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estiroseI've spent quite a bit of time in Fantasy Life i (I haven't managed to finish Chapter 7, due to my frustration with the game, but that may be more a me thing than a game thing). Here are my thoughts on it, mostly under cut because I tried to avoid spoilers but they're there.
Spoiler-free review version: More combat-heavy RPG than cozy, though the cozy certainly is there. Unlike the 3DS game, this game emphasizes both developing a set of Lives/classes and a set of villagers in a town that you will establish. The crafting minigames require a fair amount of reflexes. 3DS players will enjoy the nostalgia but be aware that you will not be able to do a 1-life challenge - in fact, you will be using at least 11 of the 14 available classes by the end of the game. The omnipresent quest marker can cause players to rush the plot where they really need to slow down.
(Also, I will mention that while this is not the game I fell in love with, I've poured in a lot of hours and don't feel the purchase was a waste.)
ETA: I think I'm getting the hang of the game! Still irritating that you have to at least intro quest the majority of Lives but quite doable. My one tiny item I want is the ability to unselect the main quest - my brain tends to want to hurry because you can unselect side quests but not the main quest, which my brain translates into a priority to-do.
Stats and level: The 3DS stats are completely gone! As is a main character level. Instead, each class has a level and stat (base + bonuses from leveling up + stats from skill tree + stats from equipment). Oh, and everything has a level now - not only monsters, but ores and trees. You gain points to use on a skill tree for each class.
Story progression: Instead of talking to a bunch of people and then advancing the story, it's now a variety of things. For example, the first part of the story has you starting a Life, going through the introductory story (note: you can now skip any story if you want) for that Life, meeting up with the king again, finding out there's a nut that you can feed to your dragon, doing a quest for your new Life Master/mentor, and then finding out that Anne (the local guild master) won't let you go off with your dragon until you pay 10000 dosh (currency) to repair her house.
(Incidentally, I think the last bit of that quest was a homage or a gentle poke at Animal Crossing; needless to say that it's a great time to pick up a Life or three.)
Life changes:
Gathering lives are fairly untouched, with maybe the exception of every gatherable regaining "health" if you stay still instead of certain boss items. Angler/fishing has been redone to be similar to woodcutter/miner, where you're damaging the item's "health". The new Farmer life is similar in many ways - hard to explain, it's almost like you're reducing your pumpkins' hit points, which is really really weird.
Combat lives are also fairly similar to the old game, except you can now jump and roll out of danger. Various classes have various shiny moves that must be unlocked in the skill tree.
Crafting lives I'd say are the most changed. Or, more precisely, the crafting mechanism is the most changed. You no longer do a button action (tap, hold, etc) in front of a certain station; instead, you work frantically against a timer to do all the actions in a certain group - sometimes it's just standing in front of the correct station(s) and pressing the button, sometimes it's an action relevant to a station (tap, hold, or in some cases, rotate joystick). The better your stat the more you can slip on an action or two but if you don't get enough internal points by the time the last section comes through you lose some of your materials.
(Also, a lot of crafted items seem to sell for less than the material costs, assuming you had to pay for all the materials. There are some exceptions, but it makes me wonder on why one would be a craftsperson in the first place.)
Buying/selling stuff: The new game splits shops into the general kind of thing they sell (for example, a material store sells all kinds of crafting items, while a tool store handles all kinds of tools - and for some reason, potions - and an armory sells armor, of course. There are exceptions - the blacksmith and cook buildings both sell items relevant to their professions - but mostly it's one of the above shops.
Note that you're not going to find the steady progression of armor - when I played as a Mercenary I got a full set of armor upon completing I think Apprentice rank, but I'd been unable to find the traditional iron etc armor. (ETA: They clearly intend for you to take Blacksmith and make your own armor, which makes sense from a "you're gonna need this Life anyway" perspective. I'm seeing armor choices I can't get out of any armory shop.)
Traveling: You get fast travel fairly early on, which is essential as you're travelling between the present (where your base is and a lot of the plot happens), the past, and a large open world to explore. You'll also get a free mount, which is needed for certain sections of the large open world.
Gaining 'villagers' for your 'town': Part of the story plot is that people are getting turned into inanimate objects called Strangelings. Some of the plot has you gather several of these inanimate objects, which can get transformed back into humans. Transformations past the first story one take a special currency of flowers. These flowers grow once a day, though you can also gather more by progressing your town and/or taking on tasks.
These Strangelings all come with their own Lives and can accompany you on your travels to assist you. If they come from a crafting Life, they can help you craft, though you have to level them up and give them appropriate equipment! There are 49 potential villagers, I think you gain 6 via the story and have to find the rest (some of them drop randomly after defeating high-level opponents, whether monsters or resources). I think I counted about 23 that came from the 3DS game, the rest were from Fantasy Life Online.
(If you're wondering, the FL characters making an appearance, in order of name: Ahab, Allan, Butch, Cherry/Poppy, Colin, Damon/Damien, Duglas, Fern, Flamel, Glenn/Dragonslayer, Hazel, Isaac, Laura, Leilah, Magmia, Monika, Captain Mustang, Odin, Olivia, Orlando, Pierre, Pino, and Taylor.)
Landscaping: You recover the robot that allows you to do terraforming about 1/3 of the way through the story. There are ruins that need to be removed that take 1-10 Strangelings to be removed (with one requiring 20). You can also place houses, modify houses, enlarge your house and the guild hall, build bridges, and so on. Make sure you have money, changes can be expensive! Prettifying your town also gives you diiscount on how many flowers you need to convert people back.
Spoiler-free review version: More combat-heavy RPG than cozy, though the cozy certainly is there. Unlike the 3DS game, this game emphasizes both developing a set of Lives/classes and a set of villagers in a town that you will establish. The crafting minigames require a fair amount of reflexes. 3DS players will enjoy the nostalgia but be aware that you will not be able to do a 1-life challenge - in fact, you will be using at least 11 of the 14 available classes by the end of the game. The omnipresent quest marker can cause players to rush the plot where they really need to slow down.
(Also, I will mention that while this is not the game I fell in love with, I've poured in a lot of hours and don't feel the purchase was a waste.)
ETA: I think I'm getting the hang of the game! Still irritating that you have to at least intro quest the majority of Lives but quite doable. My one tiny item I want is the ability to unselect the main quest - my brain tends to want to hurry because you can unselect side quests but not the main quest, which my brain translates into a priority to-do.
Stats and level: The 3DS stats are completely gone! As is a main character level. Instead, each class has a level and stat (base + bonuses from leveling up + stats from skill tree + stats from equipment). Oh, and everything has a level now - not only monsters, but ores and trees. You gain points to use on a skill tree for each class.
Story progression: Instead of talking to a bunch of people and then advancing the story, it's now a variety of things. For example, the first part of the story has you starting a Life, going through the introductory story (note: you can now skip any story if you want) for that Life, meeting up with the king again, finding out there's a nut that you can feed to your dragon, doing a quest for your new Life Master/mentor, and then finding out that Anne (the local guild master) won't let you go off with your dragon until you pay 10000 dosh (currency) to repair her house.
(Incidentally, I think the last bit of that quest was a homage or a gentle poke at Animal Crossing; needless to say that it's a great time to pick up a Life or three.)
Life changes:
Gathering lives are fairly untouched, with maybe the exception of every gatherable regaining "health" if you stay still instead of certain boss items. Angler/fishing has been redone to be similar to woodcutter/miner, where you're damaging the item's "health". The new Farmer life is similar in many ways - hard to explain, it's almost like you're reducing your pumpkins' hit points, which is really really weird.
Combat lives are also fairly similar to the old game, except you can now jump and roll out of danger. Various classes have various shiny moves that must be unlocked in the skill tree.
Crafting lives I'd say are the most changed. Or, more precisely, the crafting mechanism is the most changed. You no longer do a button action (tap, hold, etc) in front of a certain station; instead, you work frantically against a timer to do all the actions in a certain group - sometimes it's just standing in front of the correct station(s) and pressing the button, sometimes it's an action relevant to a station (tap, hold, or in some cases, rotate joystick). The better your stat the more you can slip on an action or two but if you don't get enough internal points by the time the last section comes through you lose some of your materials.
(Also, a lot of crafted items seem to sell for less than the material costs, assuming you had to pay for all the materials. There are some exceptions, but it makes me wonder on why one would be a craftsperson in the first place.)
Buying/selling stuff: The new game splits shops into the general kind of thing they sell (for example, a material store sells all kinds of crafting items, while a tool store handles all kinds of tools - and for some reason, potions - and an armory sells armor, of course. There are exceptions - the blacksmith and cook buildings both sell items relevant to their professions - but mostly it's one of the above shops.
Note that you're not going to find the steady progression of armor - when I played as a Mercenary I got a full set of armor upon completing I think Apprentice rank, but I'd been unable to find the traditional iron etc armor. (ETA: They clearly intend for you to take Blacksmith and make your own armor, which makes sense from a "you're gonna need this Life anyway" perspective. I'm seeing armor choices I can't get out of any armory shop.)
Traveling: You get fast travel fairly early on, which is essential as you're travelling between the present (where your base is and a lot of the plot happens), the past, and a large open world to explore. You'll also get a free mount, which is needed for certain sections of the large open world.
Gaining 'villagers' for your 'town': Part of the story plot is that people are getting turned into inanimate objects called Strangelings. Some of the plot has you gather several of these inanimate objects, which can get transformed back into humans. Transformations past the first story one take a special currency of flowers. These flowers grow once a day, though you can also gather more by progressing your town and/or taking on tasks.
These Strangelings all come with their own Lives and can accompany you on your travels to assist you. If they come from a crafting Life, they can help you craft, though you have to level them up and give them appropriate equipment! There are 49 potential villagers, I think you gain 6 via the story and have to find the rest (some of them drop randomly after defeating high-level opponents, whether monsters or resources). I think I counted about 23 that came from the 3DS game, the rest were from Fantasy Life Online.
(If you're wondering, the FL characters making an appearance, in order of name: Ahab, Allan, Butch, Cherry/Poppy, Colin, Damon/Damien, Duglas, Fern, Flamel, Glenn/Dragonslayer, Hazel, Isaac, Laura, Leilah, Magmia, Monika, Captain Mustang, Odin, Olivia, Orlando, Pierre, Pino, and Taylor.)
Landscaping: You recover the robot that allows you to do terraforming about 1/3 of the way through the story. There are ruins that need to be removed that take 1-10 Strangelings to be removed (with one requiring 20). You can also place houses, modify houses, enlarge your house and the guild hall, build bridges, and so on. Make sure you have money, changes can be expensive! Prettifying your town also gives you diiscount on how many flowers you need to convert people back.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-28 09:06 pm (UTC)I beat it over the weekend and I definitely like the *plot* and cozy feeling of the first game more, I'm annoyed at some of the character/worldbuilding retcons, and I have some theories about things. I did not like being softlocked CONSTANTLY out of being able to progress. Like, I still can't get to hero life on any combat class because my miner doesn't have a high enough stat.
OTOH the QoL improvements are fucking fantastic, but I feel like they skimped out a lot on the *life* storylines.
So I am super enjoying it, but I miss a lot of the characters and I wish there was more interaction between the characters, like give me something if I have Ahab and Olivia in a party?
(I am basically at this point just waiting to unlock the 50th islander and its going to take almost 2 weeks of real time and I am annoyed about that)
Also give me a second save slot for real I like replaying things
no subject
Date: 2025-05-29 02:55 am (UTC)I think I feel much the way you do! I love the QoL, but I think they sacrificed some of the things that made the first game so charming - the same things you mentioned.
I also think they overemphasized the whole Lives-being-connected thing. I don't mind being my own supply chain, but one should not have to become a blacksmith just because the game doesn't seem to want you buying your own armor.
Still, like you, super enjoying it. I would have loved a remake to bring the original game into the current era, but I'm just so glad to see new Fantasy Life. Also, maybe this'll get Level-5 porting the first game to modern machines. I can emulate but it would be nice to have an updated version.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-30 12:51 pm (UTC)Also turns out I was wrong about NO character moments - Pierre and Leilah had a very cute conversation on my island yesterday.
There are definitely returning characters missing though. I miss Noelia, I miss Ophelia, I know they wanted to bring in new characters but half the time when I see some of the newer ones I'm just like "this could have been Steele instead of Blue Devil or whatever his name is" (I do think it was a very nice touch to give previously lifeless Pierre and Butch the two new lives!)
(Also possibly I bought a copy for another system to give me a second save slot. What.)
no subject
Date: 2025-05-31 09:30 pm (UTC)I am kind of annoyed, just as you are, that they included so many Fantasy Life Online characters where they should have been using OG Fantasy Life characters. For example, while Anne's story clearly seems to show Cervantes' back, I would have loved to have him in-game as well. I know precisely 2 of the Online characters - Hilda and Snow. (Also, I agree that giving Butch and Pierre Lives was awesome.)
On one of my other gaming franchises, Fatal Frame, I picked up Fatal Frame 5 knowing I probably would not like it (very squicky storyline) in hopes that buying it would lead to other entries in the series and that did - we got Fatal Frame 4 (sadly nothing after that, but still, another game in the series). Fantasy Life i's gotten a lot more attention than Fatal Frame 5, so I've got my fingers crossed!
I did finish the game incidentally and it's very cute. Now I'm running about trying to improve my island and get up to Master in a few classes - I've got Blacksmith and Tailor up to Expert now.