
It's been seven years since Level-5's toylike RPG masterpiece Fantasy Life came to the 3DS in the West, and like addicts seeking our next hit we've been searching for something that replicates that feeling ever since. Between games like Ni No Kuni (also Level-5) and cutesy Rune Factory-likes such as Littlewood, we've come close... but in a surprising twist, Kitaria Fables is the younger sibling to Fantasy Life that we never saw coming.
The pitch doesn't really do the game justice: "a delightfully cute action adventure RPG with farming and crafting" makes us feel that another-farming-game fatigue that followed in the wake of Stardew Valley, and the cat theming, we'll be honest, left us expecting something twee and hollow. After all, we've been burned by cute-looking stuff before.
Instead, what we found was a wonderfully robust and surprisingly sprawling RPG that's actually cute — so many games don't quite nail cuteness, but the second we met Timmy, the young chinchilla that runs a small shop in your home village, we were sold.

The central conflict in Kitaria Fables is pretty standard RPG fare: monsters becoming more aggressive, 'we need a hero', 'oh look here's a hero right here', 'it's dangerous to go alone', etc. There's an undercurrent of an ominous nature, too, as magic has been banned for secret reasons.
You'll quickly be introduced to the "classless" combat system, in which you'll be able to use a sword, a bow, and the four elemental magics to craft your own loadout of spells and melee. Weapons and armour can be upgraded with monster materials and a big chunk of change, making your attacks hit harder and your health last longer.
So, yes, Kitaria Fables certainly isn't trying to break the mould, but that linearity isn't necessarily a bad thing. Playing Kitaria Fables feels like treading the boards of a café that you go to every day: it's comforting, warm, and reassuring. If you like games that engage your brain with mindless-yet-enjoyable grinding interspersed with some extremely light farming and the occasional quest or new area to explore, then Kitaria Fables is perfect.

The part of it that's most Fantasy Life, though, is the combat. Much like Fantasy Life would let you switch between classes to take on monsters as a Paladin, Mercenary, Hunter, or Magician, Kitaria Fables lets you choose how you want to beat up slimes ("Gooeys") and golems. If you prefer the visceral, hard-hitting sword (and don't mind the risk-reward factor), then you can dump all your materials into upgrading it; if you prefer the slow-burn range of magics and archery, then there's plenty for you, too. And, of course, you can mix-and-match on the fly, depending on the enemy or the terrain.
Again, like Fantasy Life, there are a number of distinct, themed areas — a desert, a frozen mountain, several cave dungeons, and a forest — and each one has different free-roaming Things To Kill that match the climate. There are bosses, too, which range from tricky-for-beginners to this-guy-can-kill-you-with-a-glance, and it's only by levelling up your equipment that you'll be in with a chance of slaying them. They respawn every new day, too, so you'll be able to get plenty of practice in, but since increased damage and HP are tied to your ability to collect materials and cash, and not your XP, it'll require a lot of grinding.

In between story missions and the light farming, it's the grinding that makes up most of the game: gathering materials that sell for a lot of money, investing that money into weapons, using upgraded weapons to slay monsters for more materials, rinse and repeat. That grind isn't for everyone, but it certainly is for us, and although there were times when the game dragged (specifically when one quest required a bunch of vegetables that took multiple days to grow), it picked up again once we'd done the necessary work.
A few minor issues mar the experience, like the odd audio bug that seems to make the water.wav sound effect play on top of itself a hundred or so times, which means that walking past a serene river sounds like standing at the foot of Niagara Falls. This is easily fixed by closing and re-opening the game, but it's pretty jarring in a game that's got an otherwise lovely soundscape.
A more serious bug is the tendency for enemies in certain areas to fall off the map, which is only really a problem in certain circumstances where the way is blocked until you can defeat all the monsters, resulting in you being trapped in a cave and forced to reset to the last save (which is usually once per day). The patch notes for update 1.0.4 hopes to fix this, but this patch hasn't been pushed to the Switch at the time of writing (we just got 1.0.2).

