Fantasy Life

[KhajiitFurever]

Does anyone else play Fantasy Life?

For those of you who don't know, it's an RPG released last October for the 3DS. In fact, the Title Image and Music were done by Final Fantasy veterans Yoshitaka Amano and Nobuo Uematsu respectively. The premise of the game is you create your character and choose a "Life" which is just the game's jargon for job class. As the player, you complete Life-specific tasks to rank up in that particular Life. You can only work on one at a time. There are a dozen Lives which are divided up into paradigms. As a family-friendly game, the story is, in my opinion, really cheesy. The gameplay's solid, however. The DLC was ridiculously short. It was $5. I would've paid $2 at most.

 

[Lunaairis]

The story is super cheesy. But the gameplay is what keeps me going back to it. It just really fun to play. I also like that its sort of like a SUPER childish Elderscrolls game. As in you could play the whole game as just being a wood cutter or blacksmith and still have a good time.

I really like the overall feel of the game as its the same company that made Ni No Kuni on the PS3 (which was animated by Studio Ghibli) This game has a similar look, although not animated by studio ghibli still has the same quality in its art style.

 

[KhajiitFurever]

I think the gameplay makes it more like a Final Fantasy than an Elder Scrolls game.

 

[Lunaairis]

I say elderscrolls in the sense that you can be what ever you want to be. If anything the actual action game play is more like zelda. As fantasy life isn't turned based like final fantasy, and it only loosely has a team system, which you don't need to rely on.

 

[KhajiitFurever]

The way the Lives are listed, and how you can switch back and forth between Lives, is very reminiscent of the Job Systems of early Final Fantasies. The later Final Fantasies have their characters set in one role, which is how the NPCs are in Fantasy Life. Final Fantasies are also now getting away from Turn-Based. Contemporary JRPGs have a party system that allows you up to two other members, while Elder Scrolls games allow you only one legitimately. Final Fantasy XII, unlike the others where you have no control over the number of party members, allows you to reduce the number of party members. In that game, you can have a party of one if you so desire.

Even though the Life System is more similar to the Job System in a Final Fantasy, completing tasks to rank up a Life is more representational of completing guild quests to reach new guild ranks in Elder Scrolls. Fantasy Life's skills mechanic is very much like Elder Scrolls in the sense that skills level up. However, Final Fantasy II also did this. It's skills were set up to gain experience and level up. Fantasy Life and Final Fantasy II, their skills are more or less constrained to characters/class, but in Elder Scrolls, there are no constraints. You can be whatever you want, whenever you want, and still do what you want. Classes only exist to grant bonuses. You can be an armor-wearing mage, a magic-welding warrior, whatever else, etc. You can be any sort of combination possible at any given time. In Fantasy Life, you have to reach God Rank in all classes to remove equipment restrictions, and even then I don't think the skills become unrestricted.

Fantasy Life is both very much like Final Fantasy, and very much like Elder Scrolls, but is yet more like Final Fantasy - even in being who you want to be.

 

[Ophiucha]

I played through it again just a few weeks ago, and I really enjoy it. The music and the art style are excellent (and reminiscent of Final Fantasy, unsurprising since Nobuo Uematsu worked on the OST). The gameplay is really fun, at least if you're not a wizard, and even though some boss fights can take upwards of 10, 15 minutes, I never find them dull or particularly tedious. And I love the crafting/cooking mini-game. The story's simple, but charming and sweet. And I love how just about every character in the story can become your companion sooner or later.

But to be honest, I love every game Level-5 has ever made. So I may be a bit biased.

 

[Martha]

I play every day for 20-30 minutes, unfortunately no longer have time

 

[Kobun]

I play a bit here and there. Not really for long periods of time. I like the game, but I'm so distracted by so many other things.