Fantasy Life is my favorite game of all time, and I've got high expectations for its announced sequel, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. I'm so excited for it, and obviously I've got a million ideas, big and little alike, of what I'd like to see. I started writing this list back in 2016 on my Fantasy Life tumblr – yes, I was that far in, I made its own tumblr – and it's only grown since then.
While we have an idea of the basic premise of Fantasy Life i – we know the plot involves time travel of some sort, and we've seen many of the Lives that were in the previous game – there's still a lot that we don't know. The game was announced in February, it's currently September, and it's supposed to release before the end of the year... so let's get wishing and speculating! Let me know what's on your own list and if anything lines up with mine!
(Psst, video more your style? Check it out here!)
Clothing and Furniture
First on my list, back in 2016 and today, is no more gender locked clothing. In the original game, we had a limited but cute selection of clothing, but it was made even more limited by most pieces being specific to gender. This restriction was unnecessary and didn't even make sense in canon, as Olivia's entire plot revolves around defying gender expectations – and the game celebrates her for it. Additionally, Laura disguises herself as a boy, both as a plot point and later just because, and it just doesn't make sense that we as the player are restricted in ways that the characters are not. Now, in 2023, gender expression in games has become much more loose – although many games still could stand to improve this – and gender restricted clothing just won't go over well. Let guys wear flowers in their hair if they want to!
On the note of clothing, I'd love to see more clothing options in general – and more furniture and other craftables to make our world ours. We saw a swing bench in the trailer, which is new from the first game, but still doesn't speak to how much new furniture we may be getting. Even better, in the trailer, we actually see the character sitting on the swing, confirming that we're getting usable furniture – one of my wishlist items from 2016! I remember a tumblr post that was like, “the 3ds era is finally giving us chairs we can sit on,” but Fantasy Life was an outlier in this. Finally, our time has come! I hope lots of the furniture is usable in cute ways.
Lives
Another wishlist item that follows the trend in games but also fits in with the game's mechanic, I'm happy that we're getting a gardening Life! I thought this was a pretty good possibility – there's a mystery Life in the “gathering” category, and it would tie in perfectly with the cooking and alchemy Lives. So let's talk about this new reveal and what I want from it! I'm not asking for anything intense – in fact, quite the opposite, more Animal Crossing's “set it and forget it” style of gardening than daily care like Stardew Valley. But it'll be great to be able to grow exactly what we need for food and potion recipes, and having a little garden outside our house would be so cute!
On that note, we know from the trailers that there are 14 Lives in this game, with all 12 Lives from the previous game returning and introducing 2 new Lives. I was hedging my bets on a gardening or farming Life, but have no idea what the other one would be. It's grouped in with the “creating” Lives, so presumably something of that nature. I think one of the scrapped Lives from the first game was a performer of some sort – I'm not sure how a dancer or singer might be useful in terms of combat, but it would be fun. Maybe they could make it function like a bard in D&D? I'd like to see that. Or the Life could possibly be robotics or mechanics? This would explain the terraforming robot we've seen in the trailers, although I wonder how that could expand to be an entire Life to encompass the whole game. But it would be great to have the ability to build all sorts of different robots to help with tasks, like farming and autocrafting down the line. Hmm, possibilities!
Worldbuilding
Moving on, another thing I'd like to see – and others on tumblr agree with me – is a bigger, fuller world, but also a revisit to our favorite Reveria locations. We do know that the main story takes place on a new mysterious island, but I'd be sad if I didn't get to see Port Puerto in better graphics. Maybe as DLC? Starry-thread on tumblr said they'd also like to see the old towns have more life in them, and I agree. Castele was a great starter area, but the other locations got progressively emptier, presumably due to the hardware limitations of the 3ds. Now, we all know that the Switch isn't exactly a powerhouse, but it can at least handle a lot more than its handheld predecessor, so I'd love to see a fuller, more vibrant world that really feels lived in, with lots of fun NPCs to banter with.
