Partly through my Fantasy Life challenge!
Mar. 1st, 2025 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiroseI've challenged myself to play through the 3ds game Fantasy Life in preparation for the release of Fantasy Life i in May. I just got halfway through the story.
I'm playing with the following restrictions:
1. I am limited to 4 Lives (the game's term for classes) at first; these Lives must be determined randomly, though I can choose which category (combat, gathering, crafting) I'm rolling in; if I choose a category, I must go for a different category when I choose a new Life. I must get to Master level on a Life before I'm allowed to pick up a new one.
2. I can only advance the main plot when I hit level 10, 20, 30, 40 etc. (You have a character level, which I believe can go up to 100 without the DLC and 200 with, and I have the DLC.)
For my first 4 Lives, I rolled Hunter, Tailor, Angler, and Blacksmith. I subsequently mastered Tailor, Angler, and Blacksmith and am now also working on Miner, Wizard/Magician, and Alchemist. (Currently I'm on Expert, the level below Master, on Miner and Wizard/Magician; I'm at Adept rank, the level below that, on Alchemist.) I'm working on making Master on Hunter next, roll a new Life, and Master the 2nd set of Lives. After that, I'll get at the final 4 - whatever of Paladin, Mercenary, Woodcutter, Cook, and Carpenter I don't get for my next Life.
After that, I will just keep ranking up the 12 Lives as I go along and keep gaining XP to get to level 80 (there are 7 main story chapters + 1 DLC chapter).
In terms of the challenge, I actually found that forcing myself to get to a multiple of 10 to get to the next story part has been more of one than the random Lives rule. Combat and to some extent gathering classes are the big winners when it comes to accumulating XP while crafting and some extent gathering classes are good for accumulating thegols dosh (currency) needed to buy supplies. Not surprisingly, I spent a lot of my early game in the Hunter Life hitting up whatever cave/dungeon I could comfortably challenge just because that was the fastest way to accumulate XP.
I got unlucky with my roll with Angler; I love the fishing minigame in this game but unlike Miner and Woodcutter (especially Miner) it's not the best moneymaker and it's best paired with Cook, which I still haven't rolled.
(I also got unlucky with Wizard the 2nd round; it's still my least favorite combat class because it uses Stamina to cast; healing without potions is neat but I am just terrible at element typing - one of the reasons I do not do well playing Pokemon games. It's also my 2nd least favorite class in the whole game, coming in behind Cook. Maybe even tying for least favorite class.)
The good part of having to slow down is that I'm generally more prepared for the later areas; I was easily able to afford the best equipment/supplies when I got to Al Maajik (the third town) + I had more health/stats so that even if my stats aren't the greatest for any particular Life they're not bad. I've been playing with mostly balanced stats (Focus and Dexterity are a bit higher than the rest due to them being important for most of my initial four Lives) so having the extra levels for the extra stat points really helped in various Lives.
I was also able to buy the Port Puerto and Al Maajik holiday homes straight after completing the relevant storylines, and I anticipate the same for the rest of the game. As Zippy mentions early on in the Tailor life, supplies for crafting are expensive if you have to buy them, but you get lots of Gols for the finished product, especially better-quality versions.
(Normally you are expected to finish the game at level 50-60; at those levels, I will be reaching the Deep Elderwood and Levitania/Terra Nimbus at those points and will be slightly overleveled for the DLC mission, which can only help when hitting the high-level DLC stuff.)
I have several goals, in order:
1. Get to Master in all Lives.
2. Complete all the story and then the DLC storyline.
3. Get to Creator in all lives.
4. Do all the Creator optional missions.
This will be the closest Fantasy Life gets to a perfection run and I may not complete all these goals before Fantasy Life i drops, but I'm going to try!
I'm playing with the following restrictions:
1. I am limited to 4 Lives (the game's term for classes) at first; these Lives must be determined randomly, though I can choose which category (combat, gathering, crafting) I'm rolling in; if I choose a category, I must go for a different category when I choose a new Life. I must get to Master level on a Life before I'm allowed to pick up a new one.
2. I can only advance the main plot when I hit level 10, 20, 30, 40 etc. (You have a character level, which I believe can go up to 100 without the DLC and 200 with, and I have the DLC.)
For my first 4 Lives, I rolled Hunter, Tailor, Angler, and Blacksmith. I subsequently mastered Tailor, Angler, and Blacksmith and am now also working on Miner, Wizard/Magician, and Alchemist. (Currently I'm on Expert, the level below Master, on Miner and Wizard/Magician; I'm at Adept rank, the level below that, on Alchemist.) I'm working on making Master on Hunter next, roll a new Life, and Master the 2nd set of Lives. After that, I'll get at the final 4 - whatever of Paladin, Mercenary, Woodcutter, Cook, and Carpenter I don't get for my next Life.
After that, I will just keep ranking up the 12 Lives as I go along and keep gaining XP to get to level 80 (there are 7 main story chapters + 1 DLC chapter).
In terms of the challenge, I actually found that forcing myself to get to a multiple of 10 to get to the next story part has been more of one than the random Lives rule. Combat and to some extent gathering classes are the big winners when it comes to accumulating XP while crafting and some extent gathering classes are good for accumulating the
I got unlucky with my roll with Angler; I love the fishing minigame in this game but unlike Miner and Woodcutter (especially Miner) it's not the best moneymaker and it's best paired with Cook, which I still haven't rolled.
(I also got unlucky with Wizard the 2nd round; it's still my least favorite combat class because it uses Stamina to cast; healing without potions is neat but I am just terrible at element typing - one of the reasons I do not do well playing Pokemon games. It's also my 2nd least favorite class in the whole game, coming in behind Cook. Maybe even tying for least favorite class.)
The good part of having to slow down is that I'm generally more prepared for the later areas; I was easily able to afford the best equipment/supplies when I got to Al Maajik (the third town) + I had more health/stats so that even if my stats aren't the greatest for any particular Life they're not bad. I've been playing with mostly balanced stats (Focus and Dexterity are a bit higher than the rest due to them being important for most of my initial four Lives) so having the extra levels for the extra stat points really helped in various Lives.
I was also able to buy the Port Puerto and Al Maajik holiday homes straight after completing the relevant storylines, and I anticipate the same for the rest of the game. As Zippy mentions early on in the Tailor life, supplies for crafting are expensive if you have to buy them, but you get lots of Gols for the finished product, especially better-quality versions.
(Normally you are expected to finish the game at level 50-60; at those levels, I will be reaching the Deep Elderwood and Levitania/Terra Nimbus at those points and will be slightly overleveled for the DLC mission, which can only help when hitting the high-level DLC stuff.)
I have several goals, in order:
1. Get to Master in all Lives.
2. Complete all the story and then the DLC storyline.
3. Get to Creator in all lives.
4. Do all the Creator optional missions.
This will be the closest Fantasy Life gets to a perfection run and I may not complete all these goals before Fantasy Life i drops, but I'm going to try!