The slightly wonky pacing and lack of knowledge of where to acquire certain materials makes it hard to progress in the first few hours, but we can't say we really minded, since it was during those first few hours that we fell in love with the game, after all. We do wish that there were more fast-travel points — some of them are spaced weirdly far apart, and a couple of the towns only have one-way portals — although it's hard to say if this is a bug or an oversight.
One thing we really can't let Kitaria Fables get away with is the minuscule text. There are three UI sizes, and we had it set to "Large" the whole time, but both handheld and on the TV, it was like reading a book from across the room. It's surprising, because other accessibility considerations, like fully remappable buttons, are there from the start, but the itty-bitty text is hopefully something that will be tweaked in future, because right now you'll give yourself a headache from all the squinting you'll have to do.
Even with these bugs and issues, though, Kitaria Fables has been an absolute delight. We've played for 30 hours in total, and although the ending is a little abrupt, almost all of those 30 hours have been filled with hopeful joy that Fantasy Life lives on in the DNA of indies like this.
Conclusion
A fantastic tribute to Fantasy Life that nails the kind of grindy combat that many people love, Kitaria Fables is genuinely sweet and impressively well-made for a three-person team in under three years. If Fantasy Life is a Wagyu beef steak, Kitaria Fables is a really, REALLY good burger. If you're jonesing for a tasty action-farming-adventure, Kitaria Fables has you covered.
Comments 51
Peoples, what do you think about this indie game that made by peoples from my country Indonesia 🇮🇩 ? 😀
Pretty good, eh ? 😉
And me as Indonesian people, I will buy this game on PS4 & Switch version.
furry... thing, no thanks
Tiny text ......just lost me.
A Fantasy Life experience that looks so amazing?? Ok, I'm totally SOLD.
Count on me.
PS: I hope they improve the text size, though.
@SmartNickname
What's wrong with Anthromorphic animals ?
They are so cute in Chibi form.
Also, my avatar currently is Anthromorphic Rabbit.
I was expecting this to be another straight up farming sim with lite RPG elements, but this looks like more than that. I'm intrigued.
Also, big respect to Nintendolife for doing a pretty good job at giving reviews to people who favor the genre they reviewing! It definitely helps speak to readers who favor the genre they're reading about.
We need a new Fantasy Life game on Switch.
It may look farm sims and RPG but that's where the similarity ends. It's how they implement gameplay that's can separate this classification of games. I want it but Funstock extras are out and waiting for inventory to order.
It also runs at what reels like 20fps. As soon as I started playing it hit me, and the area was pretty basic with no other characters in. It feels like the Switch version is a bit of an afterthought. Looking at the PC recommended specs, they're modest but still perhaps beyond what the Switch has to offer and it seems like the devs didn't optimise it well for the platform (see also: the text size issue you mentioned).
Eh, if the author thinks the soft middle of the road taste of wagyu beef is actually better than a proper burger, then this is hard pass for me.
@SmartNickname I hate it when people hate furries for no good reason. Why dismiss a game just because of some anthropologic animals? There's a lot of anthro characters in entertainment, including Yoshi!
Also not all furries are bad, but I can already tell that somebody is gonna whine about this statement and call them zoophilies just because they want to characterize themselves as an animal.
Then again you could just be joking and I completely missed the joke of the comment. But either way, it's kinda annoying seeing unneeded hate for furries just because there are some bad apples in the community. There are bad apples in every community.
@HotGoomba I bet they like Star Fox and Sonic without saying a word about the anthropomorphism. It's such a disingenuous criticism.
Great Review! I did a review on my YT channel and I have the same thoughts. Overall really good, but very grindy. Probably more so than other similar games. It does have fps issues, but the world is gorgeous for an indie game!
As soon as I saw the article I already knew who the reviewer was 😁
Been watching my partner play and she's already getting abit tired of the grind, and some of the early enemies can hit hard, to a point where I was required to join in co op and help out 😂
Also a tip is to fill all of your farmland with wheat and every two days yiu can make like 90 cookies, altogether your making over 10,000 profit every two days, it might be a chore but she had over 100,000 in just over an hour and half
@HotGoomba if you're upset with how furry things are treated then it's none of my business. I don't care. I'm not spreading hate or anything, I just said in a very very short comment that I'm not interested in this game due to its nature. And that's it.
