Early Reviews

[Lalune 🖤]

Hello there,

I am on the fence about buying this game today because of the price. I have never played a fantasy life game but love animal crossing and MMO'S. I am not sure if reviews can be written for early access and I can just wait until release, worst case...but to all of those actually playing the game today, how is it?

Any insight would be appreciated. Hope you are enjoying it...happy gaming ^_^

[Psycha]

-Super simplistic and easy mechanics/gameplay
-Shallow depth of story
-PS3 Graphics
-Low Quality character customization

All for the low price of 60$...

This should have been like 30$ at most.

[Nico]

In general think that this game probably is worth its 60€, at least as long the game has enough content. But I did hear that it has terrible regional pricing and has sometimes more than double the valve suggested pricing, so I guess in some countries it is unnaturally expensive.

[Lalune 🖤]

Yes for early release, it’s 100$ in Canada and 80$ for regular which seems like a lot for the genre, even with the “hours” of gameplay. I care not about quantity but quality of gameplay. I’ll try to catch some streams. Thank you!

[Seraphita]

The terrible regional pricing is an issue. I know because the game is very expensive to me, if I decided to buy it. Epic being a little too involved into it also worries me.

As for the game itself, it's best we let those who played it answer. With the early release (to deluxe owners), they can at least experience the thing firsthand so yeah.

[yoru]

I played the heck out of the original 3ds game, and I also played the mobile game. This was a no brainer purchase for me esp with what I've been seeing in famico and on the trailers.

BUT, I gotta say they basically used the USD price and just direct converted usd into all other currencies that's why the prices are insane. lol. It's actually still $30 cheaper for me to order the physical AND pay for international shipping, than to buy with steam price which is nuts lol.

[Twisted Sisler]

So far I have mixed feelings about the game. The dialogue and story feels a lot more Juvenile than I was expecting (I played the old 3DS game, but went into this one blind). It feels a little heavy handed on the humor and feels like it's trying too hard to be like a Saturday morning cartoon at times.

The actual gameplay is fun. I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't have full Keyboard and mouse support (You can play it okay with keyboard and mouse, but it gripes at you telling you you should use a controller). The audio is a bit weird. The difference between BGM level 1 and 0 is still too loud vs no music at all. Also, when you talk to people, their dialogue is not fully voiced, they just say one single word usually, sort of Zelda style, but unlike Zelda (where they make noises, not say actual words), the word they say occasionally contradicts or doesn't match what they are saying in the dialogue. I would almost have preferred that there was just no VA at all, because it's a bit jarring.

You can very much tell that this game was NOT made for PC players, and at the price it's at, I would have at the very least expected full PC support if they are releasing it on PC.

Like I said, the saving grace for me is that the actual gameplay is still fun, but I am not far into the game yet either, so that may change. So far, aside from the mechanical issues mentioned above, the worst thing about the game has been this annoying bird that follows you around and constantly tries to be funny but is just annoying lol.

[Lalune 🖤]

Originally posted by Twisted Sisler:

So far I have mixed feelings about the game. The dialogue and story feels a lot more Juvenile than I was expecting (I played the old 3DS game, but went into this one blind). It feels a little heavy handed on the humor and feels like it's trying too hard to be like a Saturday morning cartoon at times.

The actual gameplay is fun. I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't have full Keyboard and mouse support (You can play it okay with keyboard and mouse, but it gripes at you telling you you should use a controller). The audio is a bit weird. The difference between BGM level 1 and 0 is still too loud vs no music at all. Also, when you talk to people, their dialogue is not fully voiced, they just say one single word usually, sort of Zelda style, but unlike Zelda (where they make noises, not say actual words), the word they say occasionally contradicts or doesn't match what they are saying in the dialogue. I would almost have preferred that there was just no VA at all, because it's a bit jarring.

You can very much tell that this game was NOT made for PC players, and at the price it's at, I would have at the very least expected full PC support if they are releasing it on PC.

