I originally picked this up when it first came out here in 2014, and sunk a good 50 hours into it. Based on my old save, I was wrapping up chapter 6, which is the second to last. Having just finished the game today, I can safely say that the last chapter is mostly just dialogue, a few animated cutscenes, and credits, so I was really close to the end. Not sure why I stopped there back then--probably just busy with life stuff and never went back.
I picked the game back up and restarted last summer-ish, intending to finish it before the new game comes out. That got delayed, though, work got busy, and I ended up setting it down for a few months while focusing on other games/books, until this past week.
Story:
The story is, in general, very low-stakes, charming, and humorous, while not doing anything all that new or spectacular. There are tons of great characters and, while the dialogue got especially excessive in the last two chapters, I still enjoyed seeing the story come to its neat conclusion.
Gameplay stuff:
I started both of my Fantasy Life journeys as a tailor. I'm a sucker for customization, and wanted to be able to access fun armor/clothes as soon as possible without dolin' out the Dosh for it every time. There are a number of ranks to reach in each life:
Novice -> Fledgling -> Apprentice -> Adept -> Expert -> Master -> Hero -> Legend
I eventually became a Master Tailor, and reached the following ranks in the other Lives:
Master Paladin, Adept Mercenary, Expert Wizard, Expert Miner, Expert Woodcutter, Adept Angler, Adept Cook, Expert Blacksmith, Adept Carpenter, Expert Alchemist, and...I never started the Hunter Life. I had left Merc, Wizard, and Hunter alone until around chapter 4 just because I was focused on the crafting Lives and had other physical ones unlocked, but eventually started two of the three with the intention of at least starting them all. Then I kind of just wanted to get through the game and didn't bother with the Hunter.
Each Life comes with challenges, such as cutting down a certain number of a specific type of tree for the Woodcutter, defeating various enemies for the Paladin or Merc, crafting sets of armor for the Tailor, etc. You have to be "in" that Life to report back to that Life Master to earn stars, which eventually level up your rank. You unlock new challenges as you rank up, and sometimes, NPCs who share that Life will give you additional ones. Each Life also has various skills attached to it, which level up from use. (Even your ability to dash levels up as you use it, causing it to use less stamina.) I found the challenge system to be pretty efficient for leveling up each Life, especially considering most of them were achievable even when you were actively in a different Life (like being a Tailor but chopping down trees while out in the field). However, some challenges do require you to be in that role (mostly Merc and Paladin ones, as far as I recall), and in order to turn in the challenges to your Master, you have to be in that role. It got kind of annoying having to go back to the guild to change Lives, go to that Master to submit the challenges to rank up, and then go back to whatever you were doing. There are limited fast travel options in the game, but at least you can go straight back to the main town's guild or your current Master from anywhere.
I genuinely enjoyed the crafting aspects for the Lives that revolved around it. Each of these Lives has a crafting station with three relevant steps/processes where you have to sew the garment, cook the food, craft a table, etc., within a time limit, and with a variety of A button-presses. The different options are to hold A, rapidly press it, or press it at the correct time as a little circle moves back and forth on a meter. The different Lives have a variety of combinations for their three processes, but the Tailor has one rapid press and two timed presses, which can be incredibly slow. Some of the more difficult/high level garments are impossible to make within the time limit even with perfect timing because the circle moves veryyy slow on the meter. I had to just focus on other garments to rank up to the Master level and then do those higher level ones, when it made the meter move faster. Leveling up my character and adding points to the stats that affect sewing ability didn't make any difference that I saw.
Combat is pretty fun. None of the fights during the storyline were difficult, but there are some challenging bounty enemies. Every Life is combat-capable, but obviously the stats vary. I never used the bow since I never started the Hunter life, but everyone else uses swords, daggers, heavy swords, or wands. You keep all of your Life tools (fishing rod, sewing needle, axe, saw, etc.) equipped regardless of Life, which is incredibly handy, and you can really use whichever weapon you want with any Life. Again, it just depends on if you want to be a Paladin trying to cast spells with a weaker magic stat.
I mentioned fast travel earlier. Honestly, I forgot about a few of the options when I came back to the game after a few months, so when I realized they were there last night, I was like, "Okay, so it's not aaas bad as I was thinking, really." So, there are three major cities in the game, and once you've completed the story events in each city, you can purchase a house there. When you open your map, you get the options to fast travel "Home" and then you can pick from the three houses if you have them, or you can directly travel to your current Life Master (all in the starting city, Castele), or the Castele guild. Each of the cities has a guild as well as places to craft for each of the Lives, but your fast travel is restricted to Castele's guild. Likewise, since the Masters are all in Castele, the crafting areas in the other cities don't help with that. There are a couple of guards in Castele and its outskirts who will "guide" you to different dungeon entrances that branch off from the nearby plains, which would have been helpful during the 20 hours of gameplay I racked up this week if I'd remembered or paid attention to their icon on the lower screen/mini map. Oh well.
The music is solid enough; not one of Uematsu's best, but it all suits the aesthetic of the game. Character designs are really cute, and the different towns, dungeons, landscapes, etc., are all visually appealing.
I probably have other things I could address but I don't really want to get too into the weeds here. I enjoyed my time with this a great deal, and I'm super excited for the new game in May, especially with the new town/island customization, new Lives, etc. I'm grateful for the delays if it means they're getting the time to make it what they want it to be.
