It might be my GOTY???
Sooo... this post is a little different from my last post! I sat and stared at the screen for a bit and... Tada! It works!! (I hope) Phew, what a frickin ordeal. It's not exactly what I wanted but I was able to get something working, and I'm really happy with that.
Coding is HARD!!!
Then there's the fact that I might need to go back and change my other pages... I mean my Archive and Splash page are both pretty simple so it probably wouldn't be too bad... well this is simple too compared to what other people do.. Ugh, what am I talking about!? I wanna talk about Fantasy Life!!!
I've sunk a lot of time into this game recently!! I purchased a physical copy for the Nintendo Switch and ended up getting the Switch 2 upgrade for a few dollars... it runs like butter on the system! It's really pretty. I'm honestly really surprised by the game in general. I'd always wanted to play the 3DS original, but never got around to it - I'm really bad at actually doing things. But this is a new release so there was no excuse.. I'd honestly been excited for it since it was announced.
Then, I started the game and... eh. It didn't grab me. I was kinda thinking like "Wait, is that it?"... maybe for the first 5 hours or so? Mind you, that's probably in part on me for wanting to try out all the Lives immediately. There are just so many to try! There are crafting Lives; Angler, Woodcutter, Miner.. the standards, right? But then there's the crafting Lives! You can be a tailor or a blacksmith or an artist and I just wanted to try them all.
So because of that my first few hours were a little meandering... but as soon as I let myself carry on, the game started to slowly open up, more and more. And gosh is there a lot to open up!! If I had to describe the game in one word... I'm not sure how I would. It borrows a lot from Animal Crossing New Horizons, there's an entire island builder with villagers.. though I will say it's lucky to have a few years on that game, meaning we have some QOL stuff here that New Horizons could only dream of having. And then you unlock this giant Zelda BOTW styled open world area?? Like it's huge!! There are shrines and towers just like BOTW and.. Well, the more I describe this stuff, the more it seems like it's just copying other games. That's not entirel fair, because it also has its own story and focused little RPG world with its crafting mechanics and stuff at the core - and although some of it's other parts are clearly... Let's just say 'inspired' by other games, they all come together to create something truly beautiful.
I didn't even mention the randomly generated dungeon crawling mode yet...
Either way, I'm only about 40 hours into the game right now. I've been taking it slow, leveling up my Lives, doing quests, etc.. There's just so much to do, yet it never feels overwhelming in the slightest. It's honestly a gorgeous balance that just makes me keep wanting to come back for more. The title isn't a joke!! This could be my GOTY this year... I mean Digimon comes out later this year so who knows but like this game is REALLY good. In a couple years time I could see people describing this as the "Ultimate Cozy Game"... and I've just realized despite all that I've written here I've barely really said anythign about the game... maybe another post another time, I'm a little tired from trying to work out this code all night LOL.
Thanks for reading!! Definitely try the game out if anything I've shared here interests you.. you won't regret it!
-Joepan, 07/08/2025
