do you have any tips for someone starting fantasy life for the first time? (i just got a 3ds and it seems up my alley!!)
Alright, first off HOORAY, I am so happy you got one! Have so much fun playing all the 3ds games (and regular ds) games!
So fantasy life! The biggest tip I can give you is to read the dialogue. I will always give this tip for any RPG game, but it's even more important for fantasy life where the story and the major boss fights are completely unrelated to each other. Playing the game's story mode lets you discover new areas in the world, but it is pretty much all dialogue/exploration focused and has zero required fights involved. You are going to pretty confused all the time if you skip dialogue.
All the boss fights instead happen in your Life, which you can think of as the B plot of the game.
Because story mode is required for advancement, the next biggest advice I can give you is if you're stuck, go complete all of Butterfly's requests and then talk to her in your house. That will trigger the next leg of the story and probably unlock whatever you need.
After that, it's pretty much all about picking your Life, because they all play really differently and will dictate your game experience. I'll put this under a cut, since it'll get a bit long. (I'll also put a TL;DR at the bottom).
Before I get into it, just know that even if you don't play a combat life, you'll still probably have to fight boss monsters for materials or for access to places you need to get to. Each Life also has different stats that are important to it, but they also do some other things: If you don't choose a combat life, the default weapon is daggers, which use your dexterity stat. The vitality stat is also your defense stat, no matter which life you choose, and luck increases your critical hit and rare drop ratio, so it's always good to have a high luck stat.
There are 4 combat focused Lives, 5 crafting Lives, and 3 material- gathering Lives. The combat ones require you to go fight monsters, the crafting ones have you make things by playing variations on the same minigame, and the gathering ones have you collect materials scattered around the world.
I'll give you a basic rundown of each Life and what you need to know! The game will explain all this to you once you start playing, but since you have to choose your Life as part of the character creation, it's nice to have a bit of info going in (you don't have to read this whole thing lol. You'll be fine no matter what you pick, this is just if you want extra info).
You can also start multiclassing as soon as you finish the tutorial. Some lives are easier to do without multiclassing, some of them are almost impossible, but you can pick up a new life at any point during the game, so it's pretty forgiving.
Combat Lives:
Paladin: Kind of considered the "default" life by the game (it's the one that appears in most tutorial examples). Paladins are the noble and just town guard and use shields and longswords. Longswords are light and fast, and I consider them the best weapon in the game. They can be used without a shield to deal more powerful two-handed attacks or with a shield to protect yourself. Paladins' usual boss-monsters are dragons, and their important stat is strength followed by focus and dexterity! (You can look up a complete breakdown of stats on the wiki).
Mercenary: Mercs are the darker, less appreciated counterpart to paladins who are swords for hire instead of being part of an organization. Mercenary NPCs are no less noble (frequently more noble than Paladin NPCs actually, since they don't have their noses up in the air), but they are rougher around the edges. Mercenaries fight using large two-handed claymores, which do the most damage of any weapon in the game, but are also really slow. Their most important stat is also strength, followed by vitality and their usual boss monsters are dinosaurs.
Hunter: My favorite Life! Hunters are simple folk who do their best to live off and protect the land. They fight from a distance with a bow and arrow (which is why they're my favorite---can't lose a fight if nothing can hit you). They get access to different status-inflicting arrows, but honestly, you're going to be using flame or normal arrows 99% of the time. Their most important stat is dexterity, followed by strength and focus, and their usual boss monsters are huge mythic birds.
Wizard: Stewards of the world's magical spirits who harness those spirits' powers to fight with elemental attacks. Wizards use 4 different types of magic at the cost of SP (which can also be consumed by charged attacks for other lives, sneaking, and dashing. Think of it as your energy stat). Wizards probably have the most worldbuilding involved in their combat, because certain enemies are strong against one type of element and weak against another, so you have to choose the best kind for the situation. Their most important stat is intelligence, followed by focus, and their usual boss monsters are huge spirit wraiths.
Crafting Lives:
All the Crafting lives play a variation on the same minigame (although the tailor one is weird), and they use different tools and natural materials to make different things. Regardless of which class you choose, I will always highly recommend multiclassing into at least one crafting Life, since they make all the tools and weapons for everybody else, and they can make them cheaper and better quality than you can buy them.
Doing really well during the minigame will grant you higher quality items and/or more of them, so it's pretty much always better to craft things than purchase them, but you don't always have the time.
Carpenter: The wood trade! They make 70% of the furniture you can decorate your house with, fishing rods, bows, magic wands, axes, and saws for themselves, as well as wooden beams required for lots of other crafting recipes. Their primary material is logs, which can be gathered by woodcutters (but can be bought in a store if you're not interested in multiclassing). Their most important stats are vitality, followed by dexterity and strength.
