Lets face it, we all hate chores, running errands, and pandering to the needs of annoying neighbours, but for some reason we just can't stay away from games that incorporate these aspects of life into game-play. Fantasy Life, for the Nintendo 3DS, is essentially what you would get if Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Harvest Moon had a baby; it's a magical RPG packed with quests, weapons, fishing, flower picking, crafting, and monsters. Like Harvest Moon before it, Fantasy Life allows you to explore and immerse yourself into a colourful world filled with a wide array of charismatic NPC's and their never-ending requests.
In many games the class you choose during character creation is the class that you are stuck with, one of the key features that Fantasy Life offers is the opportunity to have your character switch between 12 unique classes at almost any point during game-play. This allows the player to embrace their inner miner while living the peaceful life of a fisherman but still being able to kick-ass as an adorably ruthless mercenary. Additionally, each class has unique goals which will no doubt keep the player occupied for hours. One of the more disappointing qualities of the 12 class system is that the fundamental game play does not change in any way when you switch between classes, and aside from gaining new skills and quests when you switch classes (which are retained when you switch again) there is no real change in how the game is played. In some respect this makes the 12 class system unnecessary, but at least the class specific costumes are cute.
Fantasy Life also offers a main quest that involves the player running about, defeating monsters, and saving the world. Despite following the standard RPG archetype the story line it is quite charming, and besides, if you're already venturing out into the world to improve the rank of your life-at-the-time you might as well get some of the main quest done too.
The majority of time spent with this game will involve forging swords, sewing hats, and mining gem stones for NPC's, and aside from being able to purchase a few different homes and a wide array of items there isn't much to work towards financially. That being said Fantasy Life is a game that you will either love or hate; if you enjoy games like Animal Crossing you will no doubt be hooked on Fantasy Life after an hour.
