What do you get when you combine the RPG and simulation elements of the Rune Factory and
Animal Crossing series with the wit and raw personality of Ace Attorney?
Probably something pretty close to Fantasy Life, a simulation RPG for the Nintendo 3DS
developed by the minds behind the Professor Layton series and modern RPG classics like
Dragon Quest IX and Ni no Kuni.
Fantasy Life takes place in the huge open world of Reveria, which is just full of vast
fields, dark caverns, icy mountain peaks, expansive deserts, and more exotic environments
just waiting to be explored – and that is exactly what you, as Reveria’s newest inhabitant,
are expected to do in whatever way you see fit!
Upon beginning your Fantasy Life, you’ll at once be granted the opportunity to create
your Reverian avatar from scratch.
There are tons of appearance options available for both female and male characters, allowing
you to customize everything from the shape of your face and your hair color to finer
elements like your voice and the style, size, and orientation of your eyes, nose, and mouth.
It feels much like creating a Mii – and indeed, the core appearance options appear
to be based on those you’d find in the Mii Maker app – but Fantasy Life offers far
more customization options for creating your avatar.
The most important decision you will make when creating your character is the kind of
Life you want to live – at least initially.
Choosing a Life – which is basically a vocation -- and using your Life skills to contribute
to society is one of Reveria’s core tenets, and it is here where the massive size and
scale of Fantasy Life’s content begin to become apparent.
You can lead, become proficient in, and eventually master up to 12 different Lives in Fantasy
Life: Paladin, Mercenary, Hunter, Wizard, Cook, Angler, Woodcutter, Miner, Blacksmith,
Carpenter, Tailor, and Alchemist.
Each Life has many skills to learn, activities to partake in, and quests to complete that
those leading other Lives may well never see.
Based on the time I have spent in various Lives, awestruck at just how much there is
to do and see, I would not be surprised to hear accounts of Fantasy Life experiences
varying widely.
The activities that become routine for one player might never even be discovered by another,
depending on the Lives they choose to pursue.
Begin as a Paladin or Mercenary, for example, and Fantasy Life will start out feeling much
like a fairly typical action RPG as you receive quests related to going out and slaying different
monsters or retrieving items from dangerous locations.
Become an Angler or a Cook, though, and suddenly the game becomes very different: instead of
earning experience points and leveling up fighting and killing monsters, you’re doing
so by catching specific fish for people or by gathering ingredients and preparing delicious
meals at one of the game’s many restaurants.
There’s no “wrong” way to play Fantasy Life, and considering the game lets you switch
between different Lives almost as soon as you begin, you never feel locked into any
one path.
There is an overarching narrative in Fantasy Life that is driven forward by completing
mandatory story missions.
Being a player-driven simulation RPG, however, these story missions can largely be completed
at the player’s leisure and the story is not necessarily emphasized to the degree one
might be used to in more traditional Japanese RPGs.
It’s a notable difference; fans of story and character-driven RPGs like Bravely Default
or the Final Fantasy series will not find that here, but it generally works in the context
of Fantasy Life.
The story itself isn’t exactly remarkable, initially centering on the arrival of evil
objects called Doomstones that threaten Reveria’s peace and tranquility, but it succeeds on
the strength of some likable, relatable characters whose fates you can’t help but care about.
While the overall story plays second fiddle to your own Life in Reveria, that’s not
to say Fantasy Life lacks charm – far from it!
The myriad companions and NPCs you will meet during your adventures are just full of things
to say and the writing is really quite excellent, often leaving a smile on my face as I played.
This is especially true regarding your constant companion in Fantasy Life, a magical talking
butterfly named – wait for it – Butterfly.
Considering your avatar is silent, Butterfly brings some welcome personality to your adventures
in Reveria; there’s a genuine, refreshing earnestness in the way she’s constantly
excited about the things you’re discovering together.
On the other hand, she generally regards the many wacky people you meet with a certain
degree of cynicism and always has a few funny, choice words for people who rub her the wrong
way.
