster. Good times, I say, good times.
The first thing to do in a new game of Fantasy Life, obviously, is create a little pixelated id monster of an avatar. I am two things that make character creation an absolute trap: exceedingly vain and nominally fastidious. Luckily for me the ability to adjust facial features is more limited than in Mii Maker, so pinning down the most pleasing appearance I could get with the available options was expedient enough. The big problem is that this character's look has to adapt to many roles within the game world, and after spending far too long trying to find a hairstyle that could effortlessly go from lumberjack to magician I decided on a Bayonetta/Wendy O. Williams style 'sod it all' punk 'do and still ended up cheek-pinchingly cute. Having given up all hope of equal representation of the Lives of Reveria in look or name, my character is called Fennel. All of my names for pets, mounts, etc. are drawn from spices, as I suspect that although cooks are only one of the many lives, they are in fact the secret power brokers of Reveria.
In my first morning in Castele I introduced myself to my landlady by falling out of bed with a loud crash. Pam is a mystifyingly familiar kindly matron whose spare bed in the attic has allegedly seen many a fledgling adventurer, but she assures me that she always changes the sheets in between. Outside of Pam's house I find a summons from Castele's king stuffed into the mailbox because it's apparently too much to expect that an adventurer with no memories of his or her previous number of years can wake up as a fully fit unit of economic production without the king's personal seal of approval.
On my way through Castele's main square I meet Flutter the butterfly, who will go on to function as my conscience, majordomo, neck piece, and funny guy to my apparently good-natured but utterly silent apple-cheeked straight man. The two thugs that Flutter is in trouble with are straining themselves trying to understand why a butterfly can talk but I'm trusting that the mushrooms Pam put in this morning's omelette explain the phenomenon, at least on my end. I head off to the Guild Office to get my first life licence for the hunting Life, even though I was already issued the clothing complete with silly headgear at the end of character creation. I chose hunting as my first Life because collecting spare animal parts seemed like the best way to get to know the land I probably grew up in.
At the castle, King Erik looks to be roughly eight years old with precision bobbed hair you could cut paper on. The other members of the court seem to be too intently polite to be put out by the kings apparent condition, so I'm assuming that it isn't the mushrooms talking. With the state requirements satisfied Flutter and I leave to meet Fern, the hunting master and Castele's most urgent candidate for self-help. Fern's attitude suggests that she may be currently questioning her Life choices in addition to being too cool for you, but she grudgingly takes me as a student after I complete a personally issued challenge wherein I show up Ferns other slacker pupil, Huntin' Pete. Pete is such a slacker that his own grandmother personally asks Fern to drop Pete as a pupil because he's such a slacker. All of this goes to show that when applying for a job you're only as good as the other applicants.
Laundry list of Life challenges in hand, I arrive in the East Grassy Plains, eager to prove myself a steward of the wilderness by shooting arrows into Reveria's most beautiful creatures. Combat as a hunter is reasonably straightforward. You aim, you shoot, you wonder how a bow could possibly have this much recoil; yet it's also useful for incrementally pushing you away from attacking monsters. If you've ever become dependent on auto-aim you are suddenly and subtly reminded of this fact. Having a pet is very useful to hunter combat as your pet can run interference while you safely snap your catgut away at the monsters until your not terribly durable pet faints and you deservedly get your own kneecaps chewed on.
Life as a hunter was certainly enjoyable, but since the challenges are full of 'kill number of creature' cull quests it didn't feel as different from other games as it should have. I got most of that Fantasy Life flavour from accidentally launching myself through four chapters of the main story in this sitting. Since all the fresh air is killing me and Castele fashion could use an Alexander McQueen style enfant terrible to shake things up, please join me next time when I'll be taking up the tailoring Life.
Rank achieved: Adept
Useful for: Acquiring bow skills, pretending that Fantasy Life has pet classes.
Quality of Life: *** of *****
Additional comments: Bows seem overpowered up until the very moment when they seem underpowered.
Comments 28
really hoping this game is good. a little worried from this article, but holding out hope.
Looking forward to the reviews, I need a good sim game
I'm still very much on the fence about this game. Looks like it has potential, I'm looking forward to a full review when it comes out.
In this case work = fun!
Can't wait to play this. Now I really want it even more!
So what is it like?
I love Rune Factory big time. I don't like Animal Crossing, I want to, but I really don't like it at all.
Where does Fantasy Life fall? Is it more like Rune Factory, or more like AC?
Awesome new feature was going to do something similar on miiverse
wow the autor managed to tell as little about the game as possible. only the last two abstract really tell something about the "hunter" live that was picked.
@Tops Cool, thanks! Sounds like I'll want to keep an eye on it. Rune Factory 4 is one of my favorite 3ds games.
i try to stick to nintendo made games but will give this a try. will there be a demo?
Please be a good game.....
No worries, this is a good game. I played Jap version over 1,000 hours even I can't read Japanese.
Interesting, curious to hear about other play styles.
@GN004Nadleeh
nope
Very interesting article, can't wait for Fantasy Life to come out.
for 8 hours of a game that didnt say much. i cant wait for a real review. i was looking foreward to this, i hope its good.
Apparently, some people can't seem to grasp that this "feature" wasn't intended to be a review of the game and more of a clever/witty recounting of the author's 1st play-through of the game.
P.S I really liked the article, please keep up the awesome work and good luck with your next "work day."
"Bows seem overpowered up until the very moment when they seem underpowered."
This made me chuckle! Great work, Karen!
"I [...] pick on the local wildlife"
Well now PETA will be after you!
I think it will be good. Level 5 has a pretty good track record.
Im hoping its Animal Crossing meets Final Fantasy/ Dragon Quest...but we shall see.
@luckybreak It will I assure you lol my bigest issue with AC was that there wasn't much core things to do.
Excellent stuff, Level5 (nearly) always deliver, can't wait to play it. Great article, btw.
Cant wait! I'm chomping at the bit for a new Life sounds great! Can't wait too see what the online play consists of
I clicked this article to see if this was the case. Sheesh, that many consecutive hours on one game? Must be maddening. I hope your hourly wage is high.
I've been excited for this game for a while, particularly for the roles, so thanks for this feature series!
Can you change your character appearance once made, or is it set in stone?
I look forward to more!
@Spoony_Tech just found out what the online includes. Still looks good. It should be as good as Animal crossing online but with adventuring here is the post from a guy on gamefaqs. Have no clue why reviewers here haven't reviewed the online play. The online is a huge deal. At least for me.
Unlocks after the prologue and during the first chapter. You will be instructed to return to the Guild Office and speak to the LINK clerk where Screenshots will also become available.
~Multiplayer allows you and two other people (total of 3) to visit your world and go on adventures. While in someone’s world, you are free to craft, fight monsters, trade and turn in bounties and travel to different parts of the map on your own. NOTE: You cannot travel to a place on the map that has not been unlocked yet. For example, I cannot travel to the second town in your world if you haven’t beaten that chapter of the story.
~You communicate in multiplayer by using text chat and quick text to friends online. The only people you can play with online are those on your friend list. The conversations are also saved in a text log to easily keep up with conversation if one of you were busy. Think of the Best Friend feature in Animal Crossing.
~Things you can do in Multiplayer:
~Fast Travel
~Trade items/equipment/clothing
~Fight big monsters and receive bounty items
~Things you CANNOT do in Multiplayer:
~Bring pets along
~Side or Main quests
~Save (This may change. I did test this but a second confirmation is appreciated)
~When fighting monsters, all players involved in fighting monsters will receive money and experience. What is not shared is the item from a bounty box. The best suggestion is to speak before hand about who will receive the bounty prize. Enemies respawn fairly quickly so the bounty box rewards can be easily gotten again. Another option is going to your friend’s world and getting a bounty there.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE WHEN USING MULTIPLAYER
~You can only trade items when multiplayer is open. Use the red box in the Guild Office to trade items (Total of 8 spots open) between each other. When you go to pick up an item, the game will ask if you want to save to which you respond yes.
DO NOT PUT AN ITEM IN THE BOX THEN SHUT OFF MULTIPLAYER. THE ITEM WILL DISAPPEAR
When all said and done I hope we can play together sometime. I hope item drops are a lot like Phantasy star Online where you have a lower and Higher % chance of certain items dropping. Its what made you come back for more!
@Windy We will sure get together at some points. We need a better way to communicate though. We could trade personal info as in phone #? If you want here's my email to do so [email protected]. I've traded # widths other users I play with online and it's just son much easier.
Sure . we can do that. Me and LTGamer use skype and I also use google+ hangouts to call other friends. I will email you
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