Hey, look! Another blog post! I did say I wanted to get in a few more entries before 2018.

Remember when I wrote an entire post about Animal Crossing: New Leaf? Well, I'm still playing it and I haven't really written much about video games on this blog despite it having its own direct link on the menu, so I thought I should write another one! This time I'd like to talk about Fantasy Life, too.

Animal Crossing received an update late last year that added various features, tweaked a few old ones, and generally made the game worth opening again if you aren't like me who opens it every few days anyway. It now has in-game items, the Wii U console and the New Nintendo 3DS, you can play mini games on. And, most importantly, the villagers now give ten days notice instead of five before moving away. Makes it so much less stressful for me when checking for moving rumours. Since Animal Crossing follows real world time, regularly checking up on your town is important if you want to maintain it exactly the way you want it. Some people "time travel" (requiring changing the clock of the console itself) but that isn't as straightforward as it sounds like and I don't want to risk messing up anything if I make a misstep, so I literally just log in every two days or so.

I also have a new Dream Address because the old one doesn't work with the update anymore. Buuut.... I didn't take note of it. My town isn't pretty anyway. Nothing much to see!

Just the other day I spent an annoyingly long time trying to convince a camper to move in to my town. If it was any other random camper I would have given up after the 10th move in prompt she turned down. This camper is one that I really wanted, though. Hopefully she was worth the trouble and that plot resetting for her would be much easier than making her move in!

Nintendo recently released a mobile version of Animal Crossing called Pocket Camp. Everyone's playing it these days, including stage actors I follow on Twitter. But of course, as I've mentioned on a previous post, my phone is always at the brink of running out of storage so there's no way I can play it.

Recently I dressed up my character to look like Poppy from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. This is possible mostly because Animal Crossing lets you design your own dress or shirt! The beauty of video games that allow character customization is that you can look however you want. I've been wanting to have red or pastel pink hair so my characters in games tend to have hair in that color range. My Animal Crossing mayor has been a redhead for many years and I thought it was time to change it up a little bit. So far I have yet to get tired of this look.

Speaking of games that allow character customization, Fantasy Life doesn't have an extensive wardrobe to choose from (you're limited to the clothes and gear that the game already has, and of course you would want ones with pretty good stats if you want to do well in battles and quests) but it does let you choose your hair, your face, and your height. In the DLC, there's even somewhere you can pay in-game money to change up your appearance or you can acquire an item that can do this for free. I've changed my hair a few times already and all those times I'm still super cute.

One thing I love about Fantasy Life is that you can do all the job classes in whichever order you like. You can do them all or only the ones you like, you can change among them however many times you want. You're not limited to just the first you chose to do, unlike in a lot of RPGs. This leaves one with many other things to do after "finishing" all the quests for your main job class.

Of course, it helps that the game is also really beautiful. The quality of the screenshots do not do this game justice.

I don't know if it's just the localization but I love how the dialogue can be cute and silly at times, while smart and thoughtful when it needs to be. It's a game that knows how to have fun, with lovable characters and a mostly lighthearted story. Sure, I like elaborate plots about warring nations or dead children. But sometimes you just want to go on adventures with your friends without having to worry about the world ending.

When the game came out, some people compared it to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I think mostly because you can decorate your houses. It didn't help that a lot of the prominent ACNL players (at least on Tumblr) moved on to play Fantasy Life too. I think in some ways they are similar. Like ACNL, Fantasy Life is a sort of escape from the real world. It is in the name, isn't it? But unlike ACNL where you literally have no set goal to work towards, FL gives you things to achieve, like different ranks in your job class. And even after you reach the highest rank, there are requests you can take from your life master or from random NPCs. So even if you're like me who doesn't have friends to go on multiplayer with and aren't keen on playing with strangers on the internet, there's still a lot of things to do after the main story ends.

Another superficial similarity is that everyone in this game loves you. Then again, most RPGs have literally everyone love the player character. Everyone depends on you to do everything for them, which can get annoying normally, but how can you stay mad when all your digital friends are so adorable? The difference is that in ACNL, no violence is needed to complete your tasks. In Fantasy Life, the better you are at stabbing your enemies, the faster you can get things done.

I suppose the vibe of this game appeals to my weird "Millenial" humour. It's very laid-back even when the fate of someone's pantaloons rests in your hands. It can get a little dark, but it's all just an acknowledgement of the universal truth that it's not always just sunshine and rainbows. The witty flavor text tickles me in ways that memes and shitposts shine a light of amusement in the dullness of everyday life. It really is a fantasy, but it's one that doesn't involve any of your favourite characters dying.

See, as much as I enjoy some delectable angst and suffering in the media I consume (as proven by my interest in gripping court intrigue), I am a soft potato at heart. I prefer the warm fuzzy feelings of being loved by colorful talking animals and magical daughters of a literal goddess.

Other games I own are Pokemon Y and Bravely Default. I'd talk about them but Pokemon Y, despite being quite gorgeous, doesn't have a good screenshot system. It's only allowed in certain spots and I kinda need visual reminders if I want to keep a blog post going. On the other hand, there's no way to talk about my feelings on Bravely Default without completely spoiling it. You could argue that nobody else reads this blog anyway and it's been five years since the original release. Surely, that's already past the statute of limitations on spoilers. But as someone who's always late to the party, there's always a chance that someone somewhere out there have yet to play the game and is very interested in not being spoiled.

So yeah, I guess that's it for now while I try to come up with something to fill the December box on the 2017 art summary chart. I don't know for how much longer I will be able to return to these worlds, what with my mistake fast catching up to me. For now we still have each other. So let's enjoy the time that we've got, alright?