Get me away from this real life
One of my favorite video games on the Nintendo 3DS is Fantasy Life from Level-5. Originally an offshoot of Professor Layton’s London Life from Professor Layton and the Last Specter, the RPG life-sim offered players an open-ended approach to saving the world of Reveria from the fallen meteors known as Doomstones. It was a very relaxing game where you could spend an afternoon killing monsters or just working as a craftsperson, building your wealth.
It was such a great experience on the handheld that the news its sequel would be coming exclusively to mobile was a bit of a gut punch. Even more disappointing was the fact that there didn’t seem to be any indication the game would release outside of Japan. The sequel, now called Fantasy Life Online, released in the country back in 2018. But now, it looks like people in our half of the world will finally get to try the game out for themselves.
Today, Fantasy Life Online started its official English closed beta in a small selection of countries, including Australia and Canada. The game is up for pre-registration on Google Play and it’s coming to us from Boltrend Games, which also brought western audiences the surprisingly good Atelier Online: Alchemist of Bressisle over the summer.
Like its predecessor, Fantasy Life Online will let players find their own way through the game with 12 different classes to choose from, including tailor, miner, paladin, and alchemist. If you want to kill monsters, you can do that. If you’d rather start a business, that’s an option as well. Players will be able to build up their own village, and they can play solo or with up to three other friends.
I’m excited to see what this is all about, but I’m keeping expectations in check as microtransactions can greatly alter what I know can be a wonderful experience. At least I still have my 3DS copy to fall back on should Fantasy Life Online not meet expectations.