Crafting
Now, let's talk about crafting. I do think Fantasy Life got crafting half right, and it's one of the more enjoyable crafting mechanics I've encountered in a game. Unpopular opinion? Maybe, but since crafting is such a big part of the game – 5 Lives to date are crafter Lives, more than any other category – I appreciate that it's more than “just click a button” mechanics like in many other games. I mean, sure, that's easy... but boring! But Fantasy Life's crafting mechanics falter in one big way for me: they're random. If you make something twice, the sequence of events will be completely different the second time. I'd love for crafting to have set patterns, so I can feel like I'm really improving at making things instead of guessing, correctly or not,what the next step will be. In my opinion, cooking in Palia gets this right, with each recipe being specific about chopping, stirring, and more. As a bonus, friends can hop in to help out and get the final result as well! Including something like that would be a big boon to Fantasy Life's multiplayer system, but I'll also admit that among items on this list, that's one unlikely to happen. But it's a thought!
Multiplayer
As far as multiplayer itself goes, I definitely want to see some additions – but I'll admit that I'm not sure what, because I only played with other people a couple times in the original! I guess just party bonuses in general, like extra EXP or sharing loot, forageables, etc. And if there ends up being DLC, please don't lock out those who don't have the DLC from playing with those who do! Okay, that's my big multiplayer wishlist item.
I'd also like our friends to show up around the world like they did with Streetpassed players in the original. This was one of my favorite Streetpass incorporates in a game, and although the Switch sadly doesn't have Streetpass (a decision I'm still questioning six years later), I would love the new game to bring our friends to town in a similar way. I loved seeing them fill the streets of Castele and bring the town more to life, and chatting with them was a delight!
NPCs
Okay, let's talk about NPCs. I loved all the characters in Fantasy Life, they had so much personality, but I was so disappointed when I could finally invite them to my party, and... they just became mindless killing machines. Let me talk to the NPCs when they're in my party! And please, for the love of Olivia, let them have more than two lines when you attempt to talk to them after their part in the story. Please.
I would love to see a friendship system in Fantasy Life i. No need to figure out their loved and hated items, but just something simple like increased friendship every day you talk to them. This could be used to unlock adventuring with them in a party, and then taking them along could further boost your friendship with them.
And while romance is popular in many life sims – and other genres – I'm not exactly clamoring for it to be included here. I think the game is great even without it! But if it is included, because it's trendy, I have two wishes for it. First, let it be superfluous to the gameplay, not anything that will require or pressure you to engage in romance, like an integral plot point or boon to your stats. Let's not alienate the aromantic players! And honestly, in a lot of games, I'm just not interested in the available NPCs... but I'd say otherwise to Olivia! And that's my other caveat to romance in Fantasy Life i: if there is romance, it needs to include the option for queer romance. Thankfully games have gotten a lot more on board with this since the original game's release in 2012, but since Fantasy Life also had gender-locked clothing... I thought I should be explicit.
But, honestly, I'm more than fine with no romance in the game. I'm just saying, if it does exist, these two things need to be included.
Time
Finally, my last wishlist item, at least for this post: I'd like to see significant improvements to the day and night cycle. In the first game, there was a cycle, but it had very little purpose other than a couple plot elements, like Laura's location, and the poor mailman. I want to see it have more purpose, like specific fish only caught at night and similar, common mechanics. But no bedtime! Let me roam all night with no penalty like in the first game, thanks.
I'd also like weather, and potentially seasons, to be incorporated into Fantasy Life i. Despite having a day and night cycle in the first game, it feels like the same day over and over because the weather never changes. It's perpetually sunny, unless you're on the top of the one snowy mountain. Let's have variety! Besides, rainy days would undoubtedly help out with growing crops in the new farmer Life. It's a win-win in my opinion!
Okay, that was the last wishlist item... for this blog post, at least. We'll see what else I come up with between now and release... Actually, I lied, I've got one more wish! Please give us a release date at the Tokyo Game Show! Your girl needs to plan out content, and budget so I'm sure that I can start playing on day one. Okay, that was the last thing on my wishlits! What's on yours? Hopefully we'll see some of this soon in teasers and the full game!
0 comments:
Post a Comment