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The New Fantasy Life Sequel Ruined My Game of the Year List
I have to mine all of this legendary ore
I didn’t play Level 5’s original Fantasy Life a decade ago on the 3DS, though I always meant to get around to it since I’m a fan of their other games. Last week a full sequel came out across all current platforms, and it’s one of the most captivating, joyous, and entertaining games I’ve played in years. I’ve sunk in well over twenty hours on the Nintendo Switch, and several more across the PlayStation versions. I wasn’t paid or asked to write this by anyone involved with it, and yes, I bought the game twice when I discovered how cool it was.
The game’s title is undeniably daft, though. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time implies that perhaps the game is an Apple platform exclusive, or that it’s an intensively internet-enhanced game, but neither of those things is true. The game isn’t out on the Mac, although it does contain some basic optional multiplayer modes. That little lowercase letter apparently came from a vague design directive at the studio, and it means things like “Island” and “Identity,” but I think it’s super confusing. It could easily have been a simple number two, or not there at all, and I think that would be better branding for this otherwise excellent game.
