I’m finally playing Fantasy Life and I am so excited. You all have no idea. I was this close to importing a Japanese copy for my import 3DS LL, but that E3 2014 announcement caught me right before I did. However, now that it’s in my hands, on my 3DS, I’m not actually playing it yet.

The thing is, Fantasy Life has one of those character customization introductions. You know the ones. Anyone that has ever dabbled in an MMO or Saints Row game has had this experience. You’re hyped to play the game, you’ve sequestered yourself so nothing can interrupt the experience, and you realize you have a gazillion options to choose from.

It took me 30 minutes to create a character.

First was gender. This was an easy answer. I always play as a woman, when I can, because I am one. Next, I was able to choose a body type. There were five different options and 10 different skin colors. Nobody’s getting left out. This was a quick pick, though I spent a few minutes trying to tell the difference between different shades of “pale”.

It was easy to pick out a head, too. There were six different styles.

Fantasy Life got challenging when I reached Hairstyles. That’s when I knew I was in trouble. There are 40 hair colors and 48 styles. Five minutes were spent debating the right style for my adventurer, as well as if I should go with an unconventional color or not. Still, I figured I was doing good! Seven minutes to get started isn’t too bad.

That’s when it came time to decide on a Face. Level 5 went above and beyond when it came to Fantasy Life faces. You choose the eyes, mouth, eyebrows, nose, ears, and other distinguishing features like facial hair or blush. The options are exhaustive. I spent over fifteen minutes in this section alone. Because not only are there multiple options for facial components in each category, most of these features can be adjusted to alter size, positioning, and placement on the face.

Think I’m being dramatic? There are 54 pairs of eyes, 30 eye colors, 18 noses, 30 mouths, 6 kinds of ears, and 11 supplemental features. With those kinds of choices, I was lucky I only spent about 15 minutes choosing the right face.

Most of the other choices after that were easy to make. I usually go by my own name in games, since I’d be playing online with friends. Since my character is only audibly grunting, voice wasn’t an issue either. It didn’t matter which of the six voices I used.

The only thing that tripped me up was the final decision. Fantasy Life asked what I wanted my first Life to be and offered 12 options right away. There were no job descriptions, only icons. I didn’t want to “cheat” by looking online to see which role I should take to make the game easier on me. Players are able to switch between Lives at whim once the game begins.

So, I decided to be a tailor. I’ve been marathoning Deep Space Nine on Netflix lately, and what better way to honor my favorite character (Garak) than by making his job my first Life.

Of course, with all the time spent deciding on who I should be, it didn’t really leave much time to talk about my Reveria debut. Oh well, I suppose we’ll get to that next time.