@SmartNickname
But Anthromorphic animals are used in every entertainment from video games, comic, anime, cartoon, text book, illustrations including Animal Crossing, Star Fox, Looney Tunes, Disney, Yoshi from Mario games, etc.
What's wrong with Anthromorphic animals ?
"if you're upset with how furry things are treated then it's none of my business. I don't care. I'm not spreading hate or anything."
But now you spreaded hate toward Anthromorphic animals.
Hard to read text? I’m out.
@IronMan30
Well, at least Kitaria Fables is the closest one since Level-5 is no longer making games like Fantasy Life anymore (even if they made again, probably for mobile or Japan only)
@IronMan30 From what I've read, this will do until then.
@SmartNickname Oh yeah "ew animals" amirite?
Like the author, I've been waiting for a Fantasy Life successor for forever. I really don't mind the material grinding, so this game might be just what I needed.
Thank you for reviewing it
Review is spot on. Wish there was more depth to the combat and farming systems, a way to teleport back to camp from anywhere, and a leveling system since grinding for materials can get tedious. Didn’t have any problem with text sizes, but yes, I think more games should implement the feature because there were other games where it was a problem for me.
Overall, a very comfortable game to play for those times where you just want to relax and engage in some mindless fun.
"Like Fantasy Life..." SOLD
@SmartNickname I honestly don’t understand why people are getting so upset over furries. They’re make believe, like dragons and fairies, but people treat it like actual racism.
@Clarice
Wait. You'll pass because you feel like the metaphor is flawed?
Or is "middle of the road taste" your description of Fantasy Life?
@shining_nexus
@HotGoomba
@CharlieGirl
For me, it depends on the art style. Sometimes it feels really disingenuous. There are a lot of games (to me) that feel like the cutesy, animal art style is a quick cash grab.
So I'm always wary these days when a game seems to market on the fact that you're an animal (often a specific kind, like cats or dogs).
HOWEVER, this game sounds awesome!
I'm probably in.
To help understand about "the furry thing" - it most certainly isn't racism, but there has been for many years a very strong culture of not just not being interested in anthropomorphic animals, but mocking everything about them, and denigrating and bullying those that do like them. Is that what's happening here? Eh, not necessarily. But when faced with, as aptly put earlier, hate, for so long from so many angles, a strong reaction like this is quite understandable. These days I would much rather see an over-defense than that same tired, automatic reaction to the style.
@Kiwi_Unlimited no, but if that is the fitting metaphor then I will be passing this in favour of fantasy life.
Between the Fantasy Life MMO, Ni No Kuni MMO, and Dragon Quest X, I'm dying for literally any one of them to bring that cozy fantasy niche to the Switch! For pity's sake, I'm still waiting impatiently while I listen to LOTR Shire ambiance videos.
@SmartNickname Personally this art style hits the Animal Crossing/Star Fox vibe more so than the "Furry" cliche. So I disagree with you so hard that I have to respond to your hot take faster than my knee can jerk!
Definitely on my wishlist! Looking forward to this one!
@SmartNickname My apologies, thought that you implying worse. Albeit you could've put your comment in a much better way.
I wasn't going to put this on my wishlist because I thought it would be too generic or have too much farming, but this review has changed my mind.
Although the text size is a concern because I typically play switch on a medium sized tv across the room.
Is $19 USD for the eShop and $39 USD for physical right? ie, "Should" it be $19 and physical is overpriced? Or is $39 more accurate and the eshop is discounted because there's no packaging/etc.?
@Anti-Matter I'm really happy for you man, You seemed really happy about this.
@Kiwi_Unlimited
"There are a lot of games (to me) that feel like the cutesy, animal art style is a quick cash grab."
You ain't gonna say the cutesy from Animal Crossing New Horizons (Chibi Anthromorphic animals) also a quick cash grab too.
So what if the art style is cute Chibi form ?
