Fantasy Life (3DS) – the game started life as a DS title, and you can tell

Level-5 attempt a cross between Animal Crossing and Final Fantasy, but does this have the best of both worlds or the charms of neither?

So rare has the Japanese role-player become in modern times that there’s a tendency for fans to applaud any new entry simply for the virtue of existing. At the same time it becomes harder and harder to attract anyone else to the games, as the genre inevitably starts to wind in upon itself – rejecting innovation in favour of fan service. The concept isn’t dead yet, but it will need better games than Fantasy Life to keep it alive for much longer.



Developer Level-5 are best known in the West for the Professor Layton series but their speciality has always been role-playing games, from Dragon Quest VIII and IX to Dark Cloud and Ni No Kuni. Fantasy Life is one of the most literally named video games of recent times and does exactly what it says on the tin: allow you to live a second life in any one of a wide range of fantasy jobs, from mercenary or magician, to woodcutter or miner, tailor or cook.

There are 12 possible jobs in total, across three broad categories of fighting, foraging, and crafting. As you may already have gathered there’s as much influence here from Animal Crossing as there is from Final Fantasy, and although there is plenty of combat if you want it just as much of the game is concerned with the more mundane aspects of each job. And when we say mundane we mean pretty bloomin’ boring.


Many role-players have attempted to simulate ordinary jobs as part of their experience, but the concept has never really been made to work. So while being a hunter or a paladin is fairly entertaining the little mini-games to simulate the lot of a carpenter or blacksmith are considerably less exciting.

You’re not stuck with your initial choice though and can switch jobs by obtaining a new guild licence and then changing at will. The ease with which you can alter career paths makes it a lot more tempting to try some of the more peculiar (or rather non-peculiar) jobs and there’s a good effort to give everyone their own set of missions. Even if the cook’s is just baking a cake, instead of defeating a monster.

Fantasy Life (3DS) – we’re sure being a real carpenter is more fun than this

Whatever role you’re playing as you have experience points to earn and levels to increase, as you sew shirts as a tailor and land fish as an angler. There are also additional ‘Bliss’ missions that are merely to increase your happiness and give access to bonus features like your choice of pet cat or dog.

No matter what role you take there’s still an over-arching plot about the end of the world, but it’s kept very much in the background and never really amounts to much. That’s fine but the combat and magic system is far too simplistic for such a long, and long-winded game. Perhaps the excuse is that the game’s aimed at a younger audience but there’s so few different melee attack and magic spells it’s hard to see how anyone wouldn’t get tired of them in fairly short order.



The wider problem is that the game falls between two stools, because not only is it a rather shallow role-playing game but the Animal Crossing style customisation also lacks the complexity and variety of Nintendo’s game. You can make a reasonable job of personalising your house but you quickly begin to wonder whether it wouldn’t be better just sticking with either a proper Final Fantasy (or Dragon Quest or Bravely Default) and the actual Animal Crossing.

Fantasy Life also has a co-operative wireless and online mode, but it’s fairly limited. And while there is a gentle addictiveness to the tasks the sheer repetition of it all eventually grinds you down. It soon becomes clear that the jobs really aren’t that distinct, especially within each of the three categories, and the endless tutorials and banal text has little bite or flavour to it.

The game’s ambitious, and underneath it all closer to Western role-players such as Skyrim than most other Japanese titles, but its lack of focus and depth means it only ever ends up reminding you of other, better games.

In Short: A fun mix of influences and career paths, but the game doesn’t make being a mercenary or magician entertaining enough – let alone a tailor or woodcutter.

Pros: The 12 different careers are a neat gimmick and there’s a lot of novelty to switching and changing. Large game world with plenty of secrets.

Cons: None of the jobs have much depth and there’s too much repetition, both within the individual careers and across the game as a whole. Equally limited customisation and low tech visuals.


Score: 5/10

Formats: 3DS

Price: £34.99

Publisher: Nintendo/Level-5

Developer: Level-5

Release Date: 26th September 2014

Age Rating: 7

Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter