Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life (ファンタジーライフ, Fantajī Raifu) is a role-playing video game developed by Level-5, with production assistance from Brownie Brown and h.a.n.d. for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was previously being developed for the Nintendo DS.^[1]

A re-release of the game, titled Fantasy Life Link!, was released in Japanese markets on July 25, 2013.^[2] New features include online play with friends, a rise in level cap, additional quests, and the ability to take screenshots, among others. The international version of Fantasy Life included all the additional content of Link!, with the exception of the Origin Island DLC.

Synopsis

The game is set in the fantasy world of Reveria, which is made up of several cities, plains, and mountains. Its rulers spend their days ruling over their citizens and guiding them in their Life paths. One day this peaceful state is shattered when a meteorite falls into the house of the player, setting off a chain of events foretold in an ancient prophecy involving Reveria's goddess and the moon Lunares.

The player is asked by King Erik of the land of Castele (one of the nations of Reveria) to investigate these strange occurrences, as the meteorites (later dubbed Doomstones by the world's inhabitants) have the ability to fill creatures with dark, destructive energy. They are joined in this quest by a glowing butterfly that has the ability to speak. As the game progresses, the butterfly reveals that her real name and form is Yuelia, the daughter of Celestia, whom the people of Reveria worship as the Life Goddess.

They discover soon that the Doomstones are chunks of a dome that surrounds Reveria and has been slowly falling apart. This event had happened in the past once before, but was stopped by Celestia, at the cost of her never returning to Lunares. Yuelia and her sister Noelia (who had followed her to Reveria), discover that the only way to save the world is to gather the wishes of as many people as possible and take them up to Lunares, where those wishes will restore the dome completely. The player and the two sisters manage to successfully travel to Lunares, but soon find out that they do not have enough wishes to restore the dome. Yuelia, becoming content with her Life on Reveria, wishes that she never has to leave. With that final wish, the end of the world is averted and Reveria is saved once again, ending the main story.

Gameplay

Gameplay centers upon the player taking on various tasks given to the player and choosing one of twelve Life classes. Players have the ability to choose between Life classes at will unless they are in the middle of a game chapter that disables this option. While time does pass in the game between day and night, players are under no time constraints to complete a certain task and there is no penalty for not focusing on the main story line, although some areas will not be unlocked until the story progresses. All players, regardless of Life class, have the option of fighting monsters in the non-city areas and in some circumstances this is required to fulfill a specific task to gain materials or fulfill a villager's request or Life quest. Upon achieving various goals or fulfilling the quests set out by Yuelia, players will gain "Bliss points" that will unlock additional features like larger storage, additional store items, and the ability to ride animals or own pets.

As the game progresses players have the ability to unlock several playable characters that can join them on their journey and help fight monsters. Playable characters include King Erik's daughter Laura and Port Puerto governess Olivia, as well as several Life class specific characters that will unlock after the player has reached a certain class level.

Life classes

Players can choose from one of twelve Life classes, each of which has its own Life Master that will assign tasks and award points to the player, allowing them to rank up within their Life. Each rank gives the player the ability to perform additional tasks and will give Life bonuses (additional vital stat points and abilities) to the player. As gameplay commences and the player masters each Life class they gain the ability to more easily produce and access materials on their own, as opposed to purchasing them via a storefront. Players can level up through the ranks of each life class; starting out as a Fledgling and ending with the Legend rank. If the player has the Origin Island DLC, a new rank called the Creator (or God in Europe) rank is added.

Reception

Critical reception for Fantasy Life was mostly positive. The game holds a rating of 73 on Metacritic based on 51 reviews, signifying average reviews. Megan Sullivan of IGN awarded the game with 8/10, stating that it "is a fun blend of life simulation and RPG" and that it "offers a cornucopia of activities to do".^[3] On April 10, 2013, Level-5 revealed that the game had sold over 300,000 copies in Japan.^[7]

Sequel

In April 2015, Level-5 revealed a sequel named Fantasy Life 2: Two Moons and the Village of God, which is set exclusively for release on smart devices in 2016.^[8][9] The game was renamed as Fantasy Life Online shortly before release.^[10]

References

External links

• Official website