Nothing wrong with that.
@Snatcher
Well, if indie developers from my country Indonesia could make a game that officially published by international publisher like PQube and got physical media release on Sony and Nintendo machines, I will feel so proud.
@Anti-Matter Isabelle is one of the cutest things on this planet.
I got this on day one and keep saying I'm going to be playing it, but to be honest I haven't really fallen for it yet. My total playtime after three weekends is like five hours. I keep firing up the Switch thinking "all right, time to play Kitaria Fable- oh, wait, I have to finish that Civilization game first" and you know how THAT goes.
I will say this, it's very, very cute and yet not overly twee. And yes, it does feel a bit like Fantasy Life.
I really wish the teleporters were more conveniently placed. They're supposed to be the fast travel option. Instead they function like a rural bus route that drops you at the end of the lane and you still have to walk a mile to get home.
Still has potential, and I'm pretty sure it will get more interesting with a little more progress. But I'm feeling somewhat whelmed at this point.
The game has a few issues but one nasty one for me that totally turns me off of it. Im getting a very noticeable delay when I first start engaging in combat. This really makes it a bad experience for myself. Its cool, it could get fixed in patch. Until then I have the very excellent Cat Quest 1 and 2 to satisfy my cute but deadly kitty cat cravings.
@Anti-Matter
There isn't anything wrong with it. I've just run into several games where it feels like that's all the game has to offer, like they're covering up a lack of gameplay behind cute, anthropomorphic animals.
It leaves me wary when I see the style.
But it doesn't mean that all games of said style do that.
Like I said above, this one sounds worth my time.
All i need to know is pqube is the publisher & i know it's not worth playing sadly.
@twztid13
I don't think the games that published by PQube are bad.
There were two indie games from my country Indonesia got published by PQube: Valthirian Arc Hero School Story and Kitaria Fables.
please review flynn son of crimson next
I've got the physical of this. I haven't played it yet though. I bought it because I hate cats, and I never buy games about cats because of this. I figured I'd buy something I wouldn't normally buy and see what happens. Glad it got a good review!
@Meteoroid
I like the storyline of Fantasy Life 3DS as the storyline didn't have to portray a bad guy who want to have world domination.
It was like a misunderstanding of certain peoples. Some guys over there that you thought they were bad guys but actually they were not. I rarely find kind of storyline like this, the importance of understanding, forgiveness and learn from the past. Also, the OST was as good as Classic Final Fantasy in my opinion.
Aaah, I loved Fantasy Life — been waiting for a spiritual successor for ages now. Thanks for the heads up!
There are a few ways to make me instantly add a game to my wishlist. Comparing it to Fantasy Life is one of them.
Having played both fantasy life (my favorite 3ds game) and kitaria fables, I really don’t see the comparison at all. If anyone buys this game expecting something like Fantasy Life; they will be sorely disappointed.
I just picked it up on sale and have no regrets. It's a slow build of explore and fight to gather, with a bit of farming. I'm currently having a hard balance of if I want to dump my money into seeds for future rewards or into upgrades for my character now.
It is like Fantasy Life in that the main part of the game seems to be on the main maps, and there is a lot of crafting to progress. It's been quite a while since I played FL so I don't recall the specifics of the game, but it was deeper that KL, which is more casual. I'd still absolutely love to have a true FL sequel on Switch.
It's a slow start just so folks know, your hand will be held through the first couple quests which are about going out to fight before you unlock farming. Right now the farming seems to be a little bit of an afterthought, but maybe as I progress the stuff I grow will be more useful for making food.
I would honestly advise checking a guide for the more efficient things to do for making money, because otherwise the returns on selling stuff can be really small, and you don't want to sell things needed for quests or upgrades.
So far my only dislike is I have more things I want to equip to express keys than I have buttons for. Switching items for farming tasks is a little tedious.
The storage is also a little odd, there is a field chest on your farm, and a chest in each town, but they aren't linked together so you have to remember where you put things. I'm looking forward to being able to get more storage space.
@Anti-Matter that’s so cool! My family and I just moved there a few months ago.😄
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