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The brand of heroism expressed by a pointy sword has been well served by video games, but what of the noble lumberjack? How about the fearless carpenter? Or the gallant tailor? For that matter, where are the video game seamstresses? Shouldn't they too have the chance of a vainglorious death, the opportunity to issue a hoarse plea for revenge even as the knitting needle tinkles to the floor? Many are the roles needed to feed, clothe and equip an army of warriors, yet too often we are forced to play as a paladin, when perhaps the real hero is the angler who caught that guy his delicious kipper breakfast.Fantasy Life aims to accommodate all these ambitions and more. The brightly coloured pastoral town of Reveria is familiar and indistinguishable from a nation of Japanese RPG villages, but the lives you can build here are more diverse than in other fantasy games. Here you are free to become a different sort of saviour: a superman amongst miners, a champion amongst chefs, a fisherman king. You are, of course, also allowed to play as a paladin, a mercenary, an archer or a mage and, in truth, you'll need to spend at least a little time in one of these roles in order to learn how to hack and spell your way through the monster horde outside the village gates. Nevertheless, variety is the spice of Fantasy Life, and the chance to try out a range of callings is welcome.
Similar to Animal Crossing, you begin the game as a young boy or girl who arrives at an unfamiliar town, where you take up residence with a local landlord and begin the business of settling in with the locals. The game has a day and night cycle and you are responsible for how you use your time between dusk and dawn. You can even pull an all-nighter at the stove or lathe, should you so desire.
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