I wasn't long into Fantasy Life when I caved in and bought the expansion. The game was just so, so awesome that there was no way I wouldn't want to continue after being done with the base game. And I was right: After wrapping the story up, after getting all jobs leveled up to max, I wanted more. I went for it. I would soon come to regret it.
The expansion picks up right at the ending of the base game and has you and your crew stumbling upon Origin Island, an island from which Reveria was created eons ago. The writing is as good as always, bringing about tears and laughter, but it’s also about the length of one chapter of the main game, too rushed to have full effectiveness. It brings about moments of closure for some of the main game's supporting cast, though, and I wish it had spent more of its time on that instead of... everything else it did.
In the base game, which is one of my all-time favorites, the player's progression is carefully thought out, with there being tiers of enemies, of materials and of gear with which each Life is concerned. It's not possible to craft the best armor from the get go, but as you take on more dangerous adventures, you're rewarded with better components on-hand, with which you can return to town to create better gear, rinse and repeat. The way it perfectly executes this gameplay loop is one of the reasons Fantasy Life is so stellar.
Compare that to the DLC, where there was no thought given to progression whatsoever. Everything is open from the get go, every monster has more or less the same power level. You get to see almost every area in a few minutes and max out all Lives not soon after. The one hard -- not fun -- part is beating the four new bosses, which feel balanced around co-op with their ridiculous attack patterns and damage output.
It's at this point, with everything explored, all classes maxed and essentially the magic of the game having worn off, that the game invites you to take on the Trials of Time, Darkness and Light at the Ancient Tower, which pit you against increasingly dangerous monsters as you strive to reach the top.
If I had to make a list for "the things I wanted the least in a Fantasy Life expansion", combat gauntlets would rank pretty high up, so the presence of these Trials after an underwhelming adventure felt like a giant middle finger. Again, it all seems aimed at co-op players: a quick re-spec at the Tome of Shadows will show that, even with your attacking stats at the new cap, mere common monsters at the Trials will take a while for a solo player to take down.
"Obviously, it must be all about the gear?", was what I thought, before I sat to browse the available recipes and was met with the cherry on top for this piece of downloadable torment: Never mind that the best gear is restricted to male characters, which is another middle finger, but to get the materials you need for new gear to take on the Trials of the Ancient Tower... you have to farm the hardest Trial over and over for materials.
I'm still baffled that someone thought this design was okay. For all my complaining, I'm still underselling how hard these trials are: in the final one, the Trial of Light, most enemies will two-shot you. I took the advice of a GameFAQs poster that was, essentially, “go in as a Hunter, kite everything, and bring stacks of Life Cures”, which got me to the top floor after hours of tedious kiting. There I fought a dragon for which not even kiting was enough, and I would be dead within seconds of resurrecting, all the time. I took to abusing the Life Cure’s i-frames to win.
The sickest part? After all that, I still didn't have enough materials to craft jack.
This was the end of my experience with Origin Island. For all the smiles the original game gave me, for all the feelings of joy, discovery and triumph, the expansion left me only with a bitter taste in my mouth. Those brief extra moments with beloved characters may have been meaningful, but the way the expansion perverts everything good about the base game makes it impossible to recommend to anyone.
The expansion picks up right at the ending of the base game and has you and your crew stumbling upon Origin Island, an island from which Reveria was created eons ago. The writing is as good as always, bringing about tears and laughter, but it’s also about the length of one chapter of the main game, too rushed to have full effectiveness. It brings about moments of closure for some of the main game's supporting cast, though, and I wish it had spent more of its time on that instead of... everything else it did.
In the base game, which is one of my all-time favorites, the player's progression is carefully thought out, with there being tiers of enemies, of materials and of gear with which each Life is concerned. It's not possible to craft the best armor from the get go, but as you take on more dangerous adventures, you're rewarded with better components on-hand, with which you can return to town to create better gear, rinse and repeat. The way it perfectly executes this gameplay loop is one of the reasons Fantasy Life is so stellar.
Compare that to the DLC, where there was no thought given to progression whatsoever. Everything is open from the get go, every monster has more or less the same power level. You get to see almost every area in a few minutes and max out all Lives not soon after. The one hard -- not fun -- part is beating the four new bosses, which feel balanced around co-op with their ridiculous attack patterns and damage output.
It's at this point, with everything explored, all classes maxed and essentially the magic of the game having worn off, that the game invites you to take on the Trials of Time, Darkness and Light at the Ancient Tower, which pit you against increasingly dangerous monsters as you strive to reach the top.
If I had to make a list for "the things I wanted the least in a Fantasy Life expansion", combat gauntlets would rank pretty high up, so the presence of these Trials after an underwhelming adventure felt like a giant middle finger. Again, it all seems aimed at co-op players: a quick re-spec at the Tome of Shadows will show that, even with your attacking stats at the new cap, mere common monsters at the Trials will take a while for a solo player to take down.
"Obviously, it must be all about the gear?", was what I thought, before I sat to browse the available recipes and was met with the cherry on top for this piece of downloadable torment: Never mind that the best gear is restricted to male characters, which is another middle finger, but to get the materials you need for new gear to take on the Trials of the Ancient Tower... you have to farm the hardest Trial over and over for materials.
I'm still baffled that someone thought this design was okay. For all my complaining, I'm still underselling how hard these trials are: in the final one, the Trial of Light, most enemies will two-shot you. I took the advice of a GameFAQs poster that was, essentially, “go in as a Hunter, kite everything, and bring stacks of Life Cures”, which got me to the top floor after hours of tedious kiting. There I fought a dragon for which not even kiting was enough, and I would be dead within seconds of resurrecting, all the time. I took to abusing the Life Cure’s i-frames to win.
The sickest part? After all that, I still didn't have enough materials to craft jack.
This was the end of my experience with Origin Island. For all the smiles the original game gave me, for all the feelings of joy, discovery and triumph, the expansion left me only with a bitter taste in my mouth. Those brief extra moments with beloved characters may have been meaningful, but the way the expansion perverts everything good about the base game makes it impossible to recommend to anyone.