FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time Review Summary

Seamless life/class switching: The game features numerous quality-of-life improvements, most notably the ability to seamlessly switch between lives (classes) on the fly. This eliminates the tedium of returning to a guild or menu, streamlining gameplay and encouraging experimentation with different roles.

Vastly improved over predecessor: The game improves upon its predecessor in nearly every aspect, offering more content, better quality of life features, and enhanced gameplay mechanics. It retains the charm of the original while providing a more polished and expansive experience. This makes it a worthy successor for fans and newcomers alike.

Fun, addictive, and relaxing: The game is enjoyable, addictive, and relaxing, offering a perfect blend of action RPG and cozy life simulation elements. Combat is simple yet engaging, and the game provides a wealth of content to keep players occupied for hours. The crafting mini-games are fun and rewarding, adding to the overall charm of the experience.

Blends genres, evokes nostalgia: The game successfully blends elements from various popular titles like Animal Crossing, Zelda, and Rune Factory, creating a unique and engaging experience. It retains the core essence of Fantasy Life while incorporating new mechanics and features inspired by other genres. The game also evokes nostalgia for the original 3DS title, with familiar characters, music, and story elements.

Cute and appealing art style: The game features a cute and appealing art style, with charming characters and a colorful world. The graphics are well-done and contribute to the game's overall cozy and relaxing atmosphere. The soundtrack is also well-designed and enhances the experience.

Slow start, repetitive grinding: The game suffers from a slow start, excessive dialogue, and repetitive grinding, especially in the early hours. Unlocking key features like multiplayer requires significant time investment, and the gameplay loop can become monotonous. This may deter players seeking a more engaging and less repetitive experience.

Restricted, time-gated multiplayer experience: Multiplayer is heavily restricted, time-gated, and lacks essential features like story progression, quest completion, and life challenges. The co-op experience feels like an afterthought, limiting shared adventure and progression compared to single-player mode and previous titles. This severely impacts the game's appeal for players seeking a cooperative experience.

Poor camera controls and perspective: The game's camera system is poorly implemented, with limited vertical movement, awkward angles, and a narrow field of view. This makes exploration and combat difficult and uncomfortable, often leading to disorientation and visibility issues. The lack of camera customization options further exacerbates these problems.

Subpar keyboard/mouse controls: Keyboard and mouse controls are poorly optimized, feeling clunky and unintuitive. Many reviewers recommend using a controller instead, indicating a lack of proper PC porting and consideration for PC players. This makes the game less enjoyable for those who prefer or are limited to keyboard and mouse.

Generic, uninspired storyline: The game's story is generic, predictable, and often childish, with forced humor and weak plot points. Many reviewers find the storyline unengaging and tedious, serving mainly as a pretext for the gameplay. This detracts from the overall experience for players seeking a compelling narrative.

Diverse job system with progression: The game features a robust job (or "Life") system with 14 diverse classes across combat, gathering, and crafting. Each Life has its own skill tree and leveling progression, allowing players to customize their playstyle and switch between them freely without losing progress. Leveling multiple lives can make the game too easy.

Combines RPG with life simulation: The game blends RPG elements with life simulation aspects, including island building, home decoration, and villager interactions reminiscent of Animal Crossing. Players can terraform their island, craft furniture, and recruit villagers, adding a layer of customization and progression outside of traditional RPG mechanics.

Large world with distinct areas: The game features a large world divided into distinct areas, including a past, present, and a large open-world zone called Ginormosia. Ginormosia offers exploration, events, dungeons, and item farming, with progression systems tied to completing activities and leveling up the area.

Cooperative multiplayer for expeditions: The game includes a multiplayer mode focused on cooperative expeditions for item hunting and level grinding. While story content is not available in multiplayer, players can team up for open-world quests and dungeon crawling, enhancing the social and cooperative aspects of the game.

Simple but functional combat system: The combat system is described as simple and accessible, with mechanics and skills unlocking through progression. While not overly complex, the combat is functional and enjoyable, with fluid animations and some challenging boss fights.

Excellent performance and optimization: The game generally exhibits excellent performance, running smoothly on various PC configurations and especially well on the Steam Deck. Many reviewers reported high frame rates, short loading times, and a lack of significant bugs or glitches, indicating good optimization.

Customizable graphics, no DLSS: The game offers some graphical customization options, such as disabling depth of field and motion blur. However, some reviewers noted that the game lacks DLSS upscaling and has limited resolution options.

Extremely fast loading times: Multiple reviewers have praised the game's exceptionally fast loading times. Some even noted that the loading screens are so brief that there isn't enough time to read the tips displayed.

Steam Deck resolution fix: There were initial reports of resolution issues on the Steam Deck, but these appear to have been addressed by a patch. Workarounds were also available to force specific resolutions.

Enemies/bosses respawn: Enemies and bosses respawn, which may affect gameplay balance or player experience.

Highly recommended, worth the price: The game is overwhelmingly recommended, especially to fans of the original 3DS title and those who enjoy cozy RPGs or life simulation games. Reviewers praise its engaging gameplay, addictive nature, and overall quality, often deeming it worth the full price and a must-buy. Many consider it a Game of the Year contender and express excitement for future content.

Great for cozy, relaxed gameplay: The game is well-suited for players seeking a relaxing and casual experience with elements of RPG, crafting, and exploration. It's recommended for those who enjoy slow-paced gameplay and the freedom to progress at their own pace, but may not appeal to those seeking intense action or a compelling storyline. Reviewers emphasize its 'cozy' nature and suitability for unwinding.

Desire for future DLC/updates: Reviewers express hope for future content updates and DLC expansions, drawing comparisons to the first game's DLC. They desire additional story content, events, and features to further enhance the game's world and replayability. The sequel is considered a significant improvement over the original.

Best played with a controller: The game is generally recommended to be played with a controller for the best experience. Some reviewers specifically suggest using a Switch Pro Controller or Steam Deck. Playing with a keyboard is not recommended.

Potentially better on handheld devices: Some reviewers suggest that the game may be better suited for handheld devices like the Switch or Steam Deck due to the limited field of view on PC. They also hope for improvements to the camera system to better appreciate the character designs. Playing on PC is considered more comfortable by some.

Epic Games account required: The game requires an Epic Games account and installs Epic Online Services, including Easy Anti-Cheat, regardless of the purchase platform. Some reviewers found this intrusive, especially given the game's availability outside the Epic Games Store. The presence of anti-cheat measures in a primarily PVE game also raised questions.

Deluxe items offer minimal benefit: Deluxe and pre-order editions offer cosmetic items and minor stat boosts that quickly become irrelevant. While these bonuses provide a slight early-game advantage, they don't significantly impact the overall player experience.

Untested multiplayer, unclear features: Some reviewers noted they did not test the multiplayer features. Some reviewers questioned the purpose of the 'little blue bear' feature, especially in a PVE game.

Nostalgic elements from previous games: The game reuses music, monsters, and items from the original 3DS game, creating a nostalgic experience for returning players. Cameos and references to previous titles add familiarity without disrupting the story for new players.

Slow start, delayed development: The game's development faced delays, and the initial playtime may feel slow due to the game's large size and content. It is not suited for players seeking fast-paced action from the start.