This or My Time at Sandrock

[Khanatos]

I'm a bit on the edge on keeping Fantasy life and keep playing but was wondering how it compares to a game like My time at Sandrock in terms of content and gameplay. I just find super compelling how well the harvesting of different materials is made in Fantasy Life. It feels like you fight a mob when you cut a tree or get some ore which I find really well done here.

[AngelDormante]

I like both games very much. I think it's generally pretty easy to recommend one if you like the other.

For me personally, I think FLi comes out just a bit on top. But Sandrock is fantastic too. I would say Sandrock has a more typical progression loop in terms of resource/material gathering, but it does stand out from other farming/crafting games with things like dungeons and a unique system for ore mines. I feel more engaged when gathering resources and crafting in FLi, but the character writing and base building in Sandrock are undeniably deeper.

What gives FLi the edge for me me is the production quality, I think. Sandrock can be a bit visually rough and buggy sometimes. FLi of course isn't perfect in that regard either, but it feels overall considerably more polished imo.

All that said, It's fully possible that it's my recency bias that has me leaning towards FLi. Both have a ton of content so I don't think you could go wrong either way, honestly. And Sandrock obviously has a much lower price point. If you're enjoying FLi now then I'd say it only gets better, but I would never tell someone to stay away from Sandrock either.

[Dementia]

Sandrock.

[Jethro]

Given i haven't played Sandrock yet but if it's the same as Portia. then Fantasy Life having actual combat variation keeps it on top.

It's also less tedious with the crtafting because you're not being time gated on your crafts and/or daily limits for contracts..

[Bob]

They're fairly different games. Sandrock is closer to Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley with an emphasis on personal relationships. It has an emphasis on creating machinery and then running machinery to create items to finish commissions instead of the farming focus that Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley has.

Fantasy Life is more about the mechanics of leveling up various jobs and making the numbers go up by getting new materials which gets you better tools which gets you new materials which gets you better tools which...
Fantasy Life has little to no emphasis on personal relationships, and is more like Animal Crossing in its town building.

They're both very good games, but they each scratch a very different itch. Personally, I'd get Sandrock at the moment, and then by the time you finish Sandrock, Fantasy Life will likely have gotten a few more updates for more content (not that it needs it, but Sandrock is basically complete at this point, so it's not going to change at all).

[Lalune 🖤]

Sandrock, hands down!! Much better story and engaging game play. I was new to Fantasy Life and am finding it hard to get into. I find it boring and the story/NPC dialogue is meh. I was hooked on Sandrock right from the start. Fantasy Life is really slow at the start, slow to get into in general. Also, your wallet will thank you with Sandrock.

[The Lost Zealot]

If you like a story that has lots of NPC interactions and multiple minor storylines, I would suggest My Time at Sandrock. If you want an insane amount of crafting and gameplay, pick Fantasy Life. They're both great games though, so even if you pick the "worse" one, it'll still be like a 4.5/5

[Boomer Click Bait]

I hated Sandrock

[Vert]

Sandrock is on sale at the time of this post so..why not both?

[Caradog]

I'd say the my time series. I adore the original but this, they just steamrolled all that gave the original character and put a poor imitation in it's place. Everything from the gathering, the number bloat, to the lack of animations, the hamfisted reused music from the original (good songs but they where crafted and placed for scenes not just cut in for 2 lines of dialogue). And even what was added is just a shallow version of something better elsewhere, building a town for rescues when only 10% are getting housed doesn't feel satisfying, there's so little to the towns.

The more I play this the more disappointed I feel over how shallow it all is. Even the announcement of free dlc...where new more powerful weapons in a game seem to be a priority, when difficulty is a joke seems to be a complete miss of priorities.

If this wasn't called fantasy life (Roman numeral for 1 but not really). I may even say it's an okay game. But as a sequel/reboot that tramples over everything that was so good about the original, it's been a disappointment.

[Squishy]

probs sandrock until level 5 fixes some of the game breaking bugs

[Honey]

They are very different games. The characters in Sandrock stole my heart and the story is MASSIVE. This is much more about fulfilling little goals that make the happy parts of my brain light up.

So, both. Both is good.

[ela.shirogane]

Coincidentally I am currently playing both. I personally prefer Sandrock - for its better, more mature story and deeper lore. Which doesn't mean that FLi is bad, it's just a very different game. More grindy, with less focus on story or characters.