Blacksmith: Probably one of the best Lives to multiclass into, that unfortunately has the hardest variation on the crafting minigame. They forge swords and claymores, daggers, shields, and armor, as well as cooks' frying pans, tailors' needles, miner's pickaxes, their own hammers, and ingots required in other crafting recipes. Their primary material is ore, which can be gathered by miners or purchased, and their stats are vitality, focus, and strength.
Tailor: People who can sew! One of my other favorite Lives, that has a very weird but also easier variation on the crafting minigame. They make lots of really cool and fashionable clothes, that also function as armor if you didn't play as a Life that lets you wear actual armor (which is most of them. You can only wear armor as a paladin, merc, and sometimes a blacksmith or miner). They also make the other 30% of the available furniture, and refine raw materials into fabric required for other crafting recipes. Their main material is various types of raw thread that can mostly be found lying around on the ground or by defeating beasties for it. Their main stats are dexterity, followed by intelligence and focus.
Alchemist: The other best life to multiclass into. Alchemists make a ton of medicinal products that help you in combat. You will want these no matter what life you play, since they can do anything from healing your whole party to boosting your stats, and they get pretty dang expensive to buy. I would highly recommend playing the game as an alchemist first, since I think it's one of the few you don't have to multiclass at all for. Alchemists can also make stat-boosting accessories, explosives, and their own flasks. Their main materials are plants you find lying around, various monster parts, and sometimes minty ore, which can be found as like. A junk drop when mining, or it can be bought. Their most important stats are intelligence, followed by focus and dex.
Cook: You can make a bunch of delicious types of food that restore health and usually boost your stats. Cooking is only life that you have literally no reason to multiclass into, since there's nothing cooks can do that can't be done better by alchemists, but it's still fun. Their main materials are meat from monsters, fish (which can be gotten by fishing or it can be bought), eggs, and vegetables (which are just found lying around). Their most important stats are focus, dex, and intelligence.
Gathering Lives:
Angler: The fishy people! Anglers adventure all over to find the best fishing holes, catch rare fish, and sometimes to catch notoriously strong Lordfish (which will require a pretty good rod and a lot of SP). All the fish are important to cooking recipes, but Lordfish also provide other material drops that lots of different Lives need. Their most important stats are Focus, intelligence, and dex.
Woodcutter: Loggers who are always on the hunt for the coolest trees. Raw logs are required in lots of recipes, but being a woodcutter is more or less required if you are a Carpenter, since all your recipes will use beams, which have to be refined from logs. Their "boss monsters" are particularly large, usually somewhat magical trees that will also drop other odds and ends like berries or tree nuts.
Miner: These guys hunt dangerous places (usually caves) in search of rare ores and gemstones. Gemstones are used in any number of recipes, as well as a bunch of unrelated quests and can be sold for a fetching price. Being a miner is basically required if you play blacksmith, since all your recipes need ingots, which have to be refined from ore. Most ore deposits, regardless of what else they give, also drop minty ore, which is a major ingredient in alchemy (but can be purchased for non-exhorbitant prices).
TL;DR + other info:
There are 4 combat Lives, which makes fighting monsters a lot easier and all of which have distinct styles of combat.
Carpenter, Blacksmith, and Tailor can make armor, tools, weapons, and materials that are required in a lot of other crafting recipes (Blacksmith and Carpenter in paritcular are hard to play without multiclassing). Alchemists make all your medicinal products and stat boosters, which you will want no matter what life you play. Cooks are knockoff alchemists who need fish in a lot of recipes.
Miners get ores and gemstones, which are super important for Blacksmiths, sell for good money, and are occasionally important for other people. Woodcutters get logs, which are essential for carpenters and occasionally other people, and also some other tidbits that are hard to find otherwise. Anglers get fish, which are usually only useful to cooks, but Lordfish drops are used by lots of people.
I recommend playing alchemist or paladin for your first playthrough. I HIGHLY recommend multiclassing at some point in the game, but I would wait until around Port Puerto for your first playthrough. Even if you don't do any of the quests for it, starting a combat life just so you can get a better weapon than a dagger is usually a good idea.
Other than that, my only advice is have fun and don't stay up too late playing 😉
(odinthemaajiknight) Odin: Forest Spirit, I must inquire about your knowledge of magic. If possible, would you happen to know anything about the magic used in Al Maajik?
PINO: perhaps I would if I had ever gotten into Al Maajik, dark one.
hey pino, where do you and leilah get your clothes? i doubt there's a clothing store in the elderwood, is there? do either of you know how to sew?
PINO: Long ago Ophelia made us our clothes, she taught the leafes and they started making armor for their shop, and they fixed our things for us when we blocked the Castelians out… Its been good with the forest open again.
