Scorching off the heels of Palia, an incredible life sim that simply consumed dozens of hours of my life, I really can’t imagine I’ve been sucked into one more one only some days later. With its witty writing and seemingly limitless provide of attraction, Fantasy Life i: The Lady Who Steals Time has already stolen loads of mine. The characters and story to date are each splendidly goofy and way more substantial than I’m used to seeing on this style, the RPG-like Life system of leveling up varied jobs is very easy to get misplaced in, and it appears to have nailed the stability between day-in-the-life cozy actions and extra action-packed exploration to the purpose the place it’s actually onerous to foretell what may occur subsequent. I’m nonetheless fairly early on in what’s beginning to appear to be fairly a prolonged journey, however I’m already head over heels for this delightfully light-hearted romp stuffed with speaking birds and time-traveling dragons. There go my weekend plans.

Fantasy Life i is an fascinating hodgepodge of chill sport mechanics lovingly organized into one killer mixtape that’s repeatedly stunned me up to now. One second I’ll be mining for ore with a pickaxe to craft an iron ingot and suppose, “ah, okay. I get what this sport is” – solely to search out myself strolling via a time vortex moments later that results in a chronic open-world trek stuffed with fight towards brightly coloured monsters. Although that may be a little bit jarring at first, after just a few hours I began to understand the way in which it retains issues recent by engaging you to leap between its varied points of interest.

If I’m ever feeling a bit bored by serving to villagers with their random requests, I can go run round a desert on the again of a camel in quest of hidden treasure chests and fire-breathing lizards for a bit, or get myself chewed out by an entitled mimic. The factor that brings these disparate actions collectively is that all of them have a low-impact vibe to them, one the place I by no means felt the necessity to lean ahead in my chair or fear about min-maxing my character’s loadout. It’s half life sim, half action-adventure RPG, all unified by its universally mellow tone.

I’m particularly stunned by how shortly I began to care about its solid of characters, too. That may very well be Edward, the adventure-seeking archaeologist, Journey, the speaking fowl who likes to sass people, or Rem, the musically-inclined princess who appears to get pleasure from slumming it up with us widespread folks. The humorous dialogue and larger-than-life personalities have made me chuckle much more than I often do from life sims, and I’m fairly to be taught extra concerning the time-skipping plot I’ve discovered myself in the midst of.

It’s each shocking and spectacular simply how a lot this goofy life sim does, and the way a lot of that’s nearly instantly tremendous participating. In fact, it’s completely potential that a few of that attraction will put on off as I turn out to be extra acquainted with its system and get additional into the grind. It may very well be that Fantasy Life i simply has an extremely sturdy opening, however even when that does turn into the case, I’ve actually been having fun with my time to date and am feeling fairly good at its possibilities of holding my consideration.

I’m nonetheless early on in my journey, and have but to check out the multiplayer options (which embrace each on-line and native co-op for as much as 4 individuals), get into the later levels with any of the job paths, or end quite a lot of chapters within the story. After what’s going to nearly positively be a sleepless weekend dominated by shanking wolves and serving to a service provider bear heal his bee wounds, I’ll have way more to say – however for now I’ve gotta go assist this cat together with his private issues.