Like I said, the saving grace for me is that the actual gameplay is still fun, but I am not far into the game yet either, so that may change. So far, aside from the mechanical issues mentioned above, the worst thing about the game has been this annoying bird that follows you around and constantly tries to be funny but is just annoying lol.

Omg thank you so much for this!! I think I will wait till the actual release then and read more reviews.

[Esyix]

Game was definitely not made with PC in mind at all. But as a Steam Deck/Handheld console experience (Like It was meant to be played) is amazing for sure. And with tons of content to play through and randomized dungeons to keep it playable for many many hours.

[Intern Waffle]

Imagine listing "the dialogue is goofy" as a downside. It's Fantasy Life. Half the point of the game is that it's full of stupid puns. Nearly every character's name is a pun. Guards named Groont and Vetran, miners named Meralda and Beryl, etc. There's a guy in a corn-themed house who says he loves corn monsters and his wife and kids left but he's not corn-cerned. This is part of the game's appeal and was in the original, too.

[VR]

It’s more of what made 3DS Fantasy Life great. Anyone expecting seriousness from this parody of a game needs to readjust their expectations.

No bugs so far on Steam Deck either, but if there’s problems I expect to see them when terraforming and decorating get unlocked.

[yoru]

Every thing else I won't say anything but coming for the puns and dialogue bro? Nah.
In defense of Lvl5, goofy humour and puns is LITERALLY in all their games. That's just how they are LOL. Try Layton and Yokai Watch; it's all the same. Their main target audience IS kids btw. They are a well known "family friendly" gaming company and all their games were for nintendo platforms.

[Lalune 🖤]

Originally posted by Intern Waffle:

Imagine listing "the dialogue is goofy" as a downside. It's Fantasy Life. Half the point of the game is that it's full of stupid puns. Nearly every character's name is a pun. Guards named Groont and Vetran, miners named Meralda and Beryl, etc. There's a guy in a corn-themed house who says he loves corn monsters and his wife and kids left but he's not corn-cerned. This is part of the game's appeal and was in the original, too.

Not at all >.> I’m actually really grateful that he brought up that point because I’ve never played the series and that type of humour doesn’t appeal to me at all. So I’m grateful for his honesty and appreciate him giving an honest take without constantly bringing up the prior game (which I don’t care at all about, I care about THIS version of the game).

[Dagný]

As far as I know the only Level-5 game that was somewhat serious (or with a bit more mature themes) was the 1st Ni No Kuni.
===
EDIT
Oh wait! They also did Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy!

[Twisted Sisler]

Originally posted by Lalune 🖤:

Originally posted by Intern Waffle:

Imagine listing "the dialogue is goofy" as a downside. It's Fantasy Life. Half the point of the game is that it's full of stupid puns. Nearly every character's name is a pun. Guards named Groont and Vetran, miners named Meralda and Beryl, etc. There's a guy in a corn-themed house who says he loves corn monsters and his wife and kids left but he's not corn-cerned. This is part of the game's appeal and was in the original, too.

Not at all >.> I’m actually really grateful that he brought up that point because I’ve never played the series and that type of humour doesn’t appeal to me at all. So I’m grateful for his honesty and appreciate him giving an honest take without constantly bringing up the prior game (which I don’t care at all about, I care about THIS version of the game).

Yeah, humor is subjective for sure. When humor seems forced, too heavy handed, or unnecessary/unfitting for what's happening in the game it takes me out of the game, personally. I have the same issues with Borderlands. It's like once they became aware of their own humor and doubled down on it, it stopped being funny and just became unbearable to listen to (all of them after Borderlands 2)

[E↗↗↗↗YA↗↘↗↘HA~~~]

I am someone who like Dragon Quest Builder but dislike most farming game, I would say Fantasy Island is average from first 2 hours, the game trying to show me the jobs mechanic but there are no actual mechanic, you only swap between jobs and play the same mini game to craft, you are doing some fetch quests, going here and there to ask villager what they need, to read their dialogue, go back and forth....I am not sure what else I can do in this game but looks like the big part of this game is to have all your jobs reach high level.