I can’t quite believe what I’m writing as I type this out, but I’ve been playing Fantasy Life i The Girl Who Steals Time and have been in absolute bliss. The reason for this is quite simple really—it’s been a whopping eleven years since we were graced with the original Fantasy Life way back on the Nintendo 3DS. If you don’t know already, Fantasy Life is one of my favorite video games of all time. In fact, I’ve spent the better part of a decade trying to find a chill life sim game with lite RPG elements that scratches the itch Fantasy Life left behind, and the closest I came was Rune Factory and Kiterina Fables, both great games, but both not Fantasy Life. Level 5’s gem is something all it’s own and I’m thrilled more people get to see what makes this series (YAY, a series!) so special. The only thing that kept me sane was replaying the game again on my 3DS but mainly via emulation with the wonderful HD text plus HD texture pack update. It really is a testament to the art direction that a game originally made for an 800 x 240 screen can look good in HD and up to 4K.
And this is one of the very first things I noticed upon booting up the sequel—everything felt the same but prettier. It’s worth noting that I’m playing across the Steam Deck and my gaming PC with both at maxed out settings and resolutions for each platform. Of course, with this being one of my favorite series next to Xenoblade and Persona, I have a physical copy for Switch on the way, but I’ve already seen how paired back the title runs on Nintendo’s aging platform. A quick note about Switch is that Level 5 is offering a Switch 2 upgrade pack for $2.49 USD and if you’re interested in a physical edition, it was only released in Japan but includes full support for multiple languages, including English.
I wish there was a demo for you to try out, because there really is nothing quite like Fantasy Life. It scratches a very chill cozy game itch, allowing you to play one of 14 lives (think jobs in Final Fantasy) ranging from your typical Paladin and Miner to Alchemist or Cook and even the newly added Farmer and Artist lives. Each life has multiple ranks you work your way up to by completing tasks starting out as Novice all the way up Hero. Sure, there’s a pretty cool RPG story here, and one I think is admittedly better than the original, but take your time. One of the most rewarding things about Fantasy Life is how the lives all tie into one another—now more seamlessly than every. For example, you’ll want to get decent at being a Miner and Angler (fisherman) in order to stock up on materials for your Blacksmith and Cook lives. The sequel build upon the original and surpasses it in so many ways. Here’s a roundup of quality of life features I’ve discovered so far:
- Automatically pick up apples
- Save anywhere
- Previous save as a backup
- Cross save (via a free Epic Games account)
- Cross play (also via Epic Games account)
- More freedom for camera movement
- Ability to change lives on the fly once unlocked without needing to visit the Guild Office
- Far more customization for lives with each one having their own skill tree
- Ability to upgrade allies armor and weapons
- Animal crossing style villagers and and building
- Ability to craft anything from any class unlocked class from any workbench
- Map is far easier to navigate in order to find quests, shops, etc
- Ability to terraform island and fully transform it
- Ally voices can be turned down or disabled entirely in the settings menu (their dialogue during battle and exploration is repetitive)
As if the base game and isn’t enough, Fantasy Life i also includes a new giant open are called…..Ginormosia where you can take down powerful enemies and complete events in order to gain rare materials and loot drops. The best part is you can warp to and from at any time and upon warping back, you’re teleported to exactly where you left off! Procedurally generated dungeons were added and seem to come off of Level 5’s other game, Snack World, which is a nice way to mix up gameplay too to focus solely on combat. Local multiplayer has been added, although it’s fairly limited with one person controlling a bird companion in order to gather materials and stuff along with online multiplayer which I have not tried. All this to say, Fantasy Life i The Girl Who Steals Time is as big of a time sink as you want it to be. Personally, I like bouncing from life to life when I get bored of one and having the freedom to fish or cook or dungeon crawl at my own pace is amazing. Oh, and did I mention you have your own base camp you can terraform, decorate, and move your allies into just like Animal Crossing? Because that’s all new and available too.