Fantasy Life’s localization team really knocked this one out of the park, and the
smart, witty writing stands as one of my favorite aspects of the game.
That said, the sheer volume of things nearly everyone you meet has to say can sometimes
make it feel like a bit much.
The blocks and blocks of text you will be reading in Fantasy Life, especially in the
game’s painfully slow, tutorial-heavy opening hours, even put other RPGs to shame and there
were several times I really just wanted the game to get on with it and let me do something
already!
This becomes less of an issue the further into the game you get, when the game has less
to teach you, but it never entirely lets up and you should definitely expect a decent
chunk of your time in Reveria to be spent reading NPC dialogue and wading through menus
and tutorials, especially toward the beginning.
But when the game finally does turn you loose and tell you to go live your Life as you see
fit, it can be a bit paralyzing.
As I mentioned before, early on you are given the ability to switch Lives at any time, so
almost as soon as you begin the Life you chose when creating your character, you’re free
to change and try something else.
It can be difficult to pick a Life and stick with it when the game is always dangling the
many alternative possibilities you’re missing out on right in front of your face, and I
can’t help but wonder if it would have been a better approach for the game to force you
to stick to your initially chosen Life for at least a little while just to make the game
seem less imposing at the start.
I’m not about to dock Fantasy Life for having too much content, but I do feel like it could
have been presented in such a way to ease players into the experience instead of throwing
so much of it at them at once.
That said, the game does strive in other ways to be as convenient and user-friendly as possible,
which is welcome in such a huge game.
For example, you’re able to use the in-game map and various NPCs to instantly travel to
important locations such as a town hub or your home from anywhere in the field, you
can set restorative items to the touch screen for quick healing in the midst of battle,
and the game assigns various icons to NPCs to let you know at a glance who has quests
for you, who you’ve taken quests from, and which quests you have fulfilled the conditions
for and are ready to complete.
Audiovisually, Fantasy Life is perfectly competent if not particularly memorable.
Reveria’s environments are vivid and colorful and the simple character models and textures
generally look agreeable from your zoomed-out, overhead view.
Sadly, Fantasy Life doesn’t really take advantage of stereoscopic 3D and the effect
is subtle and unimpressive overall.
As for the game’s soundtrack, it’s generally solid, lighthearted and appropriate for any
given situation.
It’s very much a passive soundtrack; I had no complaints while playing, but I also haven’t
found myself listening to the soundtrack outside of the game like I often do with others.
This is a bit disappointing given the fact that Final Fantasy alumni Yoshitaka Amano
and Nobuo Uematsu are responsible for Fantasy Life’s art and music, respectively.
Still, the game looks and sounds good.
If you mostly rush straight through the main story quests, the game probably won’t take
you more than 20 hours – but you also won’t be experiencing more than a tiny sliver of
everything Fantasy Life has to offer.
Take your time and really immerse yourself in your Reverian life, though, and Fantasy
Life could easily last you several times that as you pursue and master multiple Lives, explore
every corner of the world, and more.
I haven’t even mentioned how you can own and customize in-game rooms á la Animal Crossing,
build your own furniture with which to decorate those rooms, adopt and take care of pets,
ride horses…
you can also meet the people you StreetPass within your game and receive items from them,
as well as explore Reveria with friends both locally and online.
If you’re still left wanting more after all that, there’s DLC launching along with
the game that adds a whole new area to explore called Origin Island and new story content,
pets, equipment, and more along with it.
It’s just too much for one review!
Overall, I like Fantasy Life and it’s an easy recommendation for fans of simulation
games and quest-heavy RPGs – the amount of content, choices, and freedom on offer
is just incredible and Reveria is a fun, charming world to explore.
While the game’s scale can be paralyzing and it does suffer from some painfully slow,
dense opening hours and an overabundance of dialogue that may turn off younger players
and more action-oriented gamers, the overall experience is a rewarding one and players
looking for a meaty, immersive game would do well to check out Fantasy Life.
Thanks for watching and be sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Fantasy Life and
other things